Local Authors Event, May 30

(Update: I just want to ask again for everyone who likes to read to swing by this coming Saturday, say hello to me and my fellow local authors, and take a look to see if there's anything you like.  Thank you!)

I've been invited back to the Barnes & Noble store at the Shops At Wiregrass mall in Wesley Chapel, FL (just north of New Tampa).

It's on Saturday May 30th (sadly not Memorial Day weekend tho) from 2 PM to 4 PM.  Location is:
28152 Paseo Dr
Suite 100
Wesley Chapel FL 33543
(it's at the corner facing the major intersection of SR 56 and Bruce B Downs Blvd)

I've got a link at Goodreads where you can tag if you'll attend, please and thank you.

The Importance Of Titles

A science fiction editor, Neil Clarke for Clarkeworld and/or Forever magazines, recently took about 50,000 short story submission titles and fed them into a Wordle generator to see what the most common story title words were used.

Came up with a doozy of a list.

Upon further examination, I have used some of these words.
Last
War
Blue
Day

I'd have to re-read my short story anthology to verify.

On the bright side, I don't see the words Grapefruit, Welcome, Snipe (or Hunt), Hero, Cleanup, Protocol, or Banging.  So I *am* making serious efforts to be original with the naming conventions.

But let's be fair.  Science fiction relies on specific imagery, specific tropes, and because of that the title(s) of stories/novels have to convey as close as possible what the point of the story will be.  I guarantee you a word count of mystery/thriller titles will have Shadow, Dead, Night, Fatal, or other menacing noir-ish words in play.

Free Comic Book Day 2015 - At Bartow Library

While the Free Comic Book Day website doesn't show Bartow Public Library offering itself as a place to collect the free issues available this first Saturday of May - May 2nd - I do want to ensure people that yes we will have select free titles to hand out!

Just a reminder we're at
2150 S. Broadway Ave
Bartow FL 33830
and we're open on Saturdays from 9 am to 5 pm.

We are carrying just a few titles though, so the giveaway is limited.

I Survived MegaCon 2015

Barely.  My feet are still aching from all that walking.

Dear Orlando.  You need to install people movers at the convention center.  And benches.  You need one bench for every four people.  So what if you have to expand the floorspace another 10,000 square feet to accommodate?  DO IT.

Sigh.  Enjoy some pictures.  I shall cross-post with my political blog with more data.

Presenting: Nightmare Noir by Alex Azar

Mystery and Horror LLC, publisher of anthologies such as Strangely Funny, Mardi Gras Murder, and History And Mystery Oh My! is proud to offer their first full novel by writer Alex Azar: Nightmare Noir.

Cover art: TJ Halvorsen

Nightmare Noir opens the casebook of Detective James S. Peckman, taking us into the underbelly of a world where true evil exists. After his wife and daughter dies under supernatural circumstances, Peckman leaves the police force to pursue the monsters most believe exist only in nightmares. Now, Peckman and his partners take the cases that cannot be explained in the world we think we know.

Writer Alex Azar is born and raised in New Jersey. He made the courageous decision to leave the glamorous life of an electrical engineer student behind and concentrate full time on his life long passion of writing. He is now a happily struggling author. This is his first full length publication (so I know what he's going through...).

Release date for Alex's novel is set for April 13, 2015.  As part of this exciting new release, Mystery and Horror LLC is promoting a FREE book giveaway through Goodreads!  (for those who don't know, Goodreads is dedicated to sharing and promoting books owned and read by thousands of readers, and it's FREE to join.  You might notice I've got a window to my Goodreads bookshelf over on the right of the screen...)  The giveaway at Goodreads is for the whole month so you've got until April 30th to click on the Enter to Win button at the giveaway page linked above.

Mystery and Horror LCC will offer TWO more FREE book giveaways as well!  Just visit M&H LCC's blog site and post a comment on the Midnight Noir page.  You can also post a comment here - there's a link somewhere mutter grumble where'd I put it - and that will count towards the publisher's giveaway.  Deadline for the blog comment giveaways is also April 30th!   Quick update, the drawing might be THIS Sunday, April 5th, so PLEASE get comments in by Saturday if you're interested!

Good luck to Alex with his first novel!

Good news!

I've just received an email from George R.R. Martin!  He wants me to help ghost-write the last two novels of A Song of Ice And Fire so he can resume his happy hobby of handknitting!

I'll be handling all of the POV characters in Essos, as well as any chapters involving a new character, a charismatic librarian named Mhar'tee Stu'Pratchett who uses timey-wimey powers to move between Maester bookshelves so that he can help the good guys at both the Wall, King's Landing, and Braavos.

THIS IS SO EXCITING!  I can stop working on my stuff and concentrate on... on... why is everyone pointing at the date on the calendar?  Yes, I can see it's the first day of April...