Waves and Words

Okay, so it’s Thursday and I wrote a book called Thread of Hope and those things kinda go together so I’m turning Thursdays into Thursday Threads.  See what I did there???  My cleverness astounds you!!!  Anyway, now that you’re astounded, here’s what it’s all about – every Thursday I’m going to post something related to Thread of Hope.  BOOM!  You know you like it.

Since today is the first day, just a little background on the book:

Seven years after Joe Tyler’s daughter Elizabeth was abducted, he hasn’t stopped looking for answers, and he hasn’t forgotten the friend who stood by him as he lost his wife, his home, and his career in his search. Now he’s been brought back to San Diego by the news that this friend has been arrested for beating up a teenage girl—a girl not much older than Elizabeth would be now.  Joe is convinced Chuck Winslow is innocent, but Chuck is in a coma and can’t explain what happened. And the more Joe hears about what Chuck’s been up to in the years he’s been gone, the less Joe recognizes his old friend. To find out the truth, he will have to face his ex-wife, his former bosses, and a hometown full of wealth, lies, and illicit privilege. When Chuck’s accuser goes missing, Joe must decide where his loyalties truly lie, as he continues to wrestle with the haunting memories of the past.

OMG.  How good does THAT sound???  I wish I had written that book!  Oh, wait.  I did.  Awkward…

And the readers at Amazon love it.  LOVE.  IT.  Here’s one review:

“I have been a Noah Braddock fan for a long time and was thrilled to see this new title by Jeff Shelby. Riveting characters, snappy dialogue and a lightning-fast plot make this a can’t-put-down page turner. Joe Tyler, the protagonist in this series, isn’t just another Noah — he’s deeper, richer, more complex. The first person narrative of a man who has lost his daughter allows the reader to experience his pain and anguish firsthand and I guarantee the last few pages of the book will leave you demanding the next in the series….SOON.”

YEAH THEY WILL!!!

Hey, so, if any of this interests you, you can find the book right here.  It’s cheap.  I promise.

Thursday Threads.  Get used to them.

I didn’t get four stars.  The other guy did.  That other guy who is me.

What?  You’re not following?

Then click here.

This is pub day for my alter ego, Jeffrey Allen.

You can read about it here.

Oh.  Hi.  How are you?  It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you.  I was starting to take it personally, like you didn’t like me that way or something.  Totally awkward.  What?  It was me that’s been gone?  What.  Ever.

Anyway, guess what?  Wrong.  Wrong.  Wrong.  Wow, you are really bad at guessing.  What you should’ve guessed was “I’ll bet Jeff has two pieces of news so exciting that it’s going to make me squeal with delight!!!”  Because then you would’ve been CORRECT.

Exciting piece of news #1:  Remember way back when when I told you I wrote another book under another name?  Wow.  Your memory isn’t very good because I did tell you.  Well that book – STAY AT HOME DEAD – written under another name – JEFFREY ALLEN – is now OUT.  (Technically, it’s not out until Tuesday, but it’s already showing up in bookstores, so I didn’t want you to be the last to know.) Since you didn’t even remember that I wrote the book, here’s a reminder as to what it’s about:

Deuce Winters is a stay at home dad in the small town of Rose Petal, Texas and his life gets a little complicated when he finds the dead body of an old high school rival in the backseat of his minivan.  As Deuce continues to battle the misconception that he is a stay at home dad because he’s lost his job/can’t find a job/leeching off his wife/lazy/incompetent/a little girly, he must now attempt to clear his name of wrong doing.  In doing so, he runs up against devious PTA moms, a toupee-wearing Elvis lookalike and a midget private detective.  (Yeah.  I said midget.)  Hilarity and hijinks and mystery solving ensue.

Are you all sweaty with excitement now?  You should be.  Before you shower it all off, you can click over here to see what it looks like and decide where you want to purchase it.

But wait!  There’s more!

Exciting piece of news #2:  I wrote another book.  Under my own name.  It’s called THREAD OF HOPE.  In some ways, it’s similar to the Noah books, but in a lot of ways, it’s not.  Here’s a description:

Seven years after Joe Tyler’s daughter Elizabeth was abducted, he hasn’t stopped looking for answers, and he hasn’t forgotten the friend who stood by him as he lost his wife, his home, and his career in his search. Now he’s been brought back to San Diego by the news that this friend has been arrested for beating up a teenage girl—a girl not much older than Elizabeth would be now.  Joe is convinced Chuck Winslow is innocent, but Chuck is in a coma and can’t explain what happened. And the more Joe hears about what Chuck’s been up to in the years he’s been gone, the less Joe recognizes his old friend. To find out the truth, he will have to face his ex-wife, his former bosses, and a hometown full of wealth, lies, and illicit privilege. When Chuck’s accuser goes missing, Joe must decide where his loyalties truly lie. 

