Picked Up By Thomas & Mercer

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t&mFriends – You may have heard already, but Christmas came early this year for me: Amazon’s mystery imprint Thomas & Mercer recently acquired all five books in the Marty Singer series!

This means great things may lie ahead and I have YOU–colleagues and authors as well as fans and readers of the series–to thank for it because the editors at Amazon were not only interested in my writing, they were impressed with the number and quality of the reviews for the books.

Thank you so much for all of your support. Amazon calling is really the icing on the cake to what has been an avalanche of great emails, reviews, messages, and comments from you. Thank you!

New Book! Stealing Sturgis

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stealing-sturgis3dA NEW BOOK!
Autumn, my favorite season, is running out the door with Winter fast behind it, but that just means more opportunities to read as the sun sets earlier and there are darn few reasons to go outside.

Speaking of reading, I’ve just released a new (non-Marty Singer) book, Stealing Sturgis on Amazon.com. It’s an Elmore Leonard-esque caper with plenty of fights, car chases, an explosive ending–and it’s just $.99 for a limited time!

Here’s the setup:

sturgis_blurb

If this sounds like your cup of tea, check it out at http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Sturgis-Matthew-Iden-ebook/dp/B00QFKJC6M/tag=matthewiden-20.

To thank you for your support, I’m offering it for just $.99 for a limited time, so grab your copy now! As always, if you enjoy it, I would appreciate it if you’d tell a friend and leave a 3 or 4 sentence review on Amazon!

Matt

p.s. There have been some formatting issues with the Kindle Reader versions of the book for iPad/iPhone, but the problems should be solved soon. The books is perfectly readable, but it just isn’t as handsome as it should be and it looks fine on any Kindle e-reader!

Russel Blake’s Craft Tip #3 – How To Write More, Faster

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Craft Tip #3 – How To Write More, Faster

An inspiring post from crazy-productive indie novelist Russel Blake. Read it all!

My favorite is Tip #10:

The power of questions: Ask yourself, “How can I make this the best chapter I have ever written, and be excited and have fun doing it?” before you sit down to write. Asking yourself questions that empower you determines your perception of what you do, and will affect how you do it.

Ask good questions.

“How can I turn out the best book I’ve ever written and do it in less time than I dreamed possible while enjoying the process” gets you a different answer than “Why can’t I keep up with those other authors” or “What am I thinking even doing this?” If you believe you can, you’re right. If you believe you can’t, you’re right. If you believe, “I’ll find a way,” you’ll have a different career than “This will never work.”

Craft Tip #3 – How To Write More, Faster.

Saving libraries and the culture of reading

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LIBARARYI was reading about the death of bookstores and the lamentation of the masses, who will no longer have a place to meet, talk, and browse novels before going home and buying them on Amazon.

Someone mentioned libraries should take their place; the mission of a library, after all, is to provide a central repository for books and, by extension, a place for people to read them, talk about them, and enjoy them. [Read more…]

Placing Literature

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I was recently invited to take part in a very cool website, PlacingLiterature.com, where authors (and readers) are encouraged to map each scene of their books on a real-world map.

The map is integrated with every other entry, so you can see CJ Lyons’s cool settings outside of my boyhood home, Pittsburgh, or even historical characters like Mark Twain.

I’m featured from August 15 – September 15, so if you get a chance, go take a look at my entry for A Reason to Live! I describe the scene, setting, and little behind-the-scenes tidbits when I can.

podcastAlso, Tim Knox of InterviewAuthors.com was kind enough to do a 10 minute podcast interview on behalf of Placing Literature. We cover the importance of setting in my particular brand of fiction. You can listen to it here.