Superheroes

  • · · ·

    Fandemic, Bigtime #5, released …

    2 Comments

    Book #5Fandemic, the fifth book in my Bigtime superhero series, has been released. Woot!

    The Fandemic e-book is $2.99, and it is available at the following sites:

    Amazon Kindle / Barnes & Noble / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo / Smashwords

    A print version of Fandemic is available for $8.99 through Amazon.

    Here is the book description:

    ­Piper Perez has always wanted to be a super­hero. Always wanted to wear a cool costume, have amazing abilities, and save the day. There’s just one problem—Piper doesn’t have any superpowers.

    So she focuses on other things. Facts, figures, memorabilia. Piper knows and collects it all, about both the superheroes and the ubervillains who roam the streets of Bigtime, N.Y. Piper’s friends jokingly call her a fandemic—someone who is a superfan of all things superhero. The nickname is truer than anyone knows, especially since Piper can’t stop thinking about Swifte, the speedy hero who broke her heart months ago.

    But someone has been killing off Bigtime’s heroes and villains. When one of Piper’s friends is murdered, she vows to do whatever she can to help bring the killer to justice, superpowers or not. All the clues and information she gathers lead her to believe that Swifte is the killer’s next target. Piper has always wanted to be a hero, and now she’ll have to use all of her fandemic knowledge to save the man she loves—or die trying….

    Note: Fandemic is around 43,000 words, which means that it is a shorter book than the others in the series, which are around 95,000 words. For those of you who like page counts, Fandemic is about 150 pages.

    You can read the first chapter here. Scroll down and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

    For those of you who need a refresher, Piper is the best friend of Abby Appleby, the heroine of Nightingale, the fourth book in the series. And many of you have been waiting to see who the superhero Swifte really is. I won’t spoil that here, but I think it has been fairly obvious in the books who Swifte really is.

    I hope that everyone enjoys Fandemic and the return trip to Bigtime. Cheers!

  • · · ·

    Fandemic, Bigtime #5, up for pre-order …

    4 Comments

    Book #5Fandemic, the fifth book in my Bigtime superhero series, will be released on June 2. Woot!

    The Fandemic e-book will be priced at $2.99. It is up for pre-order at the following sites:

    Amazon Kindle / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo / Smashwords

    The e-book will also be available at Barnes & Noble. That link should go up on release day, June 2.

    A print version of Fandemic will be available for $8.99 through Amazon.

    Here is the book description:

    ­Piper Perez has always wanted to be a super­hero. Always wanted to wear a cool costume, have amazing abilities, and save the day. There’s just one problem—Piper doesn’t have any superpowers.

    So she focuses on other things. Facts, figures, memorabilia. Piper knows and collects it all, about both the superheroes and the ubervillains who roam the streets of Bigtime, N.Y. Piper’s friends jokingly call her a fandemic—someone who is a superfan of all things superhero. The nickname is truer than anyone knows, especially since Piper can’t stop thinking about Swifte, the speedy hero who broke her heart months ago.

    But someone has been killing off Bigtime’s heroes and villains. When one of Piper’s friends is murdered, she vows to do whatever she can to help bring the killer to justice, superpowers or not. All the clues and information she gathers lead her to believe that Swifte is the killer’s next target. Piper has always wanted to be a hero, and now she’ll have to use all of her fandemic knowledge to save the man she loves—or die trying….

    Note: Fandemic is around 43,000 words, which means that it is a shorter book than the others in the series, which are around 95,000 words. For those of you who like page counts, Fandemic is about 150 pages.

    You can read the first chapter here. Scroll down and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

    For those of you who need a refresher, Piper is the best friend of Abby Appleby, the heroine of Nightingale, the fourth book in the series. And many of you have been waiting to see who the superhero Swifte really is. I won’t spoil that here, but I think it has been fairly obvious in the books who Swifte really is.

    Many folks have asked me if I will continue on with the Bigtime series. I would like to write and self-publish more in the series, but self-publishing is very time-consuming, and my writing schedule is already full into 2016 with my Elemental Assassin and Black Blade series.

    If I do write more in the Bigtime series, it will probably be a shorter book like Fandemic or perhaps some more e-novellas, like A Karma Girl Christmas (which is about 14,000 words).

    Anyway, I hope that everyone enjoys Fandemic when it is released. Cheers!

  • · ·

    Free Comic Book Day coming up on May 2 …

    4 Comments

    Note: This blog will also appear tomorrow, April 14, over at Magical Musings.

    It seems like every day is some sort of holiday. Of course, you have your biggies, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is something to celebrate every day. There’s even a National Day Calender where you can keep track of important holidays like Talk Like A Pirate Day (Sept. 19 — Yargh!) and National Cookie Day (Dec. 4 — shouldn’t we celebrate cookies every day?).

    But one of my favorite holidays is Free Comic Book Day, which always takes place on the first Saturday in May — May 2 this year.

