Belinda Frisch, Author

Copyright: the Best Way to Spend $35.00

2012-02-19T12:55:00.000-08:00

What is a copyright?

"Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106

of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

• To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;
• To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
• To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audio visual works;
• To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audio visual work; and
• In the case of sound recordings,* to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission."
Source

Why would an indie author file a formal copyright?

"While registration isn't essential, it is a way of establishing your intent to claim your rights and it makes it easier for others searching for copyright information to find your copyright. Registering your copyright also makes it easier to prove your claim in court if your work is plagiarized."
Source

Don't think someone would plagiarize your work? Think again.

Read copyright basics which spells out the specifics far better than I can paraphrase here, then visit the copyright office and file your registration online. This is a step I will guaranteed be taking for CURE. No one plans on being a victim, but for the work involved in creating a novel its worth having a legal leg to stand on if it happens.

Zen and the One-Star Review

2012-02-18T06:36:00.000-08:00

Confession time: I spend too much time on Facebook.

It keeps me current with writing news and I see what topics are trending.

Today is one of those "WTF" Facebook days. Now, maybe it's the winter getting everyone down, but a ton of my writer friends are lamenting the one-star or negative review. I got one, myself, for Dead Spell this morning on Goodreads (and one this evening for Crisis Hospital). Do I care? No. Not really. I don't. The readers didn't write reviews, simply gave one-star ratings and we're both over it.

Here's why I'm unfazed: we don't all like the same things!

A negative review, unless someone is attacking your skill level (and by this I mean, you don't know capitalization, punctuation, and your novel looks like it was formatted by my dog), more often than not means the reader did not dig your story or your voice.

Do you like every book you read? I sure don't. Worse than that, I don't always like my friends' books either. That's a whole other painful blog post, but my position, as a reader, is that if I can't give a book at least 3 stars, I won't review it. Writing is a ton of hard work and if someone is going to be venomous and hurtful or throw out arbitrary 1-star reviews (which trash your overall rating), they likely don't know or care about the process and the hundreds of hours that went into the finished product.

I don't expect glowing reviews. I don't expect every book I ever write will be received the same way. I expect some will be successful while others will be less so. A friend of mine says that all reviews, good or bad, should be given no weight. One is an ego boost and the other is unnecessary negativity. I don't agree. The good ones push you to keep writing and a well-written bad review can give you the insight to do better next time. See, not all "bad" reviews are bad. A well-read person might point out underdeveloped plot, cookie cutter characters, or a repetitive habit you just weren't aware of. I learn from constructive criticism. We all should, but those reviews are much less common than the "this book sucks" and "don't waste your money" reviews. It's easier to be critical than helpful.

Prediction: 2012 Year of the Indie Author, or is it?

2012-02-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

Huffington post ran this article today and I 100% agree with a lot of their points:

1. Editing
Don't take this wrong, freelancers, because there are plenty of good ones out there, but editors are popping up all over and are quite often just other writers who are not making enough in royalties to live comfortably. That's not a bad thing, but using one of these folks is like paying for a beta reader. They're not technically trained, they are just a second set of eyes. It's better than nothing and of course, this all comes down to money. They need it, you have it, but maybe not a ton of it and so everyone thinks they are getting a deal. With editors, for the most part, you get what you pay for.

2. Quantity over Quality
Oh, please don't get me started. I'm taking my sweet pimp time getting the work formerly known as Cure out there. It'll be about a year (and maybe some change) between projects and while I am watching others spit out novellas, shorts, and even novels at lightning speed, I know that the work suffers. Yes, I'd like to be making more money, but not at the expense of quality. Writing takes a lot of thinking time and down time between revisions. I've already talked about series novels and while I'll be anxious to get book #2 out, I'll be thrilled if it makes it in 2012. What matters to me is not walking away with writer's remorse. I actually have a bit of it thus far because as time went by, I thought of a lot of ways I could have added depth to Dead Spell. First novels are like that. It won't happen with a second.

3. The Lack of Gatekeepers
I actually think this is a good thing. I also think that "The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism." --Norman Vincent Peale

I refuse to be one of 'those' people. I will take the criticism and improve.

4. Crappy Covers
Yes, I've seen them. Horrible, tacky, looks like they were done by a three year old covers. Are mine 'great'? No. But I think they're good. They convey something about what's between the covers in an aesthetically pleasing way. I'm working out the covers for the entire Miranda Penton (aka Cure) series now. I understand the importance and you should, too. It's worth the little extra cash to make a good first impression.

Indies have a shot to make something great here. Cutting corners hurts you and the entire community. If we want to profit from this opportunity, we cannot turn off the readers.

Can I add a quick #5 here?

5. Social Grace
Indies are arguably closer to their readers than the traditionally published in that we're all accessible, socially networking beings. We need to behave professionally at all times. Be thankful, grateful, and kind. When you get a bad review, ignore it. Don't go off on a tirade because it makes you look small-minded and turns everyone off. That is not good for your career. Social networking cuts both ways if you're not careful.

DRM and Plagiarism

2012-01-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

I found this post from Robert Swartwood in my Facebook feed this morning. Seems my dear cyber-friend Aaron Polson is a victim of plagiarism of the worst kind. Someone put THEIR name on HIS book--even kept the same cover--and is selling the book as their own.

Aaron, I'm so sorry this happened.

Writers, this made me nervous. Anyone that knows me personally knows I am, generally, nervous. Paranoid, even, especially when it comes to my writing. I did a little research on DRM when I was uploading Dead Spell because it was my debut. I didn't know how to answer Amazon's question as to whether or not I wanted it. I looked at what the pros were doing because Amazon clearly warns you that the decision for DRM is one-shot. You cannot change your mind once it's published.

What is DRM (Digital Rights Management)?

"Digital rights management is a far-reaching term that refers to any scheme that controls access to copyrighted material using technological means. In essence, DRM removes usage control from the person in possession of digital content and puts it in the hands of a computer program."

So many writers say don't do it. Readers don't like it. Well, I say, if I pour my heart, soul, and CASH into something and there is a way to protect it, I'm going to. My next question is, what do you want to do with my book that DRM restricts you? There are cyber-scumbags looking to make money off of your work. I'd like to bring back public hangings to stop them.

Writers, traditionally published books are not DRM free. At least none of the ones I looked at when I was trying to make the decision. There is a second option to make your book lendable on Amazon that negates the 'it's difficult for readers to lend a DRMed title' argument.

I try to see both sides of every argument and I know this is a hot topic, but I'm serious about doing this indie thing as close to the traditional publishing standards as possible. I am in favor of DRM, unless someone can pose a really intelligent argument to change my mind.

Apple iBooks will OWN your Books

2012-01-23T05:02:00.000-08:00

Another heads up, this time from Mashable Tech.

"“IMPORTANT NOTE: If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Work”), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.”

The legalese explains it too, but at least Apple was nice enough to put it into layman’s terms.

What are the implications of this? Essentially, Apple is asking its users to help add content to iBooks. Not only that, but they will take a cut every time you sell the e-book (your “Work”). And not only that, but even if you wanted to port your work elsewhere, you can’t. As Segan writes, “Apple owns the creative process of anyone who uses [Author].”

KDP Select Authors get the Boot from Goodreads

2012-01-23T04:32:00.000-08:00

It was only a matter of time before someone fired back. I'm not sure how I feel about this, yet.

Seems to me this is aimed at KDP Select. I'm a librarian over at Goodreads and can rescue titles if I can find alternate sources of information including from CreateSpace. If you're in e-version only, you are up the creek, friends.

Here's the official word from Goodreads:

"At Goodreads, we make it a priority to use book information from the most reliable and open data sources, because it helps us build the best experience for our members. To that end, we're making a major change.

On January 30, Goodreads will no longer display book information that comes from Amazon.

This includes data such as titles, author names, page counts, and publication dates. For the vast majority of book editions, we have imported this data from other sources. Those few remaining editions for which we haven't found an alternative source of information will be removed from Goodreads.

Your data is safe.

Your ratings, reviews, and bookshelves are safe, but your data may be moved to a different edition of the book. If we can't find a matching edition, then your review will be attached to a book with no title or author."

The Kindle Book Review: Get Reviewed

2012-01-18T05:24:00.000-08:00

The Kindle Book Review: Get Reviewed: If you're an author, and you'd like for us to review your work, you came to the right place. We've recently added eight reviewers to our sta...

Looking for a review? This might be a good place to start.

Series Novels: Success or Disaster?

2012-01-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

Please don't throw tomatoes, but I'm going to put on my reader hat before my writer hat here. As a reader, if you're writing a series, I do not want to wait years between novels. I'll turn this little personal preference on myself as a writer later to prove I understand both sides of the equation.

Last year, I read Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Casebooks and loved them. Already Dead, the first in the series, was free for a limited time for Kindle and I scooped it up. I immediately fell in love with Huston's writing style and characters and paid up to $12.00 for each additional e-book in the series. My husband and I both read them and, for hours of reading enjoyment, I won't balk at the price. They were very enjoyable. Consider for a minute how much, as an indie, even charging half of that would put in your wallet--if the series is done right.

I'm going to use those novels to illustrate some points series novels. What the author did well:

1. First and foremost, EVERY BOOK STANDS ON ITS OWN. Yes, series are built around a common theme or cast of characters, but you must have a central conflict that is completely resolved in each book. The minor story lines can span multiple books. In the Joe Pitt novels, Joe's love for and turbulent relationship with his girlfriend, Evie, is one of these story lines. When we meet her, she is infected with and later dying of AIDS. Joe, the vampire, has the power to save her and the will he/won't he carries through several novels.

2. Huston set up the characters and the locations in a way that they were immediately recognizable from one novel to the next. There was conflict between Joe Pitt and well, everyone else and he played a double-agent role trying to keep himself supplied with blood (a form of payment more useful than money to a vampire.) The constant flip-flopping made for mounting tension and gave the reader something to think about. How was poor Joe going to get by if he kept burning his bridges?

3. Huston was consistent with his characters and they were easily identifiable. People love the familiar. Joe behaved predictably which, more often than not, was to his detriment. Joe's role is a fine line between hero and villain, but you can't help falling for him. Another character, Amanda, the young girl we meet in book 1, is both wealthy and brilliant, but is emotionally damaged by abusive parents. She has financial means, a soft spot for Joe, and an agenda as a mad scientist-type bent on curing the Vyrus (Huston's spelling, not mine.) He weaves her into the Vampyre community by giving her and infected lover and she develops a distinct role that develops as the series continues. You sympathize with her as a reader and watch her grow from a helpless kid to a powerful woman. The continuity is flawless.

I love that I picked up this series at a time when it was complete. I bought all five novels within two months, but I'm not sure I would have if I had to wait five years. There's the rub, but it's not the only one.

In addition to reading the Joe Pitt books, I read several first novels in a series written by indie authors and I noted a difference in the feeling I walked away with. Enjoyable as they were, I wasn't completely satisfied. The books didn't stand alone and I was left with more questions that I would have to wait to have answered. The sequels to books I read up to a year ago are not yet available. This is not ideal. In addition to this, since the novels didn't stand alone as well as they maybe should have, if the author finds that they're not as successful as they thought they would be, they may never write the rest of the series. As a reader, I have to count that a waste of my time. I spent hours reading to get part of the story. UGH, Cheated. Authors, we have an obligation to our readers.

A huge perk of the indie revolution is time between releases. Can I invoke the Amanda Hocking phenom here? What did she do right? She wrote series novels and released them in such quick succession that the reading public gobbled them up. She is a millionaire. I am totally jealous, but she put in the work FIRST. I haven't read her, but I really believe that the number of books, the fact that they were in series format, and that they came out across a compressed timeline really shot her up the ranks. She is not an overnight success and I respect that. By all accounts, she's a hard worker.

Now, to little old me. Yes, I had to work myself into this somewhere. I'm between here and there on the indie/traditional publishing debate. By that I mean, some days I think I'd like an agent and a traditional deal. Other days I know I have to do the damn work, put in the time, and have way more to offer the reading community before I do well financially either as an indie or a traditionally published author. Butt in chair has always been an issue for me and I'll never succeed writing like a hobbyist.

That's why I'm writing like a pro. Every day, I carve out dedicated writing time, outline chapters so my writing time is more productive, and I put in the butt in chair time with the internet TURNED OFF. I'm thinking critically about why things work or fail and though it's an exercise in delaying gratification, I've altered my release schedule, should I decided to stay indie. If I decide to pursue the traditional route, this shouldn't be an issue. The traditional release schedule is so slow that subsequent books in the Cure series will be written before the first is released. I have a stand-alone amateur sleuth mystery, Reassigned, that's been languishing for years. It has been re-imagined and researched and is ready to be written. Since it's an older idea, it should be relatively easy to write. It will be released before Cure. Cure is headed for the 60K mark and I've applied the principles of writing a good series. I will not release it until the rough draft of the second book, if not the final draft, is complete.

Sometimes the best decisions in life are the hardest.

The Other Side of the Story: What the Heck was I Thinking? Reevaluating Your Wr...

2012-01-03T04:58:00.000-08:00

The Other Side of the Story: What the Heck was I Thinking? Reevaluating Your Wr...: Beginnings are great times to reevaluate things. Be it the start of the week, month, year or even the start of a new novel, taking time to s...

Do not miss clicking the link for Rachel Aaron's post on writing 10K words a day if your resolutions, like mine, are to increase your word count and make your writing time more productive. Seriously, this is the best post I've read all year. Well, you know what I mean. If you're not following The Other Side of the Story's blog, you're missing out.

Great New Review for City of Hell

2012-01-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

New! Carole Lanham reviewed City of Hell Chronicles: Volume 1

1 of 1 people found the following helpful

Wildly Horrific January 1, 2012

First of all, have you visited cityofhellchronicels.com ?! I've been in a panic to read this book ever since I first gave the website a look. It captures the unique feel of the anthology in such a way so as to make it almost a mandatory companion to your reading. The author pics are golden and splattery. The artwork is mysterious and alluring and more than a little bit frightening. I like the sketchy look on Colin F. Barnes' face. And how can you read the book without first seeing the maniacal grin Kendal Gray is sporting in the middle of it all? The whole crazy mix served to wet my appetite in every possible way.

City of Hell Chronicles: Volume 1 is written by eight different authors but I don't think I've ever read an anthology with quite the same crackle and flow. The stories stream together like a burning line of gasoline. Thomas Boatwright's haunting illustrations are a perfect fit in between, enhancing everything they touch. Like the stories, they stick with you whether you want them to or not. They also work well on an e-reader, which is something I don't think I've ever been able to say before. I love my e-reader, yet I often feel that art is difficult to fully enjoy on that little Kindle screen. Boatwright's work leaps off the Kindle page. His cool, strange images made me curious to read the next story every time, and good news! The website tells me that his captivating illustrations are featured in a standalone art book as well.

