John Wilson's Blog, page 8
May 3, 2012
May Promotion
30% off The Final Alchemy.Coupon code QM59G for all eBook formats at Smashwords.com.
Each month I plan to upload a coupon for a discount on one of my eBooks. Until June 1, 2012, for a ridiculously low price, enjoy this novel of intrigue, ambition and betrayal in Tudor England and on the shores of Hudson Bay.
The coupon is good for multiple downloads all through the month.
Oh, and please pass on QM59G to all the book lovers you know.
April 11, 2012
New novel as a serial on eBooks
Will serial novels work as eBooks? I have just uploaded the first 4 novellas of 11 that will form the epic Heretic's Secret.
Books 1 to 4 are: Gathering Storms, Kill Them All, A Gift from Bram and Fires of Minerve. Each is 18,000 to 26,000 words in length and sells for $2.99 (except Gathering Storms which is only 99c on Amazon.com and totally and utterly FREE on Smashwords.com). Book 5, Adso's Story, is planned for May and the others over the course of the Summer and Fall. Serials worked for Dumas and Dickens. Is this how they would do it today?Books 1—4 were originally published in hardcover in 2009 by Key Porter Books as Crusade. Books 5—7 followed in 2010 as Grail. Books 8-11 were planned as Renaissance, but Key Porter went into receivership and it was never published.
The cover photo is of the memorial in Minerve to the thousands of Cathars who were burned by the Inquisition.
Press release for WWI conference
Media Release
Conference Announcement
April 10, 2012 – Toronto
Title: "From the Garden to the Trenches: Childhood, Culture and the First World War"
Dates: May 10-12, 2012
Locations: Niagara and Toronto
How did children's books prepare young people for the Great War?
How did WWI-era children's culture reflect the experience of war?
How do children's writers today grapple with the Great War?
Join international speakers and children's writers in conversation about the First World War in children's literature and culture.
Children's writers include Michael Morpurgo on his award-winning WWI drama "War Horse", and Deborah Ellis (The Breadwinner Trilogy) on children, war and hope. Also featuring: Linda Granfield, Sarah Ellis, Kevin Major, John Wilson, Hugh Brewster, and Art Slade.
Speakers include Paul Stevens on how Winston Churchill's boyhood reading prepared him for the trenches of Flanders; Andrea Mackenzie on L.M. Montgomery's WWI novel "Rilla of Ingleside'; Margaret Higonnet on stories of heroic girls; and Hans Heino Ewers on WWI-era novels for traumatized German children.
Conference website: www.fromthegardentothetrenches.com
For more information and/or interviews contact:
Deirdre Baker
Tel: 416-927-1099
Linda Granfield
416-626-8429
Lissa Paul
Tel: 416-944-1587
-30-
July 6, 2011
SEVEN books!
Haven't heard of the SEVEN Series? SEVEN grandsons are given SEVEN tasks in SEVEN linked novels by SEVEN top Canadian children's authors. Publication and awesome tours and launches scheduled for October. My contribution is Lost Cause."Steve thinks a trip to Europe is out of the question—until he hears his grandfather's will. Suddenly he's off to Spain, armed with only a letter from his grandfather that sends him to a specific address in Barcelona. There he meets a girl named Laia and finds a trunk containing some of his grandfather's possessions, including a journal he kept during the time he fought with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Steve decides to trace his grandfather's footsteps through Spain, and with Laia's help, he visits the battlefields and ruined towns that shaped his grandfather's young life, and begins to understand the power of history and the transformative nature of passion for a righteous cause."Check the series out—SEVEN times?
SEVEN books and WEET!
Haven't heard of the SEVEN Series? SEVEN grandsons are given SEVEN tasks in SEVEN linked novels by SEVEN top Canadian children's authors. Publication and awesome tours and launches scheduled for October. My contribution is Lost Cause."Steve thinks a trip to Europe is out of the question—until he hears his grandfather's will. Suddenly he's off to Spain, armed with only a letter from his grandfather that sends him to a specific address in Barcelona. There he meets a girl named Laia and finds a trunk containing some of his grandfather's possessions, including a journal he kept during the time he fought with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Steve decides to trace his grandfather's footsteps through Spain, and with Laia's help, he visits the battlefields and ruined towns that shaped his grandfather's young life, and begins to understand the power of history and the transformative nature of passion for a righteous cause."Check the series out—SEVEN times? My very first published novel, WEET, is now out, extensively reworked, as an eBook. The continuations of the dinosaur, time-travel fantasy for 8-12 year olds are also up, Weet's Quest and Weet Alone. Excellent early chapter books or read alouds. Click on the title to link to Amazon or check out my website.Enjoy.
