Michael R. Hicks's Blog, page 18

In Her Name: First Contact Is Now Free For Nook!

Okay, Nook lovers, now’s your chance to get free!

This isn’t a special promotion or one-time offer: it’s free forever in hopes I can get you addicted to the In Her Name series. Call me an evil book enabler.

So, if you’re looking for some kick-butt science fiction/fantasy, grab a copy and give it a whirl. What have you got to lose but a little time reading it to see if you like it?

By the way, if you’re not a Nook user, the book is also available for the other major formats here on the site and at Smashwords…free. Go get it!

iTunes Book List

To make it a bit easier for readers to find my books on iTunes, I made a list here for your convenience!

IN HER NAME Series

Listed in recommended reading order

(In Her Name: The Last War, Book 1)



(In Her Name: The Last War, Book 2)



(In Her Name: The Last War, Book 3)



(In Her Name: Redemption, Book 1)



(In Her Name: Redemption, Book 2)



(In Her Name: Redemption, Book 3)



(In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 1)



Novellas And Short Stories




The Journal Of Avery Moore (Coming Soon)



Non-Fiction




The Path To Self-Publishing Success (Coming soon)

Scenes of the Apocalypse #7 – Venturing Into Dark, Decaying Cities for Food and Family

Today we’ve got a guest post by author Angela White to tell you about her latest book, Adrian’s Eagles. Check it out:

During and after an Apocalypse, people will be trying to find family and food, mostly in that order. They will wipe out local stores and markets, farms and storage bins, and even warehouses and factories. Then they will move onto the homes of the dead around their town or city, until they’re forced to look further outside their comfort zone. Eventually, the only places left that still hold food will be those crumbled and devastated cities that were direct targets of the war. Perishables like meat and milk will be long gone, but there will still be all the above sources the survivors have been using – they’ll just have to find it amid the rubble and danger.

The same goes for family. Would you let an earthquake keep you out of a city that you knew your loved ones to be in? Of course not. You would gather a team and go looking, or perhaps foolishly rush in with only your bare hands. In many places, only foot-travel will be able to get through, unlike the organized team in the excerpt below. This would be the smartest way, an armed clearing crew that would also gather much-needed supplies while they moved through the devastation.

“Seven very gifted survivors are destined to rebuild their country after a nuclear apocalypse…If they can stay alive long enough to find each other. Impossible to put down.” – The Review Blog

As they neared the crumbled city, the mission team was reminded of how these scenes always appeared fake in the movies. Except with the windows down, they could smell the decay and see the bodies still rotting out in the open, eyes foggy, skin mostly gone to predators, and they could hear the hordes of flies that circled and stopped, circled and stopped.

The grass was dead too, replaced with thick mud from the water rising through and over the land. It should have drained, but a fleet of Coast Guard ships had been washed up river by Hurricane Amanda, forming a thick blockade with the wreckage and not enough water was seeping through to let it. As a result, the river had been backing up into nearly every city and town along its banks. It probably would only have taken 2 hours and a little dynamite to clear but no one knew and very few would have been able to do it now. The war had changed everything.

The convoy stopped about a 1/4 mile from the first big piles of buildings, cars, lives and Adrian sat still for a long moment, deciding where to start the assault.

Angela kept quiet, almost able to feel his mind working the problem.

After a moment, he picked up the mic. “There’s a clear street behind that church. We’ll start on the right side of the lot. Once we clear a way in, we’ll be able to travel for a bit.”

No one doubted him, though how he could see it, she had no clue.

Full of realistic and fantasy situations, the Life After War series is a combination of more than 7 genres, so there’s a good chance of everyone liking it and learning a few things about survival at the same time. You can get a free copy at the link below, of the first book in the series. It’s free for all of this year to celebrate the possible end of the world on 12/21/2012.

Adrian’s Eagles Three months after the War of 2012, Safe Haven refugee camp has made it to South Dakota and now holds six of the seven special survivors meant to lead the rebuilding of their country – but it can’t be done until they find a safe place to settle… and who can think of peace when there’s a huge camp of foreign invaders less than a day behind their group and they only want one thing? Safe Haven and everyone inside the light.

Watch the trailer for this series
Free: The Survivors, the bestselling novel that started it all.
See it on iTunes
More Scenes of the Apocalypse

Looking For Some Victims…Er, Readers

I’m looking for some readers for a short-term “marketing study,” for lack of a better term. I’m specifically looking for folks who have read and enjoyed In Her Name: Empire, Confederation, and Final Battle (or, alternatively, Redemption), but have not read any of the other books of the In Her Name series.

That last bit is very important. I appreciate fans who may want to dive into this just for fun, but I specifically need people who’ve read the first trilogy, but not any of the other books.

What I have in mind isn’t terribly painful and won’t take too long: it basically will be answering a couple of questions.

