Goodreads

I don't know if you've ever heard of Goodreads. To use a simple analogy, it's kind of like Facebook for authors and readers. (Though, to my knowledge Goodreads doesn't have a rapidly declining market capitalization.) 

I believe my friend Donna turned me on to the site about six months ago. So I created a profile. This is me, if you want to "friend" me here. But I didn't really know what to do with it.

And then super-agent Janet Reid, the source of so much of my knowledge about the publishing biz (truly, I so owe this woman a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates) mentioned it in her blog yesterday, and talked about "giveaways."

So I did a little research. As it turns out, authors can sign up to give away a number of copies of their books. Interested readers put their name "in the hat." And when the "contest" ends, the folks at Goodreads pick the winner(s). Then it's up to the author to mail it.

The hope (though not a requirement) is that those who enter will put the book on their "to-read" list, and the winners will post a review.

I am offering two copies of Scrappy Information Security and two copies of BUGS, up until July 1. So far -- after less than 24 hours -- I have 61 and 26 interested parties, respectively.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Scrappy Information Security

by Michael Seese

Giveaway ends July 01, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Goodreads Book Giveaway

BUGS

by Michael Seese

Giveaway ends July 01, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I'm sure an update will follow. If you're interested, please click on one or both links, and sign up.

BUGS Funny

This is not one of my traditional "funny fotos." But it's funny, as in "funny strange," nonetheless.

BUGS is now available on Amazon:

From the above image, you can barely see that it's available new and used. The latter alone, I consider amusing, seeing as how the book has been out for about a week. Take a look at the used prices.

Hmmm. Should I buy it new for $13.13, or "used" for $87.59...or if I'm feeling generous, $89.39?

Completely seriously, I want to write those folks and ask, "How's business?"

$10!!!

Today, I received a check from Pill Hill Press as payment for "Worm Herding," my contribution to BUGS.

The way I figure it, if I can write 100,000,000 more stories just like this one, I'll be in the same earning stratosphere as J.K. Rowling.

Seriously, it's GREAT to get any amount of compensation for writing.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Well, perhaps just the good and the UGLY. Take a look at the image below, and decide for yourself which is which.

(Of course, I mean "ugly" in the nicest, sincerest, creepiest way.)  

As I have mentioned in several previous blog posts, my short story "Worm Herding" was selected for the Pill Hill Press compilation BUGS! And here it is. The book is available right now on Amazon. According to the publisher, it will downloadable as an e-book "late next week." 

So please buy two or three copies. Just kidding. Well, sort of.
 
And I'm certain that the owner of my favorite bookstore, the best bookstore in the entire world, an icon among icons in iconic Chagrin Falls (did I suck up enough yet?) -- who follows my blogs as closely as I follow the stock market ticker -- will order at least five for the shop.

I could even sign them.

Two Updates

Just to get y'all up to speed on a couple of posts from the past.

First, exactly one month ago, I proudly announced that my short story "Worm Herding" had been selected for the BUGS anthology from Pill Hill Press. Though they clearly are a reputable outfit, I never was a "count my chickens before they hatch" kind of guy. So I assumed it would be coming out in the near future; but I tried to keep my enthusiasm in check.

On Wednesday, I got an email containing the final mock-up. They said to not share it with anyone. But I think showing you a snippet of the table of contents should be OK.

There I am on page 28! So maybe I can start icing the champagne. Our final edits are due April 5. They offered no specifics as to when it would be available. When it is, believe me, you'll hear about it.

Second, earlier this week I made mention of the Grim Future anthology (the title is not final) that I'm contributing to. I failed to mention in that post that I only heard about it Monday afternoon, and managed to get on board later that day when someone dropped out. I have finished my piece: 1,100-ish words. Here is a little snippet to whet your appetite:

An image flickered to the screen, paused, and came to life.
    “Hello. My name is Adam Roman. I’m the project manager for the Reset Project. If you’re seeing my face and hearing my voice, then you found the satellite—which we knew would be pretty hard to miss—and were able to retrieve this memory store and recover the data after... however long it has taken for the ‘reset’ to occur.”
    It was hard to tell if the drawn-out, deliberate delivery was the result of weariness wedded with exhaustion, or just weariness.
    “Today marks the formal end of the Reset Project. Normally, when you close a project, you celebrate. You get together with your co-workers, pop some beers, laugh, look back, and maybe talk about the next project. Not this time.
    “No one is celebrating.
    “No one is laughing.
    “And there will be no next project.
    “Why? There is no one. I’m the last person alive on Earth. 


