Monday, August 5, 2013

Goodreads and Giveaways

I recently joined Goodreads, a site that post reader’s reviews of books. To be honest, I wasn't interested in Goodreads at first, and only noticed it because I kept getting requests to join from people I know, or...know online. 
Same thing.
Kind of.
Anyway. I caved to the online peer pressure, signed up, and have reviewed a few books. I’ll post them below. I'm not sure what the point of Goodreads is, but it is interesting to see what some of my favorite horror writers, like Jeff Strand, are reading. Maybe that’s the point.


Quirk Books is having a Night of the Living Trekkies giveaway for the next 5 days. They have 5 autographed copies and you can get in on the drawing at: 
Planet Quirk's Night of the Living Trekkies Giveaway


Good Luck!

My micro flash piece, The Fall of the Feast, is now out in the anthology Barnyard Horrors from JWK Fiction. It seems that the paperback is only available at the moment, but I’m sure the e-book is in the works.

Last week I held a one day giveaway of the kindle edition of my short story collection, Blood, Gridlock & PEZ. I was surprised to see that it had been downloaded several hundred times in just 24 hours. Nice. I did some quick calculations and discovered that 70% of several hundred free downloads equals zero dollars in royalties. I then double checked my calculations and came up with the same number. Drat!

Free giveaways are about promotion, and that’s what I got. Lots of folks now have the collection on their kindle readers and with any luck there will be some reviews coming soon.  There is already one fantastic review up on Amazon for the book. And that reminds me, Thanks Dad. You’re the best.
 Until next time, stay groovy. 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoy Hollywood biographies. Not the tell-all kind but the ones focusing on people that were at ground zero for some of TV and Films most iconic moments. Penny Marshall is one of those folks. This was a fun and fast read, and I most enjoyed her personal stories about Art Garfunkel, Rob Reiner, and her best friend Carrie Fisher. Marshall is a creative, comic artist who is as much a product of her relationships as she is of her talent. 


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've been a Darren Shan fan for a while and what I love most is how often he pulls inspiration from one of my favorite horror films – Phantasm.  Pretty much from the opening of Zom-B we are confronted with a Tall Man like figure that is every bit as sinister as the character portrayed by Angus Scrimm. After an unsettling opening the story settles in for a slow burn until the final 60 pages. I was almost put off by Shan’s exploration of domestic violence and racism, but in the end it made for a unique twist on the zombie apocalypse. This was just book one and I’m very interested to know where the rest of this story is going.