Hank Quense's Two Cents on Visibility for #Authors & Live Book Signings @Hanque99 #AmWriting #PubTip

Hank Quense's Book Signing Horror Story

Two years ago, I had a new novel released and I was determined that I was going to sell a pile of paperback copies locally. I contacted a few libraries and two of them agreed to let me have a book signing appearance. The libraries did a great job and produced flyers to hang around the library.

At the first one, i sat behind a table with a pile of books and waited while the library’s patrons ignored me. Finally, an elderly man approached and looked over the books. I sensed a sale. I gave the guy a description of the book and he picked one up and sat down. He browsed through the book and read several scenes over the next ten or fifteen minutes. Then he stood up, said, “I didn’t bring any money,” put the book down and left. He was the first and last potential buyer at that signing.

A few weeks later, I had the second signing at a bigger library in a bigger town. Only one guy showed up, a member of a write group I belong to. We spent an hour chatting after which I decided to give up and go home. The other writer did graciously buy a copy of the book.

I think the biggest hurdle an unknown writer has to face is his unknown status. A flashy flyer in a library announcing appearance by an author no one ever heard of simply does not attract a crowd. A writer needs more than the flyer and best good wishes of the library staff. The writer needs to get a message out through the community because a lot of people don’t go to the library, or if they use the library, they may not stop to read the flyer. The flyer should be in local stores and other public places.

I haven’t had a book signing since then, but I’m willing to try one more time with Moxie’s Problem. This time, in addition to the flyers the library makes up, I’ll produce my own flyers and announcements and then make the rounds of the local shops and venues to spread the word. I’m hoping more than one guy shows up this time around.

I’m also exploring a different situation in which I join forces with one or two other authors and make it a joint signing.

Do you enjoy untypical coming-of-age stories? Well, you won’t find one more untypical than Moxie’s Problem. Moxie is an obnoxious, teen-age princess who has never been outside her father’s castle. Until now. The real world is quite different and she struggles to come to grips with reality. The story takes place against a backdrop of Camelot. But it isn’t the Camelot of legends. It’s Camelot in a parallel universe. So, all bets are off!

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Genre – Fantasy, Sci-fi

Rating – G

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Website http://hank-quense.com/wp/

#Excerpt from ACROSS WORLDS: Collision by S. A. Snow @BooksbySnow #AmReading #SciFi #Erotica

Jane slowed and stopped, her heart pounding in her chest. She lifted her water bottle to her lips and drank deeply, droplets running down the line of her throat. Her body was slick with sweat, and it pooled between her breasts and at the small of her back.

The sun was coming up, and she placed her hands on her hips, leaning back, both to stretch her back muscles and to marvel at the colors piercing the sky. She glanced at her watch. Six-forty-two. Time to head home and get ready for work. There was no telling when she would get to watch the sun rise again—probably never.

Jane’s eyes widened and she gasped when the ground began to shake. She grabbed a tree for stability and looked around wildly. Earthquakes weren’t commonplace in Washington, D.C. The wind picked up, smacking leaves her in the face and swirling dust around her just as a roar filled the air. The sound of engines was deafening.

She craned her neck to look through the branches of the tree she held onto, and her hand went to her mouth as she took several steps away from her safety net. Her head fell back, and she stared in awe. It was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen.

Chrome and metal melded together to make a hull that was almost matte and looked like liquid all at once. It was dotted with windows, and she could barely make out the lines of the doors. The engines were bigger than the largest plane she had ever seen.

With one shudder, the roar died down and the engines stopped spinning. Three holes in the bottom of the ship opened up and great metal poles descended. Jane couldn’t help her curiosity as she stepped closer. One metal pole crashed into the ground a hundred yards from where she stood. It broke soil, and claw-like structures folded down, creating an anchor, presumably to keep the ship in place.

She approached it carefully. A small crowd gathered as other people made their way over to see what was happening. Jane wound her way through the people and reached out slowly, her hand making contact with the pole. She jumped back before relaxing. It was cool and smooth to the touch.

Jane expected six months undercover to be hard; she expected it to be lonely and bleak. She didn’t expect to find love. 

