C.K. Bryant's Blog, page 14

In Search of Free Reading

I LOVE my Kindle!



Not that I don't still love flipping through the pages of a real book, but how else could I get so many awesome books for FREE.



Take these books for instance.



Soulkeepers - by C.P. Ching



It's totally free right now and I happen to know the author. This book ROCKS. A must add to your TBR list, so head on over to Amazon.com and get your copy.









Raven - by Suzy Turner



I don't know anything about this book, except it sounds AWESOME and it's FREE!!



So go get it!





Marked - by Kim Richardson



Spooky looking cover, eh?  I can't wait to read it.



And it's FREE!











Jenny Pox - by J.L. Bryan



This one really intrigues me. So I snagged it while it was . . . YEP!  FREE



So head on over to Amazon and check out their free book section. Took me a while to find some good ones, but it will be worth it when I need a good read.



Enjoy!!!









Do you have any free reads you'd like to share with my readers?

Happy Book Birthday to TANGLED TIDES

[image error] I want to wish Karen Hooper a Happy Book Birthday for her novel, Tangled Tides. Isn't the cover beautiful?  Here's a little more about it.



Tangled Tides

by Karen Amanda Hooper





"...adventure, family secrets, and sizzling romance. I couldn't put it down!" ~Rae Carson, THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS 

Yara Jones doesn't believe in sea monsters—until she becomes one. 

When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious. 

Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people—until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process—or she might open the gateway to a love that's deeper than the oceans. 

Young Adult fans of Mermaids, Selkies, Sirens and Gorgons will love this tale of the sacrifice one makes for genuine love. Love that could be lost at any moment to the ever-changing tides. 

"…a believable underwater world that will leave readers wishing for a tail instead of legs. Blue has never been so sexy."

~Elana Johnson, POSSESSION 

"Full of deception, forbidden love, and intrigue, Tangled Tides is a story best savored but impossible to put down."

~P.J. Hoover, SOLSTICE







This is a must read, folks. You can find out more about Karen by visiting her blog: http://www.KarenAmandaHooper.com

You can tweet her here: @Karen_Hooper

And here's where you can purchase Tangled Tides: 

Amazon:   http://amzn.com/1936850435
I wish Karen the best on her book and can't wait to get my hands on a copy. 

A Different Kind of Thanks

While waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven so I can put the yams and rolls in, I've been scrolling through the blogs that were posted today wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Most of the bloggers made lists of 10-15 things or people or situations they were grateful for, and I think that's great. I love the process of evaluating one's life to discover all the wonderful blessings we've received over the last year or so. But for me, a list won't work.



Here's why.



I have too much to be grateful for.



The past 3-4 years have been extremely rough for us. The economy has taken its tole on our restaurant and we've had to sell a lot of our luxury items in order to pay the monthly bills. Things like our travel trailer, a couple of old trucks, my husbands guns and my guitar. All items we enjoyed and that brought us happiness when we used them. While it stung a little seeing them go, we've learned a very valuable lesson. Our life is much richer because we've simplified it. Tightening our budget has made us aware of things we can do without and still be happy. You'd think there wouldn't be much left to be thankful for, but the gratitude isn't in what we've lost, it's in what we've found.



Each other.



We spend more quality time together, invent fun games to play as a family that don't include spending money and have learned to be content just being together with nothing else to do but enjoy each other's company. Yes, I have a huge list of "things" to be grateful for, but nothing could compare to being safe and healthy and together.



May you all find joy in the little things and cling to your loved ones.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Dark C.A.R.M.A. Finale

Just a quick reminder that there is less than 24 hours left to sign up for the GRAND PRIZE over on the Dark CARMA Tour blog. If you haven't signed up yet, do so now. The prize is a $100 gift card for Amazon.com and a signed copy of all three of our books, BOUND by moi, EXILED by RaShelle Workman & BECOME by Ali Cross.  There's also some cool swag involved, so you don't want to miss it.



Here's the link: http://darkcarmatour.blogspot.com/



OH, WAIT!!  There's more!  We are having a Grand Finale tomorrow night on Twitter. We will begin at 7pm MST and will be giving away MORE books from other authors. Use the hashtag #DarkCARMA. We'll announce the Grand Prize winner at the end, so don't miss out.

