Posting A Picture Just for The Heck Of It

My wife took this picture of Cole and me today. (And yes, that statement is grammatically correct, so there!) I had to share it.

Cool, huh?

Sign Google’s Petition

Opposed to SOPA and PIPA? Me, too. I’m not going to detail everything that is wrong with them here, that would take too long. If you haven’t heard of them: A) where have you been? Under a rock? and B) Go look them up. Do it now. I’ll wait.

Okay, you’re back. Good. Did you read about them? Horrified? I hope so. That’s why i’m including this link to Google’s petition. Sign it. Let your government know that you are opposed to this stupidity. I did. I only wish I could sign it eighty more times.

The Next Matt Cahill Book Is Out!

That’s right, for all you fans of The Dead Man books, here is the latest installment. Fire and Ice, by Jude Hardin. Here’s a quick look at the cover:

“The saga of Matthew Cahill continues as the man who sees a nightmarish netherworld nobody else does fights to save us all—and his own soul—from the clutches of the purely evil Mr. Dark.

On Matt’s third day of temping at a plant, disgruntled former worker Kevin Radowski (aka K-Rad) walks in and starts shooting. As the day progresses and the body count rises, Matt finds himself locked inside with four fellow employees—and no discernible way out. Matt soon realizes K-Rad has more in mind than killing his co-workers…he’s using the chemicals available to blow the plant, and several square blocks of surrounding businesses and residences, sky high. But just when Matt thinks things can’t get any worse, Mr. Dark steps into the game, raising the stakes in a gruesome and horrifying way.

Fire and Ice delivers the non-stop action, high body count, and edgy thrills that make The Dead Man series impossible to put down.”

Sound cool? That’s ’cause it is. One of the best books in an already great series. So do yourself a favor and check it out.

It’s That time of Year Again…New Year’s Resolutions!

Well, past time, actually. But I have good reasons for being late. they involve illness and being out of town, then having guests when I got back in town. In all honesty, I haven’t had much time to sit at the computer in the last…oh…month or so. But that changes today. Tomorrow morning will be the first morning that I actually sit down at the comp and start working again. I had meant to do it Monday, but Cole hasn’t been cooperating. Come to think of it, he might not cooperate tomorrow, either. Here’s hoping. I need to get my butt back to work.

Anyhoo, without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2012:

1. I will write more and surf less.
2. I will spend as much time with my family as I can.
3. I will not go crazy trying to make my first two resolutions work together
4. I will ride my bicycle at least 30 minutes every day. (So far that one is the easiest.)
5. I will buy this bike:

Nice, eh? I can’t afford a new one, so I am looking for a good used example. This thing is light, fast, and just MADE for me.

Ok, so that’s all I have, really. Oh, and I also plan to promote more. I should have a couple of good blog reviews coming up this month and next, but I also plan to buy a few promotional spots on high traffic websites. You guys are great, but I need more of you. Two die-hard fans just ain’t gonna cut it for the long haul.

Anyhoo, I hope you folks all had a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year’s. Here’s hoping that 2012 proves to be a better year than 2011 for all of us. (And no, I’m not saying that 2011 was bad, I just hope 2012 is BETTER!)

A Present For Myself

Just after Thanksgiving I received an unexpected royalty payment. It wasn’t huge, but it was enough to think about buying a little something nice for the family. My wife and I wanted a couple of bikes to ride around on, especially since this area of Southern Florida is so flat. So we went to Wal Mart and I used the royalty payment on a couple of shiny new bikes. Mine was a Schwinn Varsity. It was tall, lean, and fast, and I enjoyed it a lot. Except for one thing: the darn chain rubbed against the front deraileur whenever the small gear was in 6 or 7, making so much noise that I ended up not using those two gears at all. It was annoying, and grew more and more so every time I rode and had to either stay at 2-5 or bounce up to 3-3. Way more shifting than was necessary to accomplish the same goal. I figured the guy who built the bike at Wal Mart probably just didn’t know what he was doing, so I took it to a local bike shop to have the cables adjusted.

