Well how’s about this for a nice Friday blog post!
My contest had fantastic engagement and I was able to break that 400 page like barrier on my Facebook Author page!! So as promised – I drew for TWO winners to receive a signed and personalized copy of The Girl Who Hid in the Trees!! WOOT WOOT!!
SOOOOOO….
I’ll announce those at the end of the post! (haha! come on, I still want you to read a little!)
I’ll keep this brief!
What I’m Working on;
I’ve potentially got some insane and stellar news about my impending June release of The Stranger and the artwork. Fingers crossed this works out! I’ll keep you posted.
Otherwise I’ve been grinding away on a bunch of projects!
What music’s been on;
I listen to such a variety, but this week I’ve been listening to one album a bunch. The Ghost Inside was involved in a horrific accident a few years back. The members have all had to endure multiple surgeries, amputations and it was never looking like they’d do anything again. Their drummer lost a leg, but has since designed a system that let’s him play still. And recently it was announced that they would perform a single concert in 2019. Because of that I’ve been listening to their last album Dear, Youth a bunch. It’s a really solid bit of metal, and lyrically, with what they’ve overcome, it couldn’t be more fitting. Here’s a playlist of the entire album;
What I’m reading;
Isle of Savages – T. Briar. It’s ok so far. I’m hoping it picks up.
Remains – Andrew Cull. I’m beta reading this and holy hell is it stunning.
What I’m up to;
This week has seen me living the bachelor life as my wife and son were up in Fort Mac helping my In-laws start to get ready for their move. So I was able to watch a bunch of movies, which I posted about on my various social media accounts. I’ll try and watch two more movies tonight then pick them up tomorrow! Can’t wait to see them!
Contest Winners!!
Ok, ok here we go! I apologize – I honestly didn’t feel like going back through and numbering everyone who commented, so I just wrote all your names down with the number of entries you got and then did the ole number generator to pick two!
Winner #1 – Jennifer Sullivan! Congrats, congrats!
Contest Time!
This will be open today (March 20th) and tomorrow (March 21st) with a winner being announced here on my Friday blog post!
Do you want to win a signed and personalized copy of my latest and darkest ‘The Girl Who Hid in the Trees’?
To enter all you need to do is;
– go to my Facebook author page (facebook.com/stevestred)
– sign up here to follow my author website/blog if you haven’t
– comment DONE on the Facebook post once both have been completed!!
As a bonus – I am currently at 384 likes on my author page! If we get to 400, I will give away a 2nd copy!
This contest is open internationally, not affiliated with FB blah blah, all the usual jazz!
So – like my page, sign up to follow my blog, and once complete, comment DONE!
Good luck and I’ll announce the winner on Friday!!
I was first introduced to the twisted world of Jackson R. Thomas last year, with his stellar release The Beast of Brenton Woods. I love werewolf tales and that story lived up to my lofty expectations.
Now Thomas has returned with Paradise, Maine – but don’t let the title or the cover fool you, this is splatter-riffic.
The plot is straight-forward and pulled from my dream horror VHS tapes that I used to rent. A small, quaint town on the coast hides a secret. The Watcher. A figure shrouded in mystery who lives in the hills above them. The townspeople do their part to keep quiet and not interfere. In order to keep The Watcher satiated a mysterious corporation working with the local Sheriff randomly select people to come as sacrifice. They win an all-expenses paid trip to the scenic Paradise, Maine, unaware of their fate.
From here out Thomas takes us on a sprint through the small town, the cabin that the winner’s get to stay in and the hills above. The foot is fully pressed on the gas pedal as things continue to take terrible turn after terrible turn. I love bleak, dark horror and this is done majestically while infused with some obscene gore, done in the best way possible. Even though I knew no good was to come, I still rooted for the folks trying to survive The Watcher.
I had one small gripe with the story overall – some of the characters names. With this being a pre-release ARC and not knowing Jackson personally, it might be that some of the characters were named after friends or family members, but as is, I found some of them to be annoying and I’m usually fine with that. Oh well, that’s on me!
