Cherry Bomb by JA Konrath

NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE

My sixth Jack Daniels book, CHERRY BOMB, is available today in hardcover.


I encourage everyone to buy several copies. If you have any money left over, pick up ABANDON by Blake Crouch (the co-writer of SERIAL), which also comes out today and kicks absolute ass. If you like my books, you'll love this.


BOOKLAUNCH PARTY

If you want to meet me in person, and also meet authors Henry Perez and Jeff Strand, my booklaunch party is at:

CENTURIES AND SLEUTHS BOOKSTORE, July 12, 2pm-4:30pm, 7419 W. Madison St. Forest Park, IL.

Feel free to bring people along. All of my books will be for sale, and the beer is free. You don't think I'd have a booklaunch without free beer, do you?

PODCASTS

If you want to kick back and listen to me talk shop and crack wise, I've recently been on two podcasts.

You can hear me and Blake talk about SERIAL, CHERRY BOMB, ABANDON, and many other things on Diabolical Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/diabolicalradio.

Then, if you want to hear me really get silly, check out the podcast at www.Genrefinity.net. You should bookmark Genrefinity--it's a fun site run by some crazy guys who love everything genre. The podcast is at www.genrefinity.net/genrefinity_podcast-ep013.mp3.

NEW EBOOK

Finally, for those who missed my previous announcement, I wrote a horrific thriller novella with Jack Kilborn called TRUCK STOP. It's available exclusively as an ebook, and features Jack Daniels.

Which brings me to a question I'm often asked. "Joe, can you list every Jack Daniels story?"

THE JACK DANIELS UNIVERSE

WHISKEY SOUR - Book #1, Jack chases The Gingerbread Man. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2004.

BLOODY MARY - Book #2, Jack chases a rogue cop. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2005.

RUSTY NAIL - Book #3, Jack chases The Gingerbread Man's family. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2006.

DIRTY MARTINI - Book #4, Jack chases The Chemist. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2007.

FUZZY NAVEL - Book #5, Jack chases the Urban Hunting Club and Alex Kork. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2008.

CHERRY BOMB - Book #6, Jack chases Alex Kork. Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 2009.

THE LIST - Jack makes a cameo in this technothriller novel. Available on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

SHOT OF TEQUILA - Jack co-stars in this crime novel, which takers place in the early 1990s. Available on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

ON THE ROCKS - Jack in a locked room mystery short. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

WHELP WANTED - Jack's ex-partner, Harry McGlade, acting like Harry. Originally appeared in Futures Magazine. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

STREET MUSIC - Jack's criminal buddy, Phineas Troutt. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY - A Gingerbread Man short story. Originally read by me at the end of the Whiskey Sour audiobook. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

WITH A TWIST - Jack in a locked room mystery short. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

EPITAPH - Phin in a revenge tale. Originally appeared in THRILLER edited by James Patterson. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2006.

TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS - Harry being Harry. Originally appeared in The Strand Magazine. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

BODY SHOTS - Jack in a school shooting. Originally appeared on Amazon Shorts. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

SUFFER - Phin as a hired killer. Originally appeared in Ellery Queen. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

OVERPROOF - Jack Daniels and a suicide bomber. Originally appeared in CHICAGO BLUES edited by Libby Fischer Hellmann. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2007.

BEREAVEMENT - Phin making ends meet. Originally appeared in THESE GUNS FOR HIRE edited by JA Konrath. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2005.

POT SHOT - Jack partner, Herb. Originally appeared on Amazon Shorts. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2004.

LAST REQUEST - Phin on a quest. Originally appeared in my short story collection 55 Proof. Available on my website, Scribd.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2007.

SUCKERS - Harry, teaming up with Jeff Strand's Andrew Mayhem. Originally appeared as a limited edition hardcover. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2007.

FLOATERS - Jack, teaming up with Henry Perez's Alex Chapa. Originally appeared in MISSING edited by Amy Allesio. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

PLANTER'S PUNCH - Jack, teaming up with Tom Schreck's Duffy Dombrowski. Originally appeared on Kindle. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

TRUCK STOP - Jack facing Taylor (from AFRAID) and Donaldson (from SERIAL). Originally appeared on Kindle. Available on my website, SmashWords.com, and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

SCHOOL DAZE - Harry being Harry. Coming July 24 in UNCAGE ME, edited by Jen Jordan. 2009.