Now onto the stories...

Colin F. Barnes expertly sets up the nasty, harsh, and ever-so-exciting world that exists in City of Hell Chronicles: Vol 1 by tossing us right into the frying pan with the appropriately titled, Genesis. Much as Adam and Eve took the helm in God's lush new world, poor Franklin Garret is positioned center stage at the birth of the grim realm of Maurr, but there is no Garden of Eden in this awful place. A lump of dread parked its self in my throat the whole time I was reading this story. Barnes made me deathly afraid for Franklin and all of humanity, and rightly so. Genesis kicks things off with a great big bang. The book is off and running from there.

Next up is Medical Report by Victoria Griesdoorn, a truly chilling offering that immediately lets you know that things are not going well with the bug invasion. Medical Report is exactly that, a medical report chronicling a really horrific incident with one of Maurr's minions. It hit me with all the force of a hypodermic plunged hard in the wrong place. Very disturbing!

The Door From Below by Ren Warom tells the story of a frantic race for survival by three young musicians who are interrupted mid-gig in Hong Kong by the burgeoning apocalypse. It has weird doors, antique sabres, bad bugs, and it totally rocks the house. The characters, especially Jin, are tough little guerillas who know how to take care of themselves, but they've got their hands full. I loved this story! It was creepy, thrilling, and, like all of the stories in the book, terribly, horribly tragic.

My heart bled for Rane, the heroine in Kendall Grey's anxiety-inducing short story, London Calling. Set against the familiar but sadly ruined landscape of London, Rane's fate (if she fails to keep herself safe) will be something far worse than death. Full of surprising twists and turns, this is a particularly gut-wrenching installment in a book rife with gut-wrenching installments. And did I mention that it's terribly, horribly tragic?

The Lucky Ones by Anne Michaud has perhaps the most ironic title in the bunch. No one is lucky in The City of Hell. As if trying to keep one's self alive isn't problematic enough, Jory has a little baby to care for. In the best of times, Motherhood comes with a boat-load of guilt, but when bugs attack, forget about it. The monsters in this story live without and within.

There's another baby (named Hope) in Belinda Frisch's horrifying Final Passage. This story is the stuff of nightmares - the kind where you're trapped in an impossible place. The kind where you run but can't escape. I didn't stop squirming until I reached the end. The whole book is rather relentless in the intense horror it shovels up so I knew I wasn't apt to find much comfort in the stories to follow, and I didn't. Frisch's story is one of the scariest though and the ending is both heart pounding and heartbreaking.

Just to ensure that things remain ghastly and bleak, The Nursery by Amy L. Overley comes next. This story is an exploration into what it means to be human and it's gripping, stomach-churning, and a very difficult read, with a few surprisingly poignant moments sprinkled in. Very nicely done.

The book closes with Sanguine, also written by Victoria Griesdoorn, and it's another gem. Horror abounds for a young woman who seeks to help others after surviving monsters of the human variety. It's a good, strong, closing piece. The beautifully titled Sanguine left me eager to see what Volume 2 might have in-store for readers, which is exactly what a good story should do.

This is a wildly horrific book. Full of imaginative writing and stories that are just as hellish as they can be, it is manna from Heaven for lovers of gritty, apocalyptic SciFi/Horror. If you can't take the heat though, you might want to stay out of the kitchen. Not for children or queasy people.

Only $2.99 on Amazon, Amazon UK, and Lulu.

2012 Recap (My 1st Year as an Indie)

2012-01-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

2011 I joined the ranks as an indie author. I've done several posts on what I'd do differently, but this one is what I've accomplished.

In 2011, I learned:

How to finish a novel. Seems simple enough, but Dead Spell was my first completed ms. I don't want to think about how many I have started over the twenty years that I've been writing. I am older, more experienced, and definitely wiser. We'll call it a successful practice novel that was done correctly (read: edited professionally.) I'm still amazed at how many writers think they don't need editing.
How to format a novel for e-publishing.
How to create a cover.
How to format a novel for print.
How to sell my writing.
How to take praise and criticism graciously.
When to try something new, like KDP Select.
Social networking including Twitter, which I love but that has a unique format that takes some getting used to.
How to account for writing income including pre-paying quarterly taxes for self-employment income.

It's the 'Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach the man to fish, he'll eat for his whole life' thing. I can write, format, upload, and market novels on my own. It doesn't mean that's my chosen path, but it's an excellent skill set to have and one I didn't have a year ago.

I would have liked to put more novels out last year, but that's a lot of learning--the hard way.

2012, I have no real excuses for why I shouldn't achieve a higher word count. I am not one for resolutions because those never last, but the new year is a great time to enjoy a clean slate. I'm in a position to make a real attempt at being a self-sustaining, paid writer and I intend to make good use of that. We know about intentions, too, don't we?

Writing is a lot of hard work, but life is hard. It's also joyful, painful, exciting, dull and sadly, short. Too short to lament petty woes. Too short to not shoot for a goal. I'm passionate about writing and I know you are, too. There's room at the top for all of us if we work longer, harder, and more fervently. It's a crowded sea with the indie movement, but only the strong will survive. Be dedicated and focused and I wish all of you huge success meeting your goals in 2012. Happy New Year!

edittorrent: The "Why" of Character Worksheets

2011-12-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

edittorrent: The "Why" of Character Worksheets: There are a lot of character worksheets floating around. You might have seen a few yourself. They list hair color, eye color, occupation, ag...

A great post from Edit Torrent about character worksheets. Writing my second novel, I see the value in these and wish I did them earlier. I'm constantly flipping through notes to be consistent, but at 51K words, it's late in the game for me to do it for CURE. I'll DEFINITELY do them for the next one.

City of Hell: Genesis

2011-12-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

As a slightly belated Christmas gift, The Great Maurr has decided to throw you puny humans a bone: the first story in Volume 1 is now free for you to read. This story, written by Colin F. Barnes kicks off the whole shebang. We see the mad, brilliant clockmaker Franklin Garrett start to dream strange things and this leads to catastrophic consequences. There is madness, blood and bugs.

Read GENESIS for free here.

The full collection is available from Amazon, Amazon UK, and in print from Lulu.

Review of Dead Spell from Author Janus Gangi

2011-12-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

Nothing makes your holidays quite like praise from your peers. Stolen Moments author, Janus Gangi, had this to say about Dead Spell:

"Sometimes the secrets that you want to bury the most, are the ones that keep popping up to the surface. Dead Spell is the story of two best friends Harmony and Brea, and their determination to stay friends when there is opposition coming from all sides. This story is not what I expected, and that was a pleasant surprise. What I was expecting was a run of the mill ghost story, and what I got was an extremely well written story with characters that were personable, and had depth. I don't like predictable books, and this book was far from that. I found myself reading it from cover to cover, and stayed up in the wee hours to finish it. If you are looking to read a good book then this is the one I recommend."

I can't thank her enough.

Interested in Selling Books and e-Books from your Blog?

2011-12-21T11:18:00.000-08:00

http://ebooksuccess4free.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/ecwid-online-shopping-cart-can-sell-ebooks-too/

Remember, if you're a KDP Select participant, do this for PHYSICAL books only. Your e-books and your soul (mine, too) otherwise 'belong' to Amazon.

A Must-Read for Writers Interested in their Bottom Line

2011-12-10T06:18:00.000-08:00

25 Financial F-ups that Writers Make is more than worth its weight in gold--and snark.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now

2011-11-28T04:30:00.000-08:00

Experience is the best teacher. I've asked my cyber-peeps to chime in and help me put together an "if I knew then" post. I'll kick it off with my own personal lists:

If I knew then what I know now...

I would use at least two independent editors or more betas. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but Dead Spell had some minor editorial errors/typos when I released it. Luckily, they were all caught and fixed within the first month. DO NOT RUSH to publish because it is mortifying to have your glowing review mention your typographical boo boos.

I would not check my Amazon stats hourly, but rather daily or even weekly unless I was "featured" somewhere. This is one of the biggest initial time-sucks for a newbie indie and it gets frustrating, fast.

I would never care about my Amazon ranking unless I was in the top 100. That totally useless number fluctuates on too regular a basis for it to even matter to me. Also, like sales, if you're not selling, checking your ranking 100 times a day isn't going to change that. There are better ways to spend your time like marketing.

I would not pay for advertising until I had a solid foundation of reader reviews. When I released Dead Spell I paid for a Kindleboards banner ad. I haven't heard remarkable things about these, but I can tell you it gained me nothing. If anyone clicked that link, there were no reviews to entice them to buy. Build a review base first.

Be PATIENT. It's the hardest thing to do, but things truly improve--writing and profit-wise--with time.

Keep writing. The only way to succeed is to keep building on a solid foundation. Do your best every time out and keep at it. Not every book is going to be a huge success, but you'll never get to the one that is if you don't keep writing.

Don't get hung up on what EVERY reviewer says. If you have good reviews overall, don't lose it or worse pull a "you know who" and attack the reviewer. Not every reader will identify with your story or characters and as long as they are the minority, you've done a great job. Don't sweat it and DON'T react to it online. Part of this industry is accepting criticism graciously.

And from a writing perspective:

I would have outlined my novel better and would not have edited as I went because it was all useless in the end. Write the book because things will change as you go. Keep notes and tweak as necessary, but don't get hung up on every single word. I now allow myself a rough draft.

Write the story that asks to be written. Self-doubt is pointless and I'm learning to trust my gut instincts more with every tale that I write. I regret some of the things I didn't do with Dead Spell for fear traditional publishing would frown. I wish I hadn't been concerned with that and pushed the envelope as I initially intended to because I ended up independently publishing it anyway.

And now my friend Marissa Farrar:

The thing I wish I’d known several years ago is to save all the hundreds of pounds I’ve spent on printing up sample chapters and sticking return postage on envelopes. In the end, I didn’t need an agent or big publisher to make a living as an author. Taking my career into my own hands and self-publishing has by far been the best decision I’ve made. I’d need to be offered a pretty huge deal to ever go back to traditional publishing again.’

"Marissa Farrar is a multi-published horror and paranormal author. Her dark take on a vampire romance, Alone, was first published in 2009 and has now been re-launched. The second book in the series, Buried, is now available to buy. The third in the series, Captured, will be published early 2012."

If you want to know more about Marissa, then please visit her website at www.marissa-farrar.blogspot.com. You can also find her at her facebook page, www.facebook.com/marissa.farrar.author or follow her on twitter @marissafarrar.

And Lorelei Bell:

I remember doing this one really stupid thing--and for some reason no one caught it and told me!

This is how I would write out the dialogue:

"Hi, Glen." He said.

When we all know it should read with the lower case on the "he said", and a comma after "Hi, Glen,":

"Hi, Glen," he said.

I was doing this for years. No wonder I was turned down so fast it made my head spin! I finally simply saw how they did the dialogue tags in books and wanted to die of embarrassment!

My Author's Page/blog: Lorelei's Muse: http://loreleismuse-lorelei.blogspot.com

Vampire Ascending--first book in series with second one ready to come out in December-- Vampire's Trill for Vampire Ascending: http://vampireascending.copperhillmedia.com/

So what's yours? If you knew then what you know now, what would you do differently?

City of Hell: First Review

2011-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

See what Horror News says about our City of Hell anthology. Excellent! Available to the reading public December 1st.

If you're a reviewer interested in reviewing CoH, list the link to your blog in comments and I'll be sure to get you an ARC. Thanks!

Participants Wanted: "If I Knew Then What I Know Now."

2011-11-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

Looking for authors to share their "if I knew then what I know now" writing/publishing insights. Email a short blurb including links to your blog and/or work(s) by 8 a.m. tomorrow, Monday November 28th to BFrischCPC (at) nycap (dot) rr (dot) com.

Replace at and dots with the symbols, trying to avoid bots.

Blog will post by noon tomorrow.

Thanks!

Confessions "From Hell"

2011-11-21T03:58:00.000-08:00

As part of the pre-release of the City of Hell Chronicles, Volume I, the quirky, crazy Kendall Grey proposed a series of interview with the theme 'from hell.' Each of us were given a prompt and had to confess our sins as part of our penance for being part of such a dark and devilish project.

Today's topics: 'binge from hell' and 'book from hell'

Authors, take it away...

Binge from Hell

Colin Barnes:

This is also my most pathetic. It was at an under eighteens girl's netball disco (don't ask) and I was the only one who could get served at the bar so I was drinking double shots of whiskey all night. We also snuck in a bottle of Bell's which we finished in short order. I had to be carried home by my friends, undressed and put to bed by my mom and I retched for five solid hours. It was pure hell.

Victoria Griesdoorn:

The worst drink I ever had was the last in a long series; a straight shot of Mango Black Pepper vodka. It was a New Orleans Absolute special edition. It tasted vile and burned on the way down, as well as on the way up. I’m never drinking that shit again!

Ren Warom:

Um… that would be the one where I was drunk for four days afterwards. I mean steaming… keeling over, knocking into everything, spinning world. Yeah… lasted that long. Don't ask me how I did not die of alcohol poisoning. I could not tell you. Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky luck luck luck… No hangover either. These days I get hungover if I LOOK at alcohol.

Kendall Grey:

I was sixteen. I drove up to North Carolina to hang out with college kids for a weekend. We had a forest party. I woke up in the middle of the night, freezing-ass cold, soaked to the bone in beer, puking my ovaries out. Two days later, when I drove home, I was still drunk. I hadn’t touched another drop. I think I lost eight pounds that weekend. No joke!

Anne Michaud:

My house of worship (a very well-known Canadian bookstore with discount tables) is witness to my addiction whenever I walk through its doors. Once a month I binge and buy anything of interest – it’s a disease I will someday face, but not now since I. must. Get. More. Books.

Belinda Frisch:

My childhood best friend and I decided we were going to experiment with alcohol in our mid teens. There was a little cabin about a mile out on her farm that was built for and by the older kids. We inherited said cabin and spent a winter night out there. There was snow on the ground, at least a few inches, and we had bottles and bottles of pilfered liquor repackaged into hairspray bottles or anything that would be less conspicuous It being winter, we lit a fire in the wood stove and we drank. Nothing anyone would enjoy drinking and I’d be lying if I told you what it was because Gin—plain, nasty Gin was the only thing in its original bottle. There was some blacking out and finally we wanted to get home. Clothes were missing, including shoes. We figured it must’ve gotten hot in there, but it was dark and who knows. It was a long, cold mile back to the house, staggering one-shoed and in the throes of alcohol poisoning—barfing every few feet. We got back to the house and couldn’t get in. We ended up in the basement and her parents found us sleeping on the pool table later that morning. Now, the puking part of this was the worst because we couldn’t both be sick. We played off that I had a stomach flu and she held it the best she could, hiding the evidence (barfed on sleeping bags) in large, plastic garbage bags. That wasn’t a problem until later, when summer returned, her family wanted to go camping. Only then did she remember she hadn't washed them.

