Posts Tagged ‘writing’

The Quiet Game Launch Party

Posted: July 17, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

tqg-cover[1]

Welcome! Come one and all to the launch party for The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. Seeing as I can’t actually afford a launch party, this post has just become Ohio’s most happening place right now. We have so much for you, but first, why not have a drink?

Expensive champagne all the way from Google. And have some hors d’oeuvres:

And before we get to the entertainment portion of the party, I’d just like to thank everyone for coming. Your support has meant the world to me, and without it I seriously doubt any of us would be reading The Quiet Game over the next couple of weeks. A special shout-out goes to my family, a spectacular “BOO!” to my beta-readers and their excellent feedback, and a cauldron full of weird goop for all those who contributed in some way to the creation of The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones.

Now I know you want to scroll down and download or order a copy of the book. I know, I know. But before you do, there’s some wonderful entertainment here for you. First, we have a special performance by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. They’ll be telling us why I should shop at the thrift store more often.


Thank you, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Macklemore. I can’t tell which one is which, truth be told. Now, before we bring out our next guest performers out, I’d just like to say a few words on how The Quiet Game came to be. During the Fall 2012 semester at Ohio State, I started toying with the idea of writing a collection of short stories. I had several ideas for short stories on my tack board, and the critiquing of Reborn City was taking longer than I thought it would. So after the semester ended, I shrugged and said “Why not?” That later lead to five really creepy short stories being written over the course of a month, with one of them being rewritten several times over. Then there was some artwork to create, a book trailer, a copyright to get, but in the end it led to The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones.

And you know what? It was worth it!

Our next performance is from the group who asks, “Is there a more logical way this movie could’ve ended?” Please welcome the folks from HISHEdotcom and their new video, “How Man of Steel Should Have Ended.”


Boy, was that something else! Now I know you all want to get back to your day jobs, so I won’t keep you much longer. I just would like to say thank you, and I hope you will indulge me by watching the book trailer for The Quiet Game one more time.

Now without further ado, here is The Quiet Game: Five Tale To Chill Your Bones! First we have the Amazon page! Very cool, right? And for a limited time, you can save twenty-seven cents when you buy from Amazon now! That means instead of paying $5.50, you pay $5.23 (you’re on your own for shipping and handling).

And right after it, we have the link for that wonderful e-book sharing website. Yes, it’s the Smashwords link! A lovely page, in a lovely shade of blue.

Well, thank you all for coming and I hope you enjoy reading The Quiet Game. I hope you’ll also tell your friends and family about it and maybe write a review or two about it (every review helps). I would just like to close this party by having Mr. Macklemore and Mr. Lewis come back on stage. Which one are you guys again? Oh, what does it matter? Party hard!

The Quiet Game: Less Than 24 Hours

Posted: July 16, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , , ,
8

God, time seems to fly! Just yesterday it seems I started counting down the days till July 17. Now it’s the 16th, I’ve got so many people wanting to read my book, and I’m pretty sure I’ve solved all problems that would’ve delayed the publication of the print version if left unsolved (yes, you can breathe a little easier now).

I’d also like to reveal why there was almost a delay in the publication of the print paperback of The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. Look at the cover below.

tqg-cover[1]

You see all that lettering along the sides? Apparently it’s a little too close to the edge, so CreateSpace told me to change it so that it doesn’t get cut out when The Quiet Game goes to print. For that, I had to download a free trial of Photoshop and do a little bit of tweaking, but I ended up creating an awesome cover exclusively for the print version (the one above will be used for the e-book). Check it out:

print paperback version.

print paperback version.

Pretty sweet, huh? And I still manage to get the creepy effect without losing anything in the trim. And next time I design my own cover, I’ll know not to put too much on the edges so that CreateSpace doesn’t send me an email telling me there’s problems with the cover.

Hope you’re as excited as I am for the publication. I’ll write again when it comes out. Until then, hope you’re not too scared to read it!

The Quiet Game: Two Days Till The Release

Posted: July 15, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , , ,
0
2 days to go!

2 days to go!

Yes, it’s only two days away. Imagine that. When I started writing five short stories with the vague goal of turning them into a collection of short stories that I would release while Reborn City was still being critiqued, I saw the whole publication of it as far off in the future. Now it’s only two days away from hitting the digital bookstores and I cannot wait.

Unfortunately, I have some bad news I have to share with you: due to problems with the cover, The Quiet Game‘s paperback edition may be a little delayed in its release. I will try to rectify these problems before Wednesday, but if the print edition is delayed I am terribly sorry and I do hope you’ll forgive me for it.

