Cat drag races, Alianne Donnelly wants to scare you, and a spoiler for Soulless Monk

I'm feeling a bit lazy, and quite possibly drunk, so rather than talk about me, I'm gonna let someone else drive the 50 ft. Gerbil of Informative Death I call Farish's Freehold. I'm off to the cat drag races.

 

 

I've got 50 on "Fluffy."

 

Alianne Donnelly is a writer, and not just a scribbler of sad teen-age angsty gals yearning for the sweet love of a weepy beta male paranormal creature. One who doesn't mean to slaughter bus loads of orphans, but is just sooooo misunderstood. Nope. Alianne crafts a story with strings of blood and wrappings of terror.

I'm smiling because soon your liver will be mine.

Alianne is an avid lover of stories of all kinds. Having grown up with fairy tales in a place where it almost seemed they were real, it was no surprise when she began making up her own stories. She loves books, music, hiking, and archery, and won’t shy away from travel and zip lining. Alianne graduated with a business degree and when she’s not off in the land of fantasy, she lives in California.

Who wants to go camping now?

About Wolfen: There is a new world order in place and your choice is simple: adapt or die.

You thought it would be safe in a prison? You've been watching "The Walking Dead."

Man’s quest for genetic perfection has led to the creation of new subspecies. Wolfen were the pinnacle of scientific achievement, redefining the limits of what it means to be human. Their counterparts, in turn, grew into the ultimate predators. Incapable of higher thought, converts were unstoppable in their need to breed and devour, and when they escaped, they brought the world to its knees.

Almost two decades later, humanity is on the brink of extinction and only the heartless survive. Rescued by two Wolfen brothers, Sinna must now brave the treacherous wastelands of North America in order to reach safety and the promise of a better life. But when an unexpected gambit forces them to separate, a genetic advantage becomes a liability, and the worst monsters turn out to be the ones who don’t have claws.

In the game of survival, Wolfen were created to be champions. No longer. The enemy keeps evolving, rendering old tactics ineffective, and the only rule left is to endure at any cost.

Links:

Smashwords – Wolfen by Alianne Donnelly

Amazon – Wolfen by Alianne Donnelly

Barnes & Noble – Wolfen by Alianne Donnelly

iTunes – Wolfen by Alianne Donnelly

Kobo – Wolfen by Alianne Donnelly

Media links:

Book website – http://wolfenwideweb.com

Book trailer – https://youtu.be/leXUwk_o3E8

Related book video – https://youtu.be/We5rSRvU2eA

Interim remix song – https://soundcloud.com/alydonnelly/interim-remix-wolfen-by-alianne-Donnelly

 

Wolfen Excerpt:

Interim

Start Recording…

I thought we had left it behind. I really believed it would all be over. I was so very wrong. This is Dr. Leslie Gerome. I am recording this because someone out there should know what really happened; how the world really came to an end. And it wasn’t with a bang, or a whimper. It happened with the splicing of a single cell. Man tried to become God, and Nature bucked under his command and struck out with unimaginable fury.

They never buried Chernobyl den as I had hoped. I think I died ten times over on the climb up to the surface, expecting the walls to start caving in on me any second. But they never did. No one ever came looking—for it, or me and Sinna—probably thinking the converts were too stupid to make it out, that they would starve to death down there. Maybe they were right and the monsters we created thirteen stories below a nuclear wasteland did eventually die there.

Those extracted, however, did not.

If anyone ever finds this, please believe what I am about to tell you. There is no such thing as an inert, no middle ground for the creatures we engineered. The DNA grafts might be dormant, but sooner or later, they always activate. One way or another. That was why Fukushima den imploded. They never realized how many potential converts they housed together.

The inerts who converted outside the dens are fully viable and capable of reproduction. It has now been three years since the dens shut down. In that time, world governments tried in vain to bury the story with mindless entertainment for the masses, but there is no hiding it anymore. Last night I found a video online of a female convert giving birth and promptly devouring her own young. Conspiracy theories estimate that the converts, or “Grays” as they are called, are reproducing at an increasing rate. Outside of stable laboratory conditions, Grays can develop three times faster than a human and, though they show each other the same ravenous viciousness they display toward prey, they do mate, and they do breed.

End Recording.

Author Links:

Website – http://aliannedonnelly.com

Blog – http://aliannedonnelly.com/blog

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/alydonnelly

Twitter – @AlianneDonnelly

 

 

 

Alright I'm back, won on several races and did shots with the pit crew. And I've got a bit of info about Soulless Monk, which is coming out 1 October 2015.

