Travis Luedke's Blog, page 9
June 19, 2014
Why a World Without Pain is a Wasteland #LifeLessons #ASMSG (Reblog)
This post from Victoria Dougherty was so awesome I had to reblog:http://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/why-a-world-without-pain-is-a-wasteland/Why a World Without Pain is a WastelandOctober 8, 2013
Some years ago I attended an Easter brunch at some friends of my parents. It was a warm, wonderful occasion filled with people I’d known all my life, and who, through their example, had somehow always managed to make a better person out of me.I was seated next to a young man named Tim, who I hadn’t seen since he was yay-high – cute and rambunctious, covered in some form of dirt from head to toe like most little boys. But by the time this Easter brunch rolled around, Tim was a man in every sense of the word – a U.S. Marine, in fact, who had recently returned from a tour in Iraq. A husband.It is the tradition in Tim’s family to do military service before embarking on a career in law or medicine. In Tim’s case, he’d been planning to start law school in the fall, and a family with his wife, Kelly, right away.But soon after his return, Kelly, who had been complaining of headaches and blurred vision, was diagnosed with an inoperable, terminal brain tumor. Lovely, bright twenty-four year old Kelly.Within a matter of months, she was gone.
“It’s downright un-American,” a friend had told me just a couple of months earlier, after our baby was diagnosed with a tumor in utero. She was being ironic, but her point was made to me days later by a doctor who said with a completely straight face, “I can only imagine how you must be feeling. You must be asking yourself, ‘how could this happen to someone like me, who is educated and…” He searched for the right word, but failed to find it, letting his sentence taper off.I knew the word, though. The word was entitled.Entitlement is something with which I’ve always had a complicated relationship. I most certainly feel a great sense of entitlement – no doubt about that – but what complicates things is that I know what the other side is like, too. I did, after all, grow up in a family whose problems began with capital letters: Communism, Russians, Germans, Nazis.The women in my family smoked their 120 cigarettes and drank their tar-black coffee while they talked about Stalin as if they’d known him personally. The men talked very little unless you asked. Their pain was exhibited in their complete absence of self-pity, their sense of duty, and their wry smile. To this day, due to my family’s influence, I cannot bear a whiner.So, that doctor was wrong about me. Sort of.But he probably wasn’t wrong about most of the folks he has to break bad news to. Many of us Americans, regardless of race, gender and socio-economic background, feel a considerable sense of outrage when it comes to hard luck. If you have any doubt, just try to explain to a mother from a famine-ravaged nation that the poor in our country are overweight and often have televisions, cell phones, and designer sneakers. We Americans have always had a different definition of what constitutes quality of life than much of the outside world – and thank God for that. It has raised the standard for the world at large.But there is a dark side to the way we flinch from pain and tend to scream “It’s not fair!” like an adolescent when things go tragically wrong. If you spend your life running from pain, you never get to experience the elegant beauty in grief, the myriad of blessings you can receive if you open your heart to whatever gut-wrenching experience has been visited upon you.
Let me be clear, I’ve hated every morsel of pain that I’ve ever had to choke down. And if I think I can avoid pain, I don’t just do a side-step, I RUN LIKE HELL. I hate that my daughter was born anything less than perfect. I hate that Tim had to lose Kelly and all the dreams they’d planned for their life together.I can’t speak for Tim, but I know the pain I’ve had to endure has given every bit as much as it has taken away.I now understand why, despite the political oppression my mother experienced in communist Czechoslovakia, despite being orphaned and left in the hands of cruel and resentful relatives, despite being thrown in prison for trying to escape to America, despite the death of her son – she continues to believe in the good of human kind, and often with more passion and faith than someone who has led a much easier life. It is because part of what comes with pain is the sweet knowledge that there are people you hardly know who come to your aid and save your life, that you have been dragged kicking and screaming into being a better person, and that whatever peace of mind you lost has been replaced by a gracious acceptance of whatever life has to offer.It is why the slum-dwellers in India smile. It is why the Jews are famous for their sense of humor and the Slavs for their unbearable lightness.It is perhaps why Tim approached me as I was leaving Easter brunch, took my hand and said, “We are so sorry for you and your baby. Kelly and I pray for you every day.”I was speechless. “Thank you,” was practically all I could utter. We, at least, had hope. He and Kelly had none. I did manage to tell him he and Kelly were in our prayers, too, and he smiled and thanked me as well. “We’re just so grateful for every day we have together,” he said.Part of me would welcome a world where great people like Tim and Kelly didn’t have to experience such a living nightmare. A world where only the sons of b*****s got it in the neck.But then I’d have to ask myself what kind of world that would be. A world lacking inspiration, perhaps, resilience, growth.Pain – aggressive, circumstantial pain (not to be confused with ennui) forces an answer to one of life’s most fundamental questions: What would you do if the worst thing you could possibly imagine happened to you?It can be a horror to contemplate – no doubt.But the truth is, in pain there is a purposefulness in every waking hour.Without pain, the world would be a single-celled organism. It would be the vacuous smile of a beauty contestant, the tiresome political rants of a news junkie, the pretentious ramblings of an artiste.All day all the time.So, ask yourself this: could you even bear it? And wouldn’t you, in a world without pain, just want to kill yourself?
Find Victoria's novel THE BONE CHURCH, on Amazon:
http://www.twluedke.com/
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http://www.facebook.com/TWLuedke
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TW-Lued...
