Penumbra Publishing

Please see our sister blog for all new updates

Penumbra Publishing — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:09:30 +0000

Thank you all for reading and following our blog. We like the look of this page and find the clean lines easy to read – and hope you do too.

However, after several months of trying to keep two mirror blogs going on two different sites, as a test to see which site we’d keep, we have chosen to stick with http://www.penumbrapublishing.blogspot.com for now.

Our choice was a difficult one to make because, as we’ve stated, we do like the look of this site. However, the blogspot site offers more add-ons and opportunities to provide you with more quality content, not just from us but from other bloggers as well.

We hope you’ll continue to follow us at the blogspot site and either subscribe by email or RSS feed or Google-friend us. We’ll keep this site up for referral, and may post to it from time to time, but want you all to know the blogspot site will be our active blogging site from now on, until further notice.

Thank you all again, and we’ll see ya out there in cyberspace…

The ‘Dust-off’ Challenge

Penumbra Publishing — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:00:06 +0000

Okay, so we are a book publisher. Yes, that is our business, and we are fairly new at it, having started this venture in January of 2009. Publishing is what we are focused on right now – publishing and selling books. But we are also authors who have banded together to help each other do what authors do – write. In our somewhat limited experience, we have seen many query packets that left much to be desired – so much, in fact, that we had to turn down books because, in our collective opinion, to make these books publishable and marketable required more time and effort and work in the form of rewriting than we were prepared to offer.

However, in the interest of providing a community service, and to give our blog more grist for the mill, we are offering a challenge, or just a fun time for all you unpublished authors out there who have not yet been able to figure out why you can’t get your books published by a traditional publisher. Or maybe you just haven’t worked up the courage yet to ignore the ‘no unsolicited manuscripts’ warning most publishers post, and just send the darn thing, hoping someone will take pity on you and publish your book. Or perhaps you’re hoping to self-publish and haven’t yet worked up the courage to go through with that somewhat daunting process. Whatever the case, we are offering to give a free critical analysis of your query packet. Here is our challenge to you…

Send us your tired, your poor, your hungry… (No, wait, that’s from the Statue of Liberty inscription, isn’t it?) Never mind that. Dust off that FINISHED MANUSCRIPT and send us your would-be / could-be query. No obligation, no strings attached – except a disclaimer agreement to allow us to critique your query on our blog. We will post your query letter and synopsis in whole or in part, plus our take on your 25 pages, giving you detailed advice regarding how we think you might improve your work and your query approach.

We get plenty of queries to keep us out of the bars at night. And we do provide a critique privately for most queries we receive, but we also figured that a public critique might benefit writers out there who are having a hard time figuring out how to make their query packets (and their manuscripts) the best they can be. We hope to do one of these every week on our blog, and we invite you to participate by sending us your query packet (for finished manuscripts only) to our general email address…

PenumbraPublishing@gmail.com

Please send the following via email:

SUBJECT LINE: Dust-off Challenge

QUERY LETTER: Include in body of email and tell us in your best words why we should publish your book. Don’t ramble, make your query letter short and sweet, no more than two regular pages if on 8.5×11 paper. Tell us the following:

Your name (and pseudonym if applicable)
Your email address
Your real address
Your phone number
Your book title
The genre of your book
The number of electronic words of your book
A brief description of your self-marketing plans, including URLs to your web site, Facebook page, Twitter profile, etc.
List any relevant previous publishing/writing experience or education or professional affiliation.
DON’T FORGET to include a statement of permission for us to use your first name and writing query packet in part or in whole on our blog.

ATTACHMENTS: As an attachment to the email please include the following in one file either WORD or OPEN OFFICE or RTF…

A two-page synopsis of your story including major characters, major story arcs, and ending
The first 25 pages of your novel or first chapter as close to 25 pages as you can get

WE WILL email you back with a queue number, giving you an idea of what week your query critique will appear in our blog. We will use first names only and will not disclose any private information. However, if we find your writing style and story interesting enough, we may ask you to submit your entire manuscript for review for publication. You of course are not obligated in any way to respond to such a request – but you might be excited if we offered you a publishing contract, right?

