@JessicaDall on 5 Mistakes #Authors Make when Querying Publishers #Historical #WriteTip

Back before I became an author (or at least a published author, this was 2009ish) I spent some time working in acquisitions at a small press. I don’t think it’s any small coincidence that, even though I had been writing and querying for years at that point, my first novel was picked up a year later. It is a sad fact of life that being a good novelist doesn’t necessarily make you a good query writer—and just like I think working as an editor has helped improve my own writing, I think reading thousands of query letters over my time in acquisitions at least taught me some of what does and doesn’t work in querying.

1.       Using  “Dear Sir or Madam”

You’ve probably heard this tip before, but if all possible find a name for your query. Many publishers will have an “about us” which will include the acquisitions editor’s name—take the three seconds to check. If you have looked around and can’t find any name at all, I at least find it better to address the letter specifically to the publisher (“Dear 5 Prince Publishing…” or the like). At least then it proves you have taken the time to acknowledge whom you are contacting rather than cutting and pasting a form letter to everyone under the sun.

2.       Not looking at publisher’s current list

Publishers like to know that you have taken the time to think about why you’re submitting to them rather than blanketing every submission email you can find hoping something sticks. It should go without saying, but make sure you are submitting to publishers who publish your genre before sending anything (more than I’d care to admit, there were automatic rejections due to people sending things like sailing stories to a fantasy/sci fi/horror press). You are only going to annoy whoever has to send out the rejection letters.

Beyond making sure the publisher publishes your genre, it’s also a good idea to familiarize yourself with the books currently listed as produced by the publisher you are querying. If you feel like your book would fit in well, you have a better chance of being accepted. Bonus points for being able to point to the books by name (Similar to [PUBLISHER’S BOOK] and [PUBLISHER’S BOOK], [YOUR BOOK] would…)

3.       Grammar/Spelling errors

Another “more often than I’d care to admit” occurrence, typos are a big problem for query letters. If it doesn’t seem like you are a good enough writer to write a query letter properly, it’s likely the acquisitions editor won’t open your sample pages at all.

4.       Overselling yourself

Ok, you’re supposed to “sell yourself” in your query letter (or at least sell your work) but you make no friends by overselling it. If your query letter talks about how you’re sure your books will sell billions or how everyone says you’re the next [BIG AUTHOR] take it out now. Publishing is a business, and so query letters are first and foremost trying to get the publisher to go into business with you. No one wants to work with someone who is unrealistic and/or egotistical.

5.       Not letting your voice shine through.

While the golden rule of query letters is that it is a business letter, and should be treated as such, you certainly shouldn’t take “business” to mean “boring”. If you’re writing humor, it’s all right for your query to sound funny. If you’re writing horror, it’s ok for the tone to be a little scary (especially in your hook). Your query is your first foot in the door. Stay professional, but don’t feel as though you can’t have any personality in it. Certainly let that shine through.

Adela Tilden has always been more ambitious than her station in life might allow. A minor nobleman’s daughter on a failing barony, Adela’s prospects seem dire outside of marrying well-off. When Adela catches the eye of the crown prince, Edward, however, well-off doesn’t seem to be a problem. Thrown into a world of politics and intrigue, Adela might have found all the excitement she ever wanted—if she can manage to leave her past behind.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Alternate Historical Fiction

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Jessica Dall on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://jessicadall.com/

Kevin Sterling's Dog Doesn’t Want Him to Write (or So She Thinks) @KSterlingWriter #AmWriting #Mystery

If you’ve read my author bio somewhere on the Web, you know that I live on a mountain ranch in Colorado and have a rather spirited Golden Retriever named Shelby. She follows me everywhere and wouldn’t give me a moment of solitude if I didn’t periodically assert my rights to be an independent being and do things like going to bathroom by myself. But I also have a wife who enjoys kanoodling with me from time to time, and it isn’t very romantic if a Golden Retriever is simultaneously licking your face. Fortunately, the young lady has her own, comfy bed on the floor. That would be the dog, by the way, not my wife.

As a writer, I clearly spend a lot of time at my desk, and Shelby is always nearby. She spends most of her time in the media room adjacent to my study staring out the French doors, monitoring our property for the multitudes of deer who frequently chow down on our landscaping. If I hear Shelby whining or barking in there, I know exactly what’s going on, and I’ll jump from my desk to let her out so she can chase them away. When she returns, she usually opens the door to let herself in and trots into the study looking like she had just saved the world from a nuclear holocaust.

