The Stories In Between

Between Books, an independent genre bookstore, has been in business (despite intense competition from area “big box” chain stores) for 30 incredible years. If you are in the tri-state (PA/NJ/DE) area on SAT, NOV 14th 2-5PM, please consider dropping by to show your support. <indie support rant-mode on> Indie booksellers are the midlist author’s best friend in the business. The best indie bookstore owners & employees hand-sell books to their customers because they KNOW their customers and they know their customers’ tastes in reading material. The big stores display pyramids of bestselling authors’ books and let volume make up for the anonymity of the sales experience. Years after publication, you’ll still find copies of my books in Between Books, compared to the two-to-three-months’ shelf lifespan they are granted in the chains.<indie support rant-mode off>

I’ve known Greg Schauer, the owner, since about 1980 and have been going to his store since that time. WITHER, my first published novel — the one that won the Bram Stoker Award and that Columbia Pictures bought feature film right to in a pre-emptive bid — was born in the aisles of Between Books, where I met and became friends with Joe Gangemi (J.G.), my WITHER co-author, who was then an employee of the store. I also met my wife through that connection. I’ve held ALL my book launches at Between Books since that first one in 1999.

When Greg announced he was going to produce an anthology (THE STORIES IN BETWEEN) to celebrate the 30th year of the store, and that the authors in the anthology would be chosen from those who had held signing events at the store, my first reaction was, “I need to make my contribution a Wendy Ward (from WITHER, WITHER’S RAIN, etc.) story.” I wanted it to be a special Wendy Ward story. The result is the approximately 17,000-word novelette, “Blood Alone.” It’s the longest Wendy Ward story I’ve written since the three novels, and it is a “game changing” story for Wendy.

AUTHORS IN THE ANTHOLOGY: Joseph Gangemi, Lawrence M. Schoen, Lawrence C. Connolly, Maria V. Snyder, Don Bethman, Gregory Frost, Patrick Thomas, John Passarella, Mike McPhail, Jonathan McGoran, Jonathan Maberry, Henry Long, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Walter Ciechanowski, CJ Henderson, and Catherynne M. Valente.

ARTISTS FEATURED: Steve Ressel, Marcella Harte, Nathaniel G. Sawyers, Mickey Freed, Allen Koszowski, Blair Webb, Don Bethman, Brian Thomas, Mike Oreszczyn, Baron Von Reign, Joe del Tufo, Nora Schaefer, and Burt Hopkins

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS/ARTISTS SCHEDULED TO ATTEND TO SIGN COPIES: Jonathan Maberry, Gregory Frost, Maria V. Snyder, Jonathan Mcgoran, Lawrence M. Schoen, Danielle Ackley-Mcphail, Henry Long, John Passarella, Patrick Thomas, Lawrence C. Connolly and others. (Subject to change)

THE PARTY AFTER THE LAUNCH PARTY: After the signing, local hotspot Mojo 13 will host an evening of music to finish off the anniversary celebrations. The Miles, The Scatologists, and The Bill Riccio 5 are scheduled to perform. Doors open at 8pm. There will be a cover charge of $5.00. 21+ only

The event is listed here and is open to the public:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168751924445

Thanks for reading!
John “Jack” Passarella

SHIMMER Trade Paperback

SHIMMER is now available in trade paperback. For all those without Kindles or other eBook readers, this is the version for you! The price is $14.99. Order yours now!

The first 20 people to pre-order an autographed trade paperback copy of SHIMMER through my Passarella Author Store will be entered into a PRIZE PACK drawing to win:

(1) WITHER TRILOGY Large Coffee Mug,
(2) WITHER’ S RAIN Suspense (Stress) Ball,
(3) WITHER’S LEGACY Ice Scraper

I modified the trade paperback book cover slightly compared to the eBook version. (See new image to the left!) The books are on their way to me and your order should ship within a week to 2 weeks. If your e-mail* address wins the Prize Pack, I will contact you for your mailing address.

First official review of SHIMMER (Five Stars!): “Pleasant dreams will be all but impossible as you read this incredible story. The Outsider in this tale kills without a scintilla of remorse and in unique ways. This book could very well be the first of a new series. (No, I have not heard that it will be, but I can sure hope!) Each character is well developed and has at least one interesting ability. This is a very intense story. I could not read fast enough and was eager to find out what would happen next. I urge all fans of horror or the par­anormal to purchase a copy. Shimmer gives me shivers!” FIVE STARS!
—Detra Fitch, Huntress Reviews (Read Full Review.)

LIMITED TIME OFFER: For a limited time, order SHIMMER and pay only $0.99 shipping & handling.

SHIMMER BOOK LAUNCH PARTY: For my local readers, I plan on having a book launch party at Between Books in Claymont, DE as soon as the owner (Greg Schauer) and I can lock down a date.

