S.G. Browne's Blog

Just in time for the holidays:

Lost Creatures: Stories – my short story collection that contains 14 tales of downtrodden luck poachers, lovelorn chemical elements, obsolete villains, trademarked teenagers, outcast reindeer, domesticated centaurs, victimized zombies, and more – is ON SALE FOR JUST $0.99 on Kindle.

Get it while it's cheap! Tell your friends! Tell your family! Or buy that someone special a copy as a gift!

Get LOST CREATURES on Amazon

One of the things that's challenging about self-publishing a book is getting the word out to new readers and letting people, new readers as well as current fans, know that the book exists. And while authors are able to reach some of those new readers, we're often limited in our reach and depend on others to help get the word out.

All books, especially self-published books, thrive best with the nourishment of love from readers.

So for those of you who have read and enjoyed Lost Creatures: Stories, anything you can do to help spread the word is appreciated.

So how can you help? Well, there are all sorts of ways.

You can leave a review of LOST CREATURES on Goodreads or Amazon. You can tell your friends about the book. You can tell strangers about it. You can buy copies for family members on their birthday or as a wedding present or for a briss. You can stand on a street corner and recite your favorite story or charter a plane to drop promotional leaflets over your neighborhood. You can attach copies to helium balloons and let them loose from the roof of a hotel or you can get a tattoo of the cover of LOST CREATURES on your back and become a human billboard.

Whatever works for you. Anything you feel compelled to do to spread the love helps. Anything at all.

As always, thanks for reading. And thanks for the love.

What's that? You'd like to order a signed paperback copy of Lost Creatures: Stories? Well it just so happens I can help you with that.

Signed copies of Lost Creatures: Stories are available from Borderlands Books in San Francisco and can be ORDERED HERE.

If you'd like your copy personalized to you or to someone else, just make sure to let them know on the form when you place your order. And if you'd like to order it as a gift with a personal message from me, include that and I'll inscribe the message for you.

Easy peasy.

As always, thanks for reading!

Wrapping up the series of Fun Facts for Lost Creatures: Stories with two last entries.

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LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #9

Reeb and Mur, the names of the two main characters in my story “The Curse of the Amazing Colossal Thing From Outer Space,” are "beer" and "rum" spelled backwards.



LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #10

While the majority of the villains who appear in my short story Dr. Sinister's Home for Retired Villains are in the public domain, Mr. Blank, one of the characters from my novel Less Than Hero, makes a cameo.

Oh, and Dr. Sinister's Home for Retired Villains is available as a Kindle single through June 6 for the low, low price of FREE. Check it out HERE!

Here are two more Fun Facts about Lost Creatures: Stories, both of which involve the story "When the Giant Koi Returned to San Francisco."

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LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #7

The cover for Lost Creatures: Stories was inspired by the story “When the Giant Koi Returned to San Francisco,” which was heavily influenced by the pandemic internet meme: The earth is healing, nature is returning.




LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #8

While doing research for “When the Giant Koi Returned to San Francisco,” I discovered that there's a protected leprechaun colony in Carlingford, Ireland. True story.

Continuing with my series of Fun Facts about Lost Creatures: Stories, here are a couple of facts about two of the stories in the collection that center around giant monsters.

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LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #5

The concept for Scattered Showers with a Chance of Daikaiju, the opening story in Lost Creatures: Stories, came to me while watching the movie War of the Gargantuas back in 1990. I thought: if Japan is always being attacked by giant monsters, would meteorologists in Japan forecast daikaiju attacks along with the weather?



LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #6

Another of my "giant monster" themed stories that appears in Lost Creatures: Stories is “The Curse of the Amazing Colossal Thing From Outer Space,” which originally appeared in the anthology Drive In Creature Feature.

I wrote a guest post that's up on Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds about my new short story collection Lost Creatures: Stories, appropriately titled:

Five Things I Learned Writing Lost Creatures.

In the post, I talk leprechaun sanctuaries, promiscuous chemicals, exploring my feminine side, finding my happy place, and being a literary DJ. You can read the post by clicking on the link above or you can read the post HERE.

LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #3

The title for Lost Creatures: Stories comes from the penultimate story in the collection “All of the Lost Creatures Are Found.” That story was inspired by all of the lost pet fliers I see posted around San Francisco and how I wish they could all be found.

The story was also inspired by the idea of childhood dreams combined with job titles I've come across on LinkedIn and how no child ever dreams of growing up to be a procurement analyst, a human resources generalist, or a senior account executive.



LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #4

The second story in Lost Creatures: Stories, “Riding the Softland Express,” originally appeared as “Softland” in my collection Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel: Ten Twisted Tales. That short story was the inspiration for my third novel Lucky Bastard.

This is the first in a series of Fun Facts about Lost Creatures: Stories, my new collection of short stories. I'll be sharing these over the next couple of weeks, so I hope you enjoy them.

First up are a couple of Fun Facts about my short story Remedial English for Reanimated Corpses, which takes place at Bela Lugosi University, where the werewolves and vampires rule and the zombies most definitely drool.

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LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #1

Professor Warner, who teaches the titular class in Remedial English for Reanimated Corpses, is named after Andy Warner, the protagonist and hero of Breathers: A Zombie's Lament.

Oh, and Remedial English for Reanimated Corpses is available as a Kindle single for the low, low price of FREE until May 22. Tell your friends!



LOST CREATURES Fun Fact #2

The idea for Remedial English for Reanimated Corpses originated when I was interviewed for the zombie documentary DOC OF THE DEAD and explained my theory that zombies are the nerds of the monster world, while werewolves are the jocks and vampires are the frat boys.

If you click on the DOC OF THE DEAD link, you can watch my explanation, complete with cartoon graphics, at the 45:52 mark of the documentary. (I also have contributions at the 20:13, 38:47, and 1:16:02 marks.) If you've never seen the documentary and are a zombie and/or pop culture fan, it's definitely worth the time.

My new book is here! My new book is here!



Lost Creatures: Stories, my new collection of short stories, officially releases today! Woo hoo!

It's available in ebook on Kindle, Nook, Apple Books, and Kobo, and in paperback on Amazon. (It will also be available for pre-order in paperback on B&N but at the moment B&N is experiencing technical difficulties.)

You can read all about LOST CREATURES and find order links to all of the vendors on my website: Order Lost Creatures Here

I'm excited to share this collection of stories with you and hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.