You would think, since pushing down the door lever is a piece of cake for her, she’d also let herself OUT, but she doesn’t quite have the knack of pulling the door open yet. It’s so much easier to push from the outside. Then I have to get up and close the door again.

But Shelby’s favorite little caper is to come into the study periodically throughout the day and stare at me with a very clear message in her eyes: “Dad, I don’t know what you’re doing in here, but it’s quite boring, and I need you to stop it. Let’s go outside and do something far more entertaining like barking at things that don’t exist.”

These visits happen more frequently as the day goes on since we’re getting closer and closer to “quitting time” (or at least dinner time if I plan to return to work afterwards). Usually, after I spin around in my chair and see her staring me down, I’ll call her over and spend a couple of minutes giving her vigorous petties. That will pacify her for some indefinite period of time, after which she comes back for an encore performance, clearly hoping I’ll listen to reason this time.

I’m not saying we don’t take occasional breaks during the day to play, take a hike, exercise, or go for a ride in the car. We do all that. But I still adhere to a regimented work day, which means no less than 8 hours (and often 10 or more) at my desk, and that’s a lot of sedentary time for a dog to endure. Sometimes she’ll goof around outside without me for a while, especially if chipmunks or other nefarious creatures are in need of chasing around. But in no time she’s back at the study, and I need to get up and close the door, hopefully before those dastardly chipmunks scurry inside.

Oh, if you’re wondering why I harbor such contempt for chipmunks, just check out my author blog at GoodReads.com and read about our cutting-edge chipmunk relocation program. Then you’ll understand.

So it’s safe to say that Shelby has no understanding of why I fiddle with a four-screen computer workstation all day (I trade stocks, too), and I’m sure she thinks we’d both be better off if I did something else for a living. But my former career was in structured finance, which often entailed 60 to 80-hour work weeks with barely enough time outside the office to eat and sleep. If I went back THAT life, she would hardly ever get to see me, and I doubt that’s what she has in mind.

Sometimes puppy dogs just don’t think things through.

"James Bond Meets Fifty Shades of Grey"

Immerse yourself in the world class novels that combine action, mystery & suspense with tantalizing and tastefully written erotica. You’ll find all your sensibilities roused at once with Kevin Sterling’s ultra-sexy, action-packed Jack Lazar Series.

In this fourth action-packed thriller, Jack travels to Denmark for a business venture, but what seems to be a textbook transaction turns into a nightmare after he gets involved with Katarina, a vivacious Danish girl who apparently lacks a moral compass, not to mention an off button. After naively believing their liaison was just a random encounter, Jack discovers she’s connected to his business deal, and there’s a dangerous political group with skin in the game, too.

Katarina makes a convincing case of being a victim, not part of the conspiracy, but can Jack really trust her?

The firestorm gets out of control as Jack digs deeper, unearths the convoluted plot behind it all, and discovers that innocent people are being heartlessly killed. He’s not only horrified by the reason why it’s happening, but how it’s being done, and there appears to be no way to stop it from occurring again.

Then the scheme’s real objective emerges, launching Jack into action with intelligence operatives to prevent it. But that’s not so easy with assassins on Jack’s tail, forcing him to struggle for survival while trying to prevent Katarina from getting caught in the crossfire.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Action, Mystery, Suspense

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Kevin Sterling on Facebook & Twitter

@EileenMaksym Says, "You Can't Judge A #Book By Its Cover, But We Do It Anyway" #WriteTip #YA

I was browsing Amazon's selection of free books for Kindle the other day, and it occurred to me that I wasn't looking at titles, or authors; I was looking at covers.  If a cover caught my eye – had an compelling image, interesting (and visible!) fonts, and aesthetically pleasing colors – then I might spend the split second it takes to read the title or author, and might be interested enough to read the blurb.  If the cover didn't spark that interest, though, I just moved on.  There are tons of free books on Amazon, after all.  I don't have time to read the blurbs on all of them.  A book with a bad or boring cover?  I don't waste my time.  And these are free books!  Imagine how much less patience I'd have if I was looking for books to spend my money on!

