Evan Bond's Blog, page 6

CANCELLED CON

Hello there readers, 

By now, you've probably heard that Tampa Bay Comic Con has been cancelled due to the rise in COIVD-19 cases. This was to be my first year attending so I'm pretty bummed. But honestly, a little happy too. First off, I was worried the turn out would have been very low due to the social distancing rules and the virus still affecting people. It's pretty pricey to attend TBCC. But also, there would have been a good chance to catch it at the convention. So, it's probably best that it gets cancelled. But it's still sad. 

Of course, next year I will be attending TBCC so come next year and say hi. My goal is to have my new paranormal thriller released before the next convention. That should be easy but we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll even have some cool merch to sell there? Who knows. 

Selling my books at these conventions has been a lot of fun. Even the slow days are really fun. You get to meet a lot of cool people. Creators and people attending. I've actually created a few friendships with other creators while working on these cons. People like Todd Kelly who is an awesome comic book creator and you should definitely check him out! Click here. I very much look forward to working more in the future. 

So, I will see you all at Tampa Bay Comic Con next year and hopefully many others! Don't forget to follow me on social media. This weekend was supposed to be TBCC so I may do a sale or a giveaway or something. Haven't decided what yet. Have a great week everyone!
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TOSS A COIN

SONG WAS NOT IN THE BOOK 1/5 STARS

Just kidding. I recently read the first book- or more like the .5 book?- in The Witcher Series. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. After watching the Netflix series and loving it, I wanted to dive in to the world of Geralt and see how things panned out in the books. I must say, I wasn't dissapointed. 

If you've seen the show, then you would recognize most of the tales in this book. It's made up of short story collections featuring Geralt and his quests. Much like the show, it shows Geralt going from town to town as he earns coin for killing monsters. Basically, this first book is the first season of the show. Minus the ending which really gets the plot rolling for the next season. 

But enough about the show. Lets talk about the book. It's a very fun read. Geralt is a bad ass. He talks a lot more in the books than he does in the show, which is one of the major differences. It's very fun to read these tales after watching the show. I have a conundrum now. Do I read the next books before the second season? Or do I read them after? Tough call. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. 

Ghost Sightings at This Location

Have you been to the above location? I have. It's called Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Do you know who else has been there? A particular spirit named Jeffrey Raines. If you don't know about Jeffrey, let me give you a little info. 

Jeffrey Raines is the main protagonist of my upcoming paranormal thriller book. He works for Death as her bounty hunter. He reaps souls that wander the Earth and prey on the living. His travels will take him to many locations. This is just but one place he will visit in the book. 

Flagler College is gorgeous. It started as a Hotel in 1888, built by Henry Flagler. It was a luxury hotel for the wealthy. Back then, it was known as the Ponce de Leon Hotel. Words really cannot do this place justice. It's beautiful. If you find yourself visiting St. Augustine, do yourself a favor and take a tour through the building. You won't regret it. Just imagine, staying here in the late 19th century. It must have been jaw dropping back then. Now, it's a beautiful piece of history in the middle of St Augustine. 

And the college serves as a backdrop for my introduction to Jeffrey Raines and the unseen spirit world. I couldn't think of a better place to kick off this series than the oldest established city in America. Check out some more images of Flagler College below. I took them on my last trip out to St. Augustine. And if you want more inside information about my upcoming book, please consider signing up for my monthly newsletter. I will be sharing information, first looks, and more behind the scenes stuff on my newsletter. PLUS get exclusive access to the short story that inspired the book! Click here to join. 

The Only Way to Read This Flash Fiction Story

Hello there readers and happy Friday. 

I've posted a flash fiction story over on my Patreon page. If you don't know what flash fiction is, it's generally a story under 1,500 words. Great stories told in a short format. They're some of my favorite things to read and write. And I post them occasionally on my Patreon page. You can read this one and several others over on Patreon. 

Over there, you can also receive exclusive flash fiction stories or short stories written just for you. Access to my upcoming blog novel. Listed in the acknowledgment section of my books. And so much more. Patreon is such an awesome way to support your favorite creators and make sure they can continue to create. Hopefully, I'm one of your favorite creators and hopefully I'll see you on Patreon. 

Latest Terror Tube Based on Real Events

Hello there readers and happy Monday. 

