Guest post by my friend Karenna Colcroft!

Today my crazy Vegas blog will be guest hosted by my good friend Karenna Colcroft as she showcases her upcoming new book release!  Enjoy this post and go out and buy her book!  Help support a wonderful author!

Surprise!

When you’re married to someone, you probably think you know them very well. You’ve been through the whole dating thing, and now you’re sharing a life, so what could they possibly say or do that would surprise you?

But no matter how well we know someone, they can still surprise us. A gift, a suggestion of a date or activity, or trying something new in bed—or out of it—can be completely unexpected. And sometimes when we think we know our partner as well as we possibly could, it’s good to have things shaken up a little.

In my novella Knot Intended, Nolie and Joseph consider each other soulmates, and Nolie believes she knows all there is to know about her mild-mannered husband. But when he suggests sexual roleplaying to address some staleness in their marriage, Nolie is completely taken off-guard. And the lengths Joseph goes to in order to fulfill Nolie’s fantasy are far beyond anything she would have guessed he’d be willing to do.

Being married does mean knowing a lot about each other, but sometimes it’s good to surprise your partner. It might make things better than you could imagine.

Knot Intended releases November 18 from Loose Id, http://www.loose-id.com/knot-intended.html. Here’s the blurb and a short excerpt:

Nolie and Joseph have a good marriage. They're still in love, have everything they need, and their careers are in good shape. But lately their sex life and time together has taken a back seat. One morning, Joseph brings up the changes in their sex life and expresses a desire to spice things up. With his encouragement, Nolie confesses her darkest fantasy: Being kidnapped, bound, and "forced" to have sex with her "captor."

She assumes Joseph will forget the fantasy or decide it's better off left as something to talk about, but a week later, Joseph brings Nolie's fantasy into reality. Nolie is not only excited about the role play, but Joseph's willingness to fulfill her fantasy reminds her of how much they love each other and how much priority they need to put on their marriage.

EXCERPT:

Nolie wet her lips again.

Joseph stepped back. “Thirsty?”

“Yes.” She looked at him, pleading. “I really need water. I’m feeling lightheaded.”

“You’re just a scared little whore.” He set the belt on the bed, went to the minifridge beneath the TV, and took out two bottles of water. “You’re lucky I’m thirsty too. Otherwise I wouldn’t give a shit what you thought.”

Nolie knew better. No matter how deeply into character Joseph was, he wouldn’t let her faint from dehydration. She decided she was better off not arguing with him, though.

He opened one of the bottles and held it to her lips far more gently than she would have expected. As he tipped the bottle, she drank nearly half the contents before she leaned back to let Joseph know she was finished.

He drained the rest of the bottle, then tossed it toward the trash, setting the remaining bottle on the bureau. “Back to fun now,” he said. He picked up the belt again and ran the buckle down each of Nolie’s arms.

She shivered at the light, tickling touch.

“Sexy bitch,” Joseph murmured. “Nice toned arms. I wonder what you’d do if I smacked them.” He tapped the belt on her left bicep.

“I’m not into pain,” Nolie said.

“I didn’t give you the choice, did I?” He raised the belt and brought it down but stopped before it touched her skin. “You’d best remember who’s in charge here, got it?”

“Got it.” Adrenaline coursed through Nolie’s veins, and she breathed deeply, trying to slow her racing heart. For a moment she’d believed Joseph really would hit her. She still wasn’t entirely convinced he wouldn’t.

Karenna Colcroft’s website: http://www.karennacolcroft.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karenna.colcroft

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarennaColcroft

Tumblr: http://karennacolcroft.tumblr.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/karennacolcroft

Time to give Madison Sevier a Vegas Adventure!

Interview with Author Madison Sevier

Now to have a bit of fun I’ve decided to not only interview Madison, but to also Answer my own questions and reply to anything she says in her answers.  And here we go!

Hi Madison and welcome to your Vegas Adventure interview!  Firstly, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to do this, I really appreciate your time.  And secondly, relax and enjoy yourself with these questions.  Have a good time!  And let’s begin!

How did you get started in writing?  And have you taken any college courses or classes to help you with your craft? 

 Thanks so much, Robert.

I began writing when I was around eight years old. I'd been reading (sneaking my aunt's books) V.C. Andrews and Stephen King since first grade. I'd also "worked" with my aunt at our local library. So, when my grandfather found out about my love for books, he gave me a powder-blue typewriter for Christmas—Right then, I knew I'd write books someday.

