Robert Pruneda's Blog, page 7
March 15, 2014
POLL: Cover Redesign for Pursuit of a Dream
Back in 2004 I published my very first novel titled Pursuit of a Dream, which is about a kid with a dream of becoming a professional stock car driver, with the ultimate goal of racing in the top NASCAR series with some of the best drivers in the world. It was a parallel of my own dream of becoming a full-time author (or anybody’s dream . . . just insert here). I wrote this story when I was in between jobs to fulfill a personal goal of having a printed copy of a novel I wrote on my bookshelf. Fast-forward ten years and Pursuit of a Dream is now in Kindle format quietly idling in a dark corner in the shadows of its creepy brother Devil’s Nightmare, which has quickly surpassed it as an Amazon best seller and lapped it several times over.
It was time to pull into the pits and make some adjustments. I decided to start with a fresh coat of paint and ditch the cover I put together with a one-megapixel camera and generic photo editing software. After going over a few ideas with the cover artist in charge of this project, I’m pleased to announce that Pursuit of a Dream has finally come out of the paint shop over at WGA Designs to give my race-themed family-oriented drama a new look.
This is where you come in. I’m pretty happy with the overall redesign, but I wanted to get your help in deciding which font to use in my name and the book’s title. Please review the three options below and vote for the cover that you like best. The only difference in each cover is the font.
Thank you for your assistance and be sure to comment below with your thoughts.
February 14, 2014
How about a FREE e-book for Valentine’s Day?
** THE KINDLE VERSION OF MY DEBUT NOVEL PURSUIT OF A DREAM WILL BE FREE February 14-15, 2013 **
Flowers and chocolate are going to be flying off the store shelves on Valentine’s Day, and while I don’t have any of that for you I do have a gift that you can snag for two days only. How about a FREE e-book? How’s that for sweetness? That’s right Friday and Saturday only I’ll be giving away the Kindle version of my first novel Pursuit of a Dream! Just click on the book cover or Kindle link at the bottom of this post to claim your FREE copy.
Here’s what folks have said about my debut novel:
“Pursuit of a Dream is a breath of fresh air. Readers will enjoy following Caleb’s journey from a rambunctious young boy to a determined young man who refuses to allow his dreams to pass him by.” | Sara Furlong Burr, author of Enigma Black and Vendetta Nation.
“If you want a compelling story about family, faith and dedication then you definitely want to take the time to read Pursuit of a Dream.” | Wyatt McIntyre, author of The Last Dance
“In the age of zombies, horror, and thrillers vying for attention, Pursuit of a Dream seems out of favor with the current trend … but, and this is a HUGE BUT, what isn’t out of favor is excellent writing and storytelling, and this is what Mr. Pruneda provides.” | Eden Baylee, author of Fall Into Winter and Spring Into Summer
“If you enjoy a wonderful story that takes you through, highs, lows, faith and inspiration then you will find great pleasure in Pursuit of a Dream.” | Dannie Hill, author of In Search of a Soul
“Readers will truly enjoy the transition of Caleb from young boy to a focused adult with NASCAR racing on his mind.” | S.G. Lee, author of A Penny Saved, A Murder Earned
“I truly enjoyed Pursuit of a Dream by Robert Pruneda. The story centers on The Lockharts, John, a widowed father and his two young sons Jared and Caleb. Early on, John loses his long-held job and the security of his family turns upside-down. Much of the story is reflective of current American family strife and I believe that this will resonate with readers. ” | Donna L. Sadd, author of LUCCI – The No Smoochie Poochie via Amazon.com
Synopsis:
Caleb Lockhardt has one goal in life, racing stock cars. He is determined to live that dream no matter what, but he struggles with the fact that no one in his family has ever been involved in auto racing. Caleb’s brother is quick to point that out, and even their father, while loving and supportive, doesn’t take Caleb’s aspiration seriously at first…until he sees his son win his first go-kart race. As Caleb grows older his desire to win clouds his focus and judgment, and he struggles with the realization that living his dream is going to require a lot more patience, discipline, and sacrifice than he had anticipated. Will Caleb succeed in his Pursuit of a Dream or will he let adversity and discouragement pave the way for failure?
