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Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Free Book (PDF) - The Painted Darkness

In case you missed The Painted Darkness ($2.99 Kindle), a novella by Brian James Freeman, when it was free direct from the publisher over the summer, you can pick it up as a free download from Wowio this month. In addition, the Wowio Edition contains some extras not found in the hardcover (no idea if they are in the Kindle version):
  • A Wowio exclusive: a reading of the book’s first chapter by Pod of Horror host Mark Justice.
  • An interview with Ray Bradbury: “We Have Too Many Inventions!”
  • $5.00 discount coupon valid on an order for the trade hardcover edition of The Painted Darkness for a limited time only (presumably direct, not via Amazon).
Book Description
When Henry was a child, something terrible happened in the woods behind his home, something so shocking he could only express his grief by drawing pictures of what he had witnessed. Eventually Henry's mind blocked out the bad memories, but he continued to draw, often at night by the light of the moon.

Twenty years later, Henry makes his living by painting his disturbing works of art. He loves his wife and his son and life couldn't be better... except there's something not quite right about the old stone farmhouse his family now calls home. There's something strange living in the cramped cellar, in the maze of pipes that feed the ancient steam boiler.

A winter storm is brewing and soon Henry will learn the true nature of the monster waiting for him down in the darkness. He will battle this demon and, in the process, he may discover what really happened when he was a child and why, in times of trouble, he thinks: I paint against the darkness.

But will Henry learn the truth in time to avoid the terrible fate awaiting him... or will the thing in the cellar get him and his family first?

Written as both a meditation on the art of creation and as an examination of the secret fears we all share, The Painted Darkness is a terrifying look at the true cost we pay when we run from our grief—and what happens when we're finally forced to confront the monsters we know all too well.


Click HERE for the free download. It'll be a Secured PDF, but loads in Adobe Reader 9 (ADE isn't required).

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Free Audiobooks - Hunger Games and The Lottery

Audiobook Sync's free giveaway continues this week, with one very popular title that, although aimed at young adults, is widely read by all ages, and one that is limited to distribution in the US and Canada.

The Hunger Games ($9.00 Kindle), by Suzanne Collins, is available to download by all.

Book Description
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival(continued) and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. Acclaimed writer Suzanne Collins, author of the New York Times bestselling The Underland Chronicles, delivers equal parts suspense and philosophy, adventure and romance, in this searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present.

The Lottery and Other Stories (not available in US or Canada on Kindle; $3.30 Paperback), by Shirley Jackson, is available in the US and Canada only.

Book Description
The Lottery', one of the most terrifying stories written in the twentieth century, created a sensation when it was published in 1948. Today it is considered a classic work of short fiction, remarkable for its combination of subtle suspense and pitch-perfect descriptions of both the chilling and the mundane. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites 'The Lottery' with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson's remarkable range – encompassing the hilarious and the horrible, the unsettling and the ominous – as well as her power as a storyteller. The Lottery', one of the most terrifying stories written in the twentieth century, created a sensation when it was published in 1948. Today it is considered a classic work of short fiction, remarkable for its combination of subtle suspense and pitch-perfect descriptions of both the chilling and the mundane. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites 'The Lottery' with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson's remarkable range – encompassing the hilarious and the horrible, the unsettling and the ominous – as well as her power as a storyteller.

Click HERE to get the free downloads.

For those who are just finding out about Audiobook Sync, there are two new ones each week, so you have to keep checking back. You can't get any titles that have been missed, but once they are loaded into, they are yours to keep (there is no expiration date). Get today's titles quickly, as there will be two new ones up each Thursday. You'll have to sign up for an account and install Overdrive (if you are not already using it for library books). In addition, you end up clicking about three pages, for each book, before the audiobook actually downloads. Don't stop so long as you still see a button that talks about your Sync download (or until you see the Overdrive software open up). Once in Overdrive, you'll need to tell it where to save the files (just click OK to use the default location, since Overdrive will keep track of them for you), then again to actually start the download (by default, all parts of the book are downloaded; I would suggest not changing this in the last dialog box, just click on OK to get the download started).

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Free Book (PDF) and Audiobook - The Painted Darkness

The Painted Darkness ($2.99 Kindle), a novella by Brian James Freeman, is being given away in PDF form by the publisher and is low-priced at Amazon prior to the hardcover release. In addition, the free version contains some extras not found in the hardcover (no idea if they are in the Kindle version):

The free eBook includes some great bonus features that won’t appear in the hardcover:

  • An exclusive new interview with Ray Bradbury: “We Have Too Many Inventions!”
  • Comments from bestselling authors such as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, William Peter Blatty, Jodi Picoult, Carolyn Parkhurst, Anne Perry, Jane Green, M.J. Rose, Douglas Clegg, J.A. Konrath, Seth Godin, Michael Marshall Smith, Scott Adams, and many others about eBooks and the future of publishing.
  • Author’s Afterword: “Did I Really Commit ‘Career Suicide’ by Giving The Painted Darkness Away for Free?”
  • Norman Prentiss interviews Brian James Freeman
  • $5.00 discount coupon valid on an order for the trade hardcover edition of The Painted Darkness for a limited time only (presumably direct, not via Amazon).
Book Description
When Henry was a child, something terrible happened in the woods behind his home, something so shocking he could only express his grief by drawing pictures of what he had witnessed. Eventually Henry's mind blocked out the bad memories, but he continued to draw, often at night by the light of the moon.

