A.J. Scudiere's Blog: What to read next, Behind the scenes of author life, and more!

Thank you, Duane TK for this questionThe short answer is YES, you can feed a body to pigs! BUT… (You saw that coming, right?)You could have gotten away with this a lot better 40 or 70 years ago.1 – if you own pigs, any reasonable investigator is going to do the dirty work of digging through the sty. Teeth and other materials pass right through a pig. Evidence! Ouch.2 – if you don’t own pigs, then your best bet is to feed the body (already in parts) to the pigs of someone who could have done the crime. If you feed it to rando piggies, that can be good too. You could long enough with no one looking. But here are several issues with option 2:If that person is feeding bodies to their pigs (Yes, I just assume everyone is doing this) then when they get caught, you might, too. And there’s the additional issue of transport. You have to get your body to the pigs and get it into pieces (you don’t have to do this, but… evidence.) That’s a lot of evidence that the pigs aren’t going to be able to eat. It’ll be at the murder scene, in your car, outside the pig sty… lots of places for little drops to go wrong. Honestly, most people ain’t as good at hiding evidence as they think they are.I’ll stand by my previous statement that your best bet at getting away with it is a lazy or inept investigator.This is why–so far I haven’t fed a body to pigs in either The NightShade Forensic FBI Files or the Hangman’s Shadow series! 𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀? 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗺𝗲!

Did you devour Stephen King books as a young adult (or even a kid?) Me, too!

In The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King a young girl lost in the wilderness fights to survive, haunted by fear and unknown dangers.

Go read it if you haven’t. But if you devoured that one, what do you read next?

 

The Troop by Nick Cutter A horrifying survival story involving a group of boys on an island facing a terrifying parasitic threat.

 

The Ritual by Adam Nevill 

A group of friends hiking in a remote forest encounter ancient evil and supernatural forces.

 

The Hunted by AJ Scudiere – read FREE 

Twins Cage and Joule must figure out what’s hunting their neighbors. Not everyone will survive the night.

Hopefully, this list will keep you up late with plenty of great books to read! 

Raise your hand if you’re an e-reader reader 🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♀️

I wasn’t. I was committed to paper. Until my family gifted me a Kindle for Christmas one year. I have since moved to Kobo and Kobo Plus. I will not be caught without my e-reader app now. You can carry it anywhere and take your full library right in your bag. But I also have a degree in human physiology and neuroscience. So grab your e-reader and go to your settings. Let’s make it better for your eyes, your brain, and your reading speed!

It doesn’t matter which e-reader app you’re using, they’ll all have most of these. Go to any full page in your book and get set. If you normally read with glasses or contacts in, grab those, too.

↗️ Margins – A bigger screen means fewer page turns and more reading before you loop a line. I put my margins as small as I can make them. Both my kindle and my ipad have edges already. A visual margin already exists↗️Font Size – Honestly, just play with this until it feels right. There’s no magic number here, but it’s important to set it where you don’t squint or have to hold your e-reader too close or too far. It’s simply one of those things most of us set only when it’s a problem. Set it now while you’re actively choosing the right size!↗️Brightness – This is a biggie! Set it as low as you can still be comfortable. My computer screen is under 25% brightness. This helps reduce eye strain and you probably already know that eye strain is bad and also interferes with your reading!↗️Color – I recommend anything except black text on white screen (which is, of course, the default.) Sepia, green, even white on black should give you less eyestrain issues!

🌟🌟🌟 I don’t know if you did what I did and tried turning my e-reader sideways to see if more text fit on the screen! Yeah. That made sense. The text would have to loop far less often. Oh, massive fail. Most text settings in the books have spaces and this kills it. I keep my e-reader oriented upright now. You don’t have to try that, I did. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

TEAR US APART will be here tomorrow!

IF you pre-ordered from me you’ll see it in your ebooks TOMORROW. Want to get in on that (Thursday Sept 4th)? Go here >>> https://www.readajs.com/book/tear-us-apart/

Click that GET IT EARLY button.

If you’re reading this after Sept 4th, and you click that button, the book will drop immediately to your ereader! WHOOO HOOO

More from TEAR US APART:

Some days Cindy felt like she’d become an emotional trash can for everyone she touched. Only it didn’t lessen the burden for those people either. A burden shared was a burden halved, but a memory shared was bullshit doubled, it seemed.

Sadly, this was just another day that ended in Y, and that bothered her. She shouldn’t be so inured to the being murdered. Yet here she was, being brutally stabbed and she was busy trying to catch landmarks around her. Think about seeing the face of the perpetrator. Trying to find evidence they could use, while she was experiencing what felt like her own murder. Good times.

