Guest Posting & Giveaways

As promised, today I have a guest post on Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog. Yes, you heard right, the Ninja Captain himself. Thank you, Alex, for giving me the opportunity to be a guest on your blog.  I appreciate any comments you'd like to leave hear, but I don't want to write much so you have time to check out my guest post!

Secondly, I have a giveaway going on right now (see Wednesday's post below), where I am giving away two SIGNED copies of Slipstream, Michael Offutt's debut novel. Please sign up for your chance to win!

And lastly, Provex City is FREE to download on Amazon today through Sunday! It's always great to take advantage of free. I appreciate any support you can offer by telling your friends, tweeting, mentioning the offer on your blog...anything would be amazing. :) Also in the spirit of Provex City, I'd like to show you the button that Carrie Butler just finished creating for me (for being one of her blogiversary winners; and congratulations to her for scoring a contract with Sapphire Star Publishing!). She did an amazing job and I'm proud to pin it to my blog.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Alex's Giveaway to Celebrate the Big 1500!

To celebrate 1500 followers, Ninja Rock Star, Alex J. Cavanaugh is holding a giveaway for a copy of CassaStar and CassaFire! The books will be donated to the winner’s choice of public or high school library, along with a selection of bookmarks.

It is such an awesome accomplishment, so come and celebrate! And if you haven't done so already, be sure to join the Ninja Army.

Rules straight from Alex's post:

How to enter: (and must be a follower)
Comment on my posts (just once each) U-X (Tuesday through Friday) – one point
Ten extra points for the first comment (please don’t melt my blog)
Ten extra points if you blog about this contest (leave a link so I know)

Winner will be announced Monday on Alex's blog during the "Z" post! Good luck & Godspeed!

"P" is for Provex City is Finally Available in Paperback!

I've been waiting a long time for this. Many weeks, two proofs, and about 50 corrections later, and Provex City now has a physical book form. It is exclusively on Amazon, not yet linked up with the ebook...but it'll get there. Below I've posted the original sketch for the cover, which I liked a lot, but nothing compared to how blown away I was with the final product. I just wish I could get this artist to do the rest of my covers...but I won't get into that.

I won't ramble on too much about Provex City because I've discussed it in detail in earlier posts and there is a dedicated menu above on this blog, but I couldn't do another "P" post. Forgive me. For anyone not familiar, Provex City is my first novel, young adult fantasy, which I released only about a month ago in ebook format on Amazon. It is the first book in The Lorne Family Vault Series and a project I had been working on for almost three years. It was a hard decision to one day stop querying agents and commit to self-publishing. I was tired of waiting and wanted to continue telling my story. Now, I'm about 80% into my first draft of Book 2, writing before work and on my lunch breaks. My goal is to have it out by this fall.

I was so excited when the ebook came out, but the paperback makes it feel more real somehow. Holding a book with my name on it feels like victory and I know I want to keep writing for the rest of my life. No matter what I write in the future, Provex City will always be exceptionally special to me. It helps me believe anything is possible. Thanks, Mr. Gordon.

April 1st! The A - Z Challenge Begins! "A" is for Amazon

It has arrived, the A-Z blogging challenge. And I am not prepared! Haha. This is my first blogging challenge like this, so bare with me. I'll hopefully get it down by the end of the month.

For "A" I'm going to write about Amazon (the website, not the rainforest). I think Amazon is headed for world domination. They have and do everything! They are like Massive Dynamic in Fringe. I'm sure they're involved in multi-dimensional business and conspiracies, and have employees with many levels of clearance. What secrets hide behind their upper level doors!

I discovered the joys of shopping on Amazon a few years ago, and now I get almost everything on it. Anything I need is shipped directly to me, usually without any shipping charges. I am partially responsible for the downfall of record and book stores. I am one of those shoppers who goes to the stores to look around, finds what I want, and goes home to order it on Amazon. Sorry. But their prices just can't be beat for a great many things.

And now I have a book up on Amazon. It's crazy! Right now, Provex City is available for Kindle. And soon it will be out in paperback through Createspace...another Amazon company! Then there's AmazonEncore, their own publishing company, and their growing list of niche market imprints. They are changing the world of publishing, which I don't have the space right now to even get into.

