Fiction Works Priced at 99 Cents

I've got nine (18 really, see below) shorter fiction titles available on Amazon and priced each at 99 cents. They fall into two categories: literary and science fiction.

LITERARY

The Saltness of Time

Reviewer: "We have a modern day slice of Chaucer here, with four traveling friends marooned in a small hotel because of a blinding blizzard in the plains of Kansas.  In the main room by a comforting fire, they meet an elderly gentleman who offers to tell them a story from his youth, when he, too, was becalmed in the home of an elderly woman, also due to a raging snow storm. From his geriatric host, he learns the story and secrets of her life. The whole thing is like a matryoska doll … a story within a tale within a narrative."

Excerpt: "Emotional truths? Emotional truths are the deepest levels of reality inside of us. They're not rational. That doesn't mean they are irrational, it just means they don't comply to rational thinking. For example, you can't argue yourself in love or out of love. Feelings just are or they are not, whether you should have them or not. And people who were important to you who die, but you dream about them for the rest of your life. These people aren't dead to you at all; they are part of your emotional truth. I wonder what kind of dreams Gabrielle had."

Hospital Days

(Ten stories)

These are some of the first stories I ever wrote. No plot really. Flash fiction slice of life things. I recently learned there is a Japanese literary term for these things: kishōtenketsu

Reviewer: "This is a different type of read. It takes the reader into the life behind the scenes of a hospital. It is not like a TV show with heroics and handsome doctors getting all the attention. This is the grittier side of life with a true feel to the happenings as the reader is shown the life of a candy striper at first would like to be a doctor, but after what he sees in the real raw world a change of occupation might be in order."

Innocent Passage

Reviewer: "When two young men (boys) try their luck at digging through old houses looking for ghosts they find a lot more including the loss of innocence and maybe a little guilt they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. I wish the story was longer but the writing and the idea was really interesting."

Excerpt: Haunted house hunting we called it. The legal term was breaking and entering. The county sheriff had warned us that he knew we were responsible for the summer rash, but couldn’t prove it. If he caught us, he’d “throw your asses in jail,” as he so quaintly put it. We hunted anyway.

Bless Me Father for I am Sinning 

What if you could hack the confessional? Two teens take on the Catholic church.

Reviewer: This is a great story that gives you something to think about and has a nice twist to the end. I enjoyed it.

Drive, Chip, Putt, and Kill

Ned's a mediocre professional golfer, but an excellent serial killer. Nora's a mediocre golfer, but an excellent detective. It's takes a golfer to catch a golfer.

Downswing

Reviewer: This is the latest short story from Randy Attwood and will bring me up to date again with his works. I like to stay abreast of Randy's writings, because he has such a terrific and interesting style, each book unique, but containing a familiar voice. Now, I had to wonder exactly how he would make golf interesting, especially in just eight pages, but I shouldn't have worried. Listen to this description of placing a ball on a tee:

And eighteen times this easy gesture, this stooping over with the tee between the fingers, the ball hidden, protected in the perspiring palm, the insertion into ground the wooden link to earth the ball would soon be contacting - all this, for me, had given the gesture a quality of sacredness.

Isn't that gorgeous? The story is full of beautiful prose like that. Who thought that a short story about golf could be so intense, so vivid and so engaging - I literally walked out to the mailbox with my Kindle in my hand, reading. You don't want to miss this latest from Randy Attwood - go get it, and his other works while you're at it. You really won't regret it.

SCIENCE FICTION

A Match Made in Heaven

(Mormonism explored in a sci-fi sort of way)

Reviewer: "I have never met a Randy Attwood book that I haven't loved; he has a real talent for bringing his characters to life and creating an environment that is realistic and detailed without going overboard. This is the first science-fiction story he has published, so I was quite interested to see how he did in this story environment. And it was... brilliant!

"This is a short story, maybe it could be considered a novella - it took me about an hour to read it through. I am not sure where, exactly, Randy came up with some of the ideas he used in this story (I'll have to ask), but I found the ideas presented evocative and thought-provoking. There are questions of consciousness, how to truly access God (in whatever form that power takes for you), the humane treatment of others, etc. Like all of his books, I highly recommend this terrific story."

By Pain Possessed

Reviewer: "I enjoyed this dark little story very much. Nowadays, we don't see much traditional science fiction as used to be the case, and Attwood takes to the genre like a natural with a beautifully drawn portrayal of aliens. Aliens are hard to write - it's not easy to make them really alien. Attwood has done a great job; his aliens are believable and consistent without being in the least human, and he avoids the trap of trying to put in too much background. A very successful venture into traditional SF by a seasoned and professional writer."

The Richard Dary Weight Loss Institute

Reviewer: "This book freaked me the hell out. There, I said it. I can't tell you much about it without giving you spoilers, but the ideas that Randy expressed in this book scared the living daylights out of me. The sort of things that were done to the narrator of this story, Peggy, were inhuman. All in her attempts to fit in with modern societal standards of being thin. This made me think a little bit of the book I read earlier today, Saga of a Middle-Aged Vampire. What is it about modern society? Why are all the women expected to be anorexic-thin? It infuriates me. Healthy is one thing, but the modern goal is outright emaciation, and often extremely unhealthy methods are employed in the search for this. It actually frightens me that little girls are starving themselves to try to look like supermodels, who are (in my opinion), mostly freaks of nature."

