I think I got more than I bargained for here in The Clockwork Man. I usually enjoy novels that have things blow up, wise cracking detectives, international tales of intrigue, secret agents saving the world

from the next newest megalomaniac. Here I get to read about a guy made of clock

parts and he brings upon me some serious introspective questions, making me

examine things I don’t wish to think about or knew I needed to ponder. Go

figure. This is…

Being Original

By: Julian Adorney

We’ve all read them. Stories with solid characters and a fast plot and vivid descriptions, but nothing to make them unique. Stories that we finish reading with the vague

sense that we’ve read the exact same story a hundred times before.…

Ponzied Guest Post

One of the joys in writing fiction is the development of a character that can carry the writer through the entire story. Sometimes that character isn’t

even there at the start of the novel. He

isn’t even there at the original outline of…

20 Big Time Novel Releases Before Christmas

Far be it from me to be thinking about the big jolly man in the suit already, but there seems to be a crush of novels coming everybody’s way starting last week. Yes, last week. Stuart Woods has Santa Fe Edge and John Sandford dropped Bad Blood. There are many more novels being released than the 20 I am

listing but I just wanted to highlight the…

Dear Gelati’s Scoop,

Thanks so much for allowing me to blog on your site. Let me say what a cool name you have. I’ve eaten terrific scoops of your namesake in Italy,

the best in Rome.

I…

Right off the bat I want to say that I am a huge fan of John Sandford. I have devoured all 20 of his Prey novels and each of the Virgil Flowers spinoffs. There are three other Virgil Flower novels: Dark of the Moon, Heat Lightening, Rough

Country and now Bad Blood. Do you have to read them in order? No. Do you

need to read them, yes. They rock. I find it incredibly hard to put any of his

novels down once I get…

A Non-Genre Writer's Look at Suspense by Jason McIntyre

What creates suspense?

Years ago, a film-maker friend of mine told me he wanted to try something radically

different with his next project: he wanted to shoot a story that had absolutely no conflict.

He told me he didn't want to have a…

Sundays are fast becoming one of the biggest viewing days of the week here @ The Scoop. I don’t know if it is all literary agents scouting new talent or just the fact that there are a lot of very good writers out there

and you enjoy discovering them for the first time as much as I do. The writers

are putting themselves out there to the masses hoping that their hard work and

talent get recognized and consumed. I personally get a lot of satisfaction…

Deals by Julian Adorney is a really neat read. It is told in a very short words count, 1730 words, but it packs one heck of a wallope. I didn’t know what to expect when I

received it, but very quickly I felt fortunate to get the read in. Here is a

synopsis of the digital short: “James is determined to provide a comfortable

life for his family, but when his college degree fails to provide the goods he

finds himself making deals he hadn't…

Today we are taking it easy and only throwing two digital shorts at you. No explanation for it, just laziness on my part, sorry. I have been getting a lot of messages from readers chatting up the digital short and

their ability to be read in various places to help them get through the day. I

had not thought of many of them so here goes: at the train stop waiting for the

train, on the train, at their desks, in between…

I have been fortunate to begin to find alternatives to the Marvel and Dc stable of superheroes. I am looking forward to meeting many more when I go to the New York City Comic Con Friday October 8^th.Finding

these gems is part of what makes doing this fun, besides reading a good graphic

novel. Dusk by David Doub is just that a well written, well put together

graphic novel, which utilizes different forms of artwork.

Here…

I had to wonder about the title of this, as I began to read it all the action was happening underground in a cave. I quickly got over that and moved on as the action was beginning to kick into high gear. This novel

covers a lot of ground both geographically and emotionally. Here is a synopsis

of the novel so maybe you can better understand what I mean:

“After the death of his wife, successful sculptor Tim Overleigh trades in his…

The Story Behind Industrial Pioneers

by Patrick Brown

Industrial Pioneers began as my senior history…

To read this novel is to take a ride on an emotional rollercoaster that has many twists and turns. The story chronicles the life and times of Aura and her family as they live in a Communist country. The many hardships they must endure just to

get through a “normal” day, is enough to depress anyone. Shopping for just the

basic essentials as outlined by the leaders would leave one totally devoid of

any hope. The story sets out revealing what Aura’s life is like…

Golf is not my game. I can putt well, my short game isn’t so bad and I can whack the heck out of the ball off the tee, problem is that it never goes in the same direction twice. Straight is not a description I hear

much about my drives. Anthony Robinson with The American Golfer drives this

novel right up onto the green, a beautiful drive and finish to this passionate

novel that uses golf as a backdrop. There are no bogies in…

I have received a lot of messages and questions about this novel. What do you think of it? How good is it? Does she deliver again? How much is Diesel actually in it? I could go on and on and on. I love it.

Hopefully within the confines of this post I will answer all the questions that

you may have, and then just do yourself a favor and click on the Amazon book cover

here and suck this bad boy up. I laughed my fanny off and then some. I had many

of the…

Hello to everyone and thanks for checking with us on our second Self-Published Sunday. I can only thank my OCD for having different titles for different days of the week. I

struggle still with at least four days of the week, but I think that conundrum

will be solved soon. Anyway, we have featured self-published authors in the

past and since the very beginning of our blog oh those many days and novels

ago. Things have changed and morphed as things do as…

Here is the second digital short of the day, one that will make your mind expand in a total different direction than Bite This!. Before I get into that though, I just would like to offer up some background on this post’s

author Jason McIntyre: Born on the prairies, Jason McIntyre

eventually lived and worked on Vancouver Island where the vibrant characters

and vivid surroundings stayed with him and coalesced into what would become…

The weekends are so much fun here; we are coming at you twice today with digital shorts by Jason McIntyre and the author featured in this post Wade J. McMahan. These stories are polar opposites and it is nice to

feature them both on the same day to exemplify the diversity that awaits you at

Smashwords. I found both authors there, but their works can be found elsewhere

as well. Bite This! Can be found on just about any platform you

chose;…

Big Head Press bills this graphic novel as” This is not your daddy’s Odyssey”. The graphic novel has some bite and a bit of an edge. Here is the synopsis from the back cover and I think you can see why:” This is an

Odysseus who time and time again defies the gods with every fiber of his being

and an unyielding hunger for personal freedom. This is a hero the gods are

determined to break, to prove forever to men that even the…