    And it is just what it sounds like. On Free Comic Book Day, participating comic book shops across the United States and around the world give away free comics to kids and adults, host costume contests, and much more. You can see a preview of some of the comics that will be given away during this year’s event over at the Free Comic Book Day website.

    Avengers Age of Ultron Free Comic Book Day should be especially fun this year, with the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie coming out on May 1. So why not pick up some comics collections, like Age of Ultron by Brian Michael Bendis, Bryan Hitch, Brandon Peterson, and Carlos Pacheco, shown at left, and learn more about your favorite superheroes and villains? If you don’t read comics, you’re missing out on some great stories and art.

    Also, if you’re a fantasy author, get in touch with your local comic book store. Many folks who enjoy comics enjoy fantasy stories in general, and you might find some new readers. I’ll be signing books on May 2 at Mountain Empire Comics in Bristol, Tenn. The store always has a great crowd on Free Comic Book Day, and it’s always fun to chat with folks about superhero movies, TV shows, and more.

    Free Comic Book Day is a terrific time to head out to your local comic book store to see what all the superhero fuss is about. Hope everyone enjoys Free Comic Book Day as much as I do. Cheers!

  • · · ·

    Fandemic, Bigtime #5, to be released on June 2 …

    4 Comments

    Book #5Some of you have seen this online already, but I wanted to make a formal announcement here on my blog.

    Fandemic, the fifth book in my Bigtime superhero series, will be released on June 2. Woot!

    I’m so happy that I was able to write and self-publish another Bigtime book, and I hope that everyone enjoys seeing what all the superheroes and ubervillains are up to.

    The Fandemic e-book will be priced at $2.99. It is up for pre-order at the following sites:

    Amazon Kindle / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo

    Note: Fandemic will also be available at other book retailers, like Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Those pre-order links should be going up soon.

    A print version of Fandemic will also be available through Amazon. Not sure what the price for the print book will be yet, but I would estimate around $10. Again, that pre-order link should be going up soon.

    Here is the book description:

    ­Piper Perez has always wanted to be a super­hero. Always wanted to wear a cool costume, have amazing abilities, and save the day. There’s just one problem—Piper doesn’t have any superpowers.

    So she focuses on other things. Facts, figures, memorabilia. Piper knows and collects it all, about both the superheroes and the ubervillains who roam the streets of Bigtime, N.Y. Piper’s friends jokingly call her a fandemic—someone who is a superfan of all things superhero. The nickname is truer than anyone knows, especially since Piper can’t stop thinking about Swifte, the speedy hero who broke her heart months ago.

    But someone has been killing off Bigtime’s heroes and villains. When one of Piper’s friends is murdered, she vows to do whatever she can to help bring the killer to justice, superpowers or not. All the clues and information she gathers lead her to believe that Swifte is the killer’s next target. Piper has always wanted to be a hero, and now she’ll have to use all of her fandemic knowledge to save the man she loves—or die trying….

    Fandemic is around 43,000 words, which means that it is a shorter book than the others in the series, which are around 95,000 words. For those of you who like page counts, Fandemic is about 150 pages.

    You can read the first chapter here. Scroll down and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

    For those of you who need a refresher, Piper is the best friend of Abby Appleby, the heroine of Nightingale, the fourth book in the series. And many of you have been waiting to see who the superhero Swifte really is. I won’t spoil that here, but I think it has been fairly obvious in the books who Swifte really is.

    Many folks have asked me if I will continue on with the Bigtime series. I would like to write and self-publish more in the series, but self-publishing is very time-consuming, and my writing schedule is already full into 2016 with my Elemental Assassin and Black Blade series.

    If I do write more in the Bigtime series, it will probably be a shorter book like Fandemic or perhaps some more e-novellas, like A Karma Girl Christmas (which is about 14,000 words).

    Anyway, I hope that everyone enjoys Fandemic when it is released. Cheers!

  • ·

    Graphic novels — to read in print or e-book?

    18 Comments

    So a couple of months ago, the e-book for Black Widow: The Name of the Rose by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuña was on sale. The story sounded interesting, and I always like a bargain, so I downloaded it to read on my tablet.

    Black Widow The Name of the RoseHmm. It was an interesting experience.

    The story was good, and the art was cool. Overall, I enjoyed the graphic novel, and I’d recommend it to Black Widow fans or those who enjoy the Marvel universe and its characters.

    But reading a graphic novel isn’t quite the same as reading a print novel on an e-reader. Which was something that I had never considered before.

    For one thing, there seemed to be a set limit as to how big I could make each page. I was a little disappointed by that, as it made some of the dialogue a bit hard to read. I could tap on each individual panel and make them bigger that way, but with three or four or more panels on a page, that got a little tedious at times. I don’t have an iPad, but I imagine that if I had read the graphic novel on it, I would have had a better experience, as that screen would have been bigger than my tablet one.

    So lesson learned. In the future, I’ll probably stick with print versions of graphic novels, just so I can see everything better.

    What about you guys? Do you read graphic novels and comics on your e-reader or tablet? Why or why not?