Jane Butler, a CIA operative, is assigned the task of infiltrating the Xanthians and determining if they’re a threat to humanity. Going undercover as a Xanthian mate, she boards the transport ship and meets Usnavi—her new mate. After spending six days traveling through space, Jane is ecstatic to explore the Xanthian station and soon sets out to complete her mission. The only problem? Usnavi—and the feelings she is quickly developing. 

Fumbling their way through varying sexual expectations, cooking catastrophes, and cultural differences, they soon discover life together is never boring. As Jane and Usnavi careen into a relationship neither of them expected, Jane uncovers dark secrets about the Xanthians and realizes she may no longer be safe. When it becomes clear she’s on her own, Jane is forced to trust and rely on Usnavi. Simultaneously struggling with her mission, her feelings for Usnavi, and homesickness, Jane faces questions she never imagined she would have to answer.

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Genre – Blended Science Fiction, Erotica

Rating – NC17

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#Excerpt from THE REALITY MASTER(Vol.1) by @PMPillon #SciFi #YA #AmReading

ARRIVAL

On a cool and clear night, a sheer and towering cliff awaited its approaching moment to become the temporary abode of a celestial interloper. It stood stoic, unimpressed by the clamorous sea imperiously fulminating with an incessant barrage of waves against its base. A stone’s throw away was the exit point of an effluent stream, a capillary of the fecund land mass it flowed through. With the aid of a clear sky and a full moon, a distant horizon was visible in every direction; ocean filling the entire sight in one, verdant and untrammeled panoplies of mountain forest in another. A hundred miles of this California Big Sur coast and its regions to the east were in virtually pristine condition, more than two hundred thousand acres with relatively few human inhabitants.

Inland, the luminescence of moon and stars bestowed an unfettered. evergreen view of redwoods, maples, pines, firs and oaks. Flying about the natural paradise were raucous jays, crows, magpies and woodpeckers. Invisible in the shimmering light, a sonorous ocean air swept in from the west, rustling the trees; a natural refrain emanating from their dancing, undulating branches and leaves, increasing and decreasing in compliance with the invading force. The wind’s voice eerily equivocated, fluctuating back and forth from a bare whisper to an angry, frightening ululation of dominant abandon; now gradually quieting, at last dying, only to be reborn and assiduously grow unto a mature and bellowing rage. Animals added their sounds to the holistic cacophony: a bark, a howl, a burst through bushes, crackling twigs and branches stepped on or dragged. The stars were in full bloom, complimenting the moon to illuminate the peaks, the canyons, and all within.

One of the star lights was moving, and as it came nearer the earth, it grew in size until was clear that it was not a star but a far smaller, soaring, perhaps piloted, object. As it came into the atmosphere, it developed color – an orange tint. A few hundred feet from the ground, it stopped and remained in place for more than an hour. Finally, a smaller light emerged from it, and the larger light rose again until it disappeared. The new light was purposeful, changing directions as it descended. It floated down and meandered among the trees as though surveying the scenery, until eventually it traveled westward, following a gushing stream to its merger with the ocean. Hovering above the beach, the light hesitated, then floated into a crack on a shrubbery-laden boulder that was lodged partway up the cliff next to the stream, as though perching there for a view of magnificent sunsets. The object continued to glow for some minutes, its light gradually diminishing and finally extinguishing completely. Someone who saw it at close range would describe it as small and round, and maybe add that it looked for all the world to be nothing more than an ordinary stone.

His celestial companion was waiting for him

Precariously climbing a sea-side cliff near Big Sur, ten-year-old Joey Blake was as yet unaware that near his grasp was an object, so odd, mysterious and alien to earth that it would change his life forever and the lives of countless others in the next few astonishing days. Reaching up as far as he could for a handhold it was just there; it had subconsciously lured him, occupied his mind, and made him find it. It was like he was meant to see and discover this object of unimaginable power … the power to change reality.

Time travel and more

This young adult series of sci-fi fantasy novels begins with The Reality Master and continues through four other exciting and amazing stories about time travel and mysterious alien devices. Joey and the reader will face dangerous shadowy criminal organizations, agents of the NSA, bizarre travelers from other times and even renegade California bikers and scar-faced walking dead.

