All posts filed under: Authors

Joe Hill’s STRANGE WEATHER

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In Joe Hill’s most recent newsletter (subscribe here) he shared the cover and some information about his next book, a collection of four short novels called STRANGE WEATHER. There’s even generous preview over at Entertainment Weekly’s website. From his newsletter, Joe Hill writes: My next book, STRANGE WEATHER, a collection of four short novels, is out this October (early November in the U.K.). It opens with “Snapshot,” the story of a man known as the Phoenician, who carries a modified Polaroid camera that can steal memories. An earlier draft of that novella appeared in Cemetery Dance 74/75, although the version in the book includes a few new chapters. “Loaded” tells the story of a mall security guard who becomes an overnight hero to the gun rights movement after he single handedly takes on a mass shooter. But as his story of bravery begins to crack, so does his sanity, and on a breathlessly hot Florida afternoon, he reaches for the gun again, and embarks on a day of reckoning. The third novella, “Aloft,” strands a young …

Brother, Can You Spare Some Prose?

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~ Notebook #11 ~ When you’re looking to reincorporate lean muscle to your prose and you turn to the maestros of the minimalist, clean, no frills, straight-to-the-point (and straight-to-the-heart) narrative technique. I have a tendency in daily speech and writing to use a lot of complex sentences (and parenthetical asides) and when I’m not mindful of it, I tend to let that creep into my prose, especially when I’ve not been writing fiction narratives for a good while (an obvious drawback to mostly writing in a nonfiction capacity daily for so many years now). I’ve been reading both Elmore Leonard and Bob Thurber since the late 90s (starting with Thurber at an online workshop just prior to his entering award-winning publishing success). Both of these authors cite Ernest Hemingway as a major influence on them. Only makes sense that I finally dig deeper into the guy at the top of this literary family tree I’ve adopted, so I hit up my local public library for Mr. Hemingway’s collection, and since I don’t (for some odd reason) …

New Book: Lost Storm Rider | A Novel by Jennifer Macaire

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Jenny Mac is back! In April, the sequel to Riders of the Lightning Storm will be out! Get ready to continue the adventure! And here (drumroll….) is the new cover! “…featuring an intimately detailed plot, Horse Passages is very highly recommended as action/adventure science fiction novel and an altogether entertaining read.” — Midwest Book Review  You can get Book 1 of this YA digital novel series directly from the publisher Evernight Teen or via your Kindle at Amazon. Source: New Cover!

Quote: Jennifer Macaire on Patience + Writing

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Today must be the day of Jenny M. because she makes yet another appearance on this here blog with more timely words that I’ve aimed at my own psyche. To wit: So if I’m so impatient, how did I ever finish the book? I wonder myself. I tend to start things  – and finish them. I just did an interview where one question was: “How can I become a writer?” I answered, “Write, write, write and read, read, read”, but I could have said “Write and finish what you start.” It never gets easier. It never goes faster. Sometimes you write yourself into a dead end. Then you have to unravel the story – sort of like knitting, and start again. Sometimes you forget what the story was supposed to be about, and you have to spend hours cutting out what doesn’t matter – like pruning dead wood off a tree. It’s never a smooth journey.  It’s often frustrating. And when the book is done and published – you’ll always find the odd typo or mistake …

Guest Blog: Jennifer Macaire’s Fabulous Life as a Writer

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by Jennifer Macaire Taken from her own eponymous blog. Remind me why I started writing? Oh yeah, I was stuck on the pampa in Argentina for 4 months, with 2 yr old twins and lots of free time. Susannah took care of the housework and cooking, so all I had to do was watch the twins splash about in the pool while my husband was away days at a time to look for horses. I had a couple notebooks, some pens, and an idea for a book. So I sat on the porch and wrote my first novel longhand on yellow paper. It never got published – I never rewrote it on the computer. By then we were travelling again, the twins were growing and I had no time to spare. Then my daughter was born, and once again I was sitting at home watching a newborn sleep. We had just gotten a new computer so I started a short story about Alexander the Great. It turned into a seven book series, was published in …

