Kick Off Cyber Monday With A Free Ebook From Hopedale Press!

Tis The Season To Be Jolly! 

So why would anyone want to celebrate it by reading tales of super/natural terror? Tradition, that's why! 

While most of you are no doubt familiar with the mythic figure known as St. Nicholas/ Santa Claus/Father Christmas/Papa Noel/Sinterklaas, who flies about the world to bring presents to good little girls and boys, many in the United States are unaware of the Jolly Old Elf's darker half, a demonic creature called the Krampus, who travels alongside St. Nicholas, searching for naughty children to stuff in its sack and carry away to its lair, to be fattened up and devoured for Christmas dinner. How's that for good ol' fashioned nightmare fuel, as well as a sure-fire means of making sure the kids stay in their beds while you're putting together the damned bicycle?

Yep,  yuletide and ghostly stories of the weird, strange and downright horrifying go together like How The Grinch Stole Christmas and A Christmas Carol. And the good people at Hopedale Press (meaning me) have decided to continue the time-honored tradition of creeping people out for the holidays by giving readers one ebook for free and discounting three others by 50%. The Krampus couldn't beat that deal with a bundle of switches!

Wait, Did I Hear You Type 'Free Ebook'?

Yes, you did. For a limited time during November and December, THE ICE WEDDING is offered free on Kindle. (Sorry, epub readers, but until iTunes and Nook start making it easier to do similar promotions, you'll have to be on the outside looking in.) 

The Happy Holidays From Hopedale Press Special starts 3am EST on November 26th  and runs to 3am EST November 29th, 2012. 

If you miss that freebie window, you get a second crack at it during The Hopedale Press Krampus Special, which runs from 3am December 23rd to 3am December 25th, 2012.   

And what, exactly, is The Ice Wedding about, you ask? Well, its a gothic fairy tale based on a real-life event. In this case, how the Empress Anna punished an unfortunate Russian nobleman, first by commanding that he become a royal jester, and then by forcing him to marry her chambermaid. The newlyweds were then told they could earn their freedom by spending their wedding night in a cottage made entirely out of ice, during the coldest winter Moscow had ever seen. Chilling, isn't it?

Kindle

You Also Said Something About 50% Off Ebooks, Didn't You?

Indeed, I did. 

To celebrate the Season of Giving, I have decided to slash prices on three of my $4.99 ebooks by 50%: Hell Come Sundown, Lynch: A Gothik Western, and Walking Wolf.  The sale will run from November 26th until December 31st, 2012 and will be available via Kindle, iTunes, Kobo, Nook, Sony and Smashwords.  

Hell Come Sundown: Sam Hell, a former Texas Ranger turned ghostbreaker, and his traveling companion, the Comanche shamaness Pretty Woman, search the Mexican border for Sangre, the vampire conquistador who turned him into one of the undead. Was $4.99--now $2.99 until Dec. 31st.

Kindle

Nook

Smashwords

Lynch: A Gothik Western: A Frankenstein gunslinger and his flesh-eating zombie horse ride out in search of the rogue cavalry officer responsible for lynching him and murdering his pregnant wife. Cover by Stephen R. Bissette. Was $4.99--now $2.99 until Dec. 31st.

Kindle

Nook

Smashwords

Walking Wolf:  An infant werewolf is found by a Comanche warrior at the site of a massacre and raises him as his own. When Walking Wolf's darker nature leads him to kill the woman he loves and his best friend, he decides to venture into the White Man's world in hopes of better understanding who, and what, he truly is. Was $4.99--now $2.99 until Dec. 31st.

Kindle

Nook

Smashwords

A Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy Yule/Jumpin' Junkanoo/Happy Kwanzaa/Swinging Saturnalia/ Festive Festivus To All, And To All A Good Night!

And Watch Out For The Krampus!

Kill City: The New Sonja Blue Novel

A Kickstarter campaign has been started to raise money to fund the completion and publication of KILL CITY, the first new novel in the Sonja Blue series in ten years. Should the Kickstarter campaign meet its stated goal amount, KILL CITY will be the first traditional ‘physical’ novel published by Hopedale Press.

After the initial book proposal for KILL CITY was deemed ‘uncommercial’ by traditional publishers—largely due to a biting take on a certain popular series of vampire novels aimed at the Young Adult market—I decided to forego drastically re-tooling the plot in favor of taking my case directly to the fans of the Sonja Blue series.

 While mainstream publishers might not feel there’s enough demand to warrant the outlay for KILL CITY, I believe otherwise. I know there’s an audience out there for this novel. Every day I get emails and posts on my Facebook page from different fans throughout the world, wanting to know when Sonja Blue will be making her return. In today’s radically changing publishing world, there is no longer any need for the author of a widely read series—one that won awards and has been reprinted in ten different languages—to simply accept the say-so of a publisher as to what is commercially viable and worthy of production.

Incentives offered to potential supporters range from DRM-free ebook editions and T-shirts to the distinction of being killed (in print, that is) by vampire slayer Sonja Blue. The Kickstarter page also provides fans a chance to read a never-before seenexcerpt from the unpublished KILL CITY,  as well as new music video showcasing the character of Sonja Blue that includes awide array of artwork from both professional creators and fans.

SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK, the debut novel in the Sonja Blue series, won the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for First Novel, the British Fantasy Society’s Icarus Award, and the Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award, and was nominated for the James Tiptree Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. It was also adapted into a comic book series by Glenn Danzig’s Verotik Publications.

The Kill City Kickstarter Campaign runs from October 29^th to the 28^th of November.