I enjoyed the characters throughout, and several of them had really enjoyable resolves to live, which sometimes can be lacking in a tale like this. I’m not a fan of characters that survive but don’t appear to try hard enough to survive, if that makes sense. Doesn’t happen here!
So if you’re looking for a fun, fast, slaughter house of a story – look no further. Jackson R. Thomas brings the goods and packs them into bite size zip-lock freezer bags making sure to keep the horror fresh on every page! A must read for fans of ‘Brenton’ but also a must read for fans of books and movies that keep the death counts high!
Alien Agenda Publishing continues to release top notch horror for fans and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!
(Side note – the version I received was a poorly edited pre-release version. I was assured by another reviewer that they received an updated ARC and the spots were fixed. I declined a new version by AAP and didn’t attribute any of the mistakes towards affecting my review! Thanks to Net Galley, Jackson R. Thomas and Glenn with Aliena Agena Publishing for the pre-release ARC!)
I’m gonna go in reverse here with my normal blog order and jump into what we’ve been doing over here. Three weeks ago we were mired in a prolonged cold snap. I might be slightly off on the dates but from approx December 15th to Feb 15th, the warmest temperature we had was -18 C. We get sun pretty much every day (we average 310 days of sun a year here in Edmonton) but the cold and the wind chill starts to bring you down. We had three weeks in a row where our warmest day was -27 C.
Today – supposed to by +7!!!!! In two weeks – it’s supposed to be +20. And while I don’t let the weather get me down, it can be awfully rough on my wife and son. (You think it’d be rough on our dog OJ but he could care less if he goes outside haha!) So here’s a few pics Amanda took the other day on one of their walks. Of course Auryn found a stick! One of the best parts right now for him is the puddles along the walks!
I’ve now finished Ritual my crazy novella, The Stranger is off to a sensitive reader, Piece of Me will begin my third go-through which will finish off prepping all of my final 2019 releases.
I’ve begun working on my planned 2020 and 2021 releases already! Two collaborations are under way, and while I won’t steal any thunder from the other authors, I am so excited for this.
What I’m Jamming:
This week saw me all over the place with my music (which it usually is!).
Moby – Raining Again
I recently finished reading Moby’s second autobiography installment “Then It Fell Apart.”
I’m a pretty big Moby fan and ‘Raining Again’ would probably be my fav song from him.
Paradise Lost – No Hope in Sight
Finishing up the brutal ending for ‘Ritual’ I was listening to a lot of gloomier stuff. I’m not a big Paradise Lost fan, but really dig this song.
Sworn Enemy – Prepare for Payback
I am a massive, massive hardcore fan. Seen Sworn Enemy twice (hopefully more in the future!) and they always deliver. There new album is looking like it’s gonna be a rager and this is the first single off of it.
After the Burial – Behold the Crown
I couldn’t tell you if I’ve ever heard this band before. There’s a chance I may have seen them, but I can’t remember. But lately Sirius radio channel Liquid Metal has been playing this a ton and my god I’m digging it.
Misery Index – New Salem
Lastly – I’ve shared this video before, but on Friday, March 8th Misery Index unleashed their latest ‘Rituals of Power’ and holy hell, it may very well be my fav 2019 album. Just brutal and heavy filled with some fantastic grooves and breakdowns. Love it and had to share this again, I’ve been listening to the album everyday.
Last two things here before I wrap it up!
Reviews:
Usually I feature one of my releases here and talk about why you should get it blah, blah, blah. One of the neat things about social media is connecting with folks. I’m a very, very small fish in a big pond in two different areas – as an author and as a book reviewer.
I recently had the pleasure of connecting with a reviewer and not only has she been awesome to chat with and see what she’s reading, but she’s been kind enough to check out some of my stuff. So I wanted to feature Kim Napolitano and some of her recent reviews she’s left over on Goodreads of my work! Give her a follow on Twitter if you’re there – @kimnappi
I love when people read my stuff, but it’s even more amazing when they leave a review!! Thank you so much Kim!
Lastly;
Contests!!
