4-Star Review for Stealing Freedom!

Greetings all,

I get to do one of my favorite things, which is share a review for one of my books!

She received a free Audible version of Stealing Freedom and was kind enough to leave a voluntary review on both Goodreads and Audible (click either link to see the review).

I’m always grateful for reviews. If you’ve read something of mine, please take a moment to offer a rating and/or review. If you’re interested in reviewing any of my books, please feel free to email me for a free Audible version of pretty much all of my titles.

As always, I thank you for reading,

Matt

Sojourn in Captivity Is Now Available On Audible!

Greetings all,

I’m happy to announce that Sojourn in Captivity is now available on Audible. Courtney Sanello did a fantastic job narrating this story. What I like most about this and the Audible version of Repressed is that it’s just such a quick story.  It’s just under three hours, so if you’re driving around town or heading on a trip, you can finish the whole story on the way.

Pretty soon, I currently have 25 codes good for a free copy of Sojourn. I also have codes for my other Audiobooks.

If you’re interested in one (or all) of them, please feel free to email me.  I hope you decide to give them a try.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Happy Birthday Bob! Free Stuff!

Greetings all,

Just as I did with Caught and it’s birthday giveaway, I’m celebrating Bob’s fourth birthday! (WOW! I’ve been a published author for four years!?)

So, The Journals of Bob Drifter will is free March 1-4 (11:59 p.m. PST).

I’d be thrilled if any of you give the book a try and perhaps recommend it to the readers you know. I think fans of Dean Koontz (especially Odd Thomas) would appreciate this book.  When I pitch this book at conventions, I call it Dead Like Me meets Supernatural.  I still think it has some of the best characters I’ve created in it. It has great depth, but those are all my opinions. Still, no one has ever called me out on them.

Again, what I’m attempting to do is generate reviews. If you’ve already read it, I’d be ever so grateful if you consider giving it a rating and review on Amazon, Goodreads or both.

You can grab your free Kindle version of the book here or the link above where I first give the title.

Now, as if that’s not enough, I have more good news. The Audible version of Repressed is officially live. Like with my other titles, I have 25 free versions of that title ready for any who are interested. So if you like YA stories, this might be for you. It is indeed a part of the Oneiros Log cannon, but it’s not nearly as dark as Caught was. If you’d like a copy, please email me.

It seems more and more hard to believe how far I’ve come in the last four years. I’m about to release yet another title (more on that next week), and I’m working hard on Hazel and Betrayed. I thank God for this gift he’s given. I love this craft so much, and I can’t wait to see where the dream takes me through the next four years.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

2019 State of the Weech!

Greetings and happy new year to all!

2018 was a tough one for one very specific reason, but there were so many blessings both in my personal life and as an author.

I’ve now started a tradition, and I mean to maintain this one in which I let all of you know what my plans are for the year.

Last year I released four titles! The individual parts of The Journals of Bob Drifter, An Unusual Occupation, Bob’s Greatest Mistake, and Something Always Remains. I finished off the year releasing The Power of Words anthology. That gave me the chance to work with Heidi Angell, Richard T. Drake, and TW Iain.

I sure hope to release four titles every year, but this year might be a bit tough.  I’ve gotten a feel for the effect married life has on me, and so I’ve found a rhythm. There were delays though, and that might slow down the release pace. We also are only doing one convention (AwesomeCon) in 2019.

So without further ado, here are my plans for what I hope is a fantastic 2019.

Jan. 1: Repressed is live and doing well (more on that next week). It does provide more information regarding Kaitlyn from Caught, but it’s still different in that it’s absolutely a YA novel. It’s 99 cents from now until the 15th, when it goes to it’s normal price of $2.99. I’m still worried Betrayed isn’t going to be ready for a 2019 release (I’m trying. About 20 percent through the discovery draft as I type this.) So I wanted to give people who liked Caught some kind of story in that world that would hold them over until Betrayed is ready to go live. Kaitlyn is an awesome character, and I wanted her to have all the limelight.  The Audible version of that book is in production. I’m currently reviewing the files, and hope to have my feedback to Kenzie within two weeks, so I’d expect the Audible version to be available by February.