Three traditionally published titles coming in 2012, Victorio's War , the third Desert Legends novel, in the spring; Failed Hope: The Story of the Lost Peace, the companion non-fiction title to Desperate Glory and Bitter Ashes is scheduled for August; and Lost Cause, a novel set largely in Spain in 1938 is planned for the fall. Lost Cause is one of a series of seven books by seven Canadian authors. Seven boys meet at the will-reading of their grandfather. Each receives a sealed envelope containing a task or a quest. The seven tales blossom from there.
My website is now updated, to include a section offering hard copies of my out-of-print titles for sale direct from me. This means they can be signed and personalized—the perfect Christmas or Birthday gift.
Titles available are:Crusade: The Heretic's Secret Book IGrail: The Heretic's Secret Book IIWhere Soldiers LieGermaniaAnd in the MorningLost in SpainDancing Elephants and Floating Continents: The Story of Canada Beneath Your Feet.
Ghost Mountains and Vanished Oceans: North America from Birth to Middle Age reached the dizzy heights of #2 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list of Geology books. Check it out on Amazon (US, UK, Germany and France) and Smashwords (all other formats [Nook, iPad, etc.]). As always there is a free sample.
Ghost Moon, the sequel to Written in Blood is now available. Here's what Kirkus Reviews says: "Action fans will thrill to the gunplay and other dangers. James' conflicting feelings about his archetypically dangerous friend-and also a telling conversation with an old Mexican survivor of the Alamo about the difference between legend and reality-introduce thought provoking elements. A tale of the Old West with a sturdy historical base and nary a dull moment."Check out the Ghost Moon cover, too, it's one of my photographs.
Where Soldiers Lie is selling well. Why not pick up a sample for free or the entire book for only 99c on Smashwords or Amazon.com. Of course, the danger is you'll become addicted and have to pick up all my other titles, but what's life without a little danger.
Don't forget to visit my website, and check out the BlogTalkRadio interview on success (whatever that is), authors in schools and the changing face of publishing and eBooks.
Become my friend on Facebook
May tour full—and SEVEN books!
The May tour around the conference on childhood and the First World War is now full. Thanks to all who expressed interest. If you missed me, I'll be back in Ontario in the fall to promote the SEVEN series of books. Haven't heard of the SEVEN Series? SEVEN grandsons are given SEVEN tasks in SEVEN linked novels by SEVEN top Canadian children's authors. Check it out—SEVEN times?
(The photo has nothing to do with the May tour or SEVEN. It was taken on the south coast of Australia on my recent research trip. Wouldn't this be a cool place to set a story? Stay tuned.)
My eighth eBook and the first that has no physical reality. The Final Alchemy began life as a novel for adults to follow North With Franklin. The decision was made to rework it as a Young Adult novel, so I simplified the story arc, removed one entire voice, and cut the length in half. It was a good decision because the result, The Alchemist's Dream was a finalist for the Governor General's Award, but a part of me yearned to get the original out there. Now, here it is.Click on the title to link to Amazon or check out my website.Enjoy.
Three traditionally published titles coming in 2012, Victorio's War , the third Desert Legends novel, in the spring; Failed Hope: The Story of the Lost Peace, the companion non-fiction title to Desperate Glory and Bitter Ashes is scheduled for August; and Lost Cause, a novel set largely in Spain in 1938 is planned for the fall. Lost Cause is one of a series of seven books by seven Canadian authors. Seven boys meet at the will-reading of their grandfather. Each receives a sealed envelope containing a task or a quest. The seven tales blossom from there.
My website is now updated, to include a section offering hard copies of my out-of-print titles for sale direct from me. This means they can be signed and personalized—the perfect Christmas or Birthday gift.