I’ll be having two contests coming up shortly! Next week I’ll be giving away a signed paperback of The Girl Who Hid in the Trees over on my Facebook author page
facebook.com/stevestredauthor
So watch for those details!
And recently I announced that Dim the Sun was now in physical form. I have received my copies finally and will meet up with my buddy Rob Derman (who I released the book for to help him raise funds).
We’ll be signing them and I’ll be giving one copy away and he’ll be using the others to try and raise some more funds towards his 2022 Winter Olympic goals!
These will be the only double signed copies of Dim the Sun in existence, so keep an eye out for that!
Thanks to Net Galley, Moby and the Publisher for the pre-release ARC copy for review!
Then It Fell Apart is the second autobiography by musician Moby and it picks up after his first release “Porcelain.” I read “Porcelain” when it came out, being a huge music fan and a big fan of Moby. I don’t believe you need to read the first one to follow along, but I’d highly recommend you do, simply to enjoy where Moby came from, his musical start and just how hard he had to work to reach any sort of level of stardom.
Then It Fell Apart follows up as Moby is struggling with the failure of his 1996 release “Animal Rights.” The album itself was a blast of punk energy and guitars and for many people who knew Moby as an electronic DJ, the musical output was jarring for many.
So Moby returns to his roots and puts together the album “Play.” While most casual fans will know it for the multi-million selling album that had every song optioned in some form or another, it was actually a failure upon launch.
From here the book bounces back and forth between 1999 to roughly 2008 and Moby’s younger, formative years. It’s another fascinating look into an eclectic artist’s life and just what influenced him to arrive where he did.
The stories he shares fall along a sliding chart from sweet, sappy and joyful, to cringe-worthy and awful. One of the sweetest stories within was his sharing of the dinner he had with David Bowie, Iman, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. It was great reading how much Moby worshipped and idolized Bowie, but how he treated him like an equal and gifted him with a fantastic musical instrument. Moby doesn’t pull punches on his self-reflection and throughout he frequently states how he didn’t care as long as he had his fame, his money and people were talking about him, he was happy. He goes into great detail discussing just how selfish he was during this time, but how inside he kept telling himself he was happy because other celebrities knew who he was, he was getting and taking copious amounts of drugs and people were coming to watch his shows.
Then the album “18” was released in 2002 and the sales were good, but not great. Then “Hotel” came out in 2005 and the world had moved on. While he still had some hit singles, he was no longer the headliner and was struggling internally with what was happening.
It’s a fascinating insight into the “celebrity” mind of Moby, especially now when you follow him on any of his social media accounts and see just how active he is with social issues and how much charitable work he does.
Overall, I really did enjoy the book. My biggest criticism of it directly relates to the stories told. Many of them felt unresolved and unfinished. Two specific examples would be his time with Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell from Pantera and his feud with Eminem. With the Pantera brothers he discusses how much he loved Pantera and meeting them was a dream. He hangs out with them and Tommy Lee for a fun night and then that’s it. The story ends and we move on. Maybe it’ll be discussed in a third release, but I felt cheated as a reader that he didn’t discuss Dimebag’s horrific death and if it affected him performing live at all. Vinnie Paul has since passed on later in 2018, so I don’t believe Moby would’ve been able to write about that based on the timeline, but reading that story now, I thought it would’ve sufficed to have a bit of a follow-up on their time together.
The same can be said with his feud with Eminem. I remember how big of a deal this was. I remember Eminem having a temper tantrum at the MTV Video Awards and punching Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Moby goes into a bit of detail regarding it and how he suddenly realized Eminem was dead serious about it and how some Hip-Hop and Rap musicians distanced themselves from Moby. Moby even mentions that Eminem drew a detailed picture of himself choking Moby. Then the story ends and we move on. I wanted to know what happened. Was it discussed behind the scenes? Did Moby and Eminem ever talk about it? Why didn’t Moby contact authorities about the picture? If anything it could’ve bumped some of his album sales back then. Moby does mention later on that old-school New York Hip-Hop musicians kept supporting him, but that’s it, a single paragraph a few chapters later. I just wished for more resolution for some of the stories, but that’s me personally, and the stories themselves were entertaining.