Cover Reveal

Angela Carlie has just revealed the cover of her new book, Spider Wars, and I'd love to share it with all of you. Here it is.







Isn't it beautiful? Okay, I have to admit that it gives me the creeps because I HATE spiders, but if I can get over holding the little critter while reading the book, I'm definitely going to buy this one. Here's the blurb. 

Jess' life has never been ordinary. After all, life on the road with an immortal family of gypsies is hardly predictable. Living in the small town of White Salmon, Washington has brought some normality to her life. But when her cheating, unofficial boyfriend, Nicu, gets involved with a group of arachno-shifters, life gets a little sticky. Will she be able to save him from the web he's spun? More importantly, how much is she willing to risk at a chance at love?

SPIDER WARSA Lords of Shifters Novelby Angela CarlieComing 2012

EEEK!!  Did I just read "arachno-shifters" up there? This read is going to take some courage on my part. *shiver*

While you're waiting for SPIDER WARS to come out, pick up the first Lords of Shifters Novel, LORAMENDI'S STORY. You can find all the purchasing links on Angela's blog along with more info on other projects she's working on.





More about Angela





Angela Carlie is the author of Dream Smashers, an edgy contemporary about a girl whose mother is a meth addict, Loramendi's Story, a paranormal romance, and Land of Corn Chips, a middle grade novel.

Angela has lived in the Pacific Northwest her entire life. She enjoys hanging out with her husband and twelve-year-old son, reading, writing, hiking, kayaking, and traveling.

She's a member of DarkSide Publishing, The Pacific Northwest YA Authors, and The Northbank Workshop.

Website: http://angelacarlie.com

Blog: http://angelacarlie.blogspot.com

Twitter: @AngelaCarlie

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/angelacarlie







Have you seen any new covers lately that make you shiver? What are you afraid of?

Much About Something

You know the saying, Much About Nothing? Well, I have so much to share that I have to cram it all into one post. First, you've got to take a look at the movie trailer for Hunger Games. It was released this morning. Brace yourself. It gave me the chills.









WOW!!  Are you totally blown away, or what? I can't wait to see it in the theater.









http://www.rashelleworkman.com/


http://www.alicross.com/
Okay, so the next thing on my list of things to share is about my wonderful partners in Dark CARMA. I couldn't have asked for two better friends to share my journey with. Please head on over to their blogs and see what they're up to, check out their books and make a purchase. You'll be glad you did.  Here are their book covers and links to their blogs.











Next, check out this great review on Dreams of Quill and Ink. L.T. Elliot is a phenomenal writer and friend who's done a great job of describing what BOUND meant to her as she read it. Be sure to leave her a comment and thank her for sharing that with us.



And last. In spite of all the positivity I've been having with the launch of BOUND and the great reviews, I've found myself a little down because, well . . . not many people remembered. I only had one family member even mention it and a very small handful of friends. Not to worry. I know life is busy and with NaNo we've all got our heads in our new stories. And I must admit I've been a little cranky as well. Sorry about that.



Anyway, I heard this song on the radio this morning and it made me think about all this publishing drama and why I do what I do. It's not for the recognition or the fame or any of that insignificant stuff. It's for the journey and, regardless if it pleases anyone else, or if I fail at whatever I choose to do, I'm going to do it anyway. It's my dream and what's important is that I believe in myself enough to make the dream come true.  Enjoy.









What are your dreams? How close are you to achieving them?

Launch Party Success

It's a good thing the DarkCARMA book launch party was on twitter or I probably would have woke with a hangover this morning. Not that I drink anything stronger than Diet Pepsi, but I was so exhausted after being online all day, that I barely remember my head hitting the pillow. And I didn't want to get out of bed this morning, either.



It was all worth it, though, because the party was a great success. Lots of books were given away and it felt good to meet people and make new friends. A special thanks to Danyelle for calling me to say HAPPY LAUNCH DAY and to Debbie, Sherri and Kris with their encouraging texts. Also, a HUGE thank you to all the friends and family who showed up on Facebook to wish me luck and give support. Much appreciated.



I'd especially like to thank my DarkCARMA partners, RaShelle and Ali, for all the work they put into the party and for taking over when Twitter FAILED and I couldn't get back online. So frustrating when you get locked out of your own house when there's a party being held in your favor.