As for courses or classes, no. Not yet. I've been fairly busy homeschooling my daughter and once you add in all of my other "duties" plus writing and everything that goes along with it, that doesn't leave much time for anything else. However, I do plan on it.

I’ve been writing since I was a kid.  My favorite class in high school was Creative Writing.  There is so much of my older writing that just disappeared and that’s kind of sad.  I think that’s because I started writing stories and things back when there were typewriters.  If you wanted to keep something you needed to keep a hard copy of it and I was never really organized enough to keep track of a bunch of papers.  It’s so much easier now in the digital age to just save writing as a file.  Other than high school I’ve never taken any writing classes either.  I’ve been encouraged to do that, but I’m one of those egotistical people who thinks he doesn’t need writing classes.  *chuckle*

Can you write without coffee?  What would you write if I kept you away from coffee for a week?  How about if I told you no coffee before you’ve written 10,000 words?  (*chuckle*  Yes, I have a mean streak sometimes.)

No way. I'd end up writing a horror book or a murder. No, you wouldn't be the victim **wink, wink** Oh, if I had to work for my coffee, I'd write 10,000 words in no time. :)

I personally don’t drink coffee.  I’ve never liked it.  I’ll be happy to make coffee for you if you’re pushy, but all kinds of things will make it into the coffee filter.  *snicker*  Yes, I love to make coffee, I’m just not much for drinking it. 

I really enjoyed your story Banged in the Bayou and you’ve told me that you’re doing more work on that.  I read a comment on Facebook saying “You'll be happy to know that Rosie is on the road again.   Searching...  Can't wait to see what she finds next”  So will we maybe be seeing more Monster Sex stories with Rosie Peaks?

Thank you so much! Yes, Rosie will be appearing again. Honestly, Banged In The Bayou began as a joke between another great friend and myself. Never in a million years did I think anyone would actually like the story. I have grown to love Rosie's character and she may appear shallow on the outside  (I wrote her that way), but she will show more of her personality and strengths in her next story. There are so many monsters in the world and she's been trying to find one that satisfies her like Nessiana did.

One of my books started out with a bit of joking around.  I came up with the idea for Terminating Vegas while working a security dispatch position with a good friend of mine.  It started out with that good ol’ question, “So, what would you do if you won the lottery?”  *chuckle*

Bad reviews always bother authors, me included.  But would bad reviews matter to you at all if you were selling a couple of thousand kindle copies a month?

Honestly, yes that would still bother me. However, I wouldn't let it stop me from writing. I know that not everyone will love what I write and some people will hate it. That's okay. We all have different tastes. As long as the reviews aren't cruel (I had one once), I'm fine with constructive criticism.

My book Frigate November has 35 reviews on Amazon.com right now.  Most of them I don’t bother to read.  I get a lot of people complaining that the book isn’t “realistic”.  It wasn’t written to be realistic, it was written to be entertaining.  The book still sells more copies each month than all my other books put together.  Obviously not enough copies to pay my rent, but still it puts a few dollars in my pocket.  I recently edited and rewrote quite a bit of the story.  The rewrite added around 100 pages to the paperback version.  *chuckle*  It remains to be seen if changing a few things will help with the sales and reviews.  If the reviews change, I probably still won’t read them.

 Let’s say you just made ten thousand dollars in book royalties this month.  Not including bills (we all have to pay those), what would you go out and spend the money on just for fun? 

 

Oh, I wish. LOL! Let's see. I'd definitely head down to the Smokies with my family. There's something magical there that I can never put into words. So, I'd spend a good chunk of it for that trip. Maybe I'd stay for a month. Maybe use the money for a down payment on a house there. I'm not big on blowing money, so I'd put it to good use.

I know...booooring :)

Women always seem to be like that, thinking about a new house or a trip somewhere.  I think ten thousand dollars would pay for a nice trip to Orlando, Florida for me.  I’ve also promised a friend that if one of my books ever took off and made me major bucks I would treat her to a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.  So that’s where the first bit of my huge royalty check would go.  *chuckle*  The rest would probably be spent on video games, computer stuff, and maybe a nicer car.

Let’s move on from Monster Sex and talk about your book Wicked By Nature.  I haven’t read this one, but it seems you have a flair for the supernatural.  Is this your preferred genre, or do you ever expand your writing to other things such as comedy, straight romance, historical, or things like that?

I definitely have a love of the supernatural/paranormal. I combined it with my love of RomCom and a bit of the erotic to get Wicked By Nature where it is today. (Currently being re-edited and re-covered) and will be available for purchase again by October—I hope.