Some years ago I attended an Easter brunch at some friends of my parents. It was a warm, wonderful occasion filled with people I’d known all my life, and who, through their example, had somehow always managed to make a better person out of me.I was seated next to a young man named Tim, who I hadn’t seen since he was yay-high – cute and rambunctious, covered in some form of dirt from head to toe like most little boys. But by the time this Easter brunch rolled around, Tim was a man in every sense of the word – a U.S. Marine, in fact, who had recently returned from a tour in Iraq. A husband.It is the tradition in Tim’s family to do military service before embarking on a career in law or medicine. In Tim’s case, he’d been planning to start law school in the fall, and a family with his wife, Kelly, right away.But soon after his return, Kelly, who had been complaining of headaches and blurred vision, was diagnosed with an inoperable, terminal brain tumor. Lovely, bright twenty-four year old Kelly.Within a matter of months, she was gone.
“It’s downright un-American,” a friend had told me just a couple of months earlier, after our baby was diagnosed with a tumor in utero. She was being ironic, but her point was made to me days later by a doctor who said with a completely straight face, “I can only imagine how you must be feeling. You must be asking yourself, ‘how could this happen to someone like me, who is educated and…” He searched for the right word, but failed to find it, letting his sentence taper off.I knew the word, though. The word was entitled.Entitlement is something with which I’ve always had a complicated relationship. I most certainly feel a great sense of entitlement – no doubt about that – but what complicates things is that I know what the other side is like, too. I did, after all, grow up in a family whose problems began with capital letters: Communism, Russians, Germans, Nazis.The women in my family smoked their 120 cigarettes and drank their tar-black coffee while they talked about Stalin as if they’d known him personally. The men talked very little unless you asked. Their pain was exhibited in their complete absence of self-pity, their sense of duty, and their wry smile. To this day, due to my family’s influence, I cannot bear a whiner.So, that doctor was wrong about me. Sort of.But he probably wasn’t wrong about most of the folks he has to break bad news to. Many of us Americans, regardless of race, gender and socio-economic background, feel a considerable sense of outrage when it comes to hard luck. If you have any doubt, just try to explain to a mother from a famine-ravaged nation that the poor in our country are overweight and often have televisions, cell phones, and designer sneakers. We Americans have always had a different definition of what constitutes quality of life than much of the outside world – and thank God for that. It has raised the standard for the world at large.But there is a dark side to the way we flinch from pain and tend to scream “It’s not fair!” like an adolescent when things go tragically wrong. If you spend your life running from pain, you never get to experience the elegant beauty in grief, the myriad of blessings you can receive if you open your heart to whatever gut-wrenching experience has been visited upon you.
Let me be clear, I’ve hated every morsel of pain that I’ve ever had to choke down. And if I think I can avoid pain, I don’t just do a side-step, I RUN LIKE HELL. I hate that my daughter was born anything less than perfect. I hate that Tim had to lose Kelly and all the dreams they’d planned for their life together.I can’t speak for Tim, but I know the pain I’ve had to endure has given every bit as much as it has taken away.I now understand why, despite the political oppression my mother experienced in communist Czechoslovakia, despite being orphaned and left in the hands of cruel and resentful relatives, despite being thrown in prison for trying to escape to America, despite the death of her son – she continues to believe in the good of human kind, and often with more passion and faith than someone who has led a much easier life. It is because part of what comes with pain is the sweet knowledge that there are people you hardly know who come to your aid and save your life, that you have been dragged kicking and screaming into being a better person, and that whatever peace of mind you lost has been replaced by a gracious acceptance of whatever life has to offer.It is why the slum-dwellers in India smile. It is why the Jews are famous for their sense of humor and the Slavs for their unbearable lightness.It is perhaps why Tim approached me as I was leaving Easter brunch, took my hand and said, “We are so sorry for you and your baby. Kelly and I pray for you every day.”I was speechless. “Thank you,” was practically all I could utter. We, at least, had hope. He and Kelly had none. I did manage to tell him he and Kelly were in our prayers, too, and he smiled and thanked me as well. “We’re just so grateful for every day we have together,” he said.Part of me would welcome a world where great people like Tim and Kelly didn’t have to experience such a living nightmare. A world where only the sons of b*****s got it in the neck.But then I’d have to ask myself what kind of world that would be. A world lacking inspiration, perhaps, resilience, growth.Pain – aggressive, circumstantial pain (not to be confused with ennui) forces an answer to one of life’s most fundamental questions: What would you do if the worst thing you could possibly imagine happened to you?It can be a horror to contemplate – no doubt.But the truth is, in pain there is a purposefulness in every waking hour.Without pain, the world would be a single-celled organism. It would be the vacuous smile of a beauty contestant, the tiresome political rants of a news junkie, the pretentious ramblings of an artiste.All day all the time.So, ask yourself this: could you even bear it? And wouldn’t you, in a world without pain, just want to kill yourself?
Find Victoria's novel THE BONE CHURCH, on Amazon:
http://www.twluedke.com/
https://twitter.com/TWLuedke
http://www.facebook.com/TWLuedke
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TW-Lued...
June 17, 2014
THE BONE CHURCH, a dark, sophisticated #thriller #Review #ASMSG
When long-time author friend Victoria Dougherty offered review copies of her debut novel The Bone Church, a historical WWII thriller, I said, "Over here please!"
Vic and I have chatted of many things, and found common ground in our love of Allen Furst, whose novel Red Gold was one of my research sources for my own writings on WWII Paris. If you've seen Victoria's phenomenal blog COLD, you'd know right away, this is an author well worth your time when she finally released her first book (and hopefully soon a second).
