Craig Terlson's Blog, page 13

Manifestation and Why Even Sucky Reviews Are Great.

One of the exciting things about releasing a novel to the wild (or to the reading public) is that someone, somewhere, will read it – and hopefully review it.

From a pure promotional standpoint this is huge. I mean, reviews are king in movies, music, restaurants, TV shows, and of course, books. People are less and less likely to part with their hard earned samolians unless they know the product is good. With the rising price of movies, I need to admit that I rely more and more on reviews before...

Bent Highway: Chapter Eight

Ditch

The hum of tires riding asphalt reverberated through my body, my skin buzzed like current running through wires. Chalk girl took another long pull on the bottle of Mezcal, finishing it. Ahead of us, Walt drove on, once in a while peering in the rearview to see if anyone was following – like, for instance a group of hat wearing men, or a Nascar lover with a shotgun.

“You went back, L?”

Sound felt disconnected again. It took a minute to realize it was Walt that asked the question. Damn sure...

Dunked - a story about going to Hell.

Over the weekend I released a new short to Amazon. This has always been one of my favorite stories (and my reader's , too)

Duane is thirteen years old when he is told by a couple of his best friends (a set of twins, Ray and Lloyd Wheeler) that he is going to hell. His crime? He was never baptized.

Like most writers, I base my work on past experiences (or past lives, maybe?) So yeah, there's a lot of truth in Dunked, and a good smattering of fiction. That is how it should be.

I don't want to give...

Bent Highway: Chapter Seven

Mezcal

“Under seat.”

Walt’s voice dipped down and warbled like he was going over those bumps in the highway that warn you that you’re drifting into the ditch.

“Look,” he said.

I reached under and pulled out a dusty bottle, no label, just some yellowish liquid. Oh yeah, and the worm curled up at the bottom.

“Mezcal.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it. You don’t expect me to—”

“Drink.”

We hit a real bump on the highway and the bottle leapt out of my hand. I grabbed it before it flew into the front seat and naile...

So how did that free thing go?

"Soooo, Jimmy, how did your free day go?"

"It was swell!"

Not sure why I picture myself as a Leave it to Beaver era paperboy when I think of things like "Free Day", but there you go.

Last Friday was my first foray into the land of the free via the Kindle Select Program (KDP). I really had no idea what to expect. I read a lot of discussion forums, and blog posts, and online articles about publishing, and I have learned one simple thing:

No one agrees.

There you go - simple, profound, you can take i...

Kinda wild

Running out of superlatives about today.

This picture pretty much captures it.

Bent Highway: Chapter Six

Fedora

“What kind of vehicle is that mister?”

“Never seen one of those before.”

“Says Ford on it – but not like one I ever saw.”

They took turns speaking and staring at first my truck, and then me. The one with the baseball bat didn’t speak. He just paced around the vehicle, or as they called it, vee-hick-kill.

“You guys on the way to some sort of show? A live play, or some weird renaissance fair thing, but out of 19—”

I stopped talking when the guy with the bat smashed out one of my headlights.

“Wh...

Up the charts

Well, if you visit woofreakinhoo, or follow me on twitter (or facebook), you know that today is my free promotion day. I should put that in all caps, but I am practicing some restraint.

I am going to blog more about this experience later (finishing up a Bent Highway excerpt for later today).

But I did want to mention something.

Um, Correction Line, the book thing - #20 the literary Amazon bestsellers (for free books).

No wait, that should be NUMBER TWENTY!!!!

Everyone quiet down now. And return to...

How much is free?

Well, for starters, I wanted to say how pleased I am with all the people visiting Woofreakinhoo lately. My hits have grown every month since I started being a bit more dedicated. It's also exciting how many people are getting into Bent Highway (hell, I am kind of getting into it myself). It looks like August will be my biggest month.

So in the spirit of that, here's something else fairly exciting.

This Friday, for 24 hours, Correction Line will be free. Yep, the f word.

Now wait a second, you sa...

Roachkiller - Post-modern Noir with a touch of Dystopia

Roachkiller and Other Stories by R. Narvaez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As more and more noir creeps into my own writing, I have decided to explore some of the classic, best, and brand new voices in the genre.
I think it is common to compare newer writers to the classic ones by creating some sort of mathematical formula. One part Hammett, add two parts Ellroy and a touch of Leonard and stir - that sort of thing.

After reading R. Narvaez's story collection, I have a hard time coming up with such a f...