For those of you who forgot or missed it or just didn't show, you can still redeem yourself when we close out the tour on the 22nd. We've got more prizes to give out and we'll be announcing the GRAND PRIZE later that day. If you haven't signed up, go HERE to do that now. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and fill out the Rafflecopter form.



Check out the reviews that have been posted about BOUND.





Throwing Books

The Musings of a Hopeful WriterThe Musings of a . . . InterviewThe Reading LarkMere MotherhoodLani Woodland

A Day of Celebration!!!

Happy Release Day!



Let the Party Begin!!
TODAY!~ 11/11/11 ~ 





Begins the celebration and release of my debut novel, BOUND. I'm releasing with two other great authors, Ali Cross (BECOME) and RaShelle Workman (EXILED) as the





Dark C.A.R.M.A Tour

Come join the celebration!



We'll be over on Tweetchat talking up all our author friends and giving away a ton of books.  Please join us starting at 11:00am MST. We'll take a break in the afternoon and then start up again around 6:00pm and party until we drop or until we are out of prizes. (11pm-ish)  We'd love to have you.We're tweeting under the hashtag,



  #DarkCARMA

But wait . . .

There's more!

You need to sign up to win our  GRAND PRIZE which includes an

A signed paperback copy of each of our booksLOTS OF SWAGand extra goodies we'll throw in just for fun.

Head on over to our blog and sign up.





Click HERE!

I Love Dark YA Blogfest

Today is the second Wednesday of the "I Love Dark YA" Blogfest and the challenge is to write a flash fiction piece of 500 words or less about this photo.



Here's my piece:





I'd been engulfed in the shadow of darkness for so long, that when it withdrew its presence the light blinded me. I threw my hands over my eyes to block the pain that shot through to my skull. A few moments passed and I dared let a sliver of light seep in through my fingers. I squinted to see the horror before me. As far as the eye could see was desolate and barren. Not one blade of grass grew on the hillside.

The evil that caused this destruction still lingered in the dark mist that had settled to the valley floor and it took all my courage to take my first step. The decay crunched beneath my tender, bare feet.  With each additional step came pain as thorns drew blood, leaving a trail of crimson behind me. It was nothing compared to the heart wrenching sorrow I felt when I reached the top of the hill. There was no life, only more darkness. More death. More evil.

I clenched my fists in the smooth satin fabric of my unblemished white dress. How had it remained so pristine with all the blackness that surrounded me?  The contrast was eerie and left me wondering if this was a dream and not a living nightmare in reality. Had I fallen asleep? Had I drifted into some place beyond any dream I'd had before? I tried to remember how this had happened, how I had gotten here and where the shadow of darkness had come from, but my memories were a jumble of unrelated images that didn't make sense.

Someone called my name in the distance. A deep familiar voice. I turned toward it but found no one there. I clamped my hands over my ears and closed my eyes, wishing my world would go back to the way it was before. When I opened my eyes again, the shadow had returned, leaving me blind to my surroundings. This is hell, I thought. It had to be.

"Help me," I whispered.

Less than a moment passed before strong arms lifted me into an embrace. I had no fear. No question of who was holding me. No wonder if the warm body that cradled me meant to do harm. I knew his smell. I remembered his soft deep voice as it whispered my name. I craved his comfort and forgiveness.

A burst of warm air billowed around us as I envisioned his mighty wings lifting us from the blackened earth. I leaned into him, letting him take me away form the darkness and into the bright light that filtered in around us. But it wasn't heaven I saw when my feet finally touched ground, but the safety of my own room. I looked up into his steel blue eyes and saw peace. He tapped the tip of my nose with his finger.

"Try to stay out of trouble," he said.

It isn't easy being my guardian angel.





Don't forget to come to the launch party for BOUND, EXILED & BECOME this Friday, 11/11/11 at 11:00am on Twitter. Use the hashtag #DarkCARMA. Lots of prizes and fun to be had.

Dave Farland - The Future of Publishing is Self-Publishing

I'm honored to have as my guest today, Dave Farland. Everyone please give him a big welcome by leaving an awesome comment below.