Jan. 25-29: Caught’s birthday bash!  Caught turns 2 years old Jan. 28, so to celebrate its birthday, the ebook will be free Jan. 25-29. This is something I mulled over last year but didn’t have enough of a handle on. Now that I understand KDP a bit more, I can work these in. I want to celebrate these wonderful blessings God has given me, and this is the best way to do it.

March 1-4: Bob’s birthday bash!  On March 3, Bob turns 4! (I’ve been a published author for four years! Huh!?)  Just as with Caught, I’m making Bob’s story free!

April 1: Sojourn in Captivity.  I’ve had this finished for a while. I meant to publish it last year, but Power of Words took on a life of its own, and so the release schedule shifted a bit. Sojourn in Captivity is more or less a prologue to Images of Truth. Images of Truth features a different main character, but Elele, who is a main character in IoT, was so amazing and powerful, I wanted to go back and look at just how far she’d come. I took a risk with this story. It’s written in first person, present tense. Much like with Repressed, I wanted to push myself as an artist. The way I do that is looking at a genre or style I don’t like and trying to do it in a way that satisfies me. I honestly feel this story turned out wonderfully! It’s powerful and emotional while challenging me in both the style (see above) and the structure. You see, I like nice, proactive characters.  Elele is a spoiled brat, and, as the title indicates, she’s literally prevented from taking action for a major portion of the book. I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. It’ll be available for preorder some time in March, and it’ll go live April 1.  It’s already finished (and the cover is awesome), so I feel confident with that promise.

Even more on this! Once Sojourn comes out, I’ll release a single flip book which will contain both Repressed and Sojourn. I love flip books, and this gets me another physical book I can sell at conventions. Also, both these stories feature compelling young female characters, and I think they’ll fit well together.

July 1: So if I want to release four titles this year, something has to come out around here. I’m working on one project, but that might not happen. Could I get Betrayed ready to go? I have no doubt that I’ll get through a few drafts by then, but I don’t know that I can finish it. You see, Betrayed looks to be about the same size as Caught, which makes me happy. I want the whole series to be composed of fast-paced, action-packed quick reads. I can’t promise Betrayed will be ready by then, but I will try, especially if the other thing I’m working on doesn’t happen.

Oct. 1: Stealing Freedom: Stealing Freedom is my novella contribution to The Power of Words, so if you’ve already read that, you’ve already read this, but I think it’s (to date) the best story I’ve written, and all of us authors wanted a chance to let our stories stand alone. So I’ll wrap up the year releasing this independently so you can grab it up and enjoy it.

Now I’ll just run down the list of projects I have in various stages of development. I’ll try to order them by how I think they’ll get released, but it’s just too hard to tell.

Betrayed: As I’ve said, I’m about 20 percent through the discovery draft of that story, and it’s going well. This has become my primary project, and I’m certain it will be out by Jan. 1, 2020, if it isn’t out sooner! This book features Dom much more prominently, and expands the scope of some of the events hinted at in Caught. The main characters of that story are Sal, Kaitlyn, Dom, and Zac, a new character who the government orders to take down Oneiros.

Hazel: This is the comic book I’m working on with Collin Fogel, my best friend in junior high and the cover artist for my first book. He’s received a lot of interest in the project, and I’m working on the actual text boxes for the first ten pages of the first of three issues. This is happening; it’s just a matter of when and through what publisher.

Hunted: This is the third and final book in The Oneiros Log. I have the main plot line down, but that’s about it. It will be the next thing I jump on when I finish drafting Betrayed. I’ll let the discovery draft of Betrayed sit while I outline Hunted. That will let me make sure I get my foreshadowing down and tie up any loose ends in the saga. It will be a main project in 2019, but it definitely won’t hit the market until 2020.  This book will feature Kaitlyn and one newer character you’ll meet in Betrayed.

Sonnets for my Savior: You’ve seen the weekly blogs I’m doing. I’ll eventually compile those sonnets into a book. My wife intends to do illustrations for it. This is an offering to God, who’s blessed me with this gift, so I wanted to do something that was completely devoted to him. It’ll come out in 2020 (after I finish all 365 sonnets and get an editor to glance at it). It might be delayed a tad because completing 365 water paintings is far more difficult than writing sonnets, so my wife might need more time.

