The Stone Song on audio

We've had the opportunity to listen to the fast-paced, pretty exciting story of a brother and sister who get caught up in one of those towns that gets locked down by the military because something secret and spooky is going on.

Think Stranger Things meets that Stephen King show about the domed town.

The stakes keep increasing at just about the right pace as the story moves on. If you're fan of the genre, this is one you'll probably want to give a go.

If you've got a holiday drive coming up in the next couple months, this would make a pretty good companion as the story is active, the pace is quick, and the bad guys are really bad.

As this is part of a blog tour for the book, check out what Karen said yesterday here.

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Audible, the world’s leading provider of spoken-word entertainment, has secured worldwide English language audio rights to Tom Bale’s audio-exclusive new title The Stone Song, narrated by Raza Jaffrey (Homeland, Code Black).

Audible will produce and record The Stone Song in its Grammy and Audie award-winning London studios. It will be released exclusively in audio on 7 November 2019. It is now available to pre-order on Audible here.

The Stone Song is a dystopian sci-fi thriller set in a small Sussex village, by best-selling author Tom Bale (See How They Run, All Fall Down, One Dark Night). With four teenagers pitted against deadly opposition, this is a story of supernatural menace that will appeal to fans of Stephen King and Stranger Things. 

On a sweltering summer’s night, teenage siblings Jack and Lily witness a helicopter crash on the main road between Brighton and London. The next morning they wake to find their village has been sealed off from the entire world. A terrorist cell is holed up in Stenhurst – or at least that’s the official story, put out by sinister government agent Wynter and his vicious sidekick, Major Kellett.

But later that day, Lily and Jack stumble on the truth: the authorities are hunting for a mysterious creature, labelled CatX, who escaped during the crash. Together with their friends, Erin and Oliver, Lily and Jack take it upon themselves to defy the lockdown and protect the creature, no matter what the risks. 

The stakes are raised still further when a team of American agents arrive with their own unique technologies. Nobody who sees the CatX must be allowed to survive, and yet it soon becomes clear that there is a much bigger secret here...one that threatens the entire world. 

The Stone Song features an exclusive interview with narrator Raza Jaffrey at the end of the audiobook, in which he talks about the narration experience, his career as an actor and the things (and people) he loves to listen to.

The Stone Song joins a host of best-in-class sci-fi Audible Originals released in recent months. Highlights include The X-Files starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, H.G. Wells: The Science Fiction Collection starring David Tennant and Hugh Bonneville amongst others, and Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Musical Drama, starring Michael Sheen, Taron Egerton and Theo James.

Blog Tour: Call Down the Thunder

Today we've got a sneak peak at the new Dietrich Kalteis novel. Check the schedule at the end of this post to find out where to go tomorrow!

“Set in Depression-era Kansas, this colorful, character-driven crime novel pits desperate small-town folk against racists and thugs. Kalteis does a fine job of scene setting; the reader can practically smell the horehound candy at the general store and feel the grit in the air at Sonny’s farm. Fans of historical crime fiction won’t want to miss this.” — Publishers Weekly

Blog Tour: Call Down the Thunder by Dietrich Kalteis 

Excerpt 

Sonny Myers narrowed his eyes against the gust, felt the rush of cold, the air crackling: static electricity churning and hellfire flashing inside the mass of black looming high over the flat land. The yard a frenzy of whipping sand and debris by the time he got his mule and car in the barn. Felt like the end of times coming. Through the boiling wall of sand, Sonny made out two sets of headlights approaching on the county road. Could be coming for shelter from the duster, but something told him no. Going to the house, reaching inside the door, he took the shotgun and stepped off the porch.

Coming to the door, Clara wanting to have a look.

“Just a blow.” He told her to stay inside.

“What you gonna do, shoot it?”

His eyes slits, Sonny stepped into the yard, forcing his steps, having to lean into it, going toward the headlights.

Photo by Andrea Kalteis

Looked like two pickups stopped down by the mailbox, lights dim against the blasting sand. Doors opened and men got out. Nobody he knew. Best he could tell there were six of them, pulling hoods on. Two going to the bed of the first truck, pulling a long cross from the back. Sonny smelling kerosene and oil from where he stood, halfway to the house. A couple of them fanned to his left, heading for the side of the house, flanking him.

Sonny fired in the air, the only warning they’d get, popping in another shell. Leaving the ones by the trucks, Sonny went after the pair going wide around the house. Couldn’t see twenty feet ahead as the duster bore down. Hurrying around the side, his eyes searched for them somewhere ahead of him. One hand against the boards, he made his way around the back, staying low. Expecting an ambush. Ready to shoot if he had to. Getting to the far side before he smelled the smoke. Thinking it was the burning cross. Then he caught figures moving ahead of him.