Twenty years later, Henry makes his living by painting his disturbing works of art. He loves his wife and his son and life couldn't be better... except there's something not quite right about the old stone farmhouse his family now calls home. There's something strange living in the cramped cellar, in the maze of pipes that feed the ancient steam boiler.

A winter storm is brewing and soon Henry will learn the true nature of the monster waiting for him down in the darkness. He will battle this demon and, in the process, he may discover what really happened when he was a child and why, in times of trouble, he thinks: I paint against the darkness.

But will Henry learn the truth in time to avoid the terrible fate awaiting him... or will the thing in the cellar get him and his family first?

Written as both a meditation on the art of creation and as an examination of the secret fears we all share, The Painted Darkness is a terrifying look at the true cost we pay when we run from our grief—and what happens when we're finally forced to confront the monsters we know all too well.


Click HERE for the free downloads.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

20th Century Ghosts for under a Buck!

You can buy the individual stories in 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King), for 99 cents each or (for now) buy the entire collection for that same price. Get it while it lasts!

Book Description
Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945...

Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town....

Francis is unhappy. Francis was human once, but that was then. Now he's an eight-foot-tall locust and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing....

John Finney is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead....

Monday, April 5, 2010

Free Book (nook) - Serial

The short story Serial, by Blake Crouch & Jack Kilborn (J.A. Konrath), is free in the Barnes & Noble store. The format is most likely their own ereader format (although sometimes you do get an EPUB format), with DRM and not Kindle compatible.

Book Description
Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? #1-Don't go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. #2-Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2...

This title was previously free in the Kindle store, but is no longer available there. Instead, the authors have released an updated and expanded version, Serial Uncut, which now is approximately 36,000 words in length and is sale-priced at $1.99 "for a limited time."

Book Description
Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking?

#1: Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy.

#2: Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be certifiably crazy.

So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Crazy #2?

When Blake Crouch (DESERT PLACES, ABANDON) and Jack Kilborn (AFRAID, CHERRY BOMB), face-off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an “After School Special,” SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides.

Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other’s opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psychopath win.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Free Read Friday

To start off your weekend and in anticipation of Read an Ebook Week (coming up next week), today's post will feature only free reads from around the internet. The first one is free only today and the next few are online reads at Harper Collins (no downloads and you must read while connected to the internet); I've linked in the Amazon pages for the newest additions so you can read the reviews or buy a copy if you decide reading online isn't for you (or you want to keep the book - these online reads change frequently and with no notice).


Stranger in Paradise
, by stan graham, is free on Smashwords with coupon code WX68C, valid only today.

Book Description
Janice moves from the Midlands to a sheltered housing unit in the south of England. Taking with her the ghost of her former husband.A humorous look at life in sheltered housing

Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow ($4.79), by James Rollins, can be read online HERE.

Book Description
When a mysterious envelope arrives for Jake Ransom, he and his older sister, Kady, are plunged into a gripping chain of events. An artifact found by their parents—on the expedition from which they never returned—leads Jake and Kady to a strange inhabited by a peculiar mix of long-lost civilizations, a that may hold the key to their parents' disappearance.

But even as they enter the gate to this extraordinary place, savage grackyls soar across the sky, diving to attack. Jake's new friends, the pretty Mayan girl Marika and the Roman Pindor, say the grackyls were created by an evil alchemist—the Skull King. And as Jake struggles to find a way home, it becomes obvious that what the Skull King wants most is Jake and Kady—dead or alive.


Gone ($6.39), by Michael Grant, can be read online HERE.

Book Description
In the blink of an eye.

Everyone disappears.

Gone.

Everyone except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and television. There is no way to get help.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents-unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers-that grow stronger by the day.

It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen and war is imminent.

The first in a breathtaking saga about teens battling each other and their darkest selves, gone is a page-turning thriller that will make you look at the world in a whole new way.


Evernight ($5.59), by Claudia Gray, can be read online HERE.

Book Description
Bianca wants to escape.

At the eerily Gothic Evernight Academy, the other students are sleek, smart, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

When she meets handsome, brooding Lucas, he warns her to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him. But the connection between them can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed.


The Thief ($3.79), by Megan Whalen Turner, can be read online HERE.

Book Description
"I can steal anything."After Gen's bragging lands him in the king's prison, the chances of escape look slim. Then the king's scholar, the magus, needs the thief's skill for a seemingly impossible task to steal a hidden treasure from another land.To the magus, Gen is just a tool. But Gen is a trickster and a survivor with a plan of his own.

Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism ($7.99 paperback), by Georgia Byng, can be read online HERE.

Book Description
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Hypnotism

Molly Moon is no ordinary orphan. When she finds a mysterious old book on hypnotism, she discovers she can make people do whatever she wants. But a sinister stranger is watching her every move and he'll do anything to steal her hypnotic secret...


