News and Updates
Thursday April 23rd 2009 - 03:19 PM
It’s about time that I throw some more incoherent ramblings out over the information superhighway. So, within this post, I’m going to discuss a few things that struck me as interesting this week. They include the announcement of Dan Brown’s new book, a Twitter incident involving a suicide threat, new chapters being added to my first book, and a new podcast audiobook.
First of all, Dan Brown’s next novel The Lost Symbol was announced this week and comes out in September. If memory serves, it has been about five years since The Da Vinci Code hit and it has taken Brown that long to research and prepare for his next Robert Langdon adventure. Personally, I feel that Angels and Demons was far superior to The Da Vinci Code and hope that this novel is as well, but that’s beside the point. The point is that this is probably the most anticipated adult novel to come out in a very long time and unfortunately in my opinion it will never live up to the hype. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a Dan Brown hater (in fact I liked Angels and Demons and Deception Point a great deal), but The Lost Symbol is so overly hyped that there will be a plethora of people with nothing better to do than tear it down. The big thing that sold The Da Vinci Code was the controversy and I wonder what the premise of this book will be and if it will stir the same passion. That being said, I predict it will sell 2.5 gagillion copies (that’s a number, right?). Check out the other Mr. Brown at danbrown.com
Something else this week that I found interesting was an incident with a user on Twitter known as @liquidwings. This person posted messages to their Twitter account implying that they may commit suicide. I saw this post early on and others and myself, including some celebs, posted some encouraging words to this person and sent a message out for others to do the same. Within only a few minutes, the Twitter community was sending love and hope out over the lines to this nameless, faceless person in need of help. I’m not sure of how many messages the person received, but I’m sure it was in the thousands. I have to say that the incident really made me proud to be part of Twitter and restored some of my faith in people.
Next item on the agenda: the new chapters being added to The Shepherd. Although, my first book has been finished for a while and I have actually begun work on a few other projects, I was always bothered by the first portion of the novel. I felt that it lacked the intensity carried throughout the rest of the book. So, I recently added a new first chapter focusing entirely on the serial killer, Ackerman, and a run-in he has with two Colorado State Troopers. I like that Ackerman is introduced much earlier in the story and feel that the new first chapter gives a better picture of the rest of the book. But, it still wasn’t enough for me and that’s why I have now finished another new chapter that will be the new Chapter 4. It fills in some gaps and adds more action to the first portion of the book. I now feel that the first part of the novel flows better and that the pacing has been greatly improved.
Finally, I have been listening to a free podcast audiobook presentation of Jeremy Robinson’s book Kronos ( found here: http://podiobooks.com/title/kronos ). I’m not sure what the reasoning is behind giving the book away for free, other than sacrificing sales on this book in order to boost them on others, which is a brave and interesting idea. Regardless, the audiobook is available for free and the quality is very good, definitely up to par with other productions. The book, so far, has also been very interesting. I would definitely recommend it to any fans of Peter Benchley, Steve Alten, and the action genre. Check out more of Jeremy Robinson’s books at jeremyrobinsononline.com.
That’s enough of my two cents for this week, but check back next week as I discuss ebooks, the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, and much more.
First of all, Dan Brown’s next novel The Lost Symbol was announced this week and comes out in September. If memory serves, it has been about five years since The Da Vinci Code hit and it has taken Brown that long to research and prepare for his next Robert Langdon adventure. Personally, I feel that Angels and Demons was far superior to The Da Vinci Code and hope that this novel is as well, but that’s beside the point. The point is that this is probably the most anticipated adult novel to come out in a very long time and unfortunately in my opinion it will never live up to the hype. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a Dan Brown hater (in fact I liked Angels and Demons and Deception Point a great deal), but The Lost Symbol is so overly hyped that there will be a plethora of people with nothing better to do than tear it down. The big thing that sold The Da Vinci Code was the controversy and I wonder what the premise of this book will be and if it will stir the same passion. That being said, I predict it will sell 2.5 gagillion copies (that’s a number, right?). Check out the other Mr. Brown at danbrown.com
Something else this week that I found interesting was an incident with a user on Twitter known as @liquidwings. This person posted messages to their Twitter account implying that they may commit suicide. I saw this post early on and others and myself, including some celebs, posted some encouraging words to this person and sent a message out for others to do the same. Within only a few minutes, the Twitter community was sending love and hope out over the lines to this nameless, faceless person in need of help. I’m not sure of how many messages the person received, but I’m sure it was in the thousands. I have to say that the incident really made me proud to be part of Twitter and restored some of my faith in people.
Next item on the agenda: the new chapters being added to The Shepherd. Although, my first book has been finished for a while and I have actually begun work on a few other projects, I was always bothered by the first portion of the novel. I felt that it lacked the intensity carried throughout the rest of the book. So, I recently added a new first chapter focusing entirely on the serial killer, Ackerman, and a run-in he has with two Colorado State Troopers. I like that Ackerman is introduced much earlier in the story and feel that the new first chapter gives a better picture of the rest of the book. But, it still wasn’t enough for me and that’s why I have now finished another new chapter that will be the new Chapter 4. It fills in some gaps and adds more action to the first portion of the book. I now feel that the first part of the novel flows better and that the pacing has been greatly improved.
Finally, I have been listening to a free podcast audiobook presentation of Jeremy Robinson’s book Kronos ( found here: http://podiobooks.com/title/kronos ). I’m not sure what the reasoning is behind giving the book away for free, other than sacrificing sales on this book in order to boost them on others, which is a brave and interesting idea. Regardless, the audiobook is available for free and the quality is very good, definitely up to par with other productions. The book, so far, has also been very interesting. I would definitely recommend it to any fans of Peter Benchley, Steve Alten, and the action genre. Check out more of Jeremy Robinson’s books at jeremyrobinsononline.com.
That’s enough of my two cents for this week, but check back next week as I discuss ebooks, the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, and much more.