"To The Bone" excerpt

I haven't posted an excerpt in a very long time, so I'm going to post one today.

First, though, I want to let folks know that the second Gavin English novella is nearly finished and I'm hoping to publish in the next 4-5 weeks.  Because of this, I've pulled To The Bone from other platforms and signed it up with KDP Select.  I wasn't going to do Select again, but I've decided not to rule anything out until I get a little more shelf space out there.  With the launch of the second Gavin English story, I'll be making To the Bone free for five days on Amazon.com in the hopes of finding a few new readers for the series.  I might even have a big giveaway (did someone say Kindle Fire?) but I won't have all that info until I get closer to launch.

So, now for the excerpt from To The Bone (Gavin English Stories #1):

She ran through the lifeless park faster than she had ever run in her life. The cold night air pressed against her tear-soaked cheeks like sandpaper, forcing her to wipe her face with her sleeves as she went. He was behind her somewhere, but she no longer heard the sound of his pounding feet. There was a stitch of pain raging in her chest, and another in her side, as her muscles cramped in protest.

She slid herself under the old jungle gym, hoping that the orange glow from the old streetlights around the playground might keep him from coming after her. She swallowed and gasped and gulped in the air selfishly, trying to refill her aching lungs and give her body a chance to recover. Wood chips dug into her skin wherever it touched the ground, but she refused to move a muscle.

She was startled as a breeze spun the merry-go-round at the opposite end of the playground, making it creek. Her heart was a drum line, crashing within her chest. The loudest noise she heard was her pulse, throbbing deep in her ears. Keeping her body as still as possible, she looked up and down the street she had come from. There was nothing to see. Yet. Maybe, he had given up.

A stick cracked somewhere off to her left, making her gasp and jump, slamming her head against the underside of the jungle gym. She bit her lip as stars blurred her vision. She wanted to yell or scream or cuss, but if he was close by, her only chance was to conceal her hiding place. She gingerly ran her fingers along her scalp where she smacked her head. A trickle of blood was soaking her hair and her fingers came away warm and wet.

Dread. It was a word she didn't think she had ever used, but the only one that seemed to describe what she was feeling in that moment.

Then a pair of headlights turned onto the road which outlined the west edge of the park. The engine sounded soft, and the lights were bright. In those lights, she saw her salvation. She would run to the street, wave down the car, and get the driver to give her a ride to the police station. Even if he was hiding in the park, close to the playground, there was no way he could beat her to the fence if she ran with everything she had.

The car was getting closer. She took in a deep, steadying breath through her nose and scooted forward using her elbows and knees. Carefully, she inched her way out from under the jungle gym. Once out, she climbed to her feet and dusted the wood chips from her knees. She flinched and looked around in a panic as the debris rained softly to the ground. No movement in the park. No sound.

The car was only a hundred yards away. It was now or never.

She counted herself down silently.Three.

Two.

One!

Before her first step landed, something above her snatched a handful of her hair and she screamed, all thoughts of running lost. With no time to react she was yanked off of her feet, pulled over the bright red railing of the jungle gym, and slammed to the hard plastic grating next to the swinging bridge. More pain. More stars.

He pinned her body with one knee on her sternum and the other on her stomach, and clapped his hand down over her mouth. "Ssshhhh, Jennifer," he whispered, bringing his nose only an inch from hers. His breath was hot and wet on her face. His eyes shone wide and hungry in the pallid light of the oncoming car, and there was only a sliver of green bordering his overly-dilated pupils.

She took in shallow breaths through her nose. He held her still and silent until the car passed. It felt like an eternity.

Once the car was safely beyond the park, he gave her a grin that made her skin prickle. A second without his hand over her mouth, and then something rough and wet took its place. The smell was awful and overpowering and with her next breath the world turned gray.

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked enough enough to go check it out!  To The Bone is only $1.99 at Amazon right now! :)

Stuff and Things

I've been working a lot lately, writing a lot, and I moved.  Craziness abounds, but I didn't want to go without blogging for too long.  Who knows who might miss old Ken, huh?! 

