Sean Gibson's Blog - Posts Tagged "free-books"

It’s Monday, and unless you work a schedule such that Monday is your Friday or you’re just a psychotically happy person, you’re probably feeling some combination of anger, rage, and hopelessness (and that’s just because you can’t get the coffee maker to work, and before you’ve even really gotten into the day yet).

There are two primary ways to mitigate the Monday moroseness: 1) win the lottery and 2) free books.

I don’t have any lucky numbers for you, I’m afraid, but I think I can help you out on the latter point.

Start the week on a high note by giving yourself a chance to win a free copy of The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple. How, you ask, do I gain the opportunity to experience this life-changing event? It’s pretty simple, really—all you need do (by midnight Pacific time on October 6) is:

*Add The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple to your TBR on Goodreads

*Comment on this blog post below about how excited you are to read the book, how devastatingly handsome I am, how surprised you are that a man with so much nose has such small feet, or whatever strikes you as being an interesting thing to say (in other words, comment on whatever you like; I’ll count your comment as your official contest entry)

Five winners will be selected and be sent their virtual booty on October 7 (book is available as a PDF or directly from Amazon in Kindle format).

Good luck to all!

I made some crazy promises about giving out free copies of The Camelot Shadow to celebrate Mystery & Thriller week on Goodreads and, since I’m a man of my word—at least 17% of the time, anyway—I intend to follow through.

Even better? Not only am I going to make it so that EVERYONE IS A WINNER, I’m not even going to make you read through all of my rambling, turgid prose below before telling you how to get your copy (though you’re more than welcome to continue reading my rambling, turgid prose, which is essentially what you’re committing to doing if you’re reading The Camelot Shadow anyway).

So, what do you need to do? Two simple things: 1) Add The Camelot Shadow to your “to read” list on GR so all your friends can see what good taste you have in handsomely-nosed independent authors; and 2) in the comments section below, list your favorite mystery or thriller (if you’re feeling effusive, please feel free to tell us why). (Also, I wouldn’t be upset if you shared this link with your GR friends.)

The only catch: you’ve got to do it by midnight (Eastern) on Friday, May 5 (what better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than with a bunch of sexagenarian mystery solvers, right?). (Or, heck, by the end of the day on May 6...I'm a benevolent soul.)

Once you’ve commented, I’ll send you a private message asking which format you’d like the book in (Mobi/ePub/PDF) and what email to send it to. It’s that easy, folks!

Now, if you’re only here for my goodies, you can stop reading (and, let’s face it, who DOESN’T want my goodies?).

Now then…you there—in the back. I see you waving your hand frantically. What is it?

“But, Mr. Handsomely-Nosed Independent Author—is The Camelot Shadow REALLY a mystery/thriller? I mean, come on—it’s set in Victorian times, when they didn’t even have cell phones or Snapchat or Dippin’ Dots ice cream, and there’s magical stuff going on, and it’s got King Arthur references that don’t have anything to do with the Guy Ritchie movie (I mean, what’s that all about?), and the pacing is kind of slow out of the gate. Also, your nose isn’t all that handsome.”

Well, I’m glad you asked that, Mr. Bludgeoned Repeatedly and Enthusiastically With the Ugly Stick. The Camelot Shadow is something of a cross-genre hodgepodge, mainly because that’s exactly the kind of thing that I like to read. While I dig fast-paced, straight up thrillers on occasion (more on that below), I’m an even bigger fan of a slow burn mystery that builds up as characters are simultaneously built up and clues revealed, where an unexpected twist throws you off track and, before you can recover, you get twisted right back around, and where the characters can’t rely on high-tech gizmos to help save the day (not that there’s anything wrong with stories where that happens; I just love the dramatic tension of characters not instantly being able to communicate with each other across distances or find an answer to an unsolvable mystery in less than two seconds by Googling it). Throw in elements of history, fantasy, bromance/buddy movies, and a Victorian setting and you’ll literally see me drool. (Not that seeing me drool is a particularly unusual occurrence, incidentally, as all of my stained shirts will attest.)

So, sure—The Camelot Shadow isn’t a mystery/thriller in the same way that a Janet Evanovich or Nelson DeMille book is a mystery/thriller, but it’s got enough of such elements for me to use this week as an excuse to give you free books, so be quiet. If you dig mixing all of those genre elements together, you might like the book (and, if you don’t, I promise I won’t be mad if you have to publicly trash it in your review—reading is subjective, and we can still be friends). And, I have no idea what that Guy Ritchie/King Arthur nonsense is all about.

As for MY favorite mystery or thriller? First off, I think those are two different things—a book can certainly have elements of both, but a story can also just be a straight mystery (that’s not so thrilling, and I don’t mean that pejoratively), or a straight thriller (where the reader knows what’s going on but the characters don’t, and it’s a pulse-poundingly, rip-roaringly paced yarn). Putting that aside, though, and with nods to more contemporary writers like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (the Pendergast books never fail to entertain), Dan Brown (The Camelot Shadow borrows from the formula that Brown popularized so adeptly in his Robert Langdon books), and John Saul (that man writes some creepy thrillers), as well as masters of the genre like Agatha Christie and Edgar Allen Poe (arguably the inventor of the genre), I have to go with a tale featuring a certain deerstalker-wearing detective: The Hound of the Baskervilles. The combination of Holmes and Watson (the best detective duo ever, for my money), a haunting setting, the intimation of supernatural chicanery afoot, and some of Doyle’s most effective pacing makes for an unforgettable reading experience.

