Testimony: A Trial of Faith is Available For Preorder!

Greetings all,

It’s my great joy to announce Testimony: A Trial of Faith is available for preorder for just 99 cents!

If you’ve read the blog series, you already know the story. This project is here for two primary reasons:

1. I wanted to testify what God has done in my life in as broad a way as I could think. Having this as a title makes it possible to spread this testimony.
2. I had always intended for this to raise money for cancer research.  As promised, all royalties from this title don’t go to me; they go to the American Brain Tumor Association.  To be clear, I will use some of the money to pay for printing and marketing (AMS campaigns and the like), but any actual profit goes to ABTA.

There are a few things I want to make clear.

1.  This is a Christian book. I’ve never made a secret about my religion. I love entertainment and fantasy as much as the next person, but God is the most important being in life. This story is mostly about my growth in Christianity as my mom battled with cancer.
2. This is personal. There are truths here that aren’t flattering toward me. This project isn’t designed to make me look good; it’s designed to show how God could take someone as sinful as me and open his heart. Reading this might very well change what you think of me. My hope is you see how I have changed. I still have so very far to go, but by the grace of God I am who I am.
3. This has some edits. Rather than focus on my family (who I didn’t get to do much with), I focused on my own reflections through the process. There are interactions and discussions, but the story is far more about my reflections on what I learned about Christianity than it is my mom and her struggle with cancer.

I love God, and I pray every day that He wipes cancer from the face of the Earth. It is my great prayer that this testimony is pleasing to Him as an offering. It’s my great prayer that he work through this to provide a lot of funding for brain cancer research and maybe even (if it is His will) a cure.

If this can help lead to more effective treatments, perhaps some other son won’t have to mourn his mother as a result of this disease. I’d be honored if you’d help in this manner.

You can preorder the story here or in the link above.

Thank you for reading,

Matt

Heists and Headstones: Promoting A Friend’s New Story

Greetings all,

Most of you who follow my blog know that C.L. Schneider is a good friend of mine. She and J.R. Swiger have a new short story available for pre-order, and it’s only 99 cents!

Heists & Headstones pits a killer and a thief together in a cat and mouse heist story.

Here’s the blurb:

He steals. She kills. For years, they’ve played a game of cat and mouse, defined by an unspoken set of rules and infused by competition—and a dangerous attraction.

Raiza knows better than to trust a thief, especially one who comes bearing gifts in the middle of the night. But when Tanic shows up offering a truce, and an opportunity for coin, curiosity sets in. She’s learned the hard way that Tanic is never without an ace up his sleeve. This time, she has one, too. But in a game without end, it’s less about winning and more about who makes the better move. Will Raiza finally outfox her long-time thieving nemesis? Find out in this exciting tale of wits and blades, co-written by the author of The Crown of Stones Trilogy.

End Blurb.

This story is available for pre-order until Feb. 4. I haven’t read the story myself, but I know C.L.’s writing ability enough to know it’s worth a shot.

I just wanted to give a shout out to a friend. I hope you’ll give her book a try.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

 

Stealing Freedom is Officially Available for Preorder!

Greetings all,

I’m happy to announce that Stealing Freedom, the novella originally published in The Power of Words anthology, is officially available for preorder in its own ebook edition.

Here’s the book blurb:

Ardelia Sabine is about to attempt the most legendary heist in the solar system. The anti-communication laws that have been ruthlessly enforced for the last five years have gone too far, and the collar around her daughter’s neck, which shocks anyone if they try to speak, must come off.

The one time monitor of law enforcement has now assembled the greatest collection of thieves, con-men, and hit men in history. Together, with her husband, once the greatest hacker on the planet, must take on a job that will surely get at least one of them killed.

Survival is not the objective. The goal is to shut down the servers that operate the entire system. Can they get into one of the most guarded areas on the planet? Can they steal back their right to speak from the government that silenced it?

