Free Ebook, Harmland

For Halloween, and for a couple days after, my "Harmland" collection is free to download as an ebook at Amazon. This is a collection of noir and horror stories. There's over 20,000 words of material here, including such tales as "Whiskey, Guns, and Sin," "The Grey Inside," "The Finding," and others.

One of the stories, "The Toad," is about half autobiographical. You'll have to guess which half. There's also a Cthulhu Mythos story called "The Vivarium."

If you read ebooks, why not give it a download. And if you do read it, I'd appreciate a review, of course.

Download here:

Harmland in Print

I originally did the ebook version of Harmland: dark tales, back in 2012. It was over 21,000 words but I didn’t feel—at the time—that was long enough for a print version. However, David Cranmer, over at Beat to a Pulp has shown what can be done with some really nice packaging at shorter lengths using a smaller size paperback format. I finally decided to go for it and Harmland is now available as a print book on Amazon for $6.99.

I used CreateSpace for the book and was a bit frustrated because they had changed everything since the last time I put up a book. I found the previous time very easy but this one was a pain. Still, Harlmand is up now, and while I’m not overly thrilled with the cover and cover fonts, I still think it’s pretty cool. I hope you’ll check it out.

This is a collection of noir and horror stories. Some of the contents are: "Whiskey, Guns, and Sin," "The Finest Cut," "The Grey Inside," "The Toad," and a modern Cthulhu Mythos tale called "The Vivarium."

Next up will be a print version of Killing Trail, my western collection. Coming soon.

Reviews, Updated

Updated News:

Prashant, over at Chess, Comics, Crosswords, Books, Music, Cinema, has now put up the review of Killing Trail, and there is an interview with yours truly.  I hope you'll get a chance to drop by and leave a comment. I'll be checking back and forth during the day to answer any questions that folks might have for me.

Also, Aimless Writer (Jeanne) still has her review of Harmland: Dark Tales up over on her blog. I'm very glad to see she enjoyed it. If you'd like, you can read her review here. She has a couple of books of her own available that you should check out.
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Noir at the Bar

I'll be here on Saturday night this week, March 22. I'm really looking forward to it. A number of authors are going to be reading their noir tales, including Megan Abbott and, I think, Heather Graham. I'll be reading a piece called "The Finest Cut," which appeared in my Harmland collection. 

The reading takes place at the Irish House: 1432 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. It's from 7:30 to 10:30. I have no idea what time I'm likely to be reading. But there is booze there! Come drop by and say hello if you can. Should be a great time. 

Contact information for the Irish House is: (504) 595-6755

[email protected]

There's also a page on facebook about it. 

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Sales Report, and Contest

I see authors doing this once in a while, reporting on sales for some of their independently published books. Usually the numbers look a lot better than what I see for mine. Gotta admit that bothers me some. But it’s good to do such evaluations and to read them from others. How do we know if anything is working if we don’t see some numbers.

Here’s the numbers on my noir collection “Harmland,” which I published on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble in April of 2012. It sold 14 copies right off the bat, then sold between 2 and 3 copies a month until August of 2012. At that point it flatlined and there’s not been a sale since. Total sales equaled 30 copies, with 6 of those coming from B & N and the rest from Amazon.

As for getting the word out, I posted on my blog and on facebook initially about the book. I’ve increased my posting on facebook in the last few months in hopes of reminding people of the collection. It hasn’t generated any action. I featured “Harmland” prominently in my first author newsletter, which I emailed out to several hundred folks at the end of October, 2012. I even came up with a “Harmland” chili recipe to include with the newsletter. Since I’ve had no sales since October the newsletter would seem, if anything, to have had the opposite effect to the one desired. I’m definitely gonna have to reconsider the effort involved in putting out a newsletter.

On Tuesday, June 15, I lowered the price of the collection from $2.99 to $1.99. This is for over 21,000 words of material. I announced the sale on facebook and sold 3 copies in the first few hours. None since then.

