Personal Effects: Dark Art - Available Today!!!

J.C. Hutchins’ new supernatural thriller, Personal Effects: Dark Art is now available in bookstores and for purchase online. A recent starred review by Publisher’s Weekly called the novel a “stellar first.” Library Journal’s review deemed Personal Effects a work that “may herald the future of modern fiction.”

Created by Jordan Weisman and published by St. Martin’s Press, Dark Art combines the experience of a traditional thriller novel with a multimedia-fueled “out of book” narrative. Clues in the novel — and items that come with the novel, such as ID cards and photos — propel readers into an online experience where they become protagonists themselves.

Personal Effects: Dark Art follows the extensive notes of art therapist Zach Taylor’s investigation into the life and madness of Martin Grace, an accused serial killer who claims to have foreseen, but not caused, his victims’ deaths.

Zach’s investigations start with interviews and art sessions, but then take him far from the hospital grounds — and often very far from the reality that we know. The items among Grace’s personal effects are the keys to understanding his haunted past, and finding the terrifying truth Grace hoped to keep buried…

* Call the phone numbers: You’ll get a character’s voicemail.
* Google the characters and institutions in the text: You’ll find real websites.
* Examine the art and other printed artifacts included inside the cover: If you pay attention, you’ll find more information than the characters themselves discover.

Personal Effects: Dark Art is the ultimate in voyeuristic storytelling, representing a revolutionary step forward in changing the way people interact with novels.

Jack Wakes Up: Today is "Cinco de Harwood," Baby!!

Happy Cinco de Harwood, everybody!! Today is THE DAY - The Three Rivers Press (division of Random House) release of our favorite crime novel podiobook JACK WAKES UP! Sweet!!

What?!?! You haven't heard JACK WAKES UP??? Well, you should definitely get over to www.sethharwood.com and check out the free podiobook version of the novel!

However, if you're more of a visual person and you'd like to check out the novel a bit before you buy it, Seth is giving away the first 3 chapters of the book FOR FREE! Click here to download the PDF!!


Additionally, here is a video of Seth explaining how he uses podcasting and social networking, web 2.0, to promote his novel, build a big audience, and get stellar results!



So, check out the JACK WAKES UP promo below and go to Amazon (or your favorite book retailer) and buy your copy (or several copies) of JACK WAKES UP today!!

JACK WAKES UP Audio Promo (to download, right click and save the link)

Commit Yourself To The Brink

Just wanted to let you guys know about the awesome new project from 7th Son podiobook author and podcaster J.C. Hutchins.

This June, his novel-meets-Alternate Reality Game project, Personal Effects: Dark Arts, hits bookstores. Created with ARG and gaming maestro Jordan Weisman, this spooky supernatural thriller chronicles the adventures of art therapist Zach Taylor as he quests to unlock the psychosis of an blind alleged serial killer. Taylor works at Brinkvale Psychiatric Hospital ... a facility with such a bloody history, locals call it "The Brink." Items that come WITH the book -- including photos, busines cards and more -- will propel you into an "out of novel" narrative, which has its own plot twists.

CSI TV series creator Anthony E. Zuiker calls it "the future of storytelling." Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ring) hails it as "compelling." Final Destination writer Jeffrey Reddick says it's "impossible to put down."

You can learn more about Personal Effects: Dark Art -- and what other pros are saying about it -- at http://jchutchins.net/personaleffects . (You can even pre-order a copy if you'd like to support the project before it even comes out.)

In connection with the release of this project, and based on the firm belief that everyone benefits when the community itself is being creative, J.C. has announced a first-ever in publishing designed to get you involved in the world of Personal Effects: Dark Art. Welcome to Commit Yourself To The Brink.

You -- and your friends and family and followers -- can actually become a part of the Personal Effects universe, and a patient of Brinkvale art therapist Zach Taylor. By visiting a special page at J.C.'s website -- http://jchutchins.net/thebrink -- you can create a patient profile (complete with backstory), receive your admittance papers, contribute artwork … and earn the insanely cool privilege to appear in Brinkvale’s patient artwork gallery ( http://brinkvalepsychiatric.com/ ). The first "art assignment" is already online, and -- as always -- it doesn't cost a penny to participate. You need not be an "artist" to do this; just crack out the Crayolas, get scribbling, and scan (or snap a photo of) your work! Submit your art and patient profile at the page linked above.

Check out this awesome promo - and COMMIT YOURSELF!

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Playing For Keeps

Yay! More of my favorite podcast fiction is being released in print!

Yet again, we're gonna show Amazon how the small press does it, this time hero-style. Please go to Amazon.com on August 25 and purchase Playing For Keeps. If everyone does it on the same day, strange and wonderful things can happen! Please show your support for small press and podcast fiction on August 25!

