Deadlock FREE

One of my books, Deadlock, will be free on Amazon from Dec. 14 to Dec. 18.  This is part of a new program Amazon is offering in which Deadlock will be exclusive to them for the next 90 days. So if you're interested in the book and have a Nook, or something else, you'll have to wait. Judging from the sales of Deadlock on non Kindles...there aren't many of you out there! I'm hoping this will help sales for the other books and give me a little jump. Please tell all your Kindle owning friends!

The Protector release

Well, it's looking like The Protector will finally be released in February. It's been pushed back several times now, and though I never said why, it was because of a lack of financial resources. The money just wasn't there to publish it and promote it the right way. But it's looking like that will change in January, so February is looking good to go.

Help

This post is all about asking for the help of you readers who enjoy my work. Any help you can give in getting the word out about my books is extremely appreciated. Whether you "like" my new facebook page, put out twitter messages, write reviews, send e-mails to friends...I'm grateful for it all. So if you like my books and feel like helping an author out...please tell your friends and family if you think they might enjoy my stuff. I struggle with getting the word out because I'm not great at self promotion...I just don't enjoy tootin' my own horn.

Here's what you could do if you're interested:
1) Write reviews on Amazon & Barnes and Noble (most helpful)
2) "like" my new facebook page
3) follow me on twitter
4) tweet or share on facebook about my books
5) tell your friends and family
6) mention my books in online forums

Thanks if you help!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!

Facebook

I started my own Facebook page. Not sure exactly what I'm doing with it yet, but I'm sure I'll get it figured out fairly quickly. I'd appreciate anyone clicking on the like button on the page. Thanks!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rye-James/175127015906405#!/pages/Rye-James/175127015906405?sk=wall

Still here and kickin'!

I've been largely silent the last couple of months, but I'm starting to get back in the swing of things. I needed a break from writing and promotion so I just stepped away from everything. The Protector is waiting for the finishing touches so I wanna get that out there for the 2 of you who decide to buy it! :-) Then I wanna get the next book of The Evil Series finished. After that I don't know where I'll go, maybe finish The Evil Series, or maybe go in a different direction. Hope all is well with you guys.

A Soul Worth Taking

The price of A Soul Worth Taking is now 99 cents on Kindle! Not sure how long this sale will go on for but obviously I'm trying to get as many readers for the book as possible. Please give it a shot if you're interested. Thanks!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V02A3K

A Soul Worth Taking review copies

In an effort to try and get some positive reviews on A Soul Worth Taking...I'm offering free copies to anyone who's interested in reading it. The book currently only has one review and it's a 1 star (which I obviously don't agree with). The book is hardly selling and my opinion is that this one lone, bad review is hurting sales. So if you want to read it, you can download a free copy with a coupon code via smashwords in whatever format you prefer. All I ask is that if you enjoy the book you post a review on Amazon and/or Barnes and Noble.

Here's the smashwords page:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51084

coupon code: AM68Q


Thank you to all who are interested!!

updates

It's been a few weeks since my last post here. Just wanted to update everyone with what's been going on. All the books have been delayed, timeframes are tough to say right now, as there's a lot going on at home. The Protector still has to be edited and the cover done. Until that's done the 2nd book of The Evil Series won't even be touched so that's gonna be delayed as well. The reason for the delay is that for the time being we took in some family members who had no place to go for a little while. So that's 2 more adults, a baby, and a dog, living in our house. So it's extremely crowded in here and busy and really tough to get any writing related stuff done. In order for me to do things I need a quiet room for a few hours and that's not possible at the moment.

If I had to guess I'd say The Protector should be released in July or August at the latest. That would push back The Woods to probably October or November.

interview

Here's an interview I just had on author Travis Haselton's blog:

http://haseltonsword.blogspot.com/2011/05/interview-with-author-rye-james.html

Donna's Blog Home review of A Soul Worth Taking

After being frustrated about the first review for A Soul Worth Taking being a bad one I thought I'd share a good one. It is posted at Donna's Blog Home in which she calls the book "a captivating story....the characters are well developed and interesting."

You can read the full review here:

http://donnasbloghome.blogspot.com/2011/05/review-soul-worth-taking.html

vacation

Well, not a real one, but I am taking a break from writing for a couple of weeks. The last couple of weeks I've been really stressed out with family issues and with promotion/reviews,etc. So I didn't do any writing last week, I'm not doing any this week, and there's a good chance I won't do any next week either. After that, I'll get to finishing up The Woods and trying to get The Protector ready to be released. So, I'll likely be quiet for the next week or two unless something comes up I feel the need to announce.