I'd say my favorite genre would be RomCom. I tend to put real-life, comical things into my stories. I like snark and wit in my romance, so I try to bring those to my characters. Luckily, they cooperate. I also love cozy mysteries and I have one saved in my files (that I'm supposed to finish). I've never written historical or western, but up until a short while ago, I'd never written monsterotica either. So, who knows. Maybe someday.

I think most of my books have comedic parts in them.  All except for Kiss the Darkness.  Not too much humor in that story.  Lots of emotion there, though.

 Most writers have things they’ve written long ago that they never share.  My secret thing is an old Western story.  It was written on a typewriter back in the mid 80’s.  Do you have any hidden writing that you’ll probably never let anyone see? 

Honestly, no. But that's very cool and I think you should publish it!

I've thought about it. But I worry that if I wrote something secret, it would one day find it's way into the world. So, I keep those secret things to myself.

My western won’t see the light of day.  At least I won’t be the person showing it to anyone.  On the frightening side, a girl I knew back in my military days still has a copy and has told me she rereads it every so often!  GAH!

I did a “Bob’s Books” episode for your book Banged in the Bayou and you really enjoyed it!  So how shy are you?  If I could ever arrange it (I’m learning more every day!) would you ever consider a live video interview?

 Yes, you did and I truly did enjoy it. Thank you again!

I'm fairly shy at first. I'm okay behind the computer, but in real life, I'm very quiet until I get to know you. Just like RAGT14 this year. I didn't know many people, but once I warmed up, I was talking to the point that I lost my voice. LOL

I'd definitely be open to a live video interview. Just let me know :)

I’ve asked another author or two, but they always waffle out somehow.  They’re either using a pen name and don’t want to reveal their real face, or they aren’t sure how it would work, they’re busy, or some other excuse.  Two authors I did actually get on video were Missy Martine and Mary Quast.  I had met them at a Reader/Writer event hosted by author Lori Foster.  I asked if they would mind talking a bit about their books while I filmed them and I could then post the video on YouTube.  Both were happy for the promotion and let me take video of them.  Mary’s video has had 138 views so far and Missy’s video currently has 56 views.  This is from three years ago and I’m sure video interviews would be much more popular now.  The world has become so much more digital now.  I’ll definitely get with you about trying a video interview!

Have you ever held a book signing for one of your books?  You know, one of those things where you sit at a table and no one looks at your books.  But the bitch at the next table has everyone over there all looking at her stupid books about some summer/fall romance crap that’s just a bunch of stupid fluff!  Your book is so much better but none of the air heads in the room seem to care!  All they want is to look at the bitch’s book!  Why won’t they come over here!  If they would just read my stuff, I know they would like it!  I hate sitting here all by myself!  It’s so damned hot in here! 

 I actually had a signing at RAGT14. I was completely surprised and shocked because no one had told me it I would be doing it. It was quite embarrassing, but I did my best. I honestly wasn't upset by how many people were visiting other authors. I knew who they were all mostly there to see and not many people had ever heard of me. However, I won't lie. I did sit there smiling while dreaming I'd be one of those lucky authors someday. But no one would have ever guessed the many other things that were going through my mind that day.

 Uh…sorry, I got a bit carried away there.  *chuckle*  That hasn’t ever happened to me.  Has it happened to you?

We all get carried away sometimes :)

Yes, that actually was my attempt at humor.  In a way it stems from a bit of truth.  Three years ago when I went to the Lori Foster event I met quite a few other authors and it was nice…I guess.  I did make a few friends there.  And I always get asked each year if I’m going back to the next Lori Foster event.  Sadly I have to say no.  To me it was just 300 babbling women in one room all trying to talk about their books at the same time. 

 What is the longest thing you’ve written so far?  My longest would be a novel called Frigate November.  Originally it was around 120,000 words long.  I recently edited it and rewrote a few parts and now it’s 124,392 words.  So have you considered writing something that long?

Wicked By Nature was around 70,000 and with edits/revisions, it should be longer. I've often considered writing much longer stories. Up until a few weeks ago, I felt boxed in with deadlines and such, so my writing went into a tailspin. Now, I have ideas running rampant and driving me insane. Hopefully, I'll get my cozy mystery finished soon and then, I'll have a longer story to tell.

Authors always laugh and joke about putting people they don’t like in their books and then killing them off.  Have you ever based any characters in your writing on anyone you know, good or bad?  You don’t have to name any names. 