Come to find out that the reason the bike kept making noises is because the deraileurs that came with the bike were not the right size for the bike’s gears. Huh. Go figure. You’d think the parts that come with your new $250 bike would be correct, right? The bike shop sells new deraileurs, of course. Only $80 and I could solve the problem. I wasn’t about to spend $80 to fix something that should have been right to begin with. So I took the bike back to Wal Mart. (They were VERY good about taking it back, too. Even though I’d been riding it for four weeks, they didn’t give me any trouble at all.) So today I went back to the bike shop and bought myself an early Christmas present. It cost more, but I’ve come to the conclusion that when it comes to bicycles, you really do get what you pay for. In other words, buy cheap, get cheap.

Anyway, here’s my new bicycle: A 2011 Black/Silver Specialized Crosstrail.

It’s a hybrid bike with size 700C tires that can go fast over pavement but can also do a little light off-roading. (Not the crazy stuff, mind you, but bike paths and beaches, etc.) I took it for a quick spin when I got it home and noticed an immediate improvement over the Schwinn in shifting, comfort, ride, and even the amount of effort required to get it moving. All in all, a much, much better bike. I haven’t ridden it with Cole yet, but that’s coming tomorrow. Should be fun as he loves riding.

Anyhoo, I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas (or Hannukah, or Kwanzaa, or Bah Humbugmas, if that is your thing). I’ll be spending the holidays in Maine again with the family. Hopefully we get a little snow.

Cole’s first Santa Pic

The title says it all.

And in thumbnail:

Cool, huh?

Last Day to Buy Harry Shannon’s KILL THEM ALL for Only 99 Cents!

If you guys have been following The Dead Man series, then you’ll want to grab the sixth book today. It’s KILL THEM ALL by Harry Shannon, and today is the last day it’s available for 99 cents. After today the promotional period is over and the book goes up to $2.99.

Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own. Now he’s on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become…and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil.

When Matt wanders into a struggling Nevada tourist trap recreation of an “old west” town, he’s unaware that he’s being trailed by a Special Ops team of professional mercenaries hired by a University desperate to unlock the secret behind his resurrection…and that he’s put everyone around him in dire jeopardy. The mercenaries have no intention of letting Matt escape…or letting any witnesses survive. Matt finds himself in a deadly bind. Somehow he must rally the peaceful citizens into defending themselves against the sadistic, well-armed mercenaries… or sacrifice himself to save them from certain death.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because it is good. I’ve read this one, too and it’s one of my favorites so far. Give it a shot, you’ll like it. And if you haven’t started the series yet, the first book is FACE OF EVIL by Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin. Give it a shot, you’ll be hooked in no time.

In other book news, the print versions of Saying Goodbye to the Sun, NASTY LITTLE F!#*ERS, and 61 A.D. are finally available on Amazon, so those of you who have been waiting to see what happens to Taras and Theron but don’t have an ereader…well, now’s your chance. These took forever to format and get ready because I’m picky. I wanted them to look good for you guys. Hopefully you enjoy them. At this point signed copies are not available because I simply don’t know how I would go about doing that. But I’m going to try and figure something out so that those of you who want signed copies can get them. (I’m open to suggestions, by the way.) But the bottom line is, the books are now available in print. Go get ‘em. Especially NASTY LITTLE F!#*ERS. It’s a great little book that gets almost no love. Not because people don’t like it (almost everyone who reads it seems to enjoy it), but because very few people have read it. Maybe it’s the subject matter? Probably. I’ve been tempted to unpublish it from time to time, but I really like it, so it will stay available whether it moves five copies or five thousand. (Five is much closer to reality, actually….)

In other other news, I have gotten back into bicycling lately. Florida is so flat and level that riding a bike seemed like an ideal way to get some exercise. So last month, when I received my royalty check for The Dead Woman, I bought this:

Cool, huh? I know it’s not a premium bike (bought it at Wal Mart, for one thing) but it’s the first skinny-tired road bike I’ve owned in over 20 years. I still like my mountain bike, but it’s back in TN. Anyway, I bought a bike seat for Cole and the two of us have gone riding almost every day since I bought it. Nothing major yet. I haven’t gone on any 10 mile rides, but it’s still been fun. (I haven’t gone on any real long rides because I don’t want to keep Cole out on the bike that long. But if an opportunity for a nice long afternoon ride should happen to pop up, I plan to take advantage of it.)

