Peter Schnake's Blog

July is a big month for me. I turn the big three oh.

I already pre-ordered myself a copy of Go Set a Watchman , which is released a day before my birthday. I am contemplating staying up all night to read it like I used to do with books in junior high. I might just be too old for that now. Lol.

But turning 30 doesn't mean I can't have fun. So here's the plan. For the entire month, from the first to the thirty-first, my latest full-length novel, A Land Overflowing  will be on sale at Smashwords. Use coupon code TF55B at checkout to receive 30% off! You can use the coupon to download the book in any format you need--for your kindle, nook, pdf, etc.

And then enjoy it! I certainly enjoyed writing it.

It's a sticky summer pot-boiler that explores what life might be like after the bees go extinct. Is there anything to eat? Is the US still a super power? Has Big Business found a way to manipulate the situation and exploit the American people?

And it's all told through the eyes of a nineteen-year-old named Gideon who grew up as a child preacher and has recently left college disillusioned with his family and faith. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of an eco-terror investigation running for his life.

Hey, if you like it, don't forget to pre-order my new short story, The Snake-Bearer , which is part of the Helium Quest series inspired by A Land Overflowing . It releases August 1!

I don't know about you but I enjoy hearing when authors divulge the little sparks of inspirations which form their stories, or what events in their own lives influenced the shape of their characters' lives.

Knowing that Harper Lee infused To Kill a Mockingbird with characters from her childhood makes it that much more special in my mind. According to my research department, among the characters based on real people were Boo Radley and Dill--who was based on none other than Lee's childhood playmate and fellow author, Truman Capote.

(If you can't tell, I am super pumped for Go Set A Watchman!)

In the same spirit, I thought I'd give you a a few insights into my latest short story, The Snake-Bearer.

For quite some time I have wanted to write a main character who has seizures. And in fact, I tried to shortly after the onset of my own seizures. It was an urban fantasy in which the characters' tattoos came alive and possessed their owners. It turned out somewhat cliche and obvious.

Almost a decade later, I still had a desire to write a character who has seizures. So I asked myself what was I really really trying to get at when I tried writing about it the first time. I think I've taken what I learned from writing that first story and decocted what I had intended to write about: the fear of waking up after a seizure and having no memory of what happened, why you're on the ground, why you're hurt, why strangers have strapped you to a stretcher to carry you out of your house. I wanted to write about having an unreliable memory and how you put on a facade when you're supposed to remember something important.

I wanted to write about how seizures used to be called demon posessions and in a future without helium and a less than stellar healthcare system, those with urgent needs might turn to faith-healing. Might desperation and fear conspire to recast seizures as demon possessions once more? How desperate does one have to be to go to an airplane hangar in the middle of nowhere to beg help from a Healer whose ways of healing seem less than sanitary and whose prices seem exorbitant.

The Snake-Bearer releases August 1, 2015. Pre-orders are available now!

Amazon

iBookstore

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Readers and Friends,

I promised you two tales from the Helium Quest series and I can now deliver them!

Introducing First Lieutenant Hyland Rivera, grandson of the Reverend Appleseed (who we just might have met before). After spending twenty years aboard the Helianthus, the vessel heading toward the sun to collect helium to bring back to a dying Earth, he starts getting a little cabin fever. Who can blame him? Good thing the big whigs back on Earth thought ahead and made Zeph the captain. And it's a good thing they ran extensive psychological and personality compatibility tests. Except those tests don't seem to be worth much when Hy believes he's encountered the Divine which bids him to pilot the vessel into the sun. Hy seems driven by a need for transcendence and tortured by fears of being forgotten. Zeph races to fix the situation and solve Hy's fears.

Pick up your copy of Helianthus to find out the fate of Hy and Zeph.

Amazon
iBookstore
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords



Just like at other Gatherings which brothers Mark and Orin make a habit of attending, this Healer claims unnatural powers and uses poor Latin. But there has never before been a snake-bearer. As the ceremony begins and the role of the snake-bearer becomes clear, Mark is scandalized. The prices the Healer demands are too high. And the outcomes, questionable. “He’s just another fraud,” Mark says. So then, why does Mark keep feeling the Healer rummaging around in his head? 

The Snake-Bearer releases August 1, 2015. Preorder your copy today.

Amazon
iBookstore
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

  Happy Reading.

The first stories from Helium Quest are almost ready for release! And I can't wait to share them with you. 
For fans following my work from the beginning, you're going to see in these stories the continued trend in my voice towards the absurd and scandalous. For fans who are reading me for the first time, or have just read my latest novel, A Land Overflowing, be warned, I don't write happy endings. Well. I know how to, but so often a happy ending seems disingenuous to the characters living these stories. Life doesn't get magic fixes. 
My characters make choices. And often these choices lead to unhappiness, disillusionment and heartache. 
Helium Quest is a series of sequels. Of sorts. The stories are set in the same universe as ALO, that is they are set in the same vision of the future: no bees, no helium. The earth is a dying planet, just not in the expected ways. There's still water. There's still food. There's been no nuclear war. Robots haven't taken over. Neither has a fascist government. Humans have just been careless about using their resources and now the way they must live their lives has been restricted. There's still greed. There's still war. There's still jealousy and betrayal. 
In these stories, what interests me most is how humans treat other humans. Do the lack of bees and cheap food change how humans treat one another? Does the lack of affordable and meaningful healthcare from lack of helium change how humans treat one another? Those are the types of questions I'm am trying to answer--or at least pose in these stories. 
So. What can you expect from the series? The first two stories will each look at the quest for helium in different ways. In one, two men, having been aboard the space vessel Helianthus for some twenty years, must fight for their sanity in order to continue their mission and save humanity. In the other, we see a rather sacrilegious faith healing. Is the healer a con artist taking advantage of the gullible? Or is he really a prophet? Or even something else? 
As always, happy reading. And stay tuned for more about Helium Quest including release dates.

