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Morning.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day for the Christmas e-release of my debut novel, DRIVEN. Not sure what the weather is like where you live, but here we have soft falling snow (not enough to make driving nutty or force the shovels out of storage–just pretty to watch as it falls). All in all I’m in a very Christmasy mood which I would like to share with you.

Soon, Amazon should be posting the Kindle version of DRIVEN for all to purchase (I’ll post the link as soon as it’s live). In the meantime, I would like to invite you all to a different kind of Christmas party–A virtual book launch party. Here’s the skinny:

When: Thursday, December 2, 2010 (yup, tomorrow) from 7 – 8pm (CST)

Where: DRIVEN‘s Facebook Fan Page (click here and you’ll be taken right to it). You’ll need to “like” the page to participate in the give-a-ways and the discussions.

Why: There will be gifts given away every ten minutes, time to ask the author about the publishing journey and the cast of characters (among other things), and did I mention gifts? (Oh yeah, it’s Christmas–I love Christmas)

What: Here’s the gift list–Two copies of Sandi Rog’s THE MASTER’S WALL, A copy of UNLOCKED by Karen Kingsbury, Brandilyn Collins RAYNE TOUR Trilogy (yup all three), one of the first paperback copies of DRIVEN, and a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

Hope to see you there!

No Calorie e-Cookies.

Many of you have heard about Amazon’s latest ebook offer. You can now gift an ebook to anyone who has an email address. And they do NOT have to own a kindle to read the book. Amazon has offered a variety of FREE reading apps for use with their ebooks. What a great and inexpensive way to gift books! Here’s the thing. I love to gift wrap a little something and set it under the tree for my family and friends even if it’s a gift card. But, how do you wrap an ebook?

Well, you can’t really, but here’s a fun work-a-round. If you purchase an ebook of DRIVEN, beginning tomorrow, or pre-order the paperback before December 18, 2010, I’ll send you (or the person you are giving the book to) a Christmas card from the DRIVEN gang. Just click on the Christmas Card page and fill out the information. Now, you’ll have something to put under that tree.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tomorrow I’ll announce the date of the DRIVEN virtual launch party and the awesome goodies we’ll share with you. By the way, what are your favorite give-a-ways? (To give or receive)

This morning, perched on the eve of a surprise early release of my first novel, I found an interesting blog post hanging out in my reader. It began with a Bible verse–Proverbs 27:2, to be exact.

“Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.”-Proverbs 27:2

With that nugget of God’s wisdom, I stand on the edge of self-promotion. I don’t particularly care for praising my own work–not that I haven’t done it. It just leaves a funny taste in my mouth, know what I mean? But alas it is a necessary part of the world I’m now a part of. I think there’s a fine line between promoting in a professional manner and dissolving into an irritating whine. I’m going to try my best to ride that line with the utmost of care, but please forgive me if I falter. I’m still new at this.

In the meantime, I would like to invite you to join my journey. Whoo-hoo! Here we go. . .

DRIVEN releases its Kindle version in time for the Holiday Season. Beginning December 1 (Yup, that’s the day after tomorrow), you can join the fun by downloading it to your ereader, kindle, ipod, computer or phone. Or you can pre-order it on paperback through Barnes and Noble (paperbacks are scheduled to print March 1, 2011).

Tomorrow I’ll announce a special gift offer for those gift-givers out there. And don’t forget to come back Wednesday for a virtual launch party and all those pretty blue links. But for now. . .

Thank You!

BTW Please don’t forget about Operation Abundance. It’s still going strong with two more weeks to go. Will you join us, please?

The book is finally available! It popped up on amazon.com over the weekend!

CLICK HERE TO NAB A COPY!

To say I was excited would be the grossest of gross understatements in the history of gross understatements.

Does that make sense?

There are more buying options coming later in the week, but Amazon is the first to pick it up.

If you're feeling extra froggy and want to help me spread the word CLICK HERE Any help in spreading the word that you're willing to offer would be more appreciated than you could possibly imagine.

Seriously, I'll be your best friend and stuff.

Steve!

I did an author interview with the incomparable, goofy hat wearing Liz Czukas (No, I don't know how to pronounce it either) over on her blog! Despite the hat, she's a heck of a writer and it was a lot of fun.