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Claim your FREE copy today by clicking on the Kindle link below:
Robert “Sharky” Pruneda is author of the contemporary sports fiction series Victory Lane: The Chronicles and the Amazon bestselling horror-suspense novel Devil’s Nightmare. You can connect with Robert via social media on Twitter @SharkbaitWrites and on his Facebook author page.
Sharky graphic created by Cara Michaels.
January 23, 2014
Free Par-Tay: Devil’s Nightmare (Jan. 24)
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. My bestselling horror-thriller Devil’s Nightmare will be FREE on Friday, January 24. See details below:
Free ParTay Super Free Friday! For One Day Only, Jan. 24th, Devil’s Nightmare will be FREE! If you like Devil’s Nightmare you might also like these other FREE books:
Saved, A woman taken and the Navy Captain who saves her. By Lorhainne Eckhart.
Vegas Series, Fast-paced, hot romance, sassy Vegas detectives and mind-blowing conflicts galore! By Mimi Barbour.
The Brotherhood of the Snake, What if humans were more powerful than they thought? By Carmen Caine.
The Wand-Maker’s Debate: Osric’s Wand: Book One, A world of magic in its infancy. By Jack D. Albrecht Jr. and Ashley Delay.
Zack Meets Deezel, Brother and sister befriend ghost of movie star action hero. By Roy Jet.
To enter to win a Kindle and $25 worth of Amazon gift cards, simply visit FreePartay.com and sign up for our newsletter!
January 7, 2014
2013: Year of the Roller Coaster
As the title indicates 2013 was full of ups and downs for me on both a professional and personal level. There were a lot of great things that happened in 2013, but the year wasn’t void of disappointments and tragedy either.
First Horror Novel Published
A year ago today, I published my second book and first horror novel Devil’s Nightmare through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. I also published it through Smashwords, Kobo and Barnes & Noble’s Nook publishing platforms, but publishing on the Kindle is what shined for me. More on that later. I started writing Devil’s Nightmare in January 2012 after quitting my job at the local newspaper a few months prior, and nine months later the first draft was complete. It was a lot of fun writing and publishing this novel and I take great pride in the fact that I was able to get it written and published within a year. This is compared to writing and publishing my first book Pursuit of a Dream, which took over two years to write and I didn’t even handle the publishing part myself for the print edition, but that’s a whole other story.
A year ago today I hit the publish button with a homemade cover that I created for Devil’s Nightmare with a free eBook cover program I found online (I can’t remember which one I used). It was pretty plain with a photo of lightning that I used with permission from the photographer. With plans of having my cover redesigned for the print edition I figured this cover would work for a couple of months until I could scrape up the money for a professional designed one. Sales were pretty much non-existent at first, and to be honest I could not help but be discouraged. It’s normal, though, and I got over it. I just needed to work on getting the word out. It wasn’t going to sell on its own and marketing has never been one of my strong suits and I knew it was going to take a lot of time and patience. At this point writing isn’t my primary source of income, so patience was definitely the key.
Financial Highs and Lows
My main income comes from my home-based administrative support business called Jireh Administrative Services. I provide various services from transcribing, PowerPoint presentations, general office support, and also write resumes from time to time all from the comfort of my home office. I also added “funeral support services” and work part-time at a funeral home (perfect for a horror writer, right?). This basically materialized from working as the obituaries coordinator at the newspaper. One of the funeral home owners offered me a part-time job when I left the newspaper, so I help occasionally in the evenings, but I have also worked funerals driving the limo and hearse. I usually just help out during visitations and rosaries, though. Anyway, by the summer of last year I was keeping very busy and feeling confident that leaving the newspaper was the best decision of my life. Life was good and I no longer had to deal with ridiculous office politics.
Keeping very busy with my home business and working with the funeral home to help pay the bills also resulted in unintended consequences. Due to not being very structured I didn’t reach my goal of publishing Devil’s Nightmare: Premonitions this month. As a matter of fact, I barely did any writing during the last half of the year, so I’m pretty disappointed about that.
However, something happened, which I think was both a blessing and a curse. In the last quarter of 2013 I only received about a third of the business I was receiving during the spring and summer. The curse . . . a lot less income. The blessing . . . more time to write and time to focus on getting more structured in 2014. On a positive note, while I did lose a big chunk of income for Jireh Administrative Services, sales for Devil’s Nightmare have finally become steady and I’m now receiving monthly royalty checks from Amazon.