For those that missed some of the earlier reads, you can also still read The Amanda Project: Book 1: invisible I ($9.99), The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book 1) ($5.59) and The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle ($7.99 paperback) for free as well, just click HERE.

Twinkle, by Dan McGirt, author of Hero Wanted (free smashwords; $13.49 paperback), is free on Smashwords

Book Description
Twinkle. A small town with big secrets. Can Stella find eternal love with her vampire boyfriend Edmund? Will werewolf Jake's own desire for Stella drive him to a fatal decision? Or will the arrival of a certain famous vampire slayer turn all their lives upside down? Twinkle is the vampire epic you’ve waited for—if you’ve already read all the other vampire epics. Enter Twinkle if you dare!

The short story Robot Confessional, by David Dalglish, author of The Weight of Blood (free Smashwords; $0.99 Kindle), is free to read online.

Book Description

Friday, February 5, 2010

Free Book (PDF) - Maneater

Thomas Emson's acclaimed werewolf novel Maneater ($12.78 Paperback at Amazon & at B&N) can be downloaded for free, in PDF format, from SnowBooks.

Book Description
She’s not sweet. She’s not nice. She doesn’t fight evil. She doesn’t protect the weak. She doesn’t work in an office by day and have a secret identity by night. She doesn’t have friends and family who know nothing about her, but when they find out they love her anyway. She’s not cool. She’s not clever. She’s not kind to animals. She won’t help children, the elderly, and those less fortunate than herself.

In fact, she doesn’t care. But if you hurt her, she will kill you. Actually, she’ll do worse than that. . .Meet Laura. She’ll eat you alive.


Click HERE to sign up for the book (you'll get an email with the download link). While you are there, you might check their home page, which has a short story by Emson (online read only) and another, The Shattered Teapcup, from George Mann (online, download or audio version).

Further down the page, you'll find a free download of Underlife ($9.95 Paperback), by Robert Finn, in several DRM-free formats. This is the third book in his Adept series, but chronologically is a prequel to Adept and Ex Machina ($9.99 each Kindle).

Book Description
Being a thief makes it difficult to meet the right girl. And when you do, something always gets in the way. Like finding yourself trapped underground, caught in a shoot-out, and with only a supernatural killer to protect you. And you still need to persuade her to part with her phone number.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Free books from Smashwords

Night of the Tustumena ($1.99), by Arne Bue. Use coupon code QH65J during checkout, valid thru November 15, 2009.

Book Description
In this illustrated tale of murder, the secretive creator of an Alaskan drug route encounters problems on his last voyage to Dutch Harbor aboard the Alaska State Ferry "Tustumena."

The Man from Shenandoah ($3.99), courtesy of the author, Marsha Ward, who posted the coupon code ZM42L on her blog, valid thru November 3.

Book Description
Carl Owen doesn’t intend to lose anything—not his land, not his cattle, and certainly not his girl—ever again! Returning from the Civil War, he finds the farm ruined and his father set to leave Virginia. Then Carl falls in love, and he battles a band of outlaws, a prairie fire, blizzards, a trackless waterless desert, and his own brother—all for the hand of feisty Ellen Bates.

Little Monsters (Set Your own price; use $0.00), by Zoe Whitten. You can also pick up Blood Relations and Zombie Punter at no charge and download Blind Rage from her web site.

Book Description
Jarred Collins is a recluse in search of his past. A chance meeting with a homeless girl turns his life upside-down and dredges up his memories as a sexual predator. Who is Cora and why is she so familiar? In this tragic fantasy nothing is what it seems, no one is a hero and the worst betrayals come from the closest kin. But in the wake of a tragedy, maybe these little monsters can form a family.

If you missed Street: Empathy, by Ryan A. Span, during the Halloween sale, you can read most of the stories (and some that will be in a new volume, later) at this web site. It's online or in a bunch of PDF's, not an ebook format, and not a final edit/format, but it'll give you a good flavor for the work (and possibly convince you to spend the $1.99 for the book).

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween from Gryphonwood Press and Blade Red Press

For Halloween only, Gryphonwood Press and Blade Red Press are giving away every book in their catalog. I've listed all the books, with links and the coupon code to use once you've put that book into your cart. I already have The Silver Serpent and Dourado, but I've been considering the books from Alan Baxter and just saw an announcement on Flank Hawk and was heading over to get a sample when I noticed the publisher -- so, as I'm writing this on Friday evening, I am waiting for midnight to just go buy it, instead of getting the sample.

Gryphonwood Press
Cibola by David Wood - SJ79G
Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman by Jim Bernheimer - MK29P
Death Dealt the Hand by John E. Bailor - CT72U
Dourado by David Wood - QX73J
Flank Hawk by Terry W. Ervin II - DM58A
Seabird - An Invitation by Sherry Thompson - QW23Y
The Silver Serpent by David Debord - MG27T
Street: Empathy by Ryan A. Span - KK37T
You Don't Know What You've Got... anthology - RD33A

Blade Red Press
Ghost Of The Black by Alan Baxter – already free
MageSign by Alan Baxter – HH65A
RealmShift by Alan Baxter – DK99C

Maggots Of Heresy by Michael Fridman – already free

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

End of Month Kindle Dollar Days

It seems that every month I find more bargains that will possibly fit into the blog. Today I'm going to group a large number of them into one post and the only thing they have in common is that they can be had for a dollar or less. I haven't purchased, let alone, read every one of these, so be sure to check out the samples first, but I try to remove any that have extremely badly edited/formatted samples from my lists. I seem to remember one or two saying that their price reductions were for a limited time, but with Amazon's delays in price changes that may mean a day or two, a week or the rest of next month. I'll keep my commentary to a minimum, so that the post doesn't go too long.