- Vol 1 The Reality Master
- Vol 2 Threat To The World
- Vol 3 Travel Beyond
- Vol 4 Missions Through Time
- Vol 5 The Return Home

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Genre – Science fiction, Fantasy, Young adult

Rating – G

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@SMMceachern Shares Her Opinion on #YA is for Agea 16 & Up #SciFi #Dystopian

When I decided to write Sunset Rising, my first obstacle was figuring out the age group of the YA genre. Some define the age group as 12 to 18, while others define it as low as ten, and some as high as 18 to 25.   Wikipedia reports that 55% of YA readers are over 18 years of age.  In the end, I had to decide what age group I was writing for and I came up with this rationale:  YA is sixteen and over.  While this may seem like an arbitrary decision on my part, it’s not.  I’ll explain.

During the time I was struggling to define the age group for YA, my 13 year-old daughter came home from school and told me about her day.  She and her friend Birdie (yes, it’s a made up name to protect her real identity) were hanging out on the school grounds watching the popular boys when one of the boys suddenly started vomiting. The other boys walked away in disgust, but didn’t stay away for long.  They returned to the scene with a stick in hand and started poking at the steaming pile.  Grossed-out and yet fascinated all at the same time, my daughter and her friend watched as the boys dissected the contents of their friend’s stomach.

When the boys got bored of poking at it and left, Birdie urged my daughter to come with her to check it out too.  My daughter is a bit squeamish about barf and didn’t want to get too close, but she went in support of her friend and kept a respectable ten-foot distance.  Fearless, Birdie went right up to it and reported back to my daughter that it was indeed chunky and had a really weird color.  It also stunk.  With their curiosity now satisfied, the girls went in search of the boys to see what else they were getting up to.  Why?  Because at thirteen, these are the popular boys and the girls see them as eligible dating material.

Now let’s consider how a sixteen-year-old would have reacted to seeing someone barf on the school grounds.  I’m going to guess that the vast majority of sixteen-year-old girls would avoid the pile of barf, and maybe even one or two them would seek help for the sick person.  The sixteen-year old boys would probably not have the urge to poke it with a stick, although they might take a peek and profess loudly to each other whether or not it was chunky.  Boys would do this for the same reason that when someone announces he farted, they all have to sniff the air to confirm the claim.  This is mature behavior for boys since they rarely change with age ;)  While some girls may be turned off by the boys’ behavior, by sixteen they have come to accept it as normal, quirky behavior; in other words, a guy thing.

My point is by the age of sixteen, most individuals have gained enough experience to start making some mature decisions.  They recognize gender differences and are beginning to accept them… in fact, maybe even embrace them.  They are leaving their childhood behind to embark on becoming an adult.  And most societies do recognize sixteen as the age of initiation into adulthood.  Western culture celebrates the sweet sixteen birthday, Spanish celebrate the cuinceañera, and other cultures see sixteen as an appropriate age for marriage.  So, when I wrote a Young Adult novel, I did it with the understanding that a YA is 16 and up.

February 2024: Desperate to find refuge from the nuclear storm, a group of civilians discover a secret government bio-dome. Greeted by a hail of bullets and told to turn back, the frantic refugees stand their ground and are eventually permitted entry.  But the price of admission is high.

283 years later…  Sunny O’Donnell is a seventeen-year-old slave who has never seen the sun.  She was born in the Pit, a subterranean extension of the bio-dome. Though life had never been easy, the last couple of months had become a nightmare. Her mom was killed in the annual Cull, and her dad thought it was a good time to give up on life.  Reyes Crowe, her long-time boyfriend, was pressuring her to get married, even though it would mean abandoning her father.

She didn’t think things could get any worse until she was forced upstairs to the Dome to be a servant-girl at a bachelor party.  That’s when she met Leisel Holt, the president’s daughter, and her fiancé, Jack Kenner.

Now Sunny is wanted for treason.  If they catch her, she’ll be executed.

She thought Leisel’s betrayal was the end.  But it was just the beginning.

“Sunset Rising” is Book One of a series.

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Genre - YA Science Fiction, Dystopian

Rating – PG-16

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Website http://smmceachern.wordpress.com

@ShelleyDavidow on Providing Doors & Windows into Other Worlds #AmReading #SciFi #YA

Have you met any people in the industry who have really helped you?