This demonstrates exactly how important a book cover is.  There's a quote from a character in Pulp Fiction (paraphrased, since, like the rest of the movie, it's gloriously profanity-laced) that a rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but he'll never know because he'll never put the thing in his mouth. A bad cover might contain a potential Pulitzer Prize winner, but no one is going to take the time to find out more about it, much less buy it.

Of course, the problem isn't just bad covers, it's also bland covers.  There's a ridiculous number of books out there (every time I walk into a book store I spend a moment just looking around in despair – I will never read all those books, and my own book is a drop in a vast ocean).  Why should anybody give yours the time of day?  Of course, the cover is hardly the be-all end-all of marketing.  Even so, the more compelling the cover is, the more likely people are to buy the book.

So, what makes a good cover?  I mentioned before that a good cover has a compelling image, interesting and visible fonts, and aesthetically pleasing colors.  Almost all of the bad covers I've seen fail in one or more of these categories.  They have a boring, confusing, or even off-putting image (a romance novel with a scantily-clad woman in an awkward pose photoshopped badly over a city skyline isn't doing itself any favors).  They have fonts that are too plain, or, conversely, ridiculously and illegibly ornate.  The fonts may also be too small, or the colors might make them vanish into the background.  Or the cover's colors might be truly horrible, or clash so badly that you want to take them to court for assaulting your eyes.

But all that is what makes a bad cover.  A cover can avoid those pitfalls, but still be bland.  So what makes a cover that will snag readers and make them look at a blurb?  That's a little harder to know, and it relies a lot on personal taste.  Looking at the covers of the free Kindle books, one of the main things that catches my eye is simplicity.  A cover that has a bunch going on takes more than a second to parse, and more often than not I'm just going to skip it.  A romance novel that has a bunch of people on it...no.  One couple...better.  A close-up of a well-muscled chest?  Oh yes, let me see what that one's about!

Try it sometime!  Go to Amazon, search “free books on Kindle” and scan the covers.  Which books do you decide to learn more about?  Ten to one, they'll be the ones with the covers that “pop.”

Tara Martin – exceptionally accomplished neurobiology major with a troubled past. Steven Trent – confident political science major with an irresistible attraction to Tara. Paul Stratton – history major who is able to hear spirits. Together, they make up the Society for Paranormal Researchers at their prestigious New England University. When they’re not in class or writing papers, the three friends are chasing their passion….ghosts.

When the group learns of a local retired couple trying to sell a house they claim is haunted, they decide to investigate. As the clues unfold, a familiar spirit interrupts their investigation and Tara finds her life in danger. Can her friends save her before it’s too late?

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – YA paranormal, NA paranormal

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Eileen Maksym on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://eileenmaksym.wordpress.com/

The King of Sunday Morning by J.B. McCauley @MccauleyJay #Thriller #Action #Suspense

The Mile End Mambo

1990

He held him in his arms and looked into the glassy eyes. Yellow flecks dotted the cornea. This boy was dead a long time before Roger had run him through. He knew the look. Too much top shelf and not enough down time.

The body from which life dramatically seeped away began to convulse. It would not be a Hollywood death. It would be a harsh demise for this gangster. Unexpected but unavoidable. He had stepped on the wrong toes and nobody touched Roger’s patch.

The big screen had always glamorised death but there was nothing glamorous about having a gaping 12-inch gash where your stomach had once been. Roger’s white shirt was splattered with blood and sputum. He noted to himself with an air of cold detachment that he would have to dispose of it later. The boy soldier’s back arched in agony. A gurgling noise rushed from his throat and then he was gone.

Roger put his arm underneath the boy’s knees and slowly lifted him from the red morass that had filled the doorway. He cradled him in his arms and walked slowly along the pavement. A young couple averted their gaze as he struggled with the limp body. They knew not to look. This was after all the witching hour in the East End. What you don’t see, you can’t tell. He turned the corner and moved into another shop doorway. It was a Dixon’s electrical shop exalting the latest stereos and TV’s.

Roger placed the body carefully on the ground. He took one final look at what 10 minutes ago had been the epitome of arrogance, bravery and youth, then left. He walked quickly to the edge of Walters Street, turned into Burden and darted through a now deserted car park and onto Rially. He saw a red telephone box just up from Dunston Road. He opened the door and tried to ignore the stench of piss and shit. He dialled the number and waited patiently for the connection.

“Rudi?”

His rich baritone West-Indian voice caressed the receiver.

“Yeah, he’s in Dixon’s shopfront on Walters Street.” He paused, digesting the question on the other end of the line.

