Everett Peacock's Blog, page 19

Touch It, Once a Day

"The Parrot Talks in Chocolate"... I most certainly love East Maui and Haleakala, but there is something special about Maui's West Side - a story - one I want to crawl deep inside of.

One day. Not today, but soon, when the winds blow from that one special direction. You know the one.  The one that reminds you of ...

well ...

... what was it you just thought of? Was it something bordering on personal, intimate?  perhaps a little magical? Yes/No ? Reread this, try again. Until you can find it ...

If you can touch that one place, with your mind, at least once a day, I believe you'll have a much better experience during your vacation here on Earth as a human being.  (here, practice makes perfect)

Go ahead, try again.

FREE on Amazon.com - Limited Time

FREE on Amazon.com (limited time)

eBook, In the Middle of the Third Planet's Most Wonderful of Oceans

Over 24,000 copies of this series, The Life and Times of a Hawaiian Tiki Bar, downloaded by Amazon readers in January 2012.  Get your copy of this the second in the series!

4+ Stars average and great reviews.  Here is one for this title (enjoy!):

Unremitting JOY, in the middle of this vast sea, which is life., 

You know, many a time there comes a sequel to the "perfect" movie, the "perfect" book or our idea of the "perfect" anything; and all too often the second offering comes up a little (or a lot) short. Occasionally, though, we are blessed with the "perfect" follow up and can revel in its wonder and wonder at its perfection. I guess that is what this book is for me. Wait a minute...don't get me wrong here...this book and its editing, presentation and formatting is not, in any manner, perfect. Thankfully, none of its flaws are fatal to the enjoyment of the tale. So what is perfect about it? For me it is the author's ability to again draw you into the continuation of the original story, in its original context, with an added bit of the ugliness and harshness of life thrown into the mix. You end up with a balanced product which is hard not to fall in love with.

I love the love story which is this book. It is hard not to sound contrived or perhaps too flowery when pointing out that this tale is not simply a love story about one couple. No, it is about a totally encompassing love for all things great and small, their interactions and why in essence we need everything and everything needs us to make this thing we call life work out.

This book is a fun, humorous, ridiculous, thought provoking, emotional hodge-podge of the zaniness which makes up each and every life, and it all manages to work back to its theme...Love.

God, I proofed this review and it seems as though I am being channeled by all the "Gurus" of the past, present and future and, to be straight forward, I'm not sure I even like how this reads but...for what its worth, this book will leave you pondering and anxiously looking forward to its sequel. Solid 4 ½ star read.

By POIA -

INTERVIEW WITH NOVELIST P.M. RICHTER

INTERVIEW WITH NOVELIST P.M. RICHTER
January 2012

MIDNIGHT REFLECTIONS
1.  Pam, it has been fun watching your success materialize over at Amazon.com lately.  With four eBooks published there now do you see any evidence that one title feeds readers to your others?
 When I do a promotion it usually results in a few more sales for all the books.  I recently read a blog about this very phenomenon.  It seems to be best if you have a series, in the same genre, with the same characters.  Unfortunately, I have three novels in different genres, so if someone reads my paranormal, expecting to get another one, they would be disappointed.  There have been some requests for sequels for the books I have now, and it's tempting for an author because we have the characters and location already set up.

THE NECROMANCER

2.  In "Necromancer" you situate the story in Honolulu.  Did you live there for a while?
 Yes!  I loved living in Hawaii.  I can't think of a nicer place.  Everywhere you look is scenic and beautiful, the people are happy and friendly.  I moved back to California because my family is here, but miss the soft breezes.  The air is moist and smells wonderful.  The water is so pure.  I couldn't believe I smelled chlorine the first time I turned on the shower when I moved back to California.  Writing about Hawaii brings on nostalgia.  I started The Necromancer right after I moved away from the islands. 

3.  What inspires you, in general, and in particular for each of your books?
An idea will pop in my mind.  I'm an identical twin, and I wondered what it would be like if someone saw a person who looked just like them.  That was the start of the first scene of The Living Image.  When I wrote Midnight Reflections, the novel began because my car was towed away from where I had parked it.  I wrote about the frustrating situation, because they actually wrecked my car, and the novel took off from there.  
THE LIVING IMAGE

4.  When is your most productive time of day or night to write?  Do you find yourself writing down notes during the day or does it all come at once, in a flood?
Because I worked a day job, I would write at night.  My mind is fuzzy in the morning, and I'm definitely a night person.  Even though I'm not working at a regular job anymore I still write best late at night when it's quiet.  It's interesting that our subconscious mind seems to work all by itself, and when we relax sometimes the perplexing problem about how to rescue your hero or heroine from some awful disaster will come all at once.  I got the whole ending to The Necromancer as I was falling asleep one night.  I had to get up and write it down.  Of course, writing the actual scenes in the book took several days. 

5.  What are your thoughts on Amazon.com's new KDP Select promotional option?
I'm doing my second Free promotion right now.  It certainly helped my first book in sales after the promotion.   Things are changing so fast.  On the one hand it seems like a race to the bottom because there are so many free books and very cheap books.  On the other, Amazon was a pioneer and let us publish without the years of contacting agents and publishers.  I went with Select after careful consideration.  I wasn't selling enough on the many other sites.  There was no publicity for the books, like Amazon has.  We'll all just have to wait and see.  It's an exciting, exhilarating, and scary time for authors; certainly not boring.      

