Charles Sheehan-Miles's Blog, page 29

Prayer at Rumayla temporarily free at Barnes & Noble

For a brief time, Prayer at Rumayla, my first novel, is available for free from Barnes & Noble. Check it out here.

I'd like to have it be free on Amazon as well!  You can help: go to the Amazon page for the book, and click the "report a lower price" link.  Then paste in the B&N link to let them know there competitor is giving it away free!

Thanks, and enjoy!

 

First review of Episode 1 now in

Happy to see the first review of Episode 1 is now in! Head on over to Amazon.co.uk to check it out at http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R34JTLWPOWTYC5 

"As soon as Episode 2 is available I shall be buying it"

That will be in just a few weeks.  Working on the final rewrites and getting feedback from beta readers right now.

 

Insurgent Episode 2 now with beta readers

Episode 2 is now with the beta readers, and i'm awaiting feedback.  It weighs in at 40,000 words, about twice as long as Episode 1, and focuses primarily on Valerie Murphy and the machinations between DHS, the WV state government, and the threat posed by the break-in at the Hamilton Biomedical Facility.

You can pick up Episode 1 at most of the online bookstores now, including Amazon, iBooks, B&N and Smashwords. Will likely be a few weeks before it's available from Sony.

If you've read Episode 1, PLEASE post a review up on Amazon or elsewhere! Would love to get feedback! Links to other stuff I've written here: Books by Charles Sheehan-Miles

Uploaded episode 1

Episode 1 of Insurgent has been uploaded at Amazon and Barnes and Noble and should be available within 24-48 hours! I'll post links soon as it appears.

Insurgent Episode 1 back from the editor

So, Episode 1 of Insurgent is back from the editor, and I've received a lot of detailed and excellent feedback from beta readers.  Working through the changes now, and I expect to release it for Kindle and other ebook readers by Christmas.

A few more people have contacted me about being beta readers, but it was too late to get you in this round, but I'll be in touch soon about episode 2.

Off to the editor

Book 1 of Insurgent is off to the editor and a small circle of beta readers.

Hoping to swing right into the second episode.  I have the second draft of the entire thing written, so now its a matter of polishing and finalizing each episode, getting them to the editor and putting it out.  Will go to print when all six episodes are out and finalized.

Releasing the book in a serialized format is obviously a bit  of an experiment.  I'm doing it primarily so I can begin getting content out NOW, rather than waiting another six months while continuing to work through the entire book.  Hoping this will develop momentum both for me and the readers.

Question for readers (at least those of you who do ebooks): would you likely pick up the 99 cent serialized episodes, knowing that there will be cliffhangers and roughly 1 – 2 month waits between each? Or hold off until the completed edition is available? Why?

Reviving the Bonus March

With the Occupy everywhere protests going on all across the country, I've been seeing a lot of references to the 1932 Bonus March. Made me want to go find my old blog entry I posted a long time ago when republishing W.W. Waters' book about the march, but apparently I lost it somewhere in moving from one blogging system to another.

Luckily, the WayBackMachine archived it. For those who want some of the history… especially of how the marchers were driven out of Washington, DC by the US Army, pick up a copy of the book! Along with the hardcover, it's also available for Kindle at 2.99

http://web.archive.org/web/20071214001417/http://www.sheehanmiles.com/blogid/2925

Here's the text:

About ten years ago, I picked up a long out-of-print copy of Walter W. Water's account of the 1932 Bonus March. Waters was one of the leaders of the original group that travelled from Oregon to Washington, DC. The book had been out of print since before I was born, but is now back.

Walter W. Waters was an Army sergeant who had served in Europe during the first World War. Like millions of other Americans during the great depression, he struggled to find a livelihood for his family, with little luck.

In 1932, he led 300 veterans in a cross-country odyssey to petition Congress for release of the promised bonus for World War I veterans. Eventually, more ten thousand veterans gathered in DC.

They were driven out. From Waters' account of the tragedy:

"The troops stopped at the buildings in the Pennsylvania Avenue area and took them one at a time. Each one housed forty to a hundred men. The men were chased out with drawn bayonets and gas bombs. The men of the B.E.F. had come to Washington, hoping to get something from the Government. They were getting it—the most modern type of tear gas."

While a number of accounts of the Bonus March exist, this is one of the only first-hand accounts, written by one of the leaders of the movement. I'm very proud to be involved with bringing this book back into print, and hope you'll check it out!

You can find out more details about the Bonus March, check out the photo gallery and get other information athttp://www.bonusmarch.info

You can order the book at Amazon now.

Tags: Bonus Army  Bonus March  World War I  veterans
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Posted By Charles at 2:14 PM

Episodes and Beta Readers

Okay, so it's finally time.

Over the course of the next few months, starting in late November, I'll be releasing Insurgent as six short episodic ebooks. Once the final episode is released, will be going to print with the dead tree version of the book, as well as a consolidated ebook.

I'm excited to finally be moving forward!

That said, I'm looking for a small group of volunteers as beta readers.

What you get as a beta reader:

First, my thanks, both personally, and in the acknowledgements in the book.

Second, the beta readers who participate will get a limited edition hardcover of Insurgent. I'll only be printing 20 or so hardcovers, and one will go to you.

What does a beta reader do?

In short, you read the unfinished episodes as I prepare them for release. And you give me the unvarnished truth: what page were you on when you put it down?  At what point did it put you to sleep? What sentence made you want to vomit because it was so badly written?

Beta readers will participate in a small and temporary google email group, and basically what I'm looking to do is crowdsource the process of making it a better book. I really need a small group of people who can really participate and give me the bad news before it goes out to the general public.

Interested?  Please drop me an email or comment here. I plan to post the first episode (roughly 80 pages) to the beta reader group in about a week.

Update on Insurgent

Just wanted to post a quick update that I'm hard at work on the second draft and expect to have that completed by the end of July or early in August.

Insurgent

First draft is: completed.

It's rough, disorganized, messy, full of typos, unreadable.  But finished.

This evening I start rewriting.