HAVE YOU HEARD?

HAVE YOU HEARD 

     ANY OF MY AUDIOBOOKS?

Go here to listen to a few minutes FREE from FIVE of my AUDIOBOOKS:

https://soundcloud.com/roland-yeomans

If you like any that you hear, you can BUY MOST OF THEM FOR ONLY $1.99

 if you have bought or downloaded for free their KINDLE BOOKS!

 

 

Give them a listen.  Tell me what you think.    :-)

IN THE ROARING TWENTIES, ANCIENT EVIL AWAKENS

http://www.amazon.com/HER-BONES-BADLANDS-Roland-Yeomans-ebook/dp/B00FPFOJNO/

HER BONES ARE IN THE BADLANDS

It is the era of The Great Gatsby. 

America has spanned the continent, survived the War to end all wars, and bursts with false fire in the stock market.

Criminals are the new heroes.  Science is the new god. 

And one lonely, undying man seeks to evoke an innocence that never was by making the first talking Western movie.

With his wizard, Nikola Tesla, Samuel McCord awakens an ancient evil. 

Now, he must find a way to save those who have unknowingly become the prey to Something whose hunger never ends.

HER BONES ARE IN THE BADLANDS is now FREE for a LIMITED TIME.

For a real treat, listen to the great talent, Robert Rossman, narrate it:

http://www.amazon.com/Her-Bones-Are-Badlands/dp/B00JEOI1BI/



And if you like McCord with Nikola Tesla ...

Join him in 1895 Egypt with Nikola once more along with Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, and Winston Churchill ...

as they discover some secrets should remain buried.

DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE:
http://www.amazon.com/DEATH-HOUSE-LIFE-Roland-Yeomans-ebook/dp/B00HIU5O38/

A WIND TO FILL MY SAIL

I was looking at my Amazon Page when I noticed a new review for HER BONES ARE IN THE BADLANDS:

http://www.amazon.com/HER-BONES-BADLANDS-Roland-Yeomans-ebook/dp/B00FPFOJNO/

 

And I found this:

 

 

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful blend of western, horror, and human insight, May 19, 2014

By 

Lila - See all my reviews

Verified Purchase

This review is from:

HER BONES ARE IN THE BADLANDS (Kindle Edition)

     

I don't normally "do" westerns, but this author's voice intrigued me, so I gave it a shot---and I loved it.

 

This wonderful story has plenty of action, but what really grabbed me were the philosophical insights woven into the narrative.

 

I bookmarked far more pages in this novella than I normally do in a whole novel just because the phrasing was so lovely and the sentiment so wise that I want to go back to contemplate further.

 

And yet...I can completely picture this story on the big screen with viewers at the edge of their seats.

The characters are absolutely fantastic with color and personality and so much depth.

 

I see this author has lots of other stories out, and I look forward to checking them out.

 

And right after it was D.G. Hudson's fine review:

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Sand in my Boots and The Badlands, May 14, 2014

 

By D. G. Hudson (Vancouver, BC, CANADA)

 

This review is from:

HER BONES ARE IN THE BADLANDS (Kindle Edition)

 

      It's about 'The Industry' in the early days of Hollywood and early western films.

 

The Badlands are dry, barren, windblown rugged, and formerly the home of the Navajo and Lakota tribes, it's known as an unforgiving land.

 

A movie on location sees it's usual expectations shelved when an evil that lurks unseen is called. . .

 

the air is charged with apprehension, all the actors are spooked.

 

Something isn't quite right, but the guy in charge, Durand / McCord, can't determine what.

 

A body is found, attacked by something inhuman. Signs of an old enemy increase the stakes.

An excellent cast for the movie in the book:

 

Tom Mix, Marlene Dietrich, David Niven, Errol Flynn, and others, is balanced by the cast from the world of Sam McCord:

 

Meilori, Elu, Tesla, Wolfe and the Sheriff.

 

Delighted to see his love, Meilori beside him and Elu's surprise appearance, McCord is ready to do what must be done - ever the Texas Ranger.

 

The confrontation with the danger must be met by Sam alone. . . against the entity hiding in the cave. An entity with unknown capabilities.

 

I'd recommend this book to readers who like old movie sets, western tales, or stories of heroes like Sam McCord. 

 

I liked it a lot, I enjoy the McCord stories.

 

 Have you ever stumbled upon good reviews of your books?

TO LIVE IS TO BE HAUNTED

 
Only 99 cents.
http://www.amazon.com/HER-BONES-ARE-THE-BADLANDS-ebook/dp/B00FPFOJNO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383753208&sr=8-1&keywords=her+bones+are+in+the+badlands

The Lakota know and shudder.  Walk soft across the Badlands lest you disturb She Who Waits.  Speak low lest you betray your presence to her hunger.