And that’s the extent of the DUST-OFF CHALLENGE. So figuratively dust off your book languishing in your sock drawer, and let us take a look. If nothing else, just taking another look at it yourself may give you the incentive to follow through and get it in shape to publish! And maybe that will be all the push you need to become a published author.

Let the emails begin!

America’s Galactic Foreign Legion Book 9 Scorpions now available

Penumbra Publishing — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:52:37 +0000

AMERICA’S GALACTIC FOREIGN LEGION
BOOK 9 – SCORPIONS
by Walter Knight

The sneaky scorpions are at it again, and this time it’s the Queen of the Scorpion Kingdom, under the guise of diplomacy, trying to draw all sentient exoskeleton civilizations into the galactic fray against humanity. The Queen has a special recipe – er … plan – in mind for the last surviving matriarch of the Mantidae and her brood of thousands currently under humanity’s protection at a secret location on planet New Colorado. All she has to do is find them.

Will the United States Galactic Federation Foreign Legion and the Butcher of New Colorado, Colonel Joey R. Czerinski, be able to deter this latest insidious threat? The Arthropodan Empire doesn’t think so – but what do the spiders know? They’re already in an uneasy standoff with the dreaded human pestilence and fear the scorpions’ interference will only make things worse, considering the Butcher of New Colorado’s paranoia and penchant for overreacting. And, they couldn’t be more right.

A perennial foe steps in to lend aid to the Legion’s cause. Amid the scandal of cross-species sex videos making the rounds on the galactic database, Czerinski finds himself getting into more and more trouble. The worm turns, and his sidekick Major Lopez ends up being promoted as his boss. But, with his usual serendipitous screw-ups, Czerinski somehow manages to survive unscathed … well, almost. There’s just this little problem of a green rash epidemic…

All bets are off as the laughs continue in this ninth installment of the seriously screwy military space saga gone wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Galactic-Foreign-Legion-ebook/dp/B0050ZKSY8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=merchant-items&qid=1306341323&sr=1-1

DARK CRESCENDO now available!

Penumbra Publishing — Wed, 25 May 2011 03:25:31 +0000

DARK CRESCENDO

Contemporary Romance

by Lucille Naroian

At the highly publicized funeral of her famous pianist husband, Joanna Reed Dalton unexpectedly sees her former lover, Nick Jordan, and is overwhelmed with yearning and unanswered questions.

Joanna’s father, Boston physician Dr. Carlton Reed, hated Nick, a common construction worker, and tried to keep him from Joanna. Nick disappeared, seeming to give up on Joanna when she foolishly agreed to marry her Julliard piano instructor, Steven Dalton. During the entire three years of her loveless marriage to Steven, Joanna has longed for Nick – and now he’s back in her life. But will he stay when Joanna’s father tries to keep them apart once again?

Nick’s obviously after something, but Joanna’s not sure if it’s romance or revenge. The truth of the past builds in a dark crescendo of danger and heartache that can’t possibly end well – or can it? The final notes will ring true, heralding the death of a lost love, or a new beginning.

Available now in ebook at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Smashwords, and more! Coming soon in print!

DARWIN’S CHILDREN now available in ebook

Penumbra Publishing — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:08:33 +0000

We’re excited about getting Natasha Larry’s first book in her young-adult series DARWIN’S CHILDREN published. It’s available in ebook now, and coming soon in print. To celebrate, we’re posting a summary and excerpt here – enjoy! As an added bonus, if you send us your email, we’ll send you a coupon code to get a FREE ebook copy. (We don’t keep, sell, or distribute your information.) Send your request to penumbrapublishing@gmail.com!

