Slightly Off the Mark

Once again we're giving away Coming Attractions on ebook, as part of the Smashwords 2024 End of Year Sale. I'm sure we're all looking forward to the end of this particular year.

 

If you want to go directly to my account, it's at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914. There are two other books there, anthologies that I have short stories in: The Very True Legends of Ol' Man Wickleberry and his Demise: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/700221, and Strange Portals--Ink Slingers' Fantasy/Horror Anthology: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/499789. 

You can get Coming Attractions (and the two anthologies) on epub, mobi, and pdf formats, or as an original document, so it should be readable to anyone with an e-reader, cell phone, or computer. The print version, sadly, is not part of the promotion.

This is indie author paradise, and indie authors could always use the help. So please, check it out and share the promo with your friends and family, and anyone looking for their next favorite book.

 

Happy reading! 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, we and our books can still be found ... everywhere:

·        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

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

 I promised some time ago (or was it a threat?) that I'd share more info about our kinda-sorta new short story collection, Storm Squalls.

Formerly known as Storm Chaser Shorts, that title will now be used only when I'm dressing for a tornado watch. It's still a prequel/sequel/epilogue to our Storm Chaser series, something that arose organically because, when I originally wrote it, Storm Chaser was the only other book. You can take a look at it here:

www.amazon.com/dp/B09YGJ1XR6

If you don't like e-books and don't want to go through Amazon, you can order a copy (or two) direct from us. I'm sure we can arrange a deal if you want more than one of our books, to complete your Mark R. Hunter collection. Does anyone have one of those? I mean, besides me?

It's selling for $1.99 on Kindle and just six bucks in print, and usually you can't get a steal like that without committing a felony. That's two dollars less than the first Kindle edition.

But wait--there's more!

There were ten stories in the original collection, but we increased it to sixteen to give you more bang for your buck, or possibly you're gluttons for punishment.

But it complicates things, because only seven of the stories are set before the original Storm Chaser. Six more take place in the time period between Storm Chaser and its sequel, The Notorious Ian Grant, also a romantic comedy. The final three short stories more or less exists outside the timeline (as does the related young adult novel, The No-Campfire Girls). So you don't have to read the novels before you read half the short stories. You don't for any of them, really--but you'll be spoiled, as the kids say these days.

Of the new stories in this volume, three are brand new, including my personal favorite, "High Horse--Or, a Horse Tail". I had the most fun writing that one and "Chaos At the Con", which like the last two stories were available on social media some time back.

Whew.

Where were we? Oh, yeah. I hope you enjoy it, and did (or will) enjoy the other books in the series--and yes, arrangements can be made for a bargain on multiple book sales. I'm the author, I can do that. Also, say thanks when you see Emily, who designed the cover, formatted Storm Squalls for both e-book and print, and got it up for sale. She's my hero.

(By the way, Storm Squalls is also up on the website: www.markrhunter.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
• 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, no one ever died from feeding an author. That I know of.

I'm sure you all added our upcoming author appearance to your calendars and phones, and possibly had the date tattooed backward to your foreheads. I mean, all those authors and artists together--it'll be Indiana's social event of the decade. (Although I'm told the world's biggest greased pig chase and cornhole contest will be next year in Muncie, so we might be in second place.)

So there's no need to post the link that announced the Kendallville Art and Author Fair would be at the Kendallville Community Learning Center Saturday, April 30, from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. If I did, I'd put it here.

https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2022/04/were-coming-to-kendallvilles-art-and.html

 But I won't. It's our first author appearance since late 2019--I suspect you know what happened after that. Even before that we didn't do them often, so I started a list of what we needed to bring. Then I realized, surely I already made a list? I do that. I went back and sure enough, there it was.

So, what does every good author, and most of the bad ones, need to bring?

1. Books. This is kinda important. If you do a book signing, you should have something to sign.

2. Change. When one goes somewhere to sell books, one must assume some books will be sold. Thus: change for those high rollers who walk around with hundred dollar bills. (I don't know any of them, either.)

3. A calculator or, these days, a calculator app. After all, the whole reason I became a writer is because I can't do math in my head.

4. Tylenol. You'd be surprised. No, probably you wouldn't.

5. A camera. My wife took a photo of me signing a book for an Indiana State Senator who, apparently not having read my columns about politicians, was very nice. You never know what you might get a picture of when you're out in the public.

Maybe I'll have a new book to sell that day; you never know.

 My science fiction short story, "Everybody Knows Your Name", is available to read on the East Of the Web website:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/EverKnow1183.shtml

It's about a scientist whose invention doesn't cause the problems most people think of ... instead, he finds an entirely new worry.

Remarkably, it only took about a week from the time they accepted this story until it came out. My last published short story took four months from acceptance to publication! But in that case there was also a print version of the magazine, while East Of the Web is e-pub only.

Let me know if you like it! Don't let me know if you don't like it. Yeah, I can take it, but I don't want to.

Where does Santa Claus go on vacation? Why, Oz, of course. Read about it in a new Christmas short story, and don't forget to sign up to get the regular newsletter, which hits about once a month. Merry Christmas!

https://mailchi.mp/3b41b4ddf9da/our-gift-to-you-a-christmas-short-story?e=2b1e842057

I put a free short story up on our newsletter; but while everyone leads the corona life, I figure even those who haven't signed on should be able to wind down with a little fiction:

https://mailchi.mp/3e551477c923/free-short-story-time?e=2b1e842057

Of course, it would still be cool if you'd subscribe to the newsletter! (And you can do it by following the link and going to the top left corner, where it helpfully says "subscribe".) Why? Well, first of all, the word just doesn't get out on social media the way it used to. Late last year I ran into an old friend who had absolutely no idea that I'd had ten other books published, after the first one. A guy can only send his dog around wearing a sandwich board with the website on it for so long before the police start making inquiries.

