Phil Giunta's Blog, page 117
June 24, 2011
Testing the Prisoner premieres on Podiobooks!!
Testing the Prisoner debuted today on Podiobooks! The first five chapters have been posted with a new chapter premiering each week. The book was recorded by me one year ago and originally ran on Prometheus Radio Theatre .
Best of all, the audio book is FREE. So have a listen! Testing the Prisoner on Podiobooks.
June 21, 2011
About this Writing Stuff...
8 Ways to Write Better Characters by Elizabeth Sims
5 Fast Facts on Book Publicity by Chuck Sambuchino
What is a Literary Executor? by Brian A. Klems
Why One Writer is Keeping Her Day Job by Alexis Grant / posted by Chuck Sambuchino
The Necessity of Failure Plus How "Accidents" Happen posted by Jane Friedman
Successful Queries: Agent Roseanne Wells and "Dumbemployed" posted by Chuck Sambuchino
How I Got My Agent: David Kazzie posted by Chuck Sambuchino
The Character Assassination of Robert Greenberger - Shore Leave 33 Comedy Roast of the veteran SF & Media Tie-In Writer
June 18, 2011
A Day at Lake Wynonah
While fishing there, I was at one point run over by a chipmunk. How is this possible you may ask? There was a chipmunk chase behind me as I stood on a short bulkhead about 10-12" above the water line. The lead chipmunk fell or dove into the water while the pursuer decided to scamper along the top of the builkhead and, consequently ran over my feet. There is a first time for everything. As chipmunks are rather capable swimmers, the lead chipmunk made it across the cove successfully.
I am sunburned and exhausted. Time for a nap.
June 17, 2011
Testing the Prisoner breaks into Top 100 Ghost Kindle eBooks!
Click HERE to see the rankings!
About This Writing Stuff...
This week, Amazon's Kindle becomes clogged by spammers! Jane Friedman plays with numbers as she gives us 5 tips for platform building and 4 steps to useful critiques.
First, though, I'd like to shout out to urban fantasy author,Kelly Meding, on her recent and upcoming successes. First, she interviews audio narrator Xe Sands, who is recording the audio version of Kelly's Dreg City series of novels. Secondly, Kelly discusses the first book in her MetaWars series with Pocket Books, called TRANCE.
Also, Bob Greenberger announces the re-release of The Spider-Man Vault in wider distribution.
Interview: Xe Sands, Audio Narrator by Kelly Meding
Q&A about TRANCE by Kelly Meding
Spam Clogging Amazon Kindle Self Publishing by Alistair Bar for Reuters
New Agent Alert: Stephanie Sun of Weed Literary posted by Chuck Sambuchino
Agent Advice: Eric Ruben of Ruben Literary Agency posted by Chuck Sambuchino
Available Once More: The Spider-Man Vault by Bob Greenberger
5 Excellent Tips for Platform Building posted by Jane Friedman
4 Steps to Useful Critiques: The Lerman Method by Wolf Pascoe / posted by Jane Friedman
June 15, 2011
Testing the Prisoner has been Nook'd!
Testing the Prisoner is finally available as a Nook book from Barnes and Noble! Click HERE to check it out!
June 14, 2011
Author Profile: Kieryn Nicolas
I stumbled across YA author Kieryn Nicolas on the Writers Coffeehouse Yahoo Group when she announced her new release, Flawless Ruins , and was immediately intrigued. I checked out her website and was very impressed by her promotional efforts in terms of blog tours and personal appearances.
I reached out to Kieryn for some further information about her books, including her first YA novel, RAIN . As it turns out, Kieryn will be appearing at the Allentown Library on Saturday, June 25th at 11AM. (Unfortunately, I will be out of town that day but I may pop over to say Hi before I leave).
Kieryn is also the author of the YA short novel, Poison Ivy , published by Quake eBooks.
I hope to have an author interview with Kieryn sometime in the near future.
Links:
Kieryn's Blog
Kieryn on Twitter
Facebook: Kieryn Nicolas (person page), RAIN by Kieryn Nicolas, Kieryn Nicolas (author)
June 9, 2011
About This Writing Stuff...