DARWIN’S CHILDREN

Natasha Larry

Licensed and Produced through

Penumbra Publishing

www.PenumbraPublishing.com

EBOOK ISBN/EAN 13: 978-1-935563-50-1

Also available PRINT ISBN/EAN-13: 978-1-935563-51-8

Life can get pretty complicated for any seventeen-year-old girl, but for a home-schooled telepathic black girl trying to survive in a prestigious private school in small-town Jonesborough, Tennessee, it can be maddening – especially when her telepathic father keeps eavesdropping on her thoughts!

Jaycie Lerner’s family isn’t the usual mom-dad-kid setup. Jaycie’s mom’s MIA, but Allison, her personal live-in ‘trainer,’ is more than a mom, with her own special abilities, like being able to lift cars and run incredibly fast. And Jaycie’s godfather John is more than persuasive – he can literally convince anyone to do anything.

As far as the rest of the world’s concerned, Jaycie’s on the outside looking in. The townsfolk love Jaycie’s pediatrician father, but she doesn’t fit in with ‘normal’ kids, and she doesn’t really want to. Most of her free time is spent training to keep her telekinetic and telepathic powers under control. But there’s one thing she can’t control – and that’s her feelings, especially when her best friend Matt is nearby. If only he knew what she was truly capable of…

Everything seems to be status quo for Jaycie until she receives a cryptic message from a stranger and meets a very unusual girl new to Jonesborough. Then all hell breaks loose!

PROLOGUE

From the other side of the glass, Mason Lerner watched Haylee Mitchell circle the monster like an aerial hunter while Sasha Gray stood like a statue, waiting. The revulsion Haylee felt was visible in the air around her. Mason had to stop himself from going in there and killing the man himself – his perverted and cowardly thoughts were sickening.

Mason watched Haylee’s mouth move. Her eyes were cold and unforgiving. She leaned over the man who’d stolen her very soul and whispered something that filled his face and thoughts with terror. Then silence filled the room. Mason could tell that Haylee had said everything she needed to say. He stuck his head in and met her eyes. There was something there he couldn’t place … something that worried him. “Haylee,” he entreated, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. “I don’t think…”

Haylee glared him to silence. He already knew she wanted to be there in the room when it happened. He hesitated until he saw the need in her mind. She had to do this her way. It was her battle to fight.

He nodded to Sasha Gray and retreated from the room, closing the door behind her. He watched her move with an unsettling grace, like an undead ballerina preparing for the hunt. Her alien blue eyes flashed with thirst.

Sasha gave Haylee one last questioning look. Haylee nodded, and Sasha went to her victim. It looked as if the vampire was simply giving him an intimate kiss, but Mason could hear her razor-sharp teeth ripping the flesh away from his neck. Mason had deliberately shut himself off from the man’s mind, but he could still see the utter agony in his eyes. Being burned alive by his own daughter would have been a serene death compared to this. Mason knew the pain accompanying a vampire’s bite was so incomprehensible that the living world held no equivalent to it. No one had even given voice to it. It was the physical equivalent to Haylee’s internal pain. Possibly even worse.

The man’s face twisted in agony and, despite his psychic defense, Mason still heard a whisper of the scream inside his head that never escaped his lips. His body offered no relief. The pain was trapped inside. He couldn’t go into shock or pass out. He felt every ounce of his blood being sucked out of him. His organs gave out, one by one, and he quickly went mad from the pain.

The dying man looked up at Haylee smiling down at him sadistically. As his body fell to the floor with a dull thud, he finally understood Haylee’s pain. His body was drained, and his life was over.

CHAPTER 1

Edenvale Academy

Jaycie Lerner sat on a high stool at the marble counter that stood in the middle of the modern kitchen. Her elbows rested on the counter’s cool surface as she glumly shoved small spoonfuls of cereal into her mouth.

“Hey, kiddo.”

