Free Samples are Good for One and All!

Everyone loves a free reading sample, right? Right. The online booksellers all do a pretty good job of offering the first couple of chapters for download. I've got free samples on Goodreads, as well. But I thought it might be beneficial and delightfully okay to put the first chapters of each of my books up at my own personal website, so that is what I've been doing.

Here's the thing. Let me be frank. I don't have a particularly high opinion of my own writing, however, I am convinced that Shadows of Tockland, in particular, is a better book than most people realize. I suspect that reading the blurb and looking at the cover (though it is quite lovely, in my opinion) don't do justice to the actual story contained inside. In fact, when I was writing it, I kept thinking in my head, this is my magnus opus. Now, by that I don't mean that the prose itself is the best in the world. In fact, I believe I have gotten quite a bit better at the technical aspects of writing since Shadows of Tockland. But in terms of the story itself, the characters, the building intensity, there was almost a kind of electricity in my blood as I wrote it. That's all I can say.

Now, maybe I'm overstating things, so let me dial it down a little bit and put it in a milder way. I believe that Shadows of Tockland (formerly called The Klown Kroo), if you haven't already read it, is a more powerful and compelling and memorable novel than you realize. Whatever you think of it right now, it is better than that. There are a few typos that slipped through the self-editing process that I need to fix (and will fix at some point), but I don't think they detract too much.

All of that is to say, if you're only going to read one thing I write, your wisest choice would be Shadows of Tockland (unless you are a tender soul, in which case the rampaging rubes and fighting might be too much for you) and the free sample is here.

Now, as to Bloodstone - Deep Water: Book One, let me say that the Deep Water books are probably my most intensely personal. Thematically, that story flowed right out of a certain time in my life, and my blood is on the page. If my emotional content while writing it managed to work its way onto the page, then it should be, ultimately, a rather exhausting experience (in a good way). But judge for yourself. Read the free sample here.