“The Son” by Philipp Meyer

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“The Son

Genre: Literary Fiction/Sagas

Release Date: May 28, 2013

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Now a TV Series on AMC starring Pierce Brosnan and co-written by Philipp Meyer.

Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling epic, a saga of land, blood, and power that follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family from the Comanche raids of the 1800s to the oil booms of the 20th century.

Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching examination of the bloody price of power, The Son is a gripping and utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American west with rare emotional acuity, even as it presents an intimate portrait of one family across two centuries.

Eli McCullough is just twelve-years-old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead and brutally murder his mother and sister, taking him as a captive. Despite their torture and cruelty, Eli–against all odds–adapts to life with the Comanche, learning their ways, their language, taking on a new name, finding a place as the adopted son of the chief of the band, and fighting their wars against not only other Indians, but white men, too-complicating his sense of loyalty, his promised vengeance, and his very understanding of self. But when disease, starvation, and westward expansion finally decimate the Comanche, Eli is left alone in a world in which he belongs nowhere, neither white nor Indian, civilized or fully wild.

Deftly interweaving Eli’s story with those of his son, Peter, and his great-granddaughter, JA, The Son deftly explores the legacy of Eli’s ruthlessness, his drive to power, and his life-long status as an outsider, even as the McCullough family rises to become one of the richest in Texas, a ranching-and-oil dynasty of unsurpassed wealth and privilege.

Harrowing, panoramic, and deeply evocative, The Son is a fully realized masterwork in the greatest tradition of the American canon-an unforgettable novel that combines the narrative prowess of Larry McMurtry with the knife edge sharpness of Cormac McCarthy.


Philipp Meyer grew up in a working class neighborhood in Baltimore, where he dropped out of high school and got a GED. After five years working as a bike mechanic and an orderly in a trauma center, he decided to attend college, getting into Cornell University at the age of 22. He graduated with a degree in English and he got a job on Wall Street as a derivatives trader. After paying off his student loans, he left Wall Street hoping to write full time, but after several years of failure moved back to Baltimore and took jobs as an EMT and construction worker. In 2005 he received a fellowship from the University of Texas’s Michener Center for Writers. In 2009 he published his first novel American Rust, which won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was an Economist Book of the Year, a New York Times Notable Book, a Washington Post Book of the Year, and made numerous other “best-of” list. Meyer is a Guggenheim Fellow and one of the second generation of the New Yorker’s 20 best writers under 40. His second novel, The Son, is being published in fifteen languages. He lives mostly in Austin, Texas.

“The Road to Hell is Paved With Adverbs” – Stephen King – What do the numbers say?

Writers – more useful resource links! 😉

Author Don Massenzio

Stephen-King-Quotes

As writers, we are constantly (adverb) told about the misstep of using too many adverbs in our writing. I recently received the book Nabakov’s Favorite Word is Mauve, by Ben Blatt which has the first attempt to quanitfy adverb usage by authors recognized as the masters of the craft that I have seen.

So, being a numbers person, I was drawn to this article and wanted to see how my own writing stacked up to the masters in this area.

Did Stephen King live up to his quote? The book found that, out of the voluminous novels (51) that King has written, his rate of adverb usage (strictly the ones ending in ‘ly’)is about 101 per 10,000 words or right around 1%. Ernest Hemingway, who also extolled the evils of adverbs, lived up to his claim with only 80 adverbs per 10,000 words over his 10 novels. That’s only…

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“Code for Murder” by Eliot Parker

#FREE August 9th Only!


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“Code for Murder

Genre: Suspense/Women Sleuths/Police Procedural

Release Date: July 26, 2017

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An overzealous decision by Cleveland Police Lieutenant Stacy Tavitt leads to a botched undercover investigation, leading to Stacy being attacked and her unconscious body dumped into the frigid Cuyahoga River. Six months later, Stacy’s first case back from medical leave involves the murder of Cleveland Browns football player Devon Baker. With little forensic evidence connecting anyone to the crime, Stacy sets out to find the killer. As Stacy comes very close to unraveling the tangled threads of the case, the killer wants her, and those close to her, to suffer for another impulsive decision she made in the line of duty. The killer just may be more familiar to Stacy than she realizes.


Eliot Parker is the author of four novels: Breakdown at Clear River, Making Arrangements, Fragile Brilliance, and Code for Murder. Fragile Brilliance was a 2016 Finalist for the Lords of Discipline Thriller Prize, which is affiliated with the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize and SIBA. He also received the Bronze Award from the National Literary Habitat organization for mystery/thriller writing. He also won the West Virginia Literary Merit Award.