She looked up when her father’s rich, resonate voice filled the kitchen. Wearing his favorite Calvin Kline khakis paired with a plain white button-down shirt tucked in, he stood six-foot-two, with his dark, kinky hair shaved very close to his scalp. His deep dark brown eyes were the same shade as Jaycie’s.

“I thought you were gone already,” she answered in a moody monotone.

He poured himself a cup of black coffee. “Having a bad day already, bonehead?” he asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep the sarcastic grin off of his face.

“I don’t understand why you’re still insisting on this school thing,” she objected, suddenly angry.

“Well, then, it’s a good thing you’re not the one doing the parenting around here.” He filled up a silver thermos with black coffee for his short ride to work.

Jaycie narrowed her eyes and frowned petulantly. “I’ve been home schooled since I was eight. Why would you throw me into high school now? Last year was horrible!”

“Learning some social skills won’t kill you,” he told her, his expression serious.

Jaycie rolled her eyes and snorted. “It’s unnecessary.”

“Edenvale is the best school in the South. It’s one of the best schools in the country. You should feel honored to attend. All of their graduates go on to Ivy League schools.”

Jaycie rolled her eyes again. He’d told her this so many times, all she heard now when he gave her this speech was unintelligible mumbling that sounded just like all the adult characters in the Charlie Brown cartoons. She huffed. “You know I won’t have any problems getting into a good school, Dad.”

As soon as she told him this, she felt a familiar tingling at the back of her neck, followed by a warm pinch that radiated down her spine. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. He met her glare with perfect composure as he warned her in a stern voice. “The phone will be next.”

“What?” Jaycie asked innocently.

“If you decide to skip school today. I would change that plan, if you want your truck back.”

“It’s not fair when you do that,” Jaycie whined, turning her head away from him dramatically. This was her way of telling her father how indignant she felt about his intrusive behavior. For a teenage girl, it could be a real pain having a telepath for a father.

“Oh, I’m sorry, baby.” His tone made it very clear he didn’t mean it. As he made his way to the back door, he said, “I have to get to work now. Remember, tonight we’re going out to dinner to celebrate Allison’s birthday.”

Jaycie’s mood improved slightly at the reminder.

“She’s been wanting to go to Five Corners Grill,” he said.

“Really? Did she tell you that, or did you rudely read it in her thoughts?” Jaycie scowled at her father in reprimand.

He winked at her with infuriating calm. “Gotta get going, kiddo – I’ve got some early patient appointments this morning. And keep in mind that I have no qualms about calling your teachers this afternoon, to make sure you were in class.”

With this last comment, he was out the door, leaving Jaycie alone with her annoyance and a soggy bowl of cereal.

* * * * *

“Can you please stop sighing?” Allison Young asked sweetly. She shot Jaycie an annoyed look as she drove past the winding green hills forming the scenic backdrop of Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Jaycie looked out the passenger window at the small town she’d called home for as long as she could remember. Located in the rapidly expanding region of East Tennessee, the town housed a population of only nine hundred twenty people. “I’m sorry,” she said, glowering at her live-in trainer, “but if you were heading into the mouth of Hell again, you would be a little annoyed too.”

Allison laughed. “You’re so melodramatic, Jay. It’s your senior year, you know. You could try to have fun, maybe make some friends while you’re at it.”

“I don’t see how I’m supposed to relate to them.”

Allison rolled her eyes. “The same way I relate to my students.”

“Whatever,” Jaycie grumbled. “Happy birthday, by the way,” she added, looking forward to celebrating with her mother figure.

Allison shot her a quick smile. “Thanks.”

Allison Young had been in Jaycie’s life since she was eight years old, at the request of John Gramm, her father’s best friend. Allison had moved into the Lerner household to train Jaycie in everything from meditation to martial arts.