Titles available are:Crusade: The Heretic's Secret Book IGrail: The Heretic's Secret Book IIWhere Soldiers LieGermaniaAnd in the MorningLost in SpainDancing Elephants and Floating Continents: The Story of Canada Beneath Your Feet.
Ghost Mountains and Vanished Oceans: North America from Birth to Middle Age reached the dizzy heights of #2 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list of Geology books. Check it out on Amazon (US, UK, Germany and France) and Smashwords (all other formats [Nook, iPad, etc.]). As always there is a free sample.
Ghost Moon, the sequel to Written in Blood is now available. Here's what Kirkus Reviews says: "Action fans will thrill to the gunplay and other dangers. James' conflicting feelings about his archetypically dangerous friend-and also a telling conversation with an old Mexican survivor of the Alamo about the difference between legend and reality-introduce thought provoking elements. A tale of the Old West with a sturdy historical base and nary a dull moment."Check out the Ghost Moon cover, too, it's one of my photographs.
Where Soldiers Lie is selling well. Why not pick up a sample for free or the entire book for only 99c on Smashwords or Amazon.com. Of course, the danger is you'll become addicted and have to pick up all my other titles, but what's life without a little danger.
Don't forget to visit my website, and check out the BlogTalkRadio interview on success (whatever that is), authors in schools and the changing face of publishing and eBooks.
Become my friend on Facebook
FREE BOOK-Three Days Only
The Final Alchemy—A novel of intrigue, ambition, betrayal in Tudor England and on the shores of Hudson Bay, will be FREE on Amazon.com for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 1, 2 and 3, 2012. Pick up a copy for your Kindle—what can you lose?My eighth eBook and the first that has no physical reality. The Final Alchemy began life as a novel for adults to follow North With Franklin. The decision was made to rework it as a Young Adult novel, so I simplified the story arc, removed one entire voice, and cut the length in half. It was a good decision because the result, The Alchemist's Dream was a finalist for the Governor General's Award, but a part of me yearned to get the original out there. Now, here it is.Click on the title to link to Amazon or check out my website.Enjoy.
Three traditionally published titles coming in 2012, Victorio's War , the third Desert Legends novel, in the spring; Failed Hope: The Story of the Lost Peace, the companion non-fiction title to Desperate Glory and Bitter Ashes is scheduled for August; and Lost Cause, a novel set largely in Spain in 1938 is planned for the fall. Lost Cause is one of a series of seven books by seven Canadian authors. Seven boys meet at the will-reading of their grandfather. Each receives a sealed envelope containing a task or a quest. The seven tales blossom from there.
If you missed the Fall Tour, I'll be back in southern Ontario in May 2012. I am currently available for school visits on May 7 to 9 and 14 to 18. Check out the May Tour post.
My website is now updated, to include a section offering hard copies of my out-of-print titles for sale direct from me. This means they can be signed and personalized—the perfect Christmas or Birthday gift.
Titles available are:Crusade: The Heretic's Secret Book IGrail: The Heretic's Secret Book IIWhere Soldiers LieGermaniaAnd in the MorningLost in SpainDancing Elephants and Floating Continents: The Story of Canada Beneath Your Feet.
Ghost Mountains and Vanished Oceans: North America from Birth to Middle Age reached the dizzy heights of #2 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list of Geology books. Check it out on Amazon (US, UK, Germany and France) and Smashwords (all other formats [Nook, iPad, etc.]). As always there is a free sample.
Ghost Moon, the sequel to Written in Blood is now available. Here's what Kirkus Reviews says: "Action fans will thrill to the gunplay and other dangers. James' conflicting feelings about his archetypically dangerous friend-and also a telling conversation with an old Mexican survivor of the Alamo about the difference between legend and reality-introduce thought provoking elements. A tale of the Old West with a sturdy historical base and nary a dull moment."Check out the Ghost Moon cover, too, it's one of my photographs.
It is now possible to get a personalized inscription and signature for a Kindle book. If you have one of my titles, or are thinking of buying one, check it out here. Isn't technology cool?