So here are some things I've noticed lately, that you might be interested in:

An article about libraries and their continued importance to the world is Right Here

News about space!


Neil Gaiman continues to be awesome:




J.A. Konrath has sold over 1 million ebooks!
Read his blog about it!

And a tragedy in the Lindsey home...  During a routine trimming exercise, my beard was wounded badly.  I did the merciful thing and put it out of its misery.  The good news is, we can rebuild him.  We have the technology.

Have a great week!
Thanks for reading,
buh bye then.

Selling Yourself

It's been a very long time since I posted here, and I'm pretty sure it had been quite awhile without a post before that one as well.  There are lots of reasons, but most are just incidental and shouldn't stop me from blogging once a week or so. 

-Family
-Full time job (you know, for a roof and food and pants and all of that stuff you need once in a while)
-Also, I've been spending most of my writing time trying to write.  I have three manuscripts that are well on their way, but also nowhere near finished.  I'm excited about all of them, but I keep jumping from one to the other when the mood strikes.

But really, these things should not stop me from posting here, or Facebook or Twitter or blah blah, etc...  I've been remiss in all of my social networking duties for quite some time.

And I think I know why.

I'm not fond of selling myself.  I feel bad when I post on Facebook or Twitter, telling people about my work.  Telling them why and where and how they should buy something that I made feels like begging.  I'm not a huge fan of writing about myself at all, especially when I'm not sure it's something people want to hear.

I'd rather write about other people, the folks that live in my head.  They're all exciting and have stories that I'm happy to share.  The deal with magic and evil and zombies and robots, expensive booze and stalkers and cannibals.

But me, I read the news and I watch Scrubs so much that I know pretty much every episode by heart.  I work a normal job, and eat bagels whenever I get the chance.  Oh, and I write.

I write fiction.  I love fiction.  I have no problem telling people to go buy a book that I love.  Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, any random thing that i pick up to read on the Kindle app on my phone.  If I like it, I tell people about it, and I'm not ashamed.  But it's not the same as telling them to read something that I wrote.

Of course I think they should read it, I wrote it!  But do I want them to read it because it's worth reading, or because it's mine?

Both, but how do I say that?  That's what I'm trying to figure out here.  How do I tell someone about my own book, without feeling like I'm begging them to support my writing habit?  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  But until I get it figured out, I'll just keep trying different things.

This latest thing, you know, not saying anything to anyone, not even letting people know that I still exist and am still writing...  It doesn't work at all.  I don't recommend it for anyone.

So, it's on to something new.  Maybe I'll rent billboards and put my face on them, or find the newest, greatest viral marketing scheme and put it to use.  Or maybe I'll just try to keep in touch with people, and let them know what I'm up to.

Yeah, that sounds pretty good.  I think I'll try that.

Let me know what works for you, so I can steal your idea. :)

Oh yeah, just in case you didn't know, I have two books out right now.  One is a young adult fantasy about faeries that eat people.  I'm hoping the second book in the series will be out this year.  The other is a novella about a private detective who loves strip clubs and finds himself on the search for a cannibal that is terrorizing and killing teen girls.

They're pretty good and they're cheap, you should go buy them.

The River Runes at Amazon.com
To The Bone at Amazon.com

Thanks for reading,
buh bye then.

See you next week.

To The Bone Day!

Wow, it's October 1st already!  I'm incredibly excited because that means that today is the official launch of To The Bone!

It's only $.99 and you can get it at Amazon or at Smashwords right now!  Just as a reminder, here's the blurb about the story:

Two teenage girls go missing in the span of one year- both are labeled runaways and forgotten by the system.

Forgotten, until Rachel, a determined mother, walks into the office of private investigator, Gavin English. She needs to know for sure what's happened to her daughter, Jennifer. A nice pair of legs and a little cash go a long way, so he's on the case.

When the mangled body of the first runaway is found downtown, and all the signs point to a cannibal, Gavin worries that Jennifer may suffer the same fate. Can he find the girl, and the killer, before it's too late?

