Updates Available…

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A Day of Horror: The March 11, 2011 Japan Earthquake-A Foreigner's Perspective, authors, Horror, humanity, Manage your content and devices, nonfiction, novel, photos, Short stories, The DiVacci Curse, To Sleep in the Ground, updates

First things first…

I hope that everyone is coping with the pandemic and that lives are being saved by compliance to the worldwide lockdowns.

No offense or disrespect is intended, but I thought that since things seem to be settling down a bit in some areas of the world, and some countries are over their peaks of mass infection, that maybe it was acceptable to post some new info about my books.

Amazon.com has informed me that free updates are available for all three of my e-books.  In order to access the updates, readers who purchased my books in the past can go to their “Manage Your Content and Devices” page in their Amazon account to download the updated and most recent version.  I assume (you know what happens when we do that) that the updates will translate to all Amazon versions of my books no matter what country they were purchased from.  If you have information to the contrary, or would like to chime in with any comments about the updates, then I would be more than grateful and open to them.  Unfortunately, as of the date of this post, the updates are not available for anyone who purchased my books from Amazon.jp here in Japan where I live.  Sorry about that.  I hope it changes.  Perhaps it just takes time for word to spread throughout the entire Amazon kingdom.  That is completely understandable considering the current situation.

As mentioned in previous posts, after I published my first novel, I revisited both my nonfiction book and my short story.  Basic technical changes were made, but I made no changes to the stories.  I just updated and improved the appearance, format and user-friendliness of the books.  I changed some of the front matter to back matter, and made the layout and flow more consistent across all three books.  I also reformatted the photos in my March 11, 2011 nonfiction book among other changes.  I feel that the changes make for a much better reading experience overall.

The free updates are my gift to the readers of my books.  Thank you all very much.  I hope that you will enjoy the improvements.  For those of you who have not yet read my books, then be assured that you will be getting the most current editions and the best possible reading experience that I can offer at this time.  Thank you for your future patronage.

Again, please forgive my selfish post at such a difficult time as this.

I ask your continued prayers for the world.  We are all in this together regardless of gender, race, religion, creed, political ideology, socioeconomic status or income.  Hang in there, everybody.

 

 

 

 

To Revise or Not to Revise?

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gothic, Horror, novel, revise, revising your published story, revision, self-publishing, Short stories, The DiVacci Curse, writing advice

Now that my first novel is self-published, I’ve had a little free time to contemplate other things.  While editing it, I realized that I had made errors with the short story that I published in 2016.  The DiVacci Curse was the first work of fiction that I self-published.  The errors ranged from spelling issues to overused words and unnecessary adverbs; common mistakes that many first-time writers make.  I’m now in the process of revisiting my short story and making appropriate revisions that I think will improve its pace and overall readability.

Some authors do not like the idea of editing and republishing their work.  Once it’s done and published, then they wish it be left alone and judged as is.  After all, would you change the Mona Lisa or rewrite the Bible?  Of course not.  As we’ve seen, Hollywood has a penchant for changing the classics, and not always with positive results.  But I’m not talking about writing screenplays (although I have dabbled in that area).  I am talking about crafting novels and stories, a different beast altogether.

I suppose if you are fortunate enough to be published with a major publishing house that has taken the time and money to promote your work successfully, then it may seem unnecessary to revise your story.  But the wonderful world of self-publishing is changing the dynamics of the publishing system, bucking the ingrained trends and creating its own rules and standards.

I am not tinkering with the plot of The DiVacci Curse.  That will remain as is, so no worries there.  My intention is to revise and republish…and to not revisit the story again unless I make further catastrophic errors with spelling and grammar, etc.  I don’t expect that to happen the second time around though.  I wouldn’t want to edit and revise any story indefinitely.  That’s counterproductive and not logical.

I like the idea that I can go back and change aspects of the story to make it more entertaining (or not).  Of course, whether those changes will indeed improve the story is not ultimately up to me but in the minds of the readers.  I’ll let them be the judge.

I learned a great deal from writing my first novel.  I hope that it has made me a better writer.  I hope that I continue learning and improving and finding my voice as they say.

I will post an update when my short story is revised and republished, so be sure to check back.  Thanks for reading.

Daywalker, Nightwalker or Both?