Today I’m posting about it here, of course. If you’re looking to pick up “Harmland” at its new $1.99 price, the link is here:

AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Harmland-ebook/dp/B008CT92ZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372340612&sr=8-1&keywords=harmland

I haven't yet changed the price at Barnes and Noble but that link is below: 

BARNES and; NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/harmland-charles-gramlich/1111664242?ean=2940014697026

As a further initiative to get folks to come read this blog, I’m holding a giveaway. If you comment on this blog, your name will be put into a hat for a drawing of a brand new, unopened copy of “Cut Short,” the first in the popular Geraldine Steel detective series by British author Leigh Russell. Back when this came out, I ended up buying two copies of the book and have had the extra copy sitting around for quite some time. I’m only going to be able to mail the copy to the US and Canada, though.

Hope your day is fun and productive!

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Harmland Brand Chili

In honor of my newest collection, "Harmland," I'm gonna cook up a batch of Harmland Chili today. If you're in the Abita Springs area drop by and we'll have a heaping bowl with some dark beer. I’m thinking Turbo Dog is just about right with this kind of chili. And you won’t need any hot sauce.  Maybe I’ll whip up a batch of cornbread to go along with it. It’s great for sopping up the juices.

 Here’s a little excerpt from the story, “The Finest Cut,” which inspired today’s chili recipe.

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Sheriff Dan Cortland stood looking down at the excavated grave. A coffin lay within, its lid thrown back. The coroner, Garrison Moeller, knelt in the dirt beside the grave, peering into the casket, which had been hand built out of thick cypress planks and seemed far too well constructed to house a couple of murder victims.

 Moeller climbed heavily to his feet, then stripped off the pair of surgical gloves that made his thick hands and wrists look like grub worms underneath the latex. He gestured toward the med techs nearby. “You can move ‘em now. Straight to Longleaf Hospital.”

 “Something strange about the bodies,” Cortland said.

 Moeller snorted. “You mean besides the cut marks on the bones and the fact that sixty percent of their flesh has been removed?”

 “Yeah, besides that.”

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Remember: Harmland Chili: For when you absolutely have to kill the main ingredient yourself.

Get the Recipe Here. (Sort of: If you read between the lines.)  

Harmland and other Updates

The writing has been slow but at least I'm doing some.  My planned collection, "Harmland," is coming along. It's almost completed in content and I've pretty much got the cover issues resolved.  Probably it will go up in June.  Yesterday I put in several hours of work and managed to finish three book reviews that I've promised to The Dark Man Journal.  I'll give those a final look through today and email them off. It will be good to have some stuff going out instead of having more things pile up on my desk/computer.

Lana and I had planned a trip to Yellowstone right about now, but had to cancel it because of her chemo.  Although I enjoy such trips, I'm enough of a homebody that I'm not really going to feel that bad.  And, Lana's chemo seems to be working at present. The swollen node in her neck has decreased in size and that's a good thing.

Off to give those reviews a final read through.  Then we need to do some grocery shopping since we're about out of food in the house.  I wonder if I should have a shower before I leave the house?  If you hear about any strange wild animal sightings in Abita Springs, Louisiana on May 29 you'll know I decided against the shower!

First Chemo, and a some vague thoughts on writing

Well, Lana had her first chemo treatment yesterday.  It was a long day, from about 8:20 to 2:00 in the chair with infusions of various medications running into her body.  She handled it like a trooper.  We took along my laptop and she was even able to get online with it and do a little facebooking as a distraction.  She had some weird feelings in her body later but so far not a lot of problems. I understand the worst often hits after a couple of times.  She also has to go back today for a half hour for another infusion of some med to counteract the nausea effects of the first meds. 

I actually did some 'thinking' about writing yesterday evening, for the first time in quite a while.  Mostly I was thinking about the cover to Harmland, and deciding I needed to add a subtitle to make sure folks knew it was short stories rather than a novel.  Also, in the first version I posted, a couple of folks thought the "eyes" down in the left hand corner were headlights, so I wondered about adding another pair of eyes, or two, to dispel that possibility.  I also enlarged the font size of my name and the title, and moved the title in a bit, which several people suggested. Anyway, I've copied the new mock-up below.  It's still not completed, of course, but let me know if you see problems. I'm not really happy with the subtitle of "stories," but haven't come up with anything else yet.