Ghostwriter Publications

For anyone interested in the often seedy underbelly of publishing, check out this terrible story here. I had very similar experiences with the publisher in question.

A Good Review of The Unearthed

Bitten by Books, a paranormal book review site, recently gave The Unearthed a good review. If you're on the fence about buying it, check out the review. It doesn't spoil the story, and it gives you a good feel for what it's about.

I can't believe it's been nine months since the book came out. As far as unmarketed e-books written by first-time authors go, it has done well. Looking back now, I wish I had marketed it more, but in all fairness to me I didn't (and still don't) have the time, resources, or bank account for it.

It also doesn't help that I can't stomach shameless self-promotion.

That being said, I'll take this opportunity to once again thank everyone kind enough to buy, read, recommend, and/or review it! I see The Unearthed as a stepping stone really, something I'm proud of and can use as a marketing tool in query letters for future manuscripts. And, as far as first books go, I think it's pretty good. Even the agents and other publishers who passed it up had nice things to say about the story. Sure, when I look back at it now, I can think of a few things I'd like to change, but I'm certain all authors feel that way about most of the books they write. As the saying goes, you don't really ever finish a book; at some point you just have to abandon it.

____

People have asked if there will be a sequel, and I'll answer by saying, yes, at some point there probably will be. But it will definitely be a very different story - I'm not interested in re-hashing the haunted house tale again.

The Long And The Short Of It

Last weekend, we surprised the wife with a baby shower. Family and friends were all extremely generous - I've never seen so many presents in my life - and Jenna spent the better part of four hours just opening everything. Thanks again to everyone!

One of the more interesting gifts was a copy of War and Peace. I thought it was a pretty cool gift, being something Baby Girl O'Rourke wouldn't use until she's a bit older.

War and Peace is notorious for its length. Rick Reilly, famous sports writer, once described how far John Daley hit a golf ball by saying, "He's longer than Tolstoy." I have yet to read WaP, but I did enjoy Anna Karenina, which itself is not short by any means.

Anyway, I found a wiki link to the world's longest novels and was amazed to find this. Marienbad My Love, a self-published work, spans over 17 million words. I will never even attempt to read this book, but here's the blurb for it:

Coppell, TX - Texas writer Mark Leach has published an expanded edition of "Marienbad My Love," the world's longest novel, that tops 17 million words and also sets new records for the world's longest word, sentence and book title.

The Coppell, Texas, writer has been making a run at the record books with his still-growing story of a Christ-haunted filmmaker who believes he is called on by God to bring about the end of the world by producing a science fiction-themed pastiche of the 1961 French New Wave classic, “Last Year at Marienbad.”

And here I thought my book, The Unearthed, was a bit long-winded at 80,000 words!

You Need To Read...

The Unearthed, according to You Gotta Read Reviews.

Lupa at You Gotta Read wrote a nice review of TU. While I don't agree that the book starts off slow, it is always good to hear someone's honest opinion on one's fiction--it's the only way to improve as a writer.

Ghostwriter Publications Makes It Official

Ghostwriter Publications has made it official on their blog today. The UK print version of The Unearthed will be available as early as June of this year!

And don't you worry, all you Anglophobes. Neil Jackson, the man with the plan at Ghostwriter Publications, has assured me he will keep the American English spelling and word choice intact. So that troublesome letter "u" won't pop up in things like color or flavor. Nor will "s" replace the "z" in words like authorize. The characters will continue to drink coffee, as opposed to tea. Exits shall remain exits, and not "ways out."

And finally, the only things that will be referred to as "bloody" will be all the dead bodies.

British Invasion? Ha

It's been nearly fifty years since our friends from across the pond started their pop art invasion of the United States. The Beatles, the Stones, etc., have all had their day, many days in fact, to shine. Well my friends their time is over.

For too long have the Brits and the Irish dominated the arts. It's time we Yanks took the power back.

I'm not afraid to lead the charge. And so that's why I'm pleased to announce The Unearthed will be available in print in the UK. I've signed with Ghostwriter Publications, a small press specializing in horror. Ghostwriter will be doing a print run of The Unearthed, and we're also discussing an audio version as well.

We're still ironing out the timeline, but once I have some more information, I will let you know.

(DISCLAIMER: Most of my favorite authors and actors are British and Irish.)

