Why did I not know about this?!
This looks… AMAZINGLY corny .
Why did I not know about this?!
This looks… AMAZINGLY corny .
The response to my book going to print has been overwhelming and humbling.
Just, wow.
I don’t know exact sales numbers, and won’t for some time. But they seem phenomenal so far coming from a basic nobody-newbie author using a few internet forums and word of mouth.
For a cool example, my dad took a copy to read while waiting for his dental appointment and the dentist asked about it. After reading the back cover the guy was so intrigued that he snapped a picture of the front with his phone so he could order a copy after he fixed my old man’s teeth.
Then from the forums, people bought multiple copies for themselves and others. A couple people bought THREE COPIES EACH! Other folks wanted signed copies. Luckily, I’d ordered a stack of books for myself but the day I received them I had to sign and ship them all out the next morning. That’s crazy.
I’m kind of egotistical, but it’s humbling that people would actually want my autograph on something. All I can say in return is that I promise to try and make it big so these will be worth something one day.
And the reviews have already been rolling in. Slowly though, because Amazon is kind of weird… I’ve been told by people that they left a review, only for it to show up a few days later while others show up seemingly immediately. But that aside, it means people are opening my book, getting sucked into the story, and finishing it within a couple days.
Feedback like this is incredible. That was the goal all along, to tell a story that draws folks in, entertains them for hours, and leave them wanting more.
And I have more. The sequel is ready and waiting.
All I need are enough sales to convince the publisher to pick it up.
So buy more copies, send them to your friends and family. If they like dinosaurs and/or cowboys, I promise they’ll like this book because it’s got both. Tell them it’s a mix of John Wayne, Jurassic Park, and John Wick.
If you want a signed copy, shoot me a message using the Contact Page. They are $14 plus $3 for S&H. $17 total. If you want a message written in it, I can do that. If you want me to show off my amazingly lacking but still astonishing art skills, I can draw you a picture in the cover as well. Whatever. So long as you’re happy and you tell your friends about the book and leave an honest review on Amazon and/or Goodreads!
And FB reminded me via Memories, that Oct 5th was two years ago to the date that I posted on FB that I’d written a book. Yeah, it was a rough draft with a rough title, but it still counted. đ
How crazy that two years later I’m holding a finished copy in my hand.
Well, I would be holding it, if I had any left over from signing.
Anyways, here’s the link. Buy away!
EDIT – Amazon is now sold out. It looks like they won’t be shipping anymore until Oct 19th. That’s a pretty amazing feat! Thanks for all your support! (Oooh, it does look like Barnes&Noble has some copies still available though on their website!)
This is just wicked. I freaking love it.
True story – When I first started messing around with writing years ago, I had a character (a famed hunter) kill a komodo dragon on horseback with a spear. I may still have it somewhere, but it involved a guy traveling to distant, exotic planets, and killing things.
Because, honestly – that’s what all good stories are about.
Why did I choose 1885 for my Epic Story Of Lost World Adventure Awesomeness?
Well, there was a lot of cool stuff going on.
Such as, the roller coaster was patented. The Irish tried to blow up the Tower of London with dynamite. John Babbacombe Lee was hung three times and didn’t die. (The English declared it ‘Divine Intervention’, and eventually released him. This is like Game of Thrones ‘Trial by Combat’… except it was more like ‘Trial by Hangin”) The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York and the Rabies Vaccine is a success. (Yay!)
None of that matters a single bit in regards to the book. But it’s neat to know.
BUT, the BONE WARS was nearing an end. That was when a pair of rival archeologists tried to destroy each other while discovering new species of dinosaurs in the American West. Eventually they ruined each other socially and financially. It’s kind of a shame they didn’t just resort to a duel though… Anyways. This is just too awesome of a historical event to not include, and some of the ground work is already laid in the first book.
There was also the Temperance Movement to ‘Ban All Fun Activities by Men’…
But most importantly, 1885 also pushed us into the wonderful world of smokeless gun powder and metallic cartridges while black powder was still being used to good effect. John Moses Browning was about to reveal his famous 1886 Winchester, and one of his earliest inventions, the 1885 High Wall had just been put into production.
(Sadly, we’re still over a decade away from the pump action Winchester Model 1897 Shotgun that would eventually be used in every military conflict up to Vietnam. Could you imagine how cool one of these would be against apes and dinosaurs? -stab- KABOOM!)
Man… the things I want to write about…
Anyways…
Did I mention that the military was still using single shot Springfields? (Sucks to be you guys when faced with an army of numerically, and physically, superior apes with a prowess for soaking up bullets. That makes for great battle scenes.)
There were also a lot of famous characters still alive, or who’d recently deceased.
Wyatt Earp was 37 years old. The shoot out at the OK corral took place four years prior. Doc Holliday was still alive and up to no good in his flamboyant style. Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, and Theodore Roosevelt were all running around at the same time as the villainous likes of John Wesley Hardin, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Even Laura Ingalls Wilder, Sitting Bull, and Jeremiah Johnson were this side of the dirt.
1885 was a heckuva year to be alive.
Oh, and the very first edition of ‘Good Housekeeping’ was published. Which is probably why the Temperance Movement took off…