END BLURB

This title will be only 99 cents from today until Oct. 16, when it will go up to its normal price of $2.99.

I’d say this book is a Scifi cyber heist version of Leverage. So if you like stories like that or Ocean’s 12 and you also like scifi, I think you’ll love this story.

You can get to the preorder page either by clicking the link all the way at the top or right here.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

4 Reasons Why You Need to Preorder Sojourn In Captivity

Greetings all,

With Sojourn in Captivity set to go live April 1, I wanted to just to take a few moments to talk about why I’m so proud of it. As I thought about it, I realized I was essentially identifying reasons I think people should give the book a try. That’s where the name came from.

1. An alien main character: It’s always struck me as odd that there are so many scifi stories out there, but the main characters are always inevitably human. This made sense fifty years ago, when fiction still had a number of barriers to break, but I don’t see it now. In a generation where everyone is screaming for diversity, why aren’t there stories featuring truly alien characters. Yes, Elele has many human characteristics, but she’s obviously not human. This gave me so much to play with. It let me look at characters and events in a new way.
2. The anti-female lead: I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m not actually a fan of YA. With Repressed, I tried a few different plot paths, but the story was perfect Kaitlyn because she’s so much of a “YA” girl. Strong. Sassy. Intelligent. So with Sojourn, I was really attracted to the idea because I knew where Elele was, and (more awesomely) I know where she is in Images of Truth. Her development is what interested me. But this story doesn’t start with some plucky, sassy, whit-mouthed character. Don’t get me wrong; those characters are fun, and they, like all characters, have an audience. But that’s not Elele. Elele is the spoiled, Daddy’s-Little-Girl genius of her planet. She’s never had to work hard for a thing in her life, and she’s completely unprepared for the adventure that awaits her (especially in Images of Truth). That growth, that development of character really interested me. I wanted readers to see just how she started. This makes watching her grow into the character she becomes in Images all the more powerful in my opinion.
3. The world building: I’ve been working on this for a long time now, and I felt like it was time to start playing in this universe. It’s huge. This planet and how the aliens interact with it are really cool.  If someone threw Avatar at me, I don’t know that I’d have a leg to stand on in a observational sense, but the themes and plot are unique. Did the movie influence me? Perhaps in a subconscious way, but I didn’t sit down determined to take those concepts. That said, yes, this is an alien race of beings who live in enormous trees. But that’s where, in my opinion, the similarity end.  The culture and religion of the cast is every bit as interesting to work with as the magic system/biological mutation.
4. The first chapter: I’ve (arrogantly) always thought I’m a man who starts the story off in a fun way, but the chapters always sort of feel like stepping into water without being sure how deep it is. In this book, I chuck the reader into the deep end, and the result is an intense ride that I still enjoy even after umpteen drafts and proof readings. Now I’m just not smart enough to know my legal rights with KDP and other services, but I’m pretty sure a few-hundred words are authorized. On my Facebook page, I dared my friends to try the book and read the first chapter. I truly feel if that doesn’t hook you, then I probably need to reevaluate how effective I am at evaluating stories. I’m almost positive a whole chapter would get someone shouting at me, so I wanted to end this post with the first 300 words of the story. Like I do at any convention, I let a potential reader open and start reading. My heart is convinced that this is true: If I can get someone to read the first few pages, that person is going to end up reading the whole thing.  With that said, I present to you the first few pages of Sojourn in Captivity.

 

The Monster Born of My Father

Fear causes me to tighten my grip on my father so much I’m not sure how he’s breathing. We’re one hour from Wieder, and I’m a hundred times more frightened than I was when we stepped aboard our transport flight north.

The rumbling engine and dim lights only add to my worries.

Why isn’t Father afraid? Why isn’t he terrified?

Achca’s faline, the ultraviolet pattern on his torso, flickers with nervousness. He clenches his fists, causing the dark skin of his knuckles to grow pale. He’s trying to be brave for our father.

