Tag Archives: novel

by

FREE DOWNLOAD OF “THE VAMPYRE BLOGS – COMING HOME” NOVEL…

*Due to the current situation I’m making “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home”, the first #YA #book in our Para-Earths series #FREE to anyone who wants a copy over at Smashwords. It costs nothing to sign up with them and you will have the following formats to choose from to download the book onto your device(s) of choice:

EPUB (#Nook), MOBI (#Kindle), PDF, LRF (Older Sony readers), PDB (Palm OS devices), and finally Plain Text (no formatting)

Just click on this link to access the book and begin downloading and reading. More books are coming, so please bear with me.

*NOTE: I’m only using the Smashwords site, because unless I’m part of Kindle Unlimited, I cannot make the book FREE over on Amazon*

LINK:

The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home

Revised TVB CH Border Cover

I will be loading the anthology “The Vampyre Blogs – One Day At a Time” onto Smashwords shortly and will be making that book also available for FREE, where you’ll be able to read more of Nathan and his friends’ adventures in the days and years past.

by

So Much Going On…

Allan here with some big announcements and an apology to make. First the apology. Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to the current story, which I feel may be one of the most important ones we’ve ever undertaken because of the subject involved. Please rest assured that the story will be continuing shortly, it’s just been a crazy two months over here.

First of all, Fibromyalgia reared its ugly head and flattened both of us badly for several weeks. At the same time, we were also getting ready to launch Helen’s first solo novel “Forever’s Too Long” which is the first of an all new series she’s calling ‘The Forever Detective Series’. It revolves around a 1940’s private investigator in NYC, who’s first two cases runs him smack into the middle of a nest of vampires led by a certain historical figure from Russian history. If you’ve been enjoying Nathan and company, then I highly recommend checking out Rafael Jones and his friends in this all new truly  supernatural series at the links below.

Nook:

Amazon: 

AmazonUK:

AmazonCA:

AmazonAU:

Smashwords:

I spent a great deal of time helping Helen prepare and promote her novel going as far as to creating my very 1st book trailer for her novel.  Anyone wanting to see the results can click on this youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNoPA_ytUvc.  While not 100% perfect, I was quite happy with the results, especially the voice-over you hear in the trailer. The response to the video was so good, it got me thinking about going back and making trailers for both “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” and “The Vampyre Blogs – One Day At a Time”.

However, before that could happen, we had to prepare a book launch party for “Forever’s Too Long”, wherein I did something I’ve been thinking about for some time but never tried, namely loud readings using the voices of character’s appear in the scene. Once again the reactions were much more positive than I’d expected. Now I’ve done theater in the past, and I’ve done loud readings in person for family and friends who have all urged me to get to start recording the books. But after hearing people’s reactions at the launch party, my reaction was to buy these puppies…

This is the Blue Yeti USB Microphone and the Samson SR350 Closed back stereo headphones. I’m already working on what I’m calling my “Voice Library” so I can have a set of distinctive voices I know I can recreate at any time and start making some of your favorite characters come to life.

My goal is to start sharing some audio samples here on the blog within the next 2-3 months. Possibly sooner. I hope to have a full audiobook of “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” in the not-to-distant future (yes, I am an MST3K fan and proud of it).

In the meantime I am still slowly working on the 2nd full-length novel “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties” which takes up two-three weeks after the events of “TVB – Coming Home”. I’m not predicting a release date for that one at this time I’m sorry to say. But we will be bringing you all more short stories here on the blog in the meantime, as well as updates.

Now for my final piece of news, there was one other thing that happened at the launch party that had me doing some serious re-thinking about Nathan and company. One of our guests at the part has been a beta-reader for all the Para-Earth novels, including “TVB – Coming Home”. She is also a professional librarian and seriously urged me to re-market Nathan’s adventures as Teen/Young Adult to reach a wider audience. I gave it some serious thought, but didn’t do anything right away. Instead I checked with a couple of other people I knew had read the book and agreed with the librarian. So I am currently in the process of getting both of those books shifted over to the Young Adult sections of Amazon and other outlets. Needless to say “TVB – One Day At a Time” will join it shortly.

