Join me over at BITTEN BY BOOKS today for an interview, chat and contest. The event starts at 12:00 pm Central and runs all day and into the evening. The contest portion of the event runs until 11:59 pm Central on 8/27. For those visiting from outside of the US, here is the time conversion link. We are in the Chicago time zone: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

I will be talking about my book Darkness Falling.

“When Klaus Von Kroft brings his band to the mountain village of Rathburg to perform a concert, a generations old tapestry of blood and darkness draws about him like a shroud. Delving into the disappearance of his parents, Klaus finds himself entranced by Rosa, a sunset-haired woman of mystery and darkness, her companions, and the eerily perfect music they play. But Rosa is far more than mysterious. She has stolen the blood and souls of men on the mountain above Rathburg for centuries. As Klaus is drawn into her web of vengeance and blood, his friends are dragged along behind. Can he unravel the mystery of the mountain and overcome the call of blood…or will they all fall to Rosa’s game of hunger and revenge?

The answer lies on the mountain, but there is little time…with Darkness Falling…”

CONTEST INFO: Open to readers worldwide

Prizes:
1. A signed limited edition copy of my novel Vintage Soul – Book I of the DeChance Chronicles. This is a $60 limited – only a 100 copies were ever printed. It is signed by myself and cover artist Don Paresi.
2. 1 Signed limited copy of my novel THIS IS MY BLOOD – no dustjacket – it’s one of my last copies. There were 1000 of these printed back in 1999 – it has almost a cult following at this point. It is signed by myself and cover artist Lisanne Lake.
3. Two copies of the trade paperback ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of Vintage Soul – signed.
4. One copy of my out of print and nearly impossible to find Dark Ages Vampire Trilogy written for White Wolf – The Grails Covenant Trilogy – signed. All three paperbacks in good condition.
5. One Coupon for a free audiobook from Crossroad Press
6. One Coupon for a free e-BOOK at Crossroad Press.

RSVP AT THIS LINK – this gets you 25 entries into the contest.

I’ve been slowly building a publishing company, Crossroad Press, as many of you know.  In fact, it’s largely responsible for my being here a lot less often.  I’m pretty busy with it.  Since I started doing audiobooks, I’ve been approached several times about whether I could do people’s books in audio.  Here’s the thing.  Crossroad Press – for the time being – is limited to invitation only.  I have to build what I think will sell the most books, do the best for the company, etc…just like any other publisher.

That said…I have now been down the road of “how do I get my book into audio,” and I succeeded.  Along the way, with my partner over at Sprinbrook Audio, Jeffrey Kafer, I’ve managed to land pretty major distribution, and start a viable audiobook company.

What Jeffrey and I have come up with is a new site - PERFECT VOICES – which is geared toward helping independent authors get their books out in quality audiobook format.  It’s not free  – and I hope people understand why it never will be.  It’s a lot of work – several steps along the way require professional skills – and to compete with the world of audiobooks already out there, you have to match certain quality points.  It’s just the nature of the beast.

That said, we’ve tried to tailor a number of different audio packages, loosely based on how I have set up my own company, that will allow people to not only get their book into audio, but to take advantage of the distribution network and lessons we’ve learned in establishing our own companies.  It’s worth a look if you have aspirations of seeing your book in audiobook format…and it’s a viable way, in this new world of digital media, to take control of your audio rights and keep the money earned in your own hands … much as the Kindle and e-BOOK revolution is allowing authors to do that with the electronic versions of their work.

Give the site a look…tell me what you think.

DNW

My son filmed a stop-motion short with his sister the other day, and I thought it was very clever…I’m hoping you’ll all agree.  It stars the wonderful poppets created by Lisa Snellings … my daughter … Trish’s voice…and a lot of stop-motion by Zane.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gEClTJ4Lls

Thought I’d post what’s in the newest Crossroad Press Newsletter here so everyone who has NOT rushed over to http://www.crossroadpress.com and signed up to receive that newsletter could still see… While you are there, check out the promotion / give-away for Darkness Falling, my new original vampire novel.  You could win a signed, limited edition copy of Vintage Soul.