To The Bone is a bloody, dark, and sexy Psychological Thriller, and the first Gavin English novella. 

And, to help get the new novella off to a good start, I am dropping The River Runes to free for today and tomorrow!  If you don't have your copy yet, go get it Here on Amazon for free! (Only the first and second of October) 

Anyone who helps me spread the word is my hero.  Seriously.  Especially you.

Yes, you.

No, not that guy.  You.

Thanks!

To The Bone (coming soon!)

Hey, everyone!  I just wanted to let you all know that I will be releasing my first psychological thriller in mid-late September.  I've had a ton of fun writing this one, and the ebook ARC should be ready in the next week or so.

If anyone is interested in getting and reviewing and advance copy for your blog, or just to review on Amazon, Smashwords, or Goodreads, please let me know!  I'm also up for interviews or even guest posts, and if I get enough bloggers involved I'll have a Rafflecopter to give away some ebooks and other prizes.  It's a novella, a pretty quick read, but if you like noir or psycho thrillers, I think you'll enjoy it.  Here's the promotional cover animation, and my first shot at a blurb.  Any feedback would be much appreciated. :)

Two teenage girls go missing in the span of one year- both are labeled runaways and are forgotten about by the system.

Forgotten until one of the girls' mother walks into the office of private investigator, Gavin English, and asks for his help. She just wants to know for sure. Long legs and a little cash go a long way, so he's on the case.

When the mangled body of the first runaway is found downtown and the signs point to a cannibal, Gavin worries that his missing girl is in for the same fate. Can he find the girl, and the killer, before it's too late?

To The Bone is a bloody, dark, and sexy Psychological Thriller, and the first Gavin English novella.

Just a Little Soapbox

 I don't like taking a stand in public.  I want people to like me, to look back at the things I've blogged about and the things I've written, and say, "Yeah, I can get behind that."  So when I blog about how awful it is that some blonde demon is on video throwing a box full of puppies into a river, I'm not really stepping out on a limb.  When I say that any writers, especially self publishers, need to edit edit edit so that they can turn out the best book possible, I'm not saying anything that most people shouldn't already know.


Today, I have something to say that isn't universally approved.  Some people may not like it, and you might be one of those people.  I'm not sorry, and I won't apologize.

A New York Times article came out on the 25th, about a man who made a business out of writing favorable reviews for books.  I'm not going to get into all of the details, here's the link: NYT Article

Doesn't self publishing have enough of a bad reputation already?  Come on!  Paying people to give your book five star reviews is abhorrent.  If you don't believe that your work will stand up on its own, DON'T PUBLISH IT.  If you don't have the faith in your novel/short story/book of snot paintings, why are you willing to ask readers to pay for it?  Shame on you.

Okay, breathe.

It's hard to get people to read your book when you're unknown.  I get that.  I am that.  But I don't write for a paycheck.  I write because I love it.  I always have.  It's been said a million times, but I'll say it again: If you are writing because you want to get rich, you might as well quit now.  Writing should be work, hard, scary, sometimes a little heartbreaking.  But totally worth it in those moments when the white of the page is just melting away, when it feels like the story is writing itself.

There are honest people out there willing to read your book.  Just keep looking.  Goodreads is great, the Amazon forums even, your damn Facebook.  Or, if you just have to get a hundred reviews, go to somewhere reputable, where the reviews are honest.  Believe in your work enough to let people be honest.

Full disclosure: I had a blog tour for The River Runes not long ago.  I paid a third party $45 to get five or so bloggers to read and review my book, and others to do interviews with me and let me guest post on their blogs.  I don't think the bloggers got paid, I'm not sure how they work that out.  It was made clear to me, from the beginning, that the reviews would be honest, even though I was paying for the service.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'll be honest, I was a little scared that I had just paid for people to read my book, and they might all hate it.  But I believe in my book.  I wouldn't have published it if I didn't.  The reviews came back better than I expected.  They ranged through three, four, and five stars, but they all had very kind things to say.  I even picked up a few new readers that have contacted me since then, because they found me on blogs that they already followed.

