Musings

 Ben Wolverton, age 16, was in a tragic long-boarding accident on Wednesday the 4th, 2013. He suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drums, road rash, pneumonia, and is currently in a coma. His family has no insurance.

Ben is the son of author David Farland, whose books have won multiple awards, and who is widely known as a mentor to many prominent authors, such as Brandon Sanderson, Stephenie Meyer, and Brandon Mull. Costs for Ben’s treatment are expected to rise above $1,000,0000. To help raise money for Ben, we are having a book bomb (focused on Nightingale and Million Dollar Outlines) on behalf of Ben.

You can learn more about Ben’s condition, or simply donate to the Wolverton family here: http://www.gofundme.com/BensRecovery

What is a Book Bomb?

For those that don’t know, a Book Bomb is an event where participants purchase a book on a specific day to support the author, or, in this case, a young person in serious need: Ben Wolverton.

David Farland’s young adult fantasy thriller Nightingale has won seven awards, including the Grand Prize at the Hollywood Book Festival—beating out ALL books in ALL categories. It has been praised by authors such as James Dashner (The Maze Runner), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn), and Paul Genesse (Iron Dragon series), and has received four and a half starts on Amazon. You can read reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/Nightingale-ebook/dp/B006P7SEBY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1365432857&sr=8-2

Book Synopsis

Some people sing at night to drive back the darkness. Others sing to summon it. . . .

Bron Jones was abandoned at birth. Thrown into foster care, he was rejected by one family after another, until he met Olivia, a gifted and devoted high-school teacher who recognized him for what he really was—what her people call a “nightingale.”

But Bron isn’t ready to learn the truth. There are secrets that have been hidden from mankind for hundreds of thousands of years, secrets that should remain hidden. Some things are too dangerous to know. Bron’s secret may be the most dangerous of all.

Nightingale is available as a hardcover, ebook, audio book, and enhanced novel for the iPad.

You can purchase it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nightingale-ebook/dp/B006P7SEBY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1365432857&sr=8-2

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nightingale-david-farland/1107084747?ean=2940016100463

on the Nightingale website: http://www.nightingalenovel.com/

or, you can get the enhanced version, complete with illustrations, interviews, animations, and its own soundtrack through iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/nightingale/id560309064?mt=11

If you are a writer, you may want to consider purchasing David Farland’s Million Dollar Outlines instead. Both books are part of the book bomb. Million Dollar Outlines has been a bestseller on Amazon for over a month and is only $6.99.

As a bestselling author David Farland has taught dozens of writers who have gone on to staggering literary success, including such #1 New York Times Bestsellers as Brandon Mull (Fablehaven), Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time), James Dashner (The Maze Runner) and Stephenie Meyer (Twilight).

In Million Dollar Outlines, Dave teaches how to analyze an audience and outline a novel so that it can appeal to a wide readership, giving it the potential to become a bestseller. The secrets found in his unconventional approach will help you understand why so many of his authors go on to prominence.

Get it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Outlines-ebook/dp/B00B9JYJ6W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365434120&sr=8-1&keywords=Million+Dollar+Outlines

Or on Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/million-dollar-outlines-david-farland/1114285069?ean=2940015965148
Read one of the 26 reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Outlines-ebook/dp/B00B9JYJ6W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365434120&sr=8-1&keywords=Million+Dollar+Outlines

Would you like to just donate money? You can do that here: http://www.gofundme.com/BensRecovery

If you can’t spare any money, but would still like to help, you can do so by telling others about Ben’s donation page, and/or this Book Bomb. Share it on facebook, twitter, pinterest, your blog—anywhere you can. We have an event page set up on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/453677124707603/

Thank you!
Ben and his family greatly appreciate your support, and so do all who love and care about them.

I am VERY pleased to be able to announce – now that the official TOC, and wonderful cover art by Enggar Adirasa, has been revealed – that my short story, ‘System Error’, was sold early this year for inclusion in Seventh Star Press’ dystopian-themed anthology, ‘Perfect Flaw, from editor Robin Blankenship.

Perfect Flaw features a variety of speculative fiction stories, spanning many genres, that involve the exploration of society gone wrong. From “utopian” societies masking an underlying controlled state, to stories of people fighting back against repression in hopes of a better world, the flaws that create a dystopian atmosphere are identified and challenged.

