Michael R. Hicks's Blog, page 22

IN HER NAME is Now Free For Amazon Kindle – Happy New Year!

As a special goodie to help ring in 2012, the omnibus edition of IN HER NAME is available FREE for Amazon Kindle (all stores, not just US) on 30 and 31 December 2011. There aren't any gimmicks, just go to your fave Kindle store (all the links are on the ) and grab a copy if you don't already have it.

On top of that, if you own a Kindle and are a member of Amazon Prime, you can borrow IN HER NAME whenever you like – free. Yes, free, free, free.

Why free? Because I wanted to do a little something nice for my first new year as a full-time author, and, well, sales for the omnibus could use a little kick in the pants, and free giveaways tend to help give books a boost, and that'll help me put more mac and cheese on the family table!

If you already own the omnibus, don't despair: join my newsletter instead. I'm planning something special for the release of FROM CHAOS BORN, the next installment of the IN HER NAME story, but it's only going to be offered to my newsletter subscribers. Which reminds me, I need to write something up on that. So many posts, so little time…

Related Posts:The New Amazon KDP Select Program And What It Means For YouWhy I WriteBlogging: How Important Is It?

How Would YOU Like To Be In A Military Prison…Forever?

Okay, I've read more on the scary provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2012 that I blogged about recently. My friend, let me be very up-front about this: it doesn't matter what your political persuasion is, if you're a US citizen or live in the US in a legal status, the NDAA this year is something you should be very, very concerned about.

Why? Because there are two provisions in it that stand to really undermine some of our most basic constitutional freedoms, and the thing is very close now to becoming law. I don't normally go off the deep end about political issues (in fact, I almost never address them publicly), but this is very important.

The reason I'm writing a follow-up post on this is because someone on Google+ pointed out to me that US citizens were exempt from the provisions of the bill that are of concern, the ones that people are afraid will give the government extremely wide latitude to toss people into military prisons indefinitely, and I've seen a small number of other such comments on various blogs.

So I went back in and looked at the text of the bill in more detail, hoping that these folks were indeed correct, and that the whole NDAA thing was much ado about nothing.

Unfortunately, I'm more concerned now than I was before, especially since it now looks like President Obama is going back on his original threat to veto the bill, and is now saying he'll sign it into law. Oy.

So, what's the big deal? Why should you be concerned?

There are two provisions in the NDAA, which is a huge pile of individual bits of law that, mostly, provide funding and other authorizations for the Department of Defense, that are of concern:

- 1031 "AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE"

- 1032 "REQUIREMENT FOR MILITARY CUSTODY".

1031 essentially authorizes the military to indefinitely detain people suspected of being involved in some way, shape or form with terrorism, with very vague language that is in itself rather troubling. There is also nothing specifically prohibiting the military from operating on US territory, which leaves that little loophole wide open.

1032 spells out whom the military is required to detain under the provisions of 1031.

The question that everyone is asking is, do these provisions apply to US citizens and lawful resident aliens in U.S. territory, and just how well-defined are the powers that we, the people, are about to hand over to Uncle Sam?

I've attached the text from both provisions at the bottom of this post so you can read them for yourself, but here's my take on them in brief:

1. While both provisions mention US citizens and lawful resident aliens, neither specifically exempts them from the indefinite military custody provisions. The bottom line here is that if the government decides that you're up to no good based on the very loose provisions of 1031, you could be detained by the military indefinitely, on no more than suspicion, and without due process. Welcome to Guantanamo.

Here are the relevant passages:

Section 1031 (Authorization for the military to detain people)

1031(b), Covered Persons: This section covers who the military could go after, and is extremely loose in 1031(b)(2). However, there is no reference at all here to US citizens or lawful resident aliens, exempt or otherwise.

1031(e): Some people are construing the section of 1031 that I've highlighted below to mean that US citizens are exempt, but that's not what it says at all. It only says that it doesn't change any existing laws or authorities. 1031 is a new law that's giving the government additional, new authorities.

As I mentioned earlier, there is also nothing limiting or excluding the area of operations for military units operating under 1031 authorities. That leaves the game open for operations on US territory, which proponents of the provisions have made no bones about.

1031(e): Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.

Section 1032 (Who the military is required to detain)

Section 1032(b) "APPLICABILITY TO UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS" sounds promising, but let's look a bit more closely:

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS.—The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.—The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.

Here's the trick on this one: 1032 says only that there is no requirement to detain a US citizen or lawful alien under the provisions of 1031. It does not say they're exempt. There is a huge difference.