Frustration

Days like these really make me want to throw in the towel. Got my first review in for A Soul Worth Taking and it's a doozy...one star. The reviewer basically said that I couldn't write, the story stunk, it wasn't edited...blah blah blah. I won't debate the review(er) because I don't do that...everyone's entitled to their opinions. Even though I disagree. Sometimes I'd like to though. (It was edited though..). I've been excited about this book and series and to have the first review trash it makes me think maybe I really do suck.

I'm even more on edge since my last review was a 2 star on The Assassin (though that guy gives 2 stars to every book he reads and says none of them are well written) so I wasn't so upset as much with that one.

I've had my share of good reviews and people that like what I write though it seems the bad reviews stay with me longer than the good one. I wonder how it is for other writers? I really shouldn't even bother looking at reviews.

Here's my basic thoughts: I don't think I'm a great writer, maybe not even a good one. I think I'm an average writer...some better than me, some worse. I think I'm a good storyteller. Those that want to read books with great writing that will leave you speechless probably should skip mine. If you just want a good story and don't want to go running for the dictionary to understand what I just wrote...maybe you'll like it.

The Protector

95% sure that's gonna be the title of the next book...instead of Empire. It's a more fitting title as the main character is the leader of The Protectors. It's the title I wanted all along but I changed it at the beginning since there have been other books called that. But it's the right fit so I'm going back to it.

I'm shooting for a release date of June. I should be wrapping up edits in the next 2 weeks and I'll start hunting around for a cover artist and get it formatted.

I'll keep everyone updated on the progress and also will be updating info in the next couple weeks about book 2 in The Evil Series.

Right now, watching the Flyers getting killed in game 1 of the playoffs against the Bruins!

Juniper Grove

I was recently featured on the Juniper Grove blog as they were giving away copies of A Soul Worth Taking for their Dark Nights week. Take a look:

http://junipergrove.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/guest-post-by-author-rye-james/

baseball

My 5yr old daughter had her first every baseball game today. It went a lot better than her first practice went. She wasn't as shy and didn't need us out there with her. She hit the ball on the first pitch a couple of times, though the first time she was on base she didn't know where to go. But it went very well and she had a lot of fun. It was a good time had by everyone.

Spellbound By Books

I am on Spellbound By Books today talking about A Soul Worth Taking. You can also enter a drawing where 2 free copies of the book are being given away. Check it out

http://www.spellboundbybooks.com/2011/04/guest-post-by-rye-james-and-giveaway.html

design changes

I'm probably going to be doing some experimenting with the blog in the next few weeks. As stated in the last post I'm going to post about some personal stuff more. But I'm also trying to change the look of the blog. To be honest, it looks kind of boring. I added the slideshow of my books  to the right so people can find them easier if they so desire. That's a good start. I'm also going to be adding other features...what, I'm not exactly sure yet. I just want more content and less 'blah'. So I'm on the lookout. Anybody has suggestions or ideas feel free to email me.

little league

I'm going to venture off the regular path of blog topics today. Usually I only discuss my writing stuff. I think I'm now going to occasionally talk about personal things as it appears some readers like to know things like that...trying to get to know a writer they like.

My 5yr old daughter had her first baseball practice on Sunday. Didn't start off too well. She's incredibly shy at first and isn't outgoing at all when meeting new people. She didn't want me to leave her side as she's playing catch with another kid and everytime I started to leave the field to go watch from the bleachers she started to cry. At one point she said she wanted to stop and go. My wife then stayed with her and after another twenty minutes or so began to warm up to everything. The practice was about 2 hours and she eventually stayed out there on her own, hitting, running the bases, and standing out in the field. So when the practice was over she said she had fun and wanted to come back. They handed out hats and shirts and we went to the store to get her spikes. I asked her what was the matter at the beginning and she said she wasn't sure what to expect.

All in all it was a great day. I played baseball for quite a few years and I have to say that I think I was more nervous watching her than I ever was when I played. Her first actual game is next week, will have to get out the camcorder for that one. The joys of having children.

Special Thanks

Now that A Soul Worth Taking has been released, I wanted to give a shout out to Jeffry Hepple. Jeff formatted the book for Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. Jeff is also an author of some historical fiction that you should definitely check out.

Here's his Amazon author page to check out his books:

http://www.amazon.com/Jeffry-S.-Hepple/e/B002BM69BO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Amazon release!

A Soul Worth Taking is now available on Amazon for the Kindle!

Click here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V02A3K

Happy downloading!