Bargains & Sales :

DARKNESS FALLING -  only .99 until September 1st

A Novel of Vampirism & Rock & Roll

By David Niall Wilson

When Klaus Von Kroft brings his band to the mountain village of Rathburg to perform a concert, a generations old tapestry of blood and darkness draws about him like a shroud. Delving into the disappearance of his parents, Klaus finds himself entranced by Rosa, a sunset-haired woman of mystery and darkness, her companions, and the eerily perfect music they play. But Rosa is far more than mysterious. She has stolen the blood and souls of men on the mountain above Rathburg for centuries. As Klaus is drawn into her web of vengeance and blood, his friends are dragged along behind. Can he unravel the mystery of the mountain and overcome the call of blood…or will they all fall to Rosa’s game of hunger and revenge?

The answer lies on the mountain, but there is little time…with Darkness Falling…

The Orffyreus Wheel – by David Niall Wilson – only $0.99 Until August!

In 1712, a remarkable man named Johann Bessler invented a wheel that spun after being set into motion until it was stopped with no mechanical input. The Orffyreus Wheel follows his adventures in inventing it, and those of his heir, Elly Kassel, as she fights to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

The Last Angel – by Steven Savile – Only $0.99 until August!

Gabriel Rush takes a photograph of a beautiful sad-faced hooker in a down town bar and is stunned by what he sees when the picture is developed. At first he thinks it is a flaw in the photograph, but then he recognizes it for what it is, the mark of the Trinity Killer. It is the same mark that scars the faces of mutilated corpses that are turning up all over New York City.

Normal low, low prices – new fiction in digital:

Ash Wednesday

By Chet Williamson

In Merridale, semi-transparent blue apparitions have appeared. These aren’t ghosts, exactly. They are visions of the dead in their final moments – the last seconds of their lives portrayed for all to see. They don’t move, and they don’t speak.

Ash Wednesday is a thoughtful horror story about what happens to people when they are forced to gaze into the face of death and, specifically, the face of their own personal dead: their friends and family, those they believed to be dead and gone. Murders are revealed, rapes and other crimes. People despair, and try to create new lives out of the wreckage. Two of these are Bradley Meyers, a vet already driven half-crazy by his experiences in Vietnam, confronted by the sight of his dead son, and now barely capable of containing his rage, and Jim Callender, whose son has died in the same accident, for which he is partly responsible. As Callender sinks into guilt, Meyers moves toward murder.

This edition of Ash Wednesday contains a final portion that was not included with the book when it was first published. It was removed due to an editorial decision to which I acquiesced. After the book appeared, the last chapter was published in Bill Munster’s excellent small press magazine, Footsteps. The entire book as originally written appears here, and in the accompanying audiobook, for the first time.

– Chet Williamson

A Taste of Blood & Roses – by David Niall Wilson – $2.99 Regular Low Price!

This collection of stories spans two decades of work by Bram Stoker Award winning author David Niall Wilson. From the streets of Jerusalem to the historical life of Vlad Tepes, follow this prolific author through eleven tales of vampirism, lycanthropy and darkness. There’s a bit of dark humor, a touch of the erotic, and a little something for everyone who loves creatures of the night.

BAD TRIP SOUTH

By Billie-Sue Mosiman

Jay and Carrie Anderson are in a troubled marriage. Jay is a police officer in a small town and Carrie, a school teacher. Carrie has a decision to make. Either she stays with Jay and takes his abuse, allowing their ten-year-old daughter, Emily, a glimpse of what marriage is not supposed to be like, or she leaves him. Emily, who isn’t like other children, is telepathic, and can hear the thoughts of those around her. While on vacation, an escaped convict and his accomplice kidnap the Andersons, needing a way to make it south . . . to the border of Mexico. Jay battles with himself, fighting the urge to go over to the dark side, forsaking his vows with his wife and those of a police officer. Carrie searches for the strength to face the truth about herself and her marriage. And Emily, beset by the thoughts of her captors, tries to keep her family together and safe. All in all it’s going to be one bad trip south.