How to Be a Successful Ghostwriter by Kelly James-Enger
When Is Lying in a Memoir Acceptable? by Tracey Seeley / posted by Jane Friedman
How to Let Plot Guide Your Short Story by John Dufresne
Should You Avoid New Agents Because They May Not Have Good Contacts? by Brian A. Klems
6 Things Writing a Second Novel Taught Me by Marybeth Whalen
Agent Jon Sternfeld on Engaging Your Audience posted by Chuck Sambuchino
How I Got My Agent: Holly LeCraw posted by Chuck Sambuchino
New Agent Alert: Jessie Cammack of JABberwocky Literary Agency posted by Chuck Sambuchino
4 Ways to Make the Most of a Critique Group by Susan Cushman / posted by Jane Friedman
Don't Treat Conflict As Monolithic by Cary Groner
The Kristine Kathryn Rusch Set: Surviving the Transition
The Business Rusch: Surviving the Transition (Part One)
The Business Rusch: Surviving the Transition: Publishers (Part Two)
The Business Rusch: Surviving the Transition: Agents (Part Three)
June 8, 2011
Testing the Prisoner coming to Podiobooks!!!
From what I've been told, the first five chapters of the FREE audio book, read by yours truly, will be posted right away with additional chapters posted weekly.
I hope you'll tune in!
June 6, 2011
For Your Consideration - An excerpt from By Your Side
Well over a year before Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson of SyFy's Ghost Hunters investigated the Philadelphia Zoo, I had written the opening chapter of By Your Side wherein psychic-medium Miranda Lorensen and her team of paranormal investigators spend an evening at the fictional Emery Zoo in western Pennsylvania.
Prior to the following scenes, Miranda and her team were given a tour of the zoo by the night security guard named Stanley whose facts about the land's history are found to be slightly inaccurate. Read on. Comments are definitely welcome and encouraged. Keep in mind that this is first draft material.
-------------
On the opposite side of the zoo, Miranda and Amy found themselves in complete darkness. They had made their way to the Reptile House by the light of the lampposts. It was a long, one-story brick building with four windows along each side.
During their guided tour earlier in the evening, Stanley the security guard had promised to keep the door unlocked until their investigation was over. No sooner had Miranda touched the handle of the glass door than her flashlight went dark. She turned around to find Amy twisting the handle of her flashlight back and forth.
“It just died,” she said. “And these are new batteries.”
“Yeah, mine, too,” Miranda reached down and unclipped the walkie-talkie from her belt. The LCD display was dark. She turned the unit off and back on to no avail. “Check your radio, and the mini DV.”
After a moment, Amy shook her head. “Same. What the hell? There’s no way everything could shut off at once.”
As if on cue, the closest lampposts along the trail suddenly went out.
“I stand corrected,” Amy said in a low, timid voice. “I don’t scare easy but this is creeping me out.”
It was a popular theory among paranormal investigators that as spirits attempt to manifest, they draw energy for their surroundings. In doing so, they can drain batteries, as well as any heat in the immediate vicinity.
Amy shivered as a chill seemed to wrap itself around her body. “Oh, my God, Randy, did you feel that?” She whispered. “I think we have a cold spot.”
There was movement in front of her, shuffling feet. Something flashed in the gray streak of moonlight that crossed the entrance to the reptile house.
That’s when Amy realized that she was alone in the cold darkness.
“Randy?” She stepped up to the glass door and pulled the handle but it wouldn’t budge. She cupped her hands around her eyes and pressed her nose to the glass. With a gasp, she drew back. The door was nearly frozen to the touch. It was as if the chill was emanating from the building itself. Amy could barely discern any details inside save for the reflection of moonlight on various surfaces. A shadow passed in front of a window at the back of the building. What the hell? Amy pulled back from the door. Her breath caught in her throat. Was that Miranda?
Amy pounded on the glass. “Randy?”
No one came to the door. Amy called out again, still no one appeared.
Where is she?
