EDITING DESTROYS THE CATHARTIC CREATIVE PROCESS

Sometimes I bring you stories of the things that happen to me as a writer. Sometimes these stories are funny. Sometimes they are not. This one is not.Yesterday, I was happy until approximately 4.15pm. From 4.15pm onwards, I was not. Until 4.15pm, I had been doing some lovely events in Dyce Academy near Aberdeen (yay for Dyce Academy, home to many people of taste and intelligence and general

Ten Questions

I'm having some minor email problems, so haven't been able to send email for about 24 hours. This happens sometimes when I mail out a newsletter--some program or bot or switch is flipped, thinking I'm a spammer. So if you've emailed me and I haven't responded, it's not that I don't love you.

Until I get this sorted out, here's a fun interview with me.

http://miscellaneousyammering.blogspot.com/

JA Konrath/Jack Kilborn Newsletter

Straight Up - The Official Newsletter of Author J.A. Konrath/Jack Kilborn

In this issue:
--Introduction
--Free Book
--SERIAL
--Floaters
--Free e-books
--Afraid
--Book Launch Party
--Summer Reads
--Freebies

--INTRODUCTION
You're on this mailing list because you love books. I love them, too. This email is my way of reaching out to readers, librarians, bookstore employees, and fellow authors, in order to give you free stuff. If you want to be taken off this list, you can opt out using the link at the bottom. If you've asked to be removed from this newsletter and haven't been, I apologize. If you've signed up for this newsletter and haven't received it, you probably aren't reading this, but I apologize anyway.

Now let's get to the fun stuff:

--FREE BOOK
FUZZY NAVEL, the fifth in the Jack Daniels series, was recently released in paperback. If you were too cheap to buy it in hardcover, this version is for you.

If you haven't read FUZZY NAVEL (or even if you have) and would like to review it on your blog, I'll give you a free signed copy of one of my other books.

Let me repeat that: Review FUZZY NAVEL and get a FREE SIGNED BOOK.

Along with the blog review, I'd like you to post your review at least one other place on the Internet. Some of the obvious choices are Goodreads.com, Shelfari.com, Booksnbytes.com, Amazon.com, Borders.com, BN.com, Librarything.com, Booksamillion.com, Yahoo groups, DorothyL.com, etc.

How do you enter?

1. Email me at haknort@wowway.com with the heading FUZZY REVIEW.

2. Include your snail mail address, the URL to the blog where you'll post the review, and tell me which review websites you'll post on.

That's all. Fifty people who follow those easy instructions will get free books. Perhaps even more than fifty, if the response is overwhelming.

How cool is that?

--SERIAL
This is an ebook horror novella available for free. Blake Crouch (author of ABANDON) and I turn our attention to the twin golden rules of hitchhiking:

# 1: Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy.

# 2: Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be a certifiably crazy.

So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Crazy #2?

When two of the most twisted minds in the world of horror fiction face off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an “After School Special,” SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides.

Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other’s opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psycho win.

A warning about SERIAL from the authors:

SERIAL is a 8000 word horror novella written by masters of the genre Blake Crouch and Jack Kilborn.

But just because it is 100% free doesn’t mean you should automatically download it.

This is disturbing stuff. Perhaps too disturbing.

If you can handle horrific thrills, proceed at your own risk.

But if you suffer from anxiety attacks, nervous disorders, insomnia, nightmares or night terrors, heart palpitations, stomach problems, or are of an overly sensitive nature, you should read something else instead.

The authors are in no way responsible for any lost sleep, missed work, failed relationships, or difficulty in coping with life after you have read SERIAL. They will not pay for any therapy you may require as a result of reading SERIAL. They will not cradle you in their arms, rock you back and forth, and speak in soothing tones while you unsuccessfully try to forget SERIAL.

Yes, it’s free. But free has its price.

You have been warned.

Download SERIAL at http://www.blakecrouch.com .

Incidentally, SERIAL has been the #1 download on Amazon Kindle for the past 17 days. :)

--FLOATERS
This is a novella I wrote with Henry Perez. In it, Jack Daniels joins forces with Henry's protagonist Alex Chapa (KILLING RED) to solve a bizarre murder.

It's free, and currently available on Henry's website, http://www.henryperezbooks.com . It also features an excerpt from KILLING RED, and from my new Jack Daniels novel, CHERRY BOMB.

Here's what a famous author has to say:

"FLOATERS is buoyantly engrossing, and you'll want to dive right in. I could also use some kind of 'wet behind the ears' pun, but I'm too busy working on my next novel, TRAPPED." - Jack Kilborn, author of AFRAID and, apparently, TRAPPED

--FREE EBOOKS
For those who haven't been paying attention, I have a FREEBIES page on my website. To date I've given away more than 23,000 ebooks. I've just added even more books to give away, including:

PLANTER'S PUNCH, a collaboration with Tom Schreck where Jack Daniels teams up with Duffy Dombrowski, the hero from his mystery series.

SUCKERS, a collaboration with Jeff Strand, where Harry McGlade teams up with Andrew Mayhem, the hero from his thriller series.

THE WORLD'S WORST POET, which features over 1000 bad jokes and poems, including many I've tweeted on Twitter.

Plus others. These books are free on my website, or if you have an Amazon Kindle, you can download them for less than two bucks each on Amazon.com.

--AFRAID
For the three people in the world who still don't know, I wrote a horror novel under the pen name Jack Kilborn. The book is called AFRAID, and it's available in paperback, ebook, and audio versions.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? YOU WILL BE...

Welcome to Safe Haven, Wisconsin. Miles from everything, with one road in and out, this peaceful town has never needed a full-time police force. Until now...