Release of A Soul Worth Taking

For you Nook users, A Soul Worth Taking is available now!! It's being offered at an introductory price of only .99!! The cover is not yet up there, but it is embedded in the story once you download it. It will only be at that price for a few weeks so hurry and get your copy.


http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Soul-Worth-Taking/Rye-James/e/2940012295224

For those of you who use mobipocket (still 99 cents), the link is here:

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/eBookDetails.asp?BookID=429756

And for those who like the variety of options at smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51084


For the Kindle users, it should be available within the next 24 hours...I will have another post when it's ready. Download away, all!

A Soul Worth Taking

Right now the book is in the hands of a professional formatter, so I'm hopeful that it'll be ready by the end of the weekend. Once it's done I'll submit it to Amazon, B&N, hopefully Apple and Kobo. My books have not been on Apple or Kobo before because they've never been professionally formatted and I could never figure out how they wanted it. The timeframe that the book is available on the Kindle and Nook obviously depend on Amazon and B&N. I'll keep you updated though.

A Soul Worth Taking release

Just wanted to make a quick update on A Soul Worth Taking's release date. The cover is just about finished. I've been working with the cover designer, going back and forth, checking out different fonts/sizes/styles...and I think we're just about there. Once it's finished I'll release the final cover on here. I was thinking it might be kind of cool to see the progression of the first cover and all the different variations until we get to the final one.

Editing should be finished within a week. It's been a little slower than expected as I was dealing with some personal stuff that sidetracked me. I still want to get the book in the hands of some bloggers/reviewers to get some reviews up on release day, but I'm not sure if there will be enough time. There seems to be some interest in the book so I'm not going to push the release back again. I did it once and won't do it again. The idea was to have some reviews up on release day to help with additional sales and help push it up the charts. Even if they're not up by release date, whenever they get up they'll help with sales, so I'm not really worried about it.

Be back in the next few days with another update.

Beta Readers

I'm once again putting out the call for beta readers. This time it's for my fantasy book...right now being called Empire (thinking of other options). Will probably start sending out copies sometime next week for those interested. Here's a little info on the story:

(not an official blurb or anything as I haven't worked on it much)

Drobania is on the verge of a rebellion. The leader of the rebel forces is a great warrior named Todel and was once the comander of the empire's elite guard unit, The Protectors. It's decided the best way to end the rebellion is to eliminate it before it starts by killing their leader. A small band of soldiers is sent to the mountains to find Todel and kill him. The man in charge of this band, Taidyn, is the only man capable of killing Todel in battle. He is also the current commander of The Protectors. Taidyn is unsure whether he is capable of killing Todel. The reason....Todel is his father.


If interested let me know.

A Soul Worth Taking blurbs

I've had an interesting mix of responses to which blurb people like best so far. As of a couple days ago it was dead evenly split among all three, which I thought was unbelievable. The last couple of days the support seems to be going towards #1 and #3. I haven't made a decision yet on which one I'll be using so if you haven't voiced your opinion feel free to do so.

news

First off is I need to delay the release date of A Soul Worth Taking. I'm sorry to those of you who've been looking forward to it but you won't have to wait much longer. We're delaying the release till mid-April. So only another month or so. We want to try and create a bigger buzz and get review copies out to reviewers so hopefully a couple will be out when it's released...thereby helping sales. Also still doing some minor edits, and waiting for the cover, which I'm supposed to see later today. I just don't want everything to be rushed and the book suffers for it. Plus it will allow a shorter time between book one and book two.

Will be back with an update tomorrow on the blurb feedback....it's been pretty interesting.

A Soul Worth Taking blurbs

Been working on the official synopsis of the book and seem to have three choices (unless more spring up from this). Right now I'm leaning towards #3. If you have any thoughts on these...likes/dislikes...feel free to comment or e-mail your opinion.

#1

Hell wants him.

Heaven wants to save him.

After tragedy strikes Mike Moore, the Devil sees an opportunity to acquire another soul while he's in his darkest moments. An Angel is sent to guide him back from the lowest depths of his soul. Will he rise above the darkness or will he give in to hate and anger, seeking revenge for what he's been put through? What transpires is a man's personal struggles to do what's right or succumb to evil.


#2
What do you do when those that are closest to you are ripped away? For Mike Moore, he is caught in a personal struggle between what is right and wrong. Evil torments him, chipping away at his soul, trying to entice him to seek revenge on the tragedy he has had to endure. Will he give in to temptation or can he rise above the darkness with the help of a heavenly friend?

#3
Hell wants him.