I had a wonderful writers group in Oregon when I lived there, made up of some very prolific authors whom I deeply respected. They taught me how to pare things down to what was essential, and how to work slowly and carefully. We worked on poetry and that helped me become a better fiction writer.

What do you hope people will take away from your writing? How will your words make them feel?

I hope my words provide windows and doors into other worlds, where the writing vanishes and the characters and their struggles and relationships remain.

How do you feel about social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter? Are they a good thing?

If you mean, are they a good thing for a writer, then the answer is, maybe sometimes. They can be good for marketing and staying in touch with the general conversation, whatever that is, but they also just take up space and time and words and can also be distracting. Whenever I’m doing something on Facebook or Twitter I always have this little voice that says, ‘real writers would just be writing their books.’

If you could do any job in the world what would you do?

Write.

What are you most passionate about? What gets you fired up?

I’m passionate about children and education and looking after the environment. I get fired up by the stupidity of those who poison our world and don’t understand that in doing so, they poison themselves.

What makes you angry?

War and harm. I’m angry that the human race still behaves in awful ways to those who are vulnerable, and to an earth that will not sustain us forever.

How do you think people perceive writers?

As imminently interruptible!

What’s your next project?

I’m working on a memoir entitled ‘The Immigrant’ for my doctorate, and planning the sequel to Lights Over Emerald Creek, A Portal at Emerald Creek.

What would you love to produce in your life?

Books that are worthy of being read.

How do you feel about self-publishing?

I feel it’s had a democratising effect on writing. I think in some instances it might be the way to go. If your manuscript gets rejected by twenty publishers, and then a million people like what you’ve written and buy your self-published book, then the masses have spoken, and I think that’s really great.How important are friends in your life?

They are essential to both mental and emotional health!

Lucy Wright, sixteen and a paraplegic after a recent car accident that took her mother’s life, lives in Queensland on a 10,000 acre farm with her father. When Lucy investigates strange lights over the creek at the bottom of the property, she discovers a mystery that links the lights to the science of cymatics and Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel.

But beyond the chapel is an even larger mystery. One that links the music the chapel contains to Norway’s mysterious Hessdalen lights, and beyond that to Saturn and to the stars. Lucy’s discoveries catapult her into a parallel universe connected to our own by means of resonance and sound, where a newly emerging world trembles on the edge of disaster. As realities divide, her mission in this new world is revealed and she finds herself part of a love story that will span the galaxy.

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Genre - Young Adult SF

Rating - PG

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Peter Simmons and the Vessel of Time by @RamzArtso #SciFi #YA #ComingofAge

Portland, Oregon

October 22nd, Afternoon Hours

I sauntered out of the school building with my friends in tow and pulled on a thickly woven hat to cover my fluffy flaxen hair, which was bound to be frolic even in the mildest of breezes. I took a deep breath and scrutinized my immediate surroundings, noticing an armada of clouds scudding across the sky. It was a rather blustery day. The shrewd, trilling wind had all but divested the converging trees off their multicolored leaves, pasting them on the glossy asphalt and graffiti adorned walls across the road. My spirits were quickly heightened by this observation, and I suddenly felt rejuvenated after a long and taxing day at school. I didn’t know why, but the afternoon’s indolent weather appealed to me very much. I found it to be a congenial environment. For unexplainable reasons, I felt like I was caught amidst a fairytale. It was this eerie feeling which came and went on a whim. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it was triggered by the subconscious mind brushing against a collage of subliminal memories, which stopped resurfacing partway through the process.

Anyhow, there I was, enjoying the warm and soporific touch of the autumn sun on my face, engaging in introspective thoughts of adolescent nature when Max Cornwell, a close, meddlesome friend of mine, called me from my rhapsodic dream with a sharp nudge in the ribs.

‘Hey, man! You daydreaming?’

I closed my eyes; feeling a little peeved, took a long drag of the wakening fresh air and gave him a negative response by shaking my head.

‘Feel sick or something?’ he persisted.

I wished he would stop harping on me, but it looked like Max had no intention of letting me enjoy my moment of glee, so I withdrew by tartly saying, ‘No, I’m all right.’