That's right you have six days to prepare.

 

 

 

 

Pre-order Soulless Monk now

Smashwords - https://goo.gl/NXw3Gr

Amazon - http://goo.gl/p9fBn0
 

                                 

Ready for the spoiler?

Sebastian has gotten on the Bishop's bad side, and needs more training. James needs to hide. In six days you will know what I'm talking about. So preorder your copy and get your blankie ready, cause Brother Sebastian is back!

 

And let's not forget the book that started it all

Junior Inquisitor

Book #1 of the Inquisitor Series

 

 

All your buying options in one location

http://goo.gl/mJtTf8

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soulless Monk comes out 1 October

1 October Soulless Monk goes on sale

         Pre-order now https://goo.gl/NXw3Gr

                                                            Smashwords

Smashwords has all the major e-book formats to include Amazon's Mobi. Working on getting it loaded up on Amazon and via Createspace; a paperback version.

Blurb - Brother Sebastian is in trouble. Again. Banished from New England and sent to train with the hyper-violent Hammers, Sebastian wants to atone, but an army of necromancers, battle-mages, and at least one sorceress is seriously messing up his plans. James, former Inquisitor and disciple of Thaddeus, is lurking about, and even with the help of a bunch of heavily-armed Hammers, will Sebastian be to able stop gut-rippers, constructs, lichs...and a newly returned Thaddeus?

Excerpt - Final exams aren’t supposed to be this hard, I thought as I tried to get the fat warlock into the trunk.

Two days ago, I’d been dropped off in the slums of Phoenix with a sealed envelope and a plastic grocery bag of items. I’d watched the van drive off and walked over to a nearby alley to find out what my mission was and what supplies I’d been given. The sun was just short of setting, the buildings giving off long shadows. Despite the lateness of the day, it was still hot. The streets were deserted, for the most part, but that would change soon enough.

The alley was a bit cooler and well littered with refuse and cast offs. I wended my way carefully—to avoid tripping over anything—and making sure there were no homeless present. My clothes would blend in a bit, but no one would be fooled for long.

I took one more long look up and down the alley then squatted on my heels to see what I had to do. After putting down my bag, I tore open the envelope. Inside was a map, and a printed piece of paper with a grainy picture and instructions underneath. I read the mission brief first.

Daniel Aftowsizi, day trader, 35 years old, single. Lives and works at 23 Crescent Circle, Phoenix AZ. Makes twice daily trip to barbershop on corner of Euclid and Baxter, probable front for gambling. Subject is possible warlock. You are to observe him, subdue him, and bring him to All Saints Church, 15 All Saints Drive, Phoenix AZ. Do not cause permanent harm.

After delivery, go to Zola Butte, and get to the top. You have three days.

The map had the house, barbershop, and church all marked for me. The house and barbershop were just ten or twelve blocks apart, but the church was on the other side of town. Neither my current location nor Zola Butte were marked.

 

 

        Pre-order now https://goo.gl/NXw3Gr

 

 

 

 

And just in case you haven't read the first one yet,

 

 

 

Junior Inquisitor Book #1 of the Inquisitor Series

Smashwords -http://goo.gl/XsGgAC
Amazon -http://goo.gl/D6KrbX

In the Home Stretch

While the arrival of my book , Soulless Monk, is not quite as important as Arbor Day, it is still kind of a big deal for me.

The holiday no one celebrates

 

Soulless Monk, is busy being formatted, and when that is done I shall load it up into Amazon and Smashwords for distribution. As for Google and Barnes and Nobel, well, they turned out to be more trouble than they were worth, besides Smashwords has formats for all major e-readers. With luck Soulless Monk will be available by the end of September.

 

Coming soon as both an e-book and paperback

 

Part of me now wonders, what to do next? Relax? Count the money as it rolls in, maybe drain the pool so I can swim in my cash like Scrooge McDuck? Nope, the easy part, if writing editing, formatting, and everything else it takes to get a book ready could ever be called easy, is over. Now I have to market.

As soon as I have an exact date of when my book will be available, I will commence with the blog tour. I will continue to tweet daily and update Facebook. Lastly, of course, I will keep writing posts here that go into detail on what is happening. I’m also thinking that about a few contests to coincide with the release of Soulless Monk.

Number three which I will be calling The Witch’s Lair is being edited, or at least when I have time I’ll get back to edits and re-writes. But first of course I need to take a swim in my money pool.