This week, one of my friends was bemoaning the fact that my books are only available in an electronic format. 
"I need to hold it," she said. "I need the paper. Plus, I want to give them as gifts. I'd give your book to all my friends, but I can't."
Well, Lisa. This post is for you. 
Just in time for Christmas (and Festivus, for the rest of us) I thought I'd post an easy step by step tutorial for any last minute shoppers and frantic "I have no idea what to get them" shoppers. 
(I'll be using Amazon for this tutorial, but the basics are the same across all ebook retailers, such as smashwords, and iBooks.)
Gifting an ebook is very simple.
1. Locate the "Give as a Gift" button on the right hand side of the webpage. Click it. 
2. You will be asked to sign in to your account. Once you do so you will be given the option to email your gift directly to your recipient. They will be sent a redemption code so that when they log in to their amazon account they can download the ebook you gave them for free. You can even choose the date of delivery! Or you can alternatively choose to have the gift emailed to yourself. You can print out the redemption code and deliver it or forward it as an email. Either way, delivery is simple! 


Two steps! That's it. Happy shopping everyone. And Merry Christmas!

Can’t wait until December 2nd to read ALO?Curious but want to know more before you download?

Good news! My good friends at Smashwords have made the first twenty percent available for reading in a variety of formats. So head on over. Take a peek. Get absorbed in Gideon’s story.
Hey, and while you’re there, check out my Smashwords Author Interview, or read one of my other books!

(Just a head’s up, because ALO contains significant amounts of adult situations and language, you have to deactivate the adult filter, located near the top right, to see the book on Smashwords.)

You guys! A Land Overflowing is ready for pre-orders!

I spent a good chunk of my time yesterday finalizing the formatting. If you're not familiar, ebook retailers have very specific requirements that must be followed to the letter. If I have an hour to spend, I'd much rather be writing than making sure all the paragraphs are coded as indented rather than block, but hey, it's got to be done. 
If you don't see ALO yet at your favorite retailer, please keep checking. Sometimes it takes a day or two, or even a week for the distribution process. But I promise it's in route. Below are some links to the most popular retailers. But first, let me tell you a little more about the book!

Gideon Groebel is barely old enough to remember what the bees looked like and only knows about the Dieoff thanks to the internet. Suddenly finding himself in possession of the only known hive in the country—and hunted for it—he seeks sanctuary on a small farmhouse off the road, which only lands him as prime suspect in the pipeline bombing. For protection, he strikes a deal with a local deputy to gather evidence on the real terrorist. But when his efforts are sidelined by a forbidden romance and an old man trying to save his soul, things get stickier.


And now, the links:
AmazonSmashwordsBarnes & Noble iBookstore 

Drumroll please. The title of my next novel is...
A Land Overflowing
I know it sounds kind of strange without knowing more, so: it takes place ten years or so after the honeybees go extinct (think the not-too-distant future) and starts off by referencing two quotes.
If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live. --Albert Einstein
“I have come down to rescue them...to bring them up...to a land flowing with milk and honey.” Exodus 3:8

Yes, there are still people left six years after Einstein thought there could be. And yes, though the title is taken from Exodus, I did add the prefix “Over.” You’ll see.

If you've been "bugging" me about when my next book comes out, I've got a deal for you. I've promised that it would probably be sometime this fall or winter, and I'm gonna stick by that. Typos or no typos. But seriously, no typos. *crosses fingers.

As Labor Day seems to signal the end of summer, the start of school and of course Pumpkin Spice Lattes, I figured, why can't it be the start of something special for us, too? So, here's the plan. Next Thursday, one week from today, check back right here, and I'll have posted the title for my next book.

You'll get the whole book, eventually. But for now, just the title. And maybe a short synopsis.

Deal? Good. Then it's a date!

My most passionate readers have been on my case for not having anything new for them to read recently. Not that they're going to be satisfied with a blogpost, but the blog has been a barometer of sorts. My mind has been so overwhelmingly absorbed in the world of my next book I haven't had anything to put up here. 
Well, here I am, writing a blog. Which means the next book is almost ready. Almost. I don’t want to rush things. My excitement to share it with you is growing. But it needs just a skosh more work.

So, be on the lookout. You’re going to see an explosion of social media action from me after being in my writing cave for too long. First I gotta shave off my man beard. That happens in caves, right?