 Would someone as sweet and innocent as lil ol' me do that? 

Remember that phrase "Two can keep a secret"?

Of course I have. One particular I killed a few times—just to be sure.

It's excellent and cheap therapy. Wouldn't you agree?

Thank you so much for having me over, Robert! This has been so much fun. Hopefully, you'll stop by my place soon and I can ask you the tough questions.

I can be honest in saying I’ve never done that.  You won’t make it into one of my books as a character unless I like you at least a little bit.  I killed off a couple people in my book Las Vegas Investigator and I’m sure people will try and guess who those characters represent, but in reality they were just characters not based on anyone. 

Well thank you again Madison for participating in one of my screwball interviews!  It was a pleasure having you and hopefully we actually can hook up for a video interview soon.  (I do have a few evil plans for this.  *chuckle*)

YouTube and You

YouTube and You

Have you ever thought about a career in film making?  I think most people have.  It would be so great to work at the dream factory called Hollywood, wouldn't it?  Well with today's technology you don't have to move to Hollywood to make it big in film making.  Or should I say video making?  But really what's the difference between a video and a film?  The length, maybe?  Let's forget the semantics and jump right into YouTube!

I have my own YouTube channel.  I can upload just about anything I want onto it and people all over the world can watch the videos I put up.  There are restrictions and you can't just post anything.  It is possible to get banned and have your channel removed.  My friend Chinstrap has had his channel removed.  You can't be a bad boy (or girl) and be putting up copyrighted stuff such as videos using copyrighted music!  Don't be posting a video of yourself dancing to Lady Gaga's latest hit and expect the video to stay up.  You don't own the music so you can't use it!  What a lot of people may not realize though, is that YouTube has a huge selection of music that you can download and use in your videos for free!  Just do a bit of research!  And don't post really offensive things.  The world doesn't need to see people getting their heads chopped off in an execution, or women being roasted over an open flame.  You may want to see that stuff, but it's offensive and will get you banned.  Don't post stuff like that.

Now the big question is how do you get people to watch your videos?  Uploading them to YouTube just isn't enough to get views.  Once you have an established channel you might be able to just upload stuff and people will watch it, but that takes time and effort.  So what kind of videos will people watch?  Who the hell knows?  For instance I uploaded this video and it has 7 views.  So only 7 people watched it.

Is it a bad video?  Hell no, I think it's pretty good!  But apparently no one was interested in my reading a bit from one of my own books.  What is interesting then?  How about chicken?  Is chicken interesting?  Take a look at this video:

As of right now while I'm typing this blog the video has 705 views.  People want to know how I cook chicken in a microwave.  *chuckle*  So should I make cooking videos?  I don't want to do that mostly because I can't really cook that well.  That's why I cook chicken in a microwave!  But it comes out well and so I thought I would share that secret with people.  

How about video games?  They're pretty popular right now.  There are some guys who play video games and do commentary while they play.  The videos are called "Let's plays", or "Walkthrus".  Some of these commentators have millions of subscribers.  Yes, I said millions.  Take the guy named Theradbrad for example, he has over three million subscribers.  Here is one of his videos:

Brad is so popular that I guess once in a while a smart game developer will send him their game and allow him to play it and put up a video before the game is even released.  I say they're smart because having him play your game will get the game a lot of buzz and promotion.  Brad is good at what he does and believe me, what he does is not easy!  I've tried it a few times and haven't had the same level of success.  But then I don't stick with it.  One way to find success on YouTube is to keep a steady stream of videos uploading.  So to compare, here's a video I made of the same game.  My video only has 6 views.  But then I don't keep adding videos and finish the game.  

Believe it or not, there is more to this than just pointing a camera at your tv and recording the game.  You need specific equipment to record game footage.  I think I paid around $200 for the small thing I have.  It connects the game to my laptop computer and I can record the game footage with commentary if I want and then save it as a digital file.  Now these game walkthrus might not be easy to get views on, but sports games are a bit easier.  They take a LOT of editing, though!  Football is fun, but you need to cut out all the stuff in between the plays in order to make the video short enough.  Long videos are really nice, but they take forever to upload!  Shorter is better.  So here's me editing some football:

I really was going to keep up with this series, but my Playstation 3 died after a couple of videos and I wasn't able to make any more for a while.  Months and months had passed before I was able to make video game videos again and when I finally could, I had lost the saves I needed.  That sucked.  But this thing has 75 views right now!  So people love to watch football and see how you play!  I know I like watching it!