My review of Waking Wolfe by S.L. Shelton

The difficult part of turning an everyday man into an action hero, or in this case a junior spy, is the transformation. There is a lot of training, changes in attitude and awareness, oceans of knowledge that must be consumed and skills internalized. In short, too much detail to really be able to explain what you learned and did too anyone who has not been there. The difficulty for a writer to describe the process of transformation is just as difficult. It is a balancing act, spend to much time on the change and it gets dull or bogged down in techno-babble, skimp on the change and you might as well say, “And with a wave of his magic wand James Bond created another fully trained, mission ready clone.”

 

No more beer for you Mr. Wolfe!

 

S.L. Shelton has found a middle ground that shows how Scoff Wolfe goes from Techno-geek to CIA asset and more. There is a realness and rawness a visceral truth that Shelton is able to describe to the reader, so that even when Scott is kicking butt, dodging bullets, and fighting for his life, he still believably, a real, regular guy.

The basic plot is Scott has to rescue his kinda, sorta, ex-girlfriend, when right after they have a fight she kidnapped. However this is no “lone man on a mission” trope that we often see in action novels, Scott has a back up computer team, unusual allies and a few converts to help. Standing in the way, agents of The US Government, who thinks he shouldn't get involved, and Russian and Serbian gangsters.

 

But to call it just a rescue story, or pulp adventure, or coming of age story is to absurdly and incorrectly pigeon-hole this book. The hero doesn't get by on one liners and “just happened to be handy tools and weapons,” nor is it a techo-geek's wet dream where despite being nearly blind with-out glasses, allergic to air and everything else, as well as the social skills of a rabid, incontinent, escapee from the loony bin, he still gets the girl, it is, instead, a believable story about a normal guy who rises to the occasion.

 

Waking Wolfe is not this at all

 

Another skill that Shelton has is tying together details that seem trivial in the beginning, but you realize later on had to be there for the story to work, nothing as clumsy as foreshadowing, but hints and clues that you do not realize are there to be examined until you have passed them.

I will be buying the next in the series and enjoyed this one thoroughly.

                        Available at Amazon
                                                        Waking Wolfe

Now for updates on my stuff

The Soulless Monk is just about ready to go to the publishers. I'm thinking the release date will be around the end of the month. I'll know more once it has been uploaded to Smashwords and Amazon.

Of course, I'll need to do a bit of a blog tour to help publicize The Soulless Monk, so if you have a blog and like getting traffic, let me know when you have an opening and we'll do a post to remember.

Junior Inquisitor remains available for just 2.99 and can be found here -

Amazon - http://goo.gl/D6KrbX

Smashwords - http://goo.gl/XsGgAC

 

 

My review of Hope 239 by Jeffery Goff

Fiction has always been a way to safely explore ideas and concepts without riling up those in power. "I'm not criticizing the king," says the author, “that is a fictional character complaining about a ruler in a make-believe country,” and with that the author gets to keep his head attached, most of the time.

Science- fiction took up this mantle as it was created, asking how would man act in space, how would humans react to meting aliens? What if the aliens were violent/ peaceful/ inscrutable/ insane? And many, many more ideas and questions.

Science fiction also asked philosophical concepts like, “What are the limits of freedom?”

Not by directly asking the question, of course, but by placing the characters in a situation where boundaries were tested, and showing what happened next.

Equality for the masses-sorta

What indeed Piggy, what indeed.

Some might say that in recent years Sci-Fi has lost that edge, it has become more about telling a good story, or worse yet, advancing a political ideology, rather than asking its readers to think about difficult subjects. For the most part, I disagree, what has happened is that some social mores have shifted, science has advanced, and as a result, answered those questions that early Sci-Fi authors asked.

Totalitarian regimes fail, both those driven by Romanticism and Realism as well as those led by messianic figures. Sexual liberation is possible, but there is a cost both to the individual and to society. Individualism taken to the extreme leads to anarchy, not utopia. You can not chemically “improve” a person for any length of time, nor can we alter the mind, yet.

There are plenty of other basic questions that have not yet been answered and the best authors still ask them.



Jeffery says - "I will make you think while you enjoy my stories."

Hope 239 is one such book. On the surface it is a simple tale about a colony ship that has traveled to another series of worlds and is about to begin settlement. Under the surface of the words, however, are some very dark, uncomfortable questions.

Can you be called “aware,” and still be blindly obedient to instructions?

If the perceived best course of action is for a subset of a group to commit suicide, so that the rest may flourish, is it still the best course of action?

Is there a difference between domestication and slavery?

Buy me today!