Amy stepped away from the building. The air became noticeably warmer. With a shred of hope, she pulled the walkie-talkie from her belt. It was still dead.
“Dammit,” she whispered. She looked around, half expecting to glimpse more shadows passing through the moonlight, but there was no activity. She considered making her way back to the security office but couldn’t bear to leave Miranda alone.
The question was, how long could Amy bear to be alone?
The air was oppressively hot. In the blink of an eye, moonlight through the windows had turned into the fading rays of the setting sun. Straw crunched beneath her feet. Somewhere in the distance, a woman frantically called her name.
A door rattled behind her. Miranda turned to look just as the barn door began to shake. It slid aside slowly, stopping mid-way then moving again as if requiring great effort. Then the silhouette of a young boy appeared in the doorway. He held an oil lamp in one hand and in the other, a leather strap that led to a halter of a brown horse. It appeared to be a young and sturdy animal. Save for a white patch between its eyes, it had no other markings.
“Come on, Bluff,” the boy said. As he drew near, Miranda estimated his age at ten, perhaps eleven. “It’s too hot out today. We’ll ride tomorrow.”
Miranda went unnoticed as the boy led the horse past her. He placed the oil lamp atop a small table across from one of the stalls and used his free hand to unlock the stall door and swing it open. Suddenly, there was a loud thud from the hayloft at the rear of the barn startling both boy and horse. Bluff jerked its massive head to one side and began turning around to face the barn doors. The boy reached out and gently stroked the horse along its taut neck but this seemed to aggravate it all the more.
“Come on, Bluff.” The boy struggled to maintain control of the horse. “It was nothing, probably a squirrel or a bird.” He pulled on the strap as hard as he could to turn the horse back toward the stall, but Bluff would not have it. The horse reared up, yanking the strap from the boy’s grasp and whipping him back against the door of the neighboring stall.
The boy’s eyes were wide with fear and for a moment, Miranda hoped that same fear would keep him frozen in place, allowing the horse to bolt freely from the barn. Instead, the boy moved forward toward Bluff.
“No!” Miranda shouted an unheard warning and watched in horror as Bluff’s left hoof slammed down on the boy’s head, knocking him to the floor in a crumpled heap. The horse then bucked, kicking the table with its hind legs. The oil lamp tumbled to the floor, igniting a patch of dry hay.
At that, the horse bolted from the barn, leaving the boy unconscious and helpless against the flames that were spreading across the floor. Within minutes, the fire had consumed the stalls and the boy with it. The entire right side of the barn would soon be ablaze.
There was nothing Miranda could do. She was merely a spectator in this vision of the past, a dark moment in this land’s history set in the stone of time.
Movement to her left caught Miranda’s attention. Grateful for the distraction, she peered up through the smoke to the hayloft. There another boy, this one clearly older than the first, peered over the edge of the loft on his hands and knees. He appeared to be drowsy and disoriented, as if he’d just awakened from a nap.
His eyes grew wide and he pulled himself to his feet. Frantically, he brushed bits of hay from his hair and clothes. The fire was now underneath the loft, flames scorching the underside of the wood. The boy looked to his right at the ladder that would lead him to safety. Miranda calculated that if the boy started down the ladder immediately, he could escape through the far door.
Apparently, the boy had the same idea.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
He had barely taken two steps toward the ladder when his left leg punched through the floor. He fell through to the knee and screamed. His face contorted in agony from the pain of the jagged wood that sliced into his calf and the flames that singed his bare foot and ankle.
Miranda knew he had no chance. He sat back on the floor and pulled his leg up through the hole. He began crawling toward the ladder but the floor could no longer support him and collapsed, sending the boy plummeting to his death in to the inferno below.
Shaking uncontrollably, Miranda fell to her knees. She began sobbing loudly, ignoring the fire that raged out of control around her. There was a cracking sound directly above her, followed by creaking and groaning of wood. She tilted her head up slowly, just as a roof collapsed.
All the lampposts turned on at once.
