S.G.’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2011)

S.G.’s comments from the S.G. Browne - Author group.

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!

Hi Everyone. In case you didn't know, Lost Creatures: Stories is now out in the wild and available in eBook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo. It's also available in paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I've included all of the vendor links on my website, along with some reviews, that you can CHECK OUT HERE.


In addition, if you'd like to order a signed paperback copy of Lost Creatures: Stories, signed copies 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 Lost Creatures: Stories 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!

LOST CREATURES, my new collection of 14 short stories, comes out next month. Below is the back cover copy for the collection. More to come!

-----------------------------

A family of luck poachers receives a phone call that sets them off in the hopes of reversing their bad fortune. At a singles mixer for chemical elements, a luminous-yet-jaded Neon looks for love, or at least a one-night exothermic reaction. When blue skies turn gray and the daikaiju siren blares, the ten-year-old daughter of the local weatherman discovers her destiny. And washed-up evildoers live out their meaningless lives at a retirement home for villains—you never know when someone might turn the swimming pool into a shark pit, or bring a death ray to Taco Tuesday.

From the imagination of the author of Breathers and Big Egos comes a collection of fourteen tales of downtrodden luck poachers, lovelorn chemical elements, obsolete villains, disillusioned children, trademarked teenagers, outcast reindeer, victimized zombies, and time-traveling alcoholics—many of them lost and searching for answers. Some of them find what they’re looking for, while one or two discover that childhood dreams can come true.

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to let you know that I'll be releasing a new collection of short stories in May. The collection is titled Lost Creatures and it contains fourteen tales of downtrodden luck poachers, lovelorn chemical elements, disillusioned children, obsolete villains, underachieving adults, trademarked teenagers, outcast reindeer, victimized zombies, and time-traveling alcoholics—many of them lost and searching for answers. Some of them find what they’re looking for, while one or two discover that childhood dreams can come true.

You can read a bit more about the collection and check out the book cover on my website: http://sgbrowne.com/short-stories/los...

I'll be providing more updates between now and the release date in May. If you'd like to sign up for my newsletter to make sure you don't miss any updates, please feel free to join the mailing list: http://sgbrowne.com/contact/

Thanks!

My friend Loren Rhoads interviewed me for her website, where I dish on my novel Less Than Hero, including my writing process, my favorite scene, and what inspired the book. Check it out!

https://lorenrhoads.com/2018/05/08/5-...

Breathers, my dark comedy and social satire about zombies, is currently being offered as an eBook promotion for just $1.99.

That's right. For less than a grande coffee from Starbucks or a large frosty from Wendy's, you can order Breathers from your favorite digital retailer. That includes Amazon Kindle, NOOK for Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Google Play, and Kobo, which is the eBook provider for many independent bookstores.

So if you've been thinking about adding a digital version of Breathers to your library, or if you'd like to introduce one of your friends or family members to Andy and the gang for half the price of a McDonald's Big Mac, act soon as the promotion will only last a short time.

As always, thanks for reading.

On June 27, I will be self-publishing a new book, a novella about dogs and cats titled The Maiden Poodle: A Fairy Tail.

For those of you who have read any of my previous books, it would be understandable if you expected this story to be a supernatural dark comedy about an unmarried poodle during the time of King Arthur, with some social satire throw in for good measure.

The Maiden Poodle is not one of those books.

While there is a fair amount of humor involved, it’s on the lighter and more playful side. And although I’ve incorporated a hint of fantasy and the supernatural, you won’t find any immortal personifications of fate or any designer drugs that allow you to become Elvis Presley. You also won’t find any super heroes, luck poachers, or zombies.

Here there be poodles.

And not just poodles. There also be Scotties, Saint Bernards, border collies, golden retrievers, beagles, greyhounds, German shepherds, and numerous other dog breeds—all of them of the anthropomorphic variety and living together in the ancient kingdom of Felinia.

Oh yes. And cats. Did I mention there were cats?

(You can read more about The Maiden Poodle HERE . And for those of you who are wondering, the book is appropriate for animal-loving children and adults of all ages.)

As I mentioned, The Maiden Poodle officially goes on sale on June 27, but it is currently available for pre-order on Amazon for Kindle and will also be available in trade paperback once the on-sale date approaches.

Any questions, just let me know. And as always, thank you for reading.

It's Round 2 of the Great Kindle Giveaway!

This time I'm giving away eBook copies of my new short story "Dr. Sinister's Home for Retired Villains," which officially releases on Monday, August 22.

The giveaway is being hosted on both my Facebook author page and on my Twitter account, so if you’d like to play for a chance to win, head on over and join the fun by liking, sharing, or re-tweeting my contest posts.

If you’re on Facebook, I’ll also be creating an event page for the release of "Dr. Sinister's," where I’ll share additional information about the story, answer questions, and post a video reading of the first couple of pages. So I invite you to join me for that, as well.

(And remember: you don't need to own a Kindle to win. Just a device on to which you can download Kindle software.)

Thanks! And good luck!

Hi Jennifer. Thanks for (not) gushing and for loving my work. And for sharing it with others. Unlike herpes, when it comes to books, sharing is caring.