The 1,200: This was actually something I intended to release a while back, but it just felt like getting The Oneiros Log done was the right call. If you liked The Journals of Bob Drifter, you might get a kick out of some of what happens. And if you look very closely, you might see some familiar faces. I might actually weave this in while editing Betrayed and/or Hunted. The question is when it will come out. I’m going to take a hard look at this story and make sure it works. I’ve developed quite a bit as an author, and so this story deserves an edit with my now more-critical eye. I plan for this to be released sooner rather than later.

New Utopia: I finished a draft of this story and realized it was two books. I intend to go back into this and expand each half into a duo-logy.  It’s a fun story. I call it Mistborn meets Avatar. Again, this only needs revisions and edits, but everything is pretty much waiting until The Oneiros Log gets finished.

Mercer: This is a series I plan to write like episodes of a tv show. Each season will have a specific plot, and each season will consist of a run of novellas.  I call it Dresden Files meets Bones. I honestly haven’t done much with it yet, but it’s going to start flying out of my fingertips as early as this year. Having something to work on that’s shorter will give me a way to release titles without forcing the larger works I write.

Perception of War: Images of Truth: So I was pretty deep into the discovery draft of that story when things derailed. I started Sojourn for an Anthology I thought I was going to publish with the HMS Slush Brain. Then I decided to write the entire Oneiros Log (I wasn’t going to write the other two books until my brother heard the plot points.) So this book kept falling back. I love this series. I love this idea, and I plan to play in this universe for years to come. I just have no idea when I’ll get back to this main book. (Feels like after Oneiros Log, while I edit New Utopia.)

Leah Saldawn and The Nick of Time:  I wrote the discover draft to this ages ago (Saleah wasn’t in high school yet, and now she works at a school). I let it sit because it’s unrelated to other books and for a much younger audience (10-16). I don’t like leaving things on the shelf, so I’m not sure when I’ll fit it in, but I will eventually. There’s a thought about seven books here, but we’ll see how things go. This one’s written, so it will get published.

Even as I type this, I’m stunned at how much is here. When I look back at March 3, 2015, I see a dude who was just stoked to see one of his books in print. Now I’m a steadily-producing author with a release schedule and readers who actually look forward to his next book. This dream-come-true is simply more evidence of God’s grace and absolutely made possible because of people like you! Thank you so much for your support. Thank you so much for reading my work and visiting my blog. Thank you for coming to see me at conventions and telling me what you thought of my work (even if it wasn’t very fun to hear). I’m honored to be where I am, and I look forward to seeing where the journey takes me next.

Thanks for Reading,
Matt

 

 

How About Another Free Audiobook? The Power of Words is Live!

Greetings All!

I’m happy to announce that The Power of Words is now available as an audiobook!

What that means is I now have free Audible download codes for both Caught (I have 17 of those left) and The Power of Words (25 free copies just waiting for a willing listener).  I think Lisa Negron and J.M. Needham did a fantastic job.

Ok, so you might be wondering what happened to TW Ashworth. As it turned out we weren’t a good fit. He’s a pro’s pro and was working hard to help us align our creative vision, but we couldn’t get on the same page, so we amicably decided to part ways. J.M. came in on short notice and did a wonderful job under an insane deadline.

If you’re interested in either (or both) audiobooks, please don’t hesitate to email me or PM me on either Facebook or Twitter. I’d love it if you’d give these books a chance.

Thanks for reading,
Matt

Would You Like a Free Audiobook? I’m Celebrating Caught’s Audible Release

Hey all,

I’m so thrilled to announce that Caught, narrated by Shawn Compton, is officially available on Audible.

To celebrate, I have 25 free copies of this version, so if you like audio books, free stuff, and horror, feel free to send me an email.

Shawn did an amazing job. I was super picky about the narrator I wanted for this story, and Shawn simply nailed Caden. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know that Caden is simply a huge challenge to pull of, and Shawn did it. I’m so lucky to be working on this project with him.

I’m always overjoyed to hear my characters come to life. I love audio books. The let me re-read stories so I can catch up before the next book in the series comes out (looks at Brandon Sanderson). They also let me basically double my reading pace on the drive to work.

I hope you’ll decide to give this book a try. You can use one of your codes, or you can even start and Audible account today and get a free copy of any book (it’s just mine’s better for the season). Of course, you can also just email me and ask for one of the copies I have. The first 25 to ask win.