Amy Overley:

My good friends, Coco and Bun (yes, their real nicknames), have a lavish party every February. It entails a five course meal with shots of homemade vanilla vodka in between. Everyone brings wine, and the entire affair is devoted to general debauchery. Everyone dresses to the nines and says outrageous things to each other. It is the one time every year where I can absolutely guarantee that I will puke in their neighbors bushes. Every. Single. Year.

Book from Hell

Colin Barnes:

I have four, they are all as bad each other:

Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol by he who must not be named. Just utter and total crap. Terrible prose, clunky dialogue and a plot you could fly an A10 tank buster through.

American Gods by Gaiman. I have one word for it (for he sake of brevity). Why?

The Magus by John Fowles. Pointlessly boring drivel that spends endless time describing the most mundane of details in lieu of characters we might actually be interested in.

Victoria Griesdoorn:

I couldn’t think of any this afternoon, but now I know. My lab books that hold my day job research data. As of this writing, there are 1081 pages of data in 6 books. If only I could hand those in to get my PhD and not have to turn them into a dissertation thesis. Yeah, wishful thinking.

Ren Warom:

Anything by Dan Brown. Good gad but the man is a horrendous writer. I read The Da Vinci Code because I am clearly a sadist. Had to bleach my brain and skin my eyeballs. Never again.

Kendall Grey:

The first book in the urban fantasy trilogy I’m writing has been my Book from Hell. I finished it three years ago. Since then, I’ve rewritten it thirteen times. Hoping thirteen is my lucky number.

Anne Michaud:

I wouldn’t know, I stop reading any book that I find boring – with the millions of books worthy of my time, I don’t waste any of it on anything crappy.

Belinda Frisch:

I’m going to come at it from the other side and say that writing your first novel makes your work feel like it’s a book from hell. Writing takes patience, persistence, and to some extent method to be efficient. First novels are disorganized, chaotic, and often flat. They take the longest to write, the longest to edit, and come with the most revisions. After reading your first novel 100 times or more, you’ll wish you were in actual hell.

Amy Overley:

The book from hell is the one I’m currently writing. :P

Check out the rest of the City of Hell crew’s Interview from Hell:

November 14: Colin Barnes – Ride from Hell; Boss/Coworker from Hell

November 15: Victoria Griesdoorn – Pet from Hell; Car from Hell

November 16: Ren Warom – Day from Hell; Illness from Hell

November 17: Kendall Grey – Vacation from Hell; Family Member from Hell

November 18: Anne Michaud – Kid from Hell; Friend from Hell

November 21: Belinda Frisch – Binge from Hell; Book from Hell

November 22: Amy Overley – Meal from Hell; Bug Bite from Hell

Freelance Publicists

2011-11-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

As writers, especially indie writers, we lament the amount of time spent marketing our books. It occurred to me that this is either a hole in the indie world waiting to be filled or I'm just not aware of people willing and savvy enough to do this. We have a lot of budding freelance editors/proofreaders and a lot of people starting to do cover design, formatting and the like, but where are the people that know the marketing side and are willing to used their social networking platforms to pimp/tweet/post on the author's behalf? For a reasonable fee, of course.

I came across one such site offering packages (x-number of Tweets, posts, etc to x-number of followers for a specified duration and at a reasonable cost), but I'll be damned if I can find them again.

Anyone have any leads on such a thing?

Promoting v. Marketing: Launching a Book

2011-11-16T04:48:00.000-08:00

A great task list for anyone getting ready to self-publish.

Greetings from NaNo

2011-11-10T05:23:00.000-08:00

It's day 10 of NaNoWriMo and as usual, I'm behind. 8125 words. Yep, that's me--half as far as I should be and twice as happy because I never do NaNo to hit 50K words. I do it to force myself to carve out daily writing time for my work-in-progress.

I'm at over 42K words into CURE now and if I keep at it, it will still be finished by the end of the year. I've found a lot of plot and character clarity the past ten days, revisiting old chapters only long enough to keep my action, location, motivation, and weapons consistent ;-)

All in all, I am a happy writer and I still believe, like I've always believed, that I'm doing what is right for me. I also believe I have found a nice balance. The PT day job is getting done, domestic duties are no issue, my son has his first job (which makes me even more of a taxi, but I'm happy for him) and the novel is progressing--all while I don't miss out on valuable time with my grandfather or my husband.

I like the competitive aspect of NaNo, but really I'm only competing with myself. If you're behind, too, it's all about perspective. I'm not trying to "win" a contest, I am trying to develop a routine.

E-Reader News Today

2011-11-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

Another great promotional site, E-Reader News Today is featuring DEAD SPELL as its bargain book of the day!

Here is a very highly rated bargain Kindle book with great reviews for all of the Horror fans out there. Dead Spell by Belinda Frisch has an awesome 4.7 star rating and is only 99 cents!

“This is for certain, Belinda Frisch is easily going to become a name we all will know quite well and sooner than we all think. I for one am looking forward to WHATEVER she writes next! 5 STARS WITHOUT A DOUBT!” Thomas A. – Amazon Reviewer

Dead Spell
by Belinda Frisch
Rating: 4.7 Stars
Genre: Horror
Price: $0.99

Some secrets you keep, even from yourself, until something from beyond the grave forces you to remember.
Harmony Wolcott is slowly succumbing to the haunting darkness of a forgotten memory. A spirit named Tom refuses to let her forget what happened one night in her childhood home. Harmony believes Tom wants her dead but as their interactions escalate, her self-destructiveness is the real threat. Afraid to ask for help or admit the strange occurrence happening to her and around her, Harmony looks for the truth while trying to escape what it’s done to her family.
Dead Spell is about a ghost with a past and a girl that would die to forget it.

Thank you, ENT.

The results are in...#1 in Ghosts #9 in Horror

Product Details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 183 KB
Publisher: Something Darker Press (March 3, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004OR1BPS
Lending: Enabled
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #410 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Ghosts
#9 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror

NaNoWriMo 2011

2011-11-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

I'm behind. Of course I'm behind. I'm a slow, methodical writer, but I'm thrilled to have put out another 2K on CURE since yesterday. How's everyone else doing? Leave your NaNo handle in comments if you want to buddy up or if you want to come with me to the Word Count Envy Clinic.

Halloween, Ghosts, and Secrets...

2011-10-31T07:21:00.000-07:00

Some secrets you keep, even from yourself, until something from beyond the grave forces you to remember.

Welcome to the final day of the Coffin Hop and happy Halloween. Don't forget to click the Coffin Hop icon in my sidebar and visit everyone else's incredible sites. The giveaways are awesome. Today's theme is ghosts and I'm proud to announce Dead Spell is currently #4 in the ghosts category on Amazon. We all know how fast these things change, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

To be in the running for a signed, print copy of Dead Spell, leave a comment relating to ghosts. This is free form and can be trivia, a personal experience, your favorite ghost-themed movie or novel. I'll start. According to myth, if you see a spider on Halloween, it's the spirit of a loved one watching over you. It might be a vicious rumor rising up from the spider community, but I wouldn't squish today just in case.

And now, a Dead Spell excerpt relating to ghosts:

"Harmony walked away from Lance’s trailer feeling like a roadside discard. Her eyes stung and her nose filled up from holding in the tears. This was the most alone she ever felt and, as she opened the door to her cluttered trailer, she calculated her options: live tortured or die.

The place stunk of urine, kerosene, and vomit.

The floor was only clear where the medics had worked on her mother.

“No one should live like this.” She ripped off the bandages that Adam dressed her cuts with and picked the fresh scabs until they bled.

“You’ve been waiting for this, Tom. You want me, take me.” She dug her nails into the edge of the deepest cut, but the barely healed scab wouldn’t budge. “You want to see me hurt myself? Is that it?” She took a dull knife from the cluttered kitchen drawer and tore it through the scab, clenching her teeth to keep from screaming. “I know you’re here. What are you waiting for?” The blood gushed down her forearm and Tom’s presence tightened around her like a blood pressure cuff. “Ah, there you are.”

The heaviness let up and she lost her balance.

“Where’d you go, my friend? What’s wrong, don’t you want to help me.”

A shadow moved in the darkness—gray on black and barely visible—and something flickered in the only framed picture of her and her mother; the one of them blowing bubbles outside when she was two-years-old. Someone she’d never noticed appeared in its background. She picked up the frame for a closer look.

A cool breeze blew across the back of her neck and the picture started to change. The faces in the picture went pale and thin and a greenish hue washed over them, growing progressively darker and more gruesome until decay and rot boiled them to bones.

“I hate you.” She threw the picture down the long hallway and it shattered on her mother’s bedroom floor.

Tom shoved her from behind, pushing her down the hall and knocking her to her knees. Glass shards from the broken frame poked through her pants and burrowed into her skin.

“There you are. Angry, just like I like you.”

She rummaged through the glass and raised the largest piece. A quiet, almost imperceptible laugh surrounded her. Her hands were bleeding and she knew better than to think whatever Tom had planned for her was going to be quick. She waited for him to bury the spike in her leg, but he didn’t. He thrust her hand downward into the photo and scraped back and forth until she broke through the photo paper to the yellowed edge of a newspaper clipping hidden underneath.

The back of the frame was glued shut and she looked for something to smash it.

She grabbed her hardcover journal and bashed the edge of the binding into the frame until it was in pieces."

What secret lies beneath the photo? You'll have to read to find out...

5-stars from the Midwest Book Review

"When everything around you is out to destroy you and your life, your resolve against it cannot last forever. "Dead Spell" is the story of Harmony Wolcott, a woman trying to deal with the forces around her, her schizophrenic mother, and secrets she has been keeping to herself going into adulthood. As time moves on, she is forced to confront the forces around her or be consumed by them, and doom herself to life of drugs and promiscuity. "Dead Spell" is a story of facing the crisis that life has left for you as you enter adulthood."

"Riveting read! Could not put it down!!!" -Ashton the Book Blogger

"Urban darkness at its best." -Author Dannie Hill

Harmony Wolcott is slowly succumbing to the haunting darkness of a forgotten memory. A spirit named Tom refuses to let her forget what happened one night in her childhood home. Harmony believes Tom wants her dead but as their interactions escalate, her self-destructiveness is the real threat. Afraid to ask for help or admit the strange occurrence happening to her and around her, Harmony looks for the truth while trying to escape what it's done to her family.

Dead Spell is about a ghost with a past and a girl that would die to forget it.

Product Details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 183 KB
Publisher: Something Darker Press (March 3, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004OR1BPS
Lending: Enabled
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > > Horror > Ghosts
- #60 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror

Coffin Hop Day #5: American Horror Story and Test Your Horror Movie Prowess

2011-10-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to day #5 of the Coffin Hop. Today's theme: what are you watching?

It seems American Horror Story is polarizing, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. It is my favorite thing this Halloween season and that's saying a lot.

In order to be entered to win one of the signed prints of DEAD SPELL you can either tell me what you're watching this Halloween or from the pics below, list what I've watched so far. Here's your shot, darklings, to show your horror movie prowess. Some will be easier than others. Don't forget to visit the other sites. Some GREAT prizes up for grabs.

And for EXTRA credit, tell me who this is or what movie he's from:

Much Needed Levity. ROFL.

2011-10-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

Coffin Hop Day #4: The Deal, A Crisis Hospital Short

2011-10-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Coffin Hop, day 4. Today's theme is being scared. Readers who have been touched by cancer tell me that this short story, The Deal, which I wrote some four or five years ago really touched them and is their favorite in the Crisis Hospital compilation. While it is purely fiction, the fear of losing someone to cancer was and is very real to me. What I didn't know then was that I would be losing someone important to me to this filthy disease. Reading back this old tale resonates with me in a new way. Today's an oncology day for my grandfather and I'm not hopeful it will be a good one. What scares me is finding out he has less time than we think. Having been raised by my grandparents until I was 8, it's like losing a father.

Halloween is a time for being scared, though I'd prefer the fake scares of Pinhead and Freddy to the real life ones. To be in the running for a signed print of DEAD SPELL, tell me what scares you in comments. Drawing is on November 1st. Don't forget to hop to the other sites by clicking the blog hop logo in my sidebar. Without further ado:

The Deal

Liz exhaled as she walked into the kitchen relieved to see Paul’s rattling, oxygen-depriving cough subsiding. She smiled, but he didn’t smile back. He just stared out the window, disgusted.

“What’s the matter?”

He didn’t answer.

She leaned over the counter and pushed herself up to see the bloody mash of cat scattered amid the leaves on their deck.

“How am I supposed to explain this?” she thought knowing that he’d never believe though that before its demise, the cat, too, was terminal.

“Wild dogs?”

“In suburbia?”

“We’re a lot further in the country than you think. I’ll clean it after breakfast.” She poured the dregs of the milk down the sink and rinsed her glass careful not to wet the edges of the turtleneck sleeves she didn’t dare pull up for fear he would see the bandages.

“You should rest.” She steered him toward the recliner.

“But, I feel good.”

“I’m glad, but we both know you don’t have the stomach to watch this.”

She took a pair of blue cleaning gloves and a drawstring garbage bag out of the drawer and went to the shed for a shovel.

The ground was moist from an influx of autumn rain and easier to dig than expected. She pulled on the gloves and stood for a minute over the mangled feline body praying it hadn’t suffered.

She scooped the loose remains into the bag, sealed it, and dropped it in the hole.

* * * * *

Even after failed chemo and two years’ time, Liz wasn’t used to Paul as the skeletal, wasted shell of the man she married. She tried not to stare as she walked past the recliner.

“I’ll be in, in a minute,” she said. “I just have to wash my hands.”

The stench of rotting death announced the unseen thing close by.

The demon that killed the cat.

The other end of the deal.

Its scaly grip burned through her sleeves and her wounds bubbled like cauldrons beneath the gauze. Its sharp, glass-like nails left four small holes at her wrists and then withdrew.

It needed more life than a half-dead cat could offer.

I have to get it out of here. I have to keep Paul safe.

She mustered her breath and went out the door without explanation. Paul called after her, but she couldn’t stop. It was her or him and she knew which she chose.

Her sweaty palms slid on the steering wheel as she tore out of the driveway and considered, only long enough to realize she was far too ashamed, returning to Magickal Arts—the unassuming occult shop that peddled religion and incense and the place where, if you could afford it, you could purchase someone’s life. The clerk had warned her, had begged her not to conjure, but her desperation to save his life was stronger than any warning.

Haunted as she was, she wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Her cell phone vibrated against her hip and she struggled to pull it from beneath her seat belt.

“Paul, are you there?”

“Help me,” he said between hacking coughs.

“Paul, are you okay?” The coughing continued. “Paul, answer me,” but he couldn’t and she turned back toward home, the speedometer rising in pace with her panic.