Now then—let’s hear from you…

To celebrate mystery/thriller week a while back, I concocted a giveaway of The Camelot Shadow to get people talking about some of their favorite books. Given the overwhelming response to that idea—they’re still talking about it from Kalamazoo to Dubuque—I wanted to do the same with The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple for Fantasy & Science Fiction week, given that fantasy is the genre that’s nearest and dearest to my heart (not to mention my kidneys, but that’s a biological misfortune that you probably don’t need to worry about, fortunately for you).

I’ll even repeat what I said for that giveaway: Not only am I going to make it so that EVERYONE IS A WINNER, I’m not even going to make you read through all of my rambling, turgid prose below before telling you how to get your copy (though you’re more than welcome to continue reading my rambling, turgid prose, which is essentially what you’re committing to doing if you’re reading any of my books anyway).

So, what do you need to do? Two simple things: 1) Add The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple to your “to read” list on GR so all your friends can see what good taste you have in spectacularly eyebrowed independent authors; and 2) in the comments section below, list your favorite fantasy author (if you’re feeling effusive, please feel free to tell us why). (Also, I wouldn’t be upset if you shared this link with your GR friends. Or get me a pony. A proper man needs a pony. Right?)

To be eligible to win, you just need to do the aforementioned by Sunday, August 6. Once you’ve done the deed, I’ll send you a message asking what format you prefer (PDF or Kindle version direct from Amazon) and where to send it (incidentally, “where the sun don’t shine” is not an acceptable response, though it is, at least where I’m concerned, an exceedingly popular one). IT’S THAT EASY.

I've already waxed poetic about my favorite fantasy author, Bob Salvatore, so I’ll refer you to that link if you want to read more about my own choice. But, I do want to take a moment to say something about the fantasy genre generally—I promise I’ll keep it brief (he said to throngs of disbelieving philistines, who laughed and promptly purchased him a robot editor who stabbed him every time he included more than 84 words in a single sentence, resulting in a multitude of knife wounds that, despite the blinding pain and extreme blood loss they engendered, did not deter him from going on at considerable length about nothing in particular).

(Was that last sentence really 85 words? Huh. They just go down so smoothly. Like Scotch. Or Pez.)

(One note: I distinguish between fantasy and sci-fi, for reasons I’m not going to get into here. (Buy me an old fashioned sometime and you’ll get to hear that diatribe.) But, benevolent overlord that I am, I’ll also accept your favorite sci-fi author.)

I read a wide range of genres, but none moves me in quite the same way as fantasy. What I love most about fantasy is not dragons and magic and treasure and faraway lands, though those things are all great and all part of the equation—what I love most is that all fantasy stories are, at their core, about a quest to make the world a better place. That’s it. That’s what it all boils down to. That quest takes infinite forms and appears in myriad variations as to time, place, and the makeup of the hero(s) involved. Ultimately, though, any proper fantasy story starts with an individual, or individuals, who, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, and no matter how reticent or unsure of themselves, sets off on a quest, perhaps against his/her better judgment, to do nothing less than change the world. And, in the stories that have most successfully captured our collective hearts and minds, the heroes do what they do not for the sake of fame or fortune*, but because it is the right thing to do, regardless of the personal sacrifices they must make.

We live in a world that gets scarier every day, and while it’s tempting to run and hide in fantasy books because they offer refuge in a place where good can unequivocally triumph over evil, I look to them not to escape the world around me, but to take heart and courage in the notion that each of us, regardless of our background or stature, can effect meaningful change in a way that improves our world, so that I can face that world with renewed strength. I know many of you do as well, and that’s the primary purpose of this post—to give everyone a chance to share who inspires them to get up each day and fight that good fight no matter what is going on around them.

So, say on, my friends, and may you discover within the comments below yet another beacon of light to guide you through the darkness.


*Okay, fine—in some cases, the hero might do it for, say, a fine piece of dwarven backside, but Heloise is pretty unique amongst fantasy heroes in that regard, I think. Or maybe I just hope…

There's something to be said for original ideas. There's also something to be said for copycatting unoriginal ideas that work just dandy.

Last year, to celebrate mystery/thriller week on GR, we did a giveaway of The Camelot Shadow that was so wildly successful, virtual bookshelves everywhere started groaning under the weight of the tomes given away. So, let's run it back and do it again for the millions of adoring would-be fans who have added the book to their TBR since then. (I'm even liberally copying my own text from last year's post.)

The best part about this giveaway is that EVERYONE IS A WINNER, I’m not even going to make you read through all of my rambling, turgid prose below before telling you how to get your copy (though you’re more than welcome to continue reading my rambling, turgid prose, which is essentially what you’re committing to doing if you’re reading The Camelot Shadow anyway).