My last little criticism, and this is because I’m such a massive music and Moby fan – not enough stories/back ground on actually making the albums. I would’ve loved to hear some of the inspirations behind some of Moby’s biggest and most loved songs.
To wrap this up, criticisms aside, I think this was a really well done follow-up, but also a solid stand-alone autobiography. Made me appreciate just how hard the struggle can be for even the most established musicians. I think people will really enjoy this release, and from the way it ended, I’ll be looking forward to a third entry.
I discovered the collection Rooted by Cassandra Chaput in a truly odd way. I was in search of a sensitive reader for one of my up-coming-releases and posted on Twitter. Cassandra messaged me and I sent her the file of my book over for her to read through when she was free. Through chatting a bit through messages we ended up mutually following each other.
Then recently, I saw her tweet out about her poetry collection. I saw in her bio that she was a writer, but (and I admit this sheepishly) I failed to look into her published output. When I saw the collection I checked out the synopsis and knew it was something I’d need to read. I ended up buying it for International Women’s Day.
The synopsis lets us know what we’re in store for. I can’t do it justice or paraphrase it.
So I’ll quote it here, taken from Goodreads;
“Rooted is a collection of poetry with focus on mental health, love and heartbreak, self-improvement, and self-love. Trees are resilient, with roots buried deep beneath the soil, feeding them nutrients and helping them grow. You are rooted. Stand strong against the winds that try to tear you down.”
This was a collection I could’ve easily flown through and read in one sitting. But these poems and in many instances affirmations are designed to be read and to be digested. You will find that you’ll read a simple two-line affirmation, read three or four poems and then flip back to the two-liner to reread it again.
Throughout, the collection also features some really nice illustrations which worked well to highlight key aspects of the attached poem.
I hate to use the term simplistic, but Cassandra uses such carefully selected words to convey such massive emotions, I was awestruck at how she packed so much into so little, time and time again.
I think this collection is a necessary addition to everyone’s book shelf if you’ve ever suffered from depression, loss or lack of confidence or struggle with anxiety.
I also really think all women should read this. Cassandra speaks so eloquently and many of the poems, at least I think, are poems that women should print off and repeat every day.
An emotional roller coaster of a collection, this one’s gonna stay with me for some time and I’ll probably be doing another read through this year.
While I was thinking about how cool this story sounds, I see that the novella is FREE March 8th, 9th, and 10th! I immediately snagged this freebie.
Get yours here:
Here’s the synopsis:
“In the apocalyptic fallout of the burned world, the screecher is a massive beast evolved to kill and built for survival. One screecher abandons its home among the crushed remnants of a city and moves to explore the wider world. Unbeknownst to it, one of its surviving…
Hope you’re all doing well. We’re under a snow fall warning today in Edmonton. Received 5 cms of snow over night and supposed to get another 5-6 this morning. At least its warmed up to -10 Celsius!
So, I got a couple things to run through today quickly! The first is – it’s only been a week since The Girl Who Hid in the Trees came out!!?? Only a week! What the heck. I thought it was about a month ago already haha! The response has been so awesome!
If you were one of the kind folks who read it for review before the release date, I’d really love it if you could take a few minutes and post your reviews on Amazon/Bookbub etc!!
If you haven’t snagged it yet;
Secondly – I actually have a NEW paperback out! Surprising right haha! It’s nothing I’ve announced or anything, it’s more to help my friend Rob Derman out once again.
Dim the Sun, which was an ebook only release initially, is now available in physical form!
As you may have heard, the Calgary sliding track appears to be closing forever. For more info, click the link;
This is where Rob has relocated to train and with it closing he has some tough decisions to make. Move to Whistler? Move to Park City, Utah or to Lake Placid to slide and train. Train in Calgary and commute to Whistler to slide? Lots of very tough choices.
Dim the Sun was released as a way to raise some funds for him – and it’s done OK. I think part of that is it’s a poetry collection, which doesn’t interest everyone, and partly because it was only digital. So I’ve now made it a physical release, so here’s hoping it gets some love!