Anyway, it’s been fun and good exercise, both of which are things I need right now.

Also, it looks like we will be moving back to Tennessee ahead of schedule. When we moved down here (Souhtern FL, for those of you who don’t know), it was with the understanding that we would be here through May 2012. But last week Heather’s boss called her up and told her they needed her back in early February, instead. So we’re moving back on Feb 6.

YAY!

Seriously. Yay. I’m sick of SoFlo. I know, I know. “But David, you’re so close to the Keys. You live in the tropics. It’s warm and beautiful there. Why would you want to leave?” The truth is, Southern Florida just isn’t for me. It’s a nice place to visit, but I don’t want to live here. Nothing against it, but it’s not home, y’know? All our friends are back in Tennessee, along with our house and most of our stuff. Plus, my Mustang is there, and I miss her. A lot. So I’m excited. The McAfees are goin’ home.

Lastly, it’s finally starting to feel like Christmas around here. We have our tree up, and last night we wrapped some presents and hung the stockings while Christmas Music played in the background. This is absolutely my favorite time of year. I love seeing all the lights and imaginging the good will going around (even if it really doesn’t…). Most of all, I love the look on kids’ faces the closer we get to Christmas. Look around, all the kids are getting keyed up and excited, and it all comes to a head on Christmas morning. I have such fond memories of Christmas morning from when I was a kid, and I can’t help but think about the memories that other families will be making this month.

Mostly, I can’t help but think about the memories I get to make with my son. This will be Cole’s first Christmas, so he won’t remember it. He won’t remember opening the toy drum, or the bath tub boat, or the metal baby keys, or the Batman Little People blocks, or any of the other things we got him. But I will. I can’t wait! I know he won’t understand and probably will need help to unwrap his presents, but it’s still exciting. I remember Christmas with Hennah when she was a baby. She was only two months old when her first Christmas came along, but those memories have lasted seventeen years.

For me, anyway. She doesn’t remember a thing, which is probably good because she peed all over my lap that day.

Anyway, just wanted to catch you guys up. No book news today, other than the KILL THEM ALL stuff, but I’ll have some news to share regarding the Bachiyr soon enough, so stay tuned.

New Writers Beware! Publishing Scams To Watch Out For.

I need to say something. This is an issue near and dear to me because I almost fell for one of these scams myself back in 2005. I did some research and it saved me from throwing a shitload of money away. I’ve moved on from the disappointment (and disillusionment) of that whole fiasco, but this morning I received an email from a reader that brought the whole thing back. This is what it said:

Good morning (at least here in CA),

I have a question for you. I’m helping a friend of mine publish her book and she wrote me back giving me the terms of the deal this company is giving her. It doesn’t sound kosher to me but I wanted to get your opinion. Here is what she wrote:

“the offer is from ——– (small publisher, not one of the “big 6″ or even a medium publishing house). I would have to pay almost $4000 up front (one time). E-book would be available in 6 months and print in about a year. Once 5000 books were sold I’d be completely refunded the $4000. My royalties would be 50%.”

My issue is her paying the $4000 up front. I don’t know of any legitimate publisher asking their author to pay up front first. My question is why not take that $4000 and publish the book yourself and KEEP 100% of the royalties? So unless I’ve completely missed something in my book industry, this sounds wrong.

What do you think?

I would like to note that I did not censor the name of the “publisher” in question. The email had that part blanked out when I read it, so I have no idea which of the many scam “presses” this could be. If I did, I would share it here and bold the name of the company to make sure everyone could see it. Then I’d Facebook it, then I’d tweet about it, and then I’d paste it on my website with a picture of a jackass eating a sack of money. Make no mistake, this is a scam. An expensive and all-too-common one. I emailed him back and told him what I think, but because this is such a serious issue, I figured I would talk about it here on my blog, as well. Too many new writers get taken in by schemes like this, and they shouldn’t. A little research will help determine the truth, which is this:

No legitimate publisher would ask one of their authors to pay $4,000 up front.

Did you get that? I hope so. But even if you did, I want to repeat it.