THE NECRO FILE - A Harry novella. The funniest thing I've ever written. Originally appeared in LIKE A CHINESE TATTOO edited by Bill Breedlove. Available in my short story collection 55 Proof on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2008.

SHAKEN - Jack Daniels book #7, currently being written. You can check out the first few chapters in the FLOATERS ebook. Available on my website and Amazon.com on the Kindle. 2009.

That comes to twenty-seven stories in the Jack Daniels universe, plus a work in progress. Also, in CHERRY BOMB, there's a cameo by one of my characters from my medical thriller DISTURB, along with a cameo by one of the characters from THE LIST.

Let's have some Q & A.

Q: Do these have to be read in order?

A: No. Though FUZZY NAVEL should be read before CHERRY BOMB for maximum enjoyment. The shorts can be read in any order at all.

Q: When does TRUCK STOP take place?

A: Before AFRAID, SERIAL, and FUZZY NAVEL.

Q: What's your favorite novel?

A: I don't have one. But I'm really fond of CHERRY BOMB. I think it epitomizes the kind of book I write.

Q: Which is?

A: Breakneck pace, lots of conflict, scary scenes, and bad jokes. Plus, if you haven't heard, CHERRY BOMB has a lot of sex in it.

Q: What's your favorite short story?

A: STREET MUSIC. I love the last line.

Q: Will you revisit Jack Daniels?

A: Absolutely. I'm working on another Jack book, called SHAKEN. But it isn't one of my priorities.

Q: I want more Jack!

A: That's not a question. But trust me--Jack will be around for a while...

Cara memposting artikel blog lewat email di hp

nah..disini aku akan berbagi tips dikit buat yang ngeblog via hp untuk memposting artikel blog yang panjang dgn hp, kita bisa melakukannya dengan cara membuat artikel yang ingin kita publikasikan di blog kita dalam format html karna jika dibuat dalam bentuk txt kalau kita memposting lewat email code-code yang ada di dalamnya tidak akan berfungsi,untuk aplikasi di ponsel
kita bisa menggunakan aplikasi MobyExplorer, silahkan download aplikasi tersebut disini
Dan aplikasi tersebut bisa
dijalankan pada semua ponsel yang mendukung JAVA MIDP 2.0. Aku sudah mencobanya di nokia 2630,dan aplikasinya berjalan dengan baik.


Untuk proses pembuatan tulisan dalam format html bisa dilakukan seperti cara dibawah ini:

Jalankan software MobiExplorer, tekan ya setiap muncul tulisan izinkan aplikasi membaca data pengguna,buka data C atau E sebagai tempat peyimpanannya.
Tekan menu->text editor->new->empty file, lalu pilih menu, edit dan silahkan tulis artikel kamu, karakternya hanya bisa dimasukkan sebanyak kapasitas yang di sediakan oleh hp kamu, jadi bila karakter yang kamu tulis sudah
penuh tekan tombol OKE, kemudian tekan tombol navigasi atau joystic ke arah bawah sampai kelihatan teks/tulisan terakhir yang telah kamu tulis,lalu pilih menu->edit dan lanjutkan tulisan kamu, ulangi seperti diatas bila tulisan kamu belum mencukupi.
Untuk menyimpannya pilih menu dan save,setelah itu pilih menu diatas file yg udah dibuat tadi lalu rename dengan ekstensi .html