Currently, both books are part of KDP’s Select program which means that the e-book versions are sold exclusively at Amazon. But at the end of August this will end and I will make the books available to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, the works. At that time I will also do a re-release with the book being promoted for Young Adults and older. I hope to have trailers for both ready by then, as well news about another anthology and an update on “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties”.

So that brings you all up to speed. There’s a lot coming on the horizon so please stay with us here, and I expect to have the next installment of  “Nadine’s” adventures up within a week. I thank you all for your patience and hope to keep you all entertained and fascinated with new stories and adventures featuring Nathan and his friends.

Also I’ll be updating you all on “The Door” which is well under way and focuses on our other cast of Para-Earth characters (Alex Hill, Police Sgt. Veronica Ross, heiress Cassandra Elliott, and her girlfriend/shamaness Julie Cloudfoot).  For within the pages of that story Nathan will be making more than one appearance along with some familiar faces from “TVB – One Day At a Time”. The events of “The Door” will lead to the first major crossover between the two casts and leading all to face one of their strangest encounters from a Para-Earth yet in the form of a haunted mansion known as Harlequin House.

Until next time, take care and happy reading everyone.

by

Novel Update…

Hello everyone, I’ve given Nathaniel and company a break this week because of the holiday.  They’ll be back shortly with more blog entries.  But in the meantime I thought you would all like to know how things are progressing on the actual novel.

I’m sure you’ll all be happy to know that I completed the 2nd draft yesterday, which gave me something extra to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.  Writing in the first person has been quite the adventure for me.  Most authors stick inside one character’s head and they act as the narrator for the entire story.  But I prefer sharing various character’s points of view, so I normally used limited third person, where I give each character a chapter where we see inside only their heads for that chapter.

Doing blog, journal, and diary entries to tell the story, has allowed me to do something similar with this novel.  However, I’ve had to create unique ‘voices’ for each character as well.  I didn’t want a blog entry by one of my teenage characters to sound the same as one of my middle-aged male characters.

I’ve also had a bit of a challenge dealing with past tense vs. present tense.  After all, if you’re writing about something that happened to you in your blog/journal you use past tense.  So I’ve had a little bit of a challenge making the events sound just as exciting as if I were using the present tense like I have in my other novels.  Plus I’m trying to make sure I ‘show’ people what happened and not just have the character ‘tell’ you what happened.  I like to give enough details that my readers can picture the scene and all the action inside their heads like it was a movie.  So I’m going to be paying close attention to what my beta-readers say when they get to look at the book.

Now, that I’ve completed the 2nd draft, the book is getting looked over and the first edits will be under way.  I won’t be doing much new writing for a few weeks because I’m attending university and it’s getting towards the end of the semester.  This means the professors are loading us up with last minute assignments, as well as getting us prepped for final exams.

I will be putting out a short story involving Nathaniel and several characters from my previous novels, creating my first cross-over story.  Being a short story it won’t take me long to put it together.  It will be a holiday piece which I plan on releasing on Christmas Day.  So stay tuned for more detials on that.

In the meantime, Nathaniel, Lisa, and Marisa, as well as a few others will be posting here again very shortly.  So you won’t be without anything new to read here.

With that said, thanks for all your support and feedback.  I’m glad so many of you are enjoying my vampyre’s experiences along with those who are a large part of his extended life.  For those who celebrate Thanksgiving I hope you had a wonderful holiday.  I’m looking forward to this weekend to start decorating as well as study and do homework.

Until next time be happy and healthy.

by

An Early Halloween Treat From Me To You!

stock-vector-trick-or-treat-halloween-text-109771892

*HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!  I decided to give you all an early treat by sharing a snippet from “The Vampyre Blogs” novel itself.  Unlike the other entries you’ve seen here on this blog, this entry actually shows up in the book.  I was careful to choose this particular entry since all three characters are well known to you by now.  Plus it doesn’t give too much away, while hopefully leaving you with some questions to think about until the novel’s release at Christmas.  So without further ado, here are Marisa, Lisa and Nathaniel.  I hope you enjoy*

MARISA’S MUSINGS – October 7th, 2012

It’s been such a strange day, especially this evening.  I still don’t know what think at the moment.