A sophisticated thriller, The Bone Church , did not disappoint.
Fans of Allen Furst, gather round, here's the new girl on the block - and she can write. Victoria Dougherty weaves a complex tale of one of the darkest periods of European history, birthed from the unsung stories of wartime Prague and post-war Prague. The author's Czech heritage shines brilliantly in this powerful story of the underground rebellion, of men and women struggling to survive and shove a wrench in Hitler's plans, any way possible.
Jumping through time from the height of the German occupation of Prague to the great communist decline post-war, The Bone Church brings us a perilous account of pure duplicity. Treacherous secrecy, double deals, double agents, Nazi sympathizers, Catholic revolutionaries, thieves, gypsies, and survival by subterfuge. No one is what they seem, and their alliances are as double-edged as the knives they stab in everyone's backs.
Yet, within this dark, twisted novel is another story of forbidden love with a Jewish woman marked for death. Postwar communist Prague brings no respite for our Jewish heroine.
Identities and residences are changed more often than clothing.
The intricate weave of events and time slipping back and forth carries the reader through to the promise of hope, and the sublime synchronicity of the secrets resting beneath the consecrated bones of The Bone Church.
A solid five star read. ★★★★★
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June 15, 2014
Preorder ZEBRA FISH Only $.99! #Contemporary #Romance #ASMSG
Preorder Now for only $.99! (Price goes up on release)*Contemporary Romance saga, the 3rd book in the Love Is Never Past Tense Series*Newly reunited lovers Janna and Serge thought the world had given them another chance at happiness. After years of separation following a heartbreaking divorce and harrowing escape from post-cold-war Russia, the couple had reconnected through emails, and finally took the leap to see each other in person.
Zebra Fish
Their reignited spark burns ever brighter as they travel to Egypt for new experiences. Having trekked through the desert with Bedouins, they settle on the sunny beaches for relaxation. The beauty of the Egyptian sea seduces the lovers into a scuba diving expedition, but when their boat disappears from the surface, they are stranded on the coral reef with no rescue in sight.BONUS STORY: A Favorable OfferOn their return flight from Egypt, Janna watches in horror as Serge is beset by an inexplicable illness. Fighting for his life, deep in delirium, death makes Serge a favorable offer… ‘let go and let death take him.’Janna can hardly believe Serge’s feverish ramblings as she overhears snatches of their insane conversation.Experience this poignant tale of a love that spans decades and continents, as this amazing couple travels the world, escaping one peril after another in their desire to forge a new future together.*These stories are unconventional women’s fiction, told in the uniquely Russian voice of Janna Yeshanova. Though she was forced to flee her beloved homeland, leaving a piece of her heart behind, she will always and forever be Russian.*
LIMITED TIME OFFER:
Grab LOVE IS NEVER PAST TENSE,
FREE, just for signing up to Janna Yeshanova's newsletter!
*An Epic Russian Romance Saga Based on a True Story*
“A sensual love story set across contemporary Russian culture. It is inspiring as a reminder of passionate love beyond early youth.” - Dorothy E. Siminovitch, Ph.D., MCC, Coach, Author, Conference speaker and learning consultant.
A whirlwind romance on a romantic Black Sea beach turns into a quick marriage for Serge and Janna, only to have family, fate and foolishness tear them apart. As the cold war grinds to a halt, the politics of late Soviet Russia separates the lovers on different continents. Never quite coming together, never quite letting go, their lives overlap and entwine over the years…
“Can the power of love stand up to time, politics and distance? Two young lovers face turmoil, separation and the fall of their homeland. This intriguing and often painful love story spans for decades of life-altering years, life-altering events, but proves that true love will endure as long as the human heart beats.” - Amazon top 1000 reviewer
“The portrayal of Communist and post-1991 Russia is brilliantly done and made the story so much more than 'just' a romance.” - Amazon top 500 reviewer, Christoph Fischer
Beneath the adventure and romance is a deeper story of achieving dreams regardless of obstacles. Janna Yeshanova brings forth her personal account of courage in the face of impossible odds, her indomitable spirit, and a heart of gold that held onto a lost love for decades.
“This very modern love story, lets you feel the sorrow, fear and joy of a couple coping with events that reshaped the world. A great, dramatic romance in classic Russian style.” - Amazon reviewer
Anyone who’s ever pondered the eternal question, “What makes life worth living?” can find the answer within the international romantic saga of LOVE IS NEVER PAST TENSE. http://www.twluedke.com/
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June 14, 2014
#Erotic #Scifi Cover Art Poll! UNDER BY TREATY from Kayla Stonor #ASMSG
Vote on the new cover art for UNDER BY TREATY,
A Scifi BDSM Erotic Romance novel by Kayla Stonor
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/104242
He's hers by treaty, she wants his devotion.
General Jaden is a thorn in the Qui’s side. Ambassador Sonil is on Earth to extract him by treaty. When Jaden is stripped naked then caged, he gets a taste of how far she will go to ensure he is worthy of serving the Qui Empress.
Sonil's training is ruthless and alien rules apply. Saving Earth from annihilation requires Jaden’s complete surrender - failure is not an option.
But Sonil demands more than obedience. She wants his devotion.
Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
RE-RELEASE DATE: JULY 15TH 2014
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June 13, 2014
The Box Set BASH! $100's in Amazon Gift Cards and other prizes! #Romance #SpiceBox #ASMSG
Come join us for the BOX SET BASH!