He was near-cyanotic by the time she arrived home and had collapsed only feet from his oxygen tank. She knelt beside him and pulled the hollow plastic tubing to him, fitting the mask to his face and fastening its elastic only after he opened his eyes.

Tears streamed down her face and defeat set it. This had been, by far, the shortest relief since the conjuration.

* * * * *

Paul’s color returned and though he could barely stand, with her help he made it to bed. She covered him with blankets and put on TV, but he was in rapid decline.

There was no one to call and she second guessed her decision not to have hospice.

The doctors said this would happen, but you wanted him home.

She waited for him to fall asleep and when she was satisfied that he was stable, went to lie down in the guest room.

Her head and heart ached, plagued with fear and thoughts of Paul’s death. The book of spells offered neither answers nor reversals for the thing she had innocently called from a realm she didn’t believe in. But it was real. As real as the scars forming from the countless times the foul demon visited her to remind her of its power. It exhausted her to the point of madness, forcing her, as she prepared to do again, to double-dose the addictive pills that quickly induced slumber.

She reached for the translucent, brown bottle, twisted the cap, and dry-swallowed two small, blue pills. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she breathed in deeply searching for the demon’s scent before drifting off to sleep.

Her body melted into the thick down coverlet, but the pungent odor she’d grown terrified of interrupted her temporary peace. The demon was with her, again, in her room and he was ominously patient. He pinned her down and stole her screams, taking from her what he wanted.

She was paralyzed, unable to fight back but felt every bit of its teasing assault. A slow, burning lick like a hot poker across her legs seared through her jeans. Its serpentine tongue repeated its motion until her pants were soaked with blood and she all but fainted. It drank from her, growing stronger and hungrier with each sip. It aggressively closed on the inside of her thigh, right above the femoral artery, and paused.

Oh God, not that. Please, not that.

It flooded her with telepathic images and she finally understood. It would only give Paul the life that she fed it. The cat had been weak, not enough life to sustain, but this was different. It clamped down slowly, as if needing permission, and she let it devour her. Its needle-like teeth punctured the vital artery and she lapsed into unconsciousness before it drank her dry.

There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t have given to save him.

Coffin Hop Day #3 Jinn: A Halloween Short

2011-10-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Coffin Hop Day #3. Don't forget to click the link and visit the other sites. Today, I have a short story for you. One that's been languishing on my thumb drive and it sets the theme for the day as evil genies. In order to be in the running for a signed, print copy of Dead Spell comment on the following: Jinn is going to grant you a wish. He only grants one, so what's yours?

Source

Jinn

Brooke reached over the stack of overdue bills for the eviction notice Paige pulled off their apartment door. It had been six months since the layoff landed them both on interminable unemployment and with Halloween’s end only hours away, the impossible and unlikely was the only plausible option.

“What if it is true?” Brooke asked, tying her shoulder-length blond hair back in a pony tail. “What if it solves this?” She dealt the bills like cards.

Paige downed her fourth Jack and Coke and slammed the plastic cup down. “What if we’re selling our soul to the devil, or worse?”

“The devil doesn’t deal in wishes, Paige. Think of Jinn as the Little Falls genie.”

“Little falls genie spawns mutant reapers. That’s a hell of a headline.” Her mind created a black and white photo of a distant crime scene to go with it.

“I don’t think that’s what it means,” Brooke said and re-read the incantation:

Every year on Halloween

From the space of in-between

The Jinn wakes and wishes grants

To the ones who speak this chant

Speak your dreams and he’ll reply

But with his terms you must comply

Wear a mask of his design

And answer to this simple rhyme

A servant on this All Hallows Eve

Collect from those who don’t believe

Paige rubbed her throbbing temples. “Mask of his design. What if it’s a rotting human skin suit or a dead animal carcass or something?”

“You watch too many horror movies.”

Brooke looked at the microwave clock. “10:30. It’s now or never. Are you with me or am I doing this alone?” She pushed out her bottom lip, pouting and wrapped herself in a half-hug around Paige’s shoulders.

“Oh, whatever. Fine. I’m in. It’s just superstition anyway.”

Brooke unfolded the photocopied page of the old townsperson’s journal she retrieved from the library’s archives and gathered the listed items: knife, salt, candles... “We need a mirror,” she said to Paige, “Grab the one out of the bathroom.” She poured a thin line of table salt in a circle on the living room floor and set the mirror in the middle. “And light those candles over there, would you?” She tossed Paige a second lighter and when all thirteen candles were blazing, started the conjuration.

Paige mumbled along, remembering the words the best she could and reading Brooke’s lips when she couldn’t.

The room vibrated and hummed, the walls expanding and contracting like sheetrock lungs. Brooke tore the paring knife through her palm and bled on the mirror, handing it next to Paige who was dizzy and felt like she was going to vomit.

“Do it,” she said.

Paige pressed the blade to the heel of her hand and God help her, it felt like even the knife wanted her to do it. She took a deep breath and with her eyes squeezed shut, closed her hand on the blade and pulled. There was a quick, searing pain and the wet warmth of blood over her fingers. She pumped her hand and let it flow down to the floor. Everything was spinning. Whirling. Like riding teacups.

“I wish for an endless supply of money,” Brooke said.

The candles went out and an abomination—half-human it seemed but with a gaping, drooling maw of fangs and six meaty claws—materialized from the blood pool and attacked her, flinging her arms out to either side and ripping parallel tracts from her forehead to her chest. Her right eye fell forward onto her cheek and Paige screamed, “No!”, but her voice had gone silent.

Tears rolled down her cheek and if she had been drunk when this started, the fear sobered her enough that she scrambled to her feet and ran out of the apartment filled with mortal dread of having made a blood pact with this thing.

Stupid! Why did you let her talk you into this?

Brooke’s words echoed in her head, “what if it fixes this?”

What if it makes them worse? Something at Paige’s core said Jinn meant to collect.

The gravel under her bare feet cut like glass as she ran, but she refused to make it easy for him. She turned down the alley behind Jack’s, the Chinese restaurant she and Brooke had eaten at every Friday night for the past three years, onto the empty street. The restaurants were closed; the night apocalyptically silent. Curfew.

She leaned her back against the dumpster and slid to the ground with her knees bent, crying. Her hand throbbed in time with her heart beat and gushed blood in an unimaginably large puddle that disappeared into the drinking asphalt.

This isn’t real, she insisted. It was a superficial cut, but she was lightheaded and seeing the brick buildings on either side of the alley pulse with life. Don’t let it convince you, she thought fighting off the hallucinations. Run! The dumpster gave way as if to embrace or envelop her and when she pulled away, the road itself became an intangible, watery thing in which she felt herself sink.

“Leave me alone!” she screamed and the prepaid cell in her pocket rang Brooke’s ring tone.

“Hello?”

“Where are you? Please come home. I need help.” Brooke didn’t sound right.

No way she was alive.

Can’t go home. Instinctively Paige knew it, but she wiped her tears and said, “I’m on my way.”

Her feet moved as if through wet concrete, out of the alley and onto Oak—a more tangible main street. A swarm of shadows fluttered around her head, pecking at her face and hands; tangling in her long black hair. She could feel him closing in on her. Waiting for her. Teasing her into submission.

Each step made her weaker; the blood running now from her wound in a steady stream.

“I’m on my way,” she repeated and collapsed on the sun burnt lawn of a nearby playground. The grass tickled her legs through the holes of her fishnet stockings and climbed her skin like scratchy vines. She pulled herself free, hearing the ripping roots and a primordial scream—visceral and omnipresent.

“Please stop,” she begged and crawled the block to her apartment; up the stairs, too weak to fight.

The apartment door opened and she saw Brooke crouched in the corner, waiting to devour her. Her red lipstick was smeared like a deranged circus clown and her dangling eye swung freely from its nerve as she crept forward and with her three-clawed hand, dragged her inside.

A mask of his design.

Everything came at a price.

Paige closed her eyes, defeated, and gave herself over to what Brooke had become—an insatiable, controlled thing. She waited for her own demonic rebirth, when she, too, would rise and collect, but as Brooke positioned herself over her, she remembered the deal.

“I wish none of this ever happened.” And having never used her one request, it was granted.

Coffin Hop Day 2: City of Hell Preview

2011-10-25T05:02:00.000-07:00

There is no god, no angels, no redemption. There is no hope, only suffering. The great Ant-headed Maurr has risen and brought hell to earth. The land is scorched and the human race decimated, eaten or tortured. Only three cities remain, a crumbled dying version of their former selves: London, Moscow and Hong Kong. The Old One’s own City of Hell dominates most of North America. Its diabolical influence has turned ordinary citizens into torturers, debased slaves, lunatics and zealots.

With an eruption at Yellowstone, the likes of which humanity had never seen before, The Maurr tore apart the land and ascended to rule, aided by its faithful army of acolytes. From the core of the earth it crawled up on to the land, spreading disease and insanity to all corners of the globe.*

And yet, the humans still struggle for freedom.

A tunnel extends to the shores of Argentina where a boat waits to take the surviving humans to Antarctica, the last place on Earth the Maurr cannot go.

Five unfortunate souls--an entomologist, a young, unmarried couple and their month-old daughter, and an ailing, elderly man--are captured trying to escape.

Brought back to the City of Hell the five meet their unique and torturous fates. Worse than imposing death, the Maurr aims to set an example.

*Courtesy of Colin Barnes

My story, The Final Passage appears in The City of Hell Chronicles releasing December 2011.

Don't forget to click on the Coffin Hop logo in my sidebar and visit the other sites!

Today's theme is hell. Enter to win a signed print copy of Dead Spell by answering this age-old question: Which deadly sin are you? Or tell me your favorite hell-themed story. Mine is the Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. As to which sin I'll cop to...wrath. Yep, that sums it up.

Coffin Hopping Horror Blog Tour

2011-10-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

It's that time, folks! Greetings and welcome to my blog.

Feel free to poke around.

I write a lot about my experience with independent (self) publishing, though I have been traditionally published so I have knowledge of the other side. I consider myself a community-minded indie and while I have no idea if I'll stay indie or if I'll try to break into the NYC agent/publisher scene, I really just want to tell my stories. I am gearing up for NaNoWriMo and this year, I'll be working on a mystery rooted in medicine called Reassigned. Medicine has been my day job for the past fifteen plus years and often ends up in my stories. My compilation, Crisis Hospital, showcases this tendency with a diverse offering of horror stories.

Dead Spell, however, is a different kind of story and is the prize for this stop on the blog hop.

5-stars from the Midwest Book Review

"When everything around you is out to destroy you and your life, your resolve against it cannot last forever. "Dead Spell" is the story of Harmony Wolcott, a woman trying to deal with the forces around her, her schizophrenic mother, and secrets she has been keeping to herself going into adulthood. As time moves on, she is forced to confront the forces around her or be consumed by them, and doom herself to life of drugs and promiscuity. "Dead Spell" is a story of facing the crisis that life has left for you as you enter adulthood."

"Riveting read! Could not put it down!!!" -Ashton the Book Blogger

"Urban darkness at its best." -Author Dannie Hill

Some secrets you keep, even from yourself, until something from beyond the grave forces you to remember.

Harmony Wolcott is slowly succumbing to the haunting darkness of a forgotten memory. A spirit named Tom refuses to let her forget what happened one night in her childhood home. Harmony believes Tom wants her dead but as their interactions escalate, her self-destructiveness is the real threat. Afraid to ask for help or admit the strange occurrence happening to her and around her, Harmony looks for the truth while trying to escape what it's done to her family.

Dead Spell is about a ghost with a past and a girl that would die to forget it.

I am giving away FOUR print copies to participants drawn at random. The drawing will happen on November 1st. If you enter, make sure you check back. So how do you enter? Tell me your favorite thing about Halloween in comments. Leave your name and if you're comfortable doing so, leave your email address and I will notify you if you're a winner. If you do not leave your email address, please check back. Unclaimed prizes will be redrawn on November 3rd.

I'll start things off. My favorite thing about Halloween is the haunted places shows. I love the spooky histories and ghosts enchant me. Death, in general, has always interested me and I'm going to make the stretch that the fascination with death is part of why I'm so interested in medicine. I am anxious to stay in one of these haunted places when my kids are a little older, of course.

I also love cemeteries and if you win one of the copies of Dead Spell, you're getting one of the last copies with the cemetery art on the cover. The book opens to show my favorite local headstone spanning the front and back covers.

So, tell me your favorite thing about Halloween or even what draws you to horror and hop your way to the next location. With so many talented authors participating, you'll want to hit them all.

I'll be hopping along with you ;-)

Happy Halloween!

Scary Saturday! Horror Authors Promoting their Work.

2011-10-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

Horror Authors, tell your friends. In honor of Halloween, I'm opening the wall for Scary Saturday! Post your B&N and Amazon links, rating (stars) and price. Today only! Let the scares roll in. (Note: you might automatically go to "hidden posts." If your post disappears, I'll be on later to un-hide anything that goes that way. No worries. (Drop on by Kindle Dark's page to post your links!)

10 Questions with Martin Lastrape

2011-10-21T08:24:00.001-07:00

I'm up over at Martin Lastrape's place, today.

Authors, this is a very nice blog to be featured on. Thanks, Martin, for your hard work. It looks great.

How Could I Forget? (Another Movie on the Halloween List)

2011-10-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

The House on Haunted Hill. How could I forget it?

I LOVE a good asylum scare.

"Billionaire theme-park mogul Steven Price (Geoffrey Rush) believes he is fulfilling the twisted wishes of his spoiled wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen) when he arranges for her birthday party to be held at the abandoned Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane. The Institute was once the site of the most horrifying medical experiments in history, conducted by the late—and deranged—Dr. Vannacutt.
As the guests converge for the evening, Price realizes that, curiously, the five strangers are neither Evelyn's original invitees nor his own. He is unable to figure out who these people are, or how they received the invitations he intended for others. The guests themselves are equally mystified as to why they might have been included. In a spirit of mutual distrust, Steven and Evelyn Price greet their guests, each suspecting the other's motives and holding the other responsible for the strangers joining them. The actual reason this quintet has been convened will not become clear until much later...
Nevertheless, Price proceeds with the festivities, announcing that anyone who manages to spend an entire night in the house will win a substantial financial prize. He has secretly rigged the house with insidious devices designed to scare the guests out of staying, but his tricks soon become meaningless, as the mansion begins to generate terror on its own.
The house's lockdown mechanism mysteriously comes alive, trapping everyone inside and leaving them scrambling desperately to find a way out. Just as Watson Pritchett (Chris Kattan), the descendant of the building's original owners, had ominously predicted, the house begins to animate with the evil that breathes through the very building itself. Before their night of terror is over, the desperate inhabitants will unlock the secrets of the house or suffer the wrath of the demonic evil that haunts the walls of the former insane asylum."

