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Not sure whether or not you want to purchase the new story in the Deviant Dollar Series, PTS? Check out the free sample below. If you like it, consider buying a copy from the website in PDF and epub format, or if you have a Kindle or appropriate iPhone app, visit  Amazon.com and grab a copy from there.

I’m thinking of including a free sample each time a story goes on sale, so if this happens to generate some sales, you’ll probably get one each time. For right now, consider this a tease.

PTS tells the story of Anthony Delgato, a businessman living in a post-9/11 world. He may have survived that day, but when Anthony’s subway stops on a bridge 200 meters above ground, he’ll learn what it really means to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress.

Enjoy! Continued

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As many of you know, I have started selling digital versions of my stories. Ebooks, if you will. These have gone up for sale here on the website, Amazon.com, and on Smashwords.

As someone who has never dabbled in the ebook market, I was a bit flustered when it came to converting my regular manuscript in to a format that would suit the various ereaders that are out there. I tried once, twice, three times, and failed. I read the Smashwords style guide, Googled a bunch of info, and still it didn’t seem like I would ever get it.

I tried Calibre for conversion, that didn’t work. I tried the Amazon uploader, that didn’t work. GAH! How frustrating. Then I finally caught a break…by accident, and figured this whole mess out.

So here are my tips for converting your manuscript to a format that will look nice and pretty on a Kindle, Sony, or Nook. I’m using WordMac, by the way. Continued

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Remember that old tune by Olivia Newton John, Let’s Get Physical? Yeah, me too. I’ve had that song in my head all day today, only I’ve been replacing the word ‘physical’ with ‘digital.’

I’ve been fighting it for so long, not wanting to accept that my beloved paperbacks were going the way of the dinosaur. Oh, it’ll still be a few years before they’re completely extinct, if at all, but they are certainly dwindling away for various reasons. I didn’t want to accept the digital age of fiction. Who the hell would want to read books on a hand held device? The answer, as it turns out, is a lot! I got curious, ended up buying an e-reader and low and behold, I’m one of those people. Now I’ve embraced digital fiction like a long lost lover and am slipping it the tongue. Continued

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Yesterday I tried something a little different. I wrote a short story, converted it to digital, sold it on Smashwords and here on the website. It sold for 99 cents and was called SNOWMEN.

Why did I do this? Various reasons.

The biggest being that as a writer, a content creator, I should get paid for what I create. Not Stephen King or James Cameron dollars, of course, but something. I give away free podcast novels that no one donates to…that’s the brutal truth. It seems that for people to fork over their hard earned dollars to a creator, they feel they should be getting something specific. Like a short story, a piece of art, a song or two. I’ve got hundreds, hell, maybe even a few thousand supporters of my work, yet no one donates to help me continue to do what I love to do, and what they apparently love to hear: storytelling. Continued

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Lately I’ve been thinking a great deal about making money from my writing. Yeah, I have sold three books to Permuted Press and yeah, the first one has been picked up by Simon & Schuster and will be coming to print in March, 2011…but that’s a long ways away. I won’t start to see any income from that until around August, 2011, if I make back my advance, that is.

In an effort to bring in a little extra cash flow (and when I say little, I mean little), I’ve decided to start selling some short stories on Smashwords, and directly here on my website. Why sell and not give away for free? Well, the way I see it, my time and creativity is worth money. Maybe not a lot right now, but surely it’s worth 0.99 cents, which is how much these short stories are selling for. Continued

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On March 16, 2010, the next book in the Permuted Press/Simon & Schuster deal that I am a part of hits the shelves.

The re-release of EMPIRE by David Dunwoody is finally here! I first read this book long before I ever had a book deal, or even began podcasting. I was attracted by its premise, and was not disappointed. Here’s the skinny:

The crippled U.S. government and its military forces are giving up the century-long fight against an undead plague. Born of an otherworldly energy fused with a deadly virus, the ravaging hordes of zombified humans and a nimals have no natural enemies. But they do have one supernatural enemy: Death himself.

Descending upon the ghost town of Jefferson Harbor, Louisiana, the Grim Reaper embarks on a bloody campaign to put down the legions that have defied his touch for so long. He will find allies in the city’s last survivors, and a nemesis in a man who wants to harness the force driving the zombies—a man who seeks to rebuild America into an empire of the dead.

Hailed as “A MACABRE MASTERPIECE OF POST-APOCALYPTIC ZOMBIE GOODNESS” on the Library of the Living Dead podcast, Empire brings stunning new twists to a shattering and unforgettable scenario of the not-too-distant future.

Sounds pretty cool, eh? Trust me. IT IS!

Dunwoody’s prose is quick, sharp and gritty. EMPIRE is easily a page-turner to rival some of the best NYT Bestsellers out there on the market right now.

The Grim Reaper killing zombies? Hell yeah! How can you not get excited about that?

Pre-Order the book from the following retailers to help drive early sales. Your support will continue to show Big Publishing that the small, indie presses like Permuted Press and its authors, are a force to reckoned with and that they made the right decision in making this deal.

Plus, you get a damn fine read in the process!

AMAZON.COM

BARNES & NOBLE.COM

Go. Buy. NOW!

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