Devil’s Nightmare enrolled in Amazon’s KDP Select Program
In July after having virtually no sales on any eBook platform, except for a few here and there on Amazon, I decided to try Amazon’s KDP Select program, which basically meant I would be selling my eBook version of Devil’s Nightmare exclusively on Amazon in exchange for free promotional tools and enrollment in the Kindle Lending Program. I figured I had nothing to lose. So, I set up my first free promotion, which I shared and advertised on Goodreads. After the free promotion I went from selling just a few copies of Devil’s Nightmare per month to hitting a couple of bestseller lists on Amazon UK . . . actual sales, not free downloads. Sales were also better in the US, but they were still pretty slow. Once I started getting more reviews on Amazon US, however, Devil’s Nightmare began outselling the book in the U.K. I also started getting sales for my first book Pursuit of a Dream, which is also now exclusive on Amazon.
Right now my focus is on getting Devil’s Nightmare into as many Kindles as possible, so I decided to keep the book at 99 cents, which is what seems to be the sweet spot for my novels right now. Granted I would get a lot more royalties by selling them at $2.99, but I get a lot more readers at the 99 cent price point. Volume is more important to me right now than royalty income. It’s pretty cool to see my novel listed next to Stephen King’s and Dean Koontz’s books too! I’m nowhere near retirement numbers, but to me I consider the results after signing up for KDP Select a huge success.
Rest in Peace, Grandpa
And now my life’s roller coaster climbs another peak and plummets at high speed once again. Actually, throughout the year the subject of my grandfather has been a very touchy one. Without going into a lot of detail, my grandmother died in 2008, and then shortly afterwards my grandfather met someone at one of the local Bingo halls and basically had himself a new companion. That was uncomfortable at first, but he needed companionship. So, everyone in the family was pretty much okay with it . . . at first. To make a long story short, she turned out being a gold digger and just as my grandfather’s health declined this woman convinced him to elope, change the will, moved him 300 miles away from his family and refused to tell anyone where he was living. There’s obviously a lot more to this story. This woman has been married three times, and she will again soon I’m sure because my grandfather died just a few months after this woman married and brainwashed him into thinking his family didn’t love him and was just after his money (It’s not like he was a millionaire and, ahem, she’s the one that was after his money). She pretty much took most of what my grandmother and grandfather had worked for and was going to leave for my mom, aunt, and uncle. My grandmother and grandfather were married for 60 years. This woman knew him for about four or five years and was married to him for only a few months before he died and she took almost everything. All of this could have been prevented, but the legal system makes it extremely difficult to prevent these kinds of things from happening. Law enforcement wouldn’t do anything and adult protection services wouldn’t or couldn’t do anything because they were consenting adults and my grandfather had to be the one to get rid of this woman. I literally could write a book about this whole ordeal. It’s just so unbelievable. You see movies about stuff like this and never think it could actually happen to your family, but it did.
The Rollercoaster Ride Ends and a New Year Begins
So, as you can see, it was quite the roller coaster ride for me and I just gave you the Cliff Notes version even at 1,400 words. However, while the year ended with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, I do have great expectations for 2014. I have a plan that includes getting back on track with my writing and getting Devil’s Nightmare: Premonitions completed and published by this summer. I may even have another story published by the end of the year if everything works out as planned. Furthermore, for those who have enjoyed Chumming with Sharky™ you’ll be glad to know that it’ll also be making a comeback this year. So, stay tuned and be sure to subscribe to this blog for future updates.
Oh, and one more thing to add about 2013 that leaves me pouting . . .
I still haven’t won the lottery!
Cheers! Have an awesome and prosperous 2014, everyone!
You might also like:
Hanging with Rutger Hauer
Beta Readers: Do I Need Them?
Huge Mistake or Best Decision I Ever Made?
Self-Publishing Seminar in San Antonio
Devil’s Nightmare by Robert Pruneda available in print and eBook formats. Click the image below for more details.
July 29, 2013
Devil’s Nightmare, a crime novel by Robert Pruneda
Special thanks to David Conway for starting FIRST CHAPTERS, a site to help cross-promote novels in a very creative way. You can find my “First Chapters” of Devil’s Nightmare there. While you’re there be sure to check out other books in several different categories.
