Far From Home

For more details about the Far From Home
series, including a timetable for upcoming
releases, visit Tony's website.

You're all used to this by now. I post a quick little story about a book I've worked on, then tell you to go buy it. In this case, I'm going to tell you to go download it for free.

Tony Healey's latest project is a ship-based sci-fi adventure that he and I (okay, more me than him) are having way too much fun with. It's camp. It's pulp. It's a bit old school. It's a lot of homage to the numerous TV series that influenced both of us as kids. It's the many Star Treks, Star Wars, Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galacticas. It's a fun romp through 1970s and 1980s television (and movies) with just a touch of the 1990s thrown in for good measure.

The first volume, Legend, is free on Amazon and Smashwords. The second, Commander, is available in both locations for a mere $1.99. The third, Hero, is currently in the works and should be hitting my desk any day now in time to be edited for its October release. The remaining nine installments will be spread across the next thirteen months, then the entire saga will be released in December 2013 as one large volume.

That's the plan anyway.

Follow us as we travel, won't you? But be prepared. We'll be straying Far From Home.

Happy Reading!

(By the way, as a personal favor, once you've read this terrific adventure, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and/or Smashwords. Reviews are like gold to indie authors. Good reviews are like platinum.)

Boldly Going... and Going... and Going...

I really had no intention of doing this all so quickly, but I finished another project this week that's near and dear to my heart. Therefore I must share. My buddy Tony Healey is getting to be a permanent fixture around here, with good reason. I love the way he writes. Even if he didn't pay me to read his work, I would. Editing him is simply a bonus associated with my awesome job.

So I am filled with pride to be able to say that we've completed another project together. This one, unlike the rest, is actually the first in a twelve part series entitled Far From Home. Installment number one, Legend, went live on Smashwords and Amazon on Friday, August 10, a full ten days ahead of schedule.

Far From Home is set in the same literary universe as his previous novel The Stars My Redemption, but it's not a sequel. I'm not privy to all of the plans Tony has for the series, nor do I want to be. I prefer to experience a first read of an author's work the same way most readers do: ignorant of any writerly intent. That said, I can't wait to see Volume 2: Commander.

I've gushed enough. If you'd like to see what all the fuss is about, take a run over to Smashwords and download a FREE copy of Legend. And if you're so inclined, Tony and I would be eternally grateful if you would inform Amazon that you got it cheaper elsewhere. (Due to contractual obligations, writers must charge at least .99 per copy for books unless they are part of Amazon's KDP Select program.) By informing them, you'll help us to ensure that this volume will be available for free there as well.

THEN pop over to Tony's website for news and information about the series including updates regarding availability of future volumes.

While you're at it, we'd also love to have you post a review.

What? You'd like to read my review? It's right below the cover art, just scroll down.

I know it's bad form for someone who's directly involved with a book to write review, but I assure you, I am an editor, not a ghost writer.

I'm also already quite attached to its characters. I love that the main character is female. That she's strong but vulnerable. That she's got a depth of which we catch glimpses and discover bit by bit.

While it's intended to be the stage-setter for a continuing saga, this book is so much more than that. Legend begins in battle and carries you through the toughest few days this crew has ever faced. It's fast paced, emotional, full of surprises, and very well written.

Most important: it's squeaky clean. Created for an intelligent reader from teen to infinity, this book, and I expect this series, is wholly satisfying on multiple levels.

Happy Reading!

Smut and Stephen King

Well, it's here. The anthology of smut that I've been promising is finally live on Amazon AND I have a promotion to go with it. If you're confused by the title you see on the book cover, I'll clear that up in a minute. Be warned; these stories are not intended for anyone under the age of 18.

First, the Promotion:

I released my short story, "Fear of the Dark," about six weeks ago as a preview to this anthology. Well, Sunday and Monday, June 17 and 18, "Fear of the Dark" is free on Amazon so you can get a little taste. Strange Kisses, the anthology that includes "Fear of the Dark," is now live on Amazon and selling for $2.99. So grab the single if you want to test the waters, then dive into the four-piece anthology.

Next, Change in Cover and Title:

this one didn't make the cut but will
 be used for a different collection

My original intent was to assemble a group of very dark, genre-oriented, erotic tales. The problem was they just didn't come together as quickly as I hoped they would. However, another set of stories that I had been playing with (in my head) for a while pulled together and nearly wrote itself. I suppose the stories decided it was time. So the original title, Eros and Thanatos no longer fit.

The Stephen King Connection:

I had been having this back and forth, via email, with a friend. I convinced him that he needed to read Skeleton Crew, the first Stephen King book I ever read. Because I loved it. I had forgotten how much I loved it until one night when that friend sent me an email that began with, "Wait - just a few minutes. I want to talk to you... and then I am going to kiss you. Wait..." You see, so many people want to pigeonhole Stephen King as a horror writer, but his versatility is amazing. AND I'm convinced he's a hopeless romantic hiding behind a pair of thick glasses and a stack of scary novels.

My favorite Stephen King quote is "...a short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger." THAT, my friends, is where I got the title for this collection.

A couple of friends have graciously allowed me to take over their blogs for the weekend. You'll find a Q & A-type article over at my pal Matt Posner's blog. You may remember him as the Vampire Poet from April's poetry slam. And Tony Healey over at his website asked me to write a short article about the stories behind the stories that make up Strange Kisses.

If I may, I'd like to offer you one last Stephen King quote, also from the introduction to Skeleton Crew:  "...if I should kiss you in the dark, it’s no big deal; it’s only because you are my love."

Happy Reading!

Tony Healey

I'm a firm believer that every girl needs a brother, even if he isn't related by blood. Thanks to the Kindle All-Stars, I have about ten. Tony is the one who teases me the most. And I'm okay with that. As I write this, Tony and I have recently finished one project; we're working on a second; and a third is already on the horizon. I may complain a bit about "my writers," but the truth is I wouldn't change any of them.

I'm sharing this with you so maybe you'll better understand why this particular poem, and the email to which it was attached, hit me hard.

Laurie, 

Find pasted into the body of this email my second poem. I wrote this for my brother Danny, who passed away nearly 25 years ago now.

WISH YOU WERE HERE

The Honeycroft Series is available on Amazon

Decades drifting downstream,

But no more than a day,

Since you were taken away

Old scars pull at the seams

Every time you rise within my thoughts,

My heart aches,

I wish you were here with me, with us, around

To see how we’d have loved you

But the tide took you; caught

I need you, I want to see you,

Just one last time, hold you,

Against my breast to hear

My heart-song,

I want you near

A higher power,

Says its right to take you from us,

Brother, and the Brother next door,

But regardless I’m still wishing

I have lived a lifetime of conversations unspoken,

Empty, hollow sadness rolling down cheeks,

A pain in the walls of my heart,

Anniversaries of yesterday and what was

And what might have been

If only I could forget about you,

Let the river take you,

Carry you far away to the valley before the dawn,

To eternal night

And are you there,

Somewhere,

Beneath the great wheel,

The big dipper, the belt of Orion?

Looking where I’m looking?

Feeling what I’m feeling, perhaps,

And knowing how I wish you were here?

Haunted ‘till the very end,

When we will meet again.

Tony Healey is the author of The Honeycroft Series, The Stars My Redemption, and others including a collection called Double. By the way, he also designs all his own covers and he's done a few for other KAS authors as well. (As we speak, he's tweaking a design I came up with for one of mine.)

Visit Tony's website:  www.fringescientist.com