 

As I have said before, books that make me think, while telling a damn fine story are my favorite kind. Hope 239 is this kind of book and I look forward to Jeffery's next novel.

 

                          Available now on Amazon as both an e-book and paperback
                                                        Hope 239

 

 

The Soulless Monk, number two in the Inquisitor Series, is just about ready to go. Once it is formatted and submitted for publication I will have a date when it will be available.

Soon

Blurb from The Soulless Monk

Brother Sebastian is in trouble. Again. Banished from New England and sent to train with the hyper-violent Hammers, Sebastian wants to atone, but an army of necromancers, battle-mages, and at least one sorceress is seriously messing up his plans. James, former Inquisitor and disciple of Thaddeus, is lurking about, and even with the help of a bunch of heavily-armed Hammers, will Sebastian be able stop gut-rippers, constructs, lichs...and a newly returned Thaddeus?

Junior Inquisitor, book number one of the Inquisitor Series, is still a bargain at 2.99. You can find it at Amazon in both paperback and e-book.

Amazon - Junior Inquisitor

 

 

or at Smashwords as an e-book

Smashwords - Junior Inquisitor

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Hammer by Dr. Lynne Campbell

Some of us, the lucky ones, are rarely touched by darkness, some go into the dark to learn and help the rest of us understand, if possible. Let me introduce my friend Dr. Lynne Campbell and her latest book Jack Hammer.

 



I've looked into the darkness

 

 

Dr. Lynne Campbell holds a Ph.D in Forensic Psychology and specializes in Serial Crime. She has worked in both open and closed custody settings, interviewing, assessing, Serial Offenders, for more than 10 years. Dr. Campbell has also spent just as long teaching "The Prevention and Management of Aggressive Behaviour", "Defusing Hostility", "Community Safety", and "The Personality Disorders". She has taught at hospitals in Canada such as Mount Sinai, Toronto General, and CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), as well as for Students of The University of Toronto, York University, George Brown College, and CTI (Canadian Training Institute).

 

What's wrong with Jack? ...Everything.
Jack Hammer isn't like everyone else. In fact, you could say that he's 'all wrong'. He just can't seem to stop doing very BAD THINGS. Maybe someone will stop him. No...Jacky's way too smart for that.
This is both his story, and his diary of evil deeds. Are you brave enough to experience The Hammer?
Extreme Horror Violence and Brutality. Graphic Depictions. Adult Content and Language.

A few questions –

Most serial killers are sad onanists from the fringes of society, who are quickly caught, why are we so fascinated with them?

I feel our the fascination with Serial Killers stems from the desire to understand the unknown. They are still not so easily explained with respect to the 'Why?' of how they lack most of the emotions in the human spectrum as well as to their addiction to killing. The great debate of Natures vs. Nurture continues in Forensics. Additionally, they are often of extremely high intelligence, and are difficult to catch. In some cases they have been killing for years, with unimaginably high body counts, before they are apprehended (if they are apprehended). There are always a large number of active Serial Killers in the world and I believe people want to know why, and how to better protect themselves and their loved ones.

Where you got some of your ideas?

My ideas for Jack Hammer are based upon my experiences and my knowledge of Serial Predators over the course of my career. I took the most extreme cases and combined them to create the enigma that is Jack. As a character of fiction, but rooted in true crime, he is a safe learning tool for those that want to get inside the mind of such a heinous predator. It's violent and upsetting, because they are, but knowledge is power.

 

Any literary inspirations?

My literary inspirations are vast and include the works of Doug Clark (former RCMP Officer who established Profiling), Dr. Scott Peck, Martha Stout, Colin Wilson, Doug Seaman, and John Douglas (Former FBI Profiler and Task Force Lead), to name a few.

Big fan of what kind of genre of books?

My favorite genres include True Crime, Horror fiction, The Occult (non-fiction), Paranormal Investigations (non-fiction), World History, World Religion, Spirituality, as well as Urban Legends and Folklore.

        Plans for the next book?

I do have the outline for my next book in the works. It's called Mr. Stone, which is an acronym for 'Monster', which will be an Occult Horror Fiction novel. I have to keep a lid on the rest for now, except to say it will explore other realms and the darkness that may come for us should we open the wrong 'doors'.

 

 

 

 

What is the underlying message about your book?