More frightening to me is that, since detaining a US citizen/legal alien is neither required nor exempt, it seems like it would then fall into the discretionary category. So if you were a US citizen and the government thought you fell under the covered persons category of 1031, they wouldn't be required to detain you. But they could, since there is no text to say they cannot, and should instead turn over their leads to civil authorities like the FBI.

My friend, these are things we can't just take for granted. I've attached the entire text of both provisions below. Take some time to read them and decide for yourself. This thing is now in the House of Representatives – contact your representative and let them know what you think.

Subtitle D—Detainee Matters

SEC. 1031. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40) includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons (as defined in subsection (b)) pending disposition under the law of war.

(b) COVERED PERSONS.—A covered person under this section is any person as follows:

(1) A person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored those responsible for those attacks.

(2) A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.

(c) DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR.—The disposition of a person under the law of war as described in subsection (a) may include the following:

(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

(2) Trial under chapter 47A of title 10, United States Code (as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (title XVIII of Public Law 11125 84)).

(3) Transfer for trial by an alternative court or competent tribunal having lawful jurisdiction.

(4) Transfer to the custody or control of the person's country of origin, any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity.

(d) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.

(e) AUTHORITIES.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.

(f) REQUIREMENT FOR BRIEFINGS OF CONGRESS.— The Secretary of Defense shall regularly brief Congress regarding the application of the authority described in this section, including the organizations, entities, and individuals considered to be ''covered persons'' for purposes of subsection (b)(2).

SEC. 1032. REQUIREMENT FOR MILITARY CUSTODY.

(a) CUSTODY PENDING DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in paragraph (4), the Armed Forces of the United States shall hold a person described in paragraph (2) who is captured in the course of hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40) in military custody pending disposition under the law of war.

(2) COVERED PERSONS.—The requirement in paragraph (1) shall apply to any person whose detention is authorized under section 1031 who is determined—

(A) to be a member of, or part of, al-Qaeda or an associated force that acts in coordination with or pursuant to the direction of al-Qaeda; and

(B) to have participated in the course of planning or carrying out an attack or attempted attack against the United States or its coalition partners.

(3) DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR.—For purposes of this subsection, the disposition of a person under the law of war has the meaning given in section 1031(c), except that no transfer otherwise described in paragraph (4) of that section shall be made unless consistent with the requirements of section 1033.

(4) WAIVER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY.—The Secretary of Defense may, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, waive the requirement of paragraph (1) if the Secretary submits to Congress a certification in

writing that such a waiver is in the national security interests of the United States.

(b) APPLICABILITY TO UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.—

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS.—The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.—The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.

(c) IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURES.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall issue, and submit to Congress, procedures for implementing this section.

(2) ELEMENTS.—The procedures for implementing this section shall include, but not be limited to, procedures as follows:

(A) Procedures designating the persons authorized to make determinations under subsection (a)(2) and the process by which such determinations are to be made.

(B) Procedures providing that the requirement for military custody under subsection (a)(1) does not require the interruption of ongoing surveillance or intelligence gathering with regard to persons not already in the custody or control of the United States.

(C) Procedures providing that a determination under subsection (a)(2) is not required to be implemented until after the conclusion of an interrogation session which is ongoing at the time the determination is made and does not require the interruption of any such ongoing session.

(D) Procedures providing that the requirement for military custody under subsection (a)(1) does not apply when intelligence, law enforcement, or other government officials of the United States are granted access to an individual who remains in the custody of a third country.

(E) Procedures providing that a certification of national security interests under subsection (a)(4) may be granted for the purpose of transferring a covered person from a third country if such a transfer is in the interest of the United States and could not otherwise be accomplished.

(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall take effect on the date that is 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall apply with respect to persons described in subsection (a)(2) who are taken into the custody or brought under the control of the United States on or after that effective date.

Related Posts:The National Defense Authorization Act: Truth Is More Frightening Than FictionA Personal Recollection Of 9/11I Am Now an Expert on NFL FootballAmazon Kindle's New @Author Feature – A New Way For Readers and Authors To ConnectWhy I Write

Some Advice To New Or Aspiring Authors

A lot of folks who want to publish a book (typically a novel, but non-fiction, as well) have asked me, "Hey, do you have any advice on how to get published?" As you may know, I put a book together to cover this little question in more depth, but herewith are a few general observations from my perspective, for what they may be worth:

1. First and foremost, you need to sit your butt down and write. Today. "Oh, I want to write a novel some day…" Stop wanting and start doing. Like everything else, it's easy to make excuses to not do it. I have to combat that myself every day, even doing this for a living now: there are all kinds of things (like blogging!) that creep in to steal away my writing time, but if you're not writing, you'll never be an author. So stop putting it off and write as much as you can, even if it's only a little bit, every day.