I don’t want to be brave. I want to be comforted, and I want my brother to have comfort, too. I untangle an arm from Father so I can reach across the one-meter-wide aisle that separates my leather seat from Achca’s and grab my brother’s hand. After a moment, I’m not sure who’s gripping whom more tightly.

“All will be well,” Father says.

“I know, Father.” Achca pulls his hand away from mine, showing his nerves by fluttering his wings.

“How do you know?” I ask.

“You always want an explanation,” Achca says, impatiently.

“What good is my intelligence if I don’t use it to understand the universe?” Is he really going to argue with me now?

“I know,” Father says, interrupting what might have been my last argument with my brother before we both become monsters, “because I have faith in Adhol.”

And therein lies my problem. I wouldn’t be sitting here terrified if Adhol, our god, hadn’t summoned us for ascension. My father is the most faithful man on our home planet of Orlon. Anyone would be a distant second to him, but my desire to match his faith is overmatched by the fact that I don’t want to become a Var’lechen.

 

Thanks for reading,

Matt

I Proudly Present Sojourn in Captivity! My New Book is Available for Preorder

Greetings all,

This has just been an amazing year so far, and I’m proud to say that, as stated in my State of the Weech, Sojourn in Captivity is officially available for preorder!

As usual, the book will be 99 cents from now until April 15, when it will go to it’s normal price of $2.99.

This project was actually a long time coming. It was originally going to be part of an anthology with the Slush Brain. When that fell through, I was left with a story I was still very proud of, so I decided to put it on the release schedule.

I wanted to push myself with this story, and I did. It’s based on drama, not action. It’s in first person, present tense. These are all things that are way out of my comfort zone. Not only did I grow as an author, I produced a story that I just can’t say enough about.

Here’s the official blurb:

Elele is about to meet her god. She’s about to be elevated to the highest evolved form of her species. Even as she prepares to step before the most powerful entity in the universe, she refuses to confess her secret. She doesn’t want to change.

However, the only thing worse than changing, would be failing to transform. Those who don’t evolve are regarded as Ketz, forsaken. Her faith demands she go through the ceremony, but she’s torn between her desire to keep the life she’s known, and what happens to those Seferam who don’t become Var’lechen.

When the ceremony begins, she’ll learn that she wasn’t the only member of her family with a secret. Elele must kneel before Adhol, but what happens after that will change how she sees her family, her role in the universe, and the being her planet has chosen to recognize as their god.

END BLURB

This book is essentially the prequel to a series I’m chipping away at called Perception of War. Before Oneiros Log’s deadline loomed, I was a considerable way through the discovery draft of the first book in the series, and I really can’t wait to get back to it.

I hope you’ll decide to give this a try. I’m always striving to deliver great content, and I hope this story is as wonderful to read as it was for me to write. If you’re interested, you can click the link above or right here.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Caught is Available for Preorder

I am so very happy to announce that Caught is available for preorder!

There’s going to be more news here as I continue to set up my tour for the book, but this sort of news is just too awesome to hold back! I had a lot of people help me make this possible, and it’s finally time to get the book out there to you all.

I did a few things differently, so things are actually more available than this, but I’m trying to build around live events and online events.

First:  You can preorder an autographed paperback edition from my personal online store here. Understand if you order from me, you will get an autographed copy, but it won’t ship until the book’s hard release date of Jan. 28.

Next: You can preorder the ebook from Amazon right here. Prime users get sweet deals. Trust me on that. But, for most everyone else, I have a special promotion going on. From now until Feb. 4, Caught will be on sale for $0.99! On Feb. 5, the ebook will go up to its regular price of $2.99. The ebook is an Amazon exclusive, so that’s the only place you can grab it from.

You can expect quite a few posts from me in the next few weeks or so as I set up events. I’m so excited. I truly hope you’ll all decide to give this book a try.

Thanks for reading,

Matt