First up are The Horns of September and The White Lady Murders, by Wendy Potocki, each an even one dollar.

The Horns of September
All is not right in Shucktown. Just ask Chuck Beckett. He’s young, in love and readying his group to audition for Motown Records. He’s sure his will be the first interracial group signed by the emerging recording giant. He should be on top of the world, but he’s not. For despite living out his dreams, Chuck feels as if he’s headed for certain disaster. Repressed memories have begun to surface in the form of dark, paralyzing depressions. These debilitating episodes convince him of one thing – that he is soon about to die. Chuck tries his best to shake it off as so much teenage angst. He finds it increasingly difficult to do so after the good friend who warns him about “the devils in Shucktown,” winds up murdered. Her death is the catalyst that leads Chuck Beckett to step out of his comfort zone to confront cabals, demons, monsters knitted out of darkness and all the horrors that arise from the curse known as The Horns of September.

The White Lady Murders
In a Malibu beach house, David Lynx struggles with writing with his latest tour de force – a book on magic. It’s a subject he knows nothing about. In a desperate attempt to understand, he decides to perform an ancient ritual not realizing that he will unwittingly open a door for a forty-year-old unsolved murder spree to start all over again.

...At its core, The White Lady Murders offers an action-packed detective story replete with a hard-boiled, hard-nosed police officer named Robert Moran leading the charge. Moran is a veteran police officer who vividly remembers the original murders that occurred during The Summer of Blood. The string of vicious crimes terrorized the city and held its residents captive in the killer's steely grip. No one felt safe and now Moran desperately races to solve the mystery of who or what is behind the new wave of brutal killings to prevent The White Lady Murders from beginning again.


Next on the list is another pair of titles from Tommy Jonq, Gemini Tiger: A Novel for the Unhooked and Forty Days, each priced at 99 cents. The former is a humorous romance while the latter is a volume of poetry and short stories.

Gemini Tiger: A Novel for the Unhooked
When a sexy single mom with Babydaddy Personality Disorder and a taste for exotic, untamed pool boys receives a DNA ultimatum from the Indiana Department of Public Aid, she decides to drown her troubles in the frigid green waters of Lake Michigan. She who laughs last . . .

A ravenously funny portrait of the Unhooked Generation . . .


Forty Days
A collection of short stories, poems, and microfiction by the author of the novel, "Gemini Tiger." Includes "Ivy," the 2005 winner of the James Jones Literary Society Award for Short Fiction, and several hilarious "coming of age" stories set in southern Illinois during Ronald Reagan's Morning in America. The book is rounded out by several poems and other pieces previously published in literary journals and magazines.


Eleganta: A novel of Fairykind, by Denny Swartzlander, is aimed a the young adult age group (12+), but can be read at any age.

Enter the 9th century, a time of magic and mystery. On a hidden isle in the seas near England, a young fairy named Ethywyne Eleganta secretly gives birth to the first youngling in fourteen years. She and her child become the hunted prize of the wicked troll general Sunderin. Ethywyne must make the perilous journey across the Fairy Realms, to get her child to the Fairy Queen, the only one who can protect her from the shadow that seeks to destroy all of Fairykind.

Her experience takes her from a humble life of gardening and craft-making to the center of an adventure that grows to involve fickle goblins, giant ogres, magic fairy dust, thieving pixies, an enchanted hedge maze, and even Vikings of the Norse lands who happen upon the isle in their plundering voyages.


Shameless Shorts, by "Eighteen well known authors", is one you might want just for the cover alone. This is a collection of short stories (presumably 18 of them) by a group of authors who met on the Amazon Kindle forums. I recognize at least a few of the names (Dennis Batchelder, for example), but for 99 cents it looks like a great way to sample a number whose books I have not read.

Fruitbasket from Hell, by Jason Krumbine, is the first in his Alex Cheradon Mysteries series. I didn't even get thru the sample before I went back and bought this one. The second in the series, A is for Amnesia, B is for Bullet , is $5.95 in the Kindle store (although it may go down a bit next month, it won't be to the dollar range, according to the author). However, you can get it for 99 cents on Smashwords. While you are there, you might want to add Heaven's Superhero: The Third Creation or Explorers of the Unknown to your order -- all of these are 99 cents, at least for now (they are supposed to come down to 99 cents in the Kindle store, but it may be next week before it gets approved).