“Yeah he’s dead. Dead as a door nail. See you at home.”

With that, he hung up the phone and disappeared into the night. His red Rasta beanie swaying as he loped through the shadows. The victim wouldn’t be missed. Roger had nothing to fear. The status quo had been maintained and an example had been made.

Most of all, Rudi would be pleased.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Thriller, Action, Suspense, Gangster, Crime, Music

Rating – PG-18

More details about the author and the book

Connect with J.B. McCauley on Facebook & Twitter

#Author William Knight on Why Publishing on Amazon Won't Make You Rich @_William_Knight #WriteTip

So many books are sold through Amazon these days that it seems like it's web pages are styled in gold awaiting writerly Whittingtons. It is the biggest bookstore on the planet and probably in the universe, so we are naturally drawn its tempting shelves.

But beware, not all that glitters is the stuff of alchemical dreams, and Amazon's motivations do not necessarily align with yours. Here are five exaggerated reasons to temper your faith in the largest book store in the universe.

1. Distractions: Amazon is big, you won't believe how mind bogglingly big it is – to coin Douglas Adams – in fact it's so big that were you to lay out end-to-end every book Amazon holds in it's catalogue you'd build a reading list from here to Alpha Centuari and back. Your book has one spot on that list. It won't be found by customers no matter how fabulous the content, their heads will turn long before they have reached you landing page even if they happen to be looking for it.
2. No chance: The chances of your book being found in Amazon is two to the power thirty seven million four hundred and ninety nine to on against and rising with each day that passes. Putting your book on Amazon and have a buyer accidentally buy it is like hoping your mother-in-law gets abducted by aliens, put in a jam jar and preserved in a museum somewhere on the outer spiral arm of the Andromeda galaxy.
3. Motivation: Amazon want to make themselves rich. Your book is a window on Amazon not a product on a shelf. For every visitor you get to your Amazon landing page, Amazon gets another visitor from which they may profit. Your page is therefore designed to get people in, not necessarily convert them into buyers of your book.
4. Blindness: You don't know how many page views you get because Amazon won't tell you. Without knowing how many page views you get, you can't know if your marketing efforts are working or how well your blurb, cover and extract is performing.
5. Opportunity cost:  People who do actually visit your page are immediately asked to buy something else either through the helpful, “What did people end up buying after viewing this book?” or with a friendly email telling them about related books that gets sent later. Anybody with a few dollars to spend is asked to spend it somewhere else, and because Amazon is so big, there's always likely to be a better, more attractive thing on which to spend money.

A man emerges from the sodden undergrowth, lost, lonely and starving he is mown down by a speeding car on the edge of a remote forest.

Rumours of ghostly apparitions haunt a rural Northumberland community.

A renowned forensic research establishment is troubled by impossible results and unprecedented interference from an influential drug company.

Hendrix 'Aitch' Harrison is a tech-phobic journalist who must link these events together.

Normally side-lined to investigate UFOs and big-beast myths, but thrust into world of cynical corporate motivations, Hendrix is aided by a determined and ambitious entomologist. Together they delve into a grisly world of clinical trials and a viral treatment beyond imagining

In a chase of escalating dangers, Aitch must battle more than his fear of technology to expose the macabre fate of the drugged victims donated to scientific research.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Crime, Thriller, Horror

Rating – R-16

More details about the author

Connect with William Knight on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.williamknight.info

#Zombie Days, Campfire Nights by Leah Rhyne @Leah_Beth #Excerpt #Horror #SciFi

The fear of the lab bubbled up. I reached down to pull my old knife out of my boot. It wouldn’t provide much protection, but its weight in my hand was comforting. I continued forward, nudging Chicken along when he faltered. His hair stood on end and a low growl issued from deep in his throat.

At the door, I reached for the knob, expecting it to be locked, but it turned easily in my hand.

Of course, I thought. No one from the camp who went into the labs ever came out, so it wasn’t like people were trying to get in.

We headed inside, the cool air conditioning made less welcome by the zombie stench that flooded the hallway.

“C’mon, buddy,” I whispered to Chicken, who hovered in the doorway. “Stay with me. It’ll be over soon, either way.”

The faint glow of an “Exit” sign provided scant illumination. I took a moment to get my bearings, and was surprised to see cheerful murals painted on both walls. Little shelves with hooks for little jackets also lined the walls.