TRIFECTA

6.  What titles do you have in the works now?
I have another thriller that is almost complete called Watercolor Memories.  It got so complicated, plot-wise, that I started another one in the middle of writing it, called Fringe Benefits.  It's a romantic suspense.  I have a terrible manuscript, my first book, that I will also try to edit and complete called The Old Bunny Farm.  I recognize now how awful my writing was when I began.  I almost trashed that first novel, but it has some (not many) redeeming qualities:  good story, bad writing.  So maybe I will resurrect it eventually.

7.  Do eBooks spell the doom for paper, like paper did for stone tablets?  Or is that an irrelevant question?
I don't know.  When I got my Kindle for a Christmas gift I had no idea that I wouldn't pick up a paper book for the next two years.  It only happened when I broke the Kindle.  The good thing is that ebooks are easy to download and relatively inexpensive, so that lots of people are getting back to reading.  I do know people, though, who adamantly say they would never read an ebook.  I understand.  I love the feel of books and even their paper smell.  I can see a future when students will download all their texts to an ereader or pad.  I saw that coming years ago.  I used to tutor students, and could hardly pick up their back packs myself, they were so crammed with books.  I kind of hope we keep both paper and plastic.  I love them both. 

Picture Books

 Experimentation with eBooks - picture books!

I was talking out ideas for my 14 year old son and how he might incorporate his drawings into some kind of ebook and viola!

As I wait on him to produce a few more drawings I jumped right in and produced two 50 image titles.

The first one, Maui and Me - 50 Images That Inspire, offers readers who already know my fiction titles a glimpse into where I find inspiration, here on Maui.  More than just pictures too, as I added commentary that adds to the experience.  They look great on a color tablet, PC, MAC, etc. and look suitable on a non-color Kindle.

The second one, Maui and Me - Lahaina at Dawn, is what I consider a unique take on a very popular place.  Dawn finds this oceanfront tourist attraction a very different and interesting place.

Take a look, you might find this "genre" intriguing.

the Reader as Artist

THE READER AS ARTIST
Writing, to me, is best described using this analogy:

Every reader is a master painter.
Every writer asks the reader to paint the scene they read.
Every painting so rendered is an expert rendition interpreted by the master painter.

The paintings may be different, or similar, it doesn't matter which.

What matters is that they are all masterpieces.

FREE on KINDLE - "Tiwaka Goes to Waikiki"

FREE on AMAZON.com for the next 5 days.


Follow up what over 25,000 other Kindle readers enjoyed with "The Parrot Talks in Chocolate" (still on the Top 10 Amazon list for Inspirational)

Our hero, lost in a tropical storm...
Captured by the diabolical Parrot Master...
Adventure and revolution, love and music in the jungles of Waikiki...

TIWAKA GOES TO WAIKIKI by Everett Peacock
~ The magic of Hawaii continues

** A magical and well textured addition to the series! 
Tiwaka gets his Flight Status upgraded and soon gets in trouble in the tropical skies of Hawaii. After landing in faraway Waikiki he finds he is not the only parrot in trouble.

Book 3 in the continuing adventures of Tiwaka and his crew from Tiwaka's Tiki Bar & Grill. Buy this one for your friends, your kids, your loved ones!

#1 Amazon International - "Death by Facebook"

Death by Facebook, currently in the last day of an Amazon promotion has been downloaded over 35,000 times around the world.  It has been holding the #1 position in the following genres and countries.

#1 United States Amazon Suspense/Thrillers FREE
#1 United States Amazon GHOSTS Free

#1 United Kingdom Amazon Thriller/Ghost FREE

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*** statistics change hourly ***

#1 Amazon Top100 FREE List

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1.Death by FacebookEverett Peacock4.6 out of 5 stars (12)Auto-delivered wirelesslyFree

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Feeling the Love...

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Jenny Hunt-RitzaThese books have so far made me laugh, cry, think about life in general - just amazing!Unlike ·  · 11 hours agoYou like this. Everett Peacock: Books thank you Jenny!a few seconds ago · Like

#1 on Amazon(Day 2) & a great review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Surf's up! And so are my spirits!, January 8, 2012By POIAAmazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: The Parrot Talks in Chocolate (The Life and Times of a Hawaiian Tiki Bar #1) (Kindle Edition)

You know, sometimes a book comes along which is so profound, so overwhelmingly enjoyable, that to have it end leaves you mind-boggled yet euphoric. For lack of a better analogy...think of really, reeeaaalllllyyyy good sex...catch my drift? Well, this is one of those books. I loved everything about it, the parrot, the protagonist, the setting, the writing and most of all the masterful storytelling by the author. God, it was so perfect...you were right there, experiencing everything, delighting in each moment with a cast of characters who were like your best imaginary friends. This isn't just a surfer story, or one about a Tiki bar, or a parrot, or Hawaii, or friends or...any of the other myriad things which are carefully blended together in this tale; no, it's a story of love and life, joy and heartbreak, and most of all...discovery. You'll find yourself laughing, crying, smitten, delighted, confused, and then completely clear about the meaning of the tale. The author is a genius at the art of creating visual pictures with words, and his skillful development of his characters leaves you feeling you have known them all your life. I could go on and on, espousing the virtues of this book, but I won't. I'll just say in closing that missing your opportunity to read it, regardless of cost, is like missing your child's first words or steps, missing out on the real love of your life, or missing out on the joy that IS life. Don't miss out! 
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