Heaven wants to save him.

What would you do when those you love most are ripped away?

After tragedy strikes Mike Moore, he is visited by two mysterious strangers. One sees an opportunity to take advantage of him while he's in his darkest moments and takes him to the lowest depths of his soul, tempting his desires to take revenge for what he has lost. The other tries to help him rise above the darkness, giving him the support he needs to fight against the evil that has come for him. What transpires is a personal struggle between good and evil.

release date

MARCH 8!!

Yep. That's right. A Soul Worth Taking will be released on Tuesday, March 8th.

Make sure you virtually start lining up for your copy now, but no line jumping. They'll be enough for everybody. :-)

William Meikle--guest post

The Valley

WHY I WROTE THE VALLEY



The origins of the novella "The Valley" are pretty simple to trace. In Fortean circles there have been attempts to find a picture that many claim to have seen, yet no-one has been able to find. This fabled photograph is said to show a group of Civil-War era men standing in a row wearing big grins. Spreadeagled on the ground in front of them is the body of a huge bird, a being that could only come from pre-history. In some accounts this bird is a giant eagle, in others it is even stranger, a leathery, paper thin Pterosaur. Whatever the case, that image was the thing in my mind, and I had a "What if..." moment, wondering what would happen if cowboys came across a Lost World. From that single thought, the initial concept of The Valley was born.


There's a long tradition of Lost World tales, both in movies and fiction. Over the years I've devoured as many as I can find, from Conan Doyle through Haggard, from Tarzan in Pellucidar to Doug McLure in the Land that Time Forgot. Many of these tales involve dinosaurs, but I wanted something different. For a while I didn't know exactly what "creatures" I needed, but that all changed as soon as the setting clicked. Back in 2005 I had the good fortune to holiday in the Rockies. It was while scanning through photographs of that trip that the thought of the high mountain valley came to me, and when Neil Jackson told me about Montana and the Big Hole Valley, I knew I'd found my spot. And the pictures of the ice and snow from my trip also gave me the era from which I would draw my creatures -- the last Ice Age. I now knew that my protagonists would be heading into a Lost Valley where relic animals lived, and that these creatures would be hairy and large. I had an image of a herd of mammoths by a partially-frozen lake, and that was the image that drove me on in the early concepts.


Now I needed some protagonists. I knew in advance I wanted to write a "western" and some research led me to set the story in the 1860s, when something of a mini-goldrush was happening in Montana. The characters grew on me quickly. I wasn't too surprised at that -- my early childhood was steeped in Westerns. I have my Granddad to thank for days watching Wagon Train, Rawhide, Bonanza and Gunsmoke, then later on, The Virginian and The High Chapparal. He also introduced me to Louis L'Amour and others as I devoured his collection of Western paperbacks. As I started the Valley I already knew that I was going to have six men thrown into peril, and that they'd be almost evenly split between white and black hats. Several of them surprised me as the story went on, but from the start they had a "depth" that reassured me that the story would go to all the right places.


I got them to the mining camp, and the start of the aforesaid perils. Then my muse threw a spanner in the works. I've been a Ray Harryhausen fan most of my life, and the creature that now came to mind was a Harryhausen special, one that I could "see" in my mind's eye, scuttling and "snipping". Unfortunately it didn't exist in the Ice Age, but at a time much longer ago. But I wanted it, so in it went. I won't give the plot away here, but suffice to say I managed to fit it in -- I managed to fit a lot of them in. And as a result the rest of the story immediately fell into place, almost as if I was channeling a new Harryhausen movie.


I wrote the while thing in less than ten days, my brain thinking about little else the whole time. It's one of the most fun experiences I've ever had writing, and I hope it shows in the final product. Even now, more than a year after finishing it, I still find myself thinking about the Valley, and the creatures that inhabit it. Somewhere, the story continues, and one day I might go back to find out what happened next.

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William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION has been as high as #2 in the Kindle SF charts and THE VALLEY has reached #1 in the Kindle Historical Fantasy chart. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com

William Meikle--guest post on Jan. 28

Just wanted to announce I will be hosting William Meikle on Jan. 28th as he is on a blog tour. I always like to help out other writers when possible. For those who aren't familiar with him here's a bio:

William Meikle is a Scottish writer with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in thirteen countries. He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in a number of professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION has been as high as #2 in the Kindle SF charts and THE VALLEY has reached #1 in the Kindle Historical Fantasy chart. He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com

Escape

Just wanted to let everyone know who hasn't purchased Escape yet that the price is now just .99 cents on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. There's no timeframe for it so I expect it will remain that price for a while. Sales at $1.99 just aren't strong enough so in an attempt to get more sales I decided to lower it. I have noticed a slight uptick in the few days since the price change so hopefully it'll work.

