Cliff Ball's Blog, page 13

March Madness – Times of Trouble featured

All the new news related to my newest novel, Times of Trouble.

Featured today as a New Release on the World Lit Cafe: http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/content/books/march-new-release

Featured on the front page of Humanmade.com: http://www.humanmade.net/books/times-of-trouble

Part of a listing of books under $5 on the Independent Author Network: http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/kindle-under-5.html

Listed here:   https://sites.google.com/site/dvwbooksorg/christian

Flurries of Words

New Christian Books Online Magazine

The Electronic Text & Literature Cloud

Iselfpub

Other places to buy:

E-Books Online

Drive Through Fiction

Songs of the Word epub version,

Songs of the Word PDF version 

Lulu ebook

Lulu hardcover

Times of Trouble Giveaway

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Times of Trouble a Christian fiction novel

by Cliff Ball

Giveaway ends March 16, 2012.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

#Samplesunday Times of Trouble

Here is the sample from Chapter 1 of Times of Trouble, a Christian fiction thriller. The previous post has where to buy the novel.

Chapter 1

My wife, Lynda, was about to give birth to our third child, but she seemed to be having a lot of complications, so I was incredibly worried about her and the baby. For the fourth time in what seemed to be as many days, she said she felt like she was going into labor. We've lived in Omaha for the past three years, so now I was taking her back to the hospital to see if my wife was actually in labor.

Doctor Ryan was telling me: "Brian, we're going to have to induce labor,"

Since I was worried about Lynda anyway, this sent my imagination off on a wild goose chase, and I could imagine all sorts of potential problems. Questions of all sorts ran through my mind, but I asked, "What will that involve? Will it be dangerous?"

"No, it won't be dangerous; it'll mostly involve a lot of drugs. Don't you worry, your wife is safe in our hands."

"Thanks, Doc." I went to sit down on a couch, because as incredibly nervous and worried I was about this, the hospital staff decided that my wife shouldn't feed off of my nerves, because they didn't want to cause complications to the birth of the baby. I made my wife nervous the other two times she gave birth, which is also why I've never seen my other two children born.

In times like these, I tend to reminisce and think about how we've come this far. My name is Brian Atwood. I'm thirty-four years old, the middle child of three, married to Lynda, and we have three children, including the one that's being born. I currently work as a field agent for the FBI in Omaha, after having served as a military policeman in the Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Both of us are originally from a little tiny town in northern Nebraska, closer to Rapid City, South Dakota, than we were to our own state capital. My grandparents moved there right after my grandfather was mustered out of the Army after Vietnam. He wanted to try his hand at farming, which didn't work out, because he ended up selling John Deere tractors to the farmers in that part of the state.

My parents met at our Baptist church, got married in the same church, and shortly afterwards, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, occurred. My dad felt it was his patriotic duty to join the military campaign to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban, which took a whole lot longer than anyone even anticipated, but he came home three years later with a Purple Heart for getting shot up. Fortunately, he was missing no limbs, but did have a problem with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for a few years afterwards. He followed his father into the selling of farm machinery, until he and my mother died in a car wreck four years ago while I was attending classes to be an FBI agent. The business landed in Frank's, my oldest brothers' lap, who had worked with my father since he was sixteen. My sister, Melissa, is the youngest. She's currently living in Dallas, working for the Dallas Mavericks as one of their public relations people.

Lynda's family settled in Nebraska in 1870, five years after the Civil War, since Nebraska had become a state three years earlier. They dropped stakes, built a couple of buildings, named it Delaney, which is their family name, and began farming. The Delaney's lived fairly close to Sioux lands, but the Sioux never troubled them, even during the Indian Wars, because the Delaney's treated the Sioux fairly. The Delaney's continued to farm through wars and depressions, and even through heavy-handed government regulations. Even now, her brother, Mike, who is the youngest, continues to farm the land, claiming he makes a lot of money off of all those people who still think ethanol is the future of fuel.

My mom and Lynda's mom were best of friends from the moment they met in school. Her mom met her dad as a teenager, when they were introduced at a church social. Lynda's parents married after 9/11, and her father was sent to Iraq for combat. He went on four tours of duty, and each time he visited home, nine months later another child was born, Lynda was the third of the four. Unfortunately, her father was one of the last killed two months before the withdrawal of Iraq by the United States military. Lynda's mom never re-married, and still lives on their family farm. Lynda's other brother, the second oldest, is Paul, who is in the military. The oldest is Heather, she lives in Colorado, and is the webmaster for Focus on the Family's website.