Whoa.  That sounds like a book I’d like to read.  Wait.  I did read it.  When I wrote it.  So now it’s YOUR turn to read it.  And because I love trees and the environment, THREAD OF HOPE is currently ONLY available as an ebook to read on one them new-fangled electronic reading devices called Kindles.  Oh, and it’s dirt cheap.  You wanna see the cover?  Okay, here you go:

You can go here to get it.

You’ll be hearing alot about both books in the coming days.  I promise.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hey, where have you been?

Oh, wait.  It was me that took a little hiatus.  Sorry about that.  It won’t happen again…until it happens again.

Anyway, I’m back and I’m a little irritated.  No.  Actually, I’m really irritated.

Like all good narcissistic authors, I check sites where my books are sold and I read the reviews people leave.  I’ve been fortunate that most are good.  Occasionally, I’ll run across one where the reader does not care for the book and while that admittedly stings a bit, I’ve always maintained that anyone who purchases a book has the right to dislike it.  I have pretty thick skin and it doesn’t bother me if someone doesn’t like something I’ve written.  Stings yes, but it doesn’t linger and I don’t harbor any ill will toward the reviewer.  In fact, I’ve engaged with folks who have written less than flattering reviews, essentially telling them I’m sorry they didn’t like the book, but I appreciate the fact that they gave it a shot.  That’s about all you can do.

But I read one last night that….really irritated me.  Because it really wasn’t about the book.

It was about me.

Over at BN.com, some person using the handle wem3124 wrote the following:

I read the book and thought it was pretty good story, in spite of one glaring grammatical error carried through the entire book that makes it difficult to read. One character speaks and the author includes a second character’s response in the same paragraph.Before submission of this review, there were four Customer Reviews and one Editorial Review. One of those Customer Reviews appears to be legitimate. The other four reviews, including the Editorial Review, all appear to be written by the same person. I invite others to read the reviews and compare them. In an interesting coincidence, the name used for one of the characters in this book is ‘Santangelo’. The same as the name of a main character in books by successful author Jackie Collins. Any other coincidences? I wonder.

Now, if wem3124 wasn’t a gigantic coward and hadn’t set their profile to private, I would’ve been happy to address this “review” directly with them.  But since wem3124 has chosen to take a shot at me without giving me the chance to respond personally, I thought I’d go ahead and respond publicly.  Let’s break this down, line by line:

“I read the book and thought it was pretty good story, in spite of one glaring grammatical error carried through the entire book that makes it difficult to read.”

Well, thanks wem3124.  I’m glad you thought it was a pretty good story.  That’s probably why you gave it three out of five stars, which I appreciate.  Grammatical error, you say?

“One character speaks and the author includes a second character’s response in the same paragraph.”

Actually, this isn’t a grammatical error.  This is most likely a typesetting and/or formatting error.  They occur often, especially when books are formatted for electronic reading.  I’m not sure how much you know about publishing – actually, I don’t think you know anything about it, given this “review” – but when an author submits their work, it’s vetted by a number of professionals:  editors, copy editors, typesetters, etc.  Numerous people work hard to make the book better and to get it as clean as possible.  Unfortunately, even with all of this attention, errors still sometimes occur.  Especially when the technology is new.  But regardless – I’m sorry this took away from your reading experience.

“Before submission of this review, there were four Customer Reviews and one Editorial Review.”

Whoa.  Your glaring lack of a coherent transition there made this somewhat difficult to read.  But go on…

“One of those Customer Reviews appears to be legitimate.”

Uh, okay.  Why wouldn’t it be?

“The other four reviews, including the Editorial Review, all appear to be written by the same person.” 