Can You Have Your Cake and Eat it, too?

2011-10-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

I talk a lot about wanting to straddle the traditional/indie line. I see merit in publishing both ways, but I realize that may not be possible. I posted something on FB about not knowing which was my first choice: put CURE on the query-go-round or independently publish it. REASSIGNED is definitely going indie. A friend said that his first choice is always in-line with his long-term goal.

Ah, the rub. My long-term goal is really to be a paid, full-time writer. A successful enough one that I'm not worried about other sources of income. I know, I'm singing your song, right?

That does not help me answer how I am going to do it.

This does not make me feel good about pursuing traditional publishers:

"In 2010 Ms. Davenport signed with Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin, for “The Chinese Soldier’s Daughter,” a Civil War love story. She received a $20,000 advance for the book, which was supposed to come out next summer.

If writers have one message drilled into them these days, it is this: hustle yourself. So Ms. Davenport took off the shelf several award-winning short stories she had written 20 years ago and packaged them in an e-book, “Cannibal Nights,” available on Amazon.

When Penguin found out, it went “ballistic,” Ms. Davenport wrote on her blog, accusing her of breaking her contractual promise to avoid competing with it. It wanted “Cannibal Nights” removed from sale and all mentions of it deleted from the Internet.

Ms. Davenport refused, so Penguin canceled her novel and is suing her to recover the advance.

“They’re trying to set an example: If you self-publish and distribute with Amazon, you do so at your own risk,” said Jan Constantine, a lawyer with the Authors Guild who has represented Ms. Davenport.

The writer knows her crime: “Sleeping with the enemy.” Penguin declined to comment."

I'm already self-publishing and distributing with Amazon which may mean I've made my bed. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I wonder how many of us are in this boat.

I wonder if NY is really an option?

I wonder if its what I want at all.

Update:

Since comments sometimes go unseen, I figured I'd bring this one front and center. Turns out, ol' Penguin might be getting a bad rap with this one. As always, two sides to every story. It's easy to believe NY is the villain when they take such a huge percentage of royalties and when traditional publishing appears to be broken and failing. I'm not saying NY is terrified of the indie revolution because I think that's probably far from true, but Amazon's emergence as a powerhouse, the e-book trend, and the increased appeal of independent publishing has to be affecting them. Still, I stay neutral. I think it's short-sighted of anyone to openly slam their industry or its professionals.

"I saw the same story and posted about it as well, but then I did a little digging. The way it looks is that Ms Davenport did actually break her contract by ignoring either a "first look" clause or a "non-compete" clause. It seems like Penguin did everything they could, short of ignoring the legal document to reconcile their differences with Davenport, but she wasn't having it. It just goes to show you need to read the fine print before you sign a contract (whether the contract is for publishing, a home loan, or anything in between).

Alas there is still no answer to whether to go independent or traditional. Great post.
The link below has a more in depth discussion of Ms. Davenport and her Penguin debacle.
http://clairewriteswords.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/the-small-print/"

Thanks, http://rhculp.com/

Two Weeks Until the End of the World

2011-10-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

Well, not exactly, but with NaNoWriMo just around the corner and HALLOWEEN, my favorite day of the year, it's at least a lot of fun followed by the end of my social life until December.

Let's focus on the good stuff. My favorite thing about Halloween is that I have an excuse to force my husband to watch lots of horror with me. He's normally pretty good about this anyway, but here are some must-sees for the season. I will watch these all at least once:

"They're Here." Poltergeist. Completely quotable with a dead bird, a joint, and mosquitoes. Who hasn't wanted to put a helmet on their kid and let the ghosts play air hockey with them? This is a classic and perhaps my favorite old horror movie.

Stay Alive. You had me at Sophia Bush. This one combines really decent storytelling, creepy graphics, and the awesomeness of horror survival gaming.

The 13 Ghosts jump factor is high. Glasses on, glasses off. It begs the question: if you can't see it, but it's there, do you look or get caught by surprise when it kills you?

I'm sure at least one of the Halloween movies is on the list, though the best one is the Rob Zombie reboot--at least for graphics. I'm certain to watch a Nightmare on Elm Street or two, but not the reboot because well, it's not the same without Robert Englund. I've picked up on an American Horror Story and while it's somewhat unbelievable, even for horror, I love its Gothic quality. FX, you're finally a little cool. Some neat ideas and Dylan McDermott who I really loved on the Practice.

After all of this TV, I am going to have to figure out what is going on with my works in progress. NaNo is going to be a bit of a departure for me. I'm going to use the month of November to churn out a ton on Reassigned, an amateur sleuth mystery heavily rooted in medicine we'll call House meets CSI. My MC is a paramedic investigating the suspicious death of her sister. I reworked this novel a hundred ways and settled on a mystery format which means I probably have to rewrite half of it. It will be cool and I will self-publish it once its finished and I get it through some trusted betas.

Cure is still moving and I'll be using some of my daily word count to get this one finished. 35K words in, a bit of going back over things to do, I am totally loving the story and I have a wish list of agents. I've decided once that is finished and through the betas, I will give it a ride on the query-go-round and see if it flies. Fingers crossed.

I've been watching the poll, also set to close up within two weeks, and with only 10 brave voters (well, 9 and me) it seems many are still riding the dividing line between industry and independent publishing. I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm solidified in doing both. I only hope one day NY will have me :-)

Me, My Shelf and I: {Book Review} Dead Spell

2011-10-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

Me, My Shelf and I: {Book Review} Dead Spell: Dead Spell Author: Belinda Frisch Format: Paperback Pages: 192 Publisher: CreateSpace Published: March 14, 2011 Rating: 4...

Thank you, thank you to Me, My Shelf and I!

In truth, I agree wholeheartedly about back story. Hindsight is 20/20, but Dead Spell is meant to be a fast-paced read about even faster living. I wrote it for Hamony and it's a little flawed, just like her. An imperfect, but entertaining first novel, I think, and I'm glad readers enjoy it. At $0.99, you can't beat the entertainment value. <3

On Working Hard

2011-10-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

The World of S.E. Gordon: Sweet Sacrifice: The Value of Hard Work: Despite what you’ve read, and despite what you think is the source of your problems, one thing towers above the rest. It can cure m...

Excellent post and I can't think of anything more true. A must-read for writers (and teenagers.)

Poll: Traditional v. Indie Publishing a.k.a. What Your Friends are Doing.

2011-10-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

I somewhat innocently posted a thread from the Kindleboards the other day. People's opinions are all over the map on the traditional v. indie v. agent-facilitated publishing front and my opinion changes pretty regularly.

I created a poll to test the waters (see sidebar.) I'm curious what your opinions are and, even if I know already, vote. The more answers, the better.

I've had this conversation with several friends, indies and the traditionally published, but I still think the answer for an emerging writer is to try both sides if opportunity allows and their goal is to reach the largest reading audience possible. A couple of posts back, Nathan Bransford did a similar poll about whether or not readers are reading indie novels. The comments got to me. So many people had bad experiences reading independent novels that I wanted to jump ship right then. Other days, I think all my future books will be independently published without even so much as a single submission.

Oh, the torment.

So, back to the poll. I've waved a magic wand. Each and every one of you has an offer from an agent right now. There are talks of deals, advances, and USA Today wants the first interview. You're going to get a check for $50,000 to pay those bills a while and maybe buy yourself something nice. That's not your dream? Well how about for those of you on the anti-agent side, you have a traditional publisher with a mac daddy cover designer, big name blurbs lined up for your cover, and yep, you're still getting a fat advance check. No agent is getting cut in and this publisher has several books in the Amazon Top 100. Yours is next. Live in that moment for a minute before answering. Now that it's being offered, what do you choose? Poll accordingly.

Disclaimer: I can't actually make good on any of these things. I just want an honest response to the poll.

10,000 Sales and We'll Talk...

2011-10-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

I found this post in the KindleBoards today and it answers a question I have: how many self-pub sales must one have for an agent to bat an eye?

The answer? 10,000.

From Jeff Rivera:

"Yes, this is a legitimate. You can Google my name if you have any doubts. (Ask Joe Konrath or Karen McQuestion if you have any questions) And no, I'm not charging you anything. Now, that that's out of the way, I wanted to let you know that:

Several legitimate literary agents have asked me to keep a look out for self-published/Kindle published authors who have sold a combined total of at least 10,000 copies of their books (doesn't matter the genre) and who are looking to make that transition from self-published to landing a book deal with a traditional publisher.

Yes, it is possible. I did it and landed a deal with Grand Central Publishing. So, if this sounds like you and you've sold at least 10,000 copies of your book, then email me directly at: Jeff AT JeffRivera DOT com.

If you want to keep doing it Indie, I applaud you, go for it but if you want to try to take a stab doing it traditional too, feel free to reach out to me."

I have a long way to go :-)

On Marketing from a Bestselling Author

2011-10-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

The Vincent Zandri Vox: "Dear Vincent, How Do You Do It?"

A GREAT blog from someone who has not just made it to the top end of the Amazon charts, but who managed to stay there. Thanks, Vin, for the insight.

NaNoWriMo 2010

2011-10-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Will for reminding me that it is almost NaNoWriMo time.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a great way to connect with other local writers, to put a little healthy competition in your writing month, and to be motivated to write every day. I've participated for years and I never come CLOSE to "winning." Winning means 50,000 words in a month. Last year, I made it to just under 17K.

Still, I will sign up this year. It's the first year I'm not otherwise FT employed and I have a book to finish that I've neglected for three weeks while writing my piece for City of Hell. Speed is not my forte. Never has been.

If anyone wants to join me as a NaNoWriMo buddy, click here.

Who knows? Maybe this is my year! If so, CURE would be finished. That's motivational.

It's a Nephew!

2011-10-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

Liam Robert was born today. 7 lbs. 7 oz. and everyone is doing just fine. Man, I forgot how cute babies are.

#CoffinHop

2011-09-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

New Twitter hastag #coffinhop. For those of you that are participating and haven't quite explored the group's FB page or anyone interested in helping promote us, please use it.

Grab the badges, post to your sites, and even if you're not participating, spread the word. MWAHAHA ...or else.

Author Thomas Amo: Belinda Frisch~ Horror Author, Coffin Mover, Indus...

2011-09-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

Author Thomas Amo: Belinda Frisch~ Horror Author, Coffin Mover, Indus...: If you haven't heard of Belinda Frisch—you will. If you haven't met her—you should! I have had the pleasure to be able to call this fellow a...

I can't say thank you enough, Tom.

Hugs to you and the fabulous missus.

Blog Hop How-To

2011-09-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

What is a blog hop?

A blog hop is a themed collections of blogs hosting giveaways for a specified period of time.
Coffin Hop's runs 10/24-Halloween and is suitably horror themed.

A group of bloggers/writers get together and readers/participants visit all of the blogs connected by the linky during the dates of the hop. A linky lists the blogs participating. It's automatic, once you sign up, that your site will be included in the linky. You hop, you enter, you win.

Here's the how-to:

TODAY

1. Go to Coffin Hop's Post and sign up ('Click here to enter'.) It will ask you for your blog web address and a title. This will be used for the linky. You can verify that you've signed up by looking at the list of writers beneath the post. Your site should be the last listed. You're done until the hop.

OCTOBER 23RD
The hop starts on the 24th, but people are in different time zones so I post a day early.

1. Create a new blog post/sidebar entry that details your GIVEAWAY for the hop. You should include a web badge (several awesome ones on Coffin Hop's site for your use) and detail what your rules are. I've done this before and giveaway print or e-versions of my book. I typically throw a book mark in with prints, but you can do whatever you want. TELL READERS/PARTICIPANTS HOW TO WIN. Comments are the most common. I did a random drawing based on commenter's names last time I did one of these. The drawing/prize winner selection must occur on November 1st. Winners should be posted on your blog and you are on your honor to get things out quickly. If winners fail to claim their prizes in 72 hours, you're allowed to choose alternates.

2. ADD THE LINKY LIST TO YOUR BLOG POST. People can't hop if this isn't there and that's just pointless. If you go to the Coffin Hop page, you'll see "What is a blog hop? Get the code here..." Click that link. Copy and paste the code into your blog and miraculously, all the hop participants will show up listed on your blog. It's that easy. Now people can hop.

3. Hop, yourself. Sign up for the great prizes. Yeah, you're giving something away, but you're likely getting something in return BESIDES THE AWESOME EXPOSURE. People love free and this is a great way to build your blog following, make new friends, and get prizes. Your work is seen, you see their work--it's a win-win. These things are usually heavily promoted and it hardly costs you anything to participate.

NOVEMBER 1ST

1. Select your prize winner.
2. Announce the prize winner.
3. Mail/e-mail the prize.

Easy enough, right?

I've already picked up a couple of the web badges for my blog and you can certainly do this ahead of time so people know that prizes are forthcoming.

Sign up. It's easy. It's fun. It's cheap word of mouth advertising.

Coffin Hop Horror Web Tour Sign-up!

2011-09-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Why participate?

Get to know other horror writers, gain exposure, win stuff.

the gory details:

1) HAVE A SPOOKY FUN TIME!

2) INVITE YOUR FRIENDS AND SPREAD THE WORD!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, October 24, 2011 at Midnight (PST)
THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, October 31, 2011 at Midnight (PST)
Winners will be drawn and posted November 1, 2011

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH THE AUTHORS! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY SITE'S CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL SITES IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. THE MORE SITES YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES.

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE A SPOOKY FUN TIME?

***Authors have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this tour is subject to these rules***

Front Matter Advice from KDP

2011-09-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

How many times have you heard about the book hoarders who download countless books, but never read them? Amazon KDP released this tid bit of advice on their FB page:

"A little ebook advice for our authors and publishers: Instead of starting your ebook with several blank pages and a copyright page, try starting with the same description that is on the product page to entice readers to read their downloaded ebooks."

GREAT idea, really. I have several books on my Kindle and I have to look them up on Amazon before deciding what to read next. Just because the reader purchased the book, doesn't mean they're reading it any time soon. I think this might just encourage them to and hopefully that means more good reviews.

I'm adding this in front of my front matter from now on.

On Being Front Page News

2011-09-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

Let's talk for a minute about writer's misgivings. Your book didn't get traditionally published which is a fact you embrace when you go indie. Secretly, you wonder if maybe your book just wasn't good enough. Six months goes by and you've seen a couple of hundred sales, IF you're lucky. You start to think, maybe it's me? So-and-so just hit 10,000 sales for the month. The self-doubt gets the better of you. You're not a mega-seller. Maybe it's your genre. Yeah, that might be it. People would rather laugh or cry than be scared. You're reaching for reasons when it's as simple as you're one in a million.

In this case, that's a bad thing.

Amazon is overloaded and those that have made it to the top, stay there. They monopolize Amazon while you sell ten copies a month because no one SEES your book.