Amy sat bolt upright on a park bench beside the Reptile House, nearly sending the video camera tumbling from her lap. She caught it clumsily and noticed the red glow of the power light. She flipped open the screen and aimed the camera and at the light of the lamppost. She had video but not for long. The batteries were nearly dead.
“Amy.”
With a start, she twisted in her seat to see Miranda leaning wearily against the side wall of the building.
“Randy, oh my God.” Amy leapt to her feet and ran to Miranda. In the stark light of the lamppost, Amy could see the woman’s hair was matted and her skin glistened. “What happened? You’re drenched with sweat! Are you okay?”
Miranda swallowed hard before finding her voice. When she finally spoke, she was nearly breathless, inhaling sharply between sentences. “Those boys died here. The barn was here, whole thing burned down. They died here, not over there.”
Miranda raised her arm tiredly and pointed with her thumb toward the other side of the zoo, indicating the Weeping Willow Garden.
“You had a vision...” Amy realized.
Miranda nodded. “I need to sit down.”
Amy helped Miranda to the bench. She slumped onto the wooden seat before closing her eyes and tilting her head back. Amy didn’t want to push her and refrained from asking any further questions until she was sure that Miranda had collected herself.
Miranda wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. “Hot in there.”
“You were only in there for a few minutes.”
“A few minutes in Hell.”
“There you are.”
Amy looked up just as Eddie approached with his arms outstretched at his sides. He adopted a confused expression as he spoke. “What happened? We’ve been trying to get you on the rad—whoa, Randy, you okay?”
Miranda smiled wanly. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“She had a vision,” Amy said. “All of our equipment lost power. Even the lampposts went out.”
Eddie looked at the women skeptically. “No freakin’ way.”
“She’s not lying,” Miranda confirmed. “It’s been a few years since I’ve had a vision that powerful.”
“So what did you see?” Eddie asked.
Amy sneered at him and shook her head.
“If you feel up to talking about it, of course,” Eddie added, shrugging at Amy and mouthing What?
Miranda sighed before imparting her experience. “What I saw was that Stanley was partly correct although his location was off. The brothers did die in a barn fire—“
“—but the barn was here.” Eddie finished her sentence. “Right where the Reptile House is now.” He pointed a thumb behind him.
Amy’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
“Google.”
Miranda chuckled.
“Seriously, you wanted me to research the history of the area, right?” Eddie asked. “I found a website of some local historian and he had all the details of what happened here so your vision was accurate. Sucks that you had to watch some kids die but that’s awesome. Oh, and as for the mother, Nellie, she didn’t hang herself from a tree, she died in a nursing home seven years ago at the age of eighty nine. The father, Leonard, died from a heart attack eleven years before that.”
“Nice work,” Miranda said.
“Maybe we should get some fresh batteries and send two other people back here,” Amy suggested. “Set up video and audio inside the Reptile House. We might catch those speakers turning on by themselves like Stanley said.”
“I’ll stick around,” Edgar volunteered eagerly. He patted his jacket pocket. “I got my digital voice recorder in case those dead kids have something to say. Just send someone back with fresh batteries in the video camera.”
Amy shook her head in disbelief. “Those dead kids? You’re so rude.” She turned to Miranda. “You feel up to walking back?”
“Absolutely.”
The two women started off along the trail back toward the security office. Before they were too far away, Miranda turned to ask Eddie if he was sure that he’d be all right by himself for awhile. It was, after all, technically against the rules of investigation to go anywhere alone. However, Miranda was unable to find her voice. Eddie had taken a seat in the center of the bench and was speaking into his voice recorder. This was not unusual. It was common practice to provide a brief introduction so you know what you’re listening to later when you review the evidence.
What was unusual was seeing the ghosts of the two boys seated on opposite sides of Eddie. As Miranda looked on, they both turned and waved at her before vanishing. Slowly, she raised her hand and returned a short wave.
“Hey, thought I lost you for a second,” Amy said as she walked back toward Miranda. “You worried about leaving Eddie alone?”
Miranda shook her head. “Nah, he’ll be fine. Besides, he’s definitely not alone.”