NO LEGITIMATE PUBLISHER WOULD ASK ONE OF THEIR AUTHORS TO PAY $4,000 UP FRONT.

In fact, no legitimate publisher would ever ask one of their authors to pay $10 up front. Money flows to the author, not from the author. If you are an aspiring author, and you send your work to a publisher, and they expect YOU to pay THEM, run, don’t walk. They are scamming you. It’s that simple.

This includes editing services provided by the publisher. If you get an acceptance from some small press and they tell you that you need to pay for your own editing, run. If they just happen to know an editing service that would be happy to take on your project…RUN!

This scam is as old as publishing itself, and it succeeds because many new writers are not aware that this is not the norm. Well I’m here to tell you that it isn’t. When a publisher decides to take on a new project, they figure the cost of editing and promoting into the decision. Those are expenses the publishers make, not the author. While it’s true that many authors use some of their own money for promotional purposes, they usually do this all on their own, and publishers do not demand that the author pay them for any promotion or marketing or any other services provided by a publishing house. Any such publisher that does ask you to pay them is scamming you.

Period.

This isn’t limited to just publishers, though. There are plenty of fake literary agents out there who do the same thing. They will say something like “We love your book, but we think it could be better. To that end we would like you to have this book edited by XXXXXXX editing. After all, if you aren’t willing to invest in your future, why should we?”

Probably not those exact words, but that’s the gist of it. There are a number of scam “literary agents” that do this. Just keep in mind, folks, that the same thing holds true for agents as it does for publishers. MONEY FLOWS TO THE AUTHOR, NOT AWAY FROM THE AUTHOR. Literary agents are hard to get. It’s true. Believe me, I know it’s true. But they are hard to get for a reason: They only get paid if they sell your book. Thus they are very careful about the books they take on, because no one wants to work for free. Authors don’t. Publishers don’t, and agents don’t, either.

The problem with both of these scenarios is obvious and simple. If you pay an agent or a publisher to publish your book, then what is their incentive to sell it to others? After all, they already made their money. Off you. See how that works?

Now, I’m not talking about vanity presses or self publishing outfits. Those places don’t promise you anything. They tell you up front that they are a printing service and you know what you get going in. That’s different. They offer a legitimate service to self-publishers and to people who only need a few copies of a book printed for whatever reason. They are also pretty inexpensive to set up. CreateSpace, for example, is free unless you opt for their $39 Pro Plan and/or their Expanded Distribution, which is also $39. Your total cost of setup is less than $100, and that’s about the norm for this sort of thing. They don’t ask you for $4,000 and then say shit like “after it sells 5,000 copies, we’ll refund your money.” Bullshit. That’s what that is. Bullshit.

There are some very good resources for spotting scam agencies and publishers. Writer Beware is a great one, and so is Preditors and Editors. But for the most part, you can steer clear of scam agencies and publishers by following that one simple rule. That rule is that Agencies and Publishers pay YOU, not the other way around. Keep that in mind and you should be fine.

The Next Matt Cahill Book Is Out!

For those of you who enjoy The Dead Man series, I have good news. The next book is out! Woohoo! Harry Shannon’s Kill Them All is available today, and for a limited time it’s only 99 cents!

Cool cover, huh? Here’s the description:

Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own. Now he’s on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become…and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil.

When Matt wanders into a struggling Nevada tourist trap recreation of an “old west” town, he’s unaware that he’s being trailed by a Special Ops team of professional mercenaries hired by a University desperate to unlock the secret behind his resurrection…and that he’s put everyone around him in dire jeopardy. The mercenaries have no intention of letting Matt escape…or letting any witnesses survive. Matt finds himself in a deadly bind. Somehow he must rally the peaceful citizens into defending themselves against the sadistic, well-armed mercenaries… or sacrifice himself to save them from certain death.

Yeah, you remember those two guys at the end of The Dead Woman? Well, we all knew they weren’t really doctors, didn’t we?

Anyway, for a short time, you can get Kill Them All for only 99 cents. A pittance, really. Very small price to pay to see what happens to our friend Matt Cahill in that dry, dusty Nevada backwater. I’ve read it. It’s good.

Poor Matt. That’s all I’m gonna say.

BISHOP IS OUT!