Originally posted on First Chapters:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482363682
Detective Aaron Sanders’ abilities and fortitude are put to the test when he investigates a brutal double-homicide where a boy’s parents are found mutilated inside their home. The boy is the only witness to the crime and his clothes are stained with his parents’ blood. His clothes are also tainted with the blood of other victims from a separate and even more horrific crime scene at a nearby cemetery. All of the victims appear to have been killed in the same manner and the boy knows the true identity of the evil responsible for the multiple deaths, but he is unwilling to talk. No one would believe him. A threat on the boy’s life and a disturbing nightmare causes Detective Sanders to question his beliefs and his own sanity. This investigation ultimately leads Sanders in a fight to save himself and the life of an orphaned boy from an unimaginable evil that is spawned from the curse of the devil’s nightmare.
Devil's Nightmare, a horror novel by Robert Pruneda
Reblogged from First Chapters:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482363682
Detective Aaron Sanders' abilities and fortitude are put to the test when he investigates a brutal double-homicide where a boy's parents are found mutilated inside their home. The boy is the only witness to the crime and his clothes are stained with his parents' blood. His clothes are also tainted with the blood of other victims from a separate and even more horrific crime scene at a nearby cemetery.
Special thanks to David Conway for starting FIRST CHAPTERS, a site to help cross-promote novels in a very creative way. You can find my "First Chapters" of Devil's Nightmare there. While you're there be sure to check out other books in several different categories.
Devil's Nightmare, a crime novel by Robert Pruneda
Reblogged from First Chapters:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482363682
Detective Aaron Sanders' abilities and fortitude are put to the test when he investigates a brutal double-homicide where a boy's parents are found mutilated inside their home. The boy is the only witness to the crime and his clothes are stained with his parents' blood. His clothes are also tainted with the blood of other victims from a separate and even more horrific crime scene at a nearby cemetery.
Special thanks to David Conway for starting FIRST CHAPTERS, a site to help cross-promote novels in a very creative way. You can find my "First Chapters" of Devil's Nightmare there. While you're there be sure to check out other books in several different categories.
July 4, 2013
Devil’s Nightmare FREE promo (July 4-5)
** THE KINDLE VERSION WILL BE FREE FROM JULY 4-5, 2013 **
In case you haven’t heard yet, I’m feeling very generous right now and decided to give away the Kindle version of my horror-thriller Devil’s Nightmare for two days. So, from July 4-5, 2013 you can grab a free copy for your Kindle (or via the free Kindle reading app for other devices). So, why am I doing this? Well, exposure of course! Plus, in return for the freebie all I’m asking for is an honest review on Goodreads or Amazon. In any case, I hope you take advantage of this limited time offer and enjoy my novel!
What others have said about Devil’s Nightmare:
“It’s a page turner. It’s one of those stories where you’ll set the book down to go do the dishes and the whole time you’re wondering, what’s going to happen next and you can’t wait to get back to reading it.” | Karen Einsel, author of The Good Dr. Grant
“What can I say about Devil’s Nightmare . . . other than I LOVED it! It’s very intriguing and keeps you turning the pages.” | Sara Furlong Burr, author of Enigma Black
“From start to finish, it was well told in a great first person style, which I liked very much and made it easy to visualize the insanity happening … kudos! Should be on a best sellers list somewhere, soon!” | Diana B. via Amazon.com
“[Pruneda] did a very good job of keeping things in order and moving smoothly along. This is a good story! The language was real and worked in the context of the story.” | Dannie Hill, author of In Search of a Soul
“If you like Stephen King, then you’ll love Devil’s Nightmare by Robert Pruneda.” | S.G. Lee, author of A Penny Saved, A Murder Earned
“The characters are fleshed out well, description and dialog paint the story vividly, and the mystery takes twists and turns that kept this reader guessing. ” | Donna L. Sadd, author of LUCCI – The No Smoochie Poochie via Amazon.com
Synopsis:
Detective Aaron Sanders’ abilities and fortitude are put to the test when he investigates a brutal double-homicide where a boy’s parents are found mutilated inside their home. The boy is the only witness to the crime and his clothes are stained with his parents’ blood. His clothes are also tainted with the blood of other victims from a separate and even more horrific crime scene at a nearby cemetery. All of the victims appear to have been killed in the same manner and the boy knows the true identity of the evil responsible for the multiple deaths, but he is unwilling to talk. No one would believe him. A threat on the boy’s life and a disturbing nightmare causes Detective Sanders to question his beliefs and his own sanity. This investigation ultimately leads Sanders in a fight to save himself and the life of an orphaned boy from an unimaginable evil that is spawned from the curse of the devil’s nightmare.