Where Soldiers Lie is selling well. Why not pick up a sample for free or the entire book for only 99c on Smashwords or Amazon.com. Of course, the danger is you'll become addicted and have to pick up all my other titles, but what's life without a little danger.
Don't forget to visit my website, and check out the BlogTalkRadio interview on success (whatever that is), authors in schools and the changing face of publishing and eBooks.
Become my friend on Facebook
NEW BOOK-The Director's Cut
The Final Alchemy—A novel of intrigue, ambition, betrayal in Tudor England and on the shores of Hudson Bay.My eighth eBook and the first that has no physical reality. The Final Alchemy began life as a novel for adults to follow North With Franklin. The decision was made to rework it as a Young Adult novel, so I simplified the story arc, removed one entire voice, and cut the length in half. It was a good decision because the result, The Alchemist's Dream was a finalist for the Governor General's Award, but a part of me yearned to get the original out there. Now, here it is.Click on the title to link to Amazon or check out my website.Enjoy.
Three traditionally published titles coming in 2012, Victorio's War , the third Desert Legends novel, in the spring; Failed Hope: The Story of the Lost Peace, the companion non-fiction title to Desperate Glory and Bitter Ashes is scheduled for August; and Lost Cause, a novel set largely in Spain in 1938 is planned for the fall. Lost Cause is one of a series of seven books by seven Canadian authors. Seven boys meet at the will-reading of their grandfather. Each receives a sealed envelope containing a task or a quest. The seven tales blossom from there.
If you missed the Fall Tour, I'll be back in southern Ontario in May 2012. I am currently available for school visits on May 7 to 9 and 14 to 18. Check out the May Tour post.
My website is now updated, to include a section offering hard copies of my out-of-print titles for sale direct from me. This means they can be signed and personalized—the perfect Christmas or Birthday gift.
Titles available are:Crusade: The Heretic's Secret Book IGrail: The Heretic's Secret Book IIWhere Soldiers LieGermaniaAnd in the MorningLost in SpainDancing Elephants and Floating Continents: The Story of Canada Beneath Your Feet.
Ghost Mountains and Vanished Oceans: North America from Birth to Middle Age reached the dizzy heights of #2 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list of Geology books. Check it out on Amazon (US, UK, Germany and France) and Smashwords (all other formats [Nook, iPad, etc.]). As always there is a free sample.
Ghost Moon, the sequel to Written in Blood is now available. Here's what Kirkus Reviews says: "Action fans will thrill to the gunplay and other dangers. James' conflicting feelings about his archetypically dangerous friend-and also a telling conversation with an old Mexican survivor of the Alamo about the difference between legend and reality-introduce thought provoking elements. A tale of the Old West with a sturdy historical base and nary a dull moment."Check out the Ghost Moon cover, too, it's one of my photographs.
It is now possible to get a personalized inscription and signature for a Kindle book. If you have one of my titles, or are thinking of buying one, check it out here. Isn't technology cool?
Where Soldiers Lie is selling well. Why not pick up a sample for free or the entire book for only 99c on Smashwords or Amazon.com. Of course, the danger is you'll become addicted and have to pick up all my other titles, but what's life without a little danger.
Don't forget to visit my website, and check out the BlogTalkRadio interview on success (whatever that is), authors in schools and the changing face of publishing and eBooks.
Become my friend on Facebook
What to look forward to in 2012
Happy New Year.2011 was an "interesting" year with two of my publishers folding, however that encouraged me to create an eBook presence and I now have seven titles out that way. What will 2012 hold?
My eighth eBook and second novel for adults, The Final Alchemy, will be uploaded in January, followed by The Heretic's Secret Trilogy as a series of novellas over the course of the year. Stay tuned.
Three traditionally published titles this year, Victorio's War, the third Desert Legends novel, in the spring; Failed Hope: The Story of the Lost Peace, the companion non-fiction title to Desperate Glory and Bitter Ashes is scheduled for August; and Lost Cause, a novel set largely in Spain in 1938 is planned for the fall.
What else? Who knows, but I am looking into the possibility of a graphic novel series. Check back for updates and get more details on the website.
If you missed the Fall Tour, I'll be back in southern Ontario in May 2012. I am currently available for school visits on May 7 to 9 and 14 to 18. Check out the May Tour post.