Well, now this is gonna get awkward because I’m starting to see what you’re getting at and I don’t like it very much.  I’m also starting to think you aren’t very smart.  You do see that the editorial review (you shouldn’t capitalize this – again, your glaring errors are making your observations hard to read) was written by Library Journal, right?  You understand what Library Journal is, right?  It’s an industry publication that reviews books prior to publication.  Right up there with Publisher’s Weekly.  It’s not some  fake periodical I made up.  Oh, and you should also know that they select books randomly.  Publishers submit their books for review, but there’s no guarantee.  They don’t accept bribes or first borns.  Despite your ignorant insinuation otherwise, it’s…legitimate.

I can’t speak to the other four reviews.  I don’t know who wrote them.  But let’s be very clear about this fact:  I did not.  And to hint that perhaps I did is idiocy on your part.

“I invite others to read the reviews and compare them.”

Big of you.  Did you send out an Evite??

“In an interesting coincidence, the name used for one of the characters in this book is ‘Santangelo’.  The same as the name of a main character in books by successful author Jackie Collins.“

I had to look this up as I haven’t looked at a Jackie Collins book since I was a teenager and my mom had a few lying around the living room.  I was unaware that Ms. Collins had a heroine by the same name, but thank you for the comparison to an author who’s had an incredibly successful career.  I guess it’s interesting, though I’m not really sure why.  You’re insinuation seems to be that I stole the name.  Really?  Are names even stealable?  Have you heard of Harry Potter?  Do you want to know an interesting coincidence?  There is also a book called Harry The Dirty Dog!  I hope J.K. Rowling didn’t “steal” the name Harry from that book!  But to be clear:  I had no knowledge of the Collins character and did not intend in any way to capitalize on an already established fictional character.  I don’t think anyone was dumb enough to buy my book after reading Liz’s last name and think that I was Jackie Collins.  Except for maybe you.

“Any other coincidences? I wonder.”

Well, you tell us, Sherlock.  Were there any other coincidences?  I’m guessing no, otherwise you would’ve gladly attempted to point them out and continue to suggest that my work isn’t original.  I think that’s also what you implied in your clever little title of your review – Is This Author Blowing Smoke?  I see what you did there!  So cute!  So funny!  So utterly stupid.

I have no problem if you didn’t like the book, but the moment you decided to question my integrity, that was the moment I decided I’d hit you in the mouth if you were here with me right now.  Attack the book if you don’t like it.  Tell all your friends not to buy it.  I really don’t care.  But don’t attack my character when you don’t know me, don’t know anything about my books, don’t know anything about the work that went into them and then decide to hide behind the veil of an anonymous Internet moniker.

I seriously hope that this finds you, wem3124.  I’ll be happy to refund your money in full.

You just might want to duck when I hand it over.

So I’ve developed this pain in my right wrist.  I can type for a few minutes before it acts up and makes it fairly uncomfortable to continue.  I’ve tried different positions and a wrist pad and several other things, all to no avail.  WTF?  It’s seriously hurting me and, yes, I feel ridiculous even admitting that, given that I’ve mocked my best friend for the last twenty years for developing carpal tunnel while managing a Baskin-Robbins while in college.

It is actually beginning to affect my writing output.  That concerns me.

Make it go away.  Please.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I didn’t have much planned.  Some writing, a possible museum trip with my daughter, a ton of school work, some football, normal Sunday laziness.  But I opened my email and in my Google alerts, I saw that Liquid Smoke was being offered for free for Kindle on Amazon.

Weird.  I didn’t know anything about it, so I checked the Amazon listing and sure enough, it was free.

Hmmm.  Interesting.

So I set about letting everyone know on Twitter and Amazon and I posted on the Kindle boards for the first time.  I thought it was an opportunity to get the book to a few people who might not otherwise see it.

And as the day went on, it started to climb.  I think when I first saw it in the morning, it was somewhere just over 1,000 in all free ebooks and I didn’t notice the mystery ranking.

About an hour later, it jumped into the 200s and was 19th in mystery.

And then it hit #10 in mystery.

Then 8.

Then 5.

Then 4.

And then at 3:30, it was #1 in Mystery and I think 22 overall.  I honestly can’t remember because I was surprised.

I’ve never had any book hit #1 on ANY list.  I had to keep checking it make sure I was right.  And I was.  It was #1.

And as the day wore on, it held at #1 and crept up overall.  Last I checked, it was at #13 last night.

I got an email during the day, asking me why I cared because obviously I wasn’t making any money because these were free downloads.