He currently teaches writing and literature at Mountwest Community and Technical College in Huntington, West Virginia. Learn more at http://www.eliotparker.com

“‘Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy: Romantic Comedy Mystery (Greatest Hits Mysteries Book 1)” by Leslie Langtry

#FREE August 9th Only!


'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy cover

“‘Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy: Romantic Comedy Mystery (Greatest Hits Mysteries Book 1)

Genre: Suspense/Women Sleuths/Humor

Release Date: June 11, 2013

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“The Greatest Hits Mysteries are pure wicked fun! Imagine Stephanie Plum with a license to kill… and Grandma Mazur running the show. You’d be close to the Bombay Family.”
~ Gemma Halliday, New York Times Bestselling author of the High Heels Mysteries

From USA Today Bestselling author, Leslie Langtry…

YOU CAN’T PICK YOUR FAMILY…
Death by Chocolate is her favorite dessert. And those knitting needles aren’t just for craft projects. To most people, Gin Bombay is an ordinary single mom. Then again, they don’t know she’s from a family of top secret assassins. Somewhere between leading a Girl Scout troop for her kindergartner–would nooses count for a knot badge?–and keeping their puppy from destroying the furniture, Gin now has to take out a new target.

BUT YOU CAN PICK THEM OFF
Except this target has an incredibly hot Australian bodyguard who knows just how to make her weak in the knees. But with a traitor threatening to expose everything, Gin doesn’t have much time indulging her hormones. She’s got to find the leak and clear her assignment…or she’ll end up next on the Bombay family hit list.


Leslie Langtry is the USA TODAY Bestselling author of the Merry Wrath Mysteries, the Greatest Hits Series, the Aloha Lagoon Ukulele Mysteries and Sex, Lies & Family vacations.

She is not, nor ever has been a former CIA agent or an assassin (a question that surprisingly comes up more than you’d think). She has been a Girl Scout Volunteer for 15 years and was a troop leader for 10 years – which gave her a wealth of material that she uses in her books.

Leslie lives in the Midwest with her family and assorted animals and has an unnatural obsession with cake. You can find out more about her and her books at http://www.leslielangtry.com.

“Into the Light (Lightbearer Book 1)” by Tami Lund

#FREE August 9th Only!


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“Into the Light (Lightbearer Book 1)

Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban

Release Date: January 7, 2017

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They’re supposed to hate each other…

Olivia Bennett, Princess of the magical Lightbearers, is an only child, and as a result, she’s a woman with a great deal of expectation piled onto her delicate-yet-tough shoulders. She isn’t particularly thrilled with the latest requirement of her station in the world, so, in a surprising act of rebellion, she leaves her family’s magically protected home and heads off to Vegas to have some good old fashioned fun in a place where no one knows she’s a princess–or that she isn’t even human.

Of course, she runs into trouble, of the potentially deadly kind.You see, Lightbearers carry magic that the shapeshifters want, and they believe the only way to gain said magic is to kill the person who currently possesses it. This is why Lightbearers have lived in their magically hidden coterie for the past 500 years, and absolutely why the princess, the only heir to the throne, should most definitely not have run off to live it up in Sin City.

Luckily for Olivia, Tanner Lyons isn’t like the shapeshifters she’s learned about in her studies. Seriously lucky, actually, because he ends up rescuing her from his own father, who planned to kill her for her magic. Tanner then vows to take her cross-country to return her safely to her secret home.

Assuming, of course, they can keep their hands off each other en route. Which is crazy since they’re supposed to be arch enemies, not lovers…


Tami Lund writes. And drinks wine. And wins awards. She also loves romance and is writing happily ever afters, one book at a time.

Tami writes paranormal and contemporary romance, often with a dose of suspense. Chances are, there is a new book coming out soon. Be sure to stalk her on social media, so you know when.

And most important, if you enjoyed one of Tami’s books, please let other readers know by leaving a review on the site from which you bought it. Otherwise, how will they know which book to read next?

Stay up to date on the latest and greatest. Signup for Tami’s newsletter and get a free read!
http://www.subscribepage.com/Tami_Lund

Tami is also one-half of the Sexy Bad Books team, along with Misti Murphy. Together, they wrote Sexy Bad Neighbor and Sexy Bad Daddy (book 3 – Sexy Bad Boss is coming soon), and hang out in the Sexy Bad Lounge Facebook group, if you want to join them for some sexy bad fun!