BOX SET BASH features authors from “Occupational Hazard” and “Spice Box” celebrating the release of their box sets with tons of cool stuff! Come and join the fun to with giveaways for gift certificates, author swag, e-books, and more! A $20 gift card will be given away daily along with a GRAND PRIZE: https://gleam.io/eDoa9/box-set-bash-party. From June 14th through June 29th join us from 12 pm – 8 pm EST for your chance to win and chat with your favorite authors.
Raine Miller, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Cathryn Fox, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Eve Langlais, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
K.M. Scott writing as Gabrielle Bisset, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Janelle Denison writing as Erika Wilde, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Delilah Devlin, USA Today Bestselling Author
Nina Lane, USA Today Bestselling Author
Cari Quinn, USA Today Bestselling Author
with...
Lisa Alder
Maureen O. Betita
Lilly Cain
Cassandra Carr
Ros Clarke
Riley J. Ford
Geri Foster
Mandy Harbin
A.C. James
Stephanie Julian
Parker Kincade
Kathy Kulig
Travis Luedke
Sarah Mäkelä
Ann Mayburn
Jan Springer
Christina Thacher
And don't miss out on The Spice Box! 16 novels of Steamy Erotic Romance, all genres, only $.99!
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June 7, 2014
Should you do a blog tour? What is the value of blog tours? #PNR #ASMSG #BlogTours
Blog tours have rarely resulted in book sales for me, not that I could ever really measure. I might see a few extra sales here and there, but, that is not really the primary reason for a tour.What tours do for me is reviews, social media exposure and some of that badly needed 'word-of-mouth' gushing book love. I tend to focus on reviews-only tour packages from http://www.rbtlreviews.com/, who specializes in novels of Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy - my genres, and http://bookienookiereviews.blogspot.com/ who runs Erotic Enchants, the single largest Erotica group on Goodreads. Though I won't turn down a promo/excerpt posting when it comes along, I do push for reviews as much as possible.As my series grows ever longer, I noticed that when I tour the latest book, (The Nightlife San Antonio) new bloggers I have never seen before will request to read/review all my books in the series. So, each tour I do in succession is bringing in reviews for my entire series. One fee, one blog post, 4-5 reviews in one. The tour hosts who have been with me a while will often link to the reviews they did of my previous books. So, either way you look at it, the backlist gets more exposure.Example:http://theboyfriendbookmark.com/2014/06/01/blog-tour-the-nightlife-london-the-nightlife-4-by-travis-luedke-giveaway/http://bluechrysalisbookpromo.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/2093/
http://quickanddirtystories.blogspot.com/2014/06/blog-tour-nightlife-london-by-travis.htmlThe first post, Steph at Boyfriend bookmark, has been one of my most awesome fans since February 2013. The second link is someone new to my novels, but, having read the whole series, she had loads of good things to say.The tangible result? One more book blogger just added me to her 'must-have' list. Not because I had one book that was OK, not because of my book covers or whatever, but, mainly because I have a consistently entertaining writing style, with complete novels--no cliffhangers, and as she read through the whole series, I became an author she appreciated more fully. I'm not just a one-hit wonder that's so easily forgotten.Another consideration: SEO. Bloggers often use Google+, twitter and facebook, and that means your book title and author name are going to be showing up all over the place in Google. Relevant Google+ postings always show up in the first page results. I have seen bloggers who posted a review years ago, that still show up on the first page of Google search results when I look up my name or my book titles. That stuff stays out there in cyberspace for a very long time.Often, bloggers have a sidebar that shows their most popular blog posts. How do you get your review to show up there? Tweet their review over and over and over. Share that review everywhere, repeatedly. Tell all your friends about that review. Before you know it, that review will be the most popular blog post that blogger has ever had, and now, its sitting there in the sidebar of their blog, forever immortalized as a popular post. Bloggers will love you for bringing buttloads of traffic to their blog. Its a win-win.So, if you only have one book, by all means do a blog tour, you need the reviews and exposure. But, if you have several books, especially a series, make sure you do a blog tour with each new release, maybe even several tours back to back.You will eventually find one or more tour hosts that become consistent fans of your fiction, and that is precisely where you want to be. Blog tour hosts are super bloggers extraordinaire , and if you can win them over, now you've got something of value.Another thing to consider, which is in many ways like doing a blog tour, without trying to schedule or coordinate, is Netgalley. I use Patchwork Press to get my books into Netgalley for $45 a month, and I generally do it for 1-2 months. Its not really necessary to post books any longer than that. Netgalley has THOUSANDS of bibliophiles who love books, and regularly gobble them up in their preferred genres. These are book bloggers, media-library people, and voracious readers. What better audience could you ask for?So, what is my latest tour you might ask?Well, I have two of them going: The Nightlife London and in a couple weeks, The Nightlife San Antonio.
