From now on all of my posts will be at www.jonathanmaberry.com, where I've positioned my Big Scary Blog.  I'm doing an interview each week with a best selling author, and posting info on the world of books, writing, and publishing.

See you there!

Jonathan

<strong>I’m getting near the end of my signing tour for ZOMBIE CSU.  Along the way I’ve hit several independent bookstores, and that’s always a lot of fun.  Indie stores are different from the chains in a lot of important ways.

First, they really know their customers.  There’s more of a conversational back-and-forth between Indie store owners & staff and their regular customers.  Which leads to a second and very important difference –since they know their customers they know what they like.  These stores often have a lot of specialty stuff on their shelves that you won’t find anywhere else.

Good example… my second novel, DEAD MAN’S SONG, sold out of its first print run.  All of the major chains (including Amazon) are out of copies, but you can find new, signed copies at some of the indies, including:

DOYLESTOWN BOOKSHOP (Doylestown, PA) http://www.doylestownbookshop.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

BETWEEN BOOKS (Claymont, DE)  http://www.betweenbooks.com/

CLINTON BOOKSHOP (Clinton, NJ)  http://clinton.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

These stores support writers and their honor readers.  And as a writer AND a reader, I love 'em.

Check ‘em out!   And…support your local independent book store.

-Jonathan
www.jonathanmaberry.com </strong>

Tags: bad moon rising, cryptopedia, dead man's song, ghost road blues, independent bookstores, vampire universe, zombie csu

Gearing up for my ZOMBIE CSU book signing at the Borders in Center City Philly at 12:30 pm on Thursday.  Stop on by!

Borders -Avenue of he Arts
1 S. Broad
Suite 100
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Phone: 215.568.7400
Fax: 215.568.7466

My next novel, PATIENT ZERO, hits stores in March 2009.  Here's a special sneak preview:

http://us.macmillan.com/patientzero#biography

 

I’ll be signing gobs o’ copies of ZOMBIE CSU this month. Some of these will include panel discussions on all things zombie. Stop on by, grab a book, meet the experts, share your opinions and insights on the living dead. Remember…this is the 40^th Anniversary of Night of the Living Dead…what better way to celebrate it than by snagging a copy of a book that explores the science and implications of George Romero’s dark vision of the apocalypse.

 

Oct 3: Doylestown Bookshop 7-8:30pm

http://www.doylestownbookshop.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

 

Oct 4: Collingswood Book Festival (all day)

http://www.collingswoodbookfestival.com/

 

Oct 7: Doylestown Library 7-9pm

http://www.buckslib.org/libraries/Doylestown/index.htm

 

Oct 9: Borders Center City; 12:30

http://www.borders.com/online/store/EventView?city=&state=&zipCode=&within=&all_stores=&selectedStoreId=10568&eventId=261503&

 

Oct 11: Wilkes-Barre Barnes & Noble 2-5pm

http://storelocator.barnesandnoble.com/storedetail.do;jsessionid=B08A1FF24EA4D823308B7D85BFDE723B?store=2996

 

Oct 14: Hunterdon County Library 7-9

http://www.hclibrary.us/

 

Oct 17: Borders Express Willow Grove 7-9 pm

http://www.borders.com/online/store/StoreDetailView_1949

 

Oct 19: Between Books / Claymont Delaware 2-4 pm

http://www.betweenbooks.com/

 

Oct 23: Jenkintown Barnes & Noble 7-9 pm

http://storelocator.barnesandnoble.com/storedetail.do?store=1893

 

Oct 25-26: Zombie Fest / Monroeville Mall (Pittsburgh)

http://www.theitsaliveshow.com/zombiefest2008/home.htm

 

Oct 30: Clinton Books / 7-9 pm

http://clinton.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

 

 

 

Writers Coffeehouse with Jonathan Maberry– Sunday from Noon to 3pm - FREE

Come and join us on Sunday, September 28, from noon to 3pm at the Bucks County Coffeehouse in Doylestown PA for a free networking session. It’s a bunch of writers sitting around talking about writing…with coffee.   

 

No agenda…just chat about the latest trends in the industry, about markets, about pitching and selling, about frustration, about keeping the inner fires alight, about dealing with our families, about how damn tough it is to make it as a writer at the best of times and what writers can do to stay afloat in these troubled economic waters.   

 

This is stuff that writers can't really talk about with someone who isn't a writer. Writers get other writers: they're of a species.   

 

No previous publishing experience necessary…the Writers Coffeehouse attracts everyone from absolute beginner to award-winners and bestsellers. We’re all writers.   