“Inheriting Edith: A Novel” by Zoe Fishman

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“Inheriting Edith: A Novel

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Release Date: October 18, 2016

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A poignant breakout novel, for fans of J. Courtney Sullivan and Elin Hilderbrand, about a single mother who inherits a beautiful beach house with a caveat—she must take care of the ornery elderly woman who lives in it.

For years, Maggie Sheets has been an invisible hand in the glittering homes of wealthy New York City clients, scrubbing, dusting, mopping, and doing all she can to keep her head above water as a single mother. Everything changes when a former employer dies leaving Maggie a staggering inheritance. A house in Sag Harbor. The catch? It comes with an inhabitant: The deceased’s eighty-two-year old mother Edith.

Edith has Alzheimer’s—or so the doctors tell her—but she remembers exactly how her daughter Liza could light up a room, or bring dark clouds in her wake. And now Liza’s gone, by her own hand, and Edith has been left—like a chaise or strand of pearls—to a poorly dressed young woman with a toddler in tow.

Maggie and Edith are both certain this arrangement will be an utter disaster. But as summer days wane, a tenuous bond forms, and Edith, who feels the urgency of her diagnosis, shares a secret that she’s held close for five decades, launching Maggie on a mission that might just lead them each to what they are looking for.

“Men, Women & Children: A Novel” by Chad Kultgen

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Men Women and Children cover

“Men, Women & Children: A Novel

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Release Date: June 21, 2011

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The author of The Average American Male and The Lie returns with a shocking, salacious, and surprisingly subtle new novel of the average American family. Like Neil Strauss and Nick Hornby, Chad Kultgen has the capacity to enthrall and astonish even the most ardent readers of contemporary literary fiction. In Men, Women, and Children, his incisive vision, unerring prose, and red-light-district imagination are at their most ambitious and surprising, as he explores the sexual pressures of junior high school students and their parents navigating the internet’s shared landscape of pornography, blogs, social networking, and its promise of opportunities, escapes, reinvented identities, and unexpected conflicts.


Chad Kultgen is a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. His novels include The Average American Male, The Average American Marriage, The Lie, and Men, Women & Children, the basis of a feature film by Jason Reitman. He lives in California.

Why I am giving my book away for FREE

Free book with review opportunity from a friend! 😉

Just 4 My Books

Magic o’Clock

Yep, you read it right – for FREE

Head on over to The Story Cartel, where you can download a free copy (for Kindle, PDF or EPUB).

All I ask of you is that you then post a review on any book site such as Amazon, B&N or Goodreads

Why Story Cartel?

Story Cartel is a new way for readers and authors to connect.

This is a home to any kind of book you could imagine, from nail-biting thrillers to tender romance novels, serious literary fiction to self-help non-fiction.

Every book is free for a limited time. Now that’s Magic!

The books you see on Story Cartel are all offered free by generous authors in exchange for your honest review. For book lovers, Story Cartel is a resource to discover great books and fresh authors.

Readers support authors by leaving their honest review.

All books on…

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“Incognolio” by Michael Sussman #NewRelease


Incognolio cover

“INCOGNOLIO

Genre: Magical Realism/Thriller & Suspense

Release Date: August 9, 2017

99¢

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Bewildered but lovable author, Muldoon, is trapped in the dreamlike narrative of his own surrealistic novel. Beginning with just a title—Incognolio—he enters a bizarre fictional realm that plunges him into an identity crisis of anguishing proportions. Is he writing a story in which his stillborn twin sister has come to life, or is he the one who died at birth and it’s his sister who’s writing the novel? Guided only by the whims and dictates of his subconscious mind, Muldoon must unravel the mystery of Incognolio and write his way to freedom or succumb to madness.


Abandoned by a cackle of laughing hyenas, Michael Sussman endured the drudgery and hardships of a Moldavian orphanage until fleeing with a traveling circus at the age of twelve. A promising career as a trapeze artist was cut short by a concussion that rendered him lame and mute. Sussman wandered the world, getting by on such odd jobs as pet-food tester, cheese sculptor, human scarecrow, and professional mourner while teaching himself the art of fiction. He now lives in Tahiti with Gauguin, an African Grey parrot.

Author Links

Web: MichaelSussmanBooks.com

FB: Facebook.com/IncognolioTheNovel/

Twitter: @MichaelBSussman

Instagram: michael_sussman