“Halt,” he called, wondering what kind of thing was that to yell. Couldn’t shoot, knowing Clara wouldn’t stay inside like he told her. No point in shooting his wife. Catching sight of the flames, the cross burning down by the mailbox, the sound of car doors shutting, taillights pulling away.

Then Clara screamed from the porch, stumbling down the steps, hand on the porch rail, she moved along and found him, pointing to the barn. Sonny catching the flicker, another man running from it and crossing the open ground, heading for the trucks. Putting the stock to his shoulder, Sonny fired.Pretty sure he winged the son of a bitch, reaching in his pocket for another shell that wasn’t there. The man chased after the trucks and disappeared.

The dry boards caught fast, flames flicked to the roof beams and spread, the straw floor alight and swirling around. Bats flew around the rafters, chickens getting out of there. The mule screaming.

Handing Clara the shotgun, Sonny jumped down along the west side, swatting and kicking at the burning straw with his shoe. The heat like a wall, pushing him back. Slapping at the cuff of his overalls as it caught. No way to get to the back. The heat was too much. Couldn’t get to the screaming mule and pull her from the stall. Taking Clara, he turned her for the door.

Driven out, both of them choking from the smoke, blinded by the sand. The flames shooting from the roof, long fingers reaching across to the house. The triangle clanging like mad from the porch post. Wrapping his arms around her, Sonny got her across the yard. A picket struck his back and knocked him down. Clara tugged him to his feet. Getting to the porch. The sand blasting so hard, they could barely see the barn, both getting inside the house. Praying it wouldn’t catch fire too.





Excerpted from Call Down the Thunder by Dietrich Kalteis. © 2019 by Dietrich Kalteis. All rights reserved. Published by ECW Press Ltd. www.ecwpress.com 

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Dietrich Kalteis is the award-winning author of Ride the Lightning (bronze medal, 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for best regional fiction), The Deadbeat Club, Triggerfish, House of Blazes (silver medal, 2017 IPPY, for best historical fiction), Zero Avenue, and Poughkeepsie Shuffle. He lives with his family on Canada’s west coast. 

on twitter @dietrichkalteis

Rocks Beat Paper BLOG TOUR: Chapter 1.4

We are joined today by someone long-time DSD fans will recall -- Mike Knowles. Mike was our original Sunday voice, back in 2009. His new Wilson novel, ROCKS BEAT PAPER, is out this week. 

A phone call brought Wilson and nine other men to a job in New York. At first, he couldn’t see a way to make the heist work, but the score — millions of dollars in diamonds — kept him looking. Wilson came up with a plan he knew would work . . . until the inside man got killed and took the job with him.

With no way inside, the crew walks away without the diamonds. Alone, Wilson is free to execute the job his way. Wilson sets a con in motion that should run as predictably as a trail of dominoes — except the con doesn’t rely on inanimate tiles, it relies on people.

Wilson pushes all of the pieces across the board only to find out that there are other players making their own moves against him. Everyone is playing to win and no one is willing to walk away because the job is about more than money, the job is about diamonds. And in this game, rocks beat paper every time.

Today, we've got the fourth excerpt from the opening chapter. You can catch up and follow along, by starting at Liz Loves Books for the first Q&A and Crime Book Junkie for the first excerpt.

Excerpt 4 

Rocks Beat Paper: A Wilson Mystery

By Mike Knowles

From Chapter 1

When it was just the two of us, I looked Miles in the eye. “Why are you here?”

“Same reason as you.”

“I’m here to work,” I said.

“Same goes for me.”

“That what you’re doing?”

“What? Those guys are assholes.”

“Those guys are here for the job.”

“So?”

“So the job is only the job if it gets done. That can’t happen if you get murdered with a pool cue in the middle of a rumpus room.”

Miles clapped me on the shoulder. “So you do think this is a rumpus room.”

“Don’t know. That makes two things I don’t know.”

“What’s the other thing?”

“If this is the only job you’re working,” I said.

Miles went a beat without saying anything. It was long enough for me to let a bit of a grin form on my face and for him to rebound.

“You really comfortable with guys like that watching your back?”

I looked over the group of men as I considered my response. Alvin had gotten to his feet and was giving the room a once-over of his own. He worked hard to catch my eye, but I gave his stare the slip. “You want to work with upstanding citizens, go be a bank teller. The background checks weed out most of the riff-raff. Right now, you’re not in a bank, you’re in a basement with nine criminals. We’re all riff-raff. You’re sitting around hassling two guys because you think they’re not decent human beings. Your only concern should be if they can do what they say they can do. If they can do that, everything else they say gets a pass.”

