Attention Amazon Kindle Readers!

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A Day of Horror: The March 11, 2011 Japan Earthquake-A Foreigner's Perspective, Amazon, Amazon Prime, e-book, Ghost Story, Horror, KDP Select, Kindle, Kindle Owners' Lending Library, Kindle Unlimited, Review, Short stories, The DiVacci Curse, The Great East Japan Earthquake

My nonfiction e-book and my fiction e-short story are now enrolled in KDP Select on Amazon.  This is good news for Amazon Prime, Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited members.  Check em’ out!

For those who have already purchased and read my e-book and e-short story, thank you very much.  If you like what you read, then I encourage you to write a review and post it on Amazon.  I would be honored and grateful for your kindness and consideration.  If writing a review is not your thing, then please spread the word among your family and friends, co-workers, distant relatives, ex-spouses, etc.

As always, direct links to both books can be found on the “My Books” page of this blog. Thanks for reading.

Have a fun and safe summer!

Most humbly,

Brad

“You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover!”

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Amazon, Blood, e-book, Generic, Ghost Story, Gore, Graphic, Horror, Original Cover, Subtle, The DiVacci Curse, Updated Cover Design

 

That statement is so true.  Well, it’s taken a while (almost a year, actually) but I now have an original cover design for my ghost short story, “The DiVacci Curse.”

Only the cover has been changed.  The story and its contents remain the same.

When I first published the story last summer, I felt that it was more important to just get it published and out there, rather than delay publishing because of the cover page.  I opted to use one of Amazon’s predesigned cover pages that I liked, but was generic in nature.  I had no issues with the predesigned cover for a long time until I saw another book on Amazon (can’t remember if it was fiction or non-fiction) that used the same exact cover design…same font, colors, etc.  That’s when I realized that I needed to have an original cover design instead.

I now understand the importance of book covers.  Some readers do indeed “judge a book by its cover.”  Book covers can determine whether a reader investigates the e-book further or just clicks to another item or page, not even giving the book a second thought.

I prefer book covers that give the reader a general idea of the plot, rather than paint an overly vivid picture that is too demanding and busy for the eye. If too much is going on in the image, the message becomes confusing and complicated.  The author runs the risk of turning the reader off.  Sometimes “less is more” as previously mentioned in my post about “The Fog.”  This concept applies to book covers as well.

Happy Belated New Year!

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Belated, Happy New Year, New writing ideas, Short stories

Well, needless to say, 2017 has started off full throttle.  Hence, why I’ve been very busy and not able to post anything for over a month.  It’s nice to be back blogging again with my first post of the New Year.  I hope that your year has begun happily and peacefully.

Today’s topic is about resolutions, specifically, my writing resolutions for 2017.  I have a few ideas for some new and original short stories ricocheting around in my brain right now.  I’m also thinking about converting (into a short story) one or two more of the one-act plays that I wrote in college way back when.  One of those plays (The DiVacci Curse) has already been converted into a short story and is available on the My Books page of this blog. Please check it out if you have the time.

One of the plays is a murder mystery and the other is a comedy (yes, a stretch for me).  The comedy will be the more difficult play to convert because it has a lot of physicality in it.  On the other hand, I can elaborate on certain scenes and add a lot more detail in a short story than I could within the confines of the theater stage.  *See my post from Dec. 3, 2016 for more detail about converting a play into a short story.

As for my original story ideas, I have tentative plans to write another ghost story, but one unlike The DiVacci Curse.  I have a few other ideas to ponder and explore as well.  We’ll see how it all sorts itself out.  One thing that I can say for certain is that I plan to publish at least one more short story by the end of this year. Realistically, that’s the best that time and life will allow me to do at this point.  In the meantime, I encourage you to check out my other books.

As always, thanks for reading.

Best wishes to everyone for a safe, happy and healthy New Year!

Converting “The DiVacci Curse” from the Stage to a Short Story

Today I’d like to talk about my short story, “The DiVacci Curse.”

I originally wrote the “The DiVacci Curse” as a one-act play when I was in the midst of a playwriting class in college way back when.  Converting it from a play to a short story proved a fun and interesting challenge.  In a play, much of the story is told through the character’s actions onstage.  In a story or novel that same action has to be described in detail so that the reader can create those very images in their mind.  Details can be given in graphic, vivid description and exposition or they can be conveyed via character dialog.