If you’re interested, please email me and I’ll send you the oh-so-brief questionnaire!

Related Posts:Adjusting To Being A Full-Time Author – Part 4Marketing Tips For Self-Published Authors: Using Twitter Effectively (Part 2)Why I WriteSome Advice To New Or Aspiring AuthorsWhat Does Branding Really Mean?

You Never Know Where Life Will Lead You

As Frodo told Sam in The Lord Of The Rings, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

That’s rather how my wife and I felt this week while on the trip we took to Florida this month. You see, what started out as a two week combined business/pleasure trip has turned into a completely life-changing experience that has had far too many coincidences to believe.

Let me tell you what I mean. First off, we had originally planned to take this trip in our new RV. Unfortunately, we suffered a major financial setback called the IRS that forced us into the position of having to sell the RV so we could pay off our tax debt. So we decided to leave it home and not put any more mileage on it and just take our trusty Honda CR-V.

Now, this trip mixed business with pleasure, as I wanted to visit the Kennedy Space Center to get some ideas for a book series I have in mind, as well as hit Khaotic Kon in Tampa. So we figured we’d just hit KSC on the trip down, and then get a timeshare condo somewhere in Tampa for a week to stay while we visited Khaotic Kon and enjoyed some sun & surf.

So, I searched for a condo in our timeshare exchange system and found what looked like a nice one near Indian Rocks Beach. I showed it to my wife, Jan, who said “Looks great!”

But when I went back to the reservation page – now, keep in mind, I had just checked to see that there was a vacancy – they were booked!

After muttering some curses, I started looking again, and finally found the Calini Beach Club in Sarasota. It looked good, had a nice beach a block away, and had some vacancies. Not wanting to have a repeat of the vacancy vanishing act, I reserved one of the units and that was done.

When the time came, we hopped in the CR-V and started heading south, and after lots of driving we hit the Kennedy Space Center, and then Khaotic Kon after we got to Sarasota.

Then we met with one of my wife’s school friends and her husband, who started talking about the area…and the home prices here. Our mouths dropped open, not so much because homes here are MUCH less expensive than where we live in Maryland, but because – along with selling the RV and our second car – we’d been planning to sell our house and find something less expensive.

But “less expensive” in the area we felt tied to (for various reasons) in Maryland is a relative term. Real estate is very expensive in our area, and there were few houses available – and not really very nice ones, considering how much money we’d still have to pay – in the school district where we wanted to keep the boys.

Here in the “greater Sarasota” area, however, we found out that there were some excellent schools, and a boatload of amazing homes that were well within our price range. Plus, we absolutely love being near the beach, having lots of sun, and no state income tax wasn’t a bad thing, either!

So, our business trip/vacation turned into an impromptu house hunting expedition in the Sarasota-Rotunda area!

Then, while we were driving around, we happened to drive by the RV World dealership in Nokomis, which is just south of Sarasota. I turned to Jan. “Hey, wouldn’t it be a hoot if they’d take our RV? We should stop in there and ask.”

After we got back to the condo, I looked them up on the web. And lo and behold, they had a page saying “Turn Your RV Into $$$!”

Well, I thought, that looks promising. So, we stopped in and talked to Bob, one of the sales reps. I’ve got to tell you, my head just about spun off. Not only would they happily take our Winnebago Tour and give us a big fat check, but they had just received – the day before – a lightly used 2006 Fleetwood Expedition that was just perfect for what we need. Then they put a guy in a car and sent him north to go fetch the Tour in Maryland, and we’ll be driving the Fleetwood home next week!

Side note: If you’re considering buying an RV, I can’t recommend the folks at RV World enough. We’ve had an absolutely outstanding buying experience with them. Even if you’re not in Florida, give them a call!

When all is said and done, this weekend we’ll have a big fat check so we can pay off the IRS, which will take a HUGE burden off my shoulders, extra money on top of that, an RV that’s great for what we need (and we didn’t have to pay sales tax, because it was a negative value trade!), and we eliminated the headache I was anticipating in having to sell the Tour on my own. Yes, I probably could’ve gotten more money in the end had I sold it myself, but if I didn’t sell it quickly a lot of that profit was going to be eaten up by IRS interest and penalties. This way…it’s done.

Then we come to another coincidence: as we’re talking to Bob (who’s an incredibly friendly and very knowledgeable guy), we find out that we should check for homes in the Englewood/Rotunda/Port Charlotte area. We started looking on Realtor.com, and fell over at all the nice homes there in our price range, plus they have an excellent high school for the boys. And one of Jan’s friends who’s lived here a long time raved about it. So, guess where we’re going to be spending a couple days in our “new” RV, scoping out homes?

Anyway, the moral of the story here, to me, is to have your eyes and mind open to opportunities that are put in front of you when you set foot out your door. Things like this don’t happen all the time, but when they do, when you think, “Boy, wouldn’t it be cool if…” – you owe it to yourself to ask the question. Peer through the door of opportunity, rather than slamming it shut or walking on by.