 

So come on out and join us. This will be a monthly event. Grab a cup of coffee and head on downstairs to the Conference Room. 

 

See you Sunday.

 

For more information, drop me a line at jonathan_maberry@yahoo.com

 

Bucks County Coffee Company

22 N. Main Street

Doylestown , PA 18901

(215) 345-0795

http://www.buckscountycoffee.com/ourstores/ourstores.html

 

This is for all you zombie fans.  ZOMBIE CSU : The Forensics of the Living Dead is the featured book in this month’s issue of RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE.  Associate Editor Monica S. Kuebler does a bang-up job of discussing the content and highlights of ZCSU.
 
It’s Issue #82, on newsstands now.  Go buy it and feed your braaaaaiiinns. 
   
Here’s a link to the magazine’s website that has info on all the creepy goodies in this issue (which also sports a cool Alice Cooper cover!). http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_12714.html 

Zombie CSU official website: www.zombiecsu.com

Tags: dawn of the dead, day of the dead, diary of the dead, george a. romero, george romero, jonathan maberry, land of the dead, living dead, max brooks, night of the living dead, zombie, zombies

A writer's 'voice' is usually a product of his word choice, phrasing

and pacing. Stephen King, for example, uses a lot of internal

monologue with his characters and is a cognitive rather than visual

writer. Dean Koontz uses a tremendous number of metaphors and

similes in his text. Read a page of each and you can tell one from

the other.



Also, a lot of writers use favoring expressions over and over

again. In every single James Lee Burke novel you'll find the

terms "fecund", "chemical green", etc.



Some writers can change their voice -either because they aren't

locked into one, or because their particular skill set doesn't rely

on a central voice for storytelling. Richard Matheson is an

example. His style for What Dreams May Come is totally different

than the voice he used for I Am Legend or Stir of Echoes. Other

writers deliberately change their voice with a new project, though

this takes a degree of effort. When I wrote PATIENT ZERO, the novel

I have coming out from St. Martins in March 2009 I chose a lean and

noir-ish style that was unlike the much more ornate style I used for

my trilogy of supernatural thrillers (GHOST ROAD BLUES, DEAD MAN'S

SONG and BAD MOON RISING). But it was a conscious choice and I

spent a while reading sections of old and new works aloud to look

for similarities so I could deliberately change them.



I like experimenting with variations on voice, and I find it easiest

to do this experimentation in short forms. When I wrote the short

story Pegleg and Paddy Save the World for the History is Dead

anthology I wanted a light, comedic voice and that took some doing

because it isn't my natural style. Earlier this year I was asked to

contribute a short story to an antho of West Virginia tales based on

folklore, and I decided to write a story in which Sherlock Holmes

visits the US and solves a crime tied to a folkloric event. That

was a deliberate experiment in voice because I wanted to see if I

could write in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle. To manage it I read

a ton of Sherlock Holmes stories and also fell back onto the useful

trick of reading things aloud: both Doyle's stuff and my own.



Then I hand stuff over to one of my trusted `first readers' and

asked him to see if it sounded like me or like Doyle.



I'm currently writing the sequel to PATIENT ZERO, so I have to

reclaim that nourish style; but at the same time I'm collaborating

on an urban fantasy novel with another author, and though we want

that to also have a noir feel to it we're working to make sure that

it has it's own unique voice.



It's not easy, but the challenge is fun.



The most useful strategies are to read through your work and

highlight phrases that you know you tend to repeat. And then read

pieces from two or three separate works aloud. Those two steps

genuinely help.



-Jonathan Maberry

www.zombiecsu.com

www.jonathanmaberry.com

www.careerdoctorforwriters.com

Hey guys…for everyone who has been asking why it’s so darn hard to snag a copy of the middle book of the Pine Deep Trilogy, the news is that DEAD MAN’S SONG has SOLD OUT!

DEAD MAN’S SONG links the first book GHOST ROAD BLUES (winner of the 2006 Bram Stoker Award) and the concluding volume BAD MOON RISING (2008). It gives the creepy back-story to the whole Pine Deep mystery.

Bookstores (real world and online) are taking orders now so that when the new print run is ready the copies can be sent out right away.

So….go order your copy now!

THE PINE DEEP TRILOGY:

Ghost Road Blues (Pinnacle Books; ISBN # 0786018151)

Dead Man’s Song (Pinnacle Books; ISBN # 078601816X)

Bad Moon Rising (Pinnacle Books; ISBN # 0786018178)

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.BarnesandNoble.com

Tags: bad moon rising, bram stoker award, dead man's song, ghost road blues, jonathan maberry, pine deep, vampires, werewolf