Nevada Raines has gone missing. Her billionaire father thinks she's dead. Her mother hopes she's alive. Alex Cheradon, the private investigator hired to find her, isn’t sure what’s going on. But he suspects it’s going to at least involve people wanting to kill him. He doesn’t know it’s also going to involve a demon from Hell. Neither are good for his long term health prospects. And you're just going to have to read the book to find what’s named Pookie. (Hint: It’s not a good thing.)

The "End of Days" Cycle: A Modern Look at the Ancient Prophecy, by Chris J, isn't a novel, but purports to be an in-depth look at both the prophecies of the christian Bible's Old Testament and the Mayan 2012 predictions.

Do you know what the prophets told us about the end of the world, or why they told us about it? They actually didn’t tell us about the “end of the world,” or even the “end of the world as we know it.” The world will change, just like they said it would, and those who know what to expect are going to be the ones who inherit a new generation of humanity. The prophets didn’t mention anything about a miraculous being that would save everyone who believed in miraculous beings. What they told us includes a leader of humanity, anointed by God. But he’s not going to whisk anyone away to the safety of Heaven during the destructive events. Instead, he’s going to suffer at the hands of humanity for being who he is, and then lead the way for those who want to survive.

Of course you knew that the world would be destroyed by fire. Everyone who was raised in a religious home knows that. But do you know what will cause that fire? Did you know that the prophets told us that pollution would be the cause? Can you think of any kind of pollutant that could cause the earth to burn? Could “global warming” be what the prophets were warning us about?

This book is about prophecy of the Old Testament. It includes the primary prophecies and how they are relevant today, even though they were written thousands of years ago and most are thought to have been fulfilled previously. Also included is the reasoning behind the birth of the religions we have today, and how they were predicted by the prophets. This book is not a religious book, because no particular religious beliefs are followed as many misunderstandings that have been made by various religions of our world are untangled.


Broken Bulbs, by Eddie Wright, is a stream-of-conciousness narrative of novella length.

Frank Fisher is nothing. He wants to be something. When a mysterious young woman named Bonnie offers assistance by injecting seeds of inspiration directly into his brain, Frank finds himself involved in a twisting mystery full of addiction, desperation and self-discovery. Broken Bulbs, a novella by Eddie Wright, tells the story of the lengths one young man will go in the pursuit of "somethingness."

Toe Popper, by Jonny Tangerine.

A twisted beach novel.

A terrorist plants landmines on the beaches of Southern California.

Major Joel Lane, a Special Forces adviser and landmine expert, is called-in from the wilderness of Cambodia to hunt him down.

Teamed with the beautiful female FBI agent assigned to the case, Lane battles his past demons, opium addiction, and a diabolical opponent who is only getting started.

... a thrilling ride along the giddy edge of entertainment and suspense.


Joshua Hale Fialkov & Noel Tuazon's Tumor continues this month with Chapter 4. This should be the half-way point on this graphic novel.

Frank Armstrong has an inoperable brain tumor that's killing him. In his final days, with his body, senses, and mind failing him, he's going to do the one thing that he's never been able to do before -- save the girl.

Chapter Four finds Frank and Evelyn on the run and seeking refuge from the storm they've both created. It's up to Frank to pull himself together and protect Evelyn from her father and the police who want her dead.


Along Came a Demon (Whisperings), by by Linda Welch, looks to be the start of a new series. Not in the series, she also has Mindbender ($2.50) and Galen's Gate (Novels of the Systems) ($2.00) in the Kindle store.

I'm told the dead are all around us. I wouldn't know about that, I see only the violently slain. They can be victims of hit-and-run, innocents caught in a cross-fire, the murdered. They whisper to me and they never, ever, forget the face of their killer. I've learned to live with my uncanny ability, in fact I've made a career out of it.

The departed aren't the only supernaturals I see. No, they're not vampires or werewolves or fae - those things don't exist. We live side by side with what some call the Otherworldy. That's too much of a mouthful for me, I call them demons. If you saw them as I do, you'd know why.

Right now I'm trying to track down a missing six year-old boy whose mother was murdered. Or maybe she wasn't. To further complicate the case, Clarion PD gave me a partner I'd rather shoot than work with.

I can't tell them he's a demon.

They'd think I'm crazy.

I'm Tiff Banks. Welcome to my world.


Peculiar, MO is from the author of Strange Times ($5.99), Robert Williams. This one isn't a short story collection, but more of a sci-fi horror novel. If you missed Strange Times while it's pricing was stuck at a buck on Kindle, you can still get it for 99 cents on Smashwords.

Welcome to Peculiar, MO. For most, life is good in this idyllic Midwestern town, until a falling star brings an unearthly menace. Soon animals are found dying of a mysterious disease. At night, beasts begin to cry out in voices that sound almost like words, as they are drawn to a burned clearing to serve an alien will.

Local widow Kelly Ross, who is struggling to make ends meet after the death of her husband, sends her young son into the forest on an errand, where he makes a frightening discovery.

Spencer Dale, the town's mechanic, whose past contains a painful secret, begins to experience strange dreams and visions, as he relives memories that are not his own.

Nine-year-old Rachel, a child of nature, becomes linked to an unspeakable crime that took place more than eighty years in the past, while a military operation moving inexorably towards the meteor's impact site makes its presence, and its plans, known.