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Available for FREE worldwide on Kindle:
AMAZON.CA | AMAZON.DE | AMAZON.FR | AMAZON.ES | AMAZON.CO.JP | AMAZON.COM.BR
Also available to purchase in paperback:
June 30, 2013
Winner of Lorna Suzuki’s Novel
Earlier this month in Season 2: Episode 4 of Chumming with Sharky™ I interviewed Lorna Suzuki, author of the Imago fantasy series. The first three books are actually currently in development for a major motion picture trilogy and Lorna decided to give away a deluxe pdf version of A Warrior’s Tale: Book One of The Imago Chronicles or Lorna’s new YA fantasy novel The Dream Merchant Saga: Book One The Magic Crystal. Well, we’ve had the official drawing and the winner is . . .
Alessa Ellefson!
Congratulations on winning the contest. Lorna will be contacting you soon to claim your prize!
For those of you who haven’t read my interview with Lorna Suzuki can do so by clicking the link below. And be sure to subscribe to my site for more interviews with other authors and news about my own projects . . . and maybe another contest or two in the near future.
Lorna Suzuki
June 16, 2013
Self-Publishing Seminar in San Antonio
Michael Hicks Self-Publishing Seminar in San Antonio
You can get Season of the Harvest FREE for multiple e-readers.
Friend and fellow author Michael R. Hicks has been on the road traveling with his wife Jan in their RV for the past week or so and recently made a stop in San Antonio where Mike was invited to give a self-publishing seminar at the Forest Hills Branch of the San Antonio Public Library. I met Michael Hicks on Twitter a couple of years ago when he was in the transitioning process from working full-time for the government at the NSA to becoming a full-time writer. For those who don’t know who Michael Hicks is, he is best-selling author of Season of the Harvest and the very popular sci-fi/fantasy In Her Name series. Heck, Amazon even from his books to promote the Science Fiction and Fantasy category for the Kindle. Turns out they had the legal right to use his cover art under their publishing terms of service.
Anyway, Mike informed me of his trip to San Antonio a couple of months ago, so I made plans to attend the self-publishing seminar and then have dinner with Mike and Jan afterwards. Mike also happens to be one of my PS3 gaming buddies when we can coordinate our schedules to do so, which is hard to do since I’m typically a night owl and he’s an early bird. When we do manage to hit the Black Ops 2 battlefield it’s like the blind leading the blind. Needless to say, we don’t win very often. 
I made it to San Antonio a bit earlier than expected due to the traffic on I-10 being much less congested on a Saturday afternoon than I had expected. So, I breezed through San Antonio fairly quickly. So, with about an hour to spare before the self-publishing seminar I browsed through the aisles in the Forest Hills Branch library, grabbed a book and read while I waited for Mike and Jan to arrive. They weren’t as fortunate as I was coming into San Antonio from San Marcos due to an accident on the loop, but people were just starting to trickle in for the seminar, so it was all good.
The seminar itself was very informative. Michael covered everything from writing his first book and sending it out the traditional way, receiving rejection letter after another, throwing that book under a desk for several years and then finally publishing it himself in 2008. He talked about his experience with trial and error and gave some tips regarding writing in general, editing (and pointing out that authors editing their own work is not editing), the importance of an eye-catching professional looking cover, the various options for publishing (and avoiding vanity presses, such as AuthorHouse, at all costs), book reviews, and finally marketing. It was a lot to cover in about ninety minutes, but it was good information nonetheless.
