Meet Steven Hardesty & his book, Running in Heels

This post is part of an Indie Author Blog Tour. Enjoy!

Thank you for the opportunity to join the blog tour for a chat on a blog that feels so comfortable. Strange words, maybe, considering the subject of “After the Virus”! I’ve been thinking about writing methods because I’ve got a problem. My first book just went on sale for Amazon’s Kindle – “Running in Heels,” a story of murder, mayhem and cosmetic surgery – and the more I think about it, the more the book frightens me.

It’s that weird feeling you get when you suspect something you’ve created has gotten completely out of control. The “Frankenstein’s Monster Syndrome.” I only began to feel it after people asked me why my book has a female protagonist when I am, well, not female. (“Nobody’s perfect!” said Joe E. Brown in the last scene of “Some Like It Hot.”) It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The novel started out with a male lead character. I still can’t figure how the heroine crept into the story and booted him out.

Oh, I’ve tried to piece together the evidence from previous drafts – not easy to do when dealing with electrons – and I think this is how it happened:

You see, I’m not the sort who can write an entire book in his or her head and then key it and zip it off to fame and fortune. Nor am I a writer who can outline in detail. Once I’ve told a story, in outline or summary, it’s dead to me and I just can’t write it. So I get an idea and a handful of characters and a rough target toward which I want the story to go, and then I come up with an opening paragraph and start in, excited to see what happens next.

I had this fellow in my head – he was lost in life, desperate, no idea how to change things. Suddenly, fortune and disaster. How does he handle all that, what changes could it make in him? I opened my trusty PC and began to key in the opening para. But he wasn’t in the opening sentence. No. There she was, instead, this strange woman. Staring at me out of the computer screen, daring me to carry on the story without her. She took over the story, lock, stock and down to the last exclamation mark, and believe me I was making a lot of exclamations at that moment.

Where she came from and how she did it, I don’t know. And it worries me. Because I wonder, Will she come back, and which of my next stories will she take over?

Part of my problem is that my writing methods are pretty chaotic – because I don’t write stories, I listen to them. They’re for me first. The stories I like best to hear are those of ordinary people – unlikely people – who do extraordinary things. People who, when their backs are against the wall, decide to be something special. Not to “do” something special, to “be” something special. They may win or lose, and their sacrifice may never be noticed by the world, but they have for that one moment been heroes.

In “Running in Heels,” Kathryn Teal starts the story a coward but ends it a hero. I think she proves Buster Keaton wrong – every now and then some man or woman really does achieve a kind of perfection.

Cheers!
Steven Hardesty
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You can find out more about Steve at his blog and buy his book on Amazon. I have not had the opportunity (aka time) to read Steven’s book, which he just published on June 16, 2011, but his sample pages are awaiting me on my iPAD.

2nd blog tour post for AFTER THE VIRUS

A. S. Anand has posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his blogspot blog. Do take a moment to check out Aman’s book, 2032, if you head over there!

This interview is apart of a blog tour that a few indie authors have organized via the Kindle Publishing Forums. I am looking forward to hosting a few of these posts myself over the next few weeks.

As always, if you are so inclined, you can buy AFTER THE VIRUS and/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.

After the Virus — 2nd Amazon Review!

After the Virus received a second review on Amazon.com yesterday. I’ve copied & pasted from the Amazon.com page for After the Virus to share here:

5.0 out of 5 stars
June 22, 2011
By Mark McLeod

This review is from: After the Virus (Kindle Edition)

Great book!

The main character is an actress trying to survive the dead new world, which is a new approach to the Zombie genera [sic]. The book tells the story of her travails and the people she meets along the way.

There are worse things than Zombies and they walk by us everyday.

BUY THE BOOK
READ SAMPLE CHAPTERS

1st blog tour post for AFTER THE VIRUS…

Ken Badertscher has posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his website, ebookfab.

This interview is apart of a blog tour that a few indie authors have organized via the Kindle Publishing Forums. I am looking forward to hosting a few of these posts myself over the next few weeks.

As always, if you are so inclined, you can buy AFTER THE VIRUS and/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.

After the Virus — First Amazon Review!

After the Virus received it’s first review on Amazon.com yesterday. I’ve copied & pasted from the Amazon.com page for After the Virus to share here:

4.0 out of 5 stars
Survival Of The Fittest, June 15, 2011
By R. Jones “music man” (Las Vegas)
This review is from: After the Virus (Kindle Edition)

Plunge headlong into a decaying world of ruined cities, ruined lives, and ruined aspirations. In “After The Virus” you have a detailed look at a world completely off the rails with warring factions determined to re-create that world in degrees of pain and suffering worse that the decimation of the disease that killed 99% of the population. Enter Rhiannon, beautiful, feisty, and determined that she will escape the perils that reach out for her everywhere she turns. Meet Will, strong-willed and silent, bent on restoring his part of that world in a peaceful fashion. Their efforts collide around a mute girl and an injured dog and propel them to the final show-down with an evil expertly crafted to make you wince and shudder. Good solid writing and an action-packed read!