2. Decide how you want to be published. By that, I mean that you have to decide if you're going to self-publish or go the traditionally published (trad pub) route. I'm going to be blunt on this one: if you're not going the self-published route, you're screwing yourself. I'm not going to go into gory detail here, but the bottom line is that if your book is good enough to be picked up by a trad pub house, assuming you won the lottery to get a contract in the first place, you'll almost certainly make a LOT more money self-publishing. And I emphasize the money aspect because for me, writing started out as a hobby, but it's now the means by which I put bread on the table for my family. So if you want to go with a Big 6 publisher for the prestige or whatever, power to you. But while your book is sitting with your agent (whom you have to pay) for a couple years, and then sitting in the production queue with the publisher for another year or two, after revisions, I'll have put out about a dozen new books, each of which will earn me at least some (and in a few cases, a lot) of money right away. Good luck.

3. Exploit all the media possibilities you can: ebooks, print, and audiobooks immediately come to mind. You may not be able to do them all at once, but over time try to cover all those bases, because they represent different market segments (i.e., more readers) and additional potential income. The time investment, particularly for audiobook production, can be pretty steep, but once it's done, it's done, and aside from the promotional angle, you don't have to do any additional work to generate money from your sales. Can you say residual income, boys and girls? I knew you could!

4. If you go the self-publishing route, do it right. Here's what I mean by that:

- First, find a fiendishly picky editorial team. You want people who are going to tell you what sucks about your work so you can make it better. Learn to embrace the red ink – your readers will thank you for it. People do things different ways, but the editorial system I use has three major stages. First, my wife reads each chapter as I finish the draft to make sure I'm not taking the story down a blind alley or doing something outrageously stupid. Once the manuscript is done, I go over it, then send it on to my editorial team, which is stage 2. My team currently comprises three people (two of whom are Norwegian!), and they go after the manuscript with butcher knives. Once they're done hacking and chopping, I go back over the story and incorporate the changes. Stage 3 is for the beta readers. Their job is really just to read the book and see if anything irritating leaps out at them. If they pick up any stray typos, that's great, but their main job is just to test-read the story and make sure it comes off well. When they're done, I incorporate any changes, then hit the publish button. Poof.

- Second, get some decent cover art. This is one of the few places that I recommend you spend some money if you can't do a decent job yourself. There are lots of folks who offer this service now, and you can also find artists on DeviantART, for example, who are amazingly talented and can do custom work, often at extremely reasonable prices. And please remember the sole purpose of the cover: to catch the eye of potential readers and get them to read the blurb. That's really all it's for, but it's a very critical function that you don't want to screw up with lousy cover art.

- Third, make sure you have a decent blurb for your book. This is actually one of the most difficult things to do, and is something I still struggle with. You want something that's catchy, fairly brief, and – most important – gets the reader curious about your book, enough so that they'll at least check out a sample or read some of the reviews.

Doing those three things won't guarantee you'll have a bestseller, but it'll make your book competitive.

5. Get involved with writing/reading communities. This is something I didn't do until after I'd published my first book back in 2008, and the quality of the book suffered for it. Why? Because these places – forums, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – is where you'll likely find your editors and beta readers, as well as a lot of good information on, well, just about everything. HOWEVER, approach this with one thing in mind: it's incredibly easy to get sucked into spending tons of times on forums, etc., talking about the issues related to publishing and being an author, when you should be writing your books. I've seen authors make multiple posts on threads that added up to thousands of words in a single day, then they complain about not making much progress on their current book. Well, yeah…

6. BE PATIENT. This is the hardest thing to get across to a lot of folks. So many people think that just because they wrote and self-published The Next Great American Novel that it should be an overnight bestseller. While there are some "quantum leap" authors like Amanda Hocking who leap onto the charts out of nowhere, she's the exception, not the rule. It's akin to trying to win the lottery versus an intelligent long-term investment strategy. You can spend your life's savings on lottery tickets and never win it big, but if you invest the same money intelligently over time, you're going to make money. Will you make millions? Probably not, but you can probably make enough to make a living at it…given time. It took me a total of seven years working like a dog between my full-time job and squeezing in enough time to write seven books before I was making enough to consider quitting my day job. Patience and perseverance, grasshopper.

7. Learn all you can about marketing, book promotion, and – most important (from my perspective) – social media. You can write the greatest story ever told, but if you can't let people know about it, entice them to read it, and build a fan base interested in buying your next book, you're never going to succeed. It's not rocket science, but it takes a willingness to learn, experiment, and, most important, that perseverance thing. You've got to work promotion every single day over a long period of time to build up your fan base, and that process should never stop.