The authors and stories featured in Perfect Flaw include:

Leslie J Anderson – “Michael’s Gate”
Jason Campagna – “Hope Unknown”
Frank Roger – “Cracks in the Concrete”
Mandi M. Lynch “Under a Pomegranate Sky”
Shaun Avery – “The Job Hunter”
Cathy Bryant – “Cost Benefit Analysis”
Carolyn M. Chang – “Smilers”
SC Langgle – “The Bird Below Ground”
Delphine Boswell – “Tomorrow’s Children”
Tanith Korravai – “Your Comfort is Important to Us”
DeeDee Davies – “The Ultimate Sale”
Ellen Brock – “Useless”
Herika R. Raymer – “Seventh Degree”
H David Blalock – “Guardian”
Steve Donnelly – “First Head”
Jay Faulkner – “System Error”
Michael O’Conner – “The Choosing”

Perfect Flaw will be released towards the end of March in Trade Paperback and eBook formats. For further information and updates on Perfect Flaw, please visit the Seventh Star Press site at www.seventhstarpress.com

Contact: C.C. James Public Relations, Seventh Star Press ccjames (at) seventhstarpress.com

Seventh Star Press is a small press publisher of speculative fiction located in Lexington Kentucky.

The very first WiFile of 2013 is now available for your reading pleasure and it is a doozy. Crimes Against Humanity By Rhonda Parrish is a zombie tale puts that humanity is at the forefront of the tale. To whet your appetite, here is an excerpt:

I don’t need your pity. There are the whiners who will go on and on about how we’re the unfortunate ones, like somehow surviving is worse than being turned into one of them. Bullshit, man, that’s just utter crap. Sure it’s tough, surviving, but it beats the crap out of the alternative. Dead is, well, dead and undead is worse. Fucking whiners. I mean, I know where they’re coming from, there’s a reason the pharmaceutical companies were among the first things to be re-organized and given resources and trust me, I pop a rainbow of meds everyday just like the next guy, but still…

To read the rest, please click here.

Peter David, writer extraordinaire (and all round nice guy), best known for his work at Marvel Comics, recently had a stroke. If you like reading excellent stories here’s how you can help: http://www.peterdavid.net/2013/01/04/here-is-how-you-can-help-peter/

Announcing the release of Trip of a Lifetime: An Anthology from Sleeping Cat Books, featuring me.

What is your idea of the trip of a lifetime? Is it relaxing on a sandy Caribbean beach? Traveling through parts of Europe? Or do you prefer to stay closer to home and travel through your imagination? Sometimes the trip of a lifetime can be the one you never expected to take. And sometimes a trip becomes quite memorable for the wrong reasons.

In this collection of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction, you will find our contributors’ ideas of the “trip of a lifetime.” Perhaps you’ll find your own ideas in these pages, or perhaps we’ll spark the desire for you to go out and make your own memories!

Trip of a Lifetime: An Anthology is now available in the following formats:

Paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon UK

Kindle: US | UK

Nook: Click here

Kobo: Click here

My hint fiction story’s in with a chance of winning a competition to win a Kindle. If you’d like to help me (which would be lovely) you need to click the link and vote for Sacred by Jay Faulkner … you’ll have my undying gratitude and I promise never to haunt you, or eat your brains – http://matrix-hole.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/my-50000-hit-giveaway.html?m=1

A unique genre-bending fantasy–sci-fi epic, Ecko Rising is the astonishing debut from Danie Ware.

September 2012 • £7.99 • Paperback / 9780857687623 • E-book / 9781781162835

Ecko: Rising follows a savage, gleefully cynical anti-hero immersed in his own fantasy world. Ecko joins a misfit cast of characters and strives to conquer his deepest fears and save the world. Danie Ware says, “Ecko: Rising is sardonic fantasy, a sharp new slant on the genre, scattered with a healthy dusting of sex, violence and sarcasm. I’ve read fantasy, on and off, since I was a teen – and you can’t put a new twist on something unless you fell in love with it to start with! I wanted to push back its boundaries, make it do something different, something smarter and darker – but also something that we’d understand and recognise.”

Ecko: Rising, and its sequel scheduled for publication next year, will appeal to those who love fantasy, classic or modern, those intrigued by new concepts, and those with a liking for twisted anti-heroes.