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Tax Relief Giveaway Madness

Today (Friday, 20 April) is the last day to enter to win a $10 gift certificate to your favorite book retailer (Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Sony, etc.) for the Tax Week Giveaway Madness.

There aren’t any hoops to jump through with this one! To enter, just post a comment to this post telling me how much you love tax day (and yes, I’m being sarcastic, here) until I close the contest Saturday morning, after which I’ll announce the winner. That’s all ya gotta do! Good luck and happy reading!

Related Posts:$20 Giveaway Contest!Winners of the $20 Giveaway ContestContest – Win a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet!Adjusting To Being A Full-Time Author – Part 5Announcing The Winner Of The Kindle Fire/Nook Tablet Contest!

Announcing The Winner Of The Kindle Fire/Nook Tablet Contest!

Okay, what a number of you have been waiting for over the last few weeks since the release of FROM CHAOS BORN: the winner of the Kindle Fire/Nook Tablet giveaway!

We had three dozen entrants, and I made the selection using a little random winner plugin for WordPress (which is what this site is based on). Some of you definitely went the extra mile, with some particularly imaginative responses to the “what is your favorite color” and “why should you win” questions!

In any case, enough hooplah! The winner is…Brian M.! I’ll be contacting Bryan shortly via email to set up the arrangements.

As for the rest of you, don’t feel bad – there will be more goodies and chances to win stuff coming along shortly!

Related Posts:Upcoming Release of “FROM CHAOS BORN” – Win A Free Kindle Fire or Nook TabletContest – Win a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet!Tax Relief Giveaway Madness

Barnes & Noble Book List

To make it a bit easier for readers to find my books on Barnes & Noble (I hope that someday they clean up their site search algorithms!), I made a list here for your convenience!

IN HER NAME Series

Listed in recommended reading order

First Contact (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 1):  (Free!),

* Note: As of this writing, the description for the paperback edition on B&N’s site is incorrect.




Legend Of The Sword (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 2): Nook, Paperback



Dead Soul (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 3): Nook, Paperback



Empire (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 1): Nook (Free!), paperback



Confederation (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 2): Nook, paperback



Final Battle (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 3): Nook, paperback



From Chaos Born (In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 1): Nook, paperback coming soon



Novellas And Short Stories




The Journal Of Avery Moore: Nook



Non-Fiction




The Path To Self-Publishing Success: Nook

For Barnes & Noble Fans And Nook Users: Where To Find My Books

Okay, I totally understand the reasons why some folks choose one retailer or ebook reader like Barnes & Noble and the Nook over another, like Amazon and the Kindle. I got that, embrace it, love it.

But I have to heap scorn and derision on Barnes and Noble for having such an awful web site! Their search indexing is terrible, the links are inconsistent (sometimes they take you to a different book than what you thought, among other things), and the reviews and sometimes even the descriptions of the books aren't correct. It's a mess!

Barnes and Noble folks, this is not the way to help your customers.

So, being the nice guy that I am, and wanting folks who shop at Barnes & Noble to buy as many of my books as possible so I don't go to the poorhouse, I've made up a list of all my books published there with the correct links. And as I publish new books or editions, I'll update this for your convenience and my financial security!

Here we go:

IN HER NAME Series



EMPIRE: Nook (free!), paperback coming soon.

In the first book of the epic In Her Name science fiction & fantasy series, EMPIRE is the coming-of-age story of Reza Gard, a young boy of the Human Confederation who is swept up in the century-long war with the alien Kreelan Empire. Nightmarish female warriors with blue skin, fangs, and razor sharp talons, the Kreelans have technology that is millennia beyond that of the Confederation, yet they seek out close combat with sword and claw, fighting and dying to honor their god-like Empress. Captured and enslaved, Reza must live like his enemies in a grand experiment to see if humans have souls, and if one may be the key to unlocking an ages old curse upon the Kreelan race. Enduring the brutal conditions of Kreelan life, Reza and a young warrior named Esah-Zhurah find themselves bound together by fate and a prophecy foretold millennia before they were born.



CONFEDERATION: Nook, paperback coming soon

In the second book of the IN HER NAME science fiction & fantasy series, Reza Gard has been banished from the Kreelan Empire and is once again a stranger in a strange land as he returns to the human Confederation. Befriended by a marooned Confederation naval officer leading a desperate fight against the Kreelans on a distant colony world, she reunites Reza with Nicole Carré. With their help, he fulfills his childhood dream of becoming a Confederation Marine. Reza will need all the help he can get, for dark forces are at work at the heart of the Confederation, and Reza becomes a pawn in a lethal power struggle that leads him back to the planet Erlang. There, a heartbreaking reunion awaits him, along with the discovery of an ages-old power that the Kreelan Empire will stop at nothing to control.