‘Hey, check this out,’ said George Whitmore,–who was another pal of mine–wedging himself between me and Max. He held a folded twenty dollar bill in his hand, and his ecstatic facial expression suggested that he had just chanced upon the find by sheer luck.

‘Is that yours?’ I asked, knowing very well that it wasn’t.

‘No, I found it on the floor of the auditorium. Just seconds before the last period ended.’

‘Then perhaps you should report your discovery to the lost and found. I’m sure they’ll know what to do with it there.’

‘Yeah, right. That’s exactly what I’m going to do,’ he said, snorting derisively. He then added in a somewhat defensive tone, as if trying to convince himself more than anyone else, ‘I found it, so it’s mine–right?’

I considered pointing out that his intentions were tantamount to theft, but shrugged it off instead, and followed the wrought-iron fence verging the school grounds before exiting by the small postern. I was in no mood for an argument, feeling too tired to do anything other than run a bath and soak in it. Therefore, I expunged the matter from my mind, bid goodbye to both George and Max and plunged into the small gathering of trees and brush which we, the kids, had dubbed the Mini Forest. It was seldom traveled by anyone, but we called it that because of its size, which was way too small to be an actual forest, and a trifle too large to be called otherwise.

I was whistling a merry tune, and wending my way home with a spring in my step, when my ears abruptly pulled back in fright. All of a sudden, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was being watched. But that wasn’t all. I felt like someone was trying to look inside of me. Right into me. As if they were rummaging in my soul, searching its every nook and cranny, trying to fish up my deepest fears and darkest secrets. It was equivalent to being stripped naked in front of a large audience. Steeling myself for something ugly, I felt the first stirrings of unease.

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Genre – Young Adult, Action and Adventure, Coming of Age, Sci-fi

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://ramzartso.blogspot.com/

Cerece Rennie Murphy's Lessons from #SelfPub @CereceRMurphy #SciFi #WriteTip

One year and two months later.  What I have learned so far from publishing my first book by Cerece Rennie Murphy, Author of the Order of the Seers Trilogy.

A year ago, I published my first full-length story EVER – a sci-fi novel called Order of the Seers.  It took me about a year to write and almost as long to get up the courage to publish it.  But on September 4^th, 2012, I took the plunge, hit the send button, uploaded my file to Amazon and waited for the masses to collectively shudder in awe at the little piece of my heart that I sent out into the world.  It has been quite a journey since then, and ever since I got my head out of my ass and started using it, its been kind of fun too.  How hard this journey has been hasn’t exactly been a surprise to me, but watching myself slowly evolve into a publisher has. This is a short list of some of the things I have learned so far.

1)     Welcome to the REAL world AKA You are NOT an overnight sensation.  The day my first book was published, I spent the entire day sick in bed with worry and fear.  After a week, I think I had only sold about 20 ebook copies.  I was devastated.  I told myself my book was horrible and I shouldn’t have even tried to publish it.  It took me a week to start THINKING about what I might have done better or differently.  That’s when I really started to move into the new career that I have chosen.

The Lesson: If you don’t become a bestseller your first week out, it’s not the worst thing in the world.  It’s just where you started.  Where you end up is up to you.

2)     One blog tour and one eblast does not a marketing plan make. Seriously - that was pretty much my marketing plan for the release of my 1^st book.  Yes, I was very naïve about what it would take for people to find out about my book.  Most of my reluctance to developing a marketing plan had to do with a) my fear of putting myself out there and b) my general ignorance about what methods and resources were available to me.  I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that for a while.  Some things worked (I built my mailing list by going to comic/sci-fi conventions, did a cover reveal blog tour for the 2^nd book along with a $.99 week long sale promotion for the 1^st book) and some things didn’t (spent a ton of money on a Christmas ad campaign that cost way more than I sold in books).