Widener Open Mic Night

For anyone that's interested and local, tonight I'll be attending Widener University's open mic night, which starts at 7:00 PM EST. Against my better judgment, I will be doing a reading of The Unearthed. I say against my better judgment because it's just the sort of story I would have thumbed my nose at as an undergrad English major, because it wasn't "literary" enough. Oh how the not-so-mighty have fallen.

So if you're in the area, stop by. There's a free bookmark for everyone who shows up.

Off topic, but does the word "mic" look strange to anybody else? I used the term in several places in The Unearthed, but I spelled it "mike" because that looked better to me.

Read An Interview And You Could Win A Copy of The Unearthed!

Ruth Schaller, who was kind enough to give The Unearthed a five skull review, just posted her interview with me today on her blog. Check it out if you get a minute, and you'll have a chance to win a free copy of my book!

Reminder: Win A Free Copy of The Unearthed Tonight

Just a quick reminder that you can win a free copy of my paranormal thriller, The Unearthed, tonight at 8:00 PM EST during a chat hosted by Rita Vetere at her website.

And even if you're only a casual reader of my blog, you'll still have a good chance of answering the trivia question before anyone else!

Another Chance To Win

Just when you thought the shameless self-promotion was over, I come back by offering you another chance to win a free copy of The Unearthed.

Rita Vetere is hosting her monthly chat on Monday, March 9th, beginning at 8:00 PM EST. Sean Cummings and I will be joining Rita to discuss our recently-released novels, and Rita will talk about the print release of Ancient Inheritance.

Stop by for your chance to win a copy of The Unearthed!

Win A Free Copy of The Unearthed

Hello there and welcome. Read these rules first:

All you have to do is answer one of these questions correctly by leaving a comment on the blog, and I'll send you a copy of The Unearthed.

You can only answer one question at a time, and it must be one that hasn't been answered correctly already. Once a question has been answered correctly, that's one less copy available.

The answers can be found on this blog. The questions are arranged in order of relative difficulty, from easiest to hardest, but none of them are that hard.

And if you're not lucky enough to win, don't fret. A digital copy of The Unearthed is only $5.50.


1) What's the name of my Rottweiler?

2) What's the name of my German Shorthaired Pointer?

3) What's the name of my editor?

4) What's the name of the short story I posted on this blog?

5) What profession am I in?

6) Now a tough one. Who's my favorite film director?


Thanks for stopping by.

Brought To You By Nate Green

Nate was kind enough to give me an interview to help promote my book. Check it out if you get a chance. You'll learn more about me than you ever cared to know.

And come back here at 12:00 PM EST for a chance to win a free copy of The Unearthed.

My Editor Rules

My editor, Emma Wayne Porter, wrote a very funny post today about how, despite Mother Nature's many objections, she was able to read The Unearthed in one sitting.

In her post, she had this to say about The Unearthed: "I’m reading a book that’s one part Hitchcock, one part Ghost Hunters, and one part Columbine..."

Emma is a fantastic editor and is herself an author! She also recently did an interview with my buddy, Nate Green, where she gives us the low-down e-publishing.

Many thanks to Emma for all the kind words and for choosing to back an unknown like me.

Win A Free Copy of The Unearthed Monday!

I'll be giving away some free copies of The Unearthed on Monday, so stop back for your chance to win. More details to follow.

Still haven't heard what my novel is about? Well, let me tell you. The Unearthed is a fast-paced paranormal thriller with a little something for everybody: mystery, drama, scares, twists, and violence.

But don't take my word for it. Here's what some others have said:

Ruth Schaller, in her glowing 5 skull review said, "This book was fast paced...I just couldn't put this book (okay, my ebook reader ... lol) down for long, because I just had to find out what was going to happen."

Famed Northern Irish writer, Adrian McKinty, had this to say: "Brian is a gifted writer and his book is excellent. Fast paced, exciting, twisty turny and scary."

And last but not least, my long-suffering wife said, "When are you going to be done on the computer? And don't say you have to write one more scene."


Here's an excerpt:

"Please state your name and address for us," Tim said.

"John Rosselli. Seventeen-thirteen Pembroke Lane."

"How long have you lived here?" Tim asked, already beginning to scribble notes on his yellow legal pad.

"Six months next week."

"You've called us here to investigate paranormal activity in your house, is that correct?"

"Yes. Not just in the house. It's outside, too."

"I understand," Tim said and made another note.

