Author Archives: Donnie

Statshot

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In the Shadow of Angels has been on the market for over a year now. It hasn’t been the runaway success that I hoped it would be (yet knew it never would), but I have sold a few copies. Reviews have been trickling in over that time, but I’ve taken them with the figurative grain of salt. Tonight, I took a moment to take a few screenshots to put together in this little statshot post.

amzFirst up are the Amazon reviews. The reviews have been very positive, but also very hard to come by. This perplexes me. When you finish reading the book on your Kindle, it automatically asks you to leave a review on Amazon, but very few do. I’ve sold (actually given away mostly) over 300 copies of it on Kindle, but only landed 9 reviews so far. That seems terribly low, but I’ll take a handful of good reviews over a ton of shitty ones any day. Amazon reviews are like the holy grail for indie authors. There is no single piece of advertising I can do that is more valuable than Amazon reviews Continue reading Statshot→

Bizarre dream

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Does anyone out there have a history in analyzing the meaning of dreams? If so, I’m looking for some direction on a particularly bizarre dream.

I’ve had a dream before where I’m back in high school. We will be in the gymnasium (myself and all the students from my high school) and the coach will call a couple of captains. The captains will pick the teams and … surprise! … I get picked last.

I’m fairly certain that the dream mentioned above isn’t unique. At least I hope it isn’t. It is, however, a dream that I had frequently after leaving high school. I haven’t had a dream like that for decades.

Last night I had a dream in the same vein, but with new and interesting twists. It ran thusly:

My wife, myself, my brother-in-law, and my sister-in-law are on a cruise ship Continue reading Bizarre dream→

Feedback from S.

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Every post I put on my front page (as well as every content page within the site) has a little email button in the corner. That is my direct email address. I also have a contact page to simplify getting a message to me. Still, I get surprisingly few emails (with the exception of penis enlargement ads). I get so few emails from the site that when I do get a message, I tend to go a bit overboard in my reply. Such was the case yesterday.

I received an email from S. yesterday, which I am printing here with her permission (though she did ask that I didn’t use her full name). It read as follows: Continue reading Feedback from S.→

Another free kindle promotion

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My KDP Select enrollment for In the Shadow of Angels ends tomorrow. Due to my intense procrastination over the last quarter, I have two free promotion days which will expire if I don’t use them. So… Another free Kindle promotion starts right now! Go grab your copy for free on 5/20-5/21. Who knows how long it may be before I remember to schedule another giveaway?

Perfect Sex

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After reading the heady The Rules of Dreaming, I was looking for something a bit lighter to cleanse my palette. I found that book in Perfect Sex by Robin Storey, which I rated five stars on Reader’s Favorite.

While I’m sure this book was written for a very female market, I was intrigued enough by the cover blurb to give it a go and I’m very glad I did. Storey has a way with words and worked some of the best one-liners and turns of phrase I’ve ever seen into this book. My favorite single line is this one from early on: ‘If that profile puts me on a level playing field, then I’m lying at the goalpost with my legs open yelling, “come on fellas, score a goal!”’

Here is my official review Continue reading Perfect Sex→

The Rules of Dreaming

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The Rules of Dreaming is a very unique book. It has one of the most complex stories I have read in years, with equally important narratives from half a dozen primary characters. The amount of action and introspection from the primary characters makes keeping track of everything a bit laborious, but well worth the effort. The esoteric nature of arguing the merits of different schools of psychology and complex literary theory make for a recondite mental workout — If you’re looking for a light cozy mystery, this isn’t it.

Much of the story revolves around the interpretation of Jacques Offenbach’s opera The Tales of Hoffman (the 1951 version of which can be found online from a variety of movie archives if you’re interested). I can’t claim familiarity with the story, but the frequent references to the opera’s history almost make me want to watch it. Almost. Continue reading The Rules of Dreaming→

Book Review: Three Men on Tour

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Book Review: Three Men on Tour by Richard Mapes ★★★★★

Three Men on Tour is a lighthearted novella about one man’s decision to outright avoid making a decision about whether or not to marry his girlfriend. It was well-written, so much so that it was only after I’d finished reading it that I realized I had just read what was basically a romantic comedy -though much heavier on the comedy than the romance. The humor is mostly dry, as British humor tends to be, but quite entertaining. At under 30,000 words, this one is a rather quick read, but well worth the time. This story also bears the distinction of having the shortest note to the author I have yet written for a Reader’s Favorite review. The only notes were that it needed a proofread to catch a couple of typos and I felt that one of the characters was kind of left hanging -both very minor points. Continue reading Book Review: Three Men on Tour→

The Bus Ride -an anecdote

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As any author will tell you, the task of editing your own work is very difficult. Using the cursor to highlight several thousand words which perfectly capture a scene, then hitting the delete key, pains me deeply. I have already had to do that a number of time in the Brian’s Secret storyline, and continue having to do so. There is a wealth of information about the characters, various subplots, events, and locations which I simply have to delete. It went far too long and reads too slowly. While I’m in the process of doing that, I thought I’d drop in an anecdote about the time I rode a Greyhound from Oregon to Missouri. I’ve posted this elsewhere before, but it may be brand new to some of you. It’s only 4,000 words or so, recounted from my -then 14 or 15 year old- memories. Are you thinking of sending your kids on a Greyhound bus? Read on to see why you need to send them with more than twenty bucks. Continue reading The Bus Ride -an anecdote→

New look for In the Shadow of Angels

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After much deliberation, a tremendous amount of input from friends and family, and countless hours, I’ve come up with a new look for In the Shadow of Angels (pictured here is the print version of said cover):

angelsPrint

However. this cover came about slowly and evolved much over time. Just for fun, I’ve penned up a bit of a retrospective on the cover design. Click through if you’re interested to see it Continue reading New look for In the Shadow of Angels→