The good news is the e-book version will be along on time, and I have no doubt it’ll be spectacular.

Whichever version you’re planning on reading, I hope you are as excited as I am and I hope you enjoy reading The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones.

Is It The Style, Or Is It Me?

Posted: July 14, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
4

Lately I’ve noticed I’m a bit more irritable when I read works by other authors. I had some trouble getting through the slower parts of Stephen King’s Cujo, becoming annoyed with the style of King’s writing (imagine that from me!). And when I was reading the first couple chapters of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, I kept glancing at things she did that I did not like about her writing style. Granted, her book was like a bad combination of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Da Vinci Code, making it so that I couldn’t get past page 70, but there were still many things about her writing style, particularly in the first chapter, that just bothered me.

Perhaps this might have something to do with my own writing process. Over the past year or so my own style of writing has emerged, and I find myself much more comfortable with that style of writing than I do with other styles. Or maybe now that my own style’s emerged so much, I tend to nitpick at the styles of other authors, thinking about what works and what doesn’t work. After all, I was reading Horns by Joe Hill recently, and while I liked the overall story, the non-linear structure and the lack of warning between traveling bacwards and forwards in time confused me quite a bit. I don’t like to do flashbacks without some sort of warning to the reader, so maybe it has something to do with that.

Not to say that I may just not like reading the styles of other writers. In fact, I’m reading two books right now: one is the zombie novel of a friend of mine, and the other is the memoirs of an Israeli soldier. I find both of their works intriguing and fun to read, though all the military jargon is a bit difficult for me. So maybe it’s not that I don’t like the styles of other writers, but more that I know what I want when I read a novel and when I don’t get it, I feel annoyed.

Whatever the reason is, I’m pretty sure it has something to do with my own writing in some way or another. After all, plenty of the authors I read are responsible for the author I’ve become, so perhaps I’m picking up on something that connects me to them.

What’s your take on this?

The Quiet Game: 3 Days Till The Release

Posted: July 14, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
0
3 days left!

3 days left!

Good morning Blogosphere! And as the title suggests, there’s only 3 days left till The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, is released to the world for your reading pleasure.

You know, it’s been an exciting past couple of weeks. I’ve received lots of encouragement, and I’ve reason to believe that a good amount–two-hundred copies or more–may be sold in the first week. I can’t give you any information on what I’m basing that on, except for encouraging statements from family, friends, and acquaintances. And if I can figure out how to send a message to all my friends on Facebook, it may be a lot more than that!

I hope, at least.

I have to go online and do the final preps on CreateSpace for the release Wednesday. Until then, hope you’re as excited as I am!

Blog on you all later. In the meantime, I have work to do.

The Quiet Game: Four Days Till The Release

Posted: July 13, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
0
4 days to go.

4 days to go.

Cable, Internet, and phone are back people, and so am I, with my constant reminders that my collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, coming out on July 17th, 4 days from now.

Or maybe 3 days and 2 hours, but you know what, that’s not important. It’s 4 days for me anyway. It’ll be 3 when I wake up tomorrow morning!

As such, I want to thank everyone for the constant support I’ve been given. Plenty of people have given me encouragement and told me how excited they are to read the book. Or at least they’re excited to buy a copy and have me autograph it, because they can’t deal with scary stories.

Still, I like that they want to buy a copy. And I’m sure some of them–most of them–will read the book and write a review on Amazon, which may encourage more people to read it, and then lead to more sales and more reviews. I love the whole cycle, don’t you?

But like I was saying, thank you all for your support. I’m working hard to establish myself in a rapidly-changing industry, and all the likes, comments, followers, and just plain support I get from readers, friends, and family every day keeps me going and encourages me to write.

See you all in the morning. I’ll have plenty to talk about tomorrow!

The Quiet Game: Five Days Till The Release!

Posted: July 12, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , , ,
0
5 days to go.

5 days to go.

At home, the cable, phone, and Internet is still out, no thanks to a storm on Wednesday that knocked all three out. I have a feeling that it’ll all be restored tomorrow during the Sabbath, when traditional jewish homes like my own don’t use cable, phones, or the Internet. Wouldn’t that be typical?

But enough about that. it’s five days till The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones is available, and I cannot wait! Already I’ve had several people come up to me or  email me or message me or whatever saying they cannot wait to either download the book or get it in the mail. As for me, I’m just excited that my book is coming out, that people want to read it, and all this hard work I’ve been putting in since I was ten is paying off. In five days, I can consider myself a published writer with a book on the shelves.