Below the brooding pinnacles of the Badlands, the first talking Western is being filmed.

Nikola Tesla, genius visionary, blind wizard, erects the first radio station in this desolation ... and She Who Waits is awakened.

Strange death begins to hunt the cast and crew down one by one.  Abruptly, they find themselves cut off from outside help.

And their only hope rests on the has-been cowboy acting as technical advisor …

Samuel McCord … a man the Sioux fearfully call “the ghost who hunts.”

The first reviewer wins the autograph of Bruce Willis!

 

One of the next 5 reviewers will win the autograph of

VIN DIESEL!

 

Did you hear that?

 

The sounds of claws scratching

underneath your floorboards,

the eager panting of hunger

about to be fed.

NOW WHAT?

http://www.amazon.com/HER-BONES-ARE-THE-BADLANDS-ebook/dp/B00FPFOJNO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382894693&sr=8-1&keywords=HER+BONES+ARE+IN+THE+BADLANDS

(Only 99 cents)

 

1.) You've written a novel that to read it is to love it.

2.) You've chosen KeyWords and Categories on Amazon to bring readers eager to buy and read your type of book to your Book Page on Amazon.

NOW WHAT?

Hear that?

It is time ticking away. 

You have 10 seconds to engage and rivet the buying reader with your BOOK DESCRIPTION before she/he grows bored and goes off in search for a book that grabs her curiosity.

HOW DO YOU DO WRITE THAT WINNING BOOK DESCRIPTION?

1.) Find the heart of your story:

     a.) Imagine HarperCollins would accept a telegram from you and buy your book if you interested them in 10 words.

     b.) Try for one grabbing sentence at the start of it:

i.) Some things cannot die ... no matter how much you want them to.

ii.) When reality bites, bite back.

2.) Study the Masters:

Take the description to NEVERWHERE by Neil Gaiman:

Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk.

His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them.

And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

(93 words)

3.) Think movie preview:

a.) The movie trailer doesn't give the whole story.

b.) It gives a hero to root for, an enemy to boo, a love interest that tempts and tortures, and a unique crisis that seems impossible to overcome.

4.) Drop your reader into the crucible of your story:

a.) Write in third person, present tense.

Even though your book is most likely told in past tense, your book description is not.

You are describing this book as if you're sitting face to face with the reader, and they've asked you what the book is about.

b.) Use emotional power words.
You are trying to evoke emotions with your book description, the same emotions that your book evokes. To convey these feelings, you need emotional powers words like tormented, charismatic, passion, obsession, terrifying, etc.

There are too many to mention here, but a quick search for "Power Words" on the internet will produces hundreds of words to choose from.

Like spice, use them sparingly. For 100 words use five to six.  Any more is LIKE WRITING YOUR NOVEL IN ALL CAPITALS!
Count the number of Power Words in NEVERWHERE's book description.

5.) Want another example?  Take Dean Koontz's THE GOOD GUY:

Timothy Carrier, a quiet stone mason having a beer in a California bar, meets a stranger who mistakes him for a hit man. The stranger slips Tim a manila envelope containing $10,000 in cash and a photo of the intended victim, Linda Paquette, a writer in Laguna Beach, then leaves.

A moment later, Krait, the real killer, shows up and assumes Tim is his client. Tim manages to distract Krait from immediately carrying out the hit by saying he's had a change of heart and offering Krait the $10,000 he just received.

This ploy gives the stone mason enough time to warn Linda before they begin a frantic flight for their lives.  (120 words)

6.) Another?  FEAR NOTHING by Koontz again:

Christopher Snow understands the night. He lives on the mysterious darker edge of society. Snow is afflicted with xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare genetic disease that makes ultraviolet rays-even those from lamps and televisions-deadly.

His condition makes him a pariah in the isolated small town of Moonlight Bay where the ignorant and insensitive fear what they do not know.

Snow's father dies, leaving him with only a handful of offbeat but fiercely loyal friends to turn to for understanding. At the morgue, Snow accidentally witnesses his father's body being replaced with the mutilated corpse of a vagrant.

Before he can find out what is behind this crime, he receives a frantic summons from a friend who is brutally murdered before she can finish explaining a strange story about monkeys and a secret project at the government compound at the edge of town.

What begins as a disturbing puzzle quickly becomes a sinister conspiracy as Snow uncovers evidence of uncanny intelligence in many of the local animals and inhumanely vicious tendencies in some of the human residents of the Bay.

They are "becoming" he learns, but becoming what?  (200 words)

Show Less

A GHOSTLY VERDICT ON NaNoWriMo

BUT FIRST:

Consider buying for a mere 99 cents, pilgrim:

http://www.amazon.com/LUCIFERS-ORPHAN-JOURNEY-LOST-ebook/dp/B00FVGDTN8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381725811&sr=8-1&keywords=lucifer%27s+orphan%3A+journey+of+the+lost

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPFOJNO

Now at #77 in Amazon's Top 100!