Danie Ware is the publicist and event organiser for cult entertainment retailer Forbidden Planet. She has been immersed in the science-fiction and fantasy community for the past decade. An early adopter of blogging, social media and a familiar face at conventions, she appears on panels as an expert on genre marketing and retailing. Ecko Rising is her first novel. You’ll find Danie on twitter @danacea and at www.danieware.com.

Danie Ware says, “Working at FP has allowed me to work with some of best-known and most-respected SF/F authors working today – and that’s a heck of a thing to try and live up to. This world, and some of its central concepts and characters, began in my fiancé’s from room, in Ashford in Kent, in 1989 – and it’s grown and evolved over years of games, stories, and world-sharing. I haven’t consciously built it – it’s almost built itself.”

For further information to request an interview please contact: Sophie Calder – sophie.calder@titanemail.com / 020 7803 1906 / @titanpublicist

Ecko Rising, Titan Books, September 2012, original paperback, £7.99

TITAN PUBLISHING GROUP is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. Titan’s growing list of fiction includes the hugely popular horror series Anno Dracula by Kim Newman, The Lost Fleet military science fiction books by Jack Campbell, the Southern Gothic Eden Moore series by Cherie Priest and the exceptional pulp crime list, Hard Case Crime. New titles for 2012 include David J. Kowalski’s alternate history The Company of the Dead, Dana Fredsti’s urban fantasy Plague Town, Samit Basu’s Turbulence and Lo’Life: Romeo Spikes by Joanne Reay. In addition, Titan Books will be publishing backlist reissues from Philip Jose Farmer, Michael Moorcock and Kevin J. Anderson, new works from James P. Blaylock and George Mann, and Lovecraftian anthologies edited by S.T. Joshi and Stephen Jones. Titan Books also publish an extensive line of media- and pop culture-related non-fiction, graphic novels, fantasy and computer gaming art, and music books.

Release date: December 4, 2012
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

Where to buy:
Amazon UK paperback
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ink-Damien-Walters-Grintalis/dp/161921072X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349362037&sr=8-1
Amazon UK ebook:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ink-ebook/dp/B008QWCRGY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349362037&sr=8-2
Barnes & Noble paperback and ebook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ink-damien-walters-grintalis/1109862045
Amazon US paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/Ink-Damien-Walters-Grintalis/dp/161921072X
Amazon US ebook:
http://www.amazon.com/Ink-ebook/dp/B008QWCRGY/ref=la_B0074WJI1O_1_1_title_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1349362263&sr=1-1

About the author:

Damien Walters Grintalis was imprinted with a love of reading at a young age by her father. At the age of eleven, she saw the movie Alien and read Stephen King’s The Shining and her attraction to all things dark and scary turned into true love. Rumor has it she still peeks behind the shower curtain on occasion to make sure no monsters are lurking there.

She is an Active member of both the Horror Writers Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a staff writer with BooklifeNow, and an Associate Editor of the Hugo Award-winning speculative fiction magazine, Electric Velocipede.

She lives in Maryland with her husband, two former shelter cats, and two rescued pit bulls. Ink is her first novel. You can visit her blog or follow her on Twitter .

As it is International Poetry Day here is my contest winning (for SmileTrain.org) poem, ‘Epitaph’.  You can still purchase copies of ‘Dragon Poems for Smiletrain.org 2011′, for Kindle, which featured this poem at Amazon.

Epitaph

Beneath winters grasp
Enfolded in golden skein
Cold-bloodslumber dream

Thawing springs caress
Limbs flex gargantuan uncoil
Ravenous wyrm royal

Warmth of summer sun
Dragon basks on broken bones
Rules all reigns alone

Above autumn clouds
Soar majestic wings unfurled
Hunter of the world

Ephemeral prey
Fleeting moon chased seasons
Subjects to treason

Chrome head bows to pray
Sword bare shield close Knight vows life
Virgin sacrifice

Steel juxtapose scale
Fire belching skin blisters raw
Hands raised implore

Slit eyes slow blink
Raucous laugh humor blast
Gaping maw at last

Glinting ivory snap
Proud shimmering armor rent
Bold life blood spent

As eyes grow dim
Forked tongue demands his name
His deed to proclaim

A self epitaph
‘fore on his flesh dragon gorge
Last word his name: George

Just to let you know that my short story –  ‘Benedic Mihi, Pater’  – is now available to purchase as part of the Fox Spirit Press anthology, ‘Tales of the Nun & Dragon’.