My wife and I have known each other all of our lives, since our mothers were best friends. She is a year younger than me, so we never had the same classes together in school, but we always saw each other while waiting for the school bus, at church, and other events around town. Before I left to join the Air Force, I saw her as a good friend, and that's about it. While I was in the Air Force, she went to Pensacola Christian College in Florida to get a teaching degree so she could teach in Christian schools.

I returned to Delaney after my four years in the Air Force, and Lynda returned to town the same time during a summer break. We laid eyes on each other at church for the first time in four years, and I fell instantly in love with her. Some people think that was just weird, but it's the truth. She eventually told me she felt the same way when she saw me that first time in years.

The best description I can give of her is that she looks almost like the actress who plays Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, only prettier. She is five-five, chestnut brown hair, blue eyes, tanned because of the Nebraska sun, and is slender. While I'm an introvert, she is an extrovert, and can talk about anything under the sun with no trouble at all. Most people sometimes wonder if I even talk, but she assures everyone that I'm a chatterbox when I'm comfortable with people. She loves children and loves being a teacher.

She claims that I look a lot like that guy who played Greg in that old 1990's sit-com, Dharma and Greg, and he also played an FBI character in the crime drama Criminal Minds that was on when we were kids. I don't know about that. While the character and I are both FBI agents, I think the resemblance ends there.

We were married a year later, I was recruited by the FBI, so we moved to Omaha so I could work in the office there. Lately, I've heard rumors that the Treasury Department wanted to recruit me to work on the President's security detail, as a member of the Secret Service. That would be a great opportunity, even though I didn't vote for the man, but I think I could lay my politics aside to protect a President of the United States. Of course, that's only a rumor, so nothing may come of it.

While I was waiting for news about the birth, I picked up my Kindle to read one of the novels I recently downloaded. I've had this Kindle since I was a kid. I've never felt the need to replace it with the smaller ones with the streaming capabilities and all the high tech gadgets that are currently available on it. All I'm doing is reading, so for everything else, I either use my computer or TV.

My nerves had finally settled, when three hours later, Doc Ryan came out, shook hands with me, and said, "Congratulations, Brian, you have a baby boy. There are some problems, however,"

My happiness went to concern in a matter of seconds, "What's wrong?"

"Your son had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, which is why your wife had false labor a couple of times. He came out blue due to lack of oxygen, but appears fine otherwise. There's also another issue,"

I knew that babies have died from being choked by their umbilical cord, so I was glad to hear that he was fine, but Doc Ryan saying there's another issue seemed just as grave. "What is it?"

"He has Down's Syndrome. He can live a normal life, but you need to know that the United States Health Administration is on the look-out for children that will cost them a lot of money. Normally, I'm supposed to report this, and I know you're FBI, but they've taken way too many children and it needs to stop,"

"The USHA takes kids?" I had never heard that before.

"Yes. Ever since the health care bill became effective in the mid-2010's, the government has taken newborns they think will cripple our economy. I'm sure the only reason you haven't heard about it, is because parents are threatened, and there's a tight control of what's said online about it. I just thought I'd warn you of that possibility,"

"Thanks, Doc. Will your nurses support your decision?"

"Yes, they feel the same way. Be lucky that you found me as your Doctor. Would you like to see your son now?"

"You bet."

Doc Ryan led me to my wife's room, while I thought about his warning to me about the government taking away sickly children. I decided not to tell Lynda for now, because I know how upset she gets with most of the government's policies, and I really didn't want her to worry about something that may not even come to pass. Maybe old Doc Ryan was just paranoid.

I walked into my wife's room to see her beaming with pride and holding our baby. I walked over to her, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and asked, "How are you two?"

"Other than being tired and sore, I'm wonderful. What do you think we should name our son?"

"How about Joshua James, JJ for short?"

"After our dads? I like that idea. I like the fact that we left this as a surprise. Getting a sonogram would've left all the fun out of it. Doc, when do we get to take him home?"

"Would tomorrow suit you?"