FINAL BATTLE: Nook, paperback coming soon

Reza Gard awakens in a hospital on Earth after having been in a coma for months. Charged with murder and high treason, he finds himself the scapegoat for a daring plot to assassinate the President of the Confederation. Escaping with the help of Jodi Mackenzie, who is now hunted for what she knows about the death of the president, Reza discovers that something is deeply wrong with the Empire: the warriors have lost their will to fight. Compelled to step into a trap set for him and Jodi, the two once again find themselves bound for Erlang. But this time it is to meet Tesh-Dar, who has been captured. Captured and sentenced to death, they can only watch as a human armada gathers for a strike against the Kreelan homeworld. But the human fleet – and humanity itself – will be doomed to utter annihilation unless Reza can reach the Empress in time…




FIRST CONTACT: Nook, Paperback

Led by Commander Owen McClaren, the TNS Aurora is embarked on an extended survey mission, searching for new worlds that could support human life. Drawn to an uncharted star system by the discovery of potentially habitable planets, the crew of the Aurora discovers something entirely unexpected: the planets are already inhabited, but not by humans. Approached by gigantic alien starships, Aurora's crew makes ready for humanity's very first contact with another sentient race…



LEGEND OF THE SWORD: Nook, Paperback*

Six months have passed since the destruction of the human colony on Keran by the alien Kreelan Empire. Earth and other human worlds band together to form the Confederation of Humanity to provide a mutual defense against the alien invaders. Unfortunately, not all human worlds want to join the Confederation. Some, like Saint Petersburg, would rather see it destroyed. With a powerful navy built in secret and armed with nuclear weapons, Saint Petersburg is preparing their own offensive against the Confederation when the Kreelans attack.

* Note: As of this writing, the description for the paperback edition on B&N's site is incorrect.




DEAD SOUL: Nook, Paperback*

Three years after the brutal first contact encounter with the alien Kreelan Empire, the human Confederation is desperate for a victory. With over a dozen worlds under siege by legions of Kreelan warriors, President McKenna orders the Confederation military to deliver a victory to give humanity hope. Roland Mills, Valentina Sikorsky, Ichiro Sato and his wife Steph, along with the irrepressible General James Sparks are once again at the sharp end of the spear in a mission to take back the colony of Alger's World from the alien invaders before it's too late.

* Note: As of this writing, the description for the paperback edition on B&N's site is incorrect.




FROM CHAOS BORN: Nook, paperback coming soon

For long ages, the Kreelan race has been ruled by war. Only the priests and priestesses of the ancient martial orders prevented total annihilation as countless times civilizations arose, only to collapse again into savagery. But one day, a powerful warrior from a brooding fortress deep in the Great Wastelands began her bloody rise to power. Syr-Nagath, known as the Dark Queen, began a brutal war of conquest across the face of the Homeworld, secretly planning to destroy the martial orders and resurrect the dark ways of her race's apocalyptic past.


The Journal Of Avery Moore



THE JOURNAL OF AVERY MOORE: Nook

What if you awoke from surgery, only to find yourself naked and bound to a table in a stark white room…with your lips sutured shut? This is the tale of Avery Moore, a gentle-hearted man who is thrust into a nightmare of bloodletting and violent lust from which there is no escape. Read it if you dare…


The Path To Self-Publishing Success



THE PATH TO SELF-PUBLISHING SUCCESS: Nook

From self-help to marketing help, this book has it all. Gain the confidence you need to meet your goals and the business savvy you need to get there. This book is a roadmap of the things author Michael R. Hicks learned about self-publishing that set him free from his day job to pursue a full-time career as a self-published author. That change took place in the span of four months in early 2011 after he finally put all the pieces together for writing, publishing, and promoting a bestselling book. And that knowledge is what he'll be sharing with you.


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In Her Name: THE LAST WAR Is Free Today For Kindle!

If you haven't read the second cycle of the IN HER NAME series yet, don't miss this chance to grab three bestsellers in a single volume – free today, 23 March! THE LAST WAR contains the complete text of the novels FIRST CONTACT, LEGEND OF THE SWORD, and DEAD SOUL. That's almost 350,000 words of butt-kicking sci-fi/fantasy goodness!

IN HER NAME: THE LAST WAR is available at all the Amazon stores. And remember, you do NOT need a Kindle device to read Kindle books. You can grab a free Kindle reader app for just about any device and read away! Oh, and tell your friends, too…

** Grab your copy at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon ES, Amazon FR, or Amazon IT.

This is the final part of the FROM CHAOS BORN release fun-fest. And if you haven't already, make sure you read this post on the contest! The prize is a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, winner's choice!

Related Posts:Upcoming Release of "FROM CHAOS BORN" – Win A Free Kindle Fire or Nook TabletContest – Win a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet!