Calling all eBook and lit enthusiasts: you can now get the eBook versions of both of my short story collections for just under $4. That’s right, my new collection, Songs of Vagabonds, Misfits and Sinners, is on sale for $2.99 and my previous collection, The Love Book, is available for the low, low price of only $.99. You can get them for your favorite reading devices including Kindle, iPad and iPhone, and Nook.

This is a bit of an experiment (for a limited time) to see two things: (1) are literature and short story readers as price sensitive as genre readers, and (2) are genre readers — many of whom champion independent authors in mystery, paranormal romance, and crime fiction — willing to jump out of their typical reading list. I don’t expect to hit any bestseller lists, but I suspect it might yield some interesting results (or prove me yet again to be a blasted idiot).

Click on the links below to get your ebooks. And it goes with out saying, if you like the stories in either book, be sure to post a review on the site you got it from or on any of the book sharing sites such as GoodReads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing.

Buy Songs of Vagabonds, Misfits and Sinners eBook
Amazon Kindle | iBooks | Barnes & Noble Nook | Smashwords | Scribd

Buy The Love Book eBook
Amazon Kindle | iBooks | Barnes & Noble Nook | Smashwords | Scribd

Here is part 2 of the RT20 Podcast featuring host Steve Reynolds, fellow Blacksmith for Literary Progress Brian Cogan, and yours truly discussing music and writing and how the two intertwine. There are more songs from our favorite soundtracks and artists that inspire us to write, as well as further pontificating on how all three of us use that music as part of our writing (including Songs of Vagabonds, Misfits, and Sinners in my case). Herr Reynolds even had the audacity to throw in a Steely Dan song. That’s right a Steely Dan song. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds who art in somewhere, save us.

Click here to check out Part 2. The song playlist for this installment is:

The new episode of the RT20 Podcast is now live and I’m proud to say it centers around two of my favorite topics: books and soundtracks. I joined host Steve Reynolds and fellow Blacksmith for Literary Progress Brian Cogan for a lengthy discussion of music and writing and how the two intertwine. As expected, we talked about my new book, Songs of Vagabonds, Misfits, and Sinners, and the soundtrack I created for it. We also waxed poetic about our favorite soundtrack music and songs that inspired us when we wrote. In between all the jabbering, Steve spun a selection of songs hand picked by Brian and I, including some great stuff by Iggy Pop, Glenn Branca, John Carpenter, Neil Young, The Dead Kennedys, and others.

Click here to check out Part 1. The song playlist for this installment is:

Part 2 of the Podcast coming soon…

Coming to a bookshop near you…

One of the fun parts about writing a soundtrack for a book is focusing more on mood. Writing soundtrack music allows you to be less specific, not referencing direct actions in the text, but capturing the overall feeling or emotion of a section. A key elements of No Tears for Old Scratch is the concept that there is a part of Knob’s End, the town at the center of the story, that most people don’t see or choose to ignore. Every town has those places, the ugly parts underneath. It doesn’t necessarily mean a seedy underbelly — although that is apt in some cases — it just means there are sections of American towns that either are grossly neglected or serve no purpose to the people living there.

The main character of the book spends a lot of time walking through those sections of Knob’s End. And he sees things that the citizens of the town have hidden away, almost as if they didn’t exist. So I wanted a theme that would fit those parts of the story.

The other fun part of creating a soundtrack are those moments of improvisational inspiration. Suddenly realizing that a section needs a beat, but the only thing that will work is that old ceramic drum you picked up in Morocco several years back.

And as always, stellar guitar tone is key (as is a Bigsby). Enjoy.

Listen to “The Parts of Knob’s End You Never Get To See”

Caleb J. Ross, author of the fantastic collection Charactered Pieces, just posted a nice review of The Love Book by yours truly on Outsider Writers. If I had to pick my favorite line from the review, I’d roll with this:

Perhaps The Love Book is the memoir of every damaged soul who has ever asked, selfishly or not, for such a simple thing as love.

Most impressive is that these characters are able to repeatedly dodge indefinite depression to end up, if not happy, at least with a more thorough understanding of what could bring that happiness.

You can check the rest of the review here. And if you haven’t read the dark, gritty tales in The Love Book yet, what the bloody ‘ell are you waiting for?

331 pages, 60,643 words. Now comes the hard part: selling the blasted thing.

Sorry for the lack of posts. But I’ve been hard at work on this bastard. First draft is done. I’m in the throes of rewrites now. More details to come soon…

A brand new interview with yours truly. LDP, a small press distributor and friend of independent publishing, recently interviewed me about self-publishing in the digital age. Check it out and link to it/post it if you can. Cheers!

Read the interview here.

I’m happy to say that The Love Book, my new short story collection, cracked the iTunes Top 100 Literature Podcasts list this week. It jumped up to #76 as of Tuesday, October 2nd (click on the image to enlarge the listing).

It’s great news and nice to see that more and more people are discovering the audiobook podcast. If you haven’t given it a listen yet, here is what a few readers have already said about the collection:

“This is very dark and has highly amusing moments. Deep and somewhat thought provoking.”

“Quirky, darkly entertaining stories. The fab ohmar might be my favorite story as well. Some of the imagery in there was just too good.”

“This kept my attention and was very visual even the implied references to abuse. My hat goes off to Mr. Wohlrob.”

“Loved the first installment of the fab ohmar. Can’t wait to hear the next one.”

So if you still haven’t checked out the audiobook podcast of The Love Book, what in the bloody ‘ell are you waitin’ for? You can subscribe to the audiobook podcast via: