Category: writing

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ebook publishing self-publishing writing

After The Virus – now on iBooks!

After The Virus is now available on iBooks.

$2.99 (allowing for currency conversions) on all six i-Tunes stores:

iTunes Canada

iTunes USA

iTunes UK

iTunes Germany

iTunes France

iTunes Australia

_________

 

So please select one of the above links to read this post-apocalyptic love story via iBooks.

Synopsis: After the virus decimates 99.9% of the world’s population, and all traces of humanity along with it, Rhiannon and Will are forced to move beyond their past fame, fortune, and personal demons to rescue a mute girl from the clutches of two warring cults.

Keywords: post-apocalyptic, dystopia, survival, zombies, suspense, thriller, horror, love

Categories: Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Action-Adventure, Fiction

ENJOY!!

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ebook reviews writing

Around The Web Monday with After The Virus

Coming soon: iBooks!!

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ebook interviews self-publishing writing

An Interview with Author Bryan R. Dennis

This post is part of a Blog Tour supporting Indie Authors and their self-published books. I hope you enjoy getting a little bit of insight into the writer’s mind & craft. If you like what you read, please consider supporting the author by checking out their work (links below).

Pitch us your book!

A self-deluded corporate loser encounters an eccentric woman from the desert who shows him another way of looking at life and at himself.

What compelled you to write this particular story?

I encountered a coyote on the way to work one morning. It stood on a hill in one of the last vacant lots of desert near central Las Vegas. From an aerial perspective, imagine a postage stamp of brown surrounded by an endless sea of clay-tile rooftops. That little square of brown was its home. Nearly every morning I used to see it there, chasing hares, transporting pups, sniffing around for grub. This time it was just standing still, watching the sun rise over the Strip. I never saw it again after that. The lot now lies beneath a subdivision of cheap, cookie-cutter tract homes, and the only wildlife left in that part of town are pigeons, cockroaches, and rats.

Did you stumble upon any interesting facts or trivia or insights while writing and/or researching your book? How did you incorporate this into your work?

I didn’t have to research much as I’ve lived in Las Vegas for over thirteen years, and four of those years were spent shuttling tourists around in a bus and limousine. While chatting with passengers I used to impart plenty of trivia and Vegas-related facts. Sometimes I got uncomfortable looks. Did you know that the Luxor is one of the most common places people commit suicide?

Pitch us your next book and/or project!

My next book, Saw a Rainbow, is a metaphysical thriller about an ancient general who wakes up as a homeless drunk, with partial amnesia, in modern Las Vegas. I love movies that mess with your mind: Inception, The Matrix, The Truman Show, Memento, Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If you like those movies, you should enjoy my next book.

What are a few of your favourite things (books/movies/comics/hobbies, etc?)

I’ve mentioned some movies. I love books that make me see things differently — stories that whisk me away to strange mental landscapes. Books by authors like Haruki Murakami, Masanobu Fukouka, Douglas Adams, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Carver, Anne Rice. I love prose that is economical yet colorful. I like coffee and wide open spaces.

Favourite cookie?

Rosettes. Though I’ve never had a cookie someone made for me that I didn’t like.

Where can we find more of you (website/blog/twitter/goodreads, etc.)?

Indie Snippets — where I help promote indie authors.
Bryan Dennis – Blog
Twitter
Facebook

Check out Bryan’s novel, An Epitaph for Coyote, here:

AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
SMASHWORDS

I have not had the opportunity (aka time) to read Bryan’s book, but his sample pages are awaiting me on my iPAD. Bryan’s novel, A Epitaph for a Coyote, has some great reviews including this one:

“This is an intelligent and at times very funny novel as unpredictable as life, and as memorable. The “message” is so cleverly presented as well-written and engaging fiction that one may find oneself rereading the last few chapters, again and again.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Categories
blog writing

Blog tour: guest author for a day

Continuing the blog tour theme around here, check out this guest post on Lena Hillbrand’s blog in which I pontificate on the the use of screenplay structure in the 1st draft of a novel.

Now, if I only followed my own advice, think how many more of these first draft novels I’d have completed!

Categories
interviews writing

An Interview with Author Lena Hillbrand

This post is part of a Blog Tour supporting Indie Authors and their self-published books. I hope you enjoy getting a little bit of insight into the writer’s mind & craft. If you like what you read, please consider supporting the author by checking out their work (links below).

Q. Pitch us your book!

A. Draven is just another law-abiding vampire citizen in a world ruled by vampires—until one night he catches Cali, an escaped human. What begins as one small act of defiance against his society forever alters the course of his mundane life when he vows to purchase the human, whatever the cost.

Q. What compelled you to write this particular story?

A. I had read a couple other vampire books where the vampires were very powerful and even had superpowers. I wondered why they didn’t try to dominate humans, since they were clearly capable. Plus, they’re the next step up on the food chain, so it makes sense that they’d control the human population. I decide to write a book (or seven) about it.

Q. Did you stumble upon any interesting facts or trivia or insights while writing and/or researching your book? How did you incorporate this into your work?