All their lives are linked together as an alien life cycle reaches its terrifying climax.


Fresh Kills, by Bill Loehfelm, actually stretches the boundaries of today's titles, as it costs $1.29, not quite under a buck. I first heard about this book when it was a paper-only issue, then watched it on Amazon as it was priced in the $10 range. It hit $1.63 last week and fell to $1.29 just a couple of days ago.

In Fresh Kills, the murder of John Sanders, Sr. on a New York street corner reunites his estranged and abused children, John, Jr. and Julia. While Julia struggles to keep things together on the home front, Junior, unhinged by his father's death, searches for the killer across the bleak, haunted landscape of his Staten Island hometown. Complicating Junior's pursuit are two police detectives: one, a former childhood friend; the other, a veteran cop who might have his own reasons to wish John, Sr. dead. Junior's emotional state crumbles under the pressure coming at him from every side. Bedding his high school sweetheart doesn't exactly simplify the situation. When the opportunity for revenge presents itself, Junior must decide whether he will continue the chain of violence that has nearly destroyed his life, or give in to the possibility of a new beginning. With emotional intensity, crackling dialogue and a heartfelt sense of place and character, Fresh Kills delivers unexpected and profound insights that speak to the soul of its struggling hero, and heralds a breakthrough voice in fiction.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Free Book from Sony - The Monstrumologist

The Monstrumologist ($9.99 Kindle), by Rick Yancey, is a young adult horror story. To get it free, search for the title in the Sony Ebook Store using the desktop Sony Reader software (it's a free download; with it, you can read books on your PC even if you don't have a Sony Reader).

Book Description
These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.

The one who saved me...and the one who cursed me.

So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

Friday, September 18, 2009

Short Stories - Collections

As I look thru the Kindle store, I've noticed that the number of individual, stand-alone short stories being offered has really been taking off. The only problem is that the minimum price that can be charged is 99 cents and, although the authors may not all agree, that's a steep price per story, compared to traditional publishing. Most published short stories are purchased as a part of a collection or appear in a magazine, where the cost/story to a consumer is closer to 25 to 50 cents per story (Analog and Asimov's for example, are only $2.99 per issue in the Kindle store and even cheaper at other ebookstores). Were you to purchase a print collection, a 15 story compilation would be $15 (an average trade paperback price), but many compilations offer more than that for the same price (although novella length stories tend to be offered in collections of 4 to 6, but at paperback prices). Of course, with ebooks a lot of the delivery costs are missing and a lot of what is being offered is stories from authors that either could not find a publisher (the market for short stories tends to be quite small). Amazon has their Amazon Shorts program for short stories, but the standards there are just as high as with many other publishing houses (the prices, though, are 49 cents per story, not 99 cents as in the Kindle store). While I might be willing to pay the higher price for the Kurt Vonnegut stories being released as singles (but would prefer them in the actual book collection that they are being released in on paper), I'm not willing to do so for unknown authors or even many of the authors where I willingly purchase their books (just not at $10-15 prices). There are, however, a number of short story collections out there that do fit my budget. I've purchased a few of these, but not others, so (as always) sample first before committing to a purchase.

Strange Times ($0.99 Kindle), by Robert Williams, was originally released at a much higher price, reduced for a sale and is now stuck at 99 cents due to Amazon's scrutiny of Kindle books. Grab it at this price while it lasts, or check it out on Smashwords, where it is currently the same price.

Book Description
Written over a period of seven years, the dark, finely crafted stories of Robert Williams's first short story collection span the science fiction, horror, historical fiction and mystery genres, presented here exclusively for Kindle readers.

In the award-winning short story, "The Experiment," a young man is subjected to a deadly test: how much pressure will it take to force him to kill a stranger? "Graymalkin" tells the origin of the Weird Sisters from Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Edgar Allen Poe is involved in a real-life woman's mysterious disappearance in "Mary Rogers." A vampire of India struggles against his demonic creator in "Child of the Lamia," while a lonely man seeks a different kind of redemption in "The Man Upstairs."


Sage: Tales from a Magical Kingdom ($1.00 Kindle or Smashwords), by Maria E. Schneider, is a trio of novellas.

Book Description
Sword and Sorcery meets Agatha Christie. Three novellas introduce the Kingdom of Sage and those who protect its boundaries. Join Demetria and her husband Ward in their adventures as they protect Sage from evil: Rats, Snakes and perpetrators from within.

Sometimes it takes a more experienced hand to save an entire Kingdom.

The first of these stories, "Toil, Trouble and Rot," was published in "Coyote Wild Magazine." The other two are all new, original stories.

"Toil, Trouble and Rot" finds the Kingdom of Sage under attack from a deadly and mysterious enemy.

In "Dungeons and Decay" find out just how far a mother will go when her child is in danger--and how much magic it takes to keep him safe.

In "Call to Arms" every hand is needed when a ghost invades the kingdom demanding old wrongs be righted.


The Baum Plan for Financial Independence: and Other Stories, by John Kessel, is $9.99 in the Kindle store. But you can get the collection for free at Feedbooks.com.