The Future of Publishing is Self-PublishingIn the past month, I've talked to dozens of new writers who are publishing their own books electronically.  Everyone is doing it.  In fact, I just put up six of my early novels along with several short stories.  Within the next three weeks I hope to post the last of my novels and short stories, along with a couple of textbooks from my seminars (Write that Novel and Million Dollar Outlines). 

Of course, that's the problem.  Everyone is self-publishing e-books.  Bowker Identifier Services said that a million people bought ISBN's last year, and another three million will be purchased this year.  I spoke to one bestselling author recently who groused, "My neighbor came by last week and told me that he was a published author.  He put up an e-book and sold seven copies.  Then my paperboy told me that he was published, and he's only fourteen!  If anyone can publish, does it really mean anything anymore to be a published author?"

Well, it means something.  It takes a lot of ambition and work even to self-publish, and as publishers keep cutting back on their own buying, it forces even good writers to move into that arena.

But there's a catch.  When you see an e-book from a self-published author, of course, you have to wonder if it's any good.  Is there a reason that the author couldn't sell to mainstream publishers?  Maybe, maybe not.  Sometimes publishers don't take books that are perfectly good because the books don't stand out.  Sometimes the books have major flaws.  Sometimes, though, the world's just not ready for the author. 

Tales are legendary of huge novels that had a hard time selling.  Gone with the Wind, Lord of the Rings, Dune, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull are just a few of the classics that couldn't get in print.  More recently, The Help did the same before becoming a bestseller and a film.  One can look back and find Nobel Prize Winners that couldn't get published. 

Years ago, I had one publisher ask me to look at their recent books and help decide which one to give the big "push" to.  I surveyed about forty recent novels and picked a book called Harry Potter.  The marketing department disagreed.  The book was considered "too long" for its intended audience.  I pointed out that it was written three or four grade levels too high, too, and said that they should push it anyway.  The publisher took my advice, and the rest is history.

But there's a lesson here.  You as an author have to believe in yourself, and that's what indie authors are demonstrating.

So I'm sure that great books will be coming from self-published authors.  In fact, a year ago in April, I predicted that the first self-published author would become a millionaire within a year.  It took about nine months before it happened. 

But of course as book buyers, we have to worry that such books might have major flaws.  We need to find a way of making sure that the quality is kept high.  One way to do that is to join with other authors who vet the books.

With so many indie authors coming out, the markets will be flooded this year, and this leads to a new problem.

Soon it will become harder and harder to stand out from the crowd.  Readers looking for great content will realize that too often they're paying to read from the slush piles, and they'll probably start turning back to their favorite authors and to bestsellers in an effort to find works that they like.In other words, they'll realize that the gatekeepers—the editors and agents—served a purpose.  Sure the gatekeepers weren't perfect, but at least there was someone manning the guardhouse.  The readers even want to hire them back.

But New York publishing is a mess, and it won't ever be the same.  The big publishers are demanding so much of the profit from electronic rights that many of the best authors are leaving for good.So readers will be looking for other ways to gauge novels.  I think that writing awards, bestseller status, and positive reviews will gain more importance for buyers.

With this in mind, it seems to me that authors need a way to show that they stand out from the crowd.  We can't return to the past.  The overhead for paper publishing is tremendous—printing, storing and transporting the books is expensive.  Most of the profit goes to the bookstores. 

As the price for good electronic readers continues to drop, everyone will soon have them.  School children will get them for school instead of books.  Frequent readers will recognize that with the low prices of e-books, it will be far cheaper to buy novels electronically.  Just as the whole country has switched to digital cameras, within five years nearly all of us will switch to e-readers.

So how will an author stand out in the electronic age?  The answer is with "enhanced novels."  These are books that deliver text, but they can also deliver full-color illustrations, audio, film, games, and other components.  In short, we'll have editors who make the books into a major production.We won't spend huge amounts on printing, we'll spend it on creating a great product.With my partner Miles Romney, I've just completed my first enhanced novel as part of launching a new publishing company.  It was an interesting and informative experience.

