Useful Links for Amazon Self-Publishing

How to Price Kindle Books to FREE without Exclusivity 
There's another, better option, and it doesn't require exclusivity. Smashwords and our retail partners can help.

In this post, I'll teach you a trick veteran indie authors have been using for several years to do free and perma-free ebooks at Amazon without exclusivity.  It's a way to turn Amazon's price-matching robots against Amazon.

As you'll learn below, authors who avoid KDP Select can make greater use of free than those who are trapped in KDP Select.

It's a simple process.  Here are the steps:

1.  At your Amazon KDP dashboard, price your book to $.99.

2.  At Smashwords, price your book to free.
http://blog.smashwords.com/2015/08/how-to-price-kindle-books-to-free.html

Where Are All the Aliens, Anyway?

By all estimates, there should be at least 100 billion billion near-Earth-like planets in the universe.  So where are all the aliens? 

This article delves into the mystery of the Fermi paradox. http://qz.com/452452/where-are-all-the-aliens/

Advice from Hemmingway on Writing

For Hemingway’s birthday, his advice to aspiring writers—excellent advice on any creative path http://j.mp/1DqdxCA

See also ...

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing

Stephen King's Top 20 Rules for Writers

6 Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck

21 Harsh But Eye-Opening Writing Tips From Great Authors

Welcome to My Blog & Books

Welcome to my blog and books. It's a place where I'm going to post things useful for my fiction writing. You can also find links to my novels -- and descriptions and reviews of them -- HERE.

Finally, I'm also going to post the books that I'm currently reading.

Stories of Blood-Curdling Adventure, Hard-Luck Heroes, Terrifying Monsters and Horrific Villains

Slave in the City of Dragons

Savagery, Lust and Adventure at Time's Abyss: Beautiful Pashera sets off on a quest to kill a fabled beast and thus raise her status in her primitive tribe. But she's captured by a warrior, Tol'zen ... a warrior who's not quite human.

He's a descendant of dinosaurs, and she becomes first his slave, then his lover in an ancient city. It's a lost civilization of magic, mystery and unimaginable sin dating back countless millennia. But past glory has curdled to rot, and the city is sliding into decadence and depravity. 

Tol'zen fights for the soul of his people, while Pashera finds herself fighting in the arena against fierce women, worse men and monsters straight out of hell. It's an era of brutal violence, raw sex, wonders and horrors. Brave and resourceful, Pashera risks everything to find freedom and true love at the dawn of time. Will she succeed … or will she end up another nameless and bloody stain on the sand? 

Buy it now for just $2.99!

The Critics Rave about Slave in the City of Dragons ...

This is a fast-paced, thrilling sci-fi adventure, packed with cool gizmos, strange civilizations -- and loads of sizzling sex! It is reminiscent of many of the sci-fi and fantasy books I adored growing up, like Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mar series, the Gor stories, and Flash Gordon.

Angelwolf seamlessly blends action, romance, intrigue, and really good science fiction. It's almost like 100 million Years BC, Jurassic Park, and Gladiator had a baby. Hopefully the author is hard at work at her keyboard working up the next in the series.

We judge books that transport us to fantasy worlds largely by the originality of the creatures we find there, and the author comes through in spades. From the Weavers - giant spiders with human heads - to the terrifying Night Apes - the novel is full of surprising critters and beings that are sure to horrify or delight you.

21st Century Pulp Adventure in the tradition of Conan, John Carter and Deja Thoris, and R. E. Howard's finest! "Slave in the City of Dragons" is a call back to pulp fiction - where dinosaurs and laser beams and slave women were common, where science is hand-waved into the realm of magical functioning, and where danger and action abounds. And in that vein it succeeds. We are introduced to a world where time-traveling lizard men are the top of the technological ladder, human primitives are kept as slaves, and dinosaurs roam the world. But the society of the lizard men is in decline, and it may just be possible for a human female to shake things up.

The Devil, the Dragon and the Maiden Fair

“You want us to kill an invulnerable monster, find a sword in its guts, then use that to kill a wizard who’s already dead! How in all the hells are we supposed to do that?” 
The witch-queen Cir’heran seemed affronted by the question. “Are you not heroes?” 
“You don’t need heroes!” Christopher said, his voice rising. “You need an army of giant killer robots led by gods!” 
Cir’heran looked at the human curiously. “Do you know where I can find such an army?” 
“No." 
“Then you will have to do.” 