Thank you, Amazon, for saving me so much money over the past few years and helping me get my first novel out to the world. Amazon has changed my life in a great way!

Last Day to Get Provex City FREE on Amazon!

Happy day after St. Patrick's Day! It's nice getting up on a day after a notorious drinking day not hung over. Who knew? It's all because of my two month old daughter. I feel too irresponsible being overly inebriated. And I'll be able to get work done today!

So today is the last day of my free Provex City weekend. This is your last chance to download it free on Amazon. Please take advantage of this awesome offer! I've been talking to a lot of people on Facebook and have already gotten over 350 downloads. For this weekend's Free Kindle book rankings, my best numbers were #29 on the list of Free Children's Fantasy/Sci-fi/Magic Kindle books and #83 on the list of Free Children's Kindle books. So I'm pretty stoked about that. Hopefully, most of the new people reading Provex City over the next week or two will enjoy it. But, that's a definite fear with having more people read what I've written. Criticism. I know it's the nature of the business. But before the thick skin really develops, it's hard.

I'm looking forward to the Kick-Butt Characters Giveaway Hop this coming weekend. I've already chosen the books I'm going to offer...but I can't announce them ahead of time. Where's the fun in that? :) I'm sure everyone associated with the YA blogoshere is looking forward to the opening of The Hunger Games on Friday. I'm so excited to see it, but will have to wait until we find a babysitter so my wife and I can get to the movies. I've never actually listened to Taylor Swift before, except for flipping through radio stations, but I do admit to liking her new song with The Civil Wars for The Hunger Games. The video's good, too.

If you get a chance today, please check out Provex City (there's a link on the left column). I want as many people as possible to take advantage of it being free. Tomorrow it goes back up to the whopping full price of $0.99. Why spend your hard earned money when you don't have to? I'm just looking out for you. It's time for me to get out from behind my laptop and enjoy some father daughter bonding time. Happy Sunday, everyone!

Provex City is FREE This Weekend!

As I said in my announcement post for Provex City on Monday, the ebook would be free this weekend on Amazon. Well, the weekend is upon us and Provex City is free starting today, a phenomenal promotion that goes through Sunday! Now is the best time to check it out!

Also, remember that if you do not own a Kindle, then you are still in luck. No Kindle = No problem. Amazon provides an assortment of Kindle apps that work for most electronic devices that it's possible to read a book on: computers, tablets, and smartphones (hey, I don't want to read a book on my phone, but I know people who do). Download the app, download the book, and you're ready to begin the adventure.

So, now is the time to invest (and with no money down! - my used car-salesman pitch) in Provex City! I appreciate your interest and time, and I'd love to read your Amazon review if you'd be so kind to post one. I wholeheartedly thank the people who've reviewed it thus far. You're rock stars! Happy Friday, to all, and to all a good read! It's time for me to get ready for work.

Provex City Available NOW for Kindle!!!

Click HERE to reach the Amazon page!

It's been a long time coming and I can't believe the day is finally here. Provex City (The Lorne Family Vault Series, Book 1) is now available on Amazon.com for the Kindle. It is only $0.99, which is less than a penny a page! I think it's well worth the investment. If you don't have a Kindle, you can download a Kindle reader for free to any PC, iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

In addition, Amazon Prime members can currently rent Provex City for free from the Kindle Lending Library! In order for me to put it into the Lending Library, I had to make Provex City exclusive to Amazon for at least 3 months. At some point I will take it off the Lending Library so I can upload Provex City to the Barnes & Noble website and the iBookstore. So take advantage of renting Provex City for free while you can!

For those of you holding out for a physical book, the paperback is currently in design and should be ready in 4 to 6 weeks. It will also be available on Amazon, linked to the same page.

Starting Friday, March 16th, through Sunday, March 18th, Provex City will be available to download for FREE! $0.99 isn't a lot of money, but free is definitely better. I urge you to take advantage of it. I'll post a reminder later in the week.

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me along the way to get Provex City ready for the masses. Writing can often times be a lonely job, but getting a book out to the world is a very collaborative effort. Thank you so much! Please check out Provex City--it's the start of a grand adventure, the beginning to a much bigger story--and I do hope you enjoy it. I appreciate your time in reading it and any Amazon or Goodreads reviews you're willing to post. Wink, wink.