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May 30, 2014
Multiauthor Box Sets: What's Hot and What's Not (REBLOG) #ASMSG #Romance
Reblogged via USA Today HAPPILY EVER AFTER: http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2014/05/28/kathy-kulig-spice-box-popularity-of-boxed-sets/9700919/
Multiauthor boxed sets: What's making them so hot (and not)?HAPPY EVER AFTERKathy Kulig, Special for USA TODAY12:03 a.m. EDT May 30, 2014
(Photo: Spice Box authors) 41CONNECT 16TWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMOREMultiauthor boxed sets consisting of six, eight, 12 or more e-books flaunt eye-opening benefits that authors and readers can't resist. Authors love the collaborative efforts that can pay off with an expanded fan base, a boost in rankings, increased visibility, and a slot on the USA TODAY and New York Times bestseller lists. Readers love the bargains — a box full of e-books by their favorite authors for a dollar. Even after the royalties are divided many ways, the authors claim to make decent sales. Individual authors are also grouping novellas, short stories and novels into boxed-set collections and doing quite well.BENEFITS AND DISADVANTAGESCat Johnson, author of the Oklahoma Nights series. "You are harnessing the power of many authors — their fan bases, their promotional potential. There are many authors, and each one has their own vision and ideas, deadlines and schedules you have to work around and that makes decision-making difficult. Formatting a book that length is a nightmare."Caridad Pineiro, One Night Only Erotic Romance Anthology and Lucky 7 Bad Boys Contemporary Romance Boxed Set. "You get to meet and work with lots of awesome people who bring all different kinds of skills to the table. The hard part is coordinating that many people, trying to keep that many people focused …"Stephanie Julian, author of the Salon Games and Indecent erotic romance series. "The positives are exposure beyond your own fan base. With several authors offered in a bundle for a low price, readers are much more willing to pay to read authors they may not have read before. The negative is the accounting that goes into royalties and wrangling that many authors."Shoshanna Evers, author of Make Me: Twelve Tales of Dark Desire Boxed Set and The Enslaved Trilogy. "The biggest positive of being part of a large, multiauthor project was all the cross promotion … everyone had great ideas on how to get readers excited about the boxed set."The authors who were interviewed said they worked with an accountant or lawyer to organize the finances and fill out tax forms, and some set up an LLC. Each author had to fill out an individual tax form and sent that to the financial person. Retailers like Amazon/BN/Apple won't divide royalties among all the authors so it goes under one account and must be distributed later.GROUP PROMOTIONWhen so many authors are working toward the success of one project, the results can be significant, but coordinating and planning can be challenging. Authors have the opportunity to network with those savvier in one arena of social media or the publishing business. Author AC James, organizer and contributor of the Spice Box, a 16-book boxed set including five USA TODAY and New York Times bestsellers (and me), worked directly with Mark Coker from Smashwords to set up the pre-order and secure other details at the various retailers. I believe every author in the Spice Boxboxed set discovered something new pertaining to promotion that will benefit their future books.The authors interviewed used a variety of promotion. Some used paid advertising like Bookblast and the Kindle Fire Department, or used blog tour marketing services. Goodreads, Facebook and Google+ pages and party launches were popular promotion methods as well as regular posts on Twitter and Facebook. Careful keywords selection and pre-orders were also elements that helped drive sales.Stephanie Julian: "Facebook party, hands down. It gets the readers engaged and interested."Shoshanna Evers: "We sent newsletters out to our mailing lists, told our Street Teams, shared on Facebook, on Twitter, etc. We all gave away prizes for various promotions."Cat Johnson: "We had some big-name authors in our bundle who had existing large and dedicated fan followings on their social networks, and who had newsletters with large mailing lists. I believe that was probably one of the key things that put us in the zone to hit the NY Times e-book list at No. 8, the combined print/e-book list at No. 11, and the USA TODAY list at No. 14."
"Lucky 7 Bad Boys" boxed set by Charity Pineiro, Sophia Knightly, Tawny Weber, Nina Bruhns, Susan Hatler, Virna DePaul and Kristin Miller.(Photo: Lucky Romance Authors)Caridad Pineiro: "Using social media in innovative ways with memes, hashtags and coordinated sharing of posts seemed to be a very effective way of getting the word out about the sets."PRICE POINTSFor some bundles, pre-orders helped boost initial sales. Many started with a low 99-cent sale price then either left it at 99 cents or raised it partway through to $2.99 to $5.99. The authors who were interviewed had their sets up for one to three months. As with anything e-books, writing and publishing, there is no right or wrong way.READER FEEDBACKBesides the bargain, readers will jump to download anything by their favorite authors. Some will read other books in that collection, other won't.After reading dozens of reviews for various boxed sets, I noticed why readers tended to give low reviews:They didn't like ALL of the stories. When you have a variety of authors in one collection with different styles of writing, it would be rare for a reader to love all the books equally.The boxed sets received low reviews when the books were only teasers or incomplete books that were the start of the authors' series. The aim for the collection was to encourage readers to by the completed book. This seems to some readers like a bait and switch technique that will only annoy readers. Readers would probably appreciate fair warning that the collection is only an introduction of each authors' series, or a sampling.Shoshanna Evers: "A lot of readers had read one or even a few of the books in the set already and enjoyed them, so they bought the set to get more dark erotica."Stephanie Julian: "Most readers are thrilled to be able to read a variety of stories for such a low price. And when they find your story and love it, that's the best thing in the world."Caridad Pineiro: "In general, readers seem to enjoy having a mix of stories to choose from at such a good price, but many readers also said that they had a pile of books that had to be read. Because of that, it seems as if it takes time for readers to get to the sets, read them and review them."It's difficult to say how long the boxed set trend will continue. Trends tend to die out to be replaced by the next big thing. The big bestseller lists may decide to disqualify the multiauthor sets from landing on their lists. Authors may find diminished sales as the trend fades. For the moment, boxed sets are still HOT. They're popular and profitable and readers can't seem to get enough.Kathy Kulig is an award-winning erotic romance author whose works include BDSM, paranormal and romantic suspense. Her latest release is a boxed set titled Spice Box: 16 Novels of Erotic Romance, featuring Red Tape, her sizzling romantic suspense novel. Find out more about her at www.kathykulig.com. 41CONNECT 16TWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMOREhttp://www.twluedke.com/
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A New Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine via #ASMSG! #FREEBIE #ShareTheFree
The authors of ASMSG have come together with another awesome issue of the SFP Ezine!