Thanks for reading,

V/R
Matt

Something Always Remains is Now Available for Preorder!

Greetings all,

I’m so very happy to announce that the final part of The Journals of Bob Drifter is now available for preorder on Amazon!  You can preorder Something Always Remains here.

The book will be 99 cents from now until two weeks after it goes live.  It goes live Aug. 1, so the sale will end Aug. 14.  After that, it’ll go to its regular price of $2.99.

The deals don’t end there.  From July 18-Aug. 1, An Unusual Occupation will be on sale for 99 cents as well.  That way you can get two-thirds of the story for $2.

Bob’s Greatest Mistake will be free, that’s right free (said in a cheesy commercial announcer voice) from July 25-29.  I’ll make a post on the 25th regarding that, but I’ll be asking for your help again.  You all did an amazing job helping get Occupation so many downloads, and I hope this next free campaign is even more successful.  I’m thinking about more “stupid human tricks” I could do. I’m open to suggestions for ways I can show my appreciation. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment below.

Each of these benchmarks will be met with a blog post of its own, but I wanted to be sure I let you all know the plan for this moving forward.

Please remember, these three stories, An Unusual Occupation, Bob’s Greatest Mistake, and Something Always Remains, are all parts of a complete story that’s out and available (see the first link back at the top). Breaking this into parts was done to allow readers a way to try a portion of the book for a smaller financial commitment. I just wanted Bob’s story to be as accessible as possible, and this felt like the best way to do it. (Also, I love Collin Fogel’s art, so I could resist getting more of it.)

I hope you’ll all give my work a try. If you already have, please be kind enough to offer a rating and review on Amazon and Goodreads. Man! Those things are important and helpful to indie authors like me.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Benchmarks and Thanks! The Initial Results of My Giveaway With Both an Emotional and Marketing Perspective

Greetings all,

Last week was a whirlwind for me a in a lot of ways. But for those interested in marketing and for those interested in my life as an author, I thought it’d be nice to simply give a look at the results for my giveaway.

Premise:

I knew I had Bob’s Greatest Mistake coming out (it’s out now, and still 99 cents until May 15). I wanted to get Bob some visibility, and I knew this option from KDP was available. When I do anything, I like to have reasonable expectations. I also want clear, measurable goals.

Goals:

Get Bob on the top 100 list.

Get at least 100 downloads.

Get 25 reviews.

Reasoning:

Getting Bob on the top 100 list for his category gains the visibility I wanted. The more I can get Bob in front of viewers, the more likely it is someone will give him a chance. Giving copies away now and getting him on that list could gain those I call loyal readers.

Knowing how many followers I have on various social media, Choosing a small fraction of that number (about 10 percent), I felt was reasonable. It still meant there were people at least rooting for me and willing to help out. If those downloads become reads, that’s even better.  But…

…. if those reads become reviews, now we’re talking. If I earn 25 reviews on Amazon, first, it means 25 more people actually read my book, which is awesome! Also, This gets me more visibility on Amazon. This number should be enough to start getting Amazon to recommend it to other readers.

Results:

Bob made it as high as #31 on Amazon’s Free Paranormal Thrillers category! Honestly, Bob’s never sniffed a ranking that high before. This achievement alone would be enough to consider this campaign a huge success, but it didn’t end there.

I had 140 downloads for Bob. For those who read this post, I offered little demonstrations of appreciation for each benchmark, and we hit 100.  Not quite enough for a karaoke song, but still, so many people turned up to give Bob some love!  This puts me past the 500 mark in terms of “sold” books.  Sure, they were free, but at the end of the day, people picked my book. There are lots of free books out there in the world, and you all chose to give mine a try. That matters. I appreciate it! It means the world to me. I even sold a few copies of Bob’s Greatest Mistake and Caught. Again, even if this was all that happened, I’d call this a huge win. That said, the 100 copies people picked up in five days was more than 1/4 of the books I’d sold in the last three years.  Like I said, success!