"Are you sure it wouldn't harm her?" I asked with worry in my voice.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. This is the wonders of modern medicine; mother and baby get to go home within twenty-four hours. Lynda, we need to let you get some rest, so we'll put little Joshua here in the nursery and he can get some sleep too. Brian, why don't you go home and get some rest? You can come back to the hospital bright and early tomorrow to take them home,"

"Can't I just stay here?" I protested.

"Doctor's orders. Your wife needs her rest and sleep. If you stayed here with her, she'd probably worry more about you. Go on now."

I went home only because Doc Ryan insisted on it. I couldn't get my brain to stop running a thousand miles an hour, so I stayed up past midnight watching old movies from the 1990's. At eight in the morning, I discovered that I had fallen asleep watching the second Jurassic Park movie. I shaved, took a shower, ate breakfast, and then went back to the hospital to retrieve my wife and son. My other two kids were staying with their grandma back in Delaney, so I didn't have to worry about feeding them or sending them off to school, even though this was summer vacation. Next week, Lynda and I will drive to Delaney to introduce the family to JJ and bring the kids back to Omaha.

Lynda was dressed and waiting for me when I arrived, and one of the nurses went to the nursery to retrieve JJ. Lynda was told to sit in a wheelchair, since that was hospital regulations, and the three of us left the hospital for home an hour after I had arrived there. I put JJ in the safety seat in the back of my car, and helped Lynda into the front seat. I waved at the hospital staff and Doc Ryan, who were outside watching us leave, and they waved back. I put my car into gear and drove home.

Times of Trouble, now available

In my previous post, I described what Times of Trouble is about. Here are the current locations to buy the novel on all Kindle locations, Nook, and Smashwords. It will be on Apple, Sony, etc whenever Smashwords distributes it to them. Paperback is in the process of being finished on Createspace.

Here are the current buy locations:

US Kindle

UK Kindle

Germany, Spain, Italy, and France Kindle

B&N Nook

Smashwords

And it is available for $2.99 in e-book form and $8.99 when the paperback is available.

Times of Trouble, a new Christian fiction novel

Times of Trouble is my sixth novel, which will I will upload to Smashwords, B&N, and Createspace sometime in the next few days. It's a Christian speculative fiction thriller. I'm aiming for the group of Christian readers who read the Left Behind series back in the late 90′s, and I'm hoping they'll enjoy reading this novel.

What it's about:

In the near future, the U.S. government has turned into a tyranny as the government agencies known as the EPA and TSA grow with ever more power, taking away the liberty many Americans had known for over two hundred years. They're joined by a government agency, the Health Administration, which was put together in the mid-2010′s to regulate healthcare.

Told in first person point of view, Brian Atwood, our main character, is a field agent for the FBI in Omaha. His work involves mostly cyber terrorism and actual cases of potential real world terrorism. Eventually, his wife gives birth to their third child, who has Down's Syndrome, which does not please the Health Administration because there are rules and regulations set-up in cases like these to prevent "genetic freaks" as they like to call them, from sucking up a lot of Health Admin money. Because the Atwoods are born again Christians, they never considered aborting the baby, so now the Health people have to take him away to deal with the problem later.

Meanwhile, the Secret Service decides to recruit Brian to be the personal agent of POTUS due to his great work involving a case that dealt with terrorism that would've involved Offutt Air Force Base. Brian's faith is tested every day as he deals with a man that has no morals from what Brian can see, and is tested even more when his wife finds out that she's dying from a fast growing form of breast cancer. Trouble in the rest of the world occurs as Iran attempts to nuke Israel, which fails spectacularly, so Israel takes care of the problem. This brings condemnation from everyone, including the US, which takes the side of Iran.

When the re-election of POTUS doesn't turn out the way he wanted it, he and his people declare the election nullified because of supposed "irregularities" with the ballots can be sorted out. The new President-elect may take the seat sometime in the middle of next year, if everything looks to be sorted out. POTUS purges his staff of what he considers unloyal people, including Brian. At the same time, he loses his wife, but regains the son he thought he had lost.

Brian moves back to his family home in Nebraska, where we follow what happens as the country slowly falls apart. Events play out as Brian and his family sees the End Times approach.

Stay tuned for news on when it can be purchased.