The Lesson: If you have the guts to publish a book, have the guts to market it.  One barely makes sense without the other.  One of the best marketing pieces of advice that I have gotten so far is, “pick a monthly budget, no matter how big or small and do something every month to promote your book.  Keep writing and keep marketing.  Consistency will pay off.”  It has taken me over a year, but I am finally seeing the maturity and wisdom of these words.  For most writers, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

3)     Guard Your Headspace AKA Read Reviews Sparingly.  I have read this time and time again from accomplished veterans of the writing profession, but this advice is so hard to heed. In the beginning, I used to check my reviews every day.  It would stress me out so much that, at one point, I was literally afraid to go on Goodreads.  A glowing review would be met with relief, quickly followed by skepticism.  A strong, but not effusive review would be picked over to death for the rest of the day.  Neither one helped me write any better, but one could shut me down for a good 24-48 hours.

The Lesson: Everyone isn’t going to like your book.  That’s a fact and it’s ok.  Find some people you trust and respect.  Get them to read and critique your work.  Modify as needed, then let it be.  Periodically, I will check the number of reviews I have when I am in the middle of a promotion.  Sometimes, if it appears that I’ve gotten a few good ones, I’ll chance a glance and feel happy, but I don’t let myself linger.  It’s just not that helpful to my state-of-mind.

4)     Building Buzz Takes Time AKA Give yourself more than 4 month before you publish your 1^st novel.  I decided to publish my book at the end of May 2012 and I published my 1^st book in September.  This was stupid.  The process of trying to learn what I was doing while I was doing it was so stressful and crazy.  At the time, I didn’t want to give myself the chance to chicken-out, so I think I just tried to plow through it, but in the process, I missed opportunities for reviews and using other promotional resources that might have made my first release more successful.

The Lesson: Don’t do what I did.  Give yourself time to learn the business before you dive in. (But don’t use your research as an excuse to procrastinate!)

5)     The doubt doesn’t go away, but it gets more manageable as you go.  I wish I could say that, a year later, I feel like a bad-ass self-published author, but I don’t.  Most days, I feel the weight of all the things I still need to learn and do, but I can also acknowledge how far I have come.  The release of my second book in the Order of the Seers trilogy this summer was a bit less personally traumatic and much more thoroughly planned out and executed than my first release.  This was made possible only with the help of an author’s assistant, street promotion team, 3 book blog/promotion services running simultaneously, a small, but positive, collection of pre-release reviews, a week-long free sale of the 1^st book and an uber-coordinated mailing list, Facebook and twitter campaign.  The result - my second book stayed on Amazon Kindle’s best-seller list for over a month in the sci-fi/genetic engineering category and made it into Amazon’s Hot New Sci-fi releases list.

The Lesson: Believe in your story enough to work on writing it, honing it and sharing it, every day that you can.

What would you do if you held infinite power in the palm of your hand? Part One of the thrilling Order of the Seers trilogy poses this question within a story that fuses action, mystery, romance, and adventure in a science fiction novel that keeps you at the edge of your seat. Captured and enslaved for their extraordinary gift, a group of individuals, known as Seers, are forced to serve a ruthless world organization that uses the power of the Seers to exploit the ultimate advantage: knowing the future. While a brother and his Seer sister fight to evade the group that hunts them, an unlikely captured Seer, plots his escape from within the organization and sets off a chain of events that will change the world.

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Genre – Science Fiction

Rating – NC-17

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Website http://www.crmurphybooks.com

Once Humans by Massimo Marino @Massim0Marin0 #scifi #excerpt

Memories

From Dan Amenta’s Journal

We had the perfect life in the French-Swiss countryside until that mysterious windstorm in February. No one realized anything unusual has happened, but the next morning, while driving Annah, my daughter, to school, I discovered that vehicles littered the highway, with their dead occupants still inside.

Returning home, no one answered the phone at any of the emergency departments nor could I or my wife, Mary, reach our relatives and friends. Checking on the neighbors, I found them dead.

We soon realized we might be the only survivors of a global catastrophe. We stock up on emergency supplies, turn the house into a stronghold, and collected food and medicines. The Internet still worked so I launched a large, online campaign to find other survivors with the hope of learning more about what we were facing. While waiting for any response at all, I managed to befriend some neighborhood dogs and we armed ourselves with survival gear.

At first, it felt weird and disturbing to go into stores and take things without paying but, of course, there was no one to pay. The whole world had become a ghost town.