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,162 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #77 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Humor & Entertainment > Movies & Video

Oh, all right, Hemingway!

Here!  Have at it!

{There is nothing to writing.

All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

- Ernest Hemingway.}

Ghost of Papa here again.

VR Barkowski
http://vrbarkowski.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/uh-oh-nano/


wrote an intriguing post about this lemming event that happens every November.  Really popular among you novice writers
I caught Roland shaking his head over NaNo or NoMo or NoNoNanettes

or whatever you people call it as he read VR's post.

I told him that it was the Litmus Test to determine the Dreamers from the Determined.

Gentle people, writing is not a group hug affair.

It is lonely, hard, and demands discipline.

You build a hovel when you just slap boards together as fast and as many as possible.

Same for a novel. You take 25 words, distilling them into 15 or 10. You agonize over 400 true words a day not 4,000.

Raymond Carver had it right when he said good writing demands brevity and intensity. Those elements are distilled not vomited.

Be NoNoNanettes if you choose. Or BOO-hooers when you read a month later what you felt so thrilled about in the high of creation.

But if your goal is to be a good writer, you must eskew the month long frenzy of throwing words together to get a semblance of a novel.

You wail it is popular. Are you a lemming? 

You pout that it is only a month.

A month where you will be teaching yourself destructive writing habits.

A writer will have to sacrifice much to craft (notice my word) a novel. Let your sacrifices be for a novel that will take the reader's breath away.

Children, if you choose to write, write well. And how do you do that you pout. Here are the secrets:

THE SECRETS

Secret #1:
There aren't any secrets.

Secret #2:
There is only one secret :

The only secret to good writing is that it is poetry written into prose, and it is the hardest of all things to do.

But I will try to see if I can't share a bit of what I've learned. We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

And if you are reading this at night, it will mean something different than if you are reading this in the day. I know the night is not the same as the day:

that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day,

because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.

There are no secrets to good writing. But there is a compass:

No sentimentality allowed.

There is no sentimentality in prose that touches the heart.

Sounds like nonsense. It isn't.

Sentimentality, sympathy, and empathy are turned inwards, not restrained, but vibrant below and beyond the level of fact and fable.

If you would touch your reader, find what gave you a similar emotion:

what the action was that gave you the excitement. Then write it down making it clear so the reader will see it too and have the same feeling as you had.


No secrets. No sentimentality. Yet, there are rules:

Rule #1
Writing is re-writing.

The first draft of anything is shit. Get the draft done, then sculpt away anything that is excess.

Rule #2
In fiction as in life: you can't go back.

The reason most sequels, films or books, fail is that the author tries to unscramble the egg. The hero has changed, has learned, has become something other.

Rule #3

Good books belong to the reader.

The reader will identify with your protagonist if you've been honest.

The tale then belongs to him:

the good and the bad, the ecstasy and the remorse and the sorrow. He will have felt the air on his cheek, smelled the bread baking on the breeze, and how the weather was.

He will feel that it has happened to him.

Rule #4
Talent is not enough.

It doesn't matter if you have the talent of Kipling.

You must also have the discipline of Flaubert if you would become a good writer. Dreamers dream pipe dreams. Writers write. Writers grow in their craft.

Rule #5
Know everything.

No bullshit. And if you would be a writer, you must develop a foolproof shit detector.

A good writer must know everything. Naturally, he will not. That is why you must read.

Mr. King was right when he said that if you do not have time to read, you have no business being a writer.

Read fiction. Read non-fiction. Read psychology texts. Read biographies, autobiographies. Become a student of life.

Good writing is true writing.

If a man is making up a story, it will be true in proportion to the amount of knowledge he has about life and how conscientious he is:

so that when he makes something up, it is as it would truly be.

Sit down and think about what I've written. Look over what you last wrote. Slash and burn what is excess.

Sermon over. Now, sit down and write something.
*************
I like Jesse Cook. Don't cock those eyes at me. An old ghost can like new music.

Jesse would have developed a real following in pre-Castro Cuba.

Roland even used this tune in his END OF DAYS in the chapter
THERE IS NO FAIL, where a chopper fights a swarm of attacking dragons of all things!

HOW TO GET YOUR eBOOK TO GO VIRAL

Go to Vesper's fun blog:
http://chickwithaquill.blogspot.com/


for a fun, detailed review of LUCIFER'S ORPHAN

BUT NOW:

Have you been curious 

about Meilori?

Who she is?

What she is?

How does she deals with those around her?