"It is not a random book of violence. It is the tale of the evolution of a Serial Predator worse than any in history, based on my experiences, research, and knowledge as a Forensic Psychologist. I created the novel so that people can learn about the way these individuals think, the emotions we have that they lack (empathy, compassion, love, regret, remorse, guilt), and how they behave. I hope to open the reader's eyes about how such predators stalk and lure people in, so that they may better protect themselves in the real world. There is an educational and informational purpose to Jack Hammer. I hope the majority of people who read my updated Preview and my novel, will see the bigger picture here. I do not condone what Jack Hammer does. I do not condone violence, period. I am showing his cruelty and his violent nature in graphic detail in my novel because there are people out in the real world who have a cruel and violent nature. Jack Hammer is vile and disturbing because such predators are vile and disturbing. There are people that torture and kill both animals and people, and the more we can understand about them, the better off we are. There are people who are wired differently, and who feel nothing with regard to the suffering of others. Many of them. Knowledge is Power. Ignorance is not bliss. The wiser we are, the safer we are."

 

 

                    

Jack Hammer is available now on Amazon.

http://goo.gl/2lP4s2

If you want some madness and mayhem from a slightly less scientific perspective,

Monsters, Witches, Madness, and those who have to stop them!

Now for the low price of 2.99, less than a cup of fancy coffee, and never bitter.


                        Amazon - http://goo.gl/D6KrbX



                Smashwords - http://goo.gl/XsGgAC

I've lost my writing buddy

I haven’t done much writing recently. Sure, I’ve posted to Twitter, responded to emails, but actual writing? The kind of work where through pain and thought, words are extruded in bloody clumps? Written ideas which are polished and fitted properly to spark the imagination, so that you have, as Mark Twain described, lightening and not the lightening bug; for that I’ve been quiet.

Is it feeding time?

 

I’ve been reserved because I have lost my writing buddy. Calvin the Helper Dog died on the 9^th of August, and I’ve just not been motivated to, figuratively, pick up the pen and sally forth into battle. I haven’t been able to write about his death as the lovely Dr. Farish was on vacation, and nothing ends fun on the beach faster than finding out your dog, your protector and house guardian, is dead. The choice was wreck her vacation, or keep mum on the issue. Either choice was going to get me in trouble. I kept silent, until now.

He was sick often the last few months.

 

At the Vet hospital I got a lot of dumb looks and suggestions for really expensive tests from very specialized clinics in the region. With a broad spectrum antibiotic, he got better for a bit, and then started to crash again, eventually they figured out it was Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Compounding their inability to do good medicine, the antibiotic prescribed was ½ of the therapeutic dose. Dogs can survive RMSF, but only if it is caught early and treated properly. We figured out the dose was wrong and fixed it, and for a while Calvin was doing better. The fever went away, he was back to himself. Things were good. Several weeks later, however, a few days after my wife left for her vacation, which I had to miss out on due to military duty, his appetite disappeared again. It got hard for him to walk, he lost proprioception, and then, he died. And I could not tell her.

Calvin lived for about 7 and a half years, not terribly long for a dog, even one as big (145 pounds) as he grew to be as an adult.

 

Really he did start off small

 

I used to joke that Calvin was the Incredible Hulk of Rhodesian Ridgebacks, he was at least a third larger than any other of his breed I have met. He was not fat, but just taller, wider, and more muscular than any other of his kind. The last time we took him to a dog park he stared barking with joy and the place emptied quickly. His chin was actually higher than our first dining-room table. Big is too small of a word to describe him. Perhaps massive would be better.

Sitting he was about 3 feet tall

Like everything in life he was not perfect, he had a stubborn streak, which meant learning things like “sit,” “stay,” “stop gnawing on the neighbor’s cat,” took a while to sink in. He would occasionally counter surf, and if you were unaware, food would vanish, but for the most part he’d beg and with those sad hound dog brown eyes and guilt you into providing treats.

 

I deserve this treat

When he was little he was allowed on our old couch, and never quite understood why he couldn’t get on the new one. He did eat a rug I’d brought back from Afghanistan, and when he had digestive issues…. I’ll let you figure out the rest.

 

I'd never eat a book though

Still, he was there, ready to play, or watch me type and curse my way through a book or article, or even a computer generated zombie attack. If there were crunchy leaves to run through and roll around in, he was a happy, happy doggie. 

I will protect your from the evil squirrels

 

I never had to worry about my wife or little girl not being safe or the house being broken into while he lived. If anyone ever cased my house or admired the smoking hot redhead out for a walk, any nefarious ideas vanished upon seeing Calvin. He never forgot who I was and was excited to see me when I returned even if I was gone for a year or so on one of my deployments.

He was a good dog, he was my dog, he was a part of our family, and I miss him very much.