What's your proof, you ask?

August 2011 sales:
Crisis Hospital: 19
Dead Spell: 9

I got on Kindle Lovers site (decent exposure, to say the least.)

September 2011 sales (through 9/21 only):
Crisis Hospital: 59
Dead Spell: 115

Plus some U.K. sales.

The difference? Exposure. Sometimes, it's as easy as that. If people see you, they might like your book enough to buy it. Obviously you need to have written a good book with a decent description and a nice enough looking cover. Even on the front page, you're not the only choice. The down side? Once you're a page or two back, the sales trickle and fade away. Back to the 90K sales ranking, where 89,999 other books are ahead of yours. It's a nice ride while it lasts.

City of Hell Art Preview

2011-09-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Meet Franklin, bringer of the City of Hell...

City of Hell: CID

2011-09-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Ren did an awesome, I mean incredibly awesome, job. I am inspired!

Check out CID playing at Joe's Banana's and find out what's shaking in the City of Hell. This is a not-to-be-missed anthology releasing in December. Art, writing, and top-notch depravity from a near all-female cast of vixens, harlots, and masters of fate. SMOKING HOT!

Independent Author's Site

2011-09-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

Re-post courtesy of this site.

Independent Authors and Writers (or iAuthors.org) is an online book-source run by Indie authors for ebooks and paperbacks. It’s also quite new, just built in July of 2011. What makes this place interesting is that the content is uploaded by the participants (wiki style), which makes it a perfect resource for authors without websites and those who simply want more exposure.

This is from their website;

We welcome Authors and Writers of all genre, as well as avid readers; or simply readers that are looking for different and fresh books and novels to read from the web.

Simply sign up, sign in, write your pages and upload your pictures! We love to see you link to anywhere that supports your work, link your page to other websites and use inbound links from other sites to your author pages. Mostly we encourage a link out to places where readers can buy your books and novels. You may links to friends, anywhere you choose to share!

This site is for you, the author. We provide the ability to create an author category that you can call “all your own”. This Author category can include a page for each book you write and no limit on the number of books. Authors can even create a page named author blog, so you have a place to talk to your peers, readers, or simply show where readers can find your blog if you have one already.

It’s a pretty good deal (also free of cost), especially for a writer without a website. The first post must be approved by an administrator, and after that all posts go online in live time. If you’re an Indie wanting to participate, visit the Author’s How To page – http://www.independentauthors.org/authors-how-to/ and follow the instructions.

Kindle Dark: Freebies and Cheapies for your Kindle

2011-09-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

Whether you're a Kindle reader or a Kindle app-er, if you like horror, mystery, or thrillers, this new Facebook page is for you. Free and cheap reads with a 4-star rating or higher. Brand new and growing. Join the group and enjoy the deals.

Cyber-Squatting and Facebook

2011-09-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

Kindle Lovers, our favorite three minutes of fame provider, posted this yesterday:

"If you are an author and you would like to promote your book, do not post links here or you risk to be deleted and banned by the system. Please contact us at our website. Thank you! http://thekindle3books.com/contact-us/"

"The Cheap" network has not so clearly stated this, but are of the same or similar mindset. I know, I got deleted. Here's the deal: the Cheap will let you post on "Authors on the Cheap", but nowhere else. I followed the rules, but figured something got lax when I started seeing a bunch of authors posting on the Cheap's more popular sites. Authors on the Cheap is lingering around 500 followers versus the thousands that follow their other pages. I figured something must've changed and, hoping to revive sales momentum, posted, too. I wasn't devastated when the big delete hit and I certainly understand that if authors don't go through the proper channels that we'll see nothing but tons of author posts on all of these sites.

At any rate, most Facebook sites like Kindle Lovers and The Cheap sites will post in info if it's ok for authors to post or how to contact them to get your book featured. If they don't, don't assume it's all good or you'll end up deleted.

City of Hell: Meet Entomologist, Dr. Eve Harig

2011-09-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

A special news report has been released warning of changes in the insect communities. This is the first in a series leading up to the rise of the City of Hell. Stay tuned for critical information as it releases.

Location: Brazil, South America
Breaking News Special Report #1

This is International News Correspondent, Selena Monteleone, reporting from beautiful Sao Paolo, Brazil. I'm here with entomologist, Dr. Eve Harig, who has come all the way from the United States to join research efforts in the phenomenon some scientists are calling “The Big Migration.” Thank you, Dr. Harig, for joining me.

EH: Thank you, Selena.

SM: Let’s start by talking about what has scientist curiosity so piqued. The sudden mass movement in the insect communities prompted speculation that there’s an unknown, possibly new kind of impending natural disaster. People believe the migration is a warning sign from God.

EH: I wouldn’t go that far. There will always be alarmists. The migration is unprecedented and, like anything that can’t be immediately explained, conjecture causes paranoia and brings out all the nuts. No offense.

SM: Hopefully none taken. What is your specialty, Dr. Harig?

EH: Myrmecology. The study of ants.

SM: And the ants are at the foreground of the migration. What is it about their movement that is causing concern?

EH: Ants do not usually travel so far from their colony. They are detecting pheromone trails they shouldn't be.

SM: Are we talking about some kind of super ants?

EH: More like super-communicating ants. Ants commune via pheromones. They leave a pheromone trail for other ants to sense and follow. Pheromones help ant colonies hunt food and organize its collection. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that attracts other ants, causing them to frenzy. Propaganda pheromones confuse enemy ants and cause in-fighting. We’re seeing unusual data that looks like a universal distress signal starting in the United States and branching out worldwide. Normally, a pheromone trail dissipates and becomes undetectable in under a couple of minutes. Newer signals are not disintegrating, hence the migration. Without that pheromone trail break-down, there is chaos. Add to that the mass storage of food and record colony sizes, it looks like a direct message from the insect world to the doomsday cults. I don’t believe the Rapture is coming, but will admit I’m perplexed. Ants that we wouldn’t normally see together are colonizing. It's unnatural.

SM: It’s the colonizing, too, then that's causing the buzz?

EH: As soon as scientists reported their findings, cultists started speculating that the ants were banding together for some nefarious cause.

SM: Any idea what that might be yet, doctor?

EH: None. I don’t think they’re equipped for world domination, but I could be wrong.

SM: Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that (Selena winks.) Thank you for joining me, Dr. Harig. Stay tuned for more information on this global insect dilemma as it becomes available.

City of Hell: Eve's Story

2011-09-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

The absolute BEST place to keep up with all the CoH haps is the CoH site, of course, with the FB fan page being the second. Following Anne's lead, here's the teaser for my contribution:

And yet, the humans still struggle for freedom.

A tunnel known as the Final Passage extends to the shores of Argentina where a boat waits to take the surviving humans to Antarctica, the last place on Earth the Maurr cannot go.

Led by two dissenting former acolytes, five unfortunate souls--an entomologist, a young, unmarried couple and their month-old daughter, and an ailing, elderly man--make their way to the Final Passage and are captured trying to escape.

The Maurr orders them brought back to the City of Hell--to the nest where the queen’s larvae and the city’s drones are starving--to meet their torturous fates. Worse than imposing death, the Maurr aims to set an example.

*Courtesy of Colin Barnes

The City of Hell Chronicles releases December 2011.

Meet Jory, Survivor in the City of Hell

2011-09-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

Wonder woman writer Anne Michaud introduces Jory, denizen in the City of Hell. If you haven't "liked" the CoH FB page yet, it's headquarters for the goings on. You should check it out. This project drops in just two short months.

Kindle Lovers Forum

2011-09-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

Our favorite Kindle site now has a forum. Make sure you register, grab a spot on the author's page and network with some great, interactive readers!

Kindlegraph!

2011-09-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

Kindlegraph is a website developed by Evan Jacobs that allows authors to receive autograph requests from fans and readers. The requester is able to then download the signature and a personal message to their Kindle.

Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Over 1200 books are loaded already. Is yours one of them? Sign in with Twitter, enter your ebook's ASIN and you're in business. The site will walk you through loading your own signature or selecting one from a variety of fonts if you're incapable, as I am, of signing your name with a mouse. It's like writing your name with an etch a sketch. Kudos if you can do it ;-)

On Getting Your Novel Free Exposure (for indies)

2011-09-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

I used to think the horror genre was to blame for slow sales. Enter a room of ten people and seven will admit they don't have the stomach or the taste for it. Yes, horror is a hard sell, outside of the proud and die hard fans. What I've come to realize this week is that exposure helps. Get a large enough audience and sales will follow.

Kindle Lovers has been a dream for my circle of friends. Everyone that's been listed saw at least 50 sales the first day and our collective rankings enjoyed dramatic improvement. That being said, maybe I need to provide better instructions on "how to" so here it goes:

Create a hyperlink on YOUR blog called Kindle 3 (see my sidebar.) This must be a working link. Save yourself some embarrassment and test it ;-) (I skipped that step, initially.)
Go to the Kindle3 contact us page.
Fill in your contact info and for your message include a kind request, link to your novel, and link to your website showing that you've created a hyperlink to Kindle3 and wait for the reply e-mail.
They're fast and FREE (at least for now.) My friends that have participated: Thomas Amo, R.A. Evans, Glen Krisch, and Kealan Patrick Burke. I know Meg Jensen and Ania Ahlborn most likely participated because of Tom. We're all over the place. I've talked to Tom, Rich, and Glen briefly and everyone's done well. I am still seeing a trickle in sales although it really is a one day BOOM. You CANNOT beat this deal.

In my sidebar, I've linked to a couple of other reader networks (the cheap and Kindle on the cheap) because while we can pimp our wares to each other all day long, it's the READERS we need to reach. In the case of Kindle Lovers, I've seen several comments from readers thanking K3 for such great books (good job, authors) to choose from. It's a win-win. Writers get exposure, readers get affordable novels to enjoy and I can't think of a better group of writers than my friends for them to read. And no, guys (and gals) it's not because you're my friends. It's because you're damn clever writers. A real talented group.

Here's the scoop directly from "The Cheap" (A very big network and growing.)

"You are invited to go to our Facebook authors page: Authors on the Cheap. Authors may post about their work there. We will use that page to select authors/books for our other walls, our blog and our e-zine (when it launches). Before you post, please be sure to scroll the page, look at our other pages and read the posting guidelines which you'll find in the notes section."

Here are a couple of other sites where you can easily get your work listed:

Rebeka Harrington's Honorable Mention page (For paranormal novels and the bump in the night crowd.)

Book Junkies Library (List a novel AND sign up as an author. Grace will confirm you quickly.)

There are several big name pay sites, Pixel of Ink being one of the most notable, but they cost $100 and up and are extremely hard to get into. PoI has been closed to authors for what seems like forever. Kindle Nation is open and offers several options, but most of the booking slots are for 2012. These freebies are a great alternative.

If you know of any others, please leave them in comments and I'll update the post. The best karma comes from helping others.

Author Thomas Amo: The Answer is YES!

2011-09-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

Author Thomas Amo: The Answer is YES!: This afternoon I saw a "Tweet" on Twitter that said; "If an author could see their reviews before writing their new novel would they still w...

Minions of Misery

2011-09-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

It seems my penchant for the dark side has landed me in the company of several incredibly cool minions of misery. My co-conspirators in the City of Hell anthology are a twisted lot and our editor and veteran lion-tamer, Colin Barnes, is to blame for this nomination ;-)

My duties as a minion of misery are to list a dark film, a dark book, and a dark secret. Ouch. That last one is suspect, but I'll oblige.

A Dark Film AND A Dark Secret (A tell-all two-fer)

STAY ALIVE circa 2006 featuring (and this is my dark secret ;-) the fabulous Sophia Bush as October, the goth you have to love because she's incredibly talented and beautiful. I will watch anything with her in it including the teen drama One Tree Hill. There, Film and secret out of the way. I am a Sophia Bush worshiper and closet One Tree Hill fanatic. Ack. Street cred ruined.

"After the mysterious brutal death of an old friend, a group of teenagers find themselves in possession of "Stay Alive," a next generation horror survival video game based on the true story of a 17th-century noblewoman known as "The Blood Countess." The gamers don't know anything about the game other than the fact that they're not supposed to have it--and they're dying to play it. Not able to resist temptation, the group begins to play the grisly game and soon a chilling connection is made--they are each being murdered one-by-one in the same method as the character they played in the game. As the line between the game world and the real world disappears, the group must find a way to defeat the vicious and merciless Blood Countess, all the while trying to stay alive."

A Dark Book

Joe Schreiber's EAT THE DARK is my favorite of his books.

"Escorted from prison under heavy guard, murderous psychopath Frank Snow is scheduled for an emergency brain scan at Tanglewood Memorial Hospital, an institution that is closing its doors after one final night of operation. But Snow has something far more terrifying planned. And once the lights go out, a fiendish game of hide-and-seek begins.

Alone in the dark with a homicidal madman who knows their fears, their secrets, and their every move, MRI technician Mike Hughes, his wife and child, and the other unlucky souls trapped in the hospital have no choice but to duel with the devil incarnate. If they play by their stalker’s twisted rules, some of them might just survive."

And now three nominations:

1. Thomas Amo a.k.a. @authorthomasamo
2. R.A. Evans a.k.a. @raevanswrites
3. Rebecca a.k.a. @creepywalker

You're up guys and gal!

Kindle Lovers and the Kindle 3 site. A MOVER and SHAKER

2011-09-06T05:39:00.000-07:00

My Amazon ranking the other day was an all-time low. Like golf, this is a good thing. A great thing, even! My secret: Kindle 3 . I went from 90K at the back of the pack to 2,562 overnight!

This site is the best. The staff is super courteous, helpful, and they are prompt. No wonder they have such an incredible following.

I told this secret to my friend, author Thomas Amo, and his rankings skyrocketed, too. Over 60 sales overnight. Unbelievable results.

Like their Facebook page, sign up on Kindle 3 and if you're an author--CONTACT THEM. You can thank me, later ;-)

RIGHT NOW, I'M THANKING KINDLE 3. Thanks, folks, for running such an incredible site for readers and author's alike.

Page 1 of 1 (4 items)

	Dead Spell Kindle Edition Current Sales Rank: #2,562 in Kindle Store Average Review: (14 reviews)
	Crisis Hospital: Dark Tales from the Ward, the World, and the Bedside Kindle Edition Current Sales Rank: #29,053 in Kindle Store Average Review: (3 reviews)

Above is a before, below is the after for Crisis Hospital.

Crisis Hospital: Dark Tales from the Ward, the World, and the Bedside

Kindle Edition

ASIN: B004VSAP5C
Average Review: (3 reviews)
Current Sales Rank: #2,208 in Kindle Store

The Frugal E-Reader, What I'm Reading, and Free-E-bies

2011-09-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

I currently have WAY more free e-books than I can read, but am working my way through the pile. I feel a little bad because that means I didn't purchase any books recently, although Dennis Lehane's Moonlight Mile is on my to-be-purchased list with the husband's reading in mind (we share.)