Sales for 2011

Now that I'm pretty sure I have all the sales numbers in for all platforms, I'd like to share how many novels I sold or had downloaded last year as an independent author, to give encouragement to those that aren't sure they can do it. I've been doing this for about 4 years, 1 1/2 of which I've actually put any effort at trying to promote my novels, since I've written three in that time span. Last year, I sold or had D/L's of 24,151, in 2010 – 520, 2009 – 68, and in 2008 – 37.  Here are the numbers for 2011 for each book and where, from first book or short story published in order to latest:

Amazon (which combines US & UK sales, link to US though)

Out of Time – 2238 (free and paid)

Don't Mess With Earth – 692

The Usurper - 13,310 (free and paid) (currently free to borrow in Lending Library)

Shattered Earth – 6637 (free and paid)

Voyager & The Aliens – 9

Dust Storm – 0

New Frontier (published December 20, 2011) – 4

Apple

Out of Time – 77

Don't Mess With Earth – 10

The Usurper – 3

Shattered Earth – 55

Voyager & The Aliens – 2

Barnes & Noble

Out of Time – 51

Don't Mess With Earth – 175

The Usurper – 180 (currently exclusive to amazon 'til March 7)

Shattered Earth – 81

Voyager & The Aliens -

Dust Storm -

New Frontier – 1

Createspace paperback (which were sold on Amazon or other bookstore sites)

Out of Time – 9

The Usurper – 48

Shattered Earth – 21

New Frontier –

iUniverse (original publisher of Out of Time paperback)

Out of Time – 5

Kobo

Out of Time – 30

Don't Mess With Earth – 1

The Usurper – 4

Shattered Earth – 7

Voyager & The Aliens

New Frontier

Smashwords (free and paid)

Out of Time – 25

Don't Mess With Earth – 27

The Usurper – 176

Shattered Earth – 239

Voyager & The Aliens – 151

Dust Storm – 2

New Frontier – 1

Sony

Out of Time – 8

Don't Mess With Earth – 1

The Usurper – 5

Shattered Earth – 16

Voyager & The Aliens – 18

Virtualbookworm.com (original publisher of Don't Mess With Earth paperback)

Don't Mess With Earth – 7

So, with a lot of hard work and determination, this is what I sold. I know, not the #'s of some of the bigger names in indie publishing, but I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

#SampleSunday: New Frontier

Since I finally have something new to share for Sample Sunday, here's the Prologue to my newest novel, New Frontier, which is a alternate history speculative fiction novel. The Prologue will be expanded on in Book 2.  Available on Nook, Kindle, and Smashwords for $2.99,and paperback for $8.99 (links at end of post).

Prologue

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency…"

President Kennedy stepped off of the stage after his "New Frontier" speech at Rice University, when he was asked by Texas Governor Daniel, "What did you mean about doing those other things after you said we would go to the moon?"

"That was a mistake. I was going to fill that in by saying that we would eventually explore the rest of our solar system after we take our first steps on the moon, but I forgot about it. Anyway, in the grand scheme of things, who's going to remember one little paragraph in a speech? All that matters is that I have a vision of what our future holds. The American voters will eat that up."

"That's why you're the President, and not that yahoo, Richard Nixon."

"I'm sure the American people are grateful for that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to Washington."

As Kennedy stepped off of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, he was met by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who was never eager to converse with any of the Kennedy family, but this time he had to. "Mr. President, I need to speak with you in private."

"What do you want?"

"Like I said, in private."

"Oh, all right. Follow me to my car, we can speak there." When they were situated in the back seat of the Presidential limo, Kennedy asked, "Ok, what's so important that this has to be in private?"

"I'm sure you're aware of the death of Marilyn Monroe last month…"

"What's your point?" interrupted an impatient Kennedy.

"The point is that we have her killer in custody."

"Didn't the coroner rule it a suicide?"

"Well, someone told him to rule it that, but it really wasn't…"

"Would you please get to the point already?" interrupted the President again.

"Fine. The FBI was informed that your brother, Bobby, was seen leaving Monroe's house the day she died. After an exhaustively thorough investigation, it was concluded that Bobby was indeed the person responsible for the death of Marilyn Monroe. He's now in custody, where he will be put on trial very soon."

"You can't do that."