Allison looked like a gorgeous alien – or how Jaycie imagined a gorgeous alien might look. Her eyes were silky blue and so big that she always appeared surprised. She had an ethereal baby face with a perpetual pink blush just below her cheeks. Her layered light blond hair looked almost white in the sun. At five-foot-seven, she stood three inches taller than Jaycie. Jaycie always referred to Allison as her alien baby doll. “I can’t wait to give you your gift.” Jaycie beamed.

Allison grinned as she pulled her black Mercedes into the main parking lot at Edenvale Academy.

Jaycie glanced at her watch and saw she had half an hour before the morning assembly. She sighed again as she stared out the tinted side window past the parking lot. The only upside of attending a private school was that the landscaping was beautiful. It looked more like a college campus than a high school, with eighteen buildings, five of which served as housing units for students and parents who resided at the school. Most students that attended Edenvale were from out of state. Jaycie was one of two students who were actual residents of Tennessee, and she was the only one from Jonesborough. Previously home-schooled students were unheard of at Edenvale. Jaycie was the only one … ever. This fact was well known and made her a topic of gossip, hostile stares, and constant whispering. Jaycie was perhaps the most despised student at Edenvale.

Allison had told her last year she wouldn’t have any problem being one of the popular girls at school because she was painfully beautiful. Jaycie had rolled her eyes at that. With her toffee-toned African American complexion and jet-black eyes surrounded by long curly lashes, just like her father’s, she admittedly she thought of herself as cute, but not beautiful. She hated her big, pouty lips, because she thought they made her look like a trout. However, she was proud of her physique that reflected years of training with Allison. She was toned and soft at the same time. Allison once told her she was made of pure estrogen – a fact that didn’t do her any good on her first day at school.

Sitting in the car with Allison, Jaycie thought back to her first day at Edenvale. Hundreds of thoughts had sliced into her mind as soon as she’d entered the student union building. The entire student body had fallen silent when she’d screamed, “Oh, God! Stop! Get out of my head!” The pain in her head and spine was so intense, she literally saw red. A bloodcurdling scream escaped her lips, and a flood of vomit heaved itself up from the bottom of her stomach. She wasn’t able to see past the blinding red to face the startled teacher who tried to console her. “Get away from me!” she’d shrieked. When she finally regained some degree of control, she found herself covered in her own vomit and prepared a strategic retreat, darting out the door with as much speed as her legs could rally. Once her thoughts were the only ones in her head, she had frantically called Allison and demanded to be picked up right away.

Afraid he’d been wrong about her ability to block the thoughts of others, Jaycie’s father almost withdrew her from school that year. He discussed the matter with Allison and John, both of whom decided that the ‘episode’ had been psychological. Her father agreed and told Jaycie she would return to school. She remembered slamming the door in his face after pleading with him for at least an hour to reconsider.

Two days later, she returned to school unwillingly. The voices were just as strong, but at least this time she expected them and didn’t react. Instead she forced a blank expression onto her face and kept her eyes on her feet while putting all her energy into blocking everyone’s thoughts and dampening her telekinetic power to avoid destroying anything in her immediate vicinity. She ignored the laughing, pointing, and mocking that followed her all over the campus.

When she wasn’t in class, she had her ear buds in with music blaring from her iPod as loudly as the mp3 player was capable of delivering. The first two weeks were the hardest. By the third week, the voices became an incoherent buzz, and nothing tangible filled her head. After a month and a half, the voices were a dull murmur, and soon they stopped altogether. Unfortunately, by then she was already a social outcast. She was unhappy about this at first, but then decided it was inevitable anyway.

“Babe?” Allison’s soft voice interrupted Jaycie’s reverie. Startled, Jaycie shifted her gaze to her mentor’s smiling face. “I would love to sit and watch you daydream all morning, but I have an early kickboxing class to teach.”

“Oh, right,” Jaycie said absentmindedly, leaning forward to grab her heavy backpack. “See you later,” she mumbled as she climbed out of the car and into the slightly chilly outside air. Allison gave her one last smile, then sped off.