BUY THE BOOK
READ SAMPLE CHAPTERS

An interview for AFTER THE VIRUS…

David Wisehart just posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his website, Kindle Author.

It is always fun to chat about the writing process and the inspiration for your stories, so check it out if you want a little insider information about AFTER THE VIRUS.

And/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.

#Trust30 – prompt #6 – Come Alive

Come Alive by Jonathan Mead

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.

Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?

(Author: Jonathan Mead)

_______________

Is it just my interpretation or are these prompts a little darkly bent? “You have 15 minutes to live, do before you die, you have one week left to live”. I guess the prompt authors lean towards the extreme in order to get the essence of their prompts across in a couple of sentences, and, of course, now that I dissect it, I could be accused of doing the same in my own work, but–still– leaning towards the dark here.

Now that I’ve protested a bit much, I must admit that I wouldn’t change a single thing about what I am currently doing… oh, you know, I would like to sell more books, we’d like to own some property, and maybe have a little less stress and more money, but we are on the ground floor–actually maybe we are a couple of rungs up the ladder towards the life we always wanted to build. I hope everything grows, expands, from here, but I would still chose to write, to be a storyteller. I am not too sure I could survive (mentally) doing anything else.

For the bonus section of the prompt: in regards to goals improving the present, I am launching a mini marketing campaign this week for After the Virus – I believe that slow and steady growth will help me find my readers, who may not necessarily be my friends and family (though their support is greatly appreciated). So, to that end, I am starting to request reviews and spend some time in a few book related forums on Kindle and GoodReads.

However, the more I read about marketing your books, the more it becomes apparent that the best bang for your time is to actually write more books, so, to that end, I will be dividing my time accordingly, and am actually looking forward to digging into a new project.

A mini review of One Size Fits All

I have just had the pleasure of reading Gary Scott’s (AKA Scott Fitzgerald Gray) novella, One Size Fits All.

Now, I must predicate this mini review with the fact that I know the author, Scott, though we have never actually met face to face. Scott has story edited a number of my screenplays, though only the ones I deemed ready for him to read & critique, of course. And though I highly value him as a story editor, I have never read any of Scott’s work.

So… One Size Fits All is a charming tale of love at first sight that hits all the right story points to effectively resonate with a [little bit twisted?] romantic like me… there is a magnificent ballroom action/chase sequence where our hero’s fundamental beliefs are shaken and toppled, some fantastic interaction between father and son, and a nicely executed dose of “the meek shall inherit”. While this is a love story, love however is not the cure for all the ails the hero, but it is the cause, the reason he begins his transformation, and ultimately the reward.

I found the beginning a bit slow and it took me a number of pages to get into the flow of the story… I began liking the story when the hero’s father came into play, and, even more, when the love interest showed up, but the story really began to shine as all these elements were gathered and, literally, placed in the same room. Then the “battle” commenced and I was pleased with the payoff.

I don’t wish to give the wrong impression with the above dramatic rendering of the plot. This my own take on a quiet, with-a-little-bit-of-crazy, sweet story of finding oneself, making a choice, and living happily ever after.

Delightful is a word that comes to mind.

Rating: 4 stars

Why only 4 stars? There is nary a vampire, werewolf or zombie to be found, and I would’ve liked to have seen more of the love interest, even though it wasn’t her story and space is limited with a novella.

I have Scott’s next novel queued: Clearwater Dawn, and I am seriously looking forward to reading it!

AFTER THE VIRUS – 2nd draft book cover

Thank you for all your feedback (most of it via Facebook). Based on your concerns and, of course, also your “likes” here is a 2nd draft of the book cover for the AFTER THE VIRUS ebook.

I also worked up a version with a biohazard sign and then a version combining the biohazard sign and a smaller bloody handprint, but I like the simplicity of this version and the visual impact (especially in thumbnail size).

Again feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

AFTER THE VIRUS — 1st Draft Book Cover

After spending hours taking photos, photoshopping photos and fiddling with combining photos into a book cover, I decided to scrap everything and try out a text-based-only book cover.

And you know what? I like it. Very much.

What do you think?

Feedback welcomed and always appreciated.