Thanks for reading!
-John Passarella

SHIMMER Book Info:

Pages: 308
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″ x .70″
ISBN-10: 1448648564
ISBN-13: 978-1448648566
Publisher: Virtuous Circle Press via Create Space
Order SHIMMER at Amazon.com

*Note: I will add your email address to my author newsletter list (the only use for the email address) to keep you up to date on my books and fiction and appearances, but you can opt out at any time.

Hi, Everyone -

SHIMMER

Happy 4th of July to my readers in the US!

This past MONDAY (June 29) I posted Chapters 49 through the Epilogue of the free SHIMMER eSerial. At the same time, I made the complete eBook available for purchase on the Kindle and for other eBook platforms. The current sale price for SHIMMER, the complete novel, is a mere $2.99*. Currently, only Chapters 46-Epilogue remain available for free download. These chapters will expire the week of July 13, but possibly sooner. So grab ‘em while you can.

If you’ve enjoyed the free eSerial or if you’ve been waiting for the whole novel to be available at once, I hope you will consider purchasing the Kindle version (if you have a Kindle, naturally) or another eBook format. For desktop viewing, you can purchase the Desktop PDF  format or even the Tagged PDF (reflowable) for flexibility.

For those who have asked about a print version, I am still considering my options. There has been some interest from the small press side. Or I may release an edition myself if there are too many delays. For now, the eBook is the only version available, so please consider that for your digital library. I will let you know if and when a hard copy version is likely.

Order the KINDLE VERSION of SHIMMER for $2.99

Order OTHER eBOOK FORMATS for $2.99

Read More About SHIMMER / Download Final FREE Chapters

Thanks for reading!

-John “Jack” Passarella

Follow me on Twitter

*Sale price of SHIMMER is subject to change without advance notice

SHIMMER

SHIMMER News: If you’re reading the free eSerial of SHIMMER, you can get the next three chapters (46-48, a big chunk of the novel!) at the usual location: http://bit.ly/IGfn

If you have a Kindle, you can buy the complete SHIMMER eBook (no waiting for the impatient readers or for the completists out there): http://bit.ly/RTI4u (List price $5.79; on sale 20% off, at only $4.63)

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can order one of FIVE (5) additional eBook formats: PDF Desktop (for PC Reading); PDF Tagged for Reflow on Mobile Devices; Mobipocket, ePUB, and LRF (Sony readers). These other eBook formats are currently available through my author store at the same sale price of $4.63 [20% Off List Price]: http://bit.ly/EWbFe

Please note: now that the complete novel is available for purchase, I am phasing out the earlier chapters of the free eSerial, at a rate of at least 9 chapters per week. But you’ve been reading along, right?

Thanks for reading!
-John Passarella ~ http://www.passarella.com
http://twitter.com/JohnPassarella (941 Followers & counting!)

SHIMMER for Kindle

SHIMMER — in its entirety — is now available for purchase on the Kindle eBook platform. (Other formats will follow. Even though the eSerial version of SHIMMER continues, you can get the entire novel now, no waiting… Well, waiting as long as it takes to complete a Kindle purchase and have the novel travel down the “Whispernet” to your device.

Now that the entire novel is becoming available for purchase on multiple eBook platforms (stay tuned for other releases), I am phasing out the oldest chapters of the serial on a weekly basis. At a rate of about nine chapters per week, the eSerial installments will disappear. You have been reading along each week, haven’t you?

eSerial status: Look for at least the first two chapters of Part Three this week!

UPDATE: Don’t have a KINDLE? No problem! Complete eBOOK available for sale in FIVE other eBOOK formats: PDF (Desktop & Tagged for reflow on mobile devices), Mobipocket, ePUB, and LRF, all through the Passarella Author Store at the same low price.

Thanks for reading!

-John Passarella

Follow me on Twitter!

SHIMMER

Hello, Readers!

With the release of Chapters 44 & 45 of my FREE supernatural SHIMMER eSerial (available in 8 popular eBook formats), we come to the conclusion of Part Two of the novel. Only 100 manuscript pages remain. Time is running out! Time in the story, and time for YOU to download and star reading the eSerial.

On the SHIMMER page ( http://bit.ly/IGfn ), you can also comment on the story so far – I’m looking for reader praise & comments for the eventual complete eBook or potential hard-copy version of the book.

Also, in the next few days, I’m hoping to have a special announcement. Stay tuned!
QUOTABLE FROM SHIMMER:
Ambrose: “We stand between the darkness and the light. We draw the line there and we defend that line.”
What’s your favorite quote from SHIMMER?
——————————————————

Be the first to know! Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/JohnPassarella

Thanks for reading!
-John Passarella ~ http://www.passarella.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“[A]n excellent offering by John Passarella…. Well written, fast paced
and quite enjoyable, I highly recommend Kindred Spirit.” —HorrorWorld

Kindle 2

Word from my editor is that both Wither and Wither’s Rain will be available for Kindle (and other eBook formats) on July 7, 2009.