TEAR US APART releases on all retailers on Sept 11th

Grab those here:    KOBO          APPLE           AMAZON          GOOGLE BOOKS          NOOK

𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 - 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗨𝗦 𝗔𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 - 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀! 🍻 💃 🎉


To celebrate, I put Bad Name on sale on kobo.
But I wanted everyone to be able to get that deal.
So I'm sharing it with you:
▶️ 𝗚𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 https://www.readajs.com/book/bad-name/
▶️ 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗜𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪
▶️ 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗕𝗔𝗗𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁.
You'll get it for 65% off!
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘛𝘌𝘈𝘙 𝘜𝘚 𝘈𝘗𝘈𝘙𝘛 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬!
happy reading!
📘 📚 📘 📚 📘

What should you read once you’ve finished The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver

If you’re ready for another suspenseful crime thriller with a mix of forensic science and dark mysteries, the you should read…

The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens – The Restorer (Bk #1)
A paranormal thriller featuring a protagonist who communicates with the dead to solve mysteries. Find that one HERE 

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
A young woman with supernatural abilities helps find murder victims, blending paranormal and mystery. Get more info HERE

Under Dark Skies by AJ Scudiere – The NightShade Forensic FBI Files #1
Two new FBI agents struggle to solve their first case together while still hiding their own odd secrets. Grab your copy for FREE HERE

Stolen by Kelley Armstrong – The Women of the Otherworld #1
A young woman with supernatural abilities helps find murder victims, blending paranormal and mystery. Read more HERE

My husband and I traveled parts of the UK last September. We toured Wrexham (ifyouknowyouknow). Headed to Liverpool (which felt a LOT like Nashville!) We ate our way through every pub and alehouse. I tried mushy peas. And we took every tour we could.

We were in Nottingham (yes, that Nottingham) when our fabulously knowledgeable tour guide told us about dastardly deeds at the end of the 18th century.

You may have heard me talk about the books in my head. At one time I counted 17 – any of which I had enough character knowledge and had plotted out enough that I was ready to sit down and start writing. I’ve become a faster writer these days, so I tend to keep about…(let me count)… damn. It was 13. So not that much lower. Oh well.

Sometimes, a thought or an article or a bit of knowledge comes along and I JUST KNOW. (The 2nd and 3rd Vendetta Trifecta books dropped on me that way. BOOM… suddenly, 2 complete books ready to go.) And this was like that. I turned to my husband (I was working on NightShade book 12? maybe?) And I said: “I know what book 15 is!” NightShade #15 will be built on this real, historical group/idea/illegal activity.

So if you want to learn more about the REAL Resurrection Men, check out this link! >>> https://owlcation.com/humanities/resu...

I love learning. If there are explosions involved, all the better. Let’s discuss Cage and Joule using leftover fireworks to blast their snowmen come late January. Or to blow up the rotting pumpkins come December. (That one set the yard on fire..in multiple places!!! Do not ask me how handy I am with the fire extinguisher)

But this one is about REAL explosions. The kind you can’t buy in a Sad Sam’s tent in the summer. I’ve done them myself. Gotten demos just for me. And then, there are ones like this. A full demo by the bomb squad and I’m so grateful to have gotten to attend at a writer’s conference.
I’ve watched (and taken copious notes!) the robot check a suspicious backpack, then detonate it for good measure. I’ve seen the team blast up everything from flashpaper to C4 to improvised devices. They all make different booms. And I learned how to set them off too. (I do love some det cord! It burns an orange sine wave on your retina as it lights up!)

So here is where I managed to catch the explosion as it was happening! I will say, an author’s life is never dull. And if you’ve read FRACTURE FIVE, some of the things I learned from the blasts are in there!

If you need me, I’ll be over here, blowing shit up. You know, for research!

Right now and for a short while – THE SURFACE IS FREE

The Black Carbon series is now complete at 7 full books. If you’re a reader who doesn’t want to start unless you know you can get all the way to the end, this is the series for you.

If you hate zombies or just wish the apocalypse was more… apocalypsey and not as evil or undead (but still mostly an apocalypse) I’ve got you! If you want smart characters making their best decisions (mostly) that’s here too.

The Surface is book 2 in the series and it’s usually $7.99. But this week, it’s free. (And so is The Hunted – book 1. So you can get the first TWO books right now for $0!!!)

All links available here >> BLACK CARBON 

get it while you can, bc it will be $7.99 soon.

Happy reading! – AJ

Snake in the Grave will be here in JUNE!

My next newsletter will give you the release date. If you’re on the ARC team you will be getting your copy VERY soon. Early readers will get it soon after that (Those people who ordered direct from me.)

When Donovan chases his history to another continent, Eleri knows she has to follow. Besides that, there’s an ominous text from Stacey that she and Lindsay are already in Kolkata… but why? And what does she want to give to Eleri so badly?

preorder NOW