GALILEE by Clive Barker

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Clive Barker’s 1998 unrivaled tenth novel Galilee  (subtitled as “A Romance” inside the cover, and also known as Galilee: A Novel of the Fantastic) is hands down one of the greatest novels I’ve ever read.  It became the inspiration for a novel series I’d thought up one cold winter evening earlier this year.  It’s funny that I’ve found myself virtually connected to it.  If you were to do a Google search of the book, one of the top links that shows up leads to a review I did of it on goodreads.com back in summer of 2011.  It shows up at the top on goodreads.com because it is the highest rated review for the book by the members there.  I had no idea of this until just recently when I was looking for info links on the book to share with my co-writer. Here’s the four years old text from that review: _____________________________________________________ Galilee, for me, is Clive Barker at his storytelling best. It may not be as inventive as Cabal (Nightbreed), Imajica & Everville, or as …

Clive Barker Returns with THE SCARLET GOSPELS

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In which he kills the Hell Priest, aka Pinhead (no spoiler, this is a major promotional point of the novel). The Scarlet Gospels was released this week on May 19th in hardcover.  For the author it has beeen a hellish misadventure to finally get The Scarlet Gospels completed and published, as he details in this Grantland Q&A. Part of that living nightmare that he describes in the Q&A are things I’d heard about earlier this year via a Nerdist podcast (episode 590) interview Barker did with Chris Hardwick. Real life horrors such as contracting Toxic Shock Syndrome after a routine visit to the dentist, a subsequent coma, a few strokes, and the long recovery to livable and finally sustainable health afterward. It was a devastating thing to learn (and hear — his voice is quite changed and weathered sounding now) from a chance podcast listening encounter because I’d not heard anything about these awful events (which of course was by design of Mr. Barker). Needless to say I’m not ready to lose one of my literary heroes, who will turn 63 later this …

SHE CAME FROM BEYOND! Author Nadine Darling

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It’s a trend. Author friends and their books. Lady author friends at that. Folks, meet the lovely Nadine Darling, author, wife, mother and pop culture authority. Her forthcoming debut novel, She Came From Beyond! (from Overlook Press), is due out October 2015, in hardcover. See the spectacular cover below? Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.  However, prior to that far off date is a signing event she’s attending two weeks from today (in two Saturdays on May 30th). She’ll be signing galley versions of the aforementioned novel at BookCon from 2:00 – 3:00 PM, Location: Booth # 3037 at the Javits Center in Manhattan, NY.  Check her out if you’re there.  Google her name to find her short fiction published across the web. And remember, the proper release of She Came From Beyond! is out in October (I’ll update details here as I get them). Peace. -BLR

Jennifer Macaire’s JACK THE STRIPPER Coming Soonest!

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Another author friend of mine has a new book coming out. Like, immediately! Jennifer Macaire (y’all remember her? Well, her erotica-minded alter ego, Samantha Winston?) So Mrs. Macaire’s new book Jack the Stripper (Book One in the M.U.C.I. Series) is out  next Friday, May 22nd from Evernight Publishing.  Cover image was just released today. See?  See it!  There’s no pre-order link available just yet, but just remember, out next Friday, May 22nd here on Planet Earth.  Jennifer has also stated that Book Two, Murder and Mayhem, is already in the can and in edits, so ya better grab Book One next week! A brief description about Jack the Stripper from the author: He’s Jack Severn, newly back from the dead. He’s magical, he’s hot, but evil he’s not!  Jim Ling-Li, Necromancer extraordinaire, brought him back to life, gave him some extra features, and, as you’ll see, made him irresistible — especially to Jack’s ex-girlfriend Brianna. Jack’s sexier than ever, and they’re better together. But she doesn’t want to risk her heart, not again, and definitely not with a zombie. Jack …