August 25 Release Date for Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps

Swarm Press is pleased to announce the upcoming release of breakthrough podcaster and author Mur Lafferty’s newest novel of superheroic action Playing for Keeps. Originally a self-released “podiobook,” this new printed version of Lafferty’s novel is due to hit shelves on August 25, 2008.

Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty.
Welcome to Seventh City, the birthplace of super powers. The First Wave heroes are jerks, but they have the best gifts: flight, super strength, telepathy, genius, fire. The Third Wavers, like bar-owner Keepsie Branson and her friends, are stuck with the leftovers: the ability to instantly make someone sober, the power to smell the past, absolute control… over elevators. They just aren’t powerful enough to make a difference… at least that’s what they’ve always been told. But when the villain Doodad slips Keepsie a mysterious metal sphere, the Third Wavers become caught in the middle of a battle between egotistical heroes and manipulative villains.

“Playing for Keeps grabbed me and kept me reading straight through when I should have been plotting a new fantasy series for Tor Books. Mur, thank you. Tor, however, does not thank you.” – David Drake, author, Hammer’s Slammers.

Mur Lafferty is an American podcaster and writer based in Durham, North Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a degree in English. Her nonfiction work has appeared at www.SuicideGirls.com, as well as in the magazines Knights of the Dinner Table, PC Gamer, Computer Games, Scrye, and SciFi Magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in Hub, Escape Pod, and Scrybe. She was, until July, 2007, the host and co-editor of Pseudopod, and is currently the host and creator of the podcasts Geek Fu Action Grip and I Should be Writing. Visit Mur online at www.murverse.com

08.08.08 - DOUBLE TROUBLE

Once again I'm asking you guys to support the publication of podcasted fiction!

The sequals to two award-nominated podcasted novels of which I am a HUGE fan have been published and are currently available on Amazon and from booksellers everywhere. The novels are: Tee Morris's Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Pitcher's Pendent, the sequal to his awesome podcasted novel Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword, and Philippa Ballantine's Digital Magic, the sequal to her recently-concluded, amazing podcasted novel Chasing the Bard.

To make the biggest impact, Tee and Pip are asking everyone to storm Amazon.com tomorrow, August 8, 2008 (08-08-08) on or after 11:00 AM (U.S. Eastern Time - 8:00 AM U.S. Pacific Time) to buy your copy (or copies!) of their books!

For more details, and for the Amazon links to use to help further support this effort, please visit http://www.teemorris.com/billipodcast/double-trouble/.

And thanks again for helping support podcasted fiction. I promise both of these books are worth it!

~ Lisa T.

Brave Men Run - Book Release

Matthew Wayne Selznick's amazing podcasted novel "Brave Men Run" will be released in paperback from Swarm Press on Sunday, July 13, 2008! If everyone buys the book on Sunday, July 13 from Amazon.com, we can push it to the top of the charts and make an explosive impact for "Brave Men Run," Swarm Press, and the power you, the user, has over new media!

And ...

Starting at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 AM Pacific time on Sunday, July 13, join Matthew Wayne Selznick at the top of every hour via live streaming video! He will have updates on the book’s success on the Amazon charts, chat with viewers, and will even have very special Sovereign Era content to share with us: every hour on the hour he will read a new, original work of short fiction set in the Sovereign Era universe and written by some of the biggest names in podcast fiction!

"Brave Men Run" is the story of Nate Charters. Born different, unsure of his origins, he’s an outcast at Abbeque Valley High School, a self-proclaimed "boy freak" with few friends and low self-esteem. When the Sovereign Era dramatically dawns, Nate finds himself in a quest to discover the truth: is he more than he seems, a misfit in a miraculous and powerful new minority… or something else entirely?

You can listen to the full podcast presentation of "Brave Men Run" at Podiobooks.com.
www.podiobooks.com/title/brave-men-run

Murder at Avedon Hill - Live Streaming Event

P.G. Holyfield, author of one of my favorite podcast novels, Murder at Avedon Hill, will be performing a live reading of the next chapter of the book (Ch. 23) at 10:00 PM (EST) Sunday, June 15th, which you can view via live streaming video on the Murder at Avedon Hill website or via the MaAH page at UStream Video.

Even if you’ve never listened to Murder at Avedon Hill before, I highly suggest you check out this event. P.G. will have an awesome summary of the story so far to get you up to speed so that you can enjoy the chapter as he reads it live.

Listen to the promo below and then visit http://www.pgholyfield.com/maah/archives/205 for full details.

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Podcast Fiction: Reviews of some authors and their works

Check out this awesome article on podcasted fiction!

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