Category Archives: shadow of angels

Shadow of Angels for Children’s Miracle Network!

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In an effort to support my company and their support of the Children’s Miracle Network, I will be offering copies of my first novel “In the Shadow of Angels” on kindle for $1.99 from September 14th-21st. Any and all royalties earned, not just due to this promotion, but all within the month of September, will be donated to the Love’s campaign for the Children’s Miracle Network.

I have also placed the price of a physical copy of this novel to $9.99 through the end of the month. Any and all royalties earned from this will also be donated directly to the Children’s Miracle Network.

The Audible version of the book is also available, but gives me much less leeway. I can’t offer a promotion on the audio version, but I can say that I will donate any and all money generated from the audible version to the cause.

So, grab your copy (at a reduced price) and help the kids!

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→

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?

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):

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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→

In the Shadow of Angels?

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I’ve been communicating with a number of people about In the Shadow of Angels, and, more specifically, how the cover and title are not appropriate for the story. It was appropriate to the story when I initially wrote it -a very dark story of a schizophrenic woman- but that was many, many drafts ago. Even then, the original art smacked of plastic vampire teeth, which was all my fault, since I thought (and still think) that cover looks cool as all get out. But it’s not right for the story.

In these recent conversations about the book, a number of words keep coming up to describe what the story is now. ‘Noir’ seems to be the most common. When I think ‘noir’, I think black and white films of Sam Spade and other such ‘hard-boiled’ detective stories. It turns out that ‘hard-boiled’ and ‘noir’ are/were frequently used together, but they they are not synonymous. ‘Noir’ actually means ‘a genre of crime fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity.’ Holy shit, that’s my story! Though I still believe it blends some dark comedy in there (at least I intended it to, so I hope it does).

Suggestions were that I should try to capture the essence of the old pulp fiction novels to get the tone across -hopefully getting it into the hands of the correct audience. I’m not particularly familiar with pulp fiction (except the movie), but an image search returns a lot of books that all look very similar:

pulp

My first few attempts were pretty rough, but with a bit of guidance, I ultimately ended up with what you see here (this is, obviously, the flat rendering of the full book jacket):

anothertryfulljacket6

I wanted to remove the girl with the dead-eyed stare from the bottom of the front cover, but I met a lot of resistance. Everyone seems to love the visual of that girl. The jury is still out on whether this will be the cover (or title) that I ultimately use to replace the current gothic angels. One thing is certain though: I will be taking In the Shadow of Angels permanently out of print by the end of this week in preparation for the new cover/title (the task of getting the cover/title changed requires taking a number of steps in a very specific order. Well, to do it with a minimum of hassle). If you love the old gothic look of the original cover and don’t yet have a copy, you need to act fast!

In the Shadow of Angels Kindle Countdown

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In the Shadow of Angels will be on Kindle Countdown promotion starting 1/20/16 at 99¢ and ending back at $2.99 on 1/27/16. I think I set it to go up to $1.99 midway through, but I honestly can’t remember. Better grab your copy before my faulty memory costs you an extra buck!

When he finds his mistress dead, Devin makes a frantic decision that will ultimately involve his friends, his wife, a sleazy P.I. and even his psychiatrist. He’s left with a single thought, “Hiding a body shouldn’t be so complicated.”

I’ve always been quite critical of my own work, but look at what some other people are saying about it:

This mystery thriller is written in such ominous prose that readers will not want to leave themselves hanging – it urges you to turn page after page, wondering if these characters will ever make it out of their troubles, and how. – M Beltran Reader’s Favorite

“The extent of descriptive detail and storyline elevation are similar to novelist Stephen King.” – W. Selman

“A top-notch thriller in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Alfred Hitchcock.” – S. McLuggage

(Yes, I know the second name looks super fake, but I assure you that he is a legitimate Amazon reviewer with about twenty book reviews under his belt.) Act fast and you can find out if they are right for just 99¢.

Excerpt from an email with a friend

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I haven’t posted anything here for a while and I really should have. Good Intentions released on Audible last week and I didn’t properly promote or advertise it. You can also pick up In the Shadow of Angels on Audible, and, of course, both are also available on Amazon. Don’t want to spend any money? Contact me and maybe I’ll throw you one for free.

That’s the end of my shameless promotion. That is, in a nutshell, my problem with this whole writing thing. I enjoy writing, but I’ve found that I loathe the amount of promotion necessary to generate any sales. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to change that about myself. I’ve never been the type to jump up and yell, “Look at me!” I had always hoped that the first person who read the story would do that for me, but if it was that easy, everyone would be a successful writer.

In a recent email exchange with an online friend (whom I first met when he filled out my contact form. Try it out, I answer them all), my response to one of his questions perfectly captured my current state of mind about the whole writing as a career thing: Continue reading Excerpt from an email with a friend→

In the Shadow of Angels is now available on audible

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The review process is finally complete and the audio version of In the Shadow of Angels is now available on audible.com, and amazon.com. It should be available on iTunes within a day or two.

Don’t have an audible account? If you register for a new account, you can get your copy for free. Details of the offer are available on the audible.com website.

I also have a number of free review copies to give away. I’ll be looking for individuals who have submitted reviews for other audible titles. Would you like a free copy in exchange for a review? contact me. Please include a link to your current reviews on audible.com to be considered. I have a limited number of copies, so act fast!

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