Jaycie walked with deliberate slowness toward the student union building, unaware of the students around her. She opened the glass doors of the Chamberlain Building and headed right to her favorite spot in front of the large gas fireplace. The fireplace looked like it belonged in the middle of a cottage living room rather than a high school. She glanced at her watch briefly, then stuck her nose inside a book, purposely ignoring a group of girls that scooted away from her.

###

Available now at Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook) and Smashwords.com (various formats)

Spring Fling 99-cent Kindle Ebook Sale

Penumbra Publishing — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:36:42 +0000

MANY OF OUR TITLES ARE ON SALE

Just in time for summer vacation reading – many of our titles, including some new releases, are on sale through Amazon Kindle for a limited time at just 99 cents – the lowest price ever!

If you need a different ebook format, visit our listings at Smashwords.com, Barnes and Noble, and other ebook retailers. (Email us at ‘penumbrapublishing AT gmail.com’ and we’ll give you coupon codes for discounts from Smashwords on any of our titles currently on sale – see the list below…)

This is a great opportunity to check out new authors and their books. Stock up for summer vacation reading. Limited-time pricing … don’t let this opportunity slip by!

TITLES ON SALE NOW:

AMERICA’S GALACTIC FOREIGN LEGION: BOOK 6, Walter Knight

ANGEL’S ORACLE, Gary Bolick

BROADLAND SUSPENSE, Anthony McGowne

CRYSTAL CLEAR: STORM RYDER, Dana Warryck

DOMINATRIX-ONLINE.COM: MISTRESS BLACKHEART, Dallas White

ESCAPE CLAUSE, David Berardelli

FATAL INNOCENCE, David Berardelli

HEART OF STEELE, Kessa Stranberg

NIGHT OF THE GUPPY (Books 1, 2, & 3), Jamie Wasserman

LAST FLIGHT HOME, Robert J. Wetherall

LUCIFER’S LAST LOVER, Dana Warryck

PARALLEL TRIANGLE, Sandy Hyatt-James

PIXIE, Willa Kaye Danes

STEPPING OUT OF MY GRAVE, David Berardelli

TALK OF THE TOWN, Lucille Naroian

THE CAT’S FANCY, Gwynn E. Ambrose

THE MAKING OF BERNIE TRUMBLE, Robert J. Wetherall

THE PROTECTORATE: PATRIARCH, Dana Warryck

THE REALMS OF BELIAR: THE SWORD MYNDARIT, Andrew Arrowsmith

UNFORGETTABLE, Lucille Naroian

Penumbra Publishing — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:02:25 +0000

According to my pal, successful author and welder Eddy Salinski, Immersing your readers in your literary masterpiece can be a challenge, but one that offers distinct rewards by creating memorable scenes that will leave your reading audience stunned breathless. The idea is to bring your readers’ own sensory systems into play, leveraging the powers of smell, touch, sight, taste, and hearing.

Here are some of Eddy’s colorful examples to demonstrate how this can be accomplished:

SMELL: After a fine gourmet lunch at the exclusive highrise restaurant, the well-dressed Avon sales lady stepped into the elevator. As the door closed, she felt an undeniable urge to vent a noxious gas
build-up resulting from the rich food she’d consumed. The consequences made her gasp for fresh air. Opening her sample case, she produced a can of Forest Glade air freshener and vigorously sprayed the enclosed space.

When the elevator came to a halt and the door opened, in walked a gentleman who immediately gagged on the wretched blast of malodorous air.

Attempting to deflect responsibility for the pungent atmosphere, the lady exclaimed, “The air is
positively horrid in here – what in the world could have happened?”

Coughing and clutching a handkerchief to his nose, the man said, “Hell if I know, but it smells
like a bear took a big dump behind a pine tree!”

TOUCH: The old adventurer proceeded to tell his tale that we were hard-pressed to accept as truth. “While touring along the mighty Amazon River, I stopped to examine a clutch of crocodile eggs in a nest along
the bank. As I lay prone on the ground, I felt a sharp pain when something clamped my left leg in a vise-like hold. I felt sand and pebbles bite into my cheeks as I was dragged screaming into the water.”

