8 Awesome Gifts for August – Rather than the end of summer, think of this as the beginning of Christmas. I’ve got 52 free SciFi and Fantasy books for you immediately below.
. I’m sharing the best selections from two dozen authors I’ve met on Facebook. The topic: ‘Fight Scene’. Enjoy!
Countdown: Now You Get Gift 7
Relive the drama of the landing of Mars Curiosity six years ago.
Your Last Bit of Awesomeness
Woohoo! One of my favorite reviewers, Rebecca McNutt, has reviewed ‘Zombie Turkeys’. And she likes it!
This book is quite an eclectic mix of themes and genres. It’s not quite horror and not quite comedy, but rather a variety of both, including some sci-fi and adventure elements, a clever and witty social commentary on modern American digital culture, and a more original story to rise from the over-saturated zombie horror genre as something that carves out its own path in the fiction world. In some ways, it reminded me of those 1980’s horror films I used to watch back in high school, and in other ways, with its themes of a modernizing, changing America, it reminded me of films like Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins.
First, I didn’t take time off after Zombie Turkeys came out October, 2016. I entered November NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words of MUM (as I like to abbreviate it.)
I finished up the book in January and sent the book to my editor, Dori Harrell, as with Zombie Turkeys. Then I contacted my illustrator Sean ‘Fuzzy’ Flanagan. He stressed the covers should look similar, so people can see this is a series. He created another fantastic cover.
Like before, the back cover is a scene from within the book. In this case, the first chapter family meal with the zombie family, the Newby’s and the normal inlaws. Did you notice the back cover is a parody? Compare it to this famous Norman Rockwell painting.
Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell
Fuzzy also created unique chapter icons, like this next one:
MUM Chapter 1 Icon
You Can Publish 4 Books in 3 Years – The Process
At this point, I’m getting a rhythm to working with my editors and illustrator and Amazon. I used over a hundred step project plan for Zombie Turkeys. For you, I’ve boil it down to:
Write as much as you can every day until you’re done with the first draft.
Then edit your first draft. Remove all grammar and spelling errors. (I use the free version of Grammarly).
Then you’ll need a book format editor like Rik Hall. He puts your final manuscript into a professional format for print and ebook publishing.
Now you can upload your manuscript and cover to Kindle.
Consider this optional step: print out an author copy to check. I did that with Zombie Turkeys, but not the other books.
Finally, you can publish it. Plan a date two to four weeks in the future for time to generate buzz and interest.
Don’t forget to hold a launch party on the day of your book’s availability. Choose a library or bookstore and advertise it. I also advertise online by creating a Facebook event for each book launch.
You can now buy posters and promotional material for selling at book conventions.
My goal is to publish a book every nine months. A successful author said he writes four per year in a series and releases them every month for four months. I may try that in the future.
Would you like that? How about if I wrote four volumes of my Secret Supers series and release them monthly? Would you like that? Let me know. I’ll send you a free short story for your response.
4 Writing Hooks – where do I get them? From my books. What are they?
The first hook, for Zombie Turkeys, from the first page:
Chapter 1 Bartonville He felt different. More energetic, more alive. He bred with female after female in his flock without tiring. He stayed awake through the night. He feared no predator. Then a turkey hunter shot him.
“You know I love your mother. But your mother’s a zombie. Who wants to see one zombie, let alone four of them?” “Now that’s not fair. Mom and Dad have adjusted to their zombiism very well. Mom still volunteers at church and bakes cookies and pies for the bake sales. Dad still works as an accountant at GM. There’s nothing to worry about!”
From My Undead Mother-in-law by Andy Zach
My Undead Mother-in-law, chapter 1 icon. Click to get.
So, which hook did you like best? Or do you have another one from another author? If you do, I’ll post it/them here in my next blog.
The Third Hook of 4 Writing Hooks
Chapter 1 – Somalia Dirac sighed with relief when the US flag came down and the surrender flag went up on the mast of the titanic luxury yacht. He didn’t mind firing rounds from his AK-47 over their heads, but he hated killing people. He knew they were only infidels, but they were still people.
Okay, this hook is quite different. Do you still want to read what happens next? If you do, that’s a good hook.
The Last of 4 Writing Hooks
“Dear diary,” Jeremy Gentle dictated into his app on his tablet in his bedroom. “Today, I became a superhero.” Jeremy stopped, uncertain. Was that the best way to start his journal? Might as well just tell the story. He needed to sleep. He had a big algebra test tomorrow at Maryville Middle School.
And there you have it. My four book hooks. You can follow the links and get the one you like, or I’ll give you a free book in exchange for a review. Just let me know here.
Some Reviews
Short or long, I love them all. Good or bad, I want more to be had.
Let me start by saying that “Andy Zach” has an unusual sense of humor (or possibly has escaped from a lunatic asylum and is living under an assumed name). I invite you to check out his Amazon author page and read the bio. He’s gone all in on this zombie expert thing (since his parents were zombies) and states that he reanimated dead animals as a child for a science fair. He also currently raises phoenixes as a hobby. One more thing before starting on the story. What is that ‘thing’ on his head in his author picture?
Not your standard zombie tale December 28, 2018 When I started to read this book, I was leery. As far as I know, I’m less interested in zombies than anyone on the planet. How could I give a reasonable review? Turns out, it wasn’t hard at all. I’ve said before and it turned out to be true here that, if you have a ridiculous premise that’s hard to swallow, run with it, normalize it, and readers /viewers will eventually accept. And it worked. The original premise of cognizant, virtually indestructible zombies was lobbed and backed until I was a believer, actively rooting for zombies. Plenty of (bloodier than average) action, some smiling, if not guffaw humor, a nice fulfilling story arc in an easy readable length made for a fun book (if bloody action doesn’t bother you) with charm that didn’t take itself to seriously but still capable of many a tender and touching moments.
Different tilt on a zombie series December 6, 2018 I have read the whole series and enjoyed it. I did not find myself staying g up all night to finish or rushing home to read. That was probably a good thing as then If I had I’d of been cranky and over sleep for work. Never a pretty sight as I am not a morning person anyway. I liked the book for the unusual perspectives and storyline. If I spot about her book from this author O would definitely give it a try.
