Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "paroxysm"
Heads-up: trunk book coming soon
I'm gearing up, with the help of my webmaster Bradley Schenck and cover artist Ben Baldwin, to self-publish the first of my trunk novels in the next couple of weeks.
For those who don't know the term, a trunk novel is a book that the author couldn't sell. That doesn't always mean the book is not publishable; sometimes things go wrong in other parts of the forest. The book I'm bringing out, Paroxysm, was written in 1996 when I had a Canadian agent in Toronto. For reasons I've never been able to understand, the agent (who gave me notes on the original draft and helped me ready it for submission), never sent the book out. It sat on her shelf, along with a second novel, for months until I fired her.
In 2001, it was in the hands of a New York agent who did send it out to at least one editor who said good things about it without making an offer. Then the agent suffered a near-tragedy in her family and went into a tailspin that lasted months. I took the book back and moved on.
But here's the rub: because Paroxysm had "been out" from an agent and hadn't sold, it was dead. No other agent would touch it. So it went back into the trunk and there it has remained ever since.
It's a perfectly serviceable present-day thriller, with just a tinge of science fiction to the premise. Rob Sawyer told me that if it had had a little more sfness to it, he would have taken it for his imprint (instead, he took The Commons , for which I am grateful).
Paroxysm could be shelved next to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, except that it involves military-industrial rogues and a mad scientist instead of seed-pod aliens. And it has a "Keep watching the skies!" message to it, except that it's not the skies we need to watch -- it's the people who keep inventing interesting new ways for us to kill each other.
Nuff said to make a teaser. Check back here before the end of the month, and it ought to be available as a $2.99 ebook and a $12.99 POD paperback. I'll also put up an excerpt.
For those who don't know the term, a trunk novel is a book that the author couldn't sell. That doesn't always mean the book is not publishable; sometimes things go wrong in other parts of the forest. The book I'm bringing out, Paroxysm, was written in 1996 when I had a Canadian agent in Toronto. For reasons I've never been able to understand, the agent (who gave me notes on the original draft and helped me ready it for submission), never sent the book out. It sat on her shelf, along with a second novel, for months until I fired her.
In 2001, it was in the hands of a New York agent who did send it out to at least one editor who said good things about it without making an offer. Then the agent suffered a near-tragedy in her family and went into a tailspin that lasted months. I took the book back and moved on.
But here's the rub: because Paroxysm had "been out" from an agent and hadn't sold, it was dead. No other agent would touch it. So it went back into the trunk and there it has remained ever since.
It's a perfectly serviceable present-day thriller, with just a tinge of science fiction to the premise. Rob Sawyer told me that if it had had a little more sfness to it, he would have taken it for his imprint (instead, he took The Commons , for which I am grateful).
Paroxysm could be shelved next to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, except that it involves military-industrial rogues and a mad scientist instead of seed-pod aliens. And it has a "Keep watching the skies!" message to it, except that it's not the skies we need to watch -- it's the people who keep inventing interesting new ways for us to kill each other.
Nuff said to make a teaser. Check back here before the end of the month, and it ought to be available as a $2.99 ebook and a $12.99 POD paperback. I'll also put up an excerpt.
Excerpt from Paroxysm
I’ve posted an excerpt from Paroxysm, my slightly sfnal thriller that’s now available as an ebook ($2.99) and a print-on-demand paperback ($12.99) from my website bookstore, Amazon, Kobo, and plenty of other places. You can even go into a brick-and-mortar bookstore and order the paperback, such are the wonders of modern self-publishing.
I’m still offering a free ebook to anyone who promises to blog or post about the book – and an Amazon review counts – so all you have to do is send me an email telling me the format you prefer. This offer will go on for a while, but once the book’s honeymoon is over, I will end it.
Here's the book's blurb:
Ruthless mercenaries, hired by an ex-Pentagon chemical-weapons designer turned rogue, take over a small town in Oregon. The plan: use the citizenry as guinea pigs in a test-run of a bootlegged bio-agent for an Islamist terror organization.
But something goes wrong and the mercs and their clients find themselves surrounded by townsfolk who have turned into hyper-coordinated killing machines.
Paroxysm is an action-packed tale about the seductive power of righteous violence, about how ordinary people can explode when fate gives them the power to hit back.
And once they’ve gone down that road, there’s no turning back.
I’m still offering a free ebook to anyone who promises to blog or post about the book – and an Amazon review counts – so all you have to do is send me an email telling me the format you prefer. This offer will go on for a while, but once the book’s honeymoon is over, I will end it.
Here's the book's blurb:
Ruthless mercenaries, hired by an ex-Pentagon chemical-weapons designer turned rogue, take over a small town in Oregon. The plan: use the citizenry as guinea pigs in a test-run of a bootlegged bio-agent for an Islamist terror organization.
But something goes wrong and the mercs and their clients find themselves surrounded by townsfolk who have turned into hyper-coordinated killing machines.
Paroxysm is an action-packed tale about the seductive power of righteous violence, about how ordinary people can explode when fate gives them the power to hit back.
And once they’ve gone down that road, there’s no turning back.
New Instafreebie giveaway
I'm starting another Instafreebie giveaway, this time giving away up to a thousand copies of my thriller, PAROXYSM. Here's the blurb:
Mad as Hell – and Loving It!
Ruthless mercenaries, hired by an ex-Pentagon chemical-weapons designer turned rogue, take over a small town in Oregon. The plan: use the citizenry as guinea pigs in a test-run of a bootlegged bio-agent for an Islamist terror organization.
But something goes wrong and the mercs and their clients find themselves surrounded by townsfolk who have turned into hyper-coordinated killing machines.
PAROXYSM is an action-packed tale about the seductive power of righteous violence, about how ordinary people can explode when fate gives them the power to hit back.
For a free ebook in epub, mobi, or pdf format, go here.
The catch: you'll be automatically signed up for my monthly newsletter, but you can always cancel and keep the book.
Mad as Hell – and Loving It!
Ruthless mercenaries, hired by an ex-Pentagon chemical-weapons designer turned rogue, take over a small town in Oregon. The plan: use the citizenry as guinea pigs in a test-run of a bootlegged bio-agent for an Islamist terror organization.
But something goes wrong and the mercs and their clients find themselves surrounded by townsfolk who have turned into hyper-coordinated killing machines.
PAROXYSM is an action-packed tale about the seductive power of righteous violence, about how ordinary people can explode when fate gives them the power to hit back.
For a free ebook in epub, mobi, or pdf format, go here.
The catch: you'll be automatically signed up for my monthly newsletter, but you can always cancel and keep the book.