A helicopter has crashed near Safe Haven and unleashed something horrifying. Now this merciless force is about to do what it does best. Isolate. Terrorize. Annihilate. As residents begin dying in a storm of gory violence, Safe Haven's only chance for survival will rest with an aging county sheriff, a firefighter, and a single mom. And each will have this harrowing thought: Maybe death hasn't come to their town by accident...

You can read more about it, and play the AFRAID Flash game, at http://www.JackKilborn.com .

--BOOK LAUNCH PARTY
The sixth Jack Daniels thriller, CHERRY BOMB, will be out in hardcover and on audio on July 7. I may be biased, but I think it's a pretty good book. Also, unlike the other Jack Daniels books, this one contains a lot of sex to go along with the scares and laughs.

To celebrate the occasion, I'll be having a book launch party.

WHEN: July 12, 2pm - 4pm
WHERE: CENTURIES & SLEUTHS BOOKSTORE, 7419 W. Madison St. Forest Park, IL 60130 (708) 771-7243
WHO: JA Konrath, Jeff Strand, Henry Perez
FREE BEER: Hell yes

Everyone is invited. Mark your calender. Besides being able to buy Cherry Bomb, you can meet two of my favorite authors, Jeff Strand and Henry Perez, who will be there signing their new books, PRESSURE and KILLING RED. We'll probably have some sort of talk or something, but that will be made bearable by the keg of beer we're bringing to the party. Hope to see you there.

--SUMMER READS
Summer is here, and Joe sez this is what you should be reading.

In paperback:
KILLING RED by Henry Perez - A serial killer thriller that is the best debut I've ever read.
PRESSURE by Jeff Strand - The most frightening novel I've ever read.
A FATAL WALTZ by Tasha Alexander - The best historical mystery writer working today.
DARK SIDE OF THE MORGUE by Raymond Bensen - The second in his terrific Rock 'n roll detective series.
TRIGGER CITY by Sean Chercover - The second in his excellent Ray Dudgeon series.

In hardcover:
THE DOOMSDAY KEY by James Rollins - This one has more action than all four Indiana Jones films combined.
ABANDON by Blake Crouch - Crouch is one of my favorite writers, and this is his best book.
THE AMATEURS by Marcus Sakey - About Last Night meets Reservoir Dogs. Hip, sexy, and fast-paced.
FAULT LINE by Barry Eisler - A thriller tour de force, crammed with sex, action, and an all-too-plausible plot.
THE UNSEEN by Alexandra Sokoloff - Does ESP exist? It may kill you to find out...
DEAD ON by Robert W. Walker - I love Walker's stuff. He's insane.


See you on the road!

PSEUDO-AGENTS - BEWARE

As you may know, hell hath no fury like me when I see inexcusable ignorance. When people don't know something, that's fine: I am happy to elucidate. Even when people think they know everything but in fact only know a small proportion of everything, I can cope: acerbic elucidation is called for, and acerbic elucidation is my forte. But when someone thinks he/she knows enough about the writing

Helping Each Other

Let's talk about the Internet, and why it is the greatest invention in the history of mankind.

Our success as a species has to do with a lot of things. Opposable thumbs. Large brains. Walking upright. Making tools and fire and wheels.

But the thing that allowed us to spread across the planet is language.

Language allows us to communicate with one another. Communication means we can cooperate better and share information. But this isn't the telephone, where the words are lost to time, or a book which is dependent on a print copy only available to a finite number of people.

The Internet is permanent, and accessible by everyone.

What a gift for authors, who need a way to spread the word of their existence in order to survive.

And yet, I don't see many authors doing this to the degree they could or should. And fans, who anxiously await an author's next book, then wonder why the next book never comes (hint: it's because the author was dropped by their publisher.)

Well, I do my damnedest to help other authors. Here are some of the ways I try to:

1. Links. Look in the sidebar, or on my website, and you'll see I link to hundreds of blogs and websites. This isn't just an one-sided endorsement by me, because mutual links help raise Google rankings for sites that reciprocate.

2. Newsletters. In at least one newsletter a year, I recommend books written by my peers to my fans. Imagine if all authors did this.

3. Reviews. I review my friends. We all should.

4. I mention books by my peers when I do interviews and speak in public.

5. Pimping. This goes beyond links and mentions. With several of my buddies, I push their books, and push pretty hard.

6. Blogging. I've been known to interview other authors on occasion.

So why aren't all authors doing this?

We aren't in competition with one another. We're not all islands unto ourselves. It doesn't detract from our sales to mention someone else's book. In fact, fans like these recommendations.

If you're an author, look at your links. Look at your newsletter. Look at your blog. Check how often you mention other authors in general (and me in particular.)

And if you're a fan, the best thing you can do to ensure an author you like continues to get published is to tell other people about their books. Either in person, or online via reviews, social networks, forums, listservs, etc.

Just imagine how many new people we could reach if we pooled our efforts.

BY HER SHOES SHALL THEY KNOW HER

Thank you to so many of you for good wishes yesterday. Here's my impression of the evening.Normally, I find a "learning" for any picture or anecdote, but I confess that today's link is a bit tenuous. It is that I wish Vanity publishers would be as up front about their vanity as I am about mine. I keep hearing stories of people being sucked in and not having a clue what's going on.Remember Golden

ARE YOU REALLY REALLY READY TO BE PUBLISHED? (2)

Of all the questions to ask yourself, this is The One. Much of what I say in this blog is designed to get you looking ultra-critically at your work to see whether it is good enough to present to a publisher. I have said many times, and will no doubt say many times again, that many unpublished authors spend far too much time worrying about how many pages to include in their submissions and far too