The Quiet: A Novella

My Novella, The Quiet, is up for sale on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. In the coming days I'll get it up elsewhere as well. Here's the description:

James Benton might be the last man on earth. Racing to get to work, he finds random abandoned cars, smouldering pile-ups, and something even stranger. Everywhere he goes there's no grass, no people, not even a bird in the sky. Alone in a barren world, James travels west in search of someone, anyone who might have survived The Quiet.

In the future I will likely make a print book with three or four novellas together, including this one. In the meantime back to work getting Shining in Crimson ready to publish.

Episode 3 is here!

This episode includes music from Escape From Saturn, Eddie Entropy, Rainnair, Andras, Ambient Fabric, Mara5, and Arc. All artists on this episode other than Escape From Saturn came from the Pale Noir netlabel. There are some uniquely talented artists there, check it out!

As usual you can stream it below or download it here.




Shining in Crimson audio serial by Robert S. Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

For Sharon Lynn Gastineau...

So, it's been a busy, busy week. I've spent a lot of time writing and promoting and I've met a lot of new awesome people, albeit virtually. The last bit of polishing on the book is going quickly and I believe at this point it's safe to say that the ebook release will likely be early to mid August now!

I will be sticking with my initial release date of October 2nd for both the hardcover and the paperback editions.

I chose October 2nd as the date for my book release because it was my mother's birthday. She passed away in April of 2006, 3 years before I even started writing SIC. She was always the most supportive person and an avid reader.

She would often clutch a paperback in one hand, reading intently, her other hand turning over food on the stove. And I couldn't possibly count how many times she burned something in the oven because she was too pulled in to what she was reading to get up and turn it off. I've since become quite fond of biscuits with a little char on the bottom.

And when I started writing at the ripe age of 23, she was, as always, completely supportive. She'd been through many ailments, diabetes, cancer, and epilepsy. But those last years she developed the circulation and heart problems that have proved common in our family and she ended up losing both her legs. Even still, she was a source of strength for so many people, myself included.

On more than one occasion, doctors gave her 2 months to live. But as kind as she was, she had a meanness to her, a stubborn will that only a fool would cross. And she used that will to keep death at bay those last few years. I miss her more than I could ever express in words on paper or said out loud. I wish so much she could see what I've accomplished. Just one last visit. So, I wanted to put out the book on her birthday because she's the one I have and will always be writing for.

A novella accepted for publication and the winner of last week's pop quiz!

The winner of last week's pop quiz is (drum rolls annoy me, so let's just get on with it shall we?): Karen! Karen has one a free copy of the ebook of Shining in Crimson when it comes out, (which will be very soon!) and a bonus prize! I'll post later about the bonus prize.

Also in other news, my Novella, "The Quiet", has been accepted for the anthology, "Not in the Brochure: Stories of a Disappointing Apocalypse"! The anthology has an ad on The Horror Zine News page! All proceeds go to fight illiteracy! I'll update more on the anthology when I know more. That's all for now.

A lot to do today...

Okay, Thursday's pop quiz on the blog is now closed. Now I get to decide who the winner will be. In the meantime, I have some thinking to do, a new story to edit, some mowing to do, and a decent roadtrip in the middle of it all. Wish me luck and I'll announce the winner later today!

That First Breath...

I just wanted to take the time to express how great of an opportunity I am getting by making this audio serial. I'm finding some really amazing music that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. As a music lover and musician, it's like getting to relive that first time finding something beautiful and new that most people haven't heard and feeling that close connection with it only some music can create.

As I write this, I'm listening to one of the many awesome artists I'm trying to lure into joining my dark, strange crusade here. It makes me realize that even if they don't contribute to the serial, I've still found something beautiful and new that will stay with me and add another layer of shimmer to help protect against the constant struggle that is life. It feels like that first breath when you come up out of the water...

Schooled by horror?

If you haven't checked out Horror School's website and you're a fan of horror, what are you waiting for? Go there! 