I'm a big Anne Frasier fan. I loved Play Dead and pretty much her entire backlist went free on Amazon. I couldn't pass that up. Three horror titles went up for free and with Halloween coming, I had to have them, too. Kealan Patrick Burke's The Turtle Boy was free, so I had to get that. He's just a talented, awesome guy. Oh, and I have Sleepless, another Charlie Huston novel. Reading--it's a compulsion. I'm always juggling reading fiction with at least one non-fic on the writing craft and am 40% through the very last Joe Pitt book. It's a wonder I keep it all straight.

At any rate, how do you find these great deals without checking Amazon everyday? Follow Kindle on the Cheap, The Frugal E-Reader, or Pixel of Ink on Facebook and the haps just show up in your feed. So easy and everyone's doing it. Pixel of Ink has really been touted as the greatest author exposure but in fairness, they're really hard to get listed with. They've been closed to submissions as long as I've been open and they're a tad pricey ($100-200 per sponsorship.) I got an email today that the Frugal e-Reader is taking sponsorships for through the holiday season and with options as low as $25.00.

It's a wonder with all these awesome, free backlist sales that any reader ever buys a book.

5 Page a Day Challenge and How to Sell a lot of E-books

2011-09-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

Confession time: I don't write as much as I should. I know this. I think a LOT before I write anything down and maybe I'm a little too analytical when it comes to my rough draft. I get sidelined by smaller projects and marketing/social networking and I'm a procrastinator. I blame my summer lack of productiveness on having the boys home and struggling to find my chi with this new found employment freedom. Am I a writer, a claims auditor, a mom, queen of the castle, domestic goddess, keeper of the furry things, the chef, or the maid? I'm all of that and more when I should be the claims gal and writer during the day and the rest of the other things at night. After all, that is part of what I quit my day job for. I often wondered how writers manage to churn out several novels a year and here is what my friend Vin Zandri says:

5 pages a day X 5 days a week= a completed ms every three months.

I did the math because 5 pages didn't seem right. 300 pages, I'll save you the calculations. Holy sh#T! He's right. Well, of course he is, he does this and makes a hell of a living at it.

I used to set a word count total, but 5 pages seems so much less daunting then 1500 or 2000 words. I haven't set any goals for the past few months and I need to. I'm going to go ahead and try this. Vin, you're on. That means CURE should be finished by the end of the year. If I can really keep at it, sooner. This means I can be querying by late winter and hopefully, if this 5 page a day thing sticks (and this is like me trying to diet--very hard, I'm a foodie) I can plan on having another ms ready (my mystery which I plan to independently release) by spring. Yes, this'll do nicely.

Check out Vin's complete post on how to sell a lot of e-books. Here's a spoiler: keep writing them.

City of Hell, the Unveiling

2011-09-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

"There is no god, no angels, no redemption. There is no hope, only suffering. The great Ant-headed Old-One has risen and brought hell to earth. The land is scorched and the human race decimated, eaten or tortured. Only three cities remain, a crumbled dying version of their former selves: London, Moscow and Hong Kong.The Old-One’s own City of Hell dominates most of North America. Its diabolical influence has turned ordinary citizens into torturers, debased slaves, lunatics and zealots.

With an eruption at Yellowstone, the likes of which humanity had never seen before, The Old-One tore apart the land, and ascended to rule, aided by its faithful army of acolytes. From the core of the earth it crawled up on to the land, spreading disease and insanity to all corners of the globe.

The City of Hell Chronicles tell the tales of survival, death and debauchery."

Volume 1 of the chronicles will be released in December 2011. Subscribe to keep up to date with news on the stories, authors, and illustrations that will make up this terrifying vision of the near future.

We have a Twitter account and a Facebook page so be sure and like, follow, what have you and keep up-to-date with the news as the CoH progresses.

My author profile will be up soon. I need to get moving on an author photo. I also need to get moving on my contribution to this rockin' anthology. SOOO excited to be a part of it. Hats off to Colin Barnes for such a great job orchestrating. He is my hero.

Dead Spell Gets a Face Lift

2011-08-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

Why? Because I felt like experimenting. I did a little bit of work on book descriptions and marketing today, though most of the changes won't show until after the 24-72 hour update period. These looked like Tom's eyes to me. I loved my first cover, but wonder if the rose didn't look a little too...benign. It's a dark story and I'm wondering if a darker cover might not be more appropriate.

Hurricane Irene, Agents, and Advances...

2011-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

No, I have found no correlation. I'm just bored, rained in, and hoping my neighbor's half-dead tree doesn't fall in my pool. Irene, take it easy, okay?

I was tooling around Twitter this morning and saw this post by lit agent Rachelle Gardner. Gawker posted this totally crass, but hilarious similar take on why you don't want a big advance. Gawker's anonymous takes a kind of anti-agent stance with its cash register analogy, but Rachelle's post nicely counters that by saying that she would negotiate for higher royalties instead of the huge advance that likely won't be earned out.

I don't currently have these problems, but it's nice to know what the options are. Taxes scare me, so Rachelle's hit me where it hurts. I imagine it's like paying taxes on lotto earnings, but I haven't had that problem either.

I've weighed the agent pros and cons on my blog before. From my inexperienced but well-read perspective, these are the kind of trade-offs that make agents worth their commissions. I'm looking for the long haul so I think higher royalties provides a nice alternative to the unearned advance. Oh, the dream. I'll take an agent and a reasonable contract, please. Anyone with the inside scoop, an agent that owes them a favor, or a number for either a genie or the devil's contracting department, feel free to leave the info in comments.

In the meantime, enjoy the links and be safe! I have to get back to writing.

On Pricing Self-Published Work

2011-08-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

Wag The Fox: Guest Post by Bradley Convissar: Self-Publishing, ...: A while back, I had an e-mail conversation with independent author, Brad Convissar, over the whole e-books topic. Following that, I invited ...

I agree with a lot of what Bradley says and his guest post is well worth reading. Kudos, Bradley and Fox!

I've done the short story compilation and what he would call a novella. I say what he would call because his cut-off is the traditional 60K. Dead Spell is a lean 40K and while that fits in adult novella land, it was written as YA horror and YA has different constraints. 40K for YA is an acceptable novel length. I have done the pricing experiment and have watched others very closely to see how theirs have turned out.

Here's Bradley's way of thinking:

I take a mixed approach:

Under 10,000 words- I never sell anything that is under 10,000 words. I have plenty of friends and know other writers who sell single short stories for $.99, but I won't. This is a personal decision. If I want to sell short stories, I will bunch them into a 10,000-15,000 word collection

10,000-25,000 words- This is my $.99 price point.

25,000-50,000 words- This is my $1.99 price point

Over 50,000 words- For me, this is the $2.99 price point

And here's mine:

New novelists, short story compilations, and introductory works: $0.99
Single short stories: $0.99
Multiple works out or works out long enough to have an established following or word-of-mouth (longer than a short story): $2.99

I don't think shorts should ever sell for above $0.99, but a Twitter pal of mine is selling Erotica, under 5K words each, for $3.99 and is consistently well-ranked on Amazon (in the thousands instead of tens of thousands range.) You can find her under the pen name Genesis Tate. She does very well and is making enviable indie money. I think price point and genre are an issue as much as price point and length.

Honestly, if you've read my post on Tyr Kieran's site, you'll see that horror is the hard sell and that is substantiated by Amazon neglecting to include the entire genre in its indie section. I will still continue to write it because plenty of people have made their names doing so. I've said it before, but I'm an innate horror writer. Chances are if I put a pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard, someone's gonna get hurt. That being said, it's not all I can write. It's not all I DO write, but that's a confession for another day. Today's topic is price point and length. I think it's a personal choice, like DRM, but like a lot of other horror folks, I've succumbed to the $0.99 price point and expect that is where I'll stay with what's available now. The readers and reviews are worth more than the money.

2nd Novel Jitters...

2011-08-25T06:19:00.000-07:00

The Other Side of the Story: There's Nothing to Fear But--Eek! What Was That?: This week has been a little hectic, so I dug into the archives a bit. I found this post on second-book jitters, and realized there's also se...

Luckily, I feel like I'm having just the opposite now that CURE is taking shape. Initially, though, I was nail biting and hoping I could pull it off. Also, with no publisher or contract involved the first time out, there's less pressure.

I hope to get to this stage sooner than later ;-)

Guest Post on Tyr Kieran's Site: Being a Debut Horror Novelist

2011-08-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

Throw indie into the mix and there's so much to learn and do. It's not always glamorous, following one's dark heart, but it's what I do best. I scare people or at the very least, unsettle them. Check out the entire post on my sales and marketing road so far: http://www.tyrkieran.com/blog/2011/08/the-hard-road-of-horror-authors/

Are You a Writer? I Thought So...

2011-08-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

Then you might want to go and check out this blog. A comprehensive resource for the lit types: http://thewritersresourcesite.blogspot.com/2011/08/non-verbal-communication-for-writers.html

Another GREAT review for Dead Spell and What Are You Up To?

2011-08-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

4.0 out of 5 stars Completely Captivated, August 23, 2011

Angela Scott "Angela" (SLC, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Spell (Kindle Edition)

"When the words of a book reach out, grips you by the throat, and pulls you from the first page to the very end in one single day, in one sitting, then that is a great book. Dead Spell did just that. I was completely captivated from the very beginning, and felt as though I couldn't read it quickly enough.

The characters are vivid in this dark tale of mystery, mental illness, and murder. Written exceptionally well, I couldn't help but be drawn to Harmony and Brea. Each character is distinct and well done. The plot and storyline were laid out in such a way that you feel propelled to turn the page, and the next one, and the next one after that. That is skill of which this author has. Some mysteries unfold to soon, revealing the secrets too quickly, or not being secretive enough to keep the reader guessing. But this dark mystery will take the reader to the very end, and when the answer is revealed it won't be one the reader will quite expect.

I enjoyed this dark tale very much and I look forward to Ms. Frisch's next novel."

Thank you, thank you, Angela!

It's been an incredible week of great reviews for both of my e-books and I want to thank everyone that's taken a chance on them.

I'm waiting patiently to be able to tell you what I'm up to (and will be available BEFORE the end of the year, we think.) Hopefully I'll hear back soon on when we can blow the lid off this puppy. Some incredible talent lined up by a master writer himself. The latest info is that the web site will be up in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!

CURE continues to progress and I'm back on-track for more dedicated writing time. I lost my stride temporarily while I figured some things out in the life vs. writing juggling act, but I got it back and then some.

Comments have been quiet here and I know I communicate with a lot of you via FB and Twitter and yes, even G+, but here's a chance to update me. Let me know what you're up to. If you have anything completed that you want pimped, I'm happy to help. You're a supportive group and it's my goal to be reciprocal.

On Getting Exposure and Building Your Author Platform

2011-08-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been talking about writing for free. I've made Crisis Hospital and Dead Spell available on Scribd and Smashwords with the hopes of a) relieving myself of sales neurosis and b) expanding my author platform. A recent Writer's Digest article touted the benefit of free writing in platform building so I know I'm not entirely crazy. In the past week, I received a couple of incredible reviews. The Midwest Book Review awarded 5-stars to Dead Spell and a new fan did the same for Crisis Hospital:

Here's what he had to say:

All Ye Who Enter, Watch Out., August 21, 2011

Bruce J. Blanchard "Darkenwulf"

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Crisis Hospital: Dark Tales from the Ward, the World, and the Bedside (Kindle Edition)

Crisis Hospital is going to take us for a ride and dig in deep. You won't forget the characters (people) you meet along the way and the darkness and desperation and the driving passions that spur us on. The heroine Miranda taking on an awesome, impersonal force. The disfigured, disoriented Deidre searching for her sister and its horrifying conclusion. A doctor with a choice of curing or killing. The depths and sacrifices a woman will accept to save the man she loves. The violence of a man pushed to the brink to provide peace and rest for his ailing wife. Topped by the torments of the teenager Harmony and the being Tom who afflicts her world. This last mention is an excerpt of a novel available on Amazon under the title Dead Spell. Belinda Frisch is living proof that women are not confined to the dreaded label of Chick Lit. She writes with power and punch, lacerating the protective layers of our heart, showing the deepest and darkest feelings that motivate us. There is sensitivity in these stories, though not the kind we want to talk about in the light, but are there all the same. Her writing is good, strong, and effective. Don't miss this collection from the imagination of Belinda Frisch and after you read it invest in the novel Dead Spell. I have.

Unbelievable! I love it. I'm thrilled to reach readers on a visceral level.

Now, for those of you not inclined to make your writing available for FREE there are options. The best I've heard of (as far as getting results) is Pixel of Ink. With my dear friend Thomas Amo's permission, here are some cold hard facts.

Tom and I are in pretty regular contact and are fans of each other's work. An Apple for Zoe is one incredible read and I'm shocked that his sales aren't through the roof. He and I are almost exactly 1 for 1 on sales, month after month. It's crazy and I'm not sure how we end up so similar, but after talking to Tiffany King (and possible Ania Ahlborn, too), Tom decided to invest in a Pixel of Ink sponsorship. His sponsorship started when Zoe had 11 sales (11, coincidentally, is the same exact number of sales I've had for Crisis Hospital in the same price range.) Two days have passed since his Pixel of Ink sponsorship went live and he's sold 117 books reaching as high as #691 in Amazon ranking. For comparison purposes, my best ranking has been in the 40K range. Ania Ahlborn, also sponsored on POI, is in the low hundreds, consistently, for her Amazon ranking.

Tom still needs to sell another 223 copies of Zoe to BREAK EVEN, but his feeling is that now 117 people are reading his book that otherwise maybe would not have.

Now, let's assume you don't want to pay $119.00 for a POI sponsorship. It's more than that if your book is above $0.99, but Tom's is $0.99, so I'll keep that figure. (Note: Pixel of Ink is CLOSED to requests for sponsorship at this time and you'll have to keep an eye on it if you want to jump on that fame maker.) Thursday, I posted my Scribd and Smashwords numbers.

Thursday

Scribd
Dead Spell: 191
Crisis Hospital: 1,056

Smashwords
Dead Spell: 64
Crisis Hospital: 91

Sunday (three days later)

Scribd
Dead Spell: 520
Crisis Hospital: 1,062

Smashwords
Dead Spell: 95
Crisis Hospital: 94

That's 369 NEW readers in three days for FREE. Granted, I don't have the rocking Amazon ranking that the POI people enjoy, but to my mind, this is a great alternative. I pimped my wares on Twitter as per usual, noting I was offering freebies, and people graciously accepted. Almost 400 people. Platform building. I am pleased.

I am also still keeping my eye on Pixel of Ink, in case... Tom's keeping me posted on the long-term which may just make this little gold mine worth it.

