Indie Author Showcase 7: Arthur J. Sines & Kenneth Wayne

It's a Twofer Friday! 

Before I get to our double feature, I have to ask you all to help with my Relay For Life / American Cancer Society fundraiser. I'm extending the pledge date to the end of the month. That means we have another week to raise money for the charity. Think about loved ones who have been touched by cancer; I think that's about the only motivation you need.

So please. I want you to read my books; but even more, I want to raise a good chunk of money.

One other thing... you might notice a Facebook widget on the scrollbar to your right. Slap the "Like" button on that widget. It's pretty simple. And that part is free, too!

On to the showcase!

Today, I'll be showcasing two different authors. Be sure to check out work by both writers. We indies have to stick together and support one another.The best way to do that is through commenting, reviewing, and spreading the word. So hop to it, readers and writers! Let's spread the word.

The first author is Arthur J. Sines. It doesn't look like he has an author site to promote here, so I'll just let you read about his work below. And keep scrolling for the other showcase afterwards.

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Book Title: BlackMail: The Beginning
Genre: Science Fiction

Your Book in 1000 Words or Less:
The Third Party, or The Party for short, is a ruthless organization of spies and saboteurs. Their goal is to subtly craft and direct the world into a utopia, a place with no crime, no hate, and no prejudice. A place where nationality no longer exists and all people coexist peacefully, the true Marxist dream.

One of The Party's best agents, BlackMail, is being assigned to train a new recruit. The Party has high hopes for their new agent, Jade. But shortly after her training begins The Party assigns them to a critical mission that threatens their existence. But things go terribly wrong and it leaves BlackMail questioning what The Party really stands for.

Her discovery will propel her down a road she never thought possible, and forever change her life. And it will propel Jade down the path of The Third Party.

Book Link: BlackMail: The Beginning (Agents of The Third Party)

Something Unique About Your Writing Process:
I wrote and edited this book over a very long period of time. It had at one time spawned an entire site dedicated to helping unpublished authors get their work out. That didn't work, but fortunately amazon caught on and that dream is realized here. 

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The second author in today's showcase is Kenneth Wayne. He was raised on the American West Coast and has spent a few decades in Asia. Kenneth has under his belt five novels, dozens of short stories, a novel-length travelogue, and two ESL text books. He also runs the eTLC, (Electronic Text & Literature Cloud), which is an archive that only features authors who are not backed by major presses. So when you're done here, go check out his archive and find some new weekend reading material!

And now, from the author himself.

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Title:  Clip

Genre:  "Kafkaesque" thriller

Your book in 1000 words or less:  Imagine you’re watching a video posted on the Internet and catch a glimpse of yourself in it. The only thing is, you were never in the place where the clip was shot and you don't know any of the people in it.

Charles is an expatriated American living in Japan who spots himself in a sex video that has gone viral. Initially, he dismisses it as a fluke. His apprehension fades after a Japanese barmaid is convinced that he was in the clip and enthusiastically accepts his offer to spend the night with him.

His new-found fame wanes when a supervisor at work watches Charles in a job-related video and notices that Charles’ facial expressions momentarily take on those of a different person. After this incident, Charles is convinced that his video “flukes” must be explained.

His journey to discover the truth reveals: a former porno starlet with a “unique” talent; the couple from the viral video wants him to join a secret cult; the CIA is involved somehow; people with blue auras are important; disappearing people complicate things; a Russian gambler at a Korean casino with an agenda; and inter-dimensional reptilian aliens behind it all.

CLIP is a Kafkaesque thriller, which implodes into haunting 21st century veracity.

Book Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Clip-ebook/dp/B004NIFN7U 

(or) http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/42946

Author Website:  http://www.etlc.info

Something Unique About Your Writing Process:  Driving my family crazy as scribble away instead of devoting my time to day-trading or some other more "practical" pursuit.

Indie Author Showcase 5: Patty Jansen

Today's featured writer is Patty Jansen, who boasts an impressive list of published stories and novels along with the honor of having placed first in the Writers of the Future Contest in the second quarter of 2010. She's also part of the editorial team of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Be sure to visit her website for more information about her work. Also, if you're a writer, or a reader interested in writerly matters, you have to peruse Patty's blog. It's priceless. 

And now... from the author herself.

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Book Title: The Far Horizon

Genre: Science Fiction (for younger readers)

Your Book in 1000 Words or Less:
Of all the things ten-year-old Cory Wilson expects to do when he moves to Midway Space Station, saving aliens from humans isn't one. An important conference is about to start at the station, not usually the sort of thing kids care about, not even when the conference is between humans and aliens, and half your family is alien. However, when bullies tease Cory, he ends up in a prohibited area where he overhears some men planning to plant a bomb at the conference. Because the terrorists hide their messages in computer games, no one believes Cory, not even his father, the station director. Kids at school think he’s crazy, some even think aliens should be bombed. The conference starts, the aliens have brought a very important person, and Cory's teacher, one of the terrorists, locks Cory in the classroom. Can he get out in time? If he does, will anyone listen? 

Book Link:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/49922

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Far-Horizon-ebook/dp/B004U6WO90/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

Author Website: http://pattyjansen.wordpress.com/

Something Unique About Your Writing Process: I have a jar with pieces of papers with numbers on my desk. When I'm in the final stages of editing a book, I draw pieces of paper from this jar, and work on the chapter number corresponding with the paper I draw. This helps me focus on the nitty-gritty editing, instead of reading the story.

The (r)Evolution Begins...

A life-changing moment occurred to me last week.

Sometime between my ritual perusing of Gregory Brothers videos and HOPING (hold on to that word because it's important later) that I could get my finished novel ready for submittal to a literary agent, I received a link to an article about someone named JA Konrath.

And what followed was mind-bending.

JA Konrath is a proponent of "indie" publishing. He is a prolific writer and blogger, and after last week, my mind is infected by the notion that the publishing world has changed. The age of the successful DIY author has finally arrived.

At first, I thought his whole philosophy was an affront to the Gods of Legacy Publishing, those elder beings who dictate what is read and what lies eternal in the forsaken Pile of Slush. I sent a reactionay email to my brother, who originally turned me on to Konrath's amazing story, and I was very keen to point out that this digital self-publishing idea was a fluke.

Two hours later, after reading about other authors who enjoy the same kind of success selling eBooks via Kindle and Smashwords, I sent another message to my brother. It went something like this: "Maybe there's something to this." Sure, maybe. But print publishing was still the safe and respected norm, right? I like safe and respected; doesn't everyone?

After another two hours, I admitted to my brother that this was possibly a turning point in how fiction is produced and shared with readers.

The next day, after tossing in my sleep and waking up with the phrase "Self-publish" on my lips, I was a convert. A true-friggin-believer, in theory at least.

Better yet, I was already planning my own venture into the undiscoverd country of eBook publishing. Armed with a novel in its final stages of the production process, along with a book of short stories that are connected to that novel, I felt it was time to take action.

You see, for years, I hoped for a break; a short story here, a poem there, all submitted to various publications coupled with a little hope. Hope is not a bad thing at all, but hope without action is just a waste of time. Hope by itself is like stepping off your front porch and running without a purpose; without a destination or a goal, you're just losing your breath and, more importantly, running away from your home.
My action is this: I am a writer, so that means I must write. It means I must also embrace the evolving technology that has been changing the face of entertainment for the past ten years or more. I must walk out from the shadows of those Gods of Legacy Publishing, mighty as they may be, and walk the path of the indie writer. It's in my blood already (I'll get to that in a later post, I promise).

Hope + Action equals.... well, I think it equals success. If you stick around for the ride, we can find out together.- The Noob