Post-Seminar Dinner at the River Walk
After a brief Q&A, Mike and I exchanged books (okay, I gave him one and he gave me two), signed them and then synched our GPS units to guide us downtown to the River Walk for lunch. We stashed our vehicles on the fifth floor of the Rivercenter Mall parking garage and searched for the elevator down to the mall. After the elevator door opened and then immediately closed, almost taking my hand with it, we decided we should probably just take the stairs. As soon as we found the exit Mike, Jan and I studied the information map to find our chosen destination for lunch, Boudro’s Texas Bistro. The map wasn’t the most user-friendly guide I had ever seen to say the least. We looked for the big red dot that supposedly indicated where we stood, but instead (after doing a little eavesdropping) someone else pointed at a screw at the bottom of the map that represented us. Mike, the clever guy that he is, pulled out his smart phone and opened up his Google Maps app and activated the pedestrian GPS which pointed us in the right direction.
It was about six-thirty in the evening by the time we found Boudro’s Texas Bistro, but there was a forty-five minute wait and I still had over a two-hour drive back home to think about. So, we backtracked towards another restaurant, passing a Mexican restaurant and a pair of singing mariachis along the way. With no wait time we chose the Republic of Texas restaurant for our post self-publishing seminar meal. I had heard so much about how lean and tasty bison burgers were so I decided to try one along with some sweet potato fries. On the same token Mike had been pressed by someone on Twitter to try fried catfish for the first time and apparently enjoyed the very large portion. This catfish must have been huge! It reminded me of those chicken fried steaks that hang over the side of the plate. He only ate half of it. Mike’s wife ordered the Akaushi Burger which is a beef originally from Japan and only bred in Yoakum, Texas (very near my hometown of Victoria) and guarded by the Texas Rangers (that’s the law enforcement division, not the baseball team).
Mariachis and a Very Energetic Waiter
We had a great time socializing while eating our dinner outside on the River Walk, but we could have done without the pushy mariachis who wanted to serenade us when we were browsing the menu. After a couple of “No thank you” responses they finally disappeared into the crowd in search of other patrons to bother—I mean entertain. While the mariachis were kind of an annoyance, it wasn’t too big of a deal to me since I’m used to them. Our waiter, on the other hand, was a different story altogether. He was probably the highlight of the evening! We all agreed we wanted what he was having. I have never had such a high-strung waiter in my life. This guy was so hyper and full of energy that he could probably benefit from laying off the caffeine a bit. As Mike pointed out he must have been pumped full of Red Bull or something. The waiter did give us good service and the food was great too!
After dinner we hiked around the River Walk for about another half hour or so. We made a quick stop in one of the gift shops so Mike could grab a t-shirt; he’s buying one in each city he is making a stop at during his summer RV trip. No gifts for the two monster cats waiting for him at the RV park in San Marcos though, but they probably ended up eating the leftover catfish and burger.
Vehicle Hunting and Surviving the Man-Eating Elevator
Back inside the Rivercenter Mall (and back in air conditioning) we hunted for the elevators to the parking garage. It took a few minutes but we eventually found what we thought was the correct one. We had to pay our parking fees first using the little kiosk before venturing off to our vehicles. I hesitated before stepping inside the elevator after the first experience I had earlier in the evening, but this one played nice and didn’t try to eat me. After a short ride to Level E the doors opened . . . to the roof of another parking garage. D’OH! Wrong elevator! The kicker is you have 30 minutes from the time you pay your parking fee on the kiosk to the time you actually leave the parking garage. So, time was of the essence. Fortunately, we found the correct elevator and our cars were still parked safely where we hid them. The Rivercenter Mall gods hadn’t zapped them yet.
All-in-all, my trip to San Antonio and time spent with Michael Hicks and his wife was relatively flawless and very enjoyable. It’s always nice to be able to physically meet friends you have communicated with over the past couple of years via social media. It’s a day and age we live in now where friendships can be built online and carried over into the real world. This brings me to a point I would like to make. As much as we enjoy chatting it up on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or whatever favorite social media site you hang out at, there’s nothing like hanging out with your friends in person. So, step away from the computer, smart phone or tablet every once in a while and go spend some face-to-face time with friends and family.
A Few More Pics From My Day Trip to San Antonio
Below are a few more pictures from my trip to San Antonio. Jan Hicks took the photo of the star, which was a decoration on the table at Republic of Texas Restaurant on the River Walk. She also took the photo of Mike and me. The only good photo I managed to take with my phone was the one with the Tower of the Americas in the background.
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