The realization came with horror—the laboratory had once been a nursery school.

I opened a door, hoping to find a weapon of some sort, and found a jackpot. The room looked like a janitor’s closet, and there was some old sports equipment tucked away in the corner. Lying on top of a pile of gloves and balls sat an aluminum baseball bat, and I rushed to it. It wasn’t a Louisville Slugger, but when I closed my eyes and ran my hand along it to feel the metal, it felt like I was home. I took a deep breath and smiled down at Chicken.

I opened the next door to see what else we could find.

Millions died when the zombie plague swept the country. For the survivors, the journey has just begun. Jenna, Sam, and Lola are still alive. Jenna avoids human contact, traveling East Coast backroads with her boyfriend, a dog named Chicken, and a Louisville Slugger. Sam escapes to the mountains, where he's conscripted into a zombie-slaying militia sent on nightly raids to kill the undead...and innocent civilians. Lola's imprisoned in the "safety" of a zombie-free New Orleans hotel, but life grows more dangerous when her brother gets bitten by a zombie. 

Jenna arrives in the French Quarter, lured by the false promises of New Orleans' drunken leader. There, she's ripped away from her boyfriend, drugged, and dumped in a death camp after refusing Franklin's sexual advances. Jenna and Lola's lives collide there, where the dead live and the dying are victims of gruesome medical experiments. Escape isn't easy: release the genetically-enhanced zombies from the lab to create a diversion, slip away, and don't get eaten. When Sam arrives, will he join the right side of the battle?

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – NA-Horror, Sci-fi

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Leah Rhyne on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.leahrhyne.com/

Message of the Pendant by Thomas Thorpe #Mystery #Thriller #AmReading

Suddenly, a loud voice bellowed upstairs. “Bastard!”

Charles raced up to the third floor and found Arthur Hurst sitting at a desk, rummaging through drawers.  He clutched a piece of paper in one hand, shaking with rage as he looked up at Charles.

“Businessman, hah! This man, Black is a British agent! Here's the proof of his duplicity. Where is he? It's time to put an end to the vermin.”

Charles gasped in shock. The entire charade was unraveling! He tentatively leaned toward the desk and reached for the note. “What do you mean? What evidence?”

Hurst glanced down at one of the drawers. He reached inside and picked up a ledger. "Wait a moment. There's something else."

Charles' eyes darted toward the window, knowing Black lay outside, unconscious and defenseless. Quelling an urge to run, he pretended to be curious and slowly edged around behind the man, as if to look over his shoulder. What could he do? Desperately his gaze searched for an answer until he spied a letter opener. In one motion, he grabbed the dagger and plunged it into Arthur's back. The rotund body jerked upwards, dropping the notebook. He tried to turn around, but instead, slumped forward onto the desk.

For a moment, Charles stood shaking in disbelief at what he had just done to his sister's husband.

William Darmon and wife Elizabeth were powerful figures who in 1818 set society's pace from expansive grounds known as Mayfair Hall. When a family member is murdered, a mysterious pendant is found containing a long lost request by Napoleon Bonaparte for an American mission to burn down Parliament buildings. The couple sets out on an action filled pursuit of the killer. While interviewing Henry Clay in post-war Maryland about the failed mission, they uncover evidence of a conspiracy to free the Emperor from exile. The Darmons infiltrate the cadre, but a shipwreck off the coast of Scotland, a firestorm at the Darmon's Manor and a harrowing assault on the Island of St. Helena loom before the mystery can be unraveled.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Mystery, Historical, Thriller

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Thomas Thorpe on Facebook

Website www.darmonmysteries.com

Christopher Grey & The Big Dirty #Publishing Secret: Novels Are Products @GreyAuthor #AmWriting #Indie

Every author should watch 1987s Throw Momma from the Train with Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito. It’s a wonderful comedy, but that aside, it is a wonderful expose of the minds of writers. My wife, also an author, and I quote that movie to each other all of the time. One of the more poignant quotes in the movie happened when the protagonist Larry gets fired by his literary agent, played hilariously by Rob Reiner, who finally says, “You want to be an artist? Fine. Go to Mexico—the rest of us need to make a living.”

