MUSINGS
Walk the Sky is currently free on Kindle (US and UK) for the next couple of days. Grab it if you haven't already. For non-Kindle users, the book will finally be available on all other platforms later this month. But the Kindle edition (just like all my ebooks) is DRM-free, so you can download it for free on Amazon right now if you'd like and reformat it for your ereader. Enjoy!
The Calling is now available as an audiobook via Audible and iTunes, all 10 hours of it (Spooky Nook, also available at Audible and iTunes, is only an hour). Both are narrated by Tristan Morris, who does a fantastic job. Truly, I'm thrilled with how these two audiobook turned out. I'm a big audiobook fan, and practically listen to audiobooks every time I'm in the car. Since I've signed up to become an Audible Member, I listen to even more audiobooks -- in the car, yes, but also at the gym, at the grocery store, and when I'm doing work around the house. Anybody who regularly listens to audiobooks knows that a narrator can make or break a book. I've heard some good books ruined by the wrong choice of narrator. So I listened to over one hundred audiobook narrators and narrowed them down before I picked Tristan. And, thankfully, he was available. (I plan to do a podcast with Tristan sometime in the future.) Check out the sample.
Now I know not everyone is a fan of audiobooks. That's okay. As an author, though, I feel audiobooks are just another market, and the more markets a book is available the better. There's a group of people who just listen to audiobooks, and then there are readers such as myself who enjoy both reading and listening to books.
Anyway, to celebrate, I want to host a giveaway. I have some really cool swag (Swartwood Swag, let's call it) to giveaway to anyone who purchases one or both of the audiobooks or who helps spread the word. I have some large, slick magnets to give away. Yes, you heard me right -- magnets. One has The Calling cover on it, the other Real Illusions. Send your audiobook receipts to robert (at) robertswartwood (dot) com, or share the link to this post on Facebook or Twitter or wherever and let me know in an email along with your address, and I'll send out a magnet or two.
Exciting, huh?
Also, if you're not an Audible Member but have always wanted to sign up, consider making The Calling and Spooky Nook your first two purchases. Audible gives me a nice bonus, and you'll become my new best friend.
And as always, if you listen to the audiobooks and enjoy them, please consider leaving a review. Audible makes it very easy in that you can simply leave a star rating.
I didn't know it existed either, and I usually keep up with such things, especially as I'm a big fan of the Odd Thomas books. Yes, some of the books are better than others, but they're all very enjoyable, and the fact that there's a movie is fascinating. Stephen King has had almost all of his books and stories turned into movies at one point or another, and some of those are made by major studios, while others are made for TV. As for Koontz? His track record isn't as solid, which is strange, because he's produced some really great books. Anyway, just the other day I caught wind that there was an Odd Thomas movie, and that the movie itself was apparently already made, but that it might never see the light of day. Shame, too, because I managed to track down the trailer, and the movie looks top notch. Check it out.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ybBq5AETyU
My novelette Spooky Nook -- a "prequel of sorts" to my first novel The Calling -- is now available via Audible and iTunes. The narrator is Tristan Morris, a relatively new voice in audiobook narration, but one that I'm certain will become well-known very soon. I'm thrilled with what he did with both Spooky Nook and The Calling, and will talk more about it once The Calling becomes available in the next few weeks. For now, check out the sample below.
Remember a while back there was this guy named Steven King and people were buying his books because they thought he was Stephen King and getting really upset? Well, the same thing is happening, only (surprisingly) nobody has caught on yet. At least, nobody has given this book any one-star reviews ... yet. EDIT: finally someone has caught on and the ebook has scored its first one-star review.
The ebook, published June 16, 2013, is titled Joyland (Hard Case Crime) by Stephen King, a review.
Talk about misleading.
According to the product description:
Stephen King brilliantly transforms a regular crime novel, into an amusement park, with pleasant and unacceptable memories, that teeter you on the edge of his Ferris wheel. When the ride finally stops, you push the bar back, and step off, right inside Stephen King’s, Joyland. You smile for a moment, at the sounds and smells of the fair, but here, joy takes on a different meaning. One that embarks on a role of entertainment, and saving a life becomes profitable. He reaches inside your emotions with unexpected sensitivity to human conditions: lost love, saving lives, family, friendships, mind readers, and fortunetellers. Yes, there are ghosts and murder, but more important is King’s ability to take you on a journey into the narrator’s youthful, past experiences, that are played in a rerun mode, by the now aged carny worker, Devin Jones. Joyland captures our desire to find answers to questions that we can’t seem to let go of, especially the painful ones. When the death of a close friend brings back those ghostly reflections of Devin’s life, he finds them lying next to colorful lights that seem to dance across those old carnival grounds, until the morning sun dispels them into tomorrow.
Does anyone get from that the fact this ebook is an review?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Currently (Sunday night at 11:40 pm) the book is ranked #1,558 in the entire Kindle store and is priced at $2.99.
And, according to the estimated length, is only 6 pages long.
The "author" of this ebook, Nick Walton, has published a few other ebooks with link-baited titles such as Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss; a review and Fifty Shades Trilogy: Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed 3-volume, reviewed.
The last one -- the review of the Fifty Shades Trilogy -- is estimated at only 3 pages.
And it's selling.
Welcome to the wacky and wonderful world of publishing!