Book Description
An ex-con finds himself falling, once more, under a seductive, amoral woman's spell. A hidden door in a summer house leads to a land of plenty. An inventor's life converges with the pulp fiction he reads. In "Pride and Prometheus," the Bennett sisters encounter Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. And, in his acclaimed and award-winning Lunar Quartet, Kessel explores the gender dynamics, politics, and long-term sustainability of a matriarchal lunar colony. This astonishing collection ranges from science fiction to the surreal while intersecting with Frank L. Baum's Oz and the characters of Flannery O'Connor, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. By turns satirical, horrific, funny, and generous, these stories showcase the manifold gifts of a modern-day master.

Carol's Aquarium ($0.99 Kindle; $1.50 Smashwords), by Kristen J. Tsetsi, contains a combination of published, unpublished, and award-winning fiction.

Book Description
Fish-in-a-box. A plane crash. A man losing control in one story, a woman taking control in another. Some love, some lust, some selfishness, some anger, and--tucked inside--an unexpected moment of uptight passion.

The stories in Carol's Aquarium vary widely in length, style, and voice, true to the many moods we all experience from one day to the next. One of the more enjoyable challenges of writing is in creating a unique world for each story, and in Carol's Aquarium, each of the stories (some just a single page long) invites you into a different world, a new relationship, a unique experience you might find feels strangely and uncomfortably familiar.


Tales of a Texas Boy ($1.99 Kindle or Smashwords), by Marva Dasef, is a cross between a memoir and a short story collection.

Book Description
How do you handle a crazy jackass? Eddie knows. If you ask Eddie, he'll tell you pigs can fly and show you where to find real mammoth bones. Take his word for it when he tells you always to bet on the bear. These are things he learned while dreaming of becoming a cowboy in West Texas during the Depression. Through Eddie, the hero of "Tales of a Texas Boy," we find that growing up is less about maturity and more about roping your dreams. Hold on tight. It's a bumpy ride. A wonderful read for anyone who enjoys books like "Little House on the Prairie" or "Tom Sawyer." A great bit of nostalgia for seniors, too.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Free Books - SciFi and Fantasy/Horror by Randolph Lalonde

Christine over at Finding Free Books has been having problems downloading from Smashwords*. Funny that one of her examples was a book by Randolph Lalonde, as I've been working on a post of his SciFi books for the last couple of days, since he stopped by Ebookgab.com. I picked up Freeground ($0.49 Kindle), the first in the First Light Chronicles trilogy, some time ago, when he first offered it for free (it's still on his website, in PDF and PRC/MOBI format). Now, you can get the entire trilogy free at Smashwords, along with several of his other books. For the non-free titles, prices are comparable to the Kindle store, all are DRM free and several formats are available.

The First Light Chronicles Omnibus ($7.99 Kindle) contains the entire First Light Chronicles Trilogy: Freeground ($0.49 Kindle), Limbo ($5.59 Kindle) and Starfree Port ($6.39 Kindle). This entire trilogy serves as a prequel to his Spinward Fringe series.

Book Description
In the middle of the darkest region of explored space sits one bright beacon; Freeground Station. Serving as a supply and trading post it is home to a select number of human beings that will take an unlikely chance to make a difference in their end of the galaxy.

Jonas and his friends spent their spare time in tactical simulations and drew the attention of Freeground Fleet Command when they hacked into restricted combat scenarios for elite trainees and defeated all comers.

Instead of punishing Jonas and his friends they offered them an opportunity to undertake a dangerous and exciting mission. They were to go out into the Galaxy and acquire any advantages that would improve life for Freegrounders.

This series is about their first voyage together, the challenges they face, and the relationships they forge with each other and the beings they meet along the way.


Dark Arts: Rising ($3.99 Kindle) is shorter than most of his other novels (about 16,000 words or 160K in size) and is also the only I see that doesn't fit into his Spinward Fringe series in some way.

Book Description
The resurrection of Zachary Ellison has brought on a series of events that are changing the world forever. Maxwell, one of the last surviving members of a secret Order of occultists, has failed to catch him in time and is tasked to begin reviving the Order while attempting to minimize the damage his old foe is set to cause. Terrors unseen for thousands of years threaten to emerge if he fails.

Spinward Fringe: Strange Horizons and Close Encounters is only available at Smashwords or on Lalonde's website. It's basically a guide to the characters and events of the universe for the series and is periodically updated, something that isn't possible in the Kindle store.

Book Description
This book chronicles events that take place in the universe first developed in the Spinward Fringe series and focuses on characters that deal with problems from a perspective separate from the characters central to the Spinward Fringe books. This is a living document and stories are added to the anthology regularly. It's suggested that readers engage in this anthology after reading the regular Spinward Fringe series.

For the free Smashwords versions:
Click HERE to get First Light Chronicles: Omnibus.
Click HERE to get Dark Arts: Rising .
Click HERE to get Spinward Fringe: Strange Horizons and Close Encounters.