Untuk bisa mengirim artikel tadi ke blog kita,kita harus melakukan settingan terlebih dahulu di account blog kita.
Caranya:
1.Masuk blogger.com
2.Sign in dengan account blogger kamu
3.Klik pengaturan (di salah satu blog yang akan kamu setting).
4.klik Email&Selular

setelah itu isi di bagian opsi pengeposan dengan nama apa saja yang kamu kehendaki. contoh aku memasukkan nama nadira,dan email account blog aku misalkan indra@gmail.com maka alamat untuk memposting lewat email adalah indra.nadira@blogger.com,tapi artikel yg dikirim akan sampai jika pengirimnya adalah dari email account blogger kamu sendiri.
Jadi file dikirim ke indra.nadira@blogger.com
Dari indra@gmail.com.
(Ingat yang di atas tersebut hanya sebagai contoh..)
4.Centang pada publikasikan segera email (jika mau langsung dipublikasikan),atau simpan sebagai draft
5.Simpan setelan

nah..sekarang kamu sudah bisa mengirim file html yang sudah dibuat ke alamat yg udah di setting tadi.
Pengirimanya bisa menggunakan aplikasi morange,gmail,ataupun melalui fitur email yang ada di hp kamu.
Semoga berhasil!

Truck Stop by Jack Kilborn & J.A. Konrath

As of this writing, SERIAL by Blake Crouch & Jack Kilborn has been downloaded over 70,000 times. The majority of these have been on the Amazon Kindle.

Of course, SERIAL is free, which helps. But it's still gratifying to know that our little short story has been read (and in some cases, hated) by so many people.

Naturally, I've been thinking about how I could follow this up.

Regular blog readers know I've been doing pretty well selling my old short stories and unpublished novels on Kindle. But I've never actually written anything specifically for the Kindle.

Until now.

Jack Kilborn and I got together and did a prequel to SERIAL. Not only does it feature one of SERIAL's bad guys, it also features Taylor, one of the Red Ops from Kilborn's horror novel AFRAID.

I wracked my brain trying to figure out a good protagonist to throw into this nest of vipers, and came up with the obvious.

Jack Daniels.

The novella is called TRUCK STOP.


Before the events of Jack Kilborn's epic horror novel AFRAID...

Before the events of J.A. Konrath's critically acclaimed thrillers FUZZY NAVEL and CHERRY BOMB...

Before the events of Jack Kilborn's and Blake Crouch's #1 Amazon Kindle bestseller SERIAL...

Three hunters of humans meet for the ultimate showdown at the TRUCK STOP.

Taylor is a recreational killer, with dozens of gristly murders under his belt. He pulls into a busy Wisconsin truck stop at midnight, trolling for the next to die.

Chicago Homicide cop Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is a long way from home, driving to meet her boyfriend for a well-earned vacation. She pulls into the truck stop for a quick cup of coffee and stumbles into her worst nightmare.

Jack's no stranger to dealing with psychos, but she's got her hands full trying to stop Taylor. Especially since he's getting help from someone just as deadly; a portly serial maniac named Donaldson...

TRUCK STOP is a 15,000 word thriller novella that ties together Konrath's and Kilborn's works, with terrifying results.

A prequel to SERIAL, which has been downloaded more than 70,000 times, TRUCK STOP is an eighteen-wheeled ride straight into hell. Not for the faint of heart. Let the reader beware.

This ebook also includes an exclusive interview: JA Konrath talks with Jack Kilborn, plus excerpts from their latest books, CHERRY BOMB and AFRAID.

Here's the Kindle link: http://www.amazon.com/Truck-Stop-Psycho-Thriller-ebook/dp/B002G99RRK

I'm really curious how this will sell, because Kilborn has been doing better than Konrath on Kindle. I'm also interested to see if this does anything for my backlist of Kindle books.

If you don't have a Kindle, and want to download it as a pdf (or many other formats), I also uploaded it to Smashwords.com.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2743

I'll keep everyone posted. In the meantime, feel free to spread the word...

How Not To Write A Story

This is a repost of a blog I did last year, because once again I'm judging a short story contest, and once again I'm ready to fling myself off a cliff.

-----

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm in a bad mood. For the past few days I've been wading through hundreds of short stories. I'm a paid judge for a big contest, and my verdicts are due.

This bad mood has been brought about by seeing the same story mistakes, over and over and over and OVER AND OVER...

So, for the benefit of the newbie writing world, and to save me future pain if I ever judge a contest again, please take the following to heart:

DO NOT START A STORY WITH WEATHER
Yes, you can work weather into the scene. But I don't care that it was sixty-five degrees on a spring morning, and if you make that your first sentence you're going to remain unpublished.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
Your protag may be named Bob McTestes, and he was born in Sunnydale, Ohio in 1967, but you need to work that into the body of the story and not make it the first sentence. Better yet, don't work it in anywhere.