It’s so easy, given the tremendous amount of work we put into our books, to remember that our books are products and our work is to create a product. That is not to say novel writing should be void of art and creativity, but we should never lose sight of the fact we are trying to sell the book. That is why it is so important that authors let the professionals take them through the process—editors, publishers, book designers, marketers—they all know the trade and while you may know how to write a book, that doesn’t mean you need to be an expert in all facets of publishing.

The best thing an author can do after a book is born, is to let it go. Detach oneself from the novel so that it can be groomed, tailored and packaged. Without the rest of the industry doing its job, your novel can never truly reach its potential.

For me, the antidote for letting go of a book, is to write another one. By the time you are immersed in the next story it’s much easier to let the last one go.

In the fall of 1947, Will Shakespeare saw the world collapse around him. Shakespeare, a secret soldier for the Knights Templar, barely escapes the slaughter of his entire knighthood at the hands of a rogue militant arm of the Vatican in a small Montreal church. With orders to escort Templar business associate Dorothy Wilkinson back to her home in Bermuda, Will must locate and rescue the most important secret treasure in human history before it is devoured by a hurricane in the watery caves beneath her father's property. The spiraling quest sends Will and Dorothy into uncovering dark secrets that make up the origins of the knighthood as they confront the traps and puzzles that masterfully protect the world's most coveted treasure.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Action, Adventure

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Christopher Grey on Google+ & Twitter

Kellen Burden's #WriteTip on Why Choosing Your Setting is Important (#Thriller #AmWriting)

There is nothing more magical than snow falling on a city. All the dirt and dinge and noise and movement is cleaned, shined, muffled and stopped. Falling against the sparkling lights and piling in the gutters and driven by the wind. See a couple, holding hands in Central Park as the snow blankets the trees. See a single rider on a black horse in a clearing in Tennessee as the flakes stream down like an omen. Or maybe it’s hot. 120 degrees in the middle of the day in July in Arizona, the sun looming and terrible in the washed out sky as your hero stands sweating through his T-shirt, holding a beer that has gone flat and warm an hour ago.  Maybe it’s hot like Miami. Maybe like Arizona. Maybe Afghanistan.

Choosing a setting is obviously vital to the way that your story plays out and is perceived by the audience. Sleepless in Muncie, Indiana would have been a totally different movie. Different settings breed different characters. They hold different challenges and offer different benefits. Try having a running gun battle through New York City without police involvement. Good Luck working out the specifics of that. But on the flipside, try waving down a cab in Tempe, Arizona. Also not going to happen. When choosing a setting it’s important to have a basic working knowledge of the area you’re talking about, whether it’s through independent research (blogs about the area, reading books that take place there etc.) or from having visited the place. You can then fill the gaps by interviewing people who live there, (calling information booths, or local libraries is a good place to start). By doing those things, you can talk about a town or area without deeply offending its inhabitants or drawing your reader out of the world you’re creating.

With that being said, no research you could ever do would come anywhere close to having lived in a place. No one else can know what the train sounds like, screaming past your window at 4 in the morning. No guide book will tell you about what the Park smells like when the ducks come back in spring, or about the feeling of watching a flash flood swallow the street in front of your house. Interviews are alright, but they don’t measure up to seeing a city 24/7 for 365. They don’t measure up to falling asleep to its sounds, having them permeate your dreams and then waking with them again in the morning. Building that from scratch isn’t easy. Not impossible of course. Obviously, J.K. Rowling has never been to Hogwarts, and I’m fairly certain that J.R.R. Tolkien had never been to middle earth, but even Tolkien and Rowling had places that they built their fantasy worlds off of. A structure that they used to compile a place of their own. The point is, to be a believable, successful writer you have to be able to put your reader in your world. To make them feel with their whole bodies, the things that your character is experiencing. It’s a tall order when you yourself have not done these things.

Sebastian Parks is drowning in a flood of his own creation. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, he's wracked with night terrors and an anger that he can't abate. Unemployable and uninterested in anything resembling a normal job, Parks makes his living in fugitive apprehension, finding wanted felons on Facebook and thumping them into custody with his ex-military buddies John Harkin and Eric "Etch" Echevarria. When the body of a teenage Muslim boy is found in front of a downtown Denver nightclub Parks, Harkin and Etch are called on to do what they do best: Find bad men and make them pay. 

First-time author Kellen Burden serves up edgy humor, brutal action and characters you can't get enough of. Flash Bang will keep you turning pages until the end.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Thriller, Mystery

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Kellen Burden on Facebook