H.S. Stone's Blog, page 16

Release announcement: Rescue

The fourth short story in The Driver Series, "Rescue," is now available! For the time being, this will be the last installment of the series. However, I've had a lot of fun writing about Claire and her post-apocalyptic world, so I won't say that this is farewell forever. :-)


You can purchase "Rescue" at the following retailers for 99 cents:
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For the first time in memory, there is peace between Claire’s people and the Outsiders. The Drivers and their Pr...

The downside of reading a great book

Image courtesy of FreeImages.com/ramzi hashisho
Recently, I went through a reading slump. For some reason, the books I read just didn't appeal to me. Although they received good reviews, I found them sort of ... blah. I struggled to finish some of them, and, in a couple of cases, I put them down for good, which is rare because I seldom DNF books. It didn't matter what the genre was. It didn't matter what time of day or day of week I read the books. Fortunately, after two or three weeks, I star...

Re-reading

I tend to watch my favorite movies over and over again. I don't remember how many times I've seen the original Star Wars Trilogy, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "The Matrix," "The Princess Bride," or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." I know I've done so enough times to easily recite lines from those movies (much to my wife's chagrin).

It got me wondering why I don't do that with my favorite books. It's rare for me to read a book twice, even one that I love. I've read my favorite YA book, The Hunger Game...

Everything sounds brilliant at 2:00 am

I'm one of those people who have vivid dreams and remember them after waking up. My dreams have often been creative fuel for the stories I write. Back before I published my first novel, I wrote a lot of short stories, and I estimate that more than a third of those story ideas originated from dreams. (For me, dreams work better for short stories than for novels because the events in my dreams aren't expansive enough to fill a novel.)

Unfortunately, I also suffer from insomnia in that I wake up...

Fixing my lack of writing

In early December, I published a post about how to sustain a writing routine. I should've known that was going to jinx me because I've hardly written anything new since. Sure, the last two weeks of December were taken up by the holidays, and 2016 has resulted in even more work at my day job, but those are just excuses.

Writing is still important to me, and I want to find a way of getting back in the habit of doing it somewhat regularly. This week, I embarked on what I hope will become a new ha...

Release announcement: All That Remains of Me

The day has finally arrived! Today is the official release date for my latest novel, All That Remains of Me.


You can purchase the e-book edition now for the special introductory price of 99 cents! The price will go up soon, so act quickly.
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During a routine drive to dinner with her parents, sixteen-year-old Annie Walker’s car is struck by a pickup truck. The resulting accident kills her parents and leaves Annie unconscious. When she wakes up, she thin...

A Spoonful of Stories

A few years ago, I had an idea to write a collection of flash fiction. I was fond of the format where an entire story can be told in 1,000 words or less. However, like some of my other writing ideas, this one was set aside in favor of more promising ones.

This year, I'm resurrecting the idea and posting the stories to Wattpad under a project called "A Spoonful of Stories." There will be 26 works of flash fiction in all, where the title of each story features alliteration using a letter of the...

Cover reveal and pre-order announcement: All That Remains of Me

Check out the cover for my new YA sci-fi novel, All That Remains of Me!


The book is now available for pre-order on the following sites for the special introductory price of 99 cents! After the official release date of February 10, the price will go up, so request your pre-order now.
AmazonSmashwordsBarnes & NobleKoboiTunes
During a routine drive to dinner with her parents, sixteen-year-old Annie Walker’s car is struck by a pickup truck. The resulting accident kills her parents and leaves An...

Favorite reads of 2015

My last post summarized the books I read in 2015, and here were my top ten favorites from the year.


1. Armada - Ernest Cline
When I read this book, I thought it was specifically targeted to me because I could relate to so many of the references made. If you were a video-game-playing, sci-fi-loving kid of the 80's like I was, this book is for you! Despite the somewhat cheesy ending, I liked this book even more than Ready Player One.

2. Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor
Beautifully writte...

What I read in 2015

At the beginning of the year, I joined the Goodreads reading challenge and set a goal of 100 books. If I had known how busy I was going to be this year, I wouldn't have. :-) However, as of yesterday, I somehow managed to finish my 100th book of 2015!

The ratings for the books I read this year broke down as follows:
5 stars - 25 books4 stars - 44 books3 stars - 29 books2 stars - 2 bookThis comes out to an average rating of 3.92 stars per book.

Of the 100 books that I read, 47 were indie publishe...