E.A. Copen's Blog, page 4

Friday Feature: The N Days

Today's Friday Feature isThe N Daysby South African author John Murray McKay. It's a paranormal dystopia and also his debut novel. I'll be reading and reviewing it later this month.In a world gone terribly wrong. Where the monsters of our deepest nightmares have come alive.One girl is on a journey to find Sanctuary in America.These are the N Days.Welcome to the story of Samantha Worthington Day. On the run from a demon horde that tore through the dreamscape and destroyed everything she ever l...

What the Heck is Dystopia?

To understand dystopia, you first have to know what utopia means. A utopia is an idealistic, perfect society. Dystopia has a lot in common with its utopian counterpart, but is also distinctly different. In a dystopia, a society might claim to be a utopia. It might even look like one on the surface. However, the reader or viewer is treated to a dark and seedy underworld inside that perfection, proving that perfection comes at a price.Dystopias may often also be post-disaster stories. In fact,...

Author Spotlight: Gemma Files

Today's author is Gemma Files, author of the Hexslinger Series, another weird west to add to your collections!Q) Hi there and thanks for joining me today! First off, tell us about yourself. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?A) I'm a former film critic, so I watch a hell of a lot of films, though almost never in the theatre. I've also made a commitment to writing about the stuff I watch analytically on a regular basis this year, no matter that no one's paying me to anymore, becaus...

Friday Feature: Ghostwalker

This Friday Feature is a post apocalyptic tale by Kristan Cannon. The title is really intriguing! It's the 4th book in the series and currently up for pre-order.Alone...... But this hardly means lost.Derek Moss is alone and far behind the enemy lines controlled by Colonel Harnet. While he's not lost--it's hard to be lost when he's managed to find his own, if old, backyard in Garson itself--he finds himself cut off from the Rangers of Walden and without allies as his own have presumed him dead...

Pacing in Horror or Why Jump Scares Suck

Forget everything you think you know about horror.When I say horror, the average reader and movie goer probably thinks about a small selection of things ranging from jump scares to bloody monsters to possessed children. While those things can be elements of horror, it doesn’t mean that’s what it is. This is especially true of the jump scare.I. Hate. Jump scares. Hate ‘em in movies, video games, and especially when writers try to reproduce them in books or stories. It just doesn’t work. Stay t...

Author Spotlight: C.A. King

Today's author spotlight is C.A. King, author of the Portal Prophecies.Q) Hi there and thanks for joining me today! First off, tell us about yourself. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?A) Baking and Cooking are my second go to passions. When I say passion, I mean I make about 12 dozen cookies at a time. Luckily I have friends with their own containers who stop by and fill up.Q) So you write fantasy. Tell us in your own words what that means to you and how it’s different from what...

Friday Feature: Allison Williford

This Friday’s new release feature is a contemporary romance by Allison Williford:Waiting for You.Williford'sWaiting for Youdoesn't look like your typical romance. The reviews paint it as something refreshing with a unique love interest. It's also a story about death, friendship and everything in between.Losing a loved one will always leave a gaping hole in our hearts, something 23-year-old Kylie Lewis knows all too well. But do we allow it to destroy us, leaving us terrified of ever loving ag...

Advertising with Amazon: A Tutorial

This post is primarily aimed at indie authors who are considering launching a sponsored product ad with Amazon. I should preface it by saying, before I ran my ad, I had never done any paid advertising for my books, so this was a completely new concept for me. I’m also technologically inept. I wouldn’t know an HTML tag from a corn dog, to be honest, which means if I can do it, so can you.The idea of advertising is daunting to a lot of us indie authors. We don’t like to promote ourselves and, w...

And Hell Followed With Her: Lucretia at the Crossroads

“God will have to forgive them. I can’t.”After Lucretia’s family was murdered by a band of Yavapai Indians, she’s adopted by the Mojave. It’s a tough transition, as Lucretia is a young, white girl who’s been brought up to fear all natives, but she’s a tough girl, determined to survive.Five years later, Lucretia considers the Mojave her family. She’s more used to living among them than in white society. Even though she knows she will someday return to that other world, she finds contentment in...

Friday Feature

Every Friday this year (at least I hope), I’ll be featuring a new release on the blog. This will spotlight indie authors’ new releases and tell you all about them.This Friday’s new release is actually a re-release, and one I have been looking forward to reading for a while: Madeline Dyer’s Untamed: I won’t be putting the review up until February, but I’m definitely excited to get to read it!Dyer’s Untamed is a science fiction dystopian tale, which is why I’ve pushed the review into February w...