DO NOT START A STORY BY ADDRESSING THE READER
"You'll never believe what happened on July 2, 1943." You're right. I won't believe it, because I just stopped reading.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH PREMONITION
"Phil Assmaster didn't know he was going to die that day." But Joe Konrath knows you're not going to win this contest.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH THE PROTAG WAKING UP
Frankly, it shocked me how many stories began like this. More so than any other way I'm warning against. Opening your eyes because you had a bad dream or heard a strange noise is a quick way to put the reader to sleep.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH CLICHES
Once upon a time. A long time ago. This is a true story. Ugh. Next time, save me the trouble and put the story in your own recycle bin.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH SETTING DESCRIPTION
"Moronville, Ohio was a town of 8371 people originally founded in 1872 by Quakers." Hopefully, one of those Quakers has a gun and will shoot me.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH TELLING
"Josh felt terrible." Really? How am I supposed to picture that? Maybe I picture Josh's stomach aching, his head throbbing, and the hole where his heart is supposed to be. If I'm picturing that, perhaps you should have as well and written it that way.

DO NOT START A STORY WITH ANY DESCRIPTION
I don't care if you're describing a person, place, thing, era, or whatever. I want to read about conflict, not helper words.

DO NOT USE HELPER WORDS
Force yourself to pare away every adverb, and half your adjectives. Also kill any speaker attribution other than "said" and "asked."

DO NOT START A STORY WITH A PROLOGUE
Your short story doesn't need a prologue. Your novel probably doesn't either.

DO NOT USE EXCLAMATION POINTS!
Especially a bunch of them!!!!!!!

DO NOT USE THE SAME FARUQING WORD TWICE IN THE SAME FARUQING PARAGRAPH
Get the faruquing point?

GRAMMER AND SPELING SHOULD BE PREFECT
If you don't care, why should I? Ditto annoying dialect spelling. Y'all get a-ight wit dat sheet, 'kay?

And finally:

DO NOT MAKE YOUR MAIN CHARACTER AN ANIMAL
Ever.

Are there exceptions to these rules? Of course. There are always exceptions. But I didn't see any in the 2000+ stories I had to endure.

Also, for the love of all that is good, use 12 point Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman, double space the text, one inch margins, and indent each paragraph but don't add extra spaces in between them. One staple, in the upper lefthand corner.

Rant over. Ignore at your own peril. Now I'm going to go have some bourbon and scour my eyes and brain with steel wool.

And if you want an example of what I've had to endure, here's another blog entry I did on this subject:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2008/01/bad-stories.html

TRUTH HURTS - SO UNLEASH YOUR HIDDEN MASOCHIST

For a writer, there are sensible ways to take feedback and there are foolish ways to take feedback.I won't add (much) to the vitriol hurled from and at two writers who got themselves into the news this week as examples of extreme(ly bad) ways to take negative criticism. Alain de B and Alice H will make up their own minds how to react to the feedback to their feedback to the feedback (aka reviews)

Tips memberi komentar di blog Wordpress dg Hp

Hai sobat,sekarang aku bakalan kasih tips yang mungkin berguna buat blogger mobile ataupun mobile blogger yang sering blogwalking n nulis komentar di blog tersebut.
Biasanya saya kalo nulis komentar di Wordpress pake operamini mod pasti ga kesimpan,Solusinya adalah kalau mau nulis komentar di blog yang berplatform Wordpress pake aja Opera Mini 4.2,tapi kalo pake Opera Mini Mod buat nulis komen di blog wordpress biasanya selalu 404 not found..
Saya juga gak tau apa penyebabnya,tapi kalau tidak mau kena 404 not found saat memberi komentar di Wordpress,jangan klik read more (Baca selengkapnya), jumlah komentar yang berada di post-footer maupun yang di header,tapi klik aja judulnya...trus isi name,email,url situs,dan komentarmu klik submit!
Sekian dulu tips & trik ngeblog lewat hpnya,moga bisa membantu seluruh Blogger Mobile Indonesia..