8. Lastly, keep writing more books. Even if you have a bestseller, don't make the mistake that I did and assume that it's always going to be a bestseller. Sooner or later, that top-ten book is going to fall off the charts into your backlist. Accept it. Get over it. Just be working on the next book, with the understanding that not every book you write is going to be a bestseller. It dosen't matter, just keep building up your list. The nice thing is that books in your backlist will continue to earn money forever (assuming you're self-published; if not, you're at the mercy of the publisher). Even if each book is just earning a trickle, that's okay, because by the time you have a bunch of books out, those trickles can combine into a river of money. Again, though, that's going to take time (see #6).

Related Posts:My Crystal Ball Look At The Publishing IndustryWhy I WriteStop Worrying About Book Sales StatsMarketing Tips For Self-Published Authors: Using Twitter Effectively (Part 1)Marketing Tips For Self-Published Authors: Using Twitter Effectively (Part 2)

Some Advice To New Or Aspiring Authors

A lot of folks who want to publish a book (typically a novel, but non-fiction, as well) have asked me, “Hey, do you have any advice on how to get published?” As you may know, I put a book together to cover this little question in more depth, but herewith are a few general observations from my perspective, for what they may be worth:

First and foremost, you need to sit your butt down and write. Today. “Oh, I want to write a novel some day…” Stop wanting and start doing. Like everything else, it’s easy to make excuses to not do it. I have to combat that myself every day, even doing this for a living now: there are all kinds of things (like blogging!) that creep in to steal away my writing time, but if you’re not writing, you’ll never be an author. So stop putting it off and write as much as you can, even if it’s only a little bit, every day.Decide how you want to be published. By that, I mean that you have to decide if you’re going to self-publish or go the traditionally published (trad pub) route. I’m going to be blunt on this one: if you’re not going the self-published route, you’re screwing yourself. I’m not going to go into gory detail here, but the bottom line is that if your book is good enough to be picked up by a trad pub house, assuming you won the lottery to get a contract in the first place, you’ll almost certainly make a LOT more money self-publishing. And I emphasize the money aspect because for me, writing started out as a hobby, but it’s now the means by which I put bread on the table for my family. So if you want to go with a major publisher for the prestige or whatever, power to you. But while your book is sitting with your agent (whom you have to pay) for a couple years, and then sitting in the production queue with the publisher for another year or two, after revisions, I’ll have put out about four new books, each of which will earn me at least some (and in a few cases, a lot) of money right away. Good luck.Exploit all the media possibilities you can: ebooks, print, and audiobooks immediately come to mind. You may not be able to do them all at once, but over time try to cover all those bases, because they represent different market segments (i.e., more readers) and additional potential income. The time investment, particularly for audiobook production, can be pretty steep, but once it’s done, it’s done, and aside from the promotional angle, you don’t have to do any additional work to generate money from your sales. Can you say residual income, boys and girls? I knew you could!If you go the self-publishing route, do it right. Here’s what I mean by that:First, find a fiendishly picky editorial team. You want people who are going to tell you what sucks about your work so you can make it better. Learn to embrace the red ink – your readers will thank you for it. People do things different ways, but the editorial system I use has three major stages. First, my wife reads each chapter as I finish the draft to make sure I’m not taking the story down a blind alley or doing something outrageously stupid. Once the manuscript is done, I go over it, then send it on to my editorial team, which is stage 2. My team currently comprises three people (two of whom are Norwegian!), and they go after the manuscript with butcher knives. Once they’re done hacking and chopping, I go back over the story and incorporate the changes. Stage 3 is for the beta readers. Their job is really just to read the book and see if anything irritating leaps out at them. If they pick up any stray typos, that’s great, but their main job is just to test-read the story and make sure it comes off well. When they’re done, I incorporate any changes, then hit the publish button. Poof.Second, get some decent cover art. This is one of the few places that I recommend you spend some money if you can’t do a decent job yourself. There are lots of folks who offer this service now, and you can also find artists on DeviantART, for example, who are amazingly talented and can do custom work, often at extremely reasonable prices. And please remember the sole purpose of the cover is to catch the eye of potential readers and get them to read the blurb. That’s really all it’s for, but it’s a very critical function that you don’t want to screw up with lousy cover art.Third, make sure you have a decent blurb for your book. This is actually one of the most difficult things to do, and is something I still struggle with. You want something that’s catchy, fairly brief, and – most important – gets the reader curious about your book, enough so that they’ll at least check out a sample or read some of the reviews.