At this time, both Wither’s Legacy and Kindred Spirit are available for the Kindle.

One of my Facebook friends lamented that Wither was out of print. But that isn’t so! The print edition of all four of my books mentioned above are still in print, but years after release (10 years for Wither now), it’s much less likely that book distributors (the middlemen between the publishers and the booksellers) will keep these books in stock. Since many bookstores consolidate all their purchases through 2 or 3 distributors rather than dealing directly with a couple dozen publishers, they don’t have access to the print editions. Dealing with distributors is simpler for bookstore owners and managers, so that’s what they do. You might have luck if you request a print copy from the store’s information desk, but then again, they may not want to go through the “hassle” of purchasing a single book from the publisher — Pocket Books (a division of Simon & Schuser) in my case — so they may just tell you that they can’t order it.

I’ve also noticed that Amazon.com has some wacky prices listed for the “in stock” and “sold by Amazon”  copies of Wither’s Rain and Kindred Spirit. These are mass market paperback books, both priced at $7.99 — not the $25.95 or $28.95 that Amazon has posted! Of course, you can purchase new and used copies through the 3rd party dealers if you are comfortable with that approach.

If you aren’t on the digital book (eBook) bandwagon and don’t plan on getting a Kindle anytime soon and you’re having trouble finding/ordering my books through traditional online and brick-and-mortar bookstores, I sell signed (and personalized, if desired) copies of my books out of my author bookstore. So, that’s an option.

Thanks for reading!

-John Passarella

SHIMMER

As I announced post-midnight last night to my Twitter followers, ( http://twitter.com/JohnPassarella ), Chapters 41 thru 43 of my FREE supernatural SHIMMER eSerial are now available for download in 8 eBook formats.

On the SHIMMER page ( http://bit.ly/IGfn ), you can also comment on the story so far – I’m looking for reader praise & comments for the eventual complete eBook or potential hard-copy version of the book.

QUOTABLE FROM SHIMMER:

Logan: “My father used to say that insanity doesn’t run in our family, but occasionally it power walks.”

What’s your favorite quote from SHIMMER? Post a comment with your quote!

Thanks for reading!

-John “Jack” Passarella

Visit http://www.passarella.com – be afraid!

SHIMMER

As I announced around midnight last night exclusively to all my Twitter followers ( http://twitter.com/JohnPassarella ), Chapters 39 and 40 of my FREE supernatural SHIMMER eSerial are now available for download in 8 eBook formats. That’s right, EIGHT. I just added the Sony Reader LRF format. Apparently ePub works for some but not all versions of the Sony reader. LRF should fill the gap. I created the LRF versions in Calibre but couldn’t test them. So if you have a Sony reader, let me know if they work okay.

These chapters finally take the reader through the rift into the HELL world that spawned Carnifex, Reaper of Flesh.

On my SHIMMER page you can download horizontal & vertical banners (animated and static) to display on your site or blog or MySpace page, etc. Why? Because if you do and sign up for my newsletter (signup form on every page at passarella.com), you become eligible for cash and prizes… well, just PRIZES for now, but they cost me some cash to create.

On that page, you can also comment on the story so far — I may use your reader comments & praise on the eventual complete eBook or potential hard-copy version of the book. You can also answer the poll question about your favorite eBook format. (I’m looking for feedback on this – I haven’t updated the poll to include LRF though! LRF addition was a last minute thing before midnight.)

NAMESAKE CONTEST WINNERS: I’ve finished proofing the entire manuscript of SHIMMER now. And I saw that the rest of the “namesake” contest winners (i.e., have your name used for a character in my book) appear in the final chapters of the book, before and during a final showdown. The second and third named winners to appear will be Kelly Flexer and Julie Young.

Here’s the SHIMMER page link: http://bit.ly/IGfn

Thanks for Reading!
-John Passarella
http://www.passarella.com

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: http://twitter.com/JohnPassarella

SHIMMER

The free SHIMMER eSerial continues! I’ve just posted  CHAPTERS 35 – 38 of my supernatural (dark fantasy) novel SHIMMER. Download the new installment in any of 7 popular eBook formats right from my website. No purchase necessary.

WHERE IS IT? Go here to get yours: http://bit.ly/IGfn

PRIZES? It’s not too late to become eligible for prize drawings. (1) Join my mailing list (signup form on every page of my site) and (2) post a SHIMMER banner on your blog, site, MySpace page, etc. Then let me know when both things are done you’ll be eligible for prize drawings. Many banners are available on my SHIMMER page: http://bit.ly/IGfn

If you are enjoying the SHIMMER eSerial experience and know anyone who might want to know about this, please do let them know. Help me spread the word.

Thanks!
-John Passarella

Follow Me on Twitter – http://twitter.com/JohnPassarella
P.S. Next installment: INTO THE RIFT