Are You There, Amazon? It's Me, JA

An open letter to Jeff Bezos and Amazon.

I want to tell you why I haven't bought a Kindle yet.

I'm still considering it, because I made about $3000 in June selling my unpublished novels and published short stories on the Kindle. Three grand is a nice chunk of change, and it will be interesting to see if those numbers stay strong through oncoming months.

But even with this success, I can't bring myself to buy a Kindle.

Here are the five main things preventing my purchase:

1. Cost. A Kindle is simply too much money, especially compared to other electronic gadgets that do more. While I'm sure manufacturing costs are high, all costs reduce with time, and if I were Amazon I'd spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to get the price down so more people buy Kindles.

2. Most of the books on Amazon are too much as well. This is the publisher's fault, because they set the price. So perhaps Amazon should stop dealing with publishers and start dealing directly with authors. Mr. Bezos, if you want an exclusive JA Konrath title, contact me.

2. DRM. When I buy a book, I want to own a book and do whatever I want with it, and copy-protection makes that impossible. Again, this is publishers doing this, not Amazon, but it is preventing me from buying Amazon's Kindle.

3. Format. There are too many ebooks available on the net for cheap or free that aren't compatible with Kindle formats. The Kindle DX reads pdf, which is terrific, but it costs a hundred bucks more than the Kindle 2. Give me this feature for less, and I'm sold.

4. Unitasking. A mini-laptop costs the same, is only a bit larger, and can do a billion things. As of right now, the Kindle is limited in what it can do. It does what it does very well, but people like their gadgets to have cross-purposes.

Unfortunately, Amazon hasn't released a Kindle app for PCs, and I have no idea why. The laptop minis are perfect for reading because they are so portable.

But Kindle has released an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. My son recently got an iPod Touch, and I played with it for a few days.

Wow.

I love this gadget. Reading on it is ridiculously easy, not only using the Kindle app, but using other readers like Stanza (also owned by Amazon.) Many books also have their own app, including my novella SERIAL, which doesn't require a reader--you simply download the free ebook and the reader is included.

I had no problems curling up with the iPod for an extended reading session, and enjoyed the experience. While I don't believe this is going to be the de facto way of reading ebooks in the future, for the time being it's a nice placeholder.

So what will the breakout ebook reader be like? Mr. Bezos, take note.

1. Under $150, and available at retail outlets like Wal-mart and Best Buy.

2. Wireless Internet capabilities for downloading books.

3. Able to read many different ebook formats, with no DRM.

4. Adjustable font size, type, and contrast.

5. A built in light.

6. Color no-glare e-ink.

7. Upgradable memory and operating system.

8. Long battery life, scratch proof, and water proof (or at least with skins available to make it waterproof.)

9. E-Book 2.0 capabilities.

What is E-book 2.0? And why aren't more people thinking about it?

Here are my Criswell predictions for E-book 2.0:

• The books will be interactive, the words clickable on a touch screen. You click on the word "lugubrious" and it gives you a dictionary definition, or the word "Taj Mahal" and it shows you a jpg picture.
• Ebooks will have extra content, such as author annotation, first drafts, deleted chapters, extra short stories, interviews, essays.
• The ebook version and audio version will be packaged together.
  
• There will be options for ambient sounds while reading, as well as music.
• Ebooks will be upgradable, meaning the author can continue to add DLC (downloadable content, which is hugely popular in videogames) to books. A reader can buy the first part of a chapbook, then automatically get each new chapter as the author finishes it.
  
• Ebooks will link to book-specific forums, where readers can review the book and share thoughts and interact with other readers.
• The touch screen will be signable, so authors can autograph their books (much like signing the electronic screen on a credit card machine.)

Will these things come to pass? Honestly, I think they will. Playing with the iPod Touch, seeing the unlimited potential of a handheld electronic device, there is no reason why books shouldn't go the same route movies have gone, getting deluxe DVD editions with extra Rom content. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.

In the meantime, I'm going to be reading on my son's iPod, waiting for the Amazon Kindle to catch up...