This week I finally launched the FREE SHIMMER eSerial, i.e., Serialized Novel.
Some background info: SHIMMER is my most recently completed novel. The manuscript of this supernatural thriller garnered a period of intense Hollywood interest. Initially, top tier production companies were talking about using Shimmer as a springboard to a summer tent-pole movie franchise. Later, a television production company executive talked with me on several occasions about the possibility of adapting Shimmer as a weekly TV series. Ultimately, neither of these possibilities occurred. Yes, Hollywood runs hot and cold.
What’s SHIMMER about? SHIMMER tells the story of a family with various paranormal abilities who has, through generations spanning thousands of years, protected the human race from supernatural predators. These creatures enter our world through dimensional rifts and must be defeated or returned to their world before wreaking havoc in our own. But the family has suffered a long war of attrition and their numbers have dwindled. They are at their weakest when our world faces its greatest threat. And time is running out.
What eBook Formats are Available? Now, I’m releasing Shimmer as a weekly serial novel (one chapter per week, perhaps more) in several eBook formats. I’ve converted the first chapter into RTF, HTML, PDF (desktop), PDF (tagged for reflow on mobile devices), Mobipocket (works on Amazon’s Kindle, I’m told, and other platforms), and eReader formats. I can’t test these all, so if anyone out there can let me know if the conversions are working, I’d appreciate. (And if not, some tips?) I did view the conversion on the desktop Mobipocket & eReader software.
So Chapter 1 is now live on the site, ready for download. (Chapter 1 is also posted as a sample chapter right on the page itself as well.) Chapter 2 should be up in less than a week. I hope my readers (old and new) enjoy the ride!
_John Passarella
P.S. I designed the “book cover” image above from scratch using several stock photos and various design effects. Photo credits are as follows: Woman’s Face © Giorgio Gruizza, Sword © Ivan Gusev, Bicycle © Reinhold Föger , School Building © cfarmer – all from Fotolia.com, and NJ Transit Bus © Greg Januska
Two of my stories (“All Heaven in a Rage” & “Debts Long Due”) are now available in a newly illustrated flip chapbook from Scrybe Press. Read one story, then flip the book around and read the other. Inside, you’ll find a new introduction I wrote for the chapbook, explaining the genesis of each story.
WENDY WARD returns post-
Going Mobile
Hi, Everyone –
I had a very BlackBerry Christmas, that is, I got a BlackBerry Curve 8310 as a Christmas present, replacing my old cell phone. I looked at my Web site on the Curve and realized I needed to do something for smart phone users. The header graphics loaded as separate, stacked chunks…ugh! So I created a slimmed down version of the John Passarella Author Site for mobile users. I can only test on the BlackBerry Curve, so if you view it in some other smart phone browser, let me know if anything looks askew. I’m using a minimum of styles (CSS), in the head section and some mobile phones come with styles turned off by default, so you may want to check that. The mobile domain for passarella.com is http://passarella.mobi – Check it out. Let me know if something isn’t working, but also let me know what pages/features/items you’d like to see added to the mobile site. I have book and short story info there, as well as a shorter bio. This is a start. I’d like to expand it in the coming weeks and months.
Also, since I now know the screen dimensions of the BlackBerry 320×240, I decided to create a Kindred Spirit wallpaper/desktop for my BlackBerry and make it available to other BlackBerry Curve owners for free. You’ll find a link from my Extras page. And on the mobile page. Here’s what the free mobile wallpaper looks like:
If you have some other BlackBerry or other company’s smart phone that supports wallpaper, let me know the dimensions and I’ll make it available for you.