“So you want me to give them a pass?”

“I want you to shut your mouth and keep your feelings to yourself because every time you piss them off you take their minds off the job and put the rest of us in a bit more shit.”

“You really sticking up for that white-power asshole?”

I nodded. “You want a noble thief, get a library card.”

Alvin gave up on being subtle and spoke loud enough to be heard over the rest of the conversations going on. “We ready to get started?”          

Miles ignored the question; he had one of his own for me. “Do you really think you can trust those two to watch your back?”

I looked over at Johnny and Tony and found them staring at me. I stared back until I got bored. It happened fast. “My back doesn’t need watching. I just need them to do what they say they’ll do.”

“And you think they can?”

I looked back at the two thugs. “I’m going to find out.”

Follow the tour:

Excerpt adapted from Rocks Beat Paper by Mike Knowles. © 2017 by Mike Knowles. All rights reserved. Published by ECW Press Ltd. www.ecwpress.com

COST BENEFIT

By Russel D McLean

In case you’re wondering where I’ve been these last few weeks, I’ve been out on tour. Not physically. Oh, no. I’ve been working the blogs. Shaking my ass on other people’s sites. Working that moneymaker.

Which has been fun. Tiring. Exhausting. But fun.

And then someone asked me this question:

How much effort did you put into this? And how much benefit did you reap? Did you gain enough new readers to offset the time spent writing a new article every day? Did your sales go stratospheric?

If I look at the cold, hard numbers, the answer is that I’m not sure. I really, really don’t know. But then, as we’ve seen this last week, in the world of publishing no one knows anything. No one can agree on anything.

Looking back on the tour – and looking back on last year’s physical tour – I would say that in terms of cold hard numbers, both could be considered supremely inefficient. Yes, people got a kick out of them (honestly, I’ve had letters to prove it) and I myself had a ball. But in terms of extra sales, of word of mouth, of people who actually went out and bought a copy…

The effort to benefit ratio seems wrong.

Of course, I’ve never been a cold hard numbers person. I don’t understand cold, hard numbers (just ask my mum). Most of the time, I don’t get how they add up or why. Seriously. They seem more random than people give them credit for.

Perhaps more so in cases like this.

The fact is that I know my effort to benefit ratio is appalling when I do events, tours and so forth. But then the effort to benefit ratio in writing a novel is appalling anyway.

So why do it?

The key sentiment above:

“…people got a kick out of it and I… had a ball.”

I love doing events. I love doing interviews. I love doing blog tours. I may sometimes have to pass them up when things get seriously down to the knuckle (don’t forget, I also work a full time day job) but they’re part of what makes this job fun.

And besides, in the end, all I can do is have faith that the numbers will work themselves out. One way or another. Because like I said back there at the start:

in this business, no one knows anything.

Lost in The USA

By Russel D McLean

In just under a week (in four days time!) THE LOST SISTER is going to hit the US market. I’m in the final stages of organising a blog tour which is going to probably kill me, if only because I’ll be writing about a different aspect of the book or writing and reading every day. I’m dreading the entire thing and yet I’m extremely excited. Unlike my physical tour last year there’s no real chance to re-use material that worked before because, well, some of the audience may have come across it already (not that I did repeat any material – well, maybe some that was relevant and my dad’s gag about when God Created Scotland which accidentally opened the tour and became a running skit throughout). I hope you’ll follow me, of course, as I hop from blog to blog like a bearded gazelle. Some will be US blogs, some will be respectable blogs, some will be from far flung places like Glasgow but all have been very generous in opening up their doors.

The hope of course is to touch new readers. To bring people on board. Its tough to know how directly these things work. When you do a physical event you can correlate the book sales at the time to the effectiveness of your appearance. Its not rocket science. But how do you know all the people who bought on Amazon one day did so cos of a blog tour? Or if they went to their local bricks and mortar to find the book?

God only knows.

But I’m still going to do this. Because I kind of enjoy trying new things out and seeing what I can and can’t do. I love doing physical events that are different (I’ve now done two “careers fairs” about being a writer which are not – despite what some people may think – about selling my books as much as they are about telling people the truth about what my day to day job entails, and I happen to dig doing book groups who are not always the same kind of people I get at signing and talking events). In short, for the most part, I enjoy the promotion as long as I can do it on my own terms. I’m not a hard seller. Its not in me to be that guy. In fact nothing puts me off an author more than the continual and constant hawking of themselves. I tend to seek out guys and gals who talk about their work in a meaningful and entertaining way or who can make a connection to other things in life, be they other writers or influences or whatever. But the whole “buy me, buy me I’m great” thing has never been my scene.

That said, seriously, I hope that people buy the book…