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1840s, Bram Stoker, Count Graf Orlok, Count Orlock, Daywalker, Dracula, F.W. Murnau, Film, gothic, Henrik Galeen, Horror, Malcolm Rymer, Movie, Nightwalker, Nosferatu, novel, serials, Shadow of the Vampire, The Feast of Blood, Thomas Peckett Prest, To Sleep in the Ground, vampire fiction, vampire novel, Varney the Vampire

It’s one of the most challenging questions for writers of vampire fiction:  Should the vampires in my story walk during the daytime or only appear at night?

This was an issue for me when first writing my vampire novel To Sleep in the Ground.  I’m an ‘after six’ person.  The evening is my favorite time of day.  I could have easily written Marco, the main character of my story, to be a nightwalker only.  The silent film classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors (now known popularly by the simple title of Nosferatu) directed by legendary German director F.W. Murnau helped fuel the myth that vampires could be destroyed by sunlight.  Some say that the film created the myth, but I’m not so sure about that.  Hollywood would embellish the concept that vampires were strictly nightwalkers with the sun frying them to a crisp if so much as a hint of it touched their pale skin, and the myth has become a mainstay of vampire fiction.

Instead, I decided to follow the tradition arguably established literarily by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, authors of the Varney the Vampire (or the Feast of Blood) serials from the middle to late 1840s and allow Marco to walk around in the daytime with limitations; he is weaker and not able to access the full potential of his dark gifts.

Decades later, Bram Stoker’s timeless masterpiece Dracula also echoed the folklore that vampires could walk by day.  Those of us who write vampire or horror literature know Stoker’s novel and love it.  It isn’t the first vampire story ever written, but it is the standard by which many, dare I say most, of us write our vampire fiction today.  It was the inspiration for the influential Nosferatu.  And it’s quite possible that Murnau’s Count Orlok was susceptible to sunlight rather than a stake through the heart because neither he nor the screenwriter Henrik Galeen had official permission to make a film version of the novel.  Count Orlok needed to be different from Count Dracula for obvious reasons.  On a side note, if you’re interested in knowing more about Nosferatu then I suggest the film Shadow of the Vampire.  It’s one of my favorite vampire movies and a wonderful piece of film noir.  It also explores the interesting legend of Max Schreck the actor who portrayed the vampiric Orlok in the film.  I’ll address the film in more detail in my next post.  Be sure to stick around for that.

So, what do you think, should fiction portray vampires as daywalkers, nightwalkers or both?  I say “both” with limitations on the potency of their abilities during the daytime, but I want to hear the opinions of you writers and readers of vampire fiction.  Open up the coffin and chime in.  Feel free to cast your vote via the comments section of this post.  I look forward to hearing from you all…and keep the garlic close to the bedside!

Introducing…Marco Dark!

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A Day of Horror: The March 11, 2011 Japan Earthquake-A Foreigner's Perspective, action, artist, author, Blood, bloodlust, Bradley Lobue, California, casino, claws, corpse, Creepy, dark, desert, dollars, dusk, e-book, euros, fangs, fictionalist, financier, France, French madame, Fukushima Prefecture, Gore, gothic, grim reaper, hacker, hit man, Horror, humanity, Japan, Koriyama City, Las Vegas, lone vampire, loner, manga, manga artist, Marco Dark, money, Nevada, new, nightlife, Northern Japan, novel, Palermo, Pasadena, publish, Read, Review, Scary, Sicily, sociopath, suspense, swindler, The DiVacci Curse, thriller, To Sleep in the Ground, Tohoku, undead, vamp, vampire, vampire action, vampire drama, vampire fiction, vampire novel, vampirekind, vampires, vampiric, vampiric hit man, vamps, wild west, world traveler, writer, yen

My first novel and latest release is now available!

A wealthy French madame, a misguided manga artist, a greedy financier, a malicious computer hacker and a homicidal sociopath.  What do they all have in common?  They all have contracts on their heads.  The one hired to fulfill those contracts is Marco Dark.  He’s cultured, sophisticated and intelligent, and the most lethal hit man on the planet.  He’s also a 200-year-old vampire!  Journey with Marco as he traverses the globe plying his deadly trade…and pray that you’re not on his list!

“To Sleep in the Ground” has taken twenty years to complete since its original conception.  I encourage you to check it out.  You can access a sample of the book via the link at the end of this post.

If you read Marco’s story and find it entertaining (or not) then I request that you write a review.  Let’s be honest, reviews and word of mouth sell books and reviews are a great way for readers to express themselves, too.  I’d also like to hear your comments and opinions about “To Sleep in the Ground” on this blog.