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Genre – Science Fiction

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://massimomarinoauthor.com

Each deep breath was less fulfilling than the last ... #SciFi #Excerpt by Brandon Overall

Comfortable in his flight skills, Neil looked upwards to the clouds.  He knew that somewhere up there was a glorious golden sun, just waiting for him to break through the layer of cloud coverage to see.  He thought of the similarities between himself and Icarus - the boy who flew too close to the sun with homemade wings that the wax melted and he plummeted to his death.  Neil had to laugh at the humor of the situation he found himself in.

He angled himself upwards, and shot straight towards the clouds.  He was now traveling well over two-hundred miles-per-hour.  He held his arm out in front of him and cemented it in place with his mind.  The force of the wind at this point was so strong that it could easily pull his arm back and dislocate his shoulder if he wasn’t careful.

Neil looked down and saw that he was gaining altitude at an astounding rate.  The ground shrank below him, just like it did when taking off in an airplane.  He saw the highway and the city below him, but knew that he was moving too fast and would look like a tiny speck to anybody on the ground.

The cloud layer above him was getting closer by the second.  The air started to feel like the biting cold of a winter storm, and he could see moisture forming on his visor.  Each deep breath was less fulfilling than the last, but the air was still thick enough to take in all the oxygen he needed.

Finally, he punctured the bottom of the cloud layer, and his mask was completely covered in water droplets.  Around him was a grey fog so thick that he couldn’t see his hand in front of him.  The thick condensation lasted only a few seconds, until finally he broke through the layer of water vapor into the sky beyond.

What he saw completely stunned him.  He slowed to a halt and focused his gaze on the incredible view.  The entire sky was a brilliant canvas of gold, orange, and red.  The top of the clouds were bathed in sunlight trying to shine through.  Shadows from the higher clouds were cast upon the layer beneath them.  The entire horizon above the clouds was covered in the glow from the warm sun.

Neil wished he could just point himself at the sun and fly straight into it.  He felt a strange attraction to it, like a moth drawn to a flame.  Looking out the window of an airplane was nothing compared to the unleashed feeling of being completely exposed and free like Neil was.  He took off his helmet to see the view with his own two eyes.  Nothing he had ever seen on Earth came close to what he felt at that moment.

The rays from the sun soaked through his skin and calmed his entire body.  Its radiance painted the rest of the sky with colors.  Words failed to capture the combined experience that all of his senses provided him.  Looking at a photograph of the same image would never be able to replicate what he felt, suspended above the clouds, staring at the sun.

He had never felt as small as he did then.  The irony was not lost on Neil.  Only after he had become the most powerful person imaginable was he able to truly feel insignificant.  It wasn’t a bad feeling, though.  It was calming – euphoric, even.  Exams, girls, bills, parties - it all seemed so petty when looking across the painted sky and embracing how vast it all was. Neil could make little impact on anything up there.

Superhuman Nature is Brandon Overall's first novel. It was written and published during his first deployment to Afghanistan as a 2nd Lieutenant in late 2013.

Neil Hitchens was a senior ROTC Cadet in college. He was just weeks away from graduating and becoming an Officer in the United States Army, until a strange dream set off a chain of events that would twist his life into something he could have never prepared for.

In the days following his dream, several strange happenings occurred that he began to suspect were the result of his own actions. Before long, he discovered that he had the ability to control the world around him with his mind.

What started out as an unpredictable ability quickly evolved into an extraordinary power that had the capacity to change the world. It didn't take long for the government to find out what Neil could do.

They knew having such limitless potential on the side of the US Military could give them limitless political influence, and they would stop at nothing to get Neil to do their bidding. They would find out what happens when you back a dangerous animal into a corner.

Neil spent his whole life believing he would amount to greatness, but he never expected how greatness could corrupt even the most innocent of minds.

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Genre – Science Fiction

Rating – PG-13

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D.A.& M.P. Wearmouth's Thoughts on #SelfPub & Writing @darrenwearmouth #Horror #SciFi

How do you feel about self-publishing?

M – Self-publishing seems to almost have a negative emotion attached.  Independent self-published work should be a mark of quality just like indie films or music.  The indie book scene is vibrant and creative, so there are no limits to the future.