Today, I wanted to give you a brief story about my latest Terror Tube video. You see, it was inspired by real events. If you haven't watched the video, please go check it out. It's nice and creepy and the rest of this post won't make a lot of sense if you don't. Scroll down to the bottom to watch the video then come back here. 

Done? Alright. So, here's what really happened. A few months ago, some people came to our door to preach the word to us. I was polite and listened to what they had to say and then nicely ended the conversation. Nothing more than that. A week or so later, they came back while I was in the shower and my wife answered. She told them we were busy and couldn't talk. I mean, she was juggling a 2 year old and an infant at the time. So, technically not a lie. 

A few days later, we check the mail only to find a letter written to us from these people. I've never had that happen before. Of course, this was when all of the safer at home orders were starting due to COVID-19, so maybe that's why? Either way, it was strange. 

But we threw the letter away and ignored it. I mean, we probably wouldn't hear from them again, right? And if they showed up to the door we could just say we were interested. But then as we sat on the couch watching TV, my wife's phone went off. When she read the text message, things were a bit weird. It was a text from the lady who had knocked on our door. We never gave her our phone numbers. I have no idea how they got her phone number. I tried doing a quick search on the yellow pages and we're not listed. And we rent the house we're living in so we're not listed as owners. It was really creepy. If they had texted me, I wouldn't have been so nice with a response. However, my wife blocked the number and ignored it. We haven't heard from them since. 

But the creepy thought of them searching for our phone number after knocking on our door was weird. So weird, that I decided to make a story about it on YouTube. I think my story might end a little bit creepier than the real thing. But you decide. Let me know in the comments below what you would have done if this happened to you. And don't forget to check out the video and subscribe to my channel!

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An Upcoming Blog Novel

Hello there readers and happy Thursday!

A while back, I wrote what I called a blog novel here on my blog page. It was a story told once a week right here on my blog. It ran it's course and people seemed to enjoy it. So, I wanted to bring the idea back. 

However, this new story is going to be a lot bigger and better than the last and I'm going to keep it going much longer. In order to do something like that, I'm going to need YOUR help. Please consider joining some other awesome people over on my Patreon page and you'll be able to read this upcoming blog novel. 

What? This blog novel is only available to patrons? Yup! This will be a patron only exclusive story. If you want to read the whole thing in its entirety, I suggest heading over to my Patreon page and signing up for any tier. Trust me, you won't want to miss this story! Here's a brief description. 

The Devil's Journal is told in a blog style format. Donna Mitchell runs a semi-popular blog about books, beaches, and her dog Sammie. One day, she discovers a journal hidden in her house and decides to chronicles her journey going through it. As she reads deeper into the journal, bizarre things begin to happen until Donna can't tell truth from fiction anymore. 

If that sounds like something you'd like to read, then please consider supporting me on Patreon so you can read it and so you can help me fund this and other ambitious projects I've got going on. Shout out to my awesome patrons who have already signed up. You all are the best! I look forward to meeting you new, potential patrons soon!

These Horror YouTube Channels Will Give You Chills.

Hello there and happy Tuesday. 
Today, I thought I would share 3 of my favorite horror related YouTube channels. If you like scary videos, abandoned places, ghost hunting, and horror movies then you'll love these 3 channels. So, let's get started, shall we? 


3. Slapped Ham
Alright, so Slapped Ham doesn't exactly sound like it's a YouTube channel for anything spooky. However, this is a channel filled with creepy and unexplained videos from around the internet. It has everything from creepy Cryptid sightings to creepy security cam footage to keep you up at night. If you're a bit skeptical like me, you'll still enjoy the channel as a lot of the videos are creepy even if they are fake. The real chilling videos are always the ones involving real murders that have gone unsolved or the last known footage of people before they were kidnapped. Those are spooky for sure. 


2. Crypt TV
If countdown and list videos aren't your thing and you would prefer to watch horror shorts then Crypt TV is the channel for you. They have a lot of shorts that are all horror related. And the budget/production value of these shorts are amazing. With 3.2 million subscribers, it's not hard to see why. I wouldn't be surprised if they become a full fledged movie studio production one day. 


