Slightly Off the Mark

 Five teens who otherwise have little in common bond over a shared tragedy: Five years earlier a steel mill exploded in Splendor, Ohio, leaving the surviving townspeople grieving.

Now Franny and her brother Arthur join Sofia, Remy, Levi, and Nick in filming a mockumentary web series they call "Ghost Hunters". It's all for fun and distraction--until they witness the crash of a disk-shaped object that engulfs them in light ... and gives them supernatural powers.

Soon they're being chased by the government, threatened by the recluse accused of causing the steel mill accident, and discovering their unusual abilities are anything but a gift. Their attempts to solve the mystery and escape detection make up the plot, but the heart of the story is with the teens, as they try to deal with their grief and sense of loss from an all too natural tragedy.

 Emily Henry's 2019 novel manages to balance the two, giving us real characters adjusting to an unreal situation that may include Franny being possessed by an alien. There's plenty of action and some twists I didn't see coming, but I was most impressed with Henry's ability to portray her damaged teenage characters. I noticed there was a high school activity book related to the novel, so it appears I wasn't the only one struck by her grasp of story and characters.

It's certainly worth giving Emily Henry's other books a look.

• Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
• Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"
• Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter
• Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/
• Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter
• Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter
• Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

Remember, authors who don't get enough reviews often get abducted by published aliens.

 I feel a little guilty for not posting about this since June, but it's now official: I have a contract to produce, for The History Press, a book titled something like Haunted Noble County. Probably with an "Indiana" added because, it turns out, there are more Noble Counties.

(I'm looking at you, Ohio and Oklahoma. I mean, did you have both a Governor Noble and a Congressman Noble? That's right--busted.)

My original title was Noble Dead Rise: Haunted Hoosiers Horrified! But the publisher talked me out of it, by saying no. The History Press is part of Arcadia Publishing, and you might remember I already wrote a book with them:

Also Indiana! Don't let Ohio steal this from me.

Anyway, the original balloon I floated was in this blog:

https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2023/05/looking-for-local-ghost-stories.html

Immediately after posting that, I vanished. Like a ghost.

Actually, we had the summer of hell, which says a lot considering I usually love summer. I don't want to belabor it, because I don't know what belabor means, but it's been an overall horrible year for a lot of people. It derailed both me and Emily, who's an indispensable part of these projects due to my general incompetence. But in a few weeks her job will revert to weekends only and I'll be taking a little time off, so we're about ready to get rolling.

My acquisitions editor even said I could add a little humor to the book, something he may come to regret.

I do humor! I also drink tea.

I'll get back in touch with the people who've already contacted me, and of course I'd love to hear from anyone who has a ghost/spirit/haunted/weird story or place about Noble County (Indiana!) Photos, too, would be appreciated, especially historical ones. I've also cleaned up our good camera and we're going to be going around the county (Indiana!) to get pictures of everything from haunts and historic sites to cemeteries and--well, an actual picture of a ghost would be cool.

If you have a suggestion, make sure it's not in Ohio or Oklahoma. I like to travel, but come on.

Sometimes it's all about the lighting, am I right? The courthouse in Ohio is boring!

As I said earlier, in general I like to communicate through e-mail or various internet messages, only because I spend most days asleep and lots of nights awake. Just the same: phone, in person, ecto-plasmic telepathy, whatever--we want to hear stories. In the list of links at the bottom of this blog are several sites I can be contacted through. I do NOT want to hear the TV say "They're heeeeerrrrreeeee ...." so stay out of the satellite feeds.

• Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter
• Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/
• Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
• Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"
• Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter
• Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter
• Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

Remember, if you don't support writers they attract more and more social media sites, and are soon so busy checking them they don't have time to write. Not that it would happen to me. Nope.

 So, I have a request for all of you out there. Well, those of you who read. Well, those of you who read my stuff. Well, those of you who like reading my stuff.

Or even if you don't, what the heck.

As all of you know--well, some of you--we just re-released my first published novel, Storm Chaser. Thanks to Emily for doing ...

Everything. My wife did everything. Every now and then she'd toss me a proof copy, I'd leaf through it, and she'd go back to doing all that stuff she did. I did nothing, I admit it. Happy now?