Jackie looked at Eddie, who seemed bored, while Tim steepled his hands and continued. "I need you to tell me about all the things you've--you, yourself--have experienced that you would call paranormal. You can refer to your list if you'd like. Then we'll walk through each one in detail. I can't stress enough that, for now, I only want to hear about what you have experienced. Not what others might have told you. Okay?"

Jackie pulled his list out of his pocket and unfolded it on the table, then took out his reading glasses and put them on. "Well, my wife has seen or heard most of the things, including the phone. And my son, he is talking to someone--" He felt his face get hot. "I'll let you talk to them about those things. I guess you'd say I've experienced the least. I was the first one to notice the carpet, though."

"Let's start with that, then," Tim said.

He tipped his head back once and said, "Right behind me. It had a stain. It's dark, like blood."

"I see." Tim craned his head to the side to see for himself.

"It's probably not there now... I'll start from the beginning," Jackie said. "The house was all hardwood when we moved in. I guess the Moriartys used areas rugs. Or maybe not, who knows. When we came for the open house, we noticed a dark spot in the wood behind where I'm sitting, just at the threshold to the kitchen. It was a dark brown, slightly darker than the floors.

"I thought nothing of it at the time. It just looked like a stain in the wood." Plus, the price we were getting was ridiculously low, Jackie thought bitterly. "We had the floors stripped and redone with a lighter finish. The guys doing the work told me they were able to get rid of it, that it was just some sort of stain from the previous job.

"Then, about a week later, I noticed there was a small stain around where the old stain had been. I called the floor guys and complained, asking them to come and take a look at it. They blew me off. Said there was no way to avoid tiny blemishes like the one I was describing.

"But the little blemish got bigger. Slowly. I know because it started out on one plank. Then it grew so that it was on two, then a few. It began forming a large circle. And it was a dark brown, so it really stood out against the lighter finish we'd had put on.

"I had another floor guy come and take a look. I thought it might be some type of fungus or rot. That maybe this part of the wood was exposed to something in the basement.

"The floor guy didn't know what it was. He told me he could replace that part of the floor. The wood replacement would be cheap, but of course he tried to convince me to have the whole floor redone--redoing one spot wouldn't look right, he said. We had to get some other work done on the house, so this seemed unimportant in comparison, so I told him we'd hold off.

"We put a throw rug over it, because it became an eye sore. It grew to about a foot and a half in diameter, then seemed to stop.

"We kept the throw rug down for a few weeks before running it through the washer. When I lifted it up, I saw the stain had started to get onto the bottom of the throw rug.

"I called the floor guy and told him I wanted that section of the floor replaced and to just put finish on that part--I told him not to worry about redoing the whole room. He came out and took care of it.

"But the stain came back."

$5.50 Is Not A Lot of Money

On Monday, March 2nd, you can purchase The Unearthed for a mere $5.50. It's a fast-paced read filled with something for everybody: mystery, drama, twists, and violence. And if you don't like the story, you can always come here and bitch about it.

But seriously, $5.50 is not a lot of money even in this poor economy. This month, just do one of the following and you can spend the money instead on a good read:

-Buy one less beer at the pub. Your liver will thank you.
-Make one less trip to Wawa, or its equivalent. Out of the whole month, that's not hard.
-Rent one less movie. You'll be reading a good book to pass the time instead!
-Go on one less late-night run to KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy's, etc. It'll help keep the weight off.
-Don't pay for online porn. Seriously, you can get it for free...so I'm told.

Aside from renting a movie, why is the rest of my list comprised solely of nasty vices? Perhaps I should reevaluate my lifestyle...

Nate Green Interviews Emma Wayne Porter

Nate was lucky enough to interview Emma Wayne Porter, about her role as Editor-in-Chief at Lyrical Press and the publishing industry as a whole. I am forever indebted to Emma because she said "Yes" to my novel, The Unearthed, after many others had politely or impolitely said "No."

Just a short post today, because I don't want to steal any of Nate's thunder. Make sure you check out the interview when you get a chance!

E-Books: What They Are and Why You Should Read Them

A moment of truth: before I tried to get published, I didn't know anything about e-books, e-publishing, e-this, e-that. As I explored the various publishing options for The Unearthed, i.e. received polite rejections, nasty rejections, or no responses whatsoever, I learned more about the digital print format and how it has changed and will continue to change what we know as publishing.

No, I'm not one of those people who's going to tell you that in three years there won't be any more print books available. The concept of "book" or "novel" is just too firmly rooted in our collective conscious as something that must be held, or at the least, as something more tangible than a PDF. However, e-books are changing the way novels are not only read, but also the way they are chosen for publication, written, and promoted.