FREE!
ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Ezine - May 2014
Meet Brian Rollins, Voice Actor and Book NarratorIs My Ya Romance Too Creepy3 Mistakes Self-Publishers Make and How To Fix ThemThe Mexican Mafia of the Nightlife: San AntonioSpotlight On Shane KP O’Neill & The Dracula ChroniclesCoffee Chat With Author Erin Moore Sin-Reaper Excerpt by K.N. LeePerfection Unleashed Excerpt by Jade KerrionWarm Wishes by A.P. GilbertTriton by Yelle HughesIrradiance by David BrunsThe Secret Life of Laszlo, Count Dracula by Roderick Anscombe
Find ASMSG Ezines FREE at all these links:
http://www.joomag.com/magazine/asmsg-scifi-fantasy-paranormal-emagazine-may-2014/0195136001401408649http://www.wobook.com/WB9j7Ht8337n/ASMSG-SFP-Ezine-May-2014.htmlhttp://issuu.com/travisluedke/docs/asmsg_sfp_ezine-may_2014/1http://en.calameo.com/read/003308615e5e5377c7e96http://www.scribd.com/doc/227110206/Asmsg-Scifi-Fantasy-Paranormal-Ezine-May-2014http://www.youblisher.com/p/902811-ASMSG-Scifi-Fantasy-Paranormal-Emagazine-May-2014/
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May 29, 2014
Vampires, Virgins & Mexican Mafia - NIGHTLIFE SAN ANTONIO #UrbanFantasy #ASMSG
THE NIGHTLIFE SAN ANTONIO
Now Available for Preorder $2.99 at select online retailers! Get it before the release date of June 9th! (Price goes up to $4.99 on release)
Vampires, Mafia & Mayhem: The Nightlife San Antonio is violent, sexy, and occasionally violently sexy.
All she wanted was to escape the police. All he wanted was to get laid. They both got more than they bargained for.
EMT on call, Adrian Faulkner resuscitates a beautiful woman after a Mexican mafia shootout. He can't explain why he picks her up in the hospital parking lot three days later and then ducks the San Antonio police and the Feds. Well, the hot sex might have something to do with it.
She needed to hide. With no memory of even her name, she didn't know from who. She only knew she wasn't safe.
Adrian soon learns she is much more than a damsel in distress, and he’s stuck with her. It isn't long before the past she cannot remember begins to catch up with them both…
THE NIGHTLIFE SAN ANTONIO is a non-stop thrill ride through the shadowy borderworld of mafia politics and vampires – and sex.
Grab your copy of this urban fantasy romance today!
The Nightlife Series novels are Adult Paranormal Romance ~ Urban Fantasy Thriller:#1 THE NIGHTLIFE NEW YORK
#2 THE NIGHTLIFE LAS VEGAS
#3 THE NIGHTLIFE PARIS
#4 BLOOD SLAVE (stand-alone novel in the series)
#5 THE NIGHTLIFE LONDON
#6 THE NIGHTLIFE SERIES OMNIBUS (Books 1-4)
#7 THE NIGHTLIFE SAN ANTONIO (stand-alone novel in the series)
Young Adult novels by TW Luedke (Travis Luedke)
THE SHEPHERD (YA Paranormal)
PRAISE FOR NIGHTLIFE SAN ANTONIO:
"Luedke writes with a raw and honest style that is a breath of fresh air and makes the scenes realistic and powerful. The sexual tension is made even more gripping and intense by the constant 'playing with fire' that accompanies the sex with a vampire."
"Spiked with great one liners, fast paced writing, filth, sex and violence this is paranormal writing at its best."
"Travis Luedke takes so many genres and melds them all together into an exciting thrill ride that you can't escape from. Just when you think things are going to calm down and finally head in one direction, the platform is swept out from under you and you find yourself free-falling into an unknown world where vampires, mafia and sex collide."