My website is now updated, to include a section offering hard copies of my out-of-print titles for sale direct from me. This means they can be signed and personalized—the perfect Christmas or Birthday gift.
Titles available are:Crusade: The Heretic's Secret Book IGrail: The Heretic's Secret Book IIWhere Soldiers LieGermaniaAnd in the MorningLost in SpainDancing Elephants and Floating Continents: The Story of Canada Beneath Your Feet.
Ghost Mountains and Vanished Oceans: North America from Birth to Middle Age reached the dizzy heights of #2 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list of Geology books. Check it out on Amazon (US, UK, Germany and France) and Smashwords (all other formats [Nook, iPad, etc.]). As always there is a free sample.
Ghost Moon, the sequel to Written in Blood is now available. Here's what Kirkus Reviews says: "Action fans will thrill to the gunplay and other dangers. James' conflicting feelings about his archetypically dangerous friend-and also a telling conversation with an old Mexican survivor of the Alamo about the difference between legend and reality-introduce thought provoking elements. A tale of the Old West with a sturdy historical base and nary a dull moment."Check out the Ghost Moon cover, too, it's one of my photographs.
It is now possible to get a personalized inscription and signature for a Kindle book. If you have one of my titles, or are thinking of buying one, check it out here. Isn't technology cool?
Where Soldiers Lie is selling well. Why not pick up a sample for free or the entire book for only 99c on Smashwords or Amazon.com. Of course, the danger is you'll become addicted and have to pick up all my other titles, but what's life without a little danger.
Don't forget to visit my website, and check out the BlogTalkRadio interview on success (whatever that is), authors in schools and the changing face of publishing and eBooks.
Become my friend on Facebook
Losing a friend!
There are individuals whom one has never met or even spoken with, but who can yet become close friends through the intellectual resonance and emotional alchemy of their words. Christopher Hitchens died yesterday and I lost a friend."Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."
If you missed the Fall Tour, I'll be back in southern Ontario in May 2012. I am currently available for school visits on May 7 to 9 and 14 to 18. Check out the May Tour post.
My website is now updated, to include a section offering hard copies of my out-of-print titles for sale direct from me. This means they can be signed and personalized—the perfect Christmas or Birthday gift.
Titles available are:Crusade: The Heretic's Secret Book IGrail: The Heretic's Secret Book IIWhere Soldiers LieGermaniaAnd in the MorningLost in SpainDancing Elephants and Floating Continents: The Story of Canada Beneath Your Feet.
Fans of The Heretic's Secret Trilogy will be happy to know that plans are in the works to bring Crusade, Grail and Renaissance out as a series in the new year. Keep Checking.
Also, The Final Alchemy, the novel for adults upon which The Alchemist's Dream was based, is in process and should be out before Christmas. Of course, you can fill the aching void before then by reading the Governor General's Award Finalist YA version (they are very different), at Kindle or Smashwords.
Ghost Mountains and Vanished Oceans: North America from Birth to Middle Age reached the dizzy heights of #2 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list of Geology books. Check it out on Amazon (US, UK, Germany and France) and Smashwords (all other formats [Nook, iPad, etc.]). As always there is a free sample.
Ghost Moon, the sequel to Written in Blood is now available. Here's what Kirkus Reviews says: "Action fans will thrill to the gunplay and other dangers. James' conflicting feelings about his archetypically dangerous friend-and also a telling conversation with an old Mexican survivor of the Alamo about the difference between legend and reality-introduce thought provoking elements. A tale of the Old West with a sturdy historical base and nary a dull moment."Check out the Ghost Moon cover, too, it's one of my photographs.
It is now possible to get a personalized inscription and signature for a Kindle book. If you have one of my titles, or are thinking of buying one, check it out here. Isn't technology cool?
Where Soldiers Lie is selling well. Why not pick up a sample for free or the entire book for only 99c on Smashwords or Amazon.com. Of course, the danger is you'll become addicted and have to pick up all my other titles, but what's life without a little danger.
Don't forget to visit my website, and check out the BlogTalkRadio interview on success (whatever that is), authors in schools and the changing face of publishing and eBooks.
Become my friend on Facebook