Doing those three things won’t guarantee you’ll have a bestseller, but it’ll make your book competitive.

Get involved with writing/reading communities. This is something I didn’t do until after I’d published my first book back in 2008, and the quality of the book suffered for it. Why? Because these places – forums, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – is where you’ll likely find your editors and beta readers, as well as a lot of good information on, well, just about everything. HOWEVER, approach this with one thing in mind: it’s incredibly easy to get sucked into spending tons of times on forums, etc., talking about the issues related to publishing and being an author, when you should be writing your books. I’ve seen authors make multiple posts on threads that added up to thousands of words in a single day, then they complain about not making much progress on their current book. Well, yeah…BE PATIENT. This is the hardest thing to get across to a lot of folks. So many people think that just because they wrote and self-published The Next Great American Novel that it should be an overnight bestseller. While there are some “quantum leap” authors like Amanda Hocking who leap onto the charts out of nowhere, she’s the exception, not the rule. It’s akin to trying to win the lottery versus an intelligent long-term investment strategy. You can spend your life’s savings on lottery tickets and never win it big, but if you invest the same money intelligently over time, you’re going to make money. Will you make millions? Probably not, but you can probably make enough to make a living at it…given time. It took me a total of seven years working like a dog between my full-time job and squeezing in enough time to write seven books before I was making enough to consider quitting my day job. Patience and perseverance, grasshopper.Learn all you can about marketing, book promotion, and – most important (from my perspective) – social media. You can write the greatest story ever told, but if you can’t let people know about it, entice them to read it, and build a fan base interested in buying your next book, you’re never going to succeed. It’s not rocket science, but it takes a willingness to learn, experiment, and, most important, that perseverance thing. You’ve got to work promotion every single day over a long period of time to build up your fan base, and that process should never stop.Lastly, keep writing more books. Even if you have a bestseller, don’t make the mistake that I did and assume that it’s always going to be a bestseller. Sooner or later, that top-ten book is going to fall off the charts into your backlist. Accept it. Get over it. Just be working on the next book, with the understanding that not every book you write is going to be a bestseller: don’t let that crush your ego. It doesn’t matter, just keep building up your list. The nice thing is that books in your backlist will continue to earn money forever (assuming you’re self-published; if not, you’re at the mercy of the publisher and your contract). Even if each book is just earning a trickle, that’s okay, because by the time you have a bunch of books out, those trickles can combine into a river of money. Again, though, that’s going to take time (see #6).

One last note that I may cover in a separate post in more detail: unless you just want to have a few copies of your book to hand out to friends and family, do NOT pay a vanity press/vanity publisher to publish your book. I’ve seen a lot of people over the years give up money, in some cases a lot of it, to these villains. Their business model makes money from AUTHORS, not readers. If any publisher wants money from you to publish your work, run, don’t walk, away.

The post Some Advice To New Or Aspiring Authors appeared first on Michael R. Hicks.

The New Amazon KDP Select Program And What It Means For You

I should've posted about this earlier, but now will have to do. The long and short of it is that earlier this month, Amazon rolled out a new program for Kindle called KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select.

For readers, the bottom line is that you can now get access to a wide variety of Kindle books for free…if you're a member of Amazon Prime. Prime members now have access to what's essentially a large virtual lending library of KDP Select titles. So if you're a Prime member and have a Kindle, it's a great deal!

I'll also say something about Amazon Prime right up front: it's an awesome program if you do much shopping with Amazon. The annual fee is $79, which gives you free regular shipping on tons of items, and ridiculously inexpensive ($3.99 per item) 1-day shipping; access to a bunch of Amazon streaming videos; and now free books. I've been a member for the last few years, and I've saved a boatload of money just in shipping costs.

For authors, KDP Select offers some cool options, but there are some caveats that you have to take into account. If you put a book into the KDP Select program (which is done easily with a few clicks in the KDP interface), you agree to remove your book from other distribution channels for 90 days, or as long as you keep the book in KDP Select. So, if your book is available for the Nook, Kobo, etc., you have to go and shut those channels down while your book is in KDP Select. And you can specify that your book automatically be rolled over in KDP Select after the 90 days are over, or not. And you can enter a book in the program any time later.

Keep in mind, however, that this only applies to ebook versions of the book. If you have the book in print, audiobooks, etc., the KDP Select agreement doesn't apply to other media formats.