SIGHT: The circles of my binocular brought the girl into startling life-size focus, as if my nose was touching her thigh. I readjusted the view field until her full Vargas figure was framed for easy observing.
“Good lord!” I whispered to myself as I watched her undress. Just then she turned and looked straight in my direction, as if she knew someone was peeping at her. And then she smiled.

TASTE: My client was a hot little number who suggested an authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch. I couldn’t read the menu written in Spanish, and felt it safe to tell the waiter, “I’ll have whatever she’s
having.”

“Calamari,” my client purred. “You’ll love it.”

In no time, the waiter returned with two large platters of what looked like deep-fried spiders. Taken
aback, I asked timidly, “What’s this called in English?”

“Squid,” my client informed me, digging in to her serving with gusto.

I shuddered, then decided to man-up and at least try it. Plunging my fork into the mass of crispy,
rubbery critters, I chewed … and chewed … and chewed. The taste and texture was distinctly unpleasant, as if I’d gobbled a mouthful of rubber bands. Not wanting to embarrass myself by spitting out the mouthful, I swallowed – and nearly choked. Once I was sure I wouldn’t spontaneously regurgitate the horrendous mass, I managed a smile and mumbled, “Mmm … yummy!” then quickly excused myself to dash to the men’s room.

HEARING: It started as a muted thumping noise coming up from the basement, then gradually transformed into a series of booms, growing louder with each passing second. A sudden explosion of cymbals startled me into dropping my cup of steaming-hot coffee onto my lap. My sharp scream of pain was
drowned in a thunderous cacophony of bangs and bongs that ricocheted through the house, causing the cat to launch from the living room rug with a screeching howl. Hoping to find relief, I grabbed the cat and ran to the back yard, but no solace was to be had. Even eight-inch-thick concrete basement walls were no
match for a joyous four-year-old with his brand new drum set.

SUMMING UP: Eddy says it’s easy to exploit your reader’s senses to enhance your writing. But it’s also important to remember to do so appropriately, and throw in a good measure of that other sense – Common Sense!

Robert J. Wetherall

LAST FLIGHT HOME

THE MAKING OF BERNIE TRUMBLE

FOREVER ANDREW

Available at Amazon.com, PenumbraPublishing.com, WetherallBooks.com

America’s Galactic Foreign Legion – Book 8: Allies now available

Penumbra Publishing — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:28:19 +0000

AMERICA’S GALACTIC FOREIGN LEGION
BOOK 8: ALLIES
by Walter Knight

The latest war between the United States Galactic Federation and the Arthropodan Empire is over, and humans and spiders are now allies bound by a treaty. Before anyone can enjoy the tentative time of peace, the scorpions reappear with a vengeance.

In response to the treaty agreement between the new allies, Colonel Joey R. Czerinski and his band of miscreant legionnaires are sent on a side trip to a terraformed Arthropodan asteroid to help the spiders battle the scorpions.
With their usual serendipitous screw-ups, the legionnaires manage to convince the scorpions to surrender. Those who were enemies become allies, and vice-versa.

Another alien species makes a cameo appearance, and the return of a feared nemesis puts everyone on alert as the laughs continue in this eighth installment of the military space saga gone wrong.

New release available now in ebook at Amazon.com and other online book retailers!

Ebook on Kindle at Amazon

Ebook on Smashwords in a variety of formats

Print version available now through Penumbra Publishing and coming soon to other online book retailers!

Angel’s Oracle author Gary Bolick discusses racism in America

Penumbra Publishing — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:40:26 +0000

Simon Barrett of BlogTalkRadio interviews Gary Bolick, author of Angel’s Oracle.