So let's get back to making videos.  What does it take to get a YouTube video channel?  Just sign up.  That's about it.  It's all part of Google.  Now YouTube can be more than just something to show videos to the world.  There's so much to it.  I don't even know half of what you can do with this stuff!  There are people who make "daily vlogs".  I follow two of these people.  One is in Orlando, Florida and is called TheTimTracker and the other one I follow is in England and is called WanderingDaz.  These husband and wife teams do videos every day about what they're doing, what's going on in their lives, or just whatever they're thinking about.  They upload videos every day!  I honestly think they're fun to watch.  For a while they barely had any views, but eventually after they had stuck with it, people found their channels.  And now they get more and more subscribers.  That's a lot of work to upload a video every day!  I love and respect what those people do!  

So even if you don't want to make videos yourself, check out YouTube.  It's a fun thing.  You can find anything at all you want.  There are literally videos on just about anything you want to search for!  Such as this:

This video is insanely funny!  Learning about a habanero pepper the hard way is always fun!  You can search how to build a computer, or how to change out a sink!  How to train your dog, or funny golf videos.  You can type in the name of any video game at all and find things!  YouTube is fun!  So help support a YouTuber today.  You don't need to give them any money or anything like that, just watch videos and then leave a comment, or click the thumbs up icon to leave a "like".  

Monster Sex

This blog is going to be “R” rated so if you aren’t old enough to talk about sex, you’d better stop reading now.  This blog should only be read by adults.

Ok, hopefully all my three year old readers are now gone.  Let’s talk about sex.  Specifically Monster sex.  Now I’m sure you’re asking yourself “What the hell is he talking about?  What is Monster sex?” If you are asking yourself that, hopefully you’re doing it quietly so people don’t stare.

Monster sex is sex between monsters.  Or sex WITH monsters.  Now when you mention monsters to me I usually think about the king of monsters, Godzilla.

Godzilla having sex would probably destroy a few buildings, but then he does that anyway, doesn't he?  Actually, today I'm going to talk about sex with a monster a little bit smaller.  To tell you the truth I had never really thought about Monster sex myself until recently.  A friend mentioned it and I had thought she was just being silly.  She wasn't.  She was talking about a book.

Actually it's more of a short story than a book as it's only around 3,000 words long.  It's about Monster sex.  That nice lady on the cover is named Rosie Peaks.  And Rosie and her peaks ends up with her car broke down in a swamp.  She gets out and begins to wander around after taking off her expensive shoes and ends up being found by a Swamp Monster.  Once he finds her, cue the cheap 70's porn music!  They end up going at it!  Bow-chick-a-bow-wow!  

This small bit of imagination gave me quite a few smiles!  I've read and reviewed a number of erotic stories before, but nothing like this one.  This one was...fun.  This one was REALLY different!  *chuckle*  This story has phrases like these:

"It came toward me, arms...vines outstretched..."

"There must be laws against this sort of thing."

"A seaweed coated appendage reached up and stroked my cheek..."

I love those lines!  And the rest of the story is just as entertaining!  This was something new and fun for me!  Every so often I make a video called "Bob's Books" and talk about a book I like.  I absolutely HAD to make a video for this story!  It cried out for a video!  And of course, I had to make the video while wearing a hockey mask.  *chuckle*

Now if I were still young enough to play with dolls, I’m sure this would have inspired me to find a Swamp Thing action figure.  Can you imagine this coming over to Barbie’s Dream House for a tea party?

"Baaaaaaarrrrrbieee!, Daddy's home!"  Time to test out that new Barbie bed!  After a round or two on some of Barbie's lawn furniture before also trying out the bed, everyone is happy.  *chuckle*  And then nine months later Barbie has a son who grows up to look like this:

Anyway, back to the story Banged In The Bayou.  As you can see it got my imagination racing.  *chuckle*  It was a fun story and at the end Barbie...oops, I mean Rosie Peaks lives happily ever after.  It's only 99 cents on the Kindle, or Nook, or where ever you want to read it and well worth that small amount.  But you'd better hurry if you want to take a look though, I've been told by the author that she's going to rewrite everything and make the story longer now!  You'd better pick it up while you still can!  

So click on any of the links I'll put down below and you can find this fantastic story!  Meanwhile, I'll see if I can get the author to maybe do an interview with me.  I'd love to ask a few Monster Sex questions!  *chuckle*  And we can maybe even convince her to talk about other books she's written.  You know how hard it is to get an author to talk about their books.  *chuckle*  Anyway, visit the links and have some fun!