Keep watching this space as we’re figuring out a time to get together and sign some releases. We’ll have 5 only with both of our signatures and will then be offered up to raise funds for Rob.
What I’m Reading;
Train Thoughts – Jay Sigler. Really digging this one so far.
Normally this is where I’d give you some links to what I’ve recently reviewed. Switching it up a bit. Recently I’ve been contacted by a few folks about reviewing their work and it was mentioned I don’t have a “review policy” section on here. So now I do!
I think most people know that this week Keith Flint, one of the members of The Prodigy tragically took his own life. The Prodigy has been one of my fav bands since I first discovered them back when Fat of the Land came out. So naturally I’ve been jamming them a bunch. While their song ‘Wild Frontier’ is my fav The Prodigy song, I wanted to share two others. The first, is of course, the song that arguably turned them and Flint into mega-stars.
Firestarter;
The second, I’d call my second fav The Prodigy song.
Omen;
I’ve been jamming a few other bands a bunch lately as well.
Lamb of God – Blacken the Cursed Son.
I think I’ve seen LoG 5 or 6 times now, and had the pleasure of working crowd-control for them at an in-store signing back in the day at Scrape Records in Vancouver. ‘Ashes of the Wake’ came out 15 years ago and I’ve been crushing that album almost daily. But I’ve been listening to the follow-up ‘Sacrament’ just as much. This is my fav song on that album, and watching it performed live is an experience.
Amon Amarth – Runes to My Memory
Another fantastic band that I’ve been listening to a bunch lately has been Amon Amarth, and more specifically their ‘With Oden on My Side’ album. I met Johan the singer at a meet and greet, also at Scrape and showed him my Runes to My Memory tattoo. He couldn’t believe it and I was very humbled with his gratitude. I’ve only seen them live I think three times, but I need to see them a bunch more!
In Closing;
Normally I’d also talk about what I’m working on and what’s up in life, but nothings really changed there! I have about four projects I’m working on, as well as I’ve just started gathering bits and pieces towards another poetry collection.
Life has been hectic with a growing toddler. Can’t wait for Spring and getting outside more! Maybe by then I’ll have finally kicked this lingering cold or whatever I’m constantly battling.
I’ll be doing a few contests coming up as well, so keep your ears to the ground for that, and soon my first column of Tunes From the Crypt will be unleashed on Kendall Reviews!
PS:
I would be a total self-adsorbed douche if I didn’t mention that it was International Women’s Day! On top of this, yesterday was also World Book Day. So go buy some books from your fav Women Authors and support some fabulous artists!
Now that 60 days of January are over we get on with our best year ever right!??
Yesterday was such a fantastic day.
Why?
Because The Girl Who Hid in the Trees officially came out!
When I first announced the release and then had it up for pre-release sooo far in advance, I had specific marketing intentions. I think they worked out pleasantly, but along the way some other things occurred and frankly it made me thankful that I had a buffer built in.
To everyone who pre-ordered it, snagged a copy yesterday, liked, shared, retweeted or messaged – THANK YOU!!!
If you haven’t snagged it yet… well here’s the Amazon US link! 🙂
As I had stated early on – after my friend Justin M. Woodward revealed his mom was battling cancer – that all pre-order proceeds would go directly to their Go Fund Me. I have already donated an initial amount, but will take a look tomorrow and top up anything above and beyond!
If you’re interested in reading about the Go Fund Me or simply want to donate directly, please click the link!
Now – let’s take a look at my usual blog stuff shall we!
What I’m working on;
The Stranger – I’ve received my copy-edits back from David Sodergren. I’m awaiting feedback from my sensitive/indigenous reader to ensure the story line/bigotry aspect was done tastefully and I’m awaiting cover art!
Ritual – I just received the cover art for this and seriously, Mason McDonald absolutely killed it again. We have this amazing connection where he knows exactly what I’m looking for! This is a planned October release but I’ll probably be sharing the cover long before then!
Lastly, March will feature my first guest column for Tunes from the Crypt. So keep your eyes wide open for that!