On the upside, you get to offer your book free for 5 days in any given 90 day KDP Select period – and that means free for everybody, not just Prime members, for those 5 days. The other nice thing is that Amazon is allocating a chunk of money – $500,000 for December – that's a pool from which authors will be paid a share for every book borrow by Prime members. So every time a Prime member borrows a book you have in KDP Select, you're going to get a chunk of money from that pool. How much will depend on the total number of borrows and what your percentage is, so obviously the more borrows, the better.

For me, I decided to put IN HER NAME: FIRST CONTACT and SEASON OF THE HARVEST in the program to test the waters. So if you own a Kindle and are an Amazon Prime member, check 'em out – for you, they're free for the next 90 days!

Oh, and one last thing: when an author puts a KDP Select title up for free promotion (remember, those 5 of 90 days the author can make the book free for everybody, not just Prime members), it appears that non-US folks can actually get the book for free from Amazon US. Normally you'd have to pay an "I don't live in the U.S." surcharge, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the KDP Select free promotions, at least based on some feedback I've gotten from a couple readers overseas. It also looks like KDP Select free promotion titles are free in *all* the Amazon stores (US, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES), which is nice!

Related Posts:Amazon Kindle's New @Author Feature – A New Way For Readers and Authors To Connect$100 Giveaway by Michael R. Hicks – For Clicking a Couple ButtonsGet Your Kids Started Early On The Road To SuccessMy Crystal Ball Look At The Publishing Industry

The National Defense Authorization Act: Truth Is More Frightening Than Fiction

I've generally made it a point to steer clear of political or contentious issues in my blogging, not because I don't have an opinion, but because as an author serving a very diverse group of readers I don't particularly care to start any major food fights. It's just not my style, unless I'm armed with an open can of cream corn. I'm also not partial to any public use of profanity. That's something I generally reserve for when I'm engaged in a home fixit project or have maneuvered our RV into a spot too tight for a Mazda Miyata.

Then I read about the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 and some provisions that were tacked onto it. What we're talking about here is a direct threat to some of our most basic constitutional rights. And that's enough to cause me to stand up and say, "What the frack??"

If you don't know what the NDAA is, it's an annually recurring bit of legislation that lays out the budget for the Department of Defense. That in itself is no big deal, and I'm not here to argue whether we're spending too much, too little, or a just right amount. You can call me Shirley, just don't call me Goldilocks.

The 2012 NDAA, however, has a juicy little twist that would give the military the power to detain and hold – indefinitely – anyone even suspected of being involved with terror groups, including U.S. citizens within the United States. You could be jailed without trial by the military and held as long as the "war on terror" continues, which will probably be forever, unfortunately. There's no probable cause, no reasonable doubt, just suspicion. That's it.

Imperfect as it may be, the entire civil judicial process, all the checks and balances, even the basic concept of "innocent until proven guilty," would all go straight out the window if the government suspected you of somehow being involved with terrorist groups or associated entities (which are all pretty loosely defined). Instead of the FBI knocking on your door and at least telling you that you have the right to remain silent, and the government either having to make a case against you or let you out of the pokey, you could be rounded up by the military, shipped off to a detention facility (hey, Guantanamo is keeping a light on for ya!) and given the water boarding treatment, just because the government suspects you of being associated with terrorism in some way.

Do you think I'm being melodramatic? Check out one of the pithy statements Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of the bill's supporters, has made on the issue:

"If you're an American citizen and you betray your country, you're going to be held in military custody and you're going to be questioned about what you know, and you're not going to be given a lawyer."

Follow that up with this one, also by Graham:

"I believe our military should be deeply involved in fighting these guys at home or abroad."

I can easily see a scenario where the government at some point decides that muslims here in the U.S. pose an "unacceptable" threat to national security. Under the provisions of NDAA 2012, elements of the intelligence community – including the National Security Agency, which is under the Department of Defense – could conceivably be authorized to conduct more intrusive surveillance (with the FBI and the Justice Department cut out of the loop). And people who are "suspected" of being involved or possibly associated with the various officially declared terror groups could be rounded up by active duty military or even National Guard personnel and sent off to detainment facilities. A knock on your door in the middle of the night and you disappear.

Muslims are an obvious target, but they're not the only one. Supporters of the various factions that together from a secessionist movement are another. How about the Occupy Wall Street folks? Take your pick. Once you let this sort of genie out of the bottle, all you need is suspicion on the part of the government, just like we "suspected" there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, right?

"Oh, come on!" Says you. "That would never happen! Uncle Sam would never do that, charge the military with rounding up a bunch of American citizens and lock them away without due process. You're a loon! Go back to writing your novels."