Banged In The Bayou on the Kindle.

Banged In The Bayou on the Nook.

Out On Top

Bob’s Books: Out On Top by: Steve Morris

There are books and then there are books.  If you look on any “bestseller” list in the world you’ll usually find books that were published by some huge publisher with an enormous advertising budget written by (or ghost written for) some celebrity.  But the people just reading these books are missing out.  There are some really incredible books out there written by fantastically talented writers who don’t get much notice.  Well today I’m going to do what I can by telling you about a book by one of my favorite authors!

Out On Top is a book of short stories by author Steve Morris.  He has published two other books full of short stories called In All Probability and Jumble Tales.  Steve’s stories always seemed to have some kind of twist to the ending.  I loved reading his stuff!  Now with Out On Top the stories have good endings.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still some dark themes here, but the main characters in these stories always come Out On Top in the end. 

Though the stories may have good endings, they aren’t your typical “feel good” type of thing.  The stories range from a man who can see into other people’s past and know their dark secrets, to another man who has stalked a girl he had feelings for decades before in high school and plans a “surprise” meeting with her, to a story about a two headed puppy.  I have two favorite stories in the book, the story about the two headed puppy called Better Than One (The puppy’s heads were named Holmes and Watson.  *chuckle*).  The puppy story needs to be read and not described.  My second favorite story though, is called Score To Settle. 

Score To Settle is a story about a lower league English Soccer player who is in the late stages of his career.  Sadly, his wife had cheated with another soccer player who is also in the late stages of his career.  During a match where the two teams play, the man decides to get physical revenge on the other man who had cheated with his wife.  He’s looking to take this guy out and more than likely end his walking around.  A very good story with tension right up to what happens at the end.  Does it have a good ending?  Of course it does!  The main character comes Out On Top, but in a way I hadn’t seen coming.  It was a fantastic story that really made me smile.  It ranks as one of the best sports stories I’ve ever read.

     All the stories in Out On Top were well written and once you start reading one, you want to see it to the end to find out what happens.  Even after finishing one story, I was anxious to start the next one.  Steve has a writing style that almost seems musical to me.  He does such a great job describing everything in his stories.

Now would be a good time to put up an excerpt one story to get you interested.  Instead, I think I’ll post the link to the Bob’s Books episode and you can listen to me read an excerpt from Score To Settle.  Once you’re hooked, pick the book up yourself to find out what happens!

When you're ready to help support this great author, follow the link below and order a copy of this great book!  (Click and paste if you have to!  Sometimes Blogger wants to be troublesome.  *chuckle*)

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Top-Collection-Upbeat-Stories-ebook/dp/B00IQ8PF44/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398048668&sr=8-1&keywords=steve+Morris+out+on+top

Free Book Time

Free Books

I've written a number of books in my time and the first few weren't really my best work.  But you live and learn.  The more I've written, the more I've learned.  My early books are still out there, though.  They may not be best sellers, but I learned from them.  And believe me, they're original!  I have a couple self published books that are Las Vegas related and now Amazon is giving me the opportunity to make them free on the Kindle for a limited time.  That's not a bad idea.  One way to get your books read is to offer them for free.  

The first book I'm going to offer up for free is called Terminating Vegas.  The story is about a guy named Sam who has a job as a security officer at a Las Vegas casino.  He hits the lottery and wins a few million dollars and decides that instead of quitting, he wants to be fired from his job.  This book will be available for free on the Kindle from November 11th to November 15th.  That will be tomorrow (Monday) through Next Friday.  So feel free to download a copy and take a look.  

This book also has a foreword by author Steve Morris.  After having him read the book I asked him if he would mind writing a foreword and he was gracious enough to agree!  It meant a lot to me.  So take a look at the book tomorrow and see what you think.  In case you'd like to read a bit ahead of time, here's a quick excerpt:

James was standing near the lounge listening to the band.  A large man walked up and positioned himself almost nose to nose with him.  “Hi,” the man yelled.

“Uh, hi.” James answered.  He took a step back, but the man stepped forward again right up next to him.

“Hey…uh…can you give me a little space, please?”

The man stayed next to him.  “Are you James Wilcox?”

“Yes, who are you?”

The man didn’t answer.  He stood staring at James, still nose to nose with him.

“Look, you need to back off and give me some space, ok?”

The man still stood his ground.  James took several steps away.  Before the man could step up on him again, James held out his hand.

“What is this all about?  What do you want?”

“I don’t want anything.”

“Uh, ok.  Then you have a nice night.”