In anticipation of the August 15 release of my Kindle eBook short story
"Remedial English for Reanimated Corpses," I'm giving away some free copies!

Unfortunately Goodreads doesn't appear to allow me to do a giveaway unless the book is a physical copy rather than an eBook. So in order to enter for a chance to win, you'll need to head on over to my Facebook author page or my Twitter account, where I've posted about the giveaway with instructions on how to enter.

And if you don’t own a Kindle, you can still read my short story by downloading free Kindle software from Amazon for your PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. So everyone has a chance to win.

As always, thanks for reading. And good luck!

I always appreciate recommendations.

I'm giving away signed copies of my newest novel, BIG EGOS. Details on how to enter can be found on my blog:

http://sgbrowne.com/2013/08/the-big-e...

Good luck! And thanks, as always, for reading.

Scott

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. I haven't been checking in on Goodreads regularly and I can't seem to get Goodreads to notify me when someone posts to the group.

In any case, to your questions:

Yes, I do get this question about how much of myself is in my characters and no, I don't hate it or get offended. With first person narrative, it's tough not to have some of your world view come through, but I also take things to extremes sometimes or play devil's advocate. So I wouldn't say my characters are based on me.

However, I will borrow an answer given by someone I can't remember at a writer's conference, who said:

"While I am in all of my characters, none of my characters are me."

In other words, if someone who has read my novels meets me and is expecting Andy or Fabio or Nick Monday, they're likely going to be disappointed.

As for recurring questions I get that I hate? While I don't hate any questions, I do get a little tired when people ask me about my writing process or routine. I don't really have a routine, so I end up having to give an answer about my ideal routine. I tend to be a bit of a binge writer and that answer doesn't really seem to satisfy someone who is looking how to develop their own writing routine.

Thanks for the question, Sara. And again, my apologies for taking so long to answer it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see if I can find the Notification Settings on this group so this doesn't happen again.

Scott

I'm giving away two signed copies of I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus: A Breathers Christmas Carol, my new book and sequel to Breathers: A Zombie's Lament. You can see all of the details and enter on my website here:

http://sgbrowne.com/2012/11/i-saw-zom...

Contest ends Thursday, November 15 at 11:59pm PST.

I'm giving away several signed copies of LUCKY BASTARD to celebrate the German release, scheduled for Oct 1. All you have to do to enter for a chance to win is sign up for my e-mail newsletter. And if you're already signed up, then it's even easier.

Contest open to U.S. residents only and ends Sept 30 at 11:59pm PST. Check my web site for details by clicking HERE:

su.pr/5w28dS

And good luck!

Best,
Scott

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that means to chew food and/or grind food with the teeth. And yes, it sounds like something completely different.

In case you missed the blog post feed on my Goodreads page, I'm giving away two signed copies of LUCKY BASTARD to two lucky winners:

http://sgbrowne.com/2012/06/lucky-bas...

There are two ways you can enter to win. Contest ends Friday, June 22 at 11:59pm PST.

Good luck!

While I don't spend as much time doing it as I used to (and I really should), I used to collect words that I liked and didn't know the meaning of and then used them all in a scene. It was a great writing exercise that helped me to understand the meaning of the words.

This Wednesday, May 23 at 6:00pm EST (or 3:00pm for those of you here with me on the west coast), I’ll be doing a virtual video chat through a new platform called Shindig.

I’ll be reading and discussing Lucky Bastard and hosting an interactive Q&A. You can either write in a question or raise your hand to be called on plus video chat with anyone at the event. We'll be connected globally online via webcam where you can socialize with other participants. Or if you'd prefer, you can just sit back and watch and listen.

Here’s how it works. About 15 minutes before it starts, go to the following link and register:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/35539...

At this point, you might want to test your microphone and camera to make sure everything's working. Then when the event starts we'll have an interactive reading and discussion, complete with a Q&A session that will last about an hour.

Obviously, I'd love to have you join me and ask questions to make the event fun. The more the merrier! So feel free to invite your friends.

URL: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/35539...
Date: Wednesday, May 23
Time: 6:00pm EST

Thank you as always for your support and I hope to see you there!

Scott

Sorry for the delayed response, Richard. For some reason my notifications on this group are not set the way I thought they were and I keep missing them.

In any case, I found my agent by using Agent Query (http://www.agentquery.com), which is probably the best place to search for agents. Anything in print is already out of date as soon as you pick it up.

I used the Full Search option and selected the Fiction Genres that applied to my novel BREATHERS. However, you'll find more matches by selecting a single genre at a time for your search because if you select multiple genres, it only finds matches for agents who are interested in all of those genres, rather than one of them.

Then I'd go through the list of agents my search provided, find my A-list, B-list, and C-list, send off queries to them about 5 at a time, then when I exhausted that list, I'd do another search under another genre and start again.

I started searching back in June 2006 and it took me 15 months and 82 agents who said "no" before the 83rd agent said "yes." And after searching under horror, humor/satire, and offbeat/quirky, I eventually ended up finding her under commercial fiction.

Hope that helps. My apologies again for the delayed response. I'm happy to answer any follow-up questions either here or via my e-mail: scott@sgbrowne.com.

Good luck!