Researchers time-jump back to 150,000 BCE, expecting to find primitive humans. But sliding sideways in time, they find much more – an alternate Earth inhabited by the remains of an ancient saurian race. It's a decadent civilization spiraling into civil war, as a mad queen wreaks bloody vengeance on her own kind. The humans are sucked into the rebellion whether they like it or not. 

Christopher, a computer whiz on the time-travel team, is captured by the queen's forces. Now, accompanied by a scholar and a brutish soldier, he'll journey along the Road to Hell. He’ll meet heroes and villains ... witches and monsters ... and arcane powers as old as time itself. 

And beware the witches! For while they possess an exotic beauty, they are also corrupted by unimaginable wickedness. From their palace of sin, the witches send this unlikely hero on a two-part quest – kill an "invulnerable" monster to retrieve a legendary sword, then to use that sword to destroy a most powerful necromancer. 

To do that, Christopher must explore one of the most diabolically punishing dungeons imaginable – and the punishment for failure is death. 

The chronicles say there's no coming back from the Road to Hell. Can Christopher change his fate?

Buy it now for just $2.99

The Critics Rave about The Devil, the Dragon & the Maiden Fair ...

Bubbling over with creativity! A sci-fi adventure packed with plenty of action, neat gizmos and a host of horrifying critters. Among my favorites: The "shocktopus," a giant octopus-like beast that walks on land, stalks its prey for days and zaps them with electricity before devouring them. Angela Angelwolf creates a richly imagined world that is full of delightful surprises and spicy encounters

Outstanding! Whenever I evaluate a science fiction author I always start with their "world building." If the story isn't set in contemporary times , the author has to create a whole new setting from scratch. Angela Angelwolf has absolutely killed this element with her alternate earth that has saurians (Lizards) as the dominant intelligent life (not altogether dissimilar from Planet of the Apes-there's even some flat-out hilarious nods to that classic included). Not unlike "Slave in the City of Dragons" Angelwolf seamlessly blends action,romance,intrigue ,and a full serving of sly sarcastic humor. If you're jonesing for a great sci-fi novel, look no further. It's impossible to give a book more than 5 stars on Amazon, but this one deserves it!!!

A Dark and Angry God

This is an excerpt from "The Devil, the Dragon and the Maiden Fair" -- one adventure from a much longer book.

Weird witches free a hero from his chains so he can quest to recover a legendary sword. But to get it, he must kill an invulnerable beast! 

Christopher is trapped sideways in time, in an ancient kingdom that doesn’t exist in our world. And now he must do the bidding of saurian witches who set him to a seemingly insurmountable task. And beware, for while the witches possess an exotic beauty, they are also corrupted by unimaginable wickedness. 

Questing for the sword, Christopher and his companions will battle road pirates, brain-grubs and their mind-slaves, and an immense creature spawned in the hellish chaos of time’s abyss. 

This creature, the great worm Blarakorm, now rules over a kingdom of blood and brutality like a dark and angry god. Legend has it the worm is invulnerable. But Christopher must figure out how to defeat it … or die trying. 

Buy it for just 99 cents -- Rock'em, sock'em adventure at a dirt-cheap price!

The Critics Rave about A Dark and Angry God ...

Great ideas and interesting plot. This book (the first book I read from AA) is a great introduction to the fantasy world the author created. With very elaborate characters that are both original and staying true to the nature the author gave them, it shines in interesting and unexpected plot twists as well as in traditional aspects of the fantasy genre.

Fantastic!!!!!! Fantastic "tease" that sets the tone for AA's next novel. Set in an earlier timeline from the excellent "Slave in the City of Dragons" this novella follows the exploits of a human and his saurian comrades that are tasked with several labors by sensual witches. The story is excellent and the characters well developed and compelling. I especially love the elements of humor that constantly spring up. Great story that blends elements of Edgar Rice Burroughs and dark fantasy with an original style. Highest recommendation!