James started to walk away into the casino and noticed the man following him.  He walked through the pits and into a nearby bathroom.  The man followed him inside and stood nearby, staring at him.  This man was making him uneasy.  James left the bathroom and the man followed along.

“Ok, why are you following me?”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are!  You followed me into the bathroom!”

“So?”

“So stop it!  I don’t like to be followed!”

The man stared silently at him.

“Are you a guest in this hotel?”

“Yes.”

“What room are you staying in?”

“The one upstairs.”

“What’s your room number?”  James demanded.

“It’s upstairs.” 

Do have some ID on you?”

“Yes.”

“Well can I see it?”

“Only if I pull it out of my wallet.”

James pushed the button on his radio and asked for a uniformed officer to be sent to his location.  An officer named Andy arrived.

“Check his ID, find out what room he’s staying in, if he’s even a guest, and then give him a warning about following people!”  James said, pointing at the man.

“Sir, do you have some ID on you?”  Andy asked nicely.

James began to walk away.  The man ignored Andy and followed James through the casino.

“Sir…sir!  Sir, I need to see some ID!”  Andy said, following the two men.

The guy following James is pretty annoying.  He's someone Sam hired to harass his supervisors.  This book is pretty irreverent and I had written it to let off steam wishing I could really do the things the main character does in the book.  It's probably not a good idea to read if you're easily offended.  But it will be free for a limited time!

A couple more books may be free for a limited time soon, so keep your eyes peeled!  

Writing a book: The Beginning...

Let's write!

Have you ever thought about writing a book?  Well if you've never actually done it, now's the time!  As of right now there are more options and ways to publish your stuff than there ever has been in history!  I'm going to start a new book of my own on November 1, 2013 for NaNoWriMo and would like to invite you along for the ride!  Maybe you'll even write a book of your own?

 

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month.  Writers register with the site and try to write at least a 50,000 word story during the month of November.  I'm going to participate this year and then self publish the novel I write.  I've decided to make a few quick videos along the way to help anyone else who would like to write along with me!

 

http://nanowrimo.org/

 

If you'd like to register and give it a shot, there's the web site link above.  Now trust me when I say 50,000 words in 30 days won't be the easiest thing to do.  If words flow from you to your PC or laptop computer, or even to an old fashioned typewriter, that may help.  But the story is the main goal.  So if you sign up and don't make 50,000 words, don't sweat it.  Just keep on writing from there.  NaNoWriMo is all about getting you going on writing that book of yours!

 

In my first video I talk about the simple things; finding your story, a comfortable writing place, and a quick bit on how to set up Microsoft Word in the correct format to publish, or submit your work to a publisher.  Oops, one thing I forgot to mention was that the font that is generally used is Times New Roman.  If you think you might want to submit your story to a publisher after it's written, it should be written in that font.  If you're going to self publish your book (Like I plan on doing.) you can actually use whatever font you want!

 

So watch my quick five and a half minute video on Youtube and if you have any questions, feel free to comment on the video, or this post, or even email me or send me a message on Facebook, or Twitter!.

 

 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/robert.wacaster

 



Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Secbuzz

 

Email:  Lvyoyo@aol.com

 



 



Ok, get your imaginations in working order and we'll get writing starting midnight November 1!



Writing a Book

NaNoWriMo

Have you ever wanted to write a book?  Well, now there's really nothing stopping you!  If you have a computer, or at least a library card, you can get started right now!  If you don't have a computer at home, use your library card to reserve some computer time at your nearby library.  They should have everything you'll need and you'll be surrounded by books to boot!  Great inspiration!

What I'm going to go over will apply if you want to write your novel and submit it to a publisher, or if you want to self publish your work.  Both are equally viable options.  I've done both.  I have books published with Secret Cravings Publishing such as A Writer's Love Story...

And my self published novel Frigate: November...

A Writer's Love Story was professionally edited and formatted, Frigate wasn't edited at all and was formatted by me.  I had to learn the hard way how to format a book for the Kindle.  When I first uploaded Frigate to the Kindle store it was unreadable.  I had no idea the book wasn't formatted correctly, it came out fine as a paperback.  I don't feel too badly because when I first uploaded Frigate the Kindle was just becoming popular and no one seemed to know what they were doing with uploads.  Some of the major publishers had uploaded unreadable files just like I had.  They eventually dedicated entire departments to formatting their books for the Kindle.  But I did figure out what was wrong with my book's format and fixed it.  I had to go through over 120,000 words to fix everything, and it took me a long time, but it does now look ok on a Kindle.  And now I'm ready to teach other people how to format.