Once you've finished the free titles, you can continue with the Spinward Fringe series on Kindle or at Smashwords. If you want to try his fantasy series, The Fate Cycle, that one is only in the Kindle store, for now. Here's the reading order for the Spinward Fringe series (the first two are available as a combined volume):

Spinward Fringe: Resurrection

Captain Jacob Valance has no memory. Left on a strange ship on the fringe of the galaxy, he was forced to begin a new life. Years pass. He’s been joined by a ragtag crew of fringers and become a man who can recover lost property, hunt down hardened criminals and go where others fear to tread. Little does he know his search for clues to his past is about to bear fruit.

Spinward Fringe: Awakening
The Samson crew are caught in their Captain’s problems as his past catches up with him. As new allies start to fall in line old enemies come out of the shadows. While they struggle to deal with their own problems, Regent Galactic starts putting a plan in motion that could bring about the fourth fall of man and position themselves as the saviors. Their ambition could spell disaster for the entire galactic fringe.

Spinward Fringe: Triton
After narrowly escaping a brush with an old enemy Captain Valance and his crew reach out to their allies for help. Meanwhile, allies and enemies from his past are set to reveal themselves in unexpected ways, changing his life and the galaxy forever.

Spinward Fringe: Frontline
Captain Valance and his crew are finally learning to work as a unit. Oblivious to the grander designs of the Order of Eden, they are drawn into a brutal conflict over a planet the Order is depopulating so they can use it for themselves. Who will survive the Front line?

Spinward Fringe: Fracture
Part One Of The Rogue Element Trilogy
The crew of the Triton is making their way to Ossimi Station, a safe haven for independent ships and traders. In a galaxy gripped by conflict and teetering on the verge of chaos, Captain Jacob Valance and his crew will be faced with the unexpected, the unknown, and an opportunity to save thousands of lives. Will their sympathy be their undoing?


*All fixed now: she has an older download manager that interfered with site and has some side effects with others; now that she knows, she can disable it when it causes problems.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

More Free Weekend Reading - PDF's

Continuing yesterday's theme, there are plenty more free PDF's out there for your weekend reading (I suspect several weekends worth, just in these two post alone). The first is a buy one, get one free offer from R.W. Ridley, author of The Takers: Book One of the Oz Chronicles ($0.99). If you purchase the first book (which is under a dollar on Kindle), you can email him at member (at) rwridley.com and ask for Book Two (which is not yet available on Kindle) and he'll send it to you in either DOC or PDF format (your choice, just tell him which). It's on the honor system, no need to send your receipt.

Takers (Book One)
The first volume in The Oz Chronicles recalls both Stephen King’s The Stand and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. When 13-year-old Osmond “Oz” Griffith wakes from an illness on the floor of his closet, he discovers the world overrun by man-eating monsters, the Takers, and it’s largely his fault. In an effort to make things right, he gathers a band of survivors (a baby, an aged mechanic and a talking gorilla, among others), and sets off down his version of the yellow brick road, leading to the Atlanta Zoo. Along the way, he learns that his destiny was written by Steve, a boy from his past. Afflicted with Down Syndrome, Steve created new worlds, replete with battles between good and evil, in the comic books that served as his sole refuge from the teasing of Oz and his friends. Steve’s untimely suicide leaves only the comic books as clues to vanquishing the Takers.

Ed Dunlop, a minister perhaps best known for his Terrestria Chronicles series, has several young adult/children's books with a Christian theme available on his web site. These are mostly his Jed Cartwright series, set in the 1860's, each with a specific lesson/moral. Further down the page, you'll find Phantom Pilot (aimed at older youth) and two Sherlock Jones books.

Book One - Jed Cartwright and the Midnight Escape
Orphaned by the fever of 1860, twelve-year-old Jed Barrett and his sister Mandy are sent to an orphanage. When a local farmer makes plans to adopt Jed but not Mandy, the two children run away to St. Louis so as not to be separated. Surviving many perils and setbacks, the runaways reach their destination and eventually are adopted by the wealthy Jake Cartwright family.
Theme: forgiveness and salvation.


Click HERE for the free downloads

King's Property, by Morgan Howell, The Briar King, by Greg Keyes, and The Brass Bed, by Jennifer Stevenson, have all been available as free downloads for the Kindle and in the Sony store for a while. The Suvudu free library page has now been updated and you can get these all as PDF's, just click HERE.

Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution ($34.95 hardcover), by Michael Rubin, is available, for a limited time, on the author's web site, as three PDF's. I did a quick conversion on part one and it looks pretty good, including the photographs. If you want to recombine it as one book, you'll need to do that with a PDF tool first, or be prepared to do some a little extra work in MobiPocket Creator to include all three in one book definition.

Book Description
The inside story of George Lucas, his intensely private company, and their work to revolutionize filmmaking. In the process, they made computer history. Discover the birth of Pixar, digital video editing, videogame avitars, THX sound, and a host of other icons of the media age. Lucas played a central role in the universe of entertainment technologies we see everyday.

Click HERE for the download.

Last, get The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wine, Second Edition (2nd Edition) (out of print) as a free download from BestDealsMagazines.com. It's the complete book (11M, 547 pages), but not one I'd try to convert for the Kindle - there are just too many graphics and too much special formatting for it to work well. Read it on you PC or on your DX. You will have to create an account (use a throwaway address, if you don't want to be on their mailing lists). Click HERE for the download.