Or on Amazon. It’s print-on-demand, so if a lot of people and a couple of libraries order copies, I guess I can call it print-on-demand then.

Assuming the Internet’s working tomorrow, I’ll write another post for the four-day mark. Until then, I’m counting down the hours!

Laura Horn: First Chapter Written

Posted: July 12, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
0

The cable/phone/Internet may be out at home, but that can only keep me from doing what I have to do so much. And last night, while listening to classical music and with plenty of time on my hands, I wrote the first chapter of Laura Horn.

Like my other thriller Snake, the chapters of Laura Horn are short and quick, so I was able to finish by the end of the night. Also like Snake, Laura Horn‘s first couple chapters are the prologue of the story, and set up the conflict for the story. In this case, Laura doesn’t even appear in the prologue, but what happens in the prologue will impact her very soon.

While I was writing that first chapter, I really felt in the zone. The words were coming clearly and quickly to me, rapidly filling up the pages on my laptop. I finished with three pages and about nine-hundred words total, setting up for the continuation of the scene in Chpater Two. Of course, Chapter Two will have to wait for the second chapter of Video Rage to be written, but I have a feeling that won’t take too long to write.

I’ll let you guys know how things are going when I finish the prologue, probably sometime in the next two weeks. Until then, wish me luck!

Video Rage: First Chapter Written

Posted: July 11, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

And it has begun! Last night, with my cable/Internet/phone service out but my electricity still working, I set out to work on Video Rage, the sequel to Reborn City (out November 1st). I had started on it several days ago, truth be told, but I had run into all sorts of distractions, so finishing just one chapter was not easy. But last night, with classical and opera music in my ears and no TV or Internet to get in my way, I set about finishing up the chapter. And sure enough I did, with 11 pages and a little over thirty-two hundred words total (page count is based on Times New Roman, 12-point font, and double-spaced lines, so that is not a reflection of what it will be when the novel actually comes out).

Video Rage starts about 11 days after the end of Reborn City, so besides setting the tone and the setting for the story, I used the first chapter to reveal what had happened to the ten main characters since they left the titular city in RC. Suffice to say, I did not make things easy for my characters. They are now wanted for crimes they did not commit and are trying to head east across the North American continent to find asylum somewhere. Of course, things don’t go as planned, especially when a powerful corporation with its own private army is searching for you.

And I’m bringing back a very fearsome and dangerous character from RC to further impede the progress of the Hydras (that’s the name of the gang my main characters belong to, in case you didn’t know). Mix in a little conflict between the main characters, and some rather bloody but heroic deaths, and I think I might have a decent sequel on my hands.

Now that I have one chapter of VR written, I’ll switch off to my other novel-in-progress, Laura Horn. The chapters for LH are much smaller than VR (which shows how differently I write thrillers versus how I write sci-fi novels). I’ll probably do another progress report on VR when I’ve written five more chapters, putting me one-sixth of the way through the novel.

Until that time, look out for a few more posts, including the announcement that I’ve finished the first chapter of LH. Should make for at least a good time-killer.

The Quiet Game: Out In Six Days

Posted: July 11, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0
Coming out in 6 days. Who's pumped?

Coming out in 6 days. Who’s pumped?

I had a special post prepared for yesterday, the one-week mark before The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones came out. But there was a huge thunderstorm and I lost my cable, Internet, and phone service, which made me unable to write and post the article. And it was going to be a good one too, with a short clip from the movie The Ring. You know, “seven days”? I did manage to get that clip on Twitter and Facebook though, so that’s something.

Anyway, there’s less than a week till The Quiet Game is available for download and/or purchase. The culmination of eight months of hard work and editing, it’ll be available as a print-paperback for $5.50 and as an e-book for $1.29. Five short stories, all pretty scary (or at the very least, pretty weird). I’m really looking forward to putting it out next week and I hope everybody enjoys reading it.

If you are interested in reading The Quiet Game and would like to know more, pleas visit the Short Story Collections page for a brief look at what is offered. I garauntee it’ll be worth the read. And if you would like to celebrate with me when The Quiet Game comes out, I’ll be throwing an online party on this blog the day The Quiet Game comes out. What will be there? Plenty: digital food and drinks, funny, groovy, and scary videos, and of course a link to the guest of honor: The Quiet Game‘s Amazon page.

Until then, look forward for more countdown posts and news from yours truly!

Older Entries
Newer Entries