MEDICINE SHOW

A Crossroad Press Western Story

By Bill Crider

Ray Storey plays the role of Kit Carson in Col. A. J. Mahaffey’s Authentic  Medicine Show, wearing a fringed outfit and doing trick shooting to help the colonel push his Miracle Oil and Indian Vitality Pills. Storey’s using his job with the show to travel around the country to look for the men who killed his parents, and of course there’s a showdown in the end.  Also accompanying the show are an alcoholic doctor and the colonel’s daughter, who plays the Indian

A TIME FOR HANGING

A Crossroad Press Western Story

By Bill Crider

Only $2.99

We are happy to present the second in a series of westerns written by the talented and prolific Mr. Bill Crider, who also brought you those spooky Jack MacLane horror novels we’ve been publishing.  Here’s the description of this one – the theme is universal:

Lizzie Randall, the preacher’s daughter, is murdered. The men of the west Texas town are set on lynching Paco Morales, a Mexican teenager who happened to be in the vicinity at the time. No proof, but, after all, he is only a Mexican. Reason and/or conscience work on most of the would-be lynchers, so that, in the end justice is served. The list of suspects grows to include almost everyone in the story, thus providing an agreeable tangle of clues.

KEEPERS OF THE BEAST

By Jack MacLane

Crossroad Press and Macabre Ink Digital present the last of the 1980s horror novels by author Bill Crider, channeling the much darker Jack MacLane.  As of now this is the final MacLane novel…though we are considering talking him into coming out of retirement….

Something strange is stirring in Bayou City.  Screams in the night.  Mutilated animals.  The murder of a college student.  Barry Shannon wants to know why, and he he wants to know what’s happening in the strange house on the edge of town, the one everyone avoids.  He should have let well enough alone because it was better never to have found . . . the Keepers of the Beast.

BLOOD IS PRETTY

By Steven Paul Leiva

Meet the Fixxer – with wit and aplomb he works the fruitful fields of Hollywood fixing the sins and correcting the stupidities of the denizens therein. In Blood is Pretty he comes to the rescue of “the most beautiful woman I have ever seen” to extricate her from the grip of the soul-sucking sexual desires of a producer born in slime, and takes on the task of buying off with money and muscle a film geek who won’t cooperate with a director of miniscule talent who simply wants to claim “V” — the geek’s “Holy Grail” of a film treatment — as his own.

When the film geek is discovered dismembered, the Fixxer is compelled to know why and finds worlds of evil, both real and virtual, centering around a computer program called Veritas, which has the potential of making its owner the richest and most powerful human on Earth.

With the aid of Roee, his friend, companion and cook who can kill quickly and silently in several different ways; the Captain, officially with the Los Angeles Police Department, unofficially with the Fixxer; Petey, extraordinarily brilliant and comically strange; and “the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” the Fixxer goes forth to do battle.

NEW IN AUDIO: Ash Wednesday – by Chet Williamson.  Narrated by the author. Order the audiobook and receive the E-BOOK free!

Unagridged – 10 hrs and 54 Minutes:

LISTEN TO AN AUDIO SAMPLE

Visit us at : http://www.crossroadpress.com and join in on the giveway / promotion for Darkness Falling – help us spread the word about this brand new, original vampire novel.  Send your friends.

-CP

DARKNESS FALLING  is the brand new vampire novel by Bram Stoker Award-Winning author David Niall Wilson.  We are offering this brand new, original novel at a special introductory price of only $0.99 until the 1st of September.  We’re hoping this will give us a chance to spread the word and build some reviews.  To that end, we are sponsoring an “event.”

On the fifteenth of August we’ll be holding a drawing.  There will be three prizes.  The first is a signed, limited edition novel – Vintage Soul – Book I of the DeChance Chronicles, also by David Niall Wilson.  This book retails for $60 – it is signed by Wilson and by cover artist Don Paresi – published by Bad Moon Books.  The second and third prizes are a $20 and a $10 gift certificate to Crossroad Press.  Here’s how you enter.

You can get a single entry just by tweeting about this post, linking to it from your blog, or posting the link on your Facebook account. If you have all three, and do all three, and post here with links, you will get THREE entries.  If you purchase Darkness Falling from Amazon.com or from Crossroad Press and leave a review on either site, you get two more entries.  (If you visit the Amazon site and can think of another search tag to add…please do) If you leave a review in both places, you get four.  I think you see where this is going. You can also get a single entry by signing up for our newsletter using the link at the right of the page.

You can repeat the links once a week for a single extra entry.  We’ll keep track of all the entries in a spreadsheet and do the drawing on the fifteenth.  We’ll announce the winners here.

One last thing…if you post a review in your own blog and link that back here, you can get another two entries.   Contact us if you’d like an interview, or a guest-blog post from the author.  Uh, yeah, two entries each, thanks for asking.

Now go – read – review – link.  Let’s make a splash!

Darkness Falling on Amazon.com

Darkness Falling at Crossroad Press