Anyway, there's what it looks like. Yes, Emily put the cover together, based on the old one. But there's one thing she couldn't do: transfer all the reviews of the original edition onto this new one. Which is here:

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Chaser-Mark-Hunter-ebook/dp/B0C7MB95NH

According to Goodreads, Storm Chaser collected 15 reviews and 27 ratings, which isn't great but beats the heck out of how many reviews I've gotten for Summer Jobs Are Murder (which hasn't been published yet). The problem is, according to Amazon I now have exactly three reviews. Which, at least, is easy to count. (Why those three stayed, I have no idea.)

So I'm asking everyone who has or does purchase the book, on Kindle or in print, to leave me a review. I don't know if Amazon will allow reviewers to post on the new book if they bought the old book, but if it doesn't you could at least leave yours on Goodreads, or the review place of your choice, up to and including bathroom stalls.

Just don't put my phone number there.

In return for your help I will ... hm ... dance.

No. No, that's a terrible idea. It's asking for another month of ice and ibuprofen. But I will be very grateful, because online reviews really do matter, especially on Amazon. No one really knows how Amazon's algorithms work, and I don't really know what an algorithm is, but I'm told the more reviews you have, the more likely you are to be seen.

People who see, buy. If enough people buy, I can write more. It's the circle of write.

This is the old version. You'll probably still see it here and there, so I should warn you it's probably more expensive.

• Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter
• Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/
• Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
• Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 Remember, every time you don't leave a review, an angel loses his hair. You don't want bald angels.

A few years ago we got the publishing rights back to our Storm Chaser series of books: Storm Chaser, Storm Chaser Shorts, and The Notorious Ian Grant. Our plan was to independently publish all three.

Sales had been flat, and the publisher that bought the publisher that bought the books (!) left their pricing (in my opinion) too high for a little known author. $3.99 is a great Kindle buy for a Steven King novel, but few people had heard of Mark R. Hunter.

(Many of those who did thought I was the CEO of Molson Coors Brewing Company. I once got a nasty e-mail from someone who didn't like how I was running my baseball team.)

Well, COVID happened, along with a bunch of other unforeseen problems of various kinds, but here it is!

We made a few edits, but basically it's the same story (a little R-rated in a couple of places) at a much lower price: The e-book version is $1.50 instead of $3.99, and the print version $14 instead of $16.99. (Printing costs are killing everyone.) Check it out here:

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Chaser-Mark-Hunter-ebook/dp/B0C7MB95NH

Storm Chaser is a romantic comedy pairing a Californian disaster photographer with an Indiana State Trooper who hates photographers—and Californians. I have a feeling he’ll come around … but meanwhile, who’s causing emergencies in his home area, just in time for her to photograph them?

There are still original editions of the book wandering around out there, with the same character on the cover. It seemed best to make the new cover different, but not too different.

We did get Storm Chaser Shorts, now titled Storm Squalls, out last year.

It can be found here, https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Squalls-Mark-R-Hunter-ebook/dp/B09YGJ1XR6, also at a lower cost.

I haven't been advertising Storm Squalls because most of the stories take place after the events of Storm Chaser--but now Storm Chaser is officially on the virtual bookshelves, so I can promote the heck out of both in between working on new projects. We're going to get The Notorious Ian Grant back up too, but it might have to wait until autumn.

But wait ... there's more!

Coming Attractions will be FREE on ebook in July, part of the Smashwords July summer/winter sale.

More about that later, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up. Now even the dog knows.

 He's a little upset I didn't ask his help in editing, though. Don't tell him, but Emily's much better at it.

By the way, my YA novel The No-Campfire Girls is also in the Storm Chaser universe, as it shares some of the same characters.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

If we sell a hundred books by the end of summer, I'll recite one of my humor poems online. If we sell a thousand by the end of summer, I promise I WON'T recite poetry online.

 Tom Jett, with his freshly minted college degree in philosophy, wanders from California across the country, looking for the right mountain range for ... he's not sure what. When his Toyota breaks down in the little town of Pick in southeast Kentucky, Tom figures this must be it, whatever it is.

Unfortunately, Tom arrives just as a corporation starts buying up local properties for a mining operation. He's put up in an old hillside cabin by local mechanic/blues artist Gilman Lee, who asks Tom to watch for signs the corporation is auguring coal from under his property. In short order Tom spots Gemma Collet, her skin milky white due to a medical condition, bathing naked in a nearby creek. Not long after, former resident Rosalie Wilson, Gilman's lost love, arrives from Florida, on the run from her rich, charming, homicidal lover.