Simply put, an e-book is an electronic file that can be read in a variety of ways:

-on a personal computer,
-on a laptop,
-sometimes on a cell phone,
-sometimes on an iPod, and
-always through an e-book device, such as the Kindle or the Sony Reader

It's no secret that e-books originally did not enjoy the best of reputations. However, e-publishing has grown in both popularity and critical regard over the last ten years. They're getting better, and more people are reading them, in other words. And because of the low production costs of e-books, e-publishing has some unique advantages over traditional publishing:

-more unknown authors get their big shot through e-publishers,
-niche markets get the fiction they're looking for, and
-e-books are cheaper to buy.

So just think, you could find a cheap book by an up-and-coming author before he or she makes it big.

My publisher, Lyrical Press, Inc., is releasing The Unearthed in e-format on March 2, 2009 for $5.50. A print-on-demand version will become available if, and only if, the digital sales warrant the investment in additional production costs.

Last pitch (of the post!): for only $5.50, you can read a fast-paced, intelligent story and help a new author build a readership.

The Faces of Belmez

I was going to save this one for last, because it was the most interesting story I came across while researching for The Unearthed, but it's just so fascinating I had to write about it now.

The Faces of Belmez, or the Belmez Faces, whichever you prefer, have sparked intense scientific and pseudo-scientific debate.

A little background is necessary. In 1971, Maria Gomez Pereira noticed that a strange image had spontaneously appeared on her kitchen floor, that seemingly of a face. The part of the floor containing the offending face was ripped out and re-laid with cement. A week later, another face appeared in the same spot.

As it turns out, the house had been constructed over a cemetery. I know, sounds like a bad horror movie, but apparently this is all "true." Needless to say, an excavation ensued, bodies were reburied elsewhere, and life went back to normal. For two weeks.

Then another image appeared, and another, and eventually as many as 15 other faces appeared. Some would disappear and reappear in the course of a day, while some would remain in place for much longer. The floor was torn out a number of times and replaced, but the faces kept coming back no matter what was done.

Over the course of 35 years, the faces were photographed and documented by various reporters and scientists. One investigator sealed and covered the floor with plastic so it couldn't be tampered with, but new faces appeared underneath the plastic. Other tests were performed to determine if there were any chemical traces that would suggest that the faces had been drawn, and these tests, depending upon who you ask, yielded some surprising answers.

Some believe these images to be thoughtographic phenomenon. According to paranormal experts, this is a form of psychokinesis, in this case caused wittingly or unwittingly by the owner of the house, where the person psychically burns an image from the mind onto something else. Think The Ring. Others have claimed that there is chemical evidence of forgery.

This blog, My Favorite Monsters, provides an excellent detailed summary. And, there's this gem on youtube, complete with its own Matrix-soundtrack.

In One Month...

...you can pick up an electronic copy of The Unearthed. It's part old-fashioned ghost story, part new-fashioned procedural. The story follows a team of paranormal experts as they try to unravel the mysteries behind the inexplicable phenomena plaguing a family in their home.

It's a good, fast, and intelligent read. But don't take my word for it. My editor, Emma Wayne Porter, tells me that The Unearthed is structurally and syntactically perfect.

Fair warning, but I'll be heavily promoting my book this month, leading up to the e-release on March 2, 2009. I'll be giving away some cool things and sharing some of the more interesting paranormal stories I came across when I was doing research for the novel.

Lyrical Press Launches New Web Site

For those of you who don't know, or who have been consciously ignoring my attempts at shameless self-promotion, Lyrical Press is releasing my paranormal thriller, The Unearthed, on March 2, 2009 electronically.

Lyrical has just launched a new web site, and all vested interests aside (yeah, right), it looks pretty good.

Lyrical Press is a relatively young publishing house that offers stories from all genres, but specializes in erotica, romance, and paranormal fiction. Side Bar: The Unearthed is a paranormal thriller and does not in any way qualify as erotic or romantic. Unless by romantic you mean idealistic or heroic, in which case it still probably doesn't. Or unless you're into some really weird sexual stuff, it doesn't qualify as erotica either. As they say, kinky is when you use a feather; weird is when use the whole bird.

Lyrical is primarily an e-publisher, but certain select titles over 70,000 words do become available as Print-On-Demand if their sales merit it. (Pregnant pause)

If you get a moment, check out Lyrical's new site.