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW RATED DEAD SPELL 5-STARS

2011-08-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of facing the crisis that life has left for you as you enter adulthood, August 7, 2011

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Spell (Volume 1) (Paperback)

When everything around you is out to destroy you and your life, your resolve against it cannot last forever. "Dead Spell" is the story of Harmony Wolcott, a woman trying to deal with the forces around her, her schizophrenic mother, and secrets she has been keeping to herself going into adulthood. As time moves on, she is forced to confront the forces around her or be consumed by them, and doom herself to life of drugs and promiscuity. "Dead Spell" is a story of facing the crisis that life has left for you as you enter adulthood.

This day cannot get any better!

The Midwest Book Review is like the alpha book reviewer!

Here's the listing details from my mega-reviewer list (see sidebar)
Midwest Book Review (★★★★ Long-running, well respected site, Highly Influential)The Midwest Book Review has been around since the seventies and they are highly respected. You might not be able to get your book reviewed right away, but there's a good chance that you will-- they give top prority to self-published authors. There's no guarantee that you will get reviewed, but this one is really worth a try. A really big fish.

The Midwest Book Review
Established in 1976, the Midwest Book Review publishes the following monthly book publications specifically designed for community and academic librarians, booksellers, and the general reading public:

We post our reviews on the Internet with a number of thematically appropriate web sites, databases, and online discussion groups such as alt.books.reviews and Pub-Forum. Our reviews are also available through Internet bookstores such as Amazon.com. We archive our reviews on the Midwest Book Review web site for a minimum of five years.

This day cannot get any better.

WM3 FREE!

2011-08-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today, I took down the set of dog tags that have been hanging from my rear view mirror for the better part of the last decade. I bought them as part of the WM3 fundraising effort for the defense. To say this case was a miscarriage of justice would be an understatement.

The WM3 trial was a new age witch hunt. Damien Echols read horror novels, wore black clothing, listened to heavy metal music, and proclaimed himself Wiccan. OH, THE HORROR! He could have been any one of my friends back in '93. Hell, if those were the guidelines, it could've been me. The West Memphis Three were not people of financial means and when I tell you that Damien's story is one that will not let you go, I mean it. His story has been with me for years now and I am hoping now that he's been FREED! that he can put together some semblance of a good life for himself. Read his book, Almost Home. It was written from Death Row. It is pure, unedited, and as raw as these things come (in a great way.)

The West Memphis Three is finally FREE! wrapping up what has been a free week here on my blog. Best wishes to Damien, Jason, and Jessie. No one can give them back the 18 years they lost, but especially for Damien who was on death row, there are many years ahead and I'm sure he'll treat every one of them as a gift.

All Complaining Aside...Helping Another Author

2011-08-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

It's heartbreaking what this author is going through.

A lot of you know this already, but I'm seeing my grandfather through his battle with Mesothelioma. He was a flooring guy in his younger days and asbestos tile was cheap. Everyone used it. He ripped up more than his fair share and ultimately, it's going to be what kills him.

He's outlived his prognosis and at 87-years-old, he's not being cut short but tell that to his wife of nearly 60 years. See, no matter when you lose someone, no matter how old they are, it doesn't change the fact that seeing someone die who is not ready to go is HARD.

My heart goes out to Michael who hasn't had his years yet. Whatever he's facing, I hope he beats it. In the meantime, lets show him some support, shall we?

Bleed For You is available here.

Blood & Gristle is available here.

and As Fate Would Have It is available here.

WD Weighs in on FREE

2011-08-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

WD responds to one writer's question about whether or not to give their book away for free.

"Of course, the No. 1 reason to post your work online is to build a following of loyal readers who enjoy your writing. In the publishing industry, that’s called “platform” and is highly attractive to agents, editors and publishers. If you’re able to create a built-in audience, you’ve already proven that there’s a market for your writing, and that can go a long way when it comes time to submit.

Writers like Cory Doctorow, Scott Sigler and Seth Harwood (to name a few) give their writing away online for free (the latter two do it by podcast) and have found great success. All have also enjoyed more traditional publishing success through book deals, speaking engagements and more. And all are adamant supporters of posting your work online for free for everyone to read."

I wouldn't publish something for free and then try to sell it to a publisher, but that's just me. I would give something away for free to build a fan base. Wait, I am...

What #FREE has done for me.

2011-08-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

Recently, I put Dead Spell and Crisis Hospital up for #FREE on Smashwords and Scribd. So far, Amazon hasn't price matched, but I haven't given up hope.

Aside from the obvious exposure, free has done wonders for my mood. How can not making money off my writing make me happy? This is a little hard to explain, but it's easier to pimp my work guilt-free when I'm not asking for anything in return. I tweet my freebies a little more often than I would have if I was selling them and it's getting my writing read.

See, I've had discussions lately with my frustrated writer friends and I've seen more than one just burn out. Their novels aren't selling and it's crippling them creatively. The same almost happened to me when I realized that tens of thousands of sales a month is what's considered a good amount. I write for a very small niche market and if I reach tens of thousands of horror readers EVER I'll be thrilled. I'm doing a guest post over on Tyr Kieran's site on this subject so I'm not going to overstate it here. Simply put: I'm still loved by most of my readers and that is worth more than money. I'm building a reputation.

There are so many benefits of first novels and I'm going to hazard the guess that most indies aren't indies by choice. Writing Dead Spell taught me how to carry an idea from conception to completion. It's a good novel and I'm happy with it, but already, I know that Cure is much better. I've been working on the novel and my query, have been asked to participate in a compilation that I'm pretty excited about, and continue to get great reviews. I hope more come from my new readers.

How many new readers do I have?

Here are my totals to date:

Scribd
Dead Spell: 191
Crisis Hospital: 1,056

Smashwords
Dead Spell: 64
Crisis Hospital: 91

That's 1402 new readers!

Most importantly, I'm writing, blogging, and loving it! Readers are reading my work. The rest will sort itself out.

Free Editing for Writers: What do READERS think of Self Published Novels?

2011-08-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

Free Editing for Writers: What do READERS think of Self Published Novels?: "When it comes to self-published novels versus traditionally published novels, there’s a bit of debate out there. Some argue traditionally pu..."

I'm FREE...

2011-08-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Crisis Hospital and Dead Spell are both now FREE on Smashwords and on Scribd. All I ask in return is for honest reviews. I hope you enjoy them!

NEW Kindle Indie Books Store

2011-08-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tafe for pointing out this new "Indie" section on Amazon!

I did a little research for those of us interested and this is what's come out of it:

"Amazon rolled out a new section called “Kindle Indie Books” on the Kindle Store which features a selection of popular indie and self-published titles. To get on the list, you have to have a book already published on the Kindle Store that’s selling well or is rated highly, according to Amazon’s FAQ.

The new indie section highlights a limited selection of title published via KDP. Books will be chosen for this section through automated techniques and then selected by hand by the editorial staff. The Indie Store is currently limited to 7 of the genres and categories offered by the Kindle Store; according to the FAQ they are the more popular genres. (Guess which genre isn't there? Horror, it appears.)"

This looks like another case of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That aside, I'm glad to see indies getting some KDP validation if nothing else.

Another View on Indie Publishing

2011-08-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Pod People's post today resounded with me.

Excerpt:

"Indiereader started out as a site for readers of self-published material to mingle and discover new books. What they discovered, and most people already knew, is that dedicated self-published books readers are a demographic that barely exists outside of the authors themselves (and sometimes not even them).

Readers want books. Actively and indiscriminately seeking out self-published work would be a strangely masochistic thing to do. Even those, like me, who have a particular interest in off-mainstream material buy it based on authors we know and trust or off-mainstream genres that we are willing to take a risk on.

Therefore Indiereader has taken the predictable path, into the vanity model. You may not be able to make lots of money of the readers of self-published books, but you can always tap the new waves of authors looking for a short cut to fame and fortune. Sell them advertisements or amorphous promotional packages. Better yet, offer an "award" the ultimate in ostensibly valuable intangibles."

If you click over on the second link, Indie Reader submitted themselves for review because of low traffic and one response was that the site failed to sell indie. It argues that pointing out that there are typos in traditionally published novels does NOT make a good argument for why readers should take a chance on the independently published. I agree. Indie needs a much better hook.

What Pod People mentions, and this is my personal experience, is that readers do not actively seek out indie authors. Other indies support each other, sites crop up to take advantage of people looking for the short-cut to fame and fortune, and no one wins. It hearkens back to old school vanity publishing, paying for contests and competitions, and unethical reading fees. I fell prey to this, initially, and bought into KB ads. I didn't have any luck and now the big thing is Pixels of Ink. Some people have had success with these things, but I think they're the minority and it's based on broad versus niche market appeal. Most of the indies I talk to are niche writers of the horror variety. Myself included, we might be the least favored of all the indies because there just isn't a huge commercial call for blood, angst, and viscera. I enjoy it and support my horror brethren, but I wonder how big a factor the scare is when we're talking hard numbers. I suspect it's significant.

To that end, I've decided to free myself from the number entirely. At least for a while. I'm hoping that Amazon picks up on the Smashwords freebie and also makes my novel free as a result of price matching. We all talk about the pricing, the sales, the gimmicks. I want to talk about the writing. I hope to increase my reader base, get some more reviews, and share what it is that took over a year of my life to write. I'm working hard on my novel in progress and am getting back to my attempt at being traditionally or small press published. I'm not saying indie isn't a great way to share what we do, what we're passionate about, but I don't buy into the hype. Not anymore.

What I'm Reading: Charlie Huston

2011-08-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Charlie Huston has a way with dialogue that hooked me right from the start. He has a distinct noir style and his MC, Joe Pitt, is about the coolest vampyre out there. I'm on book five of the series and there are so many things Huston did well. Most importantly, he built enough conflict between a large and identifiable cast of characters to make five novels blend seamlessly and while each book stands on its own, I think reading the whole lineup is the way to go.

In the series, NYC is divided into vampyre "turfs" each with their own views on their condition and each with their own agendas. Poor Joe Pitt, a rogue who refuses to join any one of them, is a pawn between all of them and will do just about anything for his blood stipend. In the sidelines is Evie, his HIV-infected girlfriend who thinks he has a skin condition that keeps him inside during the day. Joe has to deal with her deterioration knowing that he can either save or kill her. Not all people are capable of accepting the vyrus and rather than be turned, some victims meet with a violent end. There are zombies, mad scientists, and the ever present question: where is all the blood coming from? that keeps Joe Pitt scrambling. A must-read series!

Book 1-Already Dead

Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt.

There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.

From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.

Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.

5-STARS! I love it.

BOOKS of the DEAD PRESS: Submission call: BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (Vol. 4 & 5...

2011-08-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

BOOKS of the DEAD PRESS: Submission call: BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (Vol. 4 & 5...: "The wait is finally over. The submission period for BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (Vol. 4 & 5) has finally arrived. (If you have alread..."

The Other Side of the Story: Game On: Staying Organized During Revisions

2011-08-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Other Side of the Story: Game On: Staying Organized During Revisions: "Revisions can be daunting, even if you enjoy doing them. So many moving parts, things to remember, plots to double check, and you’re never s..."

Building an Author Bio

2011-08-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

So, you're a budding author preparing to query or self-publish and you want to stand out as someone serious about writing. A convincing author bio is a great tool for doing that, but not everyone has a laundry list of impressive credentials.

Here are some easy ways to build credibility:

1. Membership in your Genre's Writing Association

Every genre has one and most will allow for low-level memberships or supporting memberships even if you aren't yet published. I am a member of the Horror Writer's Association (HWA), New England Horror Writers (which is free!) and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI.)

Membership is great for networking, for learning about your genre, and in some cases, for getting into "members-only" publications. I love reading the newsletters and interacting in the forums and if you're eligible to claim writing expenses, memberships are tax deductible.

2. Get Shorts Published in Your Genre

Duotropes is a great tool for finding publishers looking for submissions for magazines or compilations. If you're a horror writer, Horror Tree is another good way to find markets seeking submission. While you're working on your novel, take a break and explore a short. It'll give you practice submitting and if you're published, will be great additional credentials. I find that sometimes a short gives me the perfect break from my work-in-progress.

3. Contests

Not all contests are reputable, but those such as Writer's Digest's (that offer contests in all genres) look pretty good on your bio if you place or win. There is a lot of controversy over whether or not contests should have reading fees and I generally don't agree with the practice, but WD is a well-established, respected publication. The year that I received honorable mention, my congratulations letter said I was competing with over 19,000 entrants. Placing in the top 100 sure felt good!

My bio looks like this:

"My short stories have appeared in Shroud Magazine, Dabblestone, and on Tales of the Zombie War’s website. My short story, “The Look-alike” earned me honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition. I am a member of the Horror Writer's Association, New England Horror Writers and SCBWI."

What does your bio say?

The Other Side of the Story: It’s an Improvement: Five Ways to Kick Your Writin...

2011-07-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

The Other Side of the Story: It’s an Improvement: Five Ways to Kick Your Writin...: "Revisions and edits are all about making a story and the prose in it better. I’m sure I’m not alone in my quest to better my writing, and I ..."

Lindsay Writes: My QUERY Tips! They work! :)

2011-07-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Writes: My QUERY Tips! They work! :): "I have seen alot of queries that make my eyes glaze over. They are too long. Too descriptive. Too wordy. Too 'please, PLEASE represent me be..."

Aaron Polson: Don't Self-Publish Your Novel (Yet)

2011-07-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Aaron Polson: Don't Self-Publish Your Novel (Yet): "Go ahead, shout hypocrite at your computer screen. Aaron , you say, you've self-published a pile of books (if e-books can be piled). Why ..."

Aaron, we're on the same page today for sure.

I was talking to one of my other indie friends online today and I told him that plans have changed. I initially thought I'd be a content indie and with good reviews continuing to come in, why should I be? Aaron hit the nail on the head. I self-published because I could. I still think I should have with Dead Spell, but it's not the path I want to stay on. Why? Credibility, exposure, knowing I put out the best possible product (under editorial guidance), and cash. That's what I'm after and not necessarily in that order.

I hired a freelance editor for DS, but having been through professional editing with Cengage (my textbook publisher), it is not the same thing. For one, freelance editors want to get paid and they're not going to be harsh to an author that is the hand that feeds them. Professional editors are getting paid either way. I can tell you, bias does factor in.

I'm not saying you shouldn't self-publish, but that I agree with Aaron in thinking that you must do a long hard evaluation of your work and if you self-pub, do it for the right reasons. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Carbohydrates & Conjugations: Book Review: Dead Spell

2011-07-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Carbohydrates & Conjugations: Book Review: Dead Spell: "Book Review: Dead Spell by Belinda Frisch Title: Dead Spell Author: Belinda Frisch Genre: YA Fiction Recommended For: Young Adu..."