You'll get some information on the book, a little on me, and maybe some you never wanted.

It was so much fun in fact, that I'll even forgive her for using the wrong cover image.

Maybe.

CLICK HERE!

Liz can also be found on Facebook here!

Steven

In the world of "Forts" there are a hundred doorways leading to a hundred different worlds. While I won't be able to visit them all over the course of the three books, I thought it might be fun to add to the mythology by sketching up a few alien races on the spot.

Here's the third in the series.

The book is being released Saturday the 20th!

Steve

Here's a little sample chapter from the upcoming book which is released on March 20th.

Hope you enjoy!

Steven







THE PROMISE

The long white hallway on the fourth floor of the Fairchild Medical Center was mostly empty and rather quiet. Occasionally a nurse or a doctor walked by with their head buried in a set of papers on a clipboard, their shoes clicking against the tile floor with every step. It was night, and with visiting hours coming to an end, most everyone, patients and family alike, had either drifted off to sleep or returned home. On an empty bench near the end of the hallway sat ten-year-old Tommy Jarvis. Too short to reach the floor, his legs swung back and forth over the edge of the bench. His hands rested softly on his lap as he twiddled his fingers quietly, trying his hardest to think about anything other than this place. Behind the door to his right are his mother and father.
For almost a year now his mother had become progressively sicker. At first the trips to the doctor were for small things like high fevers or sore throats or pain in her joints. In the last few months, the trips were more frequent. She was admitted to the hospital three weeks ago, and it was here that she remained. Every night like clockwork his father left him and Nicky with Auntie Carol and go to visit her. On the weekends – like today – he would bring them along. Nicky might be too young to really, truly understand every nuance of what was going on, but Tommy believed the young boy understood the basics of the situation. Their mother was sick, and she wasn’t going to get better.
She was dying.
No doubt Nicky couldn’t make total sense out of the concept of death, but he knew that a time would come very soon when he would never see his mother again.
Tommy looked up as the door to his mother’s room opened; his father stepped out with a sleepy-sad Nicky pulled tightly against his chest. He looked in Tommy’s direction. “Hey buddy…how are you feeling?”
Tommy didn’t know quite how to respond. The idea of summing up everything going on in his head seemed like a task more impossible than anything he had encountered in his young life. He saw no point in trying.
Chris Jarvis gently laid the half-awake Nicky down on the bench next to his older brother, softly brushing the hair from the boy’s eyes. When Chris looked down he noticed his hand was shaking. He could feel a torrent of emotions building up inside him, but forced himself to ignore them. He needed to be strong, even if he wanted so very badly to cry and scream, and denounce his faith in God, the universe, and whatever unseen force was putting his family through this. He wanted to yell at the doctors for not doing more, or curse the nurses for their pointless pitying looks, or simply run away and leave all the sadness and the stress behind, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do any of these things or a number of others. Not in front of his boys, and not now. These were things better left to the nights alone, shrouded in the darkness of his room, spread out across his marital bed with soaking wet eyes. He had to be bigger than that; he had to be better than that, for them – even if it hurt more than he could stand.
After taking a deep breath and wiping away a single tear in the corner of his eye, he knelt down in front of Tommy, gazing into the soft blue eyes of his eldest son. “Hey big man, your mom…your mom wants to see you alone for a minute. Would you like to do that? Are you going to be okay, or do you want your ol’ dad to go with you?”
Tommy noticed the shaking of his father’s hands as well. He spotted the very faint glimmer of wetness, catching the pale glow of the fluorescent lights, in the corner of his eye.
Despite trying so hard, Chris Jarvis could not hide his emotions well.
Tommy wanted badly to see his mother - to hug her and kiss her and hear

In the world of "Forts" there are a hundred doorways leading to a hundred different worlds. While I won't be able to visit them all over the course of the three books, I thought it might be fun to add to the mythology by sketching up a few alien races on the spot.

Here's the first.

Steve

If you're bored (which you no doubt are if you're bothering to read this blog) why not head over and have a look at the unofficial trailer for the new book.

Clicky, clicky the linky below(y).