Day: July 18, 2012

Sneak Peek: Crazy Heat by Francene Ladue

Today, we feature a sneak peek of Francene Ladue’s gripping crime/suspense novel, Crazy Heat.

After twenty years of covert rescues, retired Air Force Special Ops vet, Bobby Egan is struggling to find his place in civilian life. Egan has spent the last two years working a dead-end job at the 24 Hour MiniMart in Tucson, but all that’s about to change thanks to friends and acquaintances, presenting some strange opportunities. It isn’t long before Bobby realizes he’s entangled in a dangerous triangle of romance, friendship and business. Everybody’s got an agenda they aren’t sharing with Bobby, and the only way out is to trust his instincts and experience, even if it means breaking the law and using deadly force to stay alive.

Crazy Heat is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online bookstores. Learn more about author Francene LaDue at her website, www.franceneladue.com

Here is an excerpt from Crazy Heat: Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Crazy Heat by Francene Ladue”

Straight Up: Q&A with Mark Coker

Mark Coker

I recently had the opportunity to interview Mark Coker, one of the visionaries of the indie author movement. In 2008, Mark founded Smashwords to accelerate the death spiral of the bloated, inefficient, out-dated publishing industry—or as he put it:  to change the way books are published, marketed and sold.

Mark and his wife co-authored Boob Tube, a novel that explores the wild and wacky world of Hollywood celebrity. He also wrote the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, The Smashwords Style Guide and The 10-Minute PR Checklist.

Mark says when he’s not writing or working on Smashwords, he enjoys gardening, traveling and hiking tall mountains, the tallest of which has been Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Here, I ask him nine questions, and he gives expansive and fascinating answers.

So buckle up and get ready for the word straight up, from Mark Coker. Continue reading “Straight Up: Q&A with Mark Coker”

Weekly Flash Fiction Poll

The time has arrived for Indies Unlimited readers to begin voting in this week’s Flash Fiction Competition.

On behalf of the IU staff, I want to thank all the entrants for doing such a great job with the writing prompt and the merciless constraints of the exercise.

You may review the entries here. Please spread the word and encourage your friends to vote by using the share buttons at the bottom of the post!

The poll will be open until 5:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) Thursday

Who is the author of your favorite entry for this week's Flash Fiction Poll?

  • Brian Beam (38%, 6 Votes)
  • Irina Serban (38%, 6 Votes)
  • A. L. Kaplan (19%, 3 Votes)
  • Dick Waters (6%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 16

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Tips from the Masters: John Gilstrap

Author Lin Robinson

John Gilstrap has an unusual characteristic for a multi NYT best-selling author: he’s known online as very approachable and forthcoming individual, open and willing to connect. Maybe that has something to do with his kind of thriller, the kind that are less about whizbang, agency name-dropping, and international scare-shows, and more about human beings coping with hairy situations.

He’s always shown up heavily in the audio book market, with major sales to listeners and bling like The Copper Bracelet being #1 at Audible.com, with Audiobook Of They Year and Audie Award honors for The Chopin Manuscript.

But my personal favorites of his books is an early one, Nathan’s Run, a excellent example of what I mean by his human scale. There’s no huge world-shaking threat, no blazing action sequences; just a 12 year-old boy on the run from death with nobody to protect or care for him. In fact, a scan of his work shows that many show similar themes, as much so as his more typical investigators and assassin thrillers: church camp teens held hostage, a son lost in a frozen wilderness, a couple protect a hunted waif, criminal parents fleeing capture with their teen-aged son. It’s suspense in the real world, the world you know and depend on–fear and action in your own size and idiom. Continue reading “Tips from the Masters: John Gilstrap”