Friday, April 1, 2011

Equinox: Six Declinations - Richard S. Freeland

Equinox - Six Declinations is an anthology of six stories, ranging from horror to traditional quest fantasy to suspense.

* Equinox – Detective Kate Buchanan has never encountered anything like the rapist known as “Popeye”. His victims remember only vague impressions about the shadowy figure that Kate soon starts to believe is more than human. Kate must hunt for the elusive Popeye while coming to terms with the dark secrets of her own past. A horror story, with adult subject-matter.

* Family Tradition – For generations, the Henry clan have initiated their children into the rite of the hunt. Now it’s young Tom’s turn to prove himself by taking down the prey. A coming-or-age story with a bite.

* Anomalies – Change comes to the town of Booster’s Roost. The residents will never be the same. Fantasy/horror with a dollop of humor.

* The Last Angel – In a post-Apocalyptic, dying world, Raun and his friends live on the edge of survival in a savage land. There is hope, however – prophecy of a wondrous being who can bring salvation. In order to save their world, 6 travelers with nothing to lose must go on a quest to find – and save – what may very well be a myth. A traditional fantasy “quest” story.

* Garbage Man – Henry Hatcher is a garbage man – he works on a dozer in the landfill, covering up other people’s cast-off trash. Henry wants nothing more than to be a normal man, living a normal life. Unfortunately, Henry can’t do that – circumstances have made him the Hand of God. A different kind of ghost story.

* Bygones – Edwin Goss and Marshall Grant have been life-long friends. Now Marsh lies dying, and Win must confront the phantoms of their past lives to come to terms with his own future.




Bio:

I'm a landscape architect, writer, and sometimes singer/songwriter. Married with two boys. I like boating, fly fishing, hiking and tennis. And reading - LOTS of reading. I have several websites I'm working on: dragonlyre.com (my writing site); jekyll-island-family-adventures.com (family budget travel to Jekyll Island); and potsibilities.com (my garden design site).


What Readers Will Like About "Equinox - Six Declinations":

If you like character-driven horror/fantasy/thriller fiction, this is a good book for you. Although it's genre fiction for the most part, I've tried to add a little more literary flavor. I hope I achieved that goal.
Also, as it's an anthology of only 6 stories and some are fairly long, it reads fast.

Why Self Publish: 

I'd slowly accumulated a stable of short stories, and published a few on on-line ezines like “Fool-Motley” (now defunct) and “Dark Fire”, but haven’t really tried to do much with them. I finally figured that I’m not getting any younger, so I’d best put them out there, and see what develops. I don’t have the time or the patience to fool with sending stories out to the print magazines, so thought a self-published ebook anthology would be a better way to go.
I've heard that the majority of ebooks are sold on Amazon. And their pricing structure makes it even more appealing. Getting the hang of formatting can be a pain, but once you’ve got it down, subsequent books should be a piece of cake.

Amazon instructions can be confusing. I found better instructions from various sites on the internet, and from the ebook “How to Publish an Ebook on a Budget”, by Stephanie Zia.

Best thing to do is just jump into it. I formatted “Equinox – Six Declinations” for Kindle and Smashwords (which use similar but different processes) in under two days, starting from knowing nothing to the finished process, including several botched attempts. But if you don’t want to fool with it, there are folks out there who’ll do it for you for a fee.

Favorite Authors in my Genres: 

Edgar Rice Burroughs was a big influence growing up (Tarzan, and the John Carter books). A co-worker gave me a dog-eared copy of “The Key-lock Man”, by Louis L’Amour, and I was hooked. I’ve read all of his, and have them all. He’s my huge western influence. On the horror side there’s Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Dean Koontz, F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry. Thrillers and suspense – John Sandford; Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child; Randy Wayne White; C.J. Box. Adventure – Ken Follett; James Rollins; Clive Cussler. And I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Classics – Mark Twain.

These are my writing heroes. The plateau they’ve reached may elude me, but they give me something to aspire to.

Links:

You can buy "Equinox - Six Declinations" at Amazon (for the Kindle) or Smashwords (for just about any ebook reader format). Or get a .pdf copy from Dragonlyre.com.


No comments:

Post a Comment