1. Amy's Crypt 
Normally in these blog posts, I put these things in no particular order. Just because one channel makes it to number 1, doesn't make it my favorite. However, in this case that's not true. Amy's Crypt is absolutely my favorite horror related YouTube channel. Amy's Crypt follows adventurer Amy as she explores haunted and sometimes abandoned places. She shares the history of the location and even performs paranormal investigations. I think the reason she comes in as my favorite channel is her skepticism. I've seen plenty of paranormal investigation channels who hear one little click from a room and scream ghost and run for their lives. While this might entertain some, I find it ridiculous. Amy's Crypt, however, does not do that. Even when she seemingly has solid evidence of something paranormal, she's quick to express it was probably something else. I share the same mentality and attitude when thinking about the paranormal so I love watching. Plus, the history and abandoned places she adventures to at night are creepy in their own right! If you're a history buff, lover of urban exploration, or the paranormal then this channel is right for you!


Those are my top 3 favorite horror related YouTube channels. Do you have one not on this list? Please, let me know in the comments below. I always love discovering new YouTube channels. And if you are looking for more horror YouTube in your life, give the 3 channels above a subscribe and don't forget to check out my YouTube channel Books by Bond which is the home of my new narrated horror story show Terror Tube. You can check out my latest video below. 

Fun Fact Friday: Agatha Christie Vanishes

Welcome and happy Friday. I'm trying something new so let me know if you like it. I'm calling it Fun Fact Friday (FFF). Each Friday, I'll share a random fact, and I'll try to keep them book related, and a brief summary of said fact. Cool? I hope so!

On to this week's fun fact. Agatha Christie once disappeared for about 10 days! One day, Agatha left her home and vanished. No one knew where she had gone. Around 11 days later, she was found at a hotel with the reservation under a different name. She declared she had no memory of how she got there or why. Some say it was a publicity stunt and others thought she was trying to frame her husband of murder. He had just declared his love for another woman and was leaving her. To this day, no one knows the truth. 

​If you liked that fun fact, come back next Friday and I'll give you another!

Come Chat With Me

Introducing, a new way to connect. Discord! If you don't know what Discord is, then think of it like those old school chat rooms. If you're too young to remember what that is, you probably already know what Discord is. So, we're good!

I've created my own Discord server where we can interact, share stories, swap GIFS, chit chat, and more! It's mainly a way for me to connect with people and for people to connect with each other. And how do you get access to this perk, you ask? Well, here are the details below. 

My Discord server is an exclusive reward for ALL tiers over on Patreon. Once you select a tier and sign up, I'll send you an invite to the Discord server. Then we can chat live whenever! Cool, right? Head over there and sign up today so we can start chatting. 
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Here's What You Can Do.

If you ever been curious about ways you can support yours truly, well have I got a blog post for you! I'm going to separate by things you can do which don't cost money and ways to support by spending money. Both are excellent ways to support and neither is more or less important than the other. Let's start with the free ways. 

Free Ways

Leave a review - Leaving a review for my books is the best way to help support authors. After a certain number of reviews, our books will start to show up on recommended lists. Of course, this does require you to own the book which means you had to spend money at some point. Unless I did a giveaway which I've been known to do occasionally. 

Like Comment and Subscribe -On YouTube, there's a threshold you have to meet before you can monetize your channel. By subscribing, you're helping me get closer to that threshold and helping me make money for each video watched on my channel. Liking and commenting helps boost the chance of my videos being seen or recommended as well. 

Follow me on social media - Algorithms on social media exist to boost content people want to see. Unfortunately, that can also work against people. The more post interactions received, the more visible posts become. Dropping a simple like or comment helps boost those posts. I'll count reading this blog as part of following social media because it works the same way. 



Paid Ways

Patreon -Patreon is great because it allows you to support me directly and get exclusive access to things like short stories, signed books, and exclusive content. 

Buy my books - This one is a bit obvious, I suppose. But buying my books literally pays me for what I'm doing. And the more it sells, the higher on the best seller list it will climb!

Pick up YouTube merch - This one is pretty new but I created a merch store where I'm selling shirts and items with my channel logo and the Terror Tube story logo. You can check that out here. 


So, there you have a it. There's a few different ways in each category to support me, in case you were wondering. Like I said before, no way is better than the other. Do only what you can or feel comfortable doing. And hey, just by reading this blog post you've helped me out a lot! So, leave a comment below and drop a like and have a great rest of your day.