The novel is called Nightingale, and it tells the story of a young man named Bron Jones, who is abandoned at birth.  Raised in foster care, he's shuffled from home to home.  At age 16, he's kind of the ultimate loner, until he's sent to a new foster home and meets Olivia, a marvelous teacher, who recognizes that Bron is something special, something that her people call a "Nightingale," a creature that is not quite human.  Suddenly epic forces combine to claim Bron, and he must fight to keep from getting ripped away from the only home, family, and friends that he has ever known.  In fact, he must risk his life to learn the answers to the mysteries of his birth: "What am I?  Where did I come from?  Who am I?"

So this is a young adult novel, and we decided to go with interior art.  I didn't want the art to be too much like something from a comic book, so we chose a more sophisticated style, similar to the art deco pieces that you might find in the New Yorker.  Of course we looked at the work of dozens of artists before selecting our people.  I didn't want it to look like a novel that an amateur might put together.

We considered using a single artist, but we felt that that would take a long time, creating a bottleneck for production.  It would also limit us to a single style, which might define the novel too much in the reader's minds.  So we opted to use several artists so that readers would be able to decide for themselves which ones came closest to their own personal visions. 

We also wanted motion, and we considered some cool new styles of animation.  I very much liked a minimalist approach, where only a single element in a still is animated.  These are called "cinemagraphs," and we could have made them with still photos, but instead opted to do it with illustrations.  The idea here was that we found that if we put film at the beginning of a chapter, it competed for the reader's attention, pulled them out of the book.  So we made a game of having cinemagraphs in each chapter.

Now, it would have probably been easier and cheaper to film chapter headings, sort of mini-commercials for each chapter, in the long run, but we aren't necessarily looking for the "easiest and cheapest" way to make a book.  That's been done for centuries.  We wanted to "enhance" the novel, help bring it to life for readers who might find that visuals are helpful.  We thought that hiring half a dozen fine artists would be fun.We also wanted music to enhance the mood and tone of the novel, so we considered how to do that.  Miles happened to know the head of the American Composer's Guild, James Guymon, and so James came in to compose a 45-minute soundtrack.  He called upon some smoking-hot professionals for help, including guitarists, lyricists, drummers, and so on.  Since this is a story about a young man who dreams of becoming the world's greatest guitarist, it inspired the musicians to put their best work out there.  I had hoped to get some music in the style of guitar great Joe Satriani, and the album really blew me away.  It's much like the theme albums created by Pink Floyd or Joe Satriani himself.  Portions of the songs are played as intros to chapters, but one can buy the album, too, from places like iTunes.

Of course, an enhanced novel can do more than just show animations and give us music, so we did put in some film clips, but we restricted them to author interviews, which we inserted along with notes and photographs on the making of the book.  These are only visible if one reads the book in landscape mode.Last of all we created the audiobook, hiring an actor to read it, inserting sound-effects and background music.  So that the vision impaired, busy moms, and long-haul truckers can enjoy the book.

Then we're also printing the novel in hardcover, since a lot of people still actually buy paper novels, and we lined up national distribution with an existing publisher so that we can get the books in stores.The idea with our company is to push the novel in every possible format. 

It has been a lot of work, and I'm feeling wiped.  But our goal is to become an industry leader, to pioneer the next wave in publishing.  We don't have unlimited multi-million dollar budgets, but that will come.I know for certain that I could have sold this novel to a major publisher.  I did have the top agency for the genre ask to take it out to the big houses.  But I didn't want to go that route.  This book is special to me, and I wanted to showcase it.

So the novel is out now, and Miles did one last cool thing.  The enhanced book was made for the iPad, though you will also be able to read it on just about any other pad or smartphone.  But Miles had his people create a web app so that you can enjoy the book on your computer—read a few chapters, take it for a test drive, or simply buy it for reading online.  You're free to go check out the results at www.nightingalenovel.com.  If you like it, remember to "Like" us on Facebook.  Better yet, re-post our site info and tell your friends on Facebook.

Oh, and while you're there, check out our short-story contest, where you can win $1000.My point is this. Yes, the future of publishing is self publishing for the moment, but in the long run, I believe the future is going to require a broader and deeper skill set than any author has heretofore had to deal with, and future publishing houses will resemble production studios. It won't be long before the readers will recognize a good book not only by its cover, but by its music, artists, and the whole panoply of people, talent, work and money that was invested into the book signifying that so many people believed in it that they joined forces to create a great production. Only a futuristic production house is going to be able to provide that.