Four Novels Discounting to 99 Cents

Over the next four days a different title will be discounted to 99 cents for a week. The commonality of the novels is that they were all published by the small press Curiosity Quills.

First up July 18 will be Tortured Truths, the first in the Phillip McGuire series that I was inspired to write because of my admiration of John D. MacDonald and his Travis McGee series. You read that mystery/thriller series not so much for the story but because you wanted to hang out with Travis again. I was hoping to create that kind of character. Mine is a burnt out foreign correspondent who returns to his college town to buy and run a bar. Adventures come his way. In this first series we learn how his hand got mangled and how he coping with a mangled psyche. It’s not often you get to meet the person who tortured you, but Phil gets that opportunity.

On July 19 the second in the series, Heart Chants, goes to 99 cents. Two Navajo girls have gone missing from the local Indian college and Phil is asked to harbor a Navajo girl. He’s also met an interesting woman from China and the plot interweaves the two. Heart Chants contains, I believe, the best, most complete retelling of the Navajo creation story available in a work of fiction. Several Tony Hillerman fans have said they like my book better than Hillerman’s works, and that high praise.

(I’m at work on the third in the series and it’s off to a good start. I hope to complete it this fall.)

Next up will be SPILL on July 20. SPILL is a riot to read. Fired English teacher who has failed at about everything comes up with a scheme to run for his state legislature in his rock solid red city as a Democrat. He gets his enticing bartender to also run so there will be a primary. He runs as an atheist, anti-gun guy also calling for the nationalization of Big Oil. He theorizes that Big Oil and the NRA will donate to his opponent and they can split the money. Works better than he could have imagined. This was great fun to write and many readers have found it great fun to read.

Blow Up the Roses is the first book of mine Curiosity Quills published. It’s a very dark read and between SPILL and Roses you get a feel of the range of my fiction. Mrs. Keene lives on a cul d’sac where many terrible things are happening, including the disappearance of her own husband. But what her renter is doing in the basement of his side of the duplex is chilling. Several readers said they almost stopped reading, but felt compelled to continue. Goes to 99 cents on July 21 for seven days.

Some 99 Cent Special Offers this Summer

Over the next few weeks I've scheduled reduction in price of some of my novels to 99 cents for a week at a time. The first which started yesterday and ends June 7 is for The Fat Cat. I began "The Fat Cat" as a noir novel, but I never know the conclusion of a work when I start. I don't think it ended up as a noir piece. I don't know what it is. I hope a good read. Ellie ran away from the city where she worked as a TV reporter because two things happened. Now, managing a gentleman's club, one of those things is happening again. (You know you're curious what goes on at a strip club, now aren't you?) By the way, cat fans, Gibson, an orange tabby, is the mascot of the strip club called "The Fat Cat." He's also saves the day.

June 8 to 15 StopTime is at 99 cents. It's set in an alternate future history in the Kansas City Plaza Enclave. The barbarians are outside the walls. Also living in Scumtown is a Wiccan healer who has a spell that stops time. And that could change everything. Especially for a student artist living inside the Enclave.

June 15 to 22nd is the 99 cent slot for Dark Side of the Museum. Set in an unnamed art history museum somewhere west of New York City, Dark Side offers a touch of paranormal and a pinch of time travel for an outrageously fun read. Objects conservationist Edgar finds an strange object inside an antique piece of furniture that will take him on a ride he could never anticipated. Meet the Director and curators of the museum who are cast of unforgettables in their own right. Don't miss the cheesecake contest day. (You know you're curious about what goes on behind the scenes at an art museum, now aren't you?)

July 4 (my birthday!) to July 11 Crazy About You is on sale for 99 cents. Write about what you know, they say. I grew up on the grounds of Larned State Hospital because my father was the dentist for that 1,500 patient nut house and the State provided housing on the grounds. My first job was working in the cafeterias dish washing room. Crazy relates one week in the life of a high school junior that will grow him up faster than he could have ever wanted. Several readers have asked me how much of it is real. Upset me at first. Did they think it was just journalism or memoir and I had no creative imagination. Then I realized it was a high compliment. The writing created a reality for them. And that's always been my goal with fiction.

July 11 to 18 I'll feature Very Quirky Tales, a collection of sci-fi and other, well, quirky tales. Tell Us Everything is my kind of homage to Philip K. Dick. It's also centered around an unnamed academic medical center and health professionals should find it fun. It Was Me (I) would have made a neat Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode. The Notebook is a story no reader yet as foretold the ending. The Strange Case of James Kirkland Pilley is my homage to H.P. Lovecraft and one reviewer said it "out-Lovecrafted Lovecraft." A Match Made in Heaven is a tale of the Mormons emigrating from Earth to the Planet Moroni where they discover their destiny. By Pain Possessed: Can the weakest human save us all. It has an ending which the sci-fi writer James Gunn actually provided me when I submitted the story for his class.

Blow Up the Roses 99 Cents Until Sunday

Curiosity Quills, the publisher of my dangerous suspense/thriller Blow Up the Roses that's been called brilliantly disturbing, is doing their Black Friday thing putting their ebooks at 99 cents until Thursday.

Check out this endorsement for Blow Up The Roses!

Here is a list of CQ books that are on sale.