It’s too early honestly to talk about reviews. While I did post a review that appeared during the giveaway, I’m not convinced that copy was downloaded during that this. I’m pretty sure that was an individual who bought the book earlier and finished it in a very timely manner. If I hit that 25 review benchmark, it would be the first time I’d run a campaign of any sort and had remotely this level of success. I’m eagerly refreshing the page and looking for reviews, but I still think it might be a tad early for anything to come up just yet. This is even more likely if anyone is as remotely loyal to their TBR as I am. Sure, Brandon Sanderson has automatic head-of-the-line privileges in my TBR, but everyone else has to wait their turn.
Those Emotions:

I’m still in awe of your support. I’ve been at this for a tad more than three years. The blog’s been going for a bit more than a year (I think). It’s just amazing to see how far it’s come and how willing you all are to lend a hand. I can’t repay it. I can’t thank you enough, and there aren’t enough words to express my gratitude anyway. I can only hope that I continue to post content you’re interested in and write stories you love. I hope you enjoy the first part of Bob’s journey as much as I do.

If you have any  questions on logistics, feel free to ask in the comments. For now, I just wanted to sing the praises of a successful campaign.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

1 More Day! 1 More Chance for a Free Book! Also, a few updates!

Greetings all,

I had a few announcements to get out to you all, so I took a chance to type up a quick list!

First:

An Unusual Occupation is free for just about another 24 hours. You can download it on Amazon until 11:59 p.m. PDT (which is a bit off from my other scheduled events since I’m on the East Coast).  Bob’s Greatest Mistake will go live May 1! You can still preorder that for just 99 cents.

Second:

I’m still pleading for help getting word out about the giveaway. You’ve all been so amazing, so I’m asking for just one more day of shout outs, tweets, and shares. How much have you already helped? A historic amount. I currently have 110 downloads! I seem to remember promising to perform a trick if I hit that benchmark, so here you go!

I have offered more tricks, but I need your help to hit the benchmarks to make them happen.  I’ve promised to karaoke a song of your choice if I get to 200 downloads.  We’re 73 votes of that as of this moment.

Third:

I’m happy to announce I’ve finished the beta draft of Repressed, my novella featuring Kaitlyn from Caught. I’m proud of how it turned out, and I hope this Young Adult Paranormal Drama gives those of you waiting for Caught’s sequel something to tide you over until I get that out to you, hopefully in the winter of 2019.

Next up is the developmental draft of Worth of Words, and I work on getting that story and all the Power of Words Anthology stories ready to go.  Once that’s finished (Hopefully next week some time. Definitely in two weeks.),  I’ll be looking for beta readers. If you like science fiction and clever thieving or heist stories, I’ll be sending out a call for beta readers on that story as soon as I finish this draft.

Once I finish Repressed (one more draft!), I’ll start outlining and drafting Betrayed, Book Two of the Oneiros Log.

Thank you all for the support you’ve shown so far! I’m so grateful! Check back tomorrow to start voting on the April Book Cover of the Month!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

 

A 5-Star Review for An Unusual Occupation and an Update on the Giveaway

Greetings all,

I simply can’t thank you enough for all the support you’ve already shown me. First, a five-star review for An Unusual Occupation appeared. It was an amazing rating with a kind statement.

So many of you answered my call for help, it’s staggering! An Unusual Occupation is currently #35 under free Supernatural Thrillers. I want to let you know how much I appreciate everything so far. Since I knew I was posting this review, I also wanted to give you an update on my promises based on how many downloads we get.

We’ve had 78 downloads so far (I can’t say thanks enough. I really can’t). That means you’re all just 22 downloads away from seeing me do my “No-foot” plank.  When I was a kid, I saw Alexei Nemov do this, and I was just amazed.  So I worked at it until I figured out how do — no, I can’t do that, but I can plank with my feet in the air (which I assure you is still plenty hard). So if we hit that benchmark, I’ll do that, and I’ll complete every trick I promised if we hit these benchmarks.

Regardless, I’m already thrilled at how things have gone. You’re support and help means the world to me. I’d like to give a special thank you to J.R. Handley, Yes More Blogs, Read Like Doc, Haley (she knows who she is), Elisebet, Rosa, Peggy, C.L. Schneider, Chess Desalls, and Rusty Pang at Entrepurpose. I’d need another 1,000 words to thank everyone, but I had to give some people some special attention. You’ve all been amazing, and I’m excited to see how things progress with three days to go.

Thanks for reading,

Matt