A Soul Worth Taking---beta feedback

Well I started getting feedback this past weekend for A Soul Worth Taking. So far it's looking really good. Got the reactions that I was hoping I would get. The 1st reader stated that she cried after the first couple of chapters. That's good because it means that I did a good job of making her care about what was going on. She also said some parts "freaked her out a few times". Which is also good cause I was hoping to give the heebie jeebies...LOL. We'll see how the rest of the beta readers feel...should be getting more feedback this week. I will keep you all posted on the results.

2011 goals

As I promised yesterday, I'm back to talk of my plans for this year. First off, Shattered is officially being renamed A Soul Worth Taking. From the feedback I was getting, that was the title people seemed to prefer. And I like it. So that's what we're going with. This post will only talk generally about my goals for this year so I'll put up a post in the next couple days talking specifically about the book and when it will be released. My goal for this year is to put out 5 new releases. I think I can do it, but at the same time I'm not just gonna write up any old slop and throw it out there. A Soul Worth Taking is a definite and will be out within a couple months. Empire should be finished by the end of January and in the hands of beta readers shortly after that. That should be out no later than May. The 2nd book in The Evil Series, tentatively titled The Woods, is also being worked on now and should be finished by the end of February or March. So it's pretty easy to suggest that it'll be out by the end of the summer. I would also like to get the 3rd & 4th books of The Evil Series out by the end of the year as well. They have not been started yet, except for some outlining, but if I have the other books done by the end of February that would leave a lot of time to get those 2 done. That would give me 5 new releases for this year.

I really want the entire Evil series to be out this year as I think it has a chance to be a real success. I think it's a really interesting premise...but I am biased! The genre of the Evil series is Thriller/Suspense. Empire is Fantasy. As of right now I do not derive most of my income from writing and I really would like that to change come the end of this year. I think this series, along with Empire, has the potential to change that. Of course, you never really know how your books will be perceived so it's possible everyone will think they stink!

Assuming I get those 5 books released this year I also plan to start writing a couple of other Thrillers, along with another Fantasy, that I have in mind. So it's shaping up to be a busy year for me. Hopefully, it'll be a successful one, and I'll be able to take another step forward.

Thanks for your continued support.

2010 Sales

Now that 2010 is over I figured I'd look back at my sales figures and see how I did and the results are a little mixed. I'm still not where I'd like to be (selling thousands a month)...but sales did improve dramatically this past year. They were over 6 times better than 2009 so I am happy about that. I don't have the final Barnes and Noble figures yet as their system is down but most of my sales are from Amazon anyway so it doesn't really skewer anything. Here's how my books rank by sales. These include both paperback and e-books.

1) The Assassin
2) Escape
3) Bounty Hunter
4) Deadlock
5) Day of the Assassin

Here's how I look at it: The Assassin is by far my best seller at more than 2 to 1 over Escape and almost 3 to 1 over the #4 Deadlock. I always assumed Escape, which is a thriller, would eventually take over the sales lead since Westerns aren't as popular but it's never happened and I don't think it's ever going to. I tend to think it's because Assassin isn't a straight Western and has some Mystery elements to it so it may get some people who wouldn't have read it otherwise. Bounty Hunter and Deadlock are more straight Westerns and are pretty much where I expected them to be, though I actually thought Deadlock would be 3rd, but they're still pretty close. Day of the Assassin has sold about what I expected for a short story collection so I'm ok with its sales. E-books continue to be the bulk of my sales. In 2009, 92% of sales were from e-books. In 2010, 96% of sales were from e-books. Of course, I'm totally fine with that. The prices are much more attractive to readers, and I get just as much royalties from it as paperbacks. I'd love for the paperbacks to be less expensive but there's not much I can do to lower them. I've tried.

So all things considered 2010 was a really good year for me. Thank you to everyone who has given even one of my books a chance. It means a lot to me to know there are people out there reading my work (and hopefully enjoying them). I really can't say thank you enough. I am very appreciative of your support. I will be back with another post tomorrow outlining my goals for 2011. I am planning on this being my best year yet. I will definitely have out 3 new releases. Empire and books one and two from The Evil Series. Depending on how fast I write I might have as many as 5 or 6 though. We'll see but I'm hopeful. Hope everyone's doing well, had a good 2010, and an even better 2011. Thanks so much!