Yes, it's a long book.

It's a little hard to describe the plot of Slow Dancing On Dinosaur Bones--in that way it's something of a literary novel, right up to an ending that's sudden and seems pointless, if inevitable. Gilman Lee is really the main protagonist, and the main fight is against an uncaring coal company that may not own his property, but does own the mineral rights. But things get complicated, quickly, and we're treated to numerous points of view as the characters go about their lives in ways that, often without realizing it, have great effect on others.

You should know that the book came out in 1996, although that doesn't really matter other than the lack of technology that may have made things a bit easier for everyone. Lana Witt has written a sequel of sorts, called The Heart of a Thirsty Woman, which at least in the beginning takes place in Pick. To give you an idea of my thoughts on the first book, I'll be tracking down the second for a read.

 

My family comes from that area of Kentucky--it was fun to recognize various towns and places mentioned. Lana Witt surely also comes from down there, because she has not only the locations and terrain down, but also the people. Good and bad. She also knows how to pick up the threads of a story and weave them together into a fascinating tale.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

World War II. Terrible as that time was, the warriors were strong and moral, always brave, steadfast, and focused on the same goal.

Or, sometimes, not so much.

One would think a novel written in the mid-Seventies would be big on the glory, as were so many books and movies in the years after the war. But Douglas Reeman was there, and he pulls no punches about how terrible it was, to bodies and souls.

www.amazon.com/Winged-Escort-Modern-Fiction-Library-ebook/dp/B06WP5SLT9

To stop the destruction of Allied shipping in the Atlantic, small, slow escort carriers are being built to accompany convoys, and fighter pilot Rowan is assigned to the HMS Growler. It's flagship of a tiny fleet escorting a convoy through the frigid Arctic to the Soviet Union, and German forces send everything they have against it.

Rowan can only do his job as his comrades fall one by one, his superiors make foolish mistakes for selfish reasons, and his own mind takes a battering from the constant stress and danger. 

After surviving that trip Rowan falls into a love affair while recovering from injuries, then ships out to the Pacific, where the Growler faces an unexpected threat: Kamikaze attacks. So there's plenty of action, but Reeman doesn't hold back from showing the mental and physical beating the pilots and sailors went through during the war.

So, how did I end up reviewing a four decade old novel? Well, I went out of town, was feeling under the weather and didn't want to read on my phone, and--there it was. A happy accident, because Reeman wrote with a spare but still detailed style that puts you right on board that little ship. He wrote dozens of other books, and I suspect they're equally gripping--look him up.

You can find Douglas Reeman's other books here:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Douglas-Reeman/author/B001HCS06Q
 

Like many writers, I like it when people read my stuff. I like it even more when they buy my stuff, because that gets me one step closer to retiring to the life of Gentleman Author.

(There used to be a thing called Gentleman Farmer. I suspect that means sitting on your front porch while someone else does the actual work.)

My goal, coming into 2022, was to sell an average of one book a day. It doesn't seem like much: Just 365 books in a year. But according to the experts, the average book sells a grand total of 300-500 books, depending on circumstances such as whether they're self or traditionally published. It takes only 3,000 sales to get on the Wall Street Journal best-seller list, if that gives you an idea. And yet, according to my research, over eight billion new books are published every year.

I might be a little off on that number. But it's a lot. (The actual number is estimated to be between 2-4 million a year.)

That average of a book a day seemed like a good goal, and I succeeded. But that's not the whole story. I have four books on Amazon Ads, which takes a great deal of work to balance out sales and costs, and in that I did not succeed. In other words, I spent more money than I made. Anyone will tell you that's not a sustainable business model, unless you're the government.

The other thing is that it's hard for an author to tell how many copies they've actually sold. Confusing authors seems to be a dearly loved tradition in the publishing industry. I spent quite some time totaling mine up, and in the end I came up with 539 sales in 2022.

But.

First, that's not the final number, because I still haven't gotten quarterly and biannual royalty reports from a few of my publishers.