Waking up and finding Dad was still at home sitting in front of the TV just like in my dreams, gave me a start.  Especially when I saw he looked a little greyish, but then Mom opened the curtains and I saw he was just tired.  I literally blew a sigh of relief, but it still set me on edge for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, most of my classes were on the quiet and boring side today, which meant I kept worrying about my dad.

Thank God Lisa was in all of them with me.  I don’t know what I would’ve done without her around trying to distract me.  But I still couldn’t get that damn dream out of my head.  It had felt so real.  Then, just as we arrived at The Crypt, I started wondering if it had actually been some kind of warning. The idea it might be really put me on edge.

Unfortunately, that’s when Dianne showed up and started in with me, as usual.  Normally I can ignore her comments, but tonight, I just couldn’t.  God I feel so bad about what happened.  Poor Lisa got caught up in things and could’ve wound up getting hurt if Nathaniel hadn’t stepped in when he did.

I still feel bad about blowing up at him the way I did at the time.  But that’s not the only thing that’s bothering me about him.  After tonight, I can’t look at him the same way I used to.

Finding out he was once married and that his wife pass away in his arms, really hit me hard.  I guess that’s why I kissed him the way I did.  I just wanted to wipe away the pain I knew he was experiencing at that moment, along with my own.  I didn’t tongue him or anything, but for a second I nearly did.  Something about him that made me feel so alive that I didn’t want it to stop.  But I remembered Lisa was with us and I know she has a crush on him.  So I backed off.  But a part of me wanted to go right back to kissing him.   I don’t think I’ve ever wanted someone so bad in all my life.

And truth be told, I still want him.  But I’m also a little leery of him, because of because of what happened next.

I excused myself and started to fix my make-up.  After all that crying I’d done earlier, I knew I must look like hell.

Nathaniel was kind enough to walk away and give me my space, while Lisa checked on me quick before she went over to join him at the window.  As I heard the two of them talking quietly, I stole a glance over my shoulder.  Lisa was hanging onto him in a playful way, and I started to get jealous for a moment.

Quickly, I shook my head and pulled out my compact so I could use the mirror as I fixed my make-up.  Surprisingly, I didn’t look too bad and was able to make myself presentable rather quickly.

Then I decided to use the mirror to take another at Lisa and Nathaniel to see what they were up to.  And that’s when it happened.  I could see Lisa still acting if she were draped all over Nathaniel, only he wasn’t there.

I blinked and stared at the mirror again, but the image had not changed.  From the way Lisa was positioned, I knew she had to be hanging onto someone, because there was no way she could keep her balance in that pose.  But there was no one there.

Carefully I took another look over my shoulder and saw the two of them just as I had before.  Then I looked back at my mirror and saw only Lisa holding on to empty air.  I let out a little gasp and dropped everything, including the compact which shattered on impact.

Immediately, Lisa came rushing over to see what was wrong and quickly helped me gather everything.  Nathaniel on the other had stayed by the window.  He seemed to be in deep thought.

Naturally, I didn’t tell either of them what I saw, or rather what I didn’t see.  Instead, after Lisa helped me get all my make-up back in the purse, I told them I felt like going back down to the dance floor.   I’d remembered there were huge mirrors on the walls down there and wanted to see what would happen when we got down there.

To my amazement and relief, I saw all three of our reflections in every one of them.  At that point I was fully ready to believe my eyes had simply played a trick on me.

But now my mind has gone back to the day in my Aunt Betsy’s office when I first met Nathaniel.  She had brought in those beautiful fresh cut flowers.  But after he went near them to get his coat and hat,  we’d found them black and withered.

Is he what I think he is?  I’ve seen enough movies to know all the signs.   Yet, I saw his reflection in the mirrors of the club.  Plus he has a bunch of mirrors in his home which I’ve seen him use.

No, I think I’ve just been stressing out too much lately.  There’s no such thing as vampires.  Right?

Happy-Halloween-Gif-2