"Why? Because he's a Kennedy? Your father may have gotten away with many a thing years ago, but he also had many friends in high places. With him retired, you and your brothers don't have that luxury, since you are the people in high places. I've got so much stuff on you Kennedy's, all I would have to do is go to the Press and give them everything available. You would be finished in no time. So, yes, I can have your brother put on trial for murder."

"What can I offer you to withdraw the murder charge?"

"Bribery, eh? Are you sure you really want to try that with me?"

"What do you want from me?"

"Simple, really. You and your family stay out of my way, and I won't air all of your dirty laundry. When it's publicly announced that Bobby killed Marilyn, you will be shocked to hear it, and you'll reluctantly announce that he will no longer be Attorney General of the United States. If you or your family sends your mob goons after me to silence me by killing me, my will has a provision in it that all the documents I have that are related to your family will be released to the Press. Either way, you'll be ruined. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good." Hoover stepped out of the car, leaving the President to his thoughts.

A year later, on a campaign stop in Dallas, with President Kenendy's motorcade on its way to Dallas Trade Mart for a luncheon, gunshots rang out while passing through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy heard the bullets whiz by him, but then he heard a sickening sound next to him. His wife had been shot in the head. In the front seat, Governor John Connally, who had just been elected Texas Governor, appeared to have also been shot by the assassin's bullets. Kennedy started to panic, but really had nowhere to run if an assassin was still trying to shoot at him. The Secret Service rushed in to protect Kennedy, surrounded the car, and the motorcade rushed away to Parkland Hospital. Both Jacqueline Kennedy and John Connally were pronounced dead within an hour of arriving at the hospital. The FBI announced they would begin their investigation.

After the funeral, Kennedy summoned Hoover to his office. "Did you have anything to do with what happened in Dallas, Mr. Hoover?"

"No, but if I did, you can bet that you would be dead, not your wife or the Governor. Unfortunately, we have no suspects. Too many of the witnesses claim that they heard gunshots from one of the buildings or from the grassy knoll that the motorcade was passing, but no one saw a shooter. Whoever may have tried to assassinate you was professional enough to cover their tracks. The FBI and I have run into a brick wall, and have decided to close the investigation. I'm truly sorry for your loss."

"I'm sure you are. Thank you for coming." Kennedy summarily dismissed the FBI Director from his office.

Five years later, after John F. Kennedy was no longer eligible to run for President again. He and the rest of the nation learned that Barry Goldwater won the Presidency of the United States in his second try after trying in 1964. Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic challenger since Lyndon Johnson decided to retire, had been assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan six months before the election, so the Democrats ran George McGovern, who was the Vice Presidential candidate, as the replacement. Goldwater soundly defeated McGovern.

While the world was waiting for Apollo 11 to land on the moon, John and Ted Kennedy were having a party on Chappaquiddick Island with their girlfriends the day before the scheduled moon landing to celebrate the fact that John had helped push NASA in that direction. Ted, and his girlfriend, Mary Jo Kopechne, decided to leave because Mary Jo needed to get home. "Teddy, you should stay here, you're too drunk to be driving." protested John.

"I know what I'm doing. Just because you're my older brother doesn't give you the right to act like dad." slurred the drunken younger Kennedy.

"Ok, fine, but if you get into a car wreck, don't blame me. I tried to warn you, you know."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Bye, bye Jack." slurred the drunk Mary Joe, as she waved at him.

John waved goodbye to them as the two drunkenly got into Ted's Oldsmobile and drove away. The next morning, Edgartown Police Chief James Arena knocked on the door of the house, John answered the door, and asked the Chief, "Can I help you?"

"Mr. Kennedy, I regret to inform you that your brother and his escort were found dead inside the Oldsmobile at Poucha Pond. It appears they didn't see the end of the bridge and the car kept going. Due to how the car settled in the water, the two died from drowning. A pair of fisherman on a fishing boat noticed the car earlier this morning, informed us, and we managed to bring the car back up an hour ago. Unfortunately, I need you to come down the Station to ID them so we can officially record that the family knows about it. Can you come with me?"

"Yeah, I'll come with you. I knew he shouldn't have left while he was drunk. I knew something would happen, but he refused to listen to me. Now look where it's gotten him…"

Even though John was hung-over, he was in shock at the news of his brothers' death, and he was increasingly getting depressed over it. Of the four boys in his family, he was the only one that was left, and he wasn't sure how his father, Joseph, would handle having yet another son not on Earth. Joseph had ambitious dreams for all of his children, yet of the nine children, four were no longer living. John was beginning to wonder if his family was cursed.