Bolick talks about his childhood in the 60s South, and how racism comes in many sizes and colors. Does it comes down to the haves and have-nots…

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/simon-barrett/2011/04/01/racism-in-america

Angel’s Oracle paints a harsh portrait of our past, and perhaps a harbinger of our future, a toxic atmosphere…

Yeah, you want to CORNHOLE!

Penumbra Publishing — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:33:25 +0000

Now, before anybody gets all in an uproar about my rather suggestive title for this blog, lemme do a little esplainin’. First, I thought this would be a good subject to post on April Fools Day. And while the word ‘cornhole’ may conjure up insidious images of Southern rednecks running through woods to the tune of dueling banjos, I want to make it perfectly clear that ‘cornhole’ is just a game – a backyard game suitable for the whole family to play. It consists of a palm-sized satchels filled with field corn kernels, and a slanted plywood platform with three holes cut it in. The object of the game is to toss the satchels into the holes of the platform to score the highest points. This is an old and dear game, also known as beanbag toss (when the satchels are filled with uncooked beans instead of corn).

A cottage industry has sprung up as a result of the reinvention of this game, and many manufacturers/distributors of the game kits will go to great lengths to customize them or otherwise make them seem worth the sometimes exorbitant prices they charge. This reinvention of old as new is one of the oldest marketing ploys around. And cornhole isn’t new at all – it’s just beanbag toss renamed. But with the new name comes the fun of an inside joke. Now that you know what ‘cornhole’ refers to, you can go ask your friends, “Hey, ya wanna cornhole?” and get some really bizarre looks. Maybe even get slapped or punched. But once their disgust wears off, you can explain the term ‘cornhole’ and maybe even play a few rounds with your friends.

So what is my point in bringing this unsettling weird term, ‘cornhole’? The point is REINVENTING or even RECYCLING something well-known, to create new buzz for it. Specifically you can do this with your writing, as well as your marketing approach to your writing. For instance, the subject of vampires may seem to have been done to death (no pun intended), but if you can figure out a new way to get more mileage out of this paranormal subgenre, then you’ve got a whole book series ahead of you, which may still be salable in a saturated market. For instance, you could call your vampires some new bizarre name you’ve made up, and present them as bloodsuckers from outerspace. (Oh, wait. That’s been done before.) Or present them as another species of demonic creature. Or … well, you get the idea. All you have to do is take the familiar and make some innovative changes to create a seemingly new product.

But why bother with ‘new’? Why bother with trying to reinvent the same ol’ same ol’? Well, look at car manufacturers. If they didn’t make model changes every year to render previous models as dated or obsolete, how would they convince anyone to buy a new car? The only people who would buy a car would be those that, for whatever reason, have to buy a new car. But a shiny new model with even more great features than its predecessor is sure to dazzle the eyes of many potential buyers. That’s what you sometimes need to do with your writing, especially if you’re writing in a genre with lots of offerings and lots of competition.

Another thing many writers who’ve been around for a while are doing now is RECYCLING back-listed out-of-print titles to which they’ve regained the copyrights. Now they can update these stories, maybe put a new twist on them, maybe give them a new title, and then reissue them to reach a whole new generation of readers. The same can be done with blog information or any other content you use in your self-marketing routine. Why constantly try to come up with new content when you can spiff up some already used articles, update them for a specific twist, and get new life out of them? If you look at the annual topics of magazines, you’ll find many of them have ‘seasonal’ content that gets regurgitated each year at the same time. Just because you used an article about developing characters once doesn’t mean you can’t use it again to guest blog on someone else’s blog, or submit to an online magazine – provided you retain the copyrights to it.

So, next time somebody asks you if you want to ‘cornhole,’ you tell ‘em, “Heck, yeah!” Cornholing your writing is the smart thing to do.

Dana Warryck

http://www.danawarryck.com

Crystal Clear: Storm Ryder
Lucifer’s Last Lover
The Protectorate: Patriarch
Coming soon – The Dead of Wynter