D – I am pleased perceptions are changing around self-publishing. For us it wasn’t a difficult choice. There’s nothing a small or medium sized press can do for you that you cannot do yourself in the medium and long term.

Do you know your neighbours?

M – I say hello everyday.

D – Yes, I had a few glasses of wine with Colin the other week, he’s a retired school teacher.

How important are friends in your life?

M – Vitally important to share highs and lows with.  Meeting in a group can break you out of moods and help get some perspective.

D – Crucial, I can relax with friends and enjoy having company. I think everyone needs some down-time, and part of it for me is socialising with people I like.

What social issues interest you the most?

M – Social breakdown due to greed and self-interest.

D – Child poverty, everyone deserves an equal chance and I think our government should strive to create that.

When you get free time on the internet or you go to the library – what do you want to read about?

M – Science and Environment.

D – I love to catch up on all of the daily news from around the world. I don’t like going cold turkey, I have to have my daily fix.

Do you find the time to read?

M – Yes I always find time for new and interesting books.  I read at night generally to wind down.

D – Mostly on holiday or when traveling with work. I try to read a couple of books a month.

Last book you purchased? Tell us about it.

M – The secret life of trees.  I am a volunteer for the Woodland Trust and also have to deal with trees in my subsidence business.  This book was fascinating and examined the genealogy of each species.

D – Fractured by D.J Molles. He’s an indie author with a great series ‘The Remaining’. This is his fourth book and he’s done a first rate job. Check him out if you haven’t already.

Who do you admire?

M – Usain Bolt

D – James Anderson, he’s an English cricketer who is currently the best in the world at what he does. I’d love the ability to bowl like him, but his sort don’t come around that often.

What is your favourite quote, by whom, and why?

M – One life.  It’s a simple mantra to remember.

D – “Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.” By Winston Churchill. What he says rings true for me. You can’t force your way to potential or try to think your way there, it’s a long road full of hard work.

What’s your favourite place in the entire world?

M – Harrogate

D – Milford Sound in New Zealand.

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?

M – Sometimes I work on a sentence but can’t get it right.  Also going back over work and thinking it’s all wrong, too negative, too positive.  Writing can drive you mad tuning the manuscript.

D – When starting out, it feels like there’s a big mountain in front of me that is littered with dangers and traps, one slip and it could all be a wasted effort. The challenge is take my time and not get ahead of myself, it’s difficult not to think ahead, but I have to force myself not to do it.

Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?

M – Show don’t tell.  Let the reader make their minds up and guide them along with the plot.

D – It taught me just how many clichés we now use in every day speech.

Do you intend to make writing a career?

M – I would love it to be part of a career; I just don’t know if the finances will stack up.

D – At the moment, it’s a sideline to my career, I would love to go full time one day.

Have you developed a specific writing style?

M – Writing has to be your inner voice or it won’t work.  The book echoes how Darren and I would have conversations.

What is your greatest strength as a writer?

M – Examining plots from every angle.

D – Coming up with original events and scenarios.

Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?

M – I can’t think of writers block at the moment.  My mind is always active so I hope it never happens.

D – No, I have stewed a while over a single paragraph, sometimes for a couple of hours, but generally I am okay. I move on, or take a break to have a good think.

How did you come up with the title?

M – We changed the name of the book a few months before release.  Harry Dewulf commented that the original title didn’t make sense.  We came up with ‘Activation’ then he added the ‘First’ to it.

D – Our original title, which wasn’t set in stone was ‘Mutual Armageddon’. Harry Dewulf said to me, “I’ve only got two problems with you title…. Mutual and Armageddon.” We changed the title within three days.

Can you tell us about your main character?

M – The main character has a conscience and tries to make sense of what is going on around him.  He is fallible and makes mistakes but is generally acting in a logical manner.

D – I like to think that Harry is just like what a normal person would be like in an Apocalyptic scenario, confused but slowly learning and adapting as the story goes along.

When you wish to end your career, stop writing, and look back on your life, what thoughts would you like to have?

M – I would like to think I had emptied my brain of ideas.

D – That I made the most of the ability I had.

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Genre – Horror/Science Fiction 

Rating – R

More details about the authors and the book

Connect with  D.A. & M.P Wearmouth on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://dampwearmouth.com/