See for yourself

in 

{Only 99 cents}

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPFOJNO

Three days go my visitor tally shot up to 900 daily.  Two days ago 1100 visited my blog.  Today 1300 visited.

SO HOW DO YOU GET YOUR eBOOK TO GO VIRAL?

It is beyond social media.  

You can’t tweet or Facebook yourself into viral status. Your publisher can’t even make it happen. 

 It rarely happens to the common A-list author names – 

 they became A-listers after their viral debut – it’s usually something fresh, from a fresh face.

 The criteria for putting your book into a position to go viral is almost exactly that associated with getting published in the first place.  

The book has to work.  Really, really well.
 
That said, viral books tend to do a couple of specific things really well: 

1.) They are often “high concept” (rather than character-driven, even though they introduce great characters),

with exceptional execution across all the story basics.

2.)  They also deliver something else, almost without exception: they seize the inherent compelling power of underlying story physics in way that exceeds the competition.

These two realms of story – 
compelling concept, 
with exceptionally strong underlying essences, is what gets you into the viral game.

YAWN! Right?  Isn't that what everyone does?




Not really. 

They don’t address these as goals.  

 Some authors just write their story, write it well, let it evolve organically, and hope somebody out there gets it.  

This may get them published, but it doesn’t usually get them on Oprah Winfrey.

 The viral book is driven by hero empathy, 

while delivering a vicarious ride.

  It isn’t the plot, and it isn’t character.  

No, this is about the reader.

 It’s about the reader transporting themselves into this world… going on this ride… feeling it… wanting to be the hero… 

wishing it was them… 

the reader completely engaging in this journey 

on a personal level.

More of this in other posts ...

REMEMBER:

You can still get FREE:

Thank all of you for making this #6!

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,975 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing Skills

LEARN TO WRITE BETTER AND LAUGH ALONG THE WAY!

 {Hit your cursor on the cover to be taken to the Amazon book page}

HOW HAVE I INCREASED MY VISITORS?

I do not know for sure but lately I have:

1.)  GIVEN 2 FREE BOOKS AWAY EACH WEEK

2.)  DONE EVERY FEW DAYS A DIFFERENT INTRO FOR MY SHORT STORY IN WENDY'S ANTHOLOGY.

3.)  WEEKLY DID A POST TO BUILD UP INTEREST IN SIV MARIA'S EXCELLENT SECRETS OF THE ASH TREE (not just one on the day everyone else did).

4.) PARTICIPATED IN TWO HALLOWEEN BLOGHOPS, INCLUDING A 3RD: MY OWN

5.) OFFERED FAIRLY NEAT PRIZES IN SEVERAL CONTESTS OF MY OWN.

6.) PUT OUT A NEW BOOK AT 99 CENTS.

7.) WROTE POSTS CENTERING ON ISSUES AUTHORS AND GENERAL READERS WOULD BE DRAWN TO.

My increased traffic might be due to some of those or none of those.  Unlike Ratatoskr, I admit I am mostly clueless!

Here is a trailer for a movie that went viral.  See how it drew in the audience:

DENISE COVEY TO THE RESCUE! How to Write A Review

http://laussieswritingblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/writing-bookreviews-10-tips.html

She answered the question often asked of me due to my contests:

HOW DO YOU WRITE A REVIEW?

Want this autographed picture?

Be the one drawn from the first 10 to write a review of

THE RIVAL --

STILL FREE TODAY TOO!

BOOK 3: Victor & Alice are in the French Quarter of 1834.

Voodoo. Demigods. Revenants.  What a first date!

Want an

autographed Henry Fonda photo from

THE GRAPES OF WRATH?

Just be the one drawn from the first 10 to write a review of

{Only 99 cents}

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPFOJNO

SO HOW DO YOU WRITE A REVIEW?

Let Denise Covey, TEACHER EXTRAORDINAIRE, tell you:

HOW TO REVIEW - Denise's 10 tips

        1. Make notes as you read.

   2. Be on the lookout for quotable quotes. These give readers an idea of the writer's style.

    3. Get your introduction right; be worthy of the book you're reviewing. Hook the reader.

    
     4. If you have any criticism, give a concrete example; don't generalise.

       5. Write about the book, not yourself.
         Don't show off at someone else's party by trying to prove your own writing prowess.

       6. Try to avoid: 'I think/In my opinion'. Readers know the whole review is your opinion.

       7. Compare when appropriate -- perhaps make connections between the book and current issues. Or measure against similar stories in the genre.

       8. Don't retell the story blow by blow.

       9. Never give away the ending.

      10. Reviewing requires respect.

Remember: THIS WHOLE WEEKEND YOU CAN GET FOR FREE:

Thank all of you for making this #6!

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,975 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing Skills

LEARN TO WRITE BETTER AND LAUGH ALONG THE WAY