Join other horror fans talking about all kinds of things related to horror. You can find horror stories written by members, including the first 2 chapters of Shining in Crimson, and you can put up your own! Not to mention, you can promote your own horror projects, there's a forum, you can earn horror points, it's a great place for any fan of horror.

What would YOU do if you were dropped off in Necropolis?

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, let me spell it out. What would you do if you were dropped off and left to die in a city of thirsty vampires? Would you fight to survive? Would you run, would you give up and wet your pants? What would you do?

Best response wins a free copy of the ebook when it's released and a bonus prize...

Edit: Contest ends midnight central time, July 25th, Monday morning...

Pre-orders available now

You will find on the right top corner of the page a Paypal link to pre-order your own ebook (any format), paperback, or hardcover copy of Shining in Crimson.

I have a release date of October 2nd, but it may come out much earlier. So, for now pre-ordering guarantees you the book will be shipped for free or emailed to you no later than October 2nd. If that date becomes sooner, I will update on here and email those who have pre-ordered to let them know.

If you live outside of the United States and want to buy a paperback or hardcover copy email me at shiningincrimson@gmail.com for the price as I will have to include a shipping fee.

Now, back to work on episode 3...

Anybody out there like to read?

For those who don't have the time or would just rather read than listen, I have posted chapters 1 and 2 (episodes 1 and 2) on Scribd.com and Wattpad.com.

If you've read a chapter or listened to an episode and you enjoyed it, please feel free to give me some feedback. I'm considering doing some audio short stories in the near future as well maybe in between some chapters of the book. Maybe even some stories from Necropolis that I have been working on. If you would like to hear or read those, comment and let me know.

Meanwhile, in the next episode Hank confronts one of his biggest fears, Simon goes for the ride of his life, and we learn something new about Peter. I'll keep everyone updated as the episode comes together. Thanks for listening/reading and not throwing rotten tomatoes at your screen.

Edit: I forgot to mention that episodes 1 and 2 are now up on Soundcloud and Myspace as well. I still can't get the stupid music player to work right on the Facebook page, but if I ever get the tracks up there, I will let you know. Like I said before, if there's anywhere you think I should put the serial that I haven't already, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Shining in Crimson episode 2 is finally up!

Episode 2 is now live!!! It includes music from Escape From Saturn, Guild, Art Flesh Gordon, Feed the Dead, O.O.O., and The Black Lanterns. Just like before you can play it in the player below or download here.




Shining in Crimson audio serial by Robert S. Wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

This just in...

So, for really real this time I can honestly say that episode 2 will be up before the end of this weekend. I'm just waiting on a couple of tracks from one of the artists and once I have them and put them in my little audio program and cue them up in the right place and pigs fly and the cow jumps over the moon...

For those of you who listened to episode one and enjoyed it, thank you for taking some of your precious time to give it a chance. For those of you who listened and felt it a waste of that precious time, I apologize whole heartily. Time seems to be the most rare commodity these days. I never seem to have enough of it, even if it's all in my head or someone else's. Because that's all these silly little schedules really are, aren't they? They're not time so much as a mental organization of time.

But I digress...

I changed my mind on some of the changes I was going to make to the format of the episodes. I will definitely be fixing the volume problems with the narration track but I will not be shortening the intro music. I will, however, be making sure that no one's ears get blown out by the end track from now on. Sorry about that.

In episode 2 we meet a lot of new characters, learn some new things about the vampires of Necropolis, and hear some great new music. There's a new instrumental track from my solo recording project Escape From Saturn (hint: the Shining in Crimson intro music is EFS),  as well as tracks from Guild, Art Flesh Gordon, Feed the Dead, O.O.O., and The Black Lanterns, so don't forget to come back and stream or download the new episode. Episodes will also be available on Facebook once Facebook will work right for me again, Soundcloud, Myspace, and just about anywhere else I can think of to put them. In fact, if you have a favorite place to get mp3s from that the serial isn't already on, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Until next time...