What I’m Reading;
Currently I’m about 50% through The Dark Game by Jonathan Janz
As always – all of my featured reviews can be found under the menu tab – Kendall Reviews
What Music I’m Playing;
This has been a short week for me, which I’ll chat about in the next section. But for music this week, it’s been hard and heavy.
Misery Index – New Salem
I’m a big Misery Index fan, and this new tune crushes. The last few albums had a few production sound issues, but the new one so far sounds like they’ve returned to the massive wall of noise that they’re know for!
Faith No More – Pristina
I saw author Chad Lutzke talking about his love of Faith No More the other day, so I revisited them a bit this week. I’m a decent fan but there’s a number of songs I can take or leave and at times Patton’s vocals become an annoying nasal sound that just makes me cringe. But when they’re on – unbelievable band. Pristina, the last track on their album ‘Album of the Year’ is my fav FNM track.
Dissection – Starless Aeon
Working on the bleak, dark tale of Ritual, I’ve been listening to a lot of Dissection lately. This band is notorious for a number of reasons (just google them) but a Coles Notes breakdown; formed by Jon Nodtveldt in 1989 in Sweden. Jon had extreme views. Killed a guy, went to jail, released from jail. Along the way formed Dissection which released a few classic black metal albums. After being released from jail he reformed Dissection in 2004, but then in 2006 killed himself at the age of 31. Say what you will about some of his views and his beliefs (I warned you – extreme), the music has lived on and frankly Dissection is one of the few bands whose music and sound legitimately creep me out.
Kampfar – Gloria Ablaze
Kampfar is a Norwegian black metal band and boy are they ragers. Love their Profan album and this is the first song from it. I always love when a black metal band is able to be so musical and really drive the emotions within the song.
Architects – Hereafter
This isn’t a song I’d ever believe I would enjoy. I saw Architects twice on tour randomly, when they were opening for bands and wasn’t a big fan of their metalcore. This new song though I find pretty catchy and enjoyable. Sometimes with metal, I just need simple and this filled that nicely.
In closing, What’s Up?;
Welp, here we are at the end of the weekly blog and this is where I usually discuss what’s up in life. This week wasn’t a fun one. Last weekend we went to my wife’s cousin’s daughters first birthday party. Auryn had fun and it was nice seeing my wife’s Grandma and Uncle. Then on Sunday, Auryn had his last indoor soccer session. We’ve re-enrolled him into outdoor soccer starting in May so that’ll be fun. He’s been hit or miss at these soccer sessions. They’re designed to help little kids start to learn to follow tasks and develop skills. Over the previous 5 sessions, Auryn would do some stuff and then not do other things. This class was different. He was engaged and following the teachers instructions and having fun. Then about half way through the session he started to lay down a lot and began to get me to carry him. By the very end of the session he was just done.
Then the puking began. Poor guy was sick all of Sunday night. By Monday morning he’d rebounded and was good to go.
Not mom and dad though. I woke up Tuesday morning at about four in the morning and didn’t feel right. I went to work and was there for a half hour and called it a day.
Then mom and dad dealt with having the flu while Auryn ran around with his normal energy. Was a fun time haha!
So I missed two days of work this week and was pretty much phoning it in yesterday, having no energy and not able to really function.
Today though! Night and day difference. I feel fantastic!
So back at the start of the week, thanks for everyone’s kind words!
So there you have it. Another week, another blog and once again, thanks for all of your support!
Today is the official release day for my new coming-of-age, urban legend novella The Girl Who Hid in the Trees!! This is my 8th release (not counting my kids stuff) and I feel like I’m really truly hitting my stride.
I am so excited. This one was a story that struck me in the head and I threw it down quickly. That might explain why most people can read it in about an hour!
Haven’t snagged it yet!
US Link (ebook and paperback available!)
I stretched out the pre-orders a bit longer than normal for this one, as I wanted to try a few different things to promote it and so far it looks like it worked!
One thing I did was offering up the free four story PDF. Haven’t snagged that? It’s right here!
Steve Stred - The Official Website 