A. I did some research on vampires, which was very interesting and fun! I got to learn a lot of different vampire lore from all different countries. I think the only unplanned thing that made it into my books was an incubus slipped into one after I read about them.

Q. Pitch us your next book and/or project!

A. That’s easy! My next book is the next book in the series. It’s called The Vigilantes. You might think you know what it’s about after reading the first one, but it definitely won’t be what people are expecting. Or at least I don’t think so.

Q. What are a few of your favourite things (books/movies/comics/hobbies, etc?)

A. I love reading, talking about books, writing, etc. Also I scrapbook when I have time and try to spend time outside when I can. My love of nature makes it into most of my books. And I love music, chocolate, funny movies, and my family, although not in that order!

Q. Favourite cookie?

A. Homemade oatmeal raisin.

Q. Where can we find more of you (website/blog/twitter/goodreads, etc.)?

A. Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot, and on Goodreads.

CHECK OUT THE SUPERIORS ON AMAZON

Categories
personal reflection writing

#Trust30 – Image

Image by Matthew Stillman

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mess up your hair. If you are wearing makeup – smudge it. If you have a pair of pants that don’t really fit you – put them on. Put on a top that doesn’t go with those pants. Go to your sock drawer. Pull out two socks that don’t match. Different lengths, materials, colors, elasticity.

Now two shoes. You know the drill.

Need to add more? Ties? Hair clips? Stick your gut out? I trust you to go further.

Take a picture.

Get ready to post it online.

Are you feeling dread? Excitement? Is this not the image you have of yourself? Write about the fear or the thrill that this raises in you? Who do you need to look good for and what story does it tell about you? Or why don’t you care?

(Author: Matthew Stillman)

__________

I absolutely loved today’s prompt, and though I was supposed to devote the morning to pitching, After The Virus, and the afternoon to writing, I’ve decided to briefly – if I am actually capable of being brief – respond to this above idea.

I spent the majority of my childhood and teen years attempting to be perfect, as anyone who still knows me from those days can attest too – there are not many of you around anymore! Now, in deference to brevity, I shall not get in to the reasons I constantly strived to project this “perfect” image, just that it was what it was. My mid-20s were spent in-between callings (I had thought to be an actress my entire life previous) and in a relatively dark place (in my head), and this, in hindsight was a particularly difficult period for me.

Right around my 25th year I was treated to a couple of actual epiphanies. One was a difficult pill and the other was much more affirming (and a completely different topic).

The difficult pill to swallow was that it was currently I, rather than some previous outside force or forces, who demanded this constant perfection. The dusting of make-up, the waxing every 6 weeks, the cute haircut (no bangs in my eyes!), the with-out-a-single-chip manicure and the parade of pretty dresses where my entire construct. And, of course, I always had to be polite and sweet as possible–my opinions constantly tempered (even to some degree today I still attempt to not just simply attack people willy-nilly with my opinions, etc).

So, after many racking sobs and a few terrible fights with various people, I just backed off. I eased off my personal pressure cooker. I only did such things as make-up if I felt it was necessary or polite–dressing up is also a sign of respect.

Yes, I do fall back into this personal pressure cooker, especially with the writing, all the time, but at least, to extend the metaphor beyond comfort, I don’t slam on the lid for a decade or two.

Right now, I have nail polish on my fingernails that is WEEKS old.

Take that perfection – I DEFY you with the very tips of my fingers.

You don’t own me.

I CHOOSE.

And f*ck anyone who asks/expects different of me, including myself.

Categories
ebook reviews writing

After the Virus — Kicks Serious Ass — Review!

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

4 out of 5 stars

Kicks serious ass, June 28, 2011

By Scott F Gray

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

Deftly mixing post-apocalyptic survivor thriller tropes with a wickedly morbid sense of humor, Meghan Ciana Doidge’s “After the Virus” manages to be both the funniest and most kick-ass action/adventure narrative I’ve read in ages. (Not exactly a spoiler, but skip this but if you like to be completely surprised when you read: “The Boss, completely focused on Snickers, turned to violently vault the girl across the room. Instead, he discovered the three-inch-heel of her previously so impractical shoe buried his throat, which was a bitch, as she’d aimed for his eye.”)

The novel tells the story of two survivors of a world-destroying biological plague — A-list actress Rhiannon, who finds herself the unwitting central figure in the plots of a maniacal fascist boss; and ex-pro quarterback Will, intent on living his life alone but looked to by a population of scattered survivors desperate for someone to lead them. The darkness of the story speaks to the trials of its characters and the strength of its setting (which will particularly resonate with any resident of Vancouver who’s ever asked “Could this city possibly be more unlivable?”) But at the same time, Doidge builds her narrative on a firm foundation of hope for the future, manifested in an 8-year-old girl known only as Snickers, who becomes the point of emotional entanglement connecting Will and Rhiannon as they’re dragged through the darkness and back out again.

BUY THE BOOK – Kindle USA
BUY THE BOOK – Kindle UK
BUY THE BOOK – ePUB via Goodreads

READ SAMPLE CHAPTERS

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ebook publishing self-publishing writing

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
___________
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.

Categories
ebook interviews self-publishing writing

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.

Categories
ebook reviews writing

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