Excerpt 1 The Fugitive (Safe For Work)
Adrian headed for his Chevy pickup at the far corner of the parking lot, Jose’s fifty dollars tucked into his back pocket. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a pale blue fabric flitting past between two cars. In the strange pallor cast by the parking lot lights, he could’ve sworn he saw a flash of butt cheek from a woman wearing one of those open-backed hospital gowns. He changed course and headed straight for this wisp of fabric, intrigued.He reached the shadows between two vehicles and paused, a sense of wrongness flashing in his mind. He made an about-face and headed back to his pickup truck. He had learned that it didn’t pay to stick his nose into things not his business. He had a date with a Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress in his air-conditioned apartment.As he reached the truck, he glanced around once more and considered calling hospital security. A renegade patient was their job, not his.Without a single sound, shewas suddenly there, right next to him, her pale blood-splattered hand on his arm – the gunshot victim, the woman who damn near died in the back of his ambulance.Her weak grip tugged at his arm. “I need your help. You have to help me.”Her black hair hung limp, plastered to her forehead. Blood speckled her chin, neck and light blue gown. She must have coughed up blood, which would mean her lungs were not doing so good. Pneumonia, collapsed lung, punctured lung, all the possibilities slid across his mind as he stared at her, perplexed. What the hell was she doing out here? Walking around? The woman had flat-lined a couple of days ago.“Let’s get you back to the Emergency Room. They’ll take care of everything.” At the risk of ruining his jacket with blood stains and who knew what other bodily fluids, he put his arm around her and pulled her close to hold her weight. She wasn’t wearing anything under the paper-thin gown. The contours of her naked hip fit his hand perfectly. He tried to ignore those thoughts and instead steered her back towards the hospital.“No, wait, I can’t.” She stopped him from going any farther by turning in his grip to face him.Shit.“Do you need me to carry you?” Please no. My back can’t take any more tonight.“I can’t be here.”Her face, which had held a look of pleading, turned dead serious. Dark eyes bored into his soul with a depth of intensity. “I need you. Take me with you. I must leave now.” There was something fascinating about her eyes. She never blinked even once, and he found he couldn’t look away from her. “You have to help me.”Yes, of course. He hadto help her.He suddenly understood, and really, it was a simple request. She needed a ride. No big deal. Helping her was the right thing to do. The soldier part of his mind rapidly assessed the risks. The CCTV cameras only covered the entrance area of the hospital. Nobody would know where she went from the parking lot. He glanced around, looking for any sign of a witness to this strange moment. Then he recalled her little issue, she was a mafia target or something like that. He had no desire to become collateral damage on a botched hit job. A saner voice nagged him, get rid of her. No upside in helping her, no upside at all. She stank like old blood and medicine, that sick-hospital smell. She stood in his arms staring at him, unblinking, her dark eyes a well filled with raw, intense need.Something stirred inside him. Even in her present condition, she was eerily compelling.He had deliberately trained as a paramedic to help people. The bastard shrink had called him a sociopath, unable to care about people. So, here he was, trying to care, trying to help, trying to be like everyone else, normal. It was his job to help people like her, more so than the police who were probably looking for her right now.Do your job, Adrian. Prove the bastard shrink wrong.“Okay, I’ll give you a ride. Come on.” She snuggled into his embrace with a grateful smile on her bloody lips as he pulled her back towards his truck. He reacted to her appreciation low in his groin. Obviously it had been way too long since he got laid. Messing around with patients was a major fail, quick way to get fired and prosecuted.He helped her up into the truck – impossible not to end up with a handful of her ass in the process. She held his gaze with that creepy look, and a small grin split her lips. Adrian smiled back at her reassuringly, then shut the door and jetted around to the driver side for the packet of Clorox wet wipes on the seat. Without surgical gloves, no knowing what nasty germs he might get from touching her.She just sat there, blood splattered, in nothing but her paper-thin gown, watching him. She looked so vulnerable, and she had put so much trust in him. He started the truck and navigated out of the parking lot with her furtively watching him all the while. She kept glancing back at the hospital entrance, as if looking for someone in pursuit.“Shit!” She dropped flat on the truck bench seat as a police car sped past. The car screeched to a stop at the emergency entrance and two cops piled out, jogging into the hospital.Her huge brown eyes looked up at him. She had laid her head in his lap. The girl might be afraid of the police and everyone else, but she trusted him.He tried not to think about her face on his thigh, or the complete absurdity of the moment. He just kept on driving up to the intersection at the highway. Then it occurred to him he had no idea which direction to take.“So, where are we headed? We’re on I-35 and I-37, on the south side.”Still she just stared at him, head resting on his lap like he had become her personal pillow. Damn, he’d have to wash his jeans with Lysol disinfectant.She shook her head, rubbing her lank black hair all over his jeans. “I … I don’t know.”Fucking great.“Look, I understand you’re afraid. I was one of the paramedics who brought you in. Somebody tried to kill you. It’s amazing you can even walk, and you don’t need me to tell you that you need medical attention. You should be in a hospital.”She shook her head. “I can’t go back.”He knew she was gonna say that. “If you won’t go to a hospital, then I’ll take you home. I can check your wounds, change your bandages, but I’m not a doctor. I’m not qualified for anything else. Tell me where you live. I’ll get you there, do what I can to help, and then we’re done. We never met. You don’t know who I am, and I don’t know who you are. I could lose my job for this.”He felt a twinge of something as her emotions flickered across her face. She was afraid. He’d seen plenty of that in Iraq. He stared at her for a minute, until a honking car behind him drew his attention to the stale green light. He took off for the north onramp to I-35. Cruising the highway, he kept glancing down at her. She had her hands over her face, like an ostrich hoping the problem would go away if they simply didn’t see it anymore.One more exit and they would be at his apartment complex. He tried not to think of the implications. This girl needed to go somewhere, definitely not to his home. “I need a direction, an address, something.”She uncovered her face and there were dark wet tears in her eyes. Was that blood? Fuck. Why the hell would she be bleeding from her eyes? She choked as though crying. Damn women were always crying.Adrian hadn’t cried in years. He hadn’t felt that kind of intensity about anything, apart from a few insane moments in Iraq. How could people function when they feel so much? The only thing that got him going, beyond sex, was full-on combat, kill or be killed. The EMT calls got a bit wild once in a while, but not very often.He reached over to the glove box to find the Kleenex tissues and handed her one. “You’re bleeding.”She dabbed at her eyes, looked at the tissue and then back up at him. Lost, bewildered, scared, her huge dark eyes raked at him with the urgency of her plight. She choked out the words, “I don’t know where to go. I don’t know anything.”The problem hit, and he didn’t like the way it made his stomach turn. She wasn’t local. She didn’t live in San Antonio. Where the hell could he take her?“You don’t have anywhere to go? No friends, no house, no hotel?”She wouldn’t speak, held her lips tight, as if to stop herself from screaming, and shook her head again.Damn. He knew he shouldn’t have put her in his truck. No upside to this deal at all. Now, he just wanted to be rid of her. But the woman was still in his lap, looking at him like he owed her something, like he was going to be the one who saved her from … whatever.Isn’t that why you took this job, to save people? Do your job, Adrian.“Look, I’ll get you cleaned up, some clothes, a bus ticket, and that’s it. I can’t do anything more. Seriously.”Huge, wet, doe eyes held his gaze while she slowly nodded acceptance. She covered her face and curled up on his seat, shivering. He turned up the heat, even though it wasn’t cold in the truck. San Antonio spring nights were never really cold. Pulling into the covered parking in front of his apartment complex, he realized he had a new problem.“Stay here a minute, I’m going to get you a blanket. Just stay low, make sure no one sees you.”He scooted his thigh out from under her and closed the truck door to peek in through his driver side window, ensuring she stayed down. She stared at him all the while. This was one strange chick. He found it hard to reconcile the Latin goddess who had almost died in his ambulance with this half-naked, crazy chick hiding in his truck. She had looked so beautiful, and fragile, whereas now she was this needy, pushy, intense girl who wanted to dump her whole damn life in the palms of his hands.