I hate to tell you this, but it's happened already. President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 during World War 2 authorized the Secretary of War and U.S. armed forces commanders to declare areas of the United States as military areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded." This led to over 100,000 people, over sixty percent of whom were American citizens, being detained at places like Manzanar, simply because they were "suspected" of possibly supporting the Axis powers. The vast majority of them were of Japanese ancestry. Since they looked like Japanese, they obviously must have been sympathetic to the Empire of Japan. Right.

Thankfully, EO 9066 was rescinded in 1976 by President Ford, and a subsequent review by a commission under President Carter concluded that the decision to detain those people was based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership," and not military necessity.

Does any of that sound familiar? Substitute religious prejudice (muslim = terrorist) for race prejudice, war hysteria is easy to come by when we're dealing with threats to the homeland, and I think almost everyone can agree that we've seen more than our fair share of failure of political leadership these days.

At least Roosevelt had to man up and issue an executive order, which could conceivably have been challenged by any clear-thinking Congress (which we obviously didn't have back then, either). But NDAA 2012 would take what was done under EO 9066 one giant leap beyond and give the executive branch and the military even more sweeping powers by law.

Now, I have to apologize up front to my conservative friends, because when I initially read about these provisions in the NDAA, my first thought was that it was a bit of a reactionary move on the part of extreme conservatives. Well-intentioned, I'm sure, but loony, nonetheless.

I humbly stand corrected. Proving that insanity reigns on both sides of the aisle, these provisions were actually co-authored by Sen Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ), who tacked them onto the NDAA.

Because the NDAA is the basic funding legislation for the Department of Defense, it's not an easy bill to shoot down. In fact, it already passed in the Senate by a 93 to 7 vote on 1 December, so it's essentially a third of the way to becoming law. Based on the landslide in the Senate vote, it's hard for me to imagine that the House isn't going to follow suit.

This will leave the steaming mess on President Obama's desk, where he'll have to decide if he has the chutzpah to veto it. If he does, he'll of course get the blame for messing up the DoD's funding for the coming year. I don't want to think about what could happen if he doesn't. It's a steep and slippery slope toward an abyss that we don't want to fall into.

You still don't believe me, I know. So let's take a look at the range of those who oppose the bill, which speaks volumes to just how bad it is. The president is against it, and has threatened to veto it (whether he actually will remains to be seen), and the inner circle of the administration seem to all be in step on this one. The ACLU is against it. Arizona Tea Party members protested against McCain over it. Occupy protestors in Utah protested it. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) is against it. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, two individuals who would be instrumental in carrying out this constitutional abortion, are both against it.

I don't have any axes to grind with the right or the left. I believe most people are motivated to try and do the right thing, but not everybody agrees on what the right thing is all the time. But I'll tell you this: I've spent my entire adult life serving the military and the intelligence community, and believe me when I say that we do NOT want these sorts of vague, invasive authorities given to the government. Because once we do, we won't get them back, and these powers can be abused far, far too easily.

When it comes to fighting terror at home, we need to be vigilant and strong, but we need to leave that part of the war to those who are in the best position to fight it: the FBI, police, the courts, and the other elements of our judicial system, so we can seek justice without destroying the core values of the Constitution.

Our military is trained and equipped to defend our nation from threats beyond its borders, and our folks in uniform do their job (failures in political leadership aside) admirably well. But I don't want them given the power to lock up American citizens or anyone else on our soil without due process. One Guantanamo (not the military's fault, by the way, but a clear illustration of how we shouldn't be doing things, in my opinion) is quite enough, thank you very much.

So, if you're an American, do yourself and your children a huge favor. Contact your Congressional Representative and let them know what you think about all this. Because when the House votes on it, if they pass it, there's only one more stop – the president's desk – before it becomes law. And I think that would be a Bad Thing.

Okay, I'm off my political soap box now. I'll shut up and go back to writing novels…

Related Posts:A Personal Recollection Of 9/11Why I WriteMarketing Tips For Self-Published Authors: Using Twitter Effectively (Part 1)Using Twitter Effectively (Part 3): The Magic of Tweet AdderThe First Glimpse of A Leap Into Hell

Audio Prologue for Season Of The Harvest

You Are What You Eat!

It's taking me a while to get the hang of the audio thing, but hopefully I'm getting better! This is a cut of the prologue for my thriller novel SEASON OF THE HARVEST, which I'll hopefully have ready for release in audio book format in January (and yes, I'm planning to do this for all my books).

So, take a listen and I hope you enjoy it!

Related Posts:Maiden Voyage Of Our Home On WheelsA Humble Thank You To Steve JobsHow I Almost Destroyed the Natural Bridge in Virginia

What Does Branding Really Mean?