Second, newsletter subscribers get a little advanced warning of such things as my very first short story publication in a fiction magazine, which I'll write more about later.

Anyway, the free story, which has the advantage of being at no charge, is about one of my favorite characters, Beth Hamlin, and how she handles being forced inside by the coronavirus. (Hint: Badly.) A minor character in my first published novel, Storm Chaser, Beth's been weaseling her way into my work ever since, with her own short story in Storm Chaser Shorts, an expanded part in The Notorious Ian Grant, and finally her own book in The No-Campfire Girls. She's also been in several other short stories, sometimes with my conscious mind not expecting it until she walks in.

By the way, this story, "Outside Time", is set before any of the books; so you don't have to worry about getting spoiled, or being lost, if you haven't read them before. I'll pout a little, but I'll get over it. 

Hope you enjoy, and let me know if you do! 

I didn't cheer. I didn't run through the streets, kissing perfect strangers. I just kind of sat there slack-jawed, staring at the e-mail. My wife probably thought I'd gotten a death notification.

But no: I'd sold a short story. And yes, I was happy--just having trouble believing it.

To understand why one sale should shock me so, we have to go into history. Don't worry, it won't hurt.

Shortly after turning 18, I started submitting short stories. At first, they went one by one to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, which these days is called Asimov's Science Fiction. There were and are plenty of other magazines that print (or post online, these days) short stories, but Asimov's was the first one I read, and I was stuck on appearing there first. Just so you know, that's a stupid way to do it, then and now.

I wrote dozens and dozens of short stories. I took a course on writing them; bought dozens of books about writing; and I read hundreds of the short stories of others. I also got smart enough to send each story to every market I could find.

By the way, thanks to Linda Nagata, my teacher in that correspondence course. It was in the snail mail days. The story she helped me improve was "Grocery Purgatory", a tale of disappearances set in a small town grocery store. Read all about her here: https://mythicisland.com/

None were ever published. I came close later on, with favorable and personal rejection letters. Eventually I discarded the ones clearly written in desperation--some of them were real stinkers--while revising and improving the ones that showed promise. But no final sale.

Here's the thing: short stories of mine have been published. Some were holiday themed tales, part of Christmas inserts in the three weekly papers that published my humor column. They were not in the habit of publishing fiction, and if I hadn't already been on the staff it wouldn't have happened ... so they didn't really count.

In 2011 my first novel, Storm Chaser, came out. I wrote several short stories featuring the characters from the book, intending to give them away to promote the book itself. But when I told my publisher about it, they suggested selling them together, as a collection. That's how Storm Chaser Shorts came about: They're published, and they're short stories, but it seemed to me again that I had a bit of an unfair advantage, compared to cold selling a single story to a publisher who didn't know me. 

Three anthologies carry my stories, but they were by invite, and I think they also don't count. 

The point is, it had become personal.

(Oh, and as usual, all those can be found on our website and here, on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO.) Always be closing.

As time went by, I boiled down the publishable stories to six, always waiting there in my master submission log. I had submitted my first short story in the summer of 1980.

So you see, when I received an e-mail from Alban Lake Publishing, telling me they were buying a story for one of their periodicals, I had been trying to sell to a magazine for thirty-nine years.

The story is "Coming Attractions", the bones of which I first wrote three decades ago. Revised many times and workshopped with Linda Nagata, it's hardly recognizable from the original (which was twice as long).

I'll give out more information when I get it, but my new publisher's website is here:

https://albanlakepublishing.com/ 

After almost four decades, I'll have a short story published in a magazine. Well, e-magazine. Let's just say periodical. After a summer of everything breaking and a long week of sinus infection, this small step is very good news, indeed. 

Now: On to selling the rest of them! 

http://markrhunter.com/

Here’s our Christmas present to fans, readers, friends, non-fans, and … well, non-readers maybe won’t appreciate it. Just go to our website extras page at http://markrhunter.com/extras.html, and you’ll find a new short story, “Look Outside’, as well as stories from the previous two years. Download the PDF and enjoy on the device of your choice, and let me know if you like it!

The No-Campfire Girls first paired Beth Hamlin and Cassidy Quinn, and in “Look Outside” we find they’ve developed a long-distance friendship: Beth lives in northern Indiana and Cassidy at the southern end of the state. Both are missing a parent at Christmastime, and it takes an extra holiday effort to cheer them up.

We previously met Beth in all four of my published works of fiction: Storm Chaser, Storm Chaser Shorts, The Notorious Ian Grant, and The No-Campfire Girls. In addition to her appearance in the latter work, Cassidy is the lead in a so-far unpublished YA mystery, Red is For Ick. Don’t worry: Although events from other stories are mentioned, you don’t have to read them to enjoy the story … although I’d be happy if you did.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!

Here’s our Christmas present to everyone: A free short story on PDF, featuring two characters from “Storm Chaser”, The Notorious Ian Grant”, and “Storm Chaser Shorts”.

“Another Family” is set before the books and features two cops, a surprise snowstorm, and a special guest who needs police assistance. Oh, and family. Merry Christmas! You’ll find it on the website at http://markrhunter.com/extras.html