So, what do you need to do? Two simple things:

1) Add The Camelot Shadow to your “to read” list on GR so all your friends can see what good taste you have in handsomely-nosed independent authors; and

2) in the comments section below, list your favorite mystery or thriller (if you’re feeling effusive, please feel free to tell us why). (Also, I wouldn’t be upset if you shared this link with your GR friends.)

The only catch: you’ve got to do it by midnight (Eastern) on Sunday, April 8.

Once you’ve commented, I’ll send you a private message asking which format you’d like the book in (Mobi/ePub/PDF) and what email to send it to. It’s that easy, folks!

Now, if you’re only here for my goodies, you can stop reading (and, let’s face it, who DOESN’T want my goodies?).

Now then…you there—in the back. I see you waving your hand frantically. What is it?

“But, Mr. Handsomely-Nosed Independent Author—is The Camelot Shadow REALLY a mystery/thriller? I mean, come on—it’s set in Victorian times, when they didn’t even have cell phones or Snapchat or Dippin’ Dots ice cream, and there’s magical stuff going on, and it’s got King Arthur references that don’t have anything to do with the Guy Ritchie movie (I mean, what’s that all about?), and the pacing is kind of slow out of the gate. Also, your nose isn’t all that handsome.”

Well, I’m glad you asked that, Mr. Bludgeoned Repeatedly and Enthusiastically With the Ugly Stick. The Camelot Shadow is something of a cross-genre hodgepodge, mainly because that’s exactly the kind of thing that I like to read. While I dig fast-paced, straight up thrillers on occasion (more on that below), I’m an even bigger fan of a slow burn mystery that builds up as characters are simultaneously built up and clues revealed, where an unexpected twist throws you off track and, before you can recover, you get twisted right back around, and where the characters can’t rely on high-tech gizmos to help save the day (not that there’s anything wrong with stories where that happens; I just love the dramatic tension of characters not instantly being able to communicate with each other across distances or find an answer to an unsolvable mystery in less than two seconds by Googling it). Throw in elements of history, fantasy, bromance/buddy movies, and a Victorian setting and you’ll literally see me drool. (Not that seeing me drool is a particularly unusual occurrence, incidentally, as all of my stained shirts will attest.)

So, sure—The Camelot Shadow isn’t a mystery/thriller in the same way that a Janet Evanovich or Nelson DeMille book is a mystery/thriller, but it’s got enough of such elements for me to use this week as an excuse to give you free books, so be quiet. If you dig mixing all of those genre elements together, you might like the book (and, if you don’t, I promise I won’t be mad if you have to publicly trash it in your review—reading is subjective, and we can still be friends). And, I have no idea what that Guy Ritchie/King Arthur nonsense was all about. Let's pretende it never happened.

As for MY favorite mystery or thriller? First off, I think those are two different things—a book can certainly have elements of both, but a story can also just be a straight mystery (that’s not so thrilling, and I don’t mean that pejoratively), or a straight thriller (where the reader knows what’s going on but the characters don’t, and it’s a pulse-poundingly, rip-roaringly paced yarn). Putting that aside, though, and with nods to more contemporary writers like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (the Pendergast books never fail to entertain), Dan Brown (The Camelot Shadow borrows from the formula that Brown has popularized so adeptly in his Robert Langdon books), and John Saul (that man writes some creepy thrillers), as well as masters of the genre like Agatha Christie and Edgar Allen Poe (arguably the inventor of the genre), I have to go with a tale featuring a certain deerstalker-wearing detective: The Hound of the Baskervilles. The combination of Holmes and Watson (the best detective duo ever, for my money), a haunting setting, the intimation of supernatural chicanery afoot, and some of Doyle’s most effective pacing makes for an unforgettable reading experience.

Now then—let’s hear from you…

Goodreads very awesomely makes it easy to do Kindle giveaways for my ones of readers (as opposed to thousands, or even tens) in the United States. Less readily available are easy Kindle giveaway options for my 3.4 readers outside of the U.S.

(3.4, you ask? Well, turns out there’s a dude in Denmark who kinda sorta might want to maybe eventually read something I wrote, but he’s pretty “meh” about the whole thing. Australians, conversely, have asked me to very kindly never bother them again. I’m a beloved icon in Antarctica, though.)

So, while we’re doing a Kindle giveaway for The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple in the U.S. through July 30 to celebrate my finishing the first draft of a new Heloise book (click here to enter if you’re in the U.S. and haven’t yet done so, you recalcitrant sinner!), I wanted to at least give folks elsewhere in the world a way to get some free goodies.

Let’s make this easy: if you’re not in the U.S. and you want to get a FREE copy of Heloise & Grimple, here’s what you need to do by the end of your day on July 30:

1) Add the book to your to-read list (like you haven’t already)
2) Share the link to this blog post on your GR update feed so other friends can join the fun
3) Post a comment below letting me know you’ve done those two things

Once you’ve done that, I’ll send you a message asking what format you prefer and what email to send to—it’s that simple!

(Not sure you want to take that plunge? Check out a preview of the shenanigans.)

Happy reading to all!