He went with the Police Chief, identified the bodies, and spent the rest of the week organizing a funeral. John wondered why all of this tragedy was happening around him, but not to him. He decided he needed to focus his energies now on his two children, before anything else happened to anyone else in his family. So, he decided to withdraw from public life, because it seemed to him that his immediate family would live longer that way. Four months later, Joseph died at the age of 81 of natural causes.

Amazon US, Amazon UK, B&N Nook, and Smashwords.

New Frontier, new novel coming in early 2012

I'm currently working on the last couple of chapters of my new speculative fiction novel, which I call New Frontier. I'm expecting to be done sometime between the end of December to the end of January, barring unforseen circumstances of course.

The story originally started off with a prologue with the whole speech given by President Kennedy at Rice University in 1962 about all of our technological advances and how we've managed to come so far in such a short amount of time. I decided to cut that down, to the one paragraph everyone remembers him saying, which is:

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency…"

I'm not going to reveal any spoilers from this particular sub-plot, because I plan on having a 2nd book in this to make a series to explain why what happens in the prologue happens the way it does.

After this, I begin with a what-if Ronald Reagan became President in 1976 instead of 1980? Well, he has the US continue with the Moon landings and eventually building a Base on the moon, and even declaring that we'll have people on Mars before 1989.

The Soviets decide to one-up the Americans, and decide to build a starship that would leave the solar system. Their attitude is basically, why do we need to piddle around the Sol System when there's other solar systems out there to be conquered. The 2nd book will explore what happens to the Soviet ship, which, of course, will be after the Americans eventually send their own ship in the 2nd novel.

There is a storyline that follows the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis, but this time it ends in a completely different fashion. I have Osama bin Laden as a young apprentice to Khomeini, and he goes off on his own to form Al Qaeda (this is alternate history after all). In his first foray into terrorism, he makes a big statement that affects American politics in a big way. The US hunts him down and captures him (I was actually writing that when Osama was killed by the Seals, which de-railed my writing of this novel for a couple of weeks). He is taken care of in a way most ancient by people he hates.

In the meantime, we now have a base on the moon, a space station in orbit, and I re-write what happens with the Teacher in Space program by having Christa McAuliffe travel to the Moon to teach from there for a week. This time, the Challenger doesn't blow up due to engineers discovering a problem, even though she's not on that shuttle, and she gets to the Moon.

The US announces the team that will travel to Mars to establish a base there, and the Soviets use this opportunity to ask that two of their cosmonauts could go. The new POTUS tells the Soviet Premier no, as long as Eastern Europe was under the boot of communism. Weeks later, the Berlin Wall falls as does the Iron Curtain, and the US and USSR agree to let two cosmonauts go to Mars.

Terrorism raises its ugly head once again when the space station is attacked by remnants of Al Qaeda, and it also occurs to the Mars mission….

Near the end of the novel, colonists land on Mars, including Christa McAuliffe and her family. It's the beginning of human colonization of the rest of the solar system.

At the end, the US and Russia announce a joint mission to explore the rest of the galaxy, and part of the mission is to find the missing Soviet starship. As those humans leave Earth, Ross Perot is elected POTUS in 1992…..

Stats for The Usurper in November

I decided to let The Usurper go free in November (and it's still free, no thanks to Kobo not changing the price) with the understanding that I was going to get blasted by the perpetual Negative Nellies on Amazon (or elsewhere), but I thought it would be a good way to get my novel in the hands of readers who would have never seen it otherwise, and who may enjoy it. I had at least one person who did enjoy it, and she even sought me out on Facebook to tell me how much she enjoyed it. Another one e-mailed me, said they enjoyed it, but nitpicked a couple of things about how this or that was wrong (like the fact that Beatniks were in 1962, not hippies. I deleted that one line that was in the novel).