So what was wrong with my formatting?  And what did I have to go back and fix?  Well, I'm going to make a few videos as we get near November and show you exactly how to get started so you'll have everything formatted correctly as you go.  For now I'm working on a small laptop while my PC is in the shop, but I should have it back soon and then I'll get started on the videos.  

For now, I've made this simple little introduction video.  Be sure to check out the quick looks at two of my self published books in the upper left hand corner of the video.  For now, think about what you'd like to write about, or even dust off an old story you've had in your closet since high school, and we'll get started learning how to get moving in the publishing world!

Men and Romance

Romance

So here's the question for tonight; What do men know about romance?  Do we know anything?  Can we be romantic?  Well of course we can, and there are quite a few romantic men!  Yes there are a lot of unromantic men out there, but there are also a good number of unromantic woman.  Take a look at this guy:

This is Rudolph Valentino.  Actually that was his acting name.  His real name was Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaello Pierre Filbert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla.  Leave it ti the Italians to give a guy eight names.  Anyway, he was one of the first sex symbols.  Women loved this guy.  He did films back in the 1920's before "talkies" were invented.  Women swooned when they saw this guy!  Go figure.  So did he know romance?  Who knows?

Rudy's probably going back a bit far, though.  Let's take a look at a more modern sex symbol.  This guy is Viggo Mortensen.  

Viggo hit it big playing a Ranger named Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings movies.  I can see him being a huge sex symbol for nerd girls, but for most women?  Well...I guess he is the rough and tumble strong male lead.  Both he and Rudy the amazing Italian name master (Rudolph Valentino) were both film icons.  How about regular guys?

What about me?  I'm a regular guy.  Am I a sex symbol?  Probably not.  But I do know a bit about romance.  I've written three books in a romance series.  The majority of women who have read them have enjoyed them.  But there's the catch, getting women to read a romance written by a man.  A lot of women won't read a romance that was authored by a man.  I'm not sure why not.  Don't they think we can write anything romantic?  Maybe they think we don't understand how women feel?  I did write and get published a romantic series of my own.  The first book was called A Writer's Love Story.

Here's a link to the first book in my romance series:

Feel free to click on the link and Amazon will let you read a free sample of the book.  This link takes you to where you can buy a Kindle copy of the book, but you can also order a paperback version.  Do I know anything about romance?  Read the book and find out.  But do I just write romances?  Nope, I've written other kinds of crazy things.

I did write a book called Frigate: November.  Some people like it, and some don't.  Is it realistic?  Of course it isn't!  The book is meant to entertain, not tell you how the real life American Navy works.  It's full of outcasts and crazies.  It was fun to write and still sells a few copies each month.

I'm getting off track trying to promote my own stuff.  *chuckle*  Take a look at Frigate if you want to, I've heard it's pretty good.  Back on track for romance, I decided to continue on with my first romance book and tell what happened to the main characters after they finally got together.  One friend asked if this was a "true story".  I told her no, the guy in the story had become a millionaire after writing his first novel and I hadn't hit it big quite yet.  She then surprised me by saying "No, I meant the relationship between Robert and Katie.  It seems so real."  ... ... ... Uh...it did?  *chuckle*  I guess that's quite a compliment!  So what happened in the second book?  Well let's see...

Yes, the main character of Robert proposes!  It obviously doesn't happen for quite a few pages, but it does happen.  But most women see that author name of "Robert" and shy away from the book.  Instead of saying never judge a book by it's cover, maybe we should say never judge a book because it was written by a man?  *chuckle*

Now the third book in the series is about to be edited and put up for sale.  It probably won't make it out until December or so.  But it'll be out for Christmas!  Hooray!  *chuckle*  It's called A Writer's Wedding and tells about the challenges and problems the couple has right up to and through their wedding day.  I think this third book is probably my favorite of the bunch.  It has a few more characters and a lot more funny situations.  So cheer me on while I get through edits on this book.

Last, but not least, I wrote a book about a wounded air force sergeant.  This guy loses his eyesight in Afghanistan and ends up falling in love with a nurse at his rehab hospital in Germany.  This one had romance, but also dealt with some pretty extreme issues.  Probably not a book to read if you're squeemish about a few things.  It's called Kiss the Darkness.

Ok, well I've tooted my own horn enough for the night.  Click on one or two of the links if you think they look interesting.  I'll go back to writing about amusing things soon, but wanted to promo a bit of my own stuff tonight.