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May 24, 2014
The Mexican Mafia of The Nightlife San Antonio #Mafia #Urbanlife #Vampires #ASMSG
In writing The Nightlife San Antonio, I was inspired by events in my life from 2005 through 2010, when I lived in Sonora Mexico, on the border of Arizona. At this time the border situation was red hot. By 2007, every week brought a new headline of the escalating drug war in the border towns that often spilled over onto U.S. soil. Though our small town of Agua Prieta, Sonora didn’t see any major conflict, I noticed the camouflage-painted tanks cruising through the scrub brush in the countryside, patrolling the line. Yes, tanks, and camouflaged military soldiers with assault rifles. I had never seen this kind of thing in the U.S., actual military occupation. This was interesting, but the incident that really brought the border conflicts to my attention was the assassination of the Commandante of Agua Prieta, known as “Tacho.”
The Commandante, the chief of police, is like the sheriff of the municipality. I saw the Commandante’s Jeep after the shooting. The windows of Tacho’s vehicle had been reinforced with inch-thick bulletproof glass, and would have saved his life, if he could have closed the door. The bullet holes I saw were in the interior of the door. He’d been standing in the open door of the Jeep when they attacked with automatic assault rifles. Tacho was killed in the parking lot of the police station, in broad daylight. Rumor was he’d been taking cartel payoffs for years, but, his cooperation wasn’t satisfactory anymore. The cartels had made a bold statement, an example, one of many cartel assassinations in those years.
Don’t fuck with the Mexican cartels, not if you value your life, or the lives of your family.
About a third of the Agua Prieta police force quit their jobs. New officers were brought in from all over Sonora. Most of the locals were too afraid to take the job. Police in border towns everywhere experienced tremendous pressure and constant threats.
The manhunt for Tacho’s killers went on for months, but the cartel assassins escaped and were never caught. This kind of violence against police and authorities hit both sides of the border, yet it was far worse in Texas and California. Arizona experienced only a fraction of the drug wars that Tijuana/San Diego and Ciudad Juarez/El Paso suffered.
The catalyst of this war was the new President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, who had made the cartels his number one target. Across Mexico and the U.S., joint task forces of DEA and Mexican federal military worked in concert to hunt down these powerful cartels. Their efforts may have slowed the flow of drugs, but certainly didn’t stop it. They created a vicious, bloody war that lead to hundreds of prosecutions and incarcerations. The U.S. federal prisons are now filled with Mexican cartel members. These men are trapped for 10-20 years or more, but they’re still deeply entrenched in cartel connections, with powerful family ties in Mexico.
Now comes the Mexican Mafia, a gang born on American soil, recruited from the convicts inside the prisons. Cartel members doing a life sentence are out of action, but the other inmates with 1-2-3 years before release are ripe for training. These parolees hit the ground running, drugs, cash and guns handed to them as soon as they set foot on the streets. The cartels found new life and distribution channels through the prison-based Mexican Mafia gang.
In 2010, La Eme – “M” – short for Mexican Mafia, battled with other gangs over control of the streets of San Antonio. Law enforcement joined the battle and took out huge chunks of gang membership with massive conspiracy indictments and arrests. Still, La Eme thrives. As many people as are thrown in prison for gang-drug activity, there’s always a new crop being released, newly trained and ready to go into business.
U.S. prisons are the breeding ground for La Eme gang membership. Members wear distinctive tattoos of a black handprint with the letters E M E, or, something derivative of the Mexican flag, the Eagle and the Snake.
It was years later, 2012, when I moved to San Antonio. I had missed most of the excitement. But, my years spent in living in Mexico stayed with me to this day, vivid memories of things I may never comfortably admit to. As you read my macabre, perverse tales of mafia, corruption, cartel, and vampires, it’s obvious I have some intimate knowledge of these things. Did I learn from jovial conversations with men whose tongues were loosened by tequila and lime, or do I have a story of my own to tell?
I’m not quite prepared to answer that question today. Maybe someday when I’m old and grey, and it just doesn’t matter anymore. For now, enjoy my tales of chaos, mayhem and debauchery, and take it on faith that I know what I’m talking about.
J
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