After reading this article, though, I don't think I'll even be able to use this kind of service again.  It feels too close.  Although, I think the service was great, and probably a very good idea for people just starting out.  I don't know, maybe I can just stop being antisocial and contact the bloggers myself next time.  I think I'll feel better about the whole thing if money never exchanges hands.   But big publishers also pay for reviews.  The New York Times, Kirkus, and lots of other reputable sources accept money or trade advertisements to give reviews.  Honest reviews.

Back to the point.

Write the best work you can, and then trust the readers.  Some of them are not going to like it, some of them will hate it, but if you poured your heart into it, and edited it until it was raw, someone will like it.  I believe that there is an audience for everything out there, even if it takes a while to find.  Best of all, you can feel good knowing that any good reviews you get are honest.

Self pubbing is hard work.  Anything that gets done to your book, gets done by you.  After writing you still have to edit/choose an editor, edit again, find/make a good cover, format for publication (on ebook and/or paperback), and then you have to help that book find an audience.  And if you are self publishing your first book, you are starting at the very bottom.  I think it's worth it, though. 

I know how disheartening it can be to be an unknown.  I'm still unknown.  Since I first published The River Runes, over a year ago, I've given away/sold less than a thousand copies.  I'm okay with that.  That means that almost a thousand people have bought/asked for/maybe even read something that I wrote.  Now, that's cool.

Things and Stuff

I've been gone for a while, kind of an unofficial hiatus.  Sorry about not giving warning, but life does get in the way sometimes.  Thanks for sticking around though!

I don't have a ton of news to share, but there are a couple of things.  Brace yourself!

I am ridiculously excited about Mars and the Curiosity and all the gorgeous photos and space-type amazingness.  If you have somehow missed out on all of that, go do the Google thing and get yourself a faceful.  Do it.  Now.  I'll wait.  (No, this isn't exactly news about me, but I'm excited so I'm sharing my excitement.  you're welcome.)

Ken!  You were going to tell us about how your marketing and stuff has affected your sales and stuff.  And stuff.

Right!  I'll do that now.  I haven't learned anything.  Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't seen any real changes with either the blog tour or the free Amazon days.  I did, however, give away several hundred books.  Hopefully some of them will be read by people just like you, and maybe even a few of them will enjoy the book.  That's what it's all about anyway, and I am very happy to gain any readers that I can.

Ken!  What about Clockwork Charlie and the next book in the Caithiir series?

Yeah...  Clockwork Charlie is still puttering along, but I've started another couple of things so I'm not as close to done as I would have liked.  It's going well though, and I'm still very excited about CC and I can't wait to get it out there for everyone.  As far as the next book in the Caithiir series goes, it's on the back burner for now.  Frankly, I have other things that I am in love with right now that I want to get done first.  It will be coming eventually, and the story is already pretty well outlined up in my brain meats.

Ken!  What other stuff are you working on?

I've started a noir style mystery/thriller that I'm having a lot of fun with.  The language is rough and the main character is rough and the violence is rough and the alcohol/drugs/sexiness is rough, so it's definitely not for the kiddos.  No title yet, but once I get it figured out I'll let you know.  I'm targeting this one at a much shorter word count (probably only 30,000 to 50,000 words) which might mean that it's a novella rather than a novel.  I'm never sure about the lengths of the different types of stories.

Ken!  What are you reading, and should we be reading it too?

Right now I'm reading The Mists of Avalon and Stories.  The Mists of Avalon is good so far, and has a lot of great Celtic religious stuff in it that I enjoy.  Honestly, it started out slow, but once you get to the meat of the story it's well worth it, in my opinion.  I'm also reading Stories, which is a collection of short stories by folks like Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, Diana Wynne Jones, and a ton of others.  It's great and you should read it immediately.  That's all I have to say about that.

Ken!  Why do you keep doing this?

Because I'm bored and I like to imagine a whole lot of people just as excited as can be to hear what I have to say.

Alright, that's it for today.

Thanks for reading,
buh bye then