Branding is something you hear a lot about if you read anything to do with marketing. And no, I'm not talking about branding with a red-hot iron, although I suppose there are times that could be useful, too.

No, I'm talking about branding as in "marketing your brand", "brand recognition", and that sorta stuff. I've read a lot about it, although I'll confess that I don't know a lot about it. But this morning I read a comment by Paula Jordan on my interview at Dark Cargo that hit the nail right on the head without a lot of marketspeak.

Paula was commenting on the avatar photo that I use for my on-line presence, from my email signatures, Twitter, Facebook, and even Gravatar. Here's what it looks like, with my ugly, smiling mug and cool $10 sunglasses, flying in the back seat of my cousin Wendy's plane over the Great Salt Lake. I'll tell you right now, you wouldn't believe how many people have asked me about this photo!

Anyway, this is what Paula said:

And that photo is definitely a keeper. I am embarrassed to say that I didn't recognize your name when I read the interview, but recognized your pic immediately.

That's a better definition of branding than all the marketese I've ever read. That photo has become something people recognize and associate with me, even when my name doesn't ring a bell. That's really what branding is: all the ways that people can or will recognize you or what you do, without even knowing or remembering your name.

For an author, a couple of your best branding "strategies" are a photo of yourself that is notable, and – of course – your book covers, particularly for a series of books. For example, my uses the same fonts and text element placement, and also has the handle of a sword placed very prominently. If you've seen any of the books in that series, you'll immediately recognize the others.

So, there's some food for thought on branding. And thanks, Paula!

Related Posts:Why I WriteMarketing Tips For Self-Published Authors: Using Twitter Effectively (Part 1)Marketing Tips For Self-Published Authors: Using Twitter Effectively (Part 2)Get Your Kids Started Early On The Road To Success

It's A Good Thing I'm Not An Arsonist

Yes, of course it's a good thing that I'm not an arsonist, as I wouldn't want to burn down anyone's home or have to sit in jail. It would also just be a poor career choice for me, because I can't even start a campfire worth a dang.

This has become a family tradition when we're out in the RV. All of us love campfires, which is unfortunate, because we have yet to be able to light one and keep it lit long enough to roast more than a single round of marshmellows.

Worse, I'm running out of excuses. I've already gone through the High Winds, Rain, and Wet Wood Excuses. I still have the Tornado, Tsunami, and Asteroid Excuses, but after that we're getting pretty thin.

I fully admit my incompetence at starting fires, but I can't help but think there's a celestial conspiracy at work. For example, you'd think – through basic logic, if nothing else – that pouring a quart of lighter fluid on a set of spindly logs and lighting it would cause, well, fire.

It does. For about thirty seconds. During that brief window, we have a spectacular and titanic blaze that's fit to burn your eyebrows off from a hundred paces away. Then it dies.

For this, I am clearly a failure as a Manly Parental Figure, because all boys expect their dad (or stepdad, in my case) to be able to produce fire, other than when homework isn't done or the litter boxes haven't been cleaned out. I have already failed in the Fishing Department, because the only fish I can catch are the ones in the seafood section at the grocery store. Two strikes already. I'm doomed.

However, all is not lost. I've researched the topic on YouTube and have learned the secrets of making fire from eight year olds who can build a bonfire from nothing more than three paper plates and a single match.

But I think I'll opt for a flamethrower next time.

Related Posts:Stop Worrying About Book Sales StatsMaiden Voyage Of Our Home On WheelsI Am Now an Expert on NFL FootballWho's Your Favorite Hero?Using Twitter Effectively (Part 3): The Magic of Tweet Adder

IN HER NAME – To Be Continued

As you know, I've been working on another story for a while (tentatively titled Leap Into Hell, a World War 2 time travel romance novel), but after a lot of contemplation during our most recent RV trip, I've decided to temporarily set that one aside and get started on another project that's been weighing more and more heavily on my mind: the next novel of the IN HER NAME series.

Of all the feedback I've gotten from readers, the most consistent theme has been that you wanted to learn more about the Kreelan Empire and culture. So in this next book (or series of books, depending on how it comes out), I'm going to take you back one hundred thousand years to the foundation of the Empire, to the time of the First Empress. There aren't any humans in the story, of course, as our distant ancestors still had yet to make their way beyond the continent of Africa, and still shared the world with the Neanderthals.

I hope to have the first book out by early Spring 2012, and will keep you posted on my progress. Time to get writing!

Related Posts:How I Almost Destroyed the Natural Bridge in VirginiaWhy I WriteWhy Success is Like A Marathon