On a couple of those negative reviews on Amazon, I engaged the reader, asked them earnestly how I should fix a couple of issues they had, and they were surprised that I wasn't flying off the handle, but that I asked and responded back in a positive way. Biggest issue was commas. Apparently, I had way too many. I was taught in college that more punctuation is better than not enough, (I'm constantly editing traditionally published novels in my head when they don't have commas or periods where they should that should break up ideas, etc.) but people say it's distracting. Ok, fine. Another issue was the character names, which I did to push buttons, and I'd say I did a good job of that, because it has pushed a lot of peoples' buttons. So, taking all of this in stride, I spent a couple of days looking for too many commas in the novel and fixing them, fixing stupid grammatical mistakes that are made when you do make changes, and I also changed the characters' names that were too similar to real life names because I felt that I had pushed enough buttons to satisfy my enjoyment of pushing those buttons.

For nearly a week, The Usurper was top 100 overall for bestselling free ebooks on Kindle, topping out at #21 ( I wish I had taken a snapshot of that), along with the #1 spot on political fiction free ebooks, while currently sitting 3rd in the same rankings (snapshot November 15):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was stunned by the amount of downloads I had in a week. It amounted to double the amount that either of the other 2 books got when they were free for two weeks. The week of Thanksgiving, I managed to set the price to $.99 (after B&N had raised the price back up), and it stayed that way until the Monday after, when I tried to go to $2.99, then Amazon discovered it free on Kobo, and its been free ever since. I had a total of just about 12,101 free downloads(I can snapshot the KDP totals if anyone doesn't believe me), but I had more sales of The Usurper at $.99 than I had for the whole year previous on Kindle, at right around 500 (totaling 12601 downloads). Unfortunately, I also had 16 refunds for this FREE e-book. I don't know if that's a statistically good thing or not.  Yesterday, I got the stats from B&N through Smashwords, and I sold 140 free copies there (not sure how anyone on B&N sees free e-books that aren't trad published, I must be blind). As a side effect of the e-book sales, I even had 22 copies of The Usurper in paperback sold, more than the whole year it's been published. Very cool.

Thank you to everyone who bought/downloaded a copy of The Usurper, whether you enjoyed it or not.

The Same Six Questions Interview

The Same Six Questions – Cliff Ball from http://andyrane.blogspot.com/2011/11/same-six-questions-cliff-ball.html

Welcome to the last interview of November 2011! Where has the year gone?! Today's guest on The Same Six Questions is author Cliff Ball.

Cliff Ball is 37, lives in Texas, has a BA in English, possibly going for an MA in Technical Communications, but is currently pursuing Certification in Technical Writing. He has independently published 4 novels and won 3rd in a contest for a short story that was written in high school.

The Same Six Questions

1. Have you published a book yet? Yes. I have 4, but here is one of them: The Usurper is a political thriller.

Gary Jackson is raised to hate. Hate the United States, its people, and everything they have ever stood for. His mission is to destroy the country from within, allying himself with the worst of America's enemies, and one very powerful and malevolent billionaire, to accomplish the deed. Once elected to the highest position in the land, Gary puts his lifelong goals to work, and puts the USA onto the path of ultimate destruction. He stops at nothing to rid the USA of his political and spiritual enemies, until a small group decide they've had enough, and they want to stop him. Will they succeed or will the United States be relegated to the dustbin of history? Also available at B&N and Smashwords



2. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I remember wanting to become a writer when I was about 8 years old.

3. What was your first lengthy piece of fiction (say, >1000 words)? What was it about? When did you write it? Do you still have it?

My first piece was a science fiction story that I wrote in jr. high (around 1988 or so). It was some inane story about the US and the Soviets 150 years from now fighting over a planet in Alpha Centauri, and discovering humans who already lived there. I do still have it, somewhere in a big Rubbermaid box.

4. When was your first indication, "I can do this (write)"?

I took a Creative Writing class in my senior year of high school, and we sent short stories to magazines. I wrote one that ended up winning 3rd in a contest for a religious magazine for youth. I made $35! (a lot for an 18-year-old in 1992). I decided that someday I would publish something, and I always wanted to be self-published. Luckily, technology has evolved where its easy now.

5. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, which would it be?

I have a character from my novella, Out of Time, who is a clone of Dr Hawking a couple hundred years from now. He figures out the means to time travel, which I think would be cool to do.

6. It's a dark and stormy night…you're alone in the house…there's a knock at the door…you open it, look out, and proceed to scream like a little girl. What's on the doorstep?



The Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes people who have a million $$$$ for me!

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Thanks so much for sharing, Cliff!