Here’s why I care:  in one day, my book got the kind of exposure I’ve been trying to get for six years.  One day.  My audience just expanded exponentially.  There is no price that you can put on that.  None.  My hope is that a few of those people will read the book, like it, maybe review it, maybe buy the other books already out and hopefully buy future books.  It was an investment in the future.

So a HUGE thank you to Ben LeRoy at Tyrus Books for throwing LIQUID SMOKE out there for free.  I don’t know how long it’s gonna be free.

But I know yesterday was awesome.

Okay, so I apologize for the lack of posting around here lately.  Life has been busy and I’ve been busy the last two days losing eleven pounds, courtesy of the stomach flu.  Take THAT, P90X!

Anyway, while I’ve been home from work, lying near death on the couch, all of the news channels and the Internet have been abuzz with Amazon’s big fancy announcement about their new tablet/ereader/iPad competitor.  I’ve read probably a dozen articles and seen maybe half a dozen news reports and I still don’t know what the difference is between all of them.  And everyone wants to position them against the iPad, but seeing how stripped down they are, I just don’t really see that.

I own a Kindle.  Honestly, I don’t even know which generation it is.  Got it almost two years ago for Christmas from my parents.  I really like it and I really like having books available at the push of a button.  The prices are somewhat prohibitive at times because traditional publishers haven’t figured it out yet that we aren’t going to pay twelve books for an ebook on a regular basis, but I like the ease of use.

I’ve said all year that this was going to be the holiday period where they really exploded and that we’ll begin to see an ereader of some type in every home.  This announcement seems poised to make that happen.  I think the rapidly changing publishing industry is about to transform at warp speed.

None of what I’m saying is new or original – authors far more informed about ebooks have already espoused all of this – but it’s an interesting position for me to be in when I’ll see two books published within six months of each in what is essentially the traditional model.

So I have a simple question.  How many of you who might’ve purchased Liquid Smoke did so on an ereader?  I know some of you have already mentioned it if you did, but if you haven’t, I’m just curious to find out who is reading me electronically.

Why?

I honestly have no idea.  I’m just curious, I guess.  Nothing scientific or anything like that.  I’m just curious how the book is getting to people.

So if you feel like letting me know…let me know.

So last weekend in St. Louis, the powers that be in the mystery world put on Bouchercon, the annual world mystery convention.  Writers and fans gather to fawn over one another and tell each other how awesome they all are.  They also give out a bunch of awards and one group of awards, The Shamus Awards, are given by the Private Eye Writers of America to the best books published annually in the private eye subgenre of mystery.  They are like the Oscars for private eye novels.  Only cooler.

And I’m happy to tell you that one of my best friends in the whole wide world, Lori Armstrong, won Best Novel for her book NO MERCY.  In case you don’t know, this is kind of a BIG DEAL.  I’m sure she went out and bought a private jet and a pet monkey.  Because that’s how she rolls.

So if you don’t go buy LIQUID SMOKE today, go buy NO MERCY.  Or better yet…BUY BOTH.  Because if you don’t buy one, you will probably perish from the Earth.  Seriously.

So Liquid Smoke’s been out for a few weeks now and like all normal authors, I come home every night and scour the Internet for any words written about it and then cry myself to sleep if anyone said anything bad about it.  And then I pay an assassin to take them out.  Just kidding.  Maybe.

But it’s been out a couple of weeks now and the reviews and comments have been overwhelmingly positive.  So thank you to those that have taken the time to say something nice about the book.  It’s very much appreciated.

One thing that has surprised me, though, is people’s reaction to the ending.  I knew that certain things in the latter half of the book would surprise people, probably even anger those that read the first two books in the series.  The ending is absolutely meant to change Noah’s life and send him on a different path.

But the question I’ve seen in more than a couple of places is whether or not there will be any future Noah books and I found that surprising.

The ending is absolutely different than any other ending I’ve ever written.  It’s not wrapped up with a bow.  Nothing is tidy and in place.  Noah is in a place that he never envisioned himself to be and his life has really been blown to pieces.

But I thought that’s what made it interesting.  There’s no longer anything that’s predictable about him or his life.  All he’s known – and that readers have known – is going to have to change.  As an author, that’s an exciting challenge to undertake.  And as a reader, there’s nothing I like better than a writer who surprises me.

So for the record – yes, there will be more Noah books.  Number Four is currently under construction.  He’s going to be back sooner rather than later, still dealing with the aftermath of Liquid Smoke.  He won’t be the same.  Ever.

But he will be back.