It’s here. My collaboration with Jeremy Robinson is out. Bishop is a novella about Erik Somers, a character from Robinson’s excellent Chess Team series. This was a real challenge for me as I’ve never written a thriller before, but all in all it was a good experience. The book came out great and working with Jeremy was a real pleasure. And how about that cover, eh? Me likes!

And here is the product description:

An Iranian terrorist cell has gotten their hands on weaponized Ergot-B—a compound that causes violent hysteria, madness and death within 24 hours—and plan to unleash the weapon on major cities around the world. Successful deployment would begin a bloodbath as those exposed would kill everyone they encountered before succumbing to the compound’s lethal effects.

Erik Somers—Callsign: Bishop, is called in to investigate, but his first discovery shocks him to the core. Dawoud Abbasi, the terrorist leader planning to unleash Ergot-B, is his biological father.

Bishop, along with an undercover Delta operator known as Callsign: Joker, race across the unforgiving Iranian desert in search of the Ergot-B. Seeking answers, both professional and personal, Bishop must fight against a private army, Iranian Special Forces and men driven mad by Ergot-B. With the life of his biological mother in the balance, and countless more people in cities around the world, Bishop must call on all his strength to not only survive, but also stop the man revealed as his father—even if he has to kill him.
Sounds cool, doesn’t it? You know you want to check it out. Heck, I want to check it out, and I helped write it. Here are the links to purchse Bishop on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.com Go ahead, check it out real fast. Do it now. I’ll wait.

I have more good news, too. Yeah, I know. As if the Bishop thing wasn’t exciting enough. But Take a gander at this picture, here.

Notice anything about that image? Hmmmm? Yup. That is the proof copy of 61 A.D. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I am going to spend some time today going through it, page by page, to make sure all is as it should be. If it passes my quality check, 61 A.D. could be available for purchase in print in a matter of days. How cool is that? I’ve had lots of people ask me why I primarily release books on Kindle or other ebook formats, and the answer is “because it’s easy.” Formatting a print copy takes a lot of time and energy, at least if you want it to look good. If you are okay with slapping the file in and lettting it run, then it takes no time at all. But I want my hard copies to look every bit as good as something that would come out of NYC. And that, my friends, takes time and work. This is why it has taken so long to get 61 A.D. out in print. But for those of you who have been waiting, the time is nearly upon us.

Days. Maybe less. Keep your eyes open.

Also, I stopped in to Target yesterday morning to buy a box of Banana Mum Mums for Cole. He loves those things! It’s funny to watch him eat them, too, because he will stick as much as he can in his mouth and then bear down with his gums. (He only has one tooth.) But they soften up pretty quick, so he can eat ‘em just fine.

Anyway, while at Target I stopped by the Electronics section and guess what was there. The new Kinde Fire. I’ve been wanting one of these ever since I heard about them, and I’d been tempted to pre-order but never got around to it. So when I saw them just sitting there, I realized I had to have one. So of course one of them found its way to my house.

And yes, that’s Bishop on the screen. I make it a habit to buy everything that has my name on it so I can see how it looks and reads on the Kindle. I have to say, so far the Fire is fantastic. I played with it for a few hours and haven’t yet explored everything it can do. My initial impression is that Amazon definitely has a winner here. I really need to explore the app store more, though. I’m going to try and do more today while Cole is napping.

Speaking of apps for the incredibly cool Kindle Fire, if you are thinking about getting one, or if you already have one, you should definitely slide on over to the Kindle Fire Department. This is a blog run by Jason Letts, and its purpose is to guide you to free and cheap content. From the site: “Our goal is to bring you quality content for cheap so that you can get the best use of your Kindle Fire. We’ll be offering up useful apps, freebies, fun games, and other deals on a daily basis. If you have comments about how to improve the site, we’d love to hear them. Thanks!”

Sound like a good place to visit if you have a brand new Kindle Fire burning a hole in your hands? Yep. It does to me, too. So pop on over and take a look around. Tell Jason I sent ya.

Okay, that’s about it for now. I’ll pop back in with more news in the next few days, including the status of print versions for Saying Goodbye to the Sun and NASTY LITTLE F!#*ERS, so stay tuned.