 Second, while that's pretty good for one book, my sales were divided over eleven books. My biggest single seller was the romantic comedy Coming Attractions. Some of those weren't sales at all, but a giveaway over the holidays.

My second biggest seller was the humorous history book Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All. Everybody seems to love this book, and that came as a surprise because, although I have three history books, I consider myself more of a fiction writer.

But now I'm wondering if I shouldn't write something else of the same nature. Humor, history, trivia ... but about what? Hopefully something that gives me an excuse to travel around, like Hoosier Hysterical did.

Oh, you didn't know the writing business was work? Well, there you go.

You can find the aforementioned books here:

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Remember: Every time you don't buy a book, the Plain States get another blizzard. Spare the plows.

 Well, here I am, making my annual appeal for shoppers to buy our books for Christmas. Once a year isn't so bad, is it? I have yet to make a promotional post in honor of Arbor Day.

But wait--there's more!

That's something sellers have to say, I'm not sure why. Our books should speak for themselves, but they aren't available as audiobooks yet. I thought this year I'd let the books figuratively speak for themselves, so here's a brief description:

 Storm Chaser, The Notorious Ian Grant:

The second is the sequel to the first, and both follow the basic romantic comedy outline: One of the couple is a homebody who loves their little town; the other comes from the big outside world and proceeds to spread trouble. One is a cop, the other kinda/sorta works in the entertainment industry. In the first, a woman chases storms, in the second, her brother is the storm. The other thing they have in common: We're preparing to reissue them after getting the rights back from the publisher, so at the moment you'd have to contact us direct for a print copy.

Storm Squalls: 

Short stories set in that Storm Chaser universe, formerly known as Storm Chaser Shorts--but improved with more content and a better title. I haven't been talking about it much, pending the reissue of its parent novels, but it includes a new short story I'm particularly proud of.

Coming Attractions:

 Like the Storm Chaser books, this romantic comedy is set in northeast Indiana and also involves an outsider, this one trying to get the local drive-in theater shut down. Here's a secret cameo: One of the characters from Storm Chaser makes a very brief appearance, although he's never named. Well, I guess I gave away that he's a he.

The No-Campfire Girls:

Also related to Storm Chaser, but more of a spin-off. This YA adventure stars Beth Hamlin, the irrepressible teen from the other books, who plots to defeat a burn ban at her summer camp with the help of a Native America rain dance. It doesn't end well.

Radio Red is the first romantic comedy I wrote, and it's a little heavier on both the humor and the sex (!) I mean, the publisher is Torrid Books, so what does that tell you? It's about an irreverent Michigan radio station owner who hires a down on her luck air personality just before someone starts sabotaging the station.

What's that, you say? You want some non-fiction? Maybe even some humor? Okay:

People should be full of good humor: Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All, proves my co-author (and wife) Emily and I are full of it. We traveled all over the state I love to find out all sorts of cool details about it, and then ... made fun of them all. But it's good natured fun, so ... there.

Slightly Off the Mark and More Slightly Off the Mark are collections of my newspaper columns: The first are columns that never published because the paper got bought out, and the second are edited, updated columns from around the early 90s. Interestingly, while the humor/history/trivia book Hoosier Hysterical has been my best seller this year, these two books have been my worst sellers. Guess I should have added more history and trivia.

Images of America: Albion and Noble County:

This one is part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America book, photo-heavy volumes about local history. Despite being something you wouldn't expect anyone outside of Noble County to be interested in, it sold very well--which is good, because Emily and I worked hard to produce it. It's also the only one that made it onto the shelves of a Barnes and Noble (and a local CVS pharmacy!)

On an even narrower area of local history, Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century Or So With the Albion Fire Department covers the first century of the fire department I served on for forty years. It's got a bit more humor, but of course it's still a local history book--and it took me 25 years to research and write! (I wasn't writing daily, of course.)

Where do you find all these, you ask? 

Thank you for asking, much appreciated. They can all be found on our website and on Amazon:

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

And also on my daughter's website, White Birch Lane Boutique:

https://www.whitebirchlaneboutique.com/search?q=books

Most, but not all, can be found at other places:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

 https://books.apple.com/us/author/mark-r-hunter/id1025271801

You can't get all the books at all those sites for various reasons, but all in all it ain't too shabby.

Remember, every time you gift a book, an angel gets his swim trunks. It gets warm up there.