Saturday, February 21, 2015

Sad News and Kaishaku Blurb/Excerpt

     I have an unfortunate announcement to make today.  The publisher of my two ebooks, Musa Publishing, is closing soon. Their last day of operations is a week from now, Februrary 28th, 2015.
     Therefore, until then my blog will be a farewell tour for all things Musa, and in particular, information about my ebooks with them.  I plan to market my Musa ebooks with other publishers, but because they would then be reprints this lowers the chances of them being accepted again.  And, even if they are, it might be some time before they are (possibly) re-edited, have a new cover chosen, and are available for sale once more.  So, in effect, if you have any interest in reading either "Dead Reckoning" or "Kaishaku" in the foreseeable future, you have until February 28th to buy them.  They can be found at the Musa website (www.musapublishing.com) or on Amazon (www.amazon.com).
     I'll start today with the blurb and excerpt for "Kaishaku."  Over the next few days I'll be reposting the blurb/excerpt for "Dead Reckoning," as well as posting the character interviews for both books.  These character interviews were previously only up on the Musa blog, and were a fun writing exercise.  It was neat to do an interview as a fictional character, even for "people" who are disturbing and rather unpleasant.  As usual, the book covers for both ebooks are visible on the right side of this blog.



  Kaishaku Blurb:

     After receiving a DUI, Dustin Dempster is working off some community service hours at a hospital.  While there he’s asked to do some amateur counseling of sometimes difficult patients.  He thinks this a waste of time, but he reluctantly agrees.
     One of these difficult patients is Levon Howard, a man paralyzed from the neck down because of a car accident.  He’s initially uncooperative, but after being charmed by Dustin’s brutal honesty and willingness to break some small hospital rules, he agrees to participate.  Soon he’s revealing his biggest secrets to Dustin…
     For Levon is an obsessed and unrepentant killer of the worst sort, only with a personal quirk.  Despite his revulsion, Dustin finds himself intrigued by Levon’s story.  Soon he finds himself doing what was once unthinkable, and realizes that he’s being affected by what he’s learned.  Will Howard’s madness claim yet another victim, or even another perpetuator?



Kaishaku Excerpt:

     Dustin pulled up his chair, and listened intently.
     “For starters, my name is Levon, so call me that.  Not big on ‘Mr. Howard.’  Fort is right in a way—I do want to talk.  Just not to someone like him, or his flunkies, or a nurse.  What I’m going to tell you I’ve never told anyone—but I figure, why not?  My life—my real life—is over.
     “You never told anyone?  Why not?”
     “Shut up and listen!  You’ll see.  But anyway, the most important thing in my life is that I’m obsessed with killing.  With a catch—I’m not a murderer.  I’ve never been arrested, never went to jail, and never even broke the law.”
     Levon paused to catch his breath, and Dustin just stared at him, and resisted the urge to laugh.  Come on!  This guy’s gotta be fucking with me!  Or was he?  He looked pretty sincere—could he be serious?  Maybe he would have been better off not talking to him.  But, on the other hand, Levon could hardly attack him even if he wanted to, and besides, Dustin was a little curious.  So he waited for the paralyzed man to resume.



   





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