Again, when this one is made available -- probably around fall, according to Lyn -- you'll hear about that as well.

Down To The Wire...

In my most recent post -- way back on Friday -- I made reference to the Pill Hill Press, and their open call for submissions to "BUGS." (I was going to provide a link to the BUGS page, but it's already gone.) I haven't posted anything here since then because I've been BUSY! They had a deadline of January 31, and I had a short story that was in progress.

Since I almost always make it up as I go, I had no idea many how words I still needed to write. All I knew was that I had 1,865 words, and I needed a minimum of 4,000. I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen. But I lacked the details.

So I take great pleasure in reporting that after a heroic effort (cue the heraldic trumpets) I was able to finish. I would not have been able to do it, though, without a lot of help from my voice recorder and my Dragon voice recognition software. After getting our oldest to bed at 9:00, and then the twins down at 10:00 (what is WRONG with those kids?) I cranked out the last few paragraphs -- not knowing exactly what words would be coming out as I tapped the keys -- and hit the "submit" button around 10:45. The final tally: 9,582 words, 418 shy of the max.

Will they like it? I hope so.

The original post shared the opening. Below is a sample from somewhere in the middle. To set up the scene, my protagonist, Slim, has just dived into a hole in the "Cave Of Swiss Cheese Floor" in an effort to rescue his partners.


    I looked around. I was in some sort of tube. It was transparent, or translucent. I never was very good at those “trans” words. The point is, they weren’t like windows. I couldn’t really see through the walls. But light—from somewhere—was coming in.
    Suddenly I felt a tug, which was strange, since there was nothing I could see that was tugging on me. But I was being pulled down. Whatever it was, it was so strong that I couldn’t keep my arms by my side. They were dangling down in front of me, just waving in the breeze, although there was no breeze. But with my arms down there, they were not in a position where I could tug three times and signal for Tiny to get me the hell out of here. I assumed he would feel that I was being pulled, and yank be back up, any second now.
    Any minute now.
    “Any day now, Tiny!” I yelled. But for some reason, I couldn’t hear my voice. I tried calling out, screaming anything that came to mind. (For some reason, that “anything” turned out to be an old Irish drinking song that my Grandpa taught me when I was a boy. How odd.) But no matter what I tried, the hollers just didn’t seem to want to leave my mouth. So I came up with another idea. I started kicking my legs, in the hope that Tiny would feel me struggling, and pull.
    It was a good idea in theory, but a bad one in practice. You see, as a skinny guy, I’m skinny all over. That includes my legs and—more central to my dilemma—my ankles. So whether or not Tiny felt me, before he had a chance to do anything, I slipped out of my boots.
    This bad day was just getting worse.
    At least I still had the rope.
    I fell. I fell and fell. And fell. I was kind of surprised how long and far I fell, considering that the riata was only about 30 feet long. It would have been about 20 had I wrapped all the way around Tiny, rather than just through two of the belt loops. Finally, I hit bottom with a thud, though I suppose it was more like a “mush.”
    I spit out the dirt, and wiped the dust from my eyes.
    The first thing I saw were shoes. Red shoes. Red women’s shoes. Red women’s shoes that glittered. Looking a little higher, I saw black and white striped socks. Further up, a black dress. Above that was a woman, pretty, if you could overlook the green skin on her face. But she had a nice smile. At the top of it all was a black, pointy hat.
    I’m no expert on the classics and other works of fine fiction. But I know a witch when I see one. I jumped to my feet and was about to draw my six-shooter. But she looked at me with kind, even caring eyes, dusted me off, and said, “Are you all right?”
    Her gentleness took me aback. I’ve never met a witch before, though once when I was a boy back in Massachusetts, I saw one at the bottom of a pool, weighed down with stones. (Wait, if she didn’t float despite the stones, then she “passed” the “witch test.” Then I guess I haven’t seen a witch. But from what I’ve heard, they’re evil, and in possession of a hairy eyeball, or something like that. Her eyeballs were not hairy, though the lashes were fairly long and silky.


If you can't figure out where he is, based on the image of a green-faced witch wearing striped socks and red shoes...well, you have to know.

Should you want to see more, please write the folks at Pill Hill Press, and tell them that they just HAVE TO include "Worm Herding" in their BUGS anthology. And be prepared to purchase a copy on the spot.

No, that probably won't work.

Or, just leave a comment here asking for it, and I'll email you the whole thing.