J. Whitworth Hazzard – Yearning for Wonderland

Dark Fairy Queen Literary Gift Guide

‘Tis the season to support indie authors and show a little #indieluv. For your shopping pleasure, I have compiled a list of minion books. These are hard-working, talented people and if you can’t buy their stuff, sharing this post so that other shoppers can find it will be so appreciated.

Books are organized by genre and then author last name (books in a series are listed in order). All prices are current to date of post, 12/16/14 and are not guaranteed past 12/18/14. A lot of them are on sale just for this brief time, so snap them up now!

Special thanks to Joni Lynn and Blue Harvest Creative for designing our awesome #DFQ Literary Gift Guide image!

Click on the book cover or the format links (Kindle/Paperback) to buy.

And without further ado…

ANTHOLOGIES

Cutthroats and Curses: An Anthology of Pirates edited by Michael Wombat, with stories by Michael Wombat, Lisa Shambrook, Boyd Miles, Marissa Ames, Bryan Taylor, Beth Avery, Eric Martell, Michael A. Walker, Alex Brightsmith, et al.

Genre: Anthology, adventure.

Kindle: $2.99

Flash Dogs: An Anthology by 34 authors, including Eric Martell and Rebekah Postupak

Genre: Anthology, collection of 110 stories, proceeds benefit children’s charity.

Kindle: $2.99

In Creeps the Night: An Anthology edited by Laura Jamez and Marissa Ames, with stories by authors including Ailsa Abraham, Beth Avery, Christine Fitzner, Cory John Eadson, Eric Martell, J. Whitworth Hazzard, Joni Lynn, Kevin Hammond, Laura Jamez, Leslie Fulton, Michael A. Walker, Mary MacFarlane, Marissa Ames, Michael Wombat, Nick Johns, Rebecca Fyfe, Ruth Long, Sorcha O’Dowd, Spencer Stoner and Theresa Miller, et al.

A creepy collection of flash fiction for horror lovers.

Genre: Anthology, horror

Kindle: $3.99

Paperback: $13.32

Orange Karen: Tribute to a Warrior by Christina Esdon, Jennifer Gracen, Steven Luna, Mark Ethridge, Anne Baker, Anna Meade, Jeff Tsuruoka, James Hazzard, et al.

Laugh. Cry. Swoon. Gasp. All the feels in one book.

Genre: Anthology, proceeds go to medical bills of Karen Delabar

Kindle: $3.99

Paperback: $13.35

Blood on the Ground and other Short Stories by Michael Wombat

A cornucopia of adventure that absorbs, amuses, thrills and terrifies.

Genre: Anthology, short stories by one author.

Kindle: $2.99

Paperback: $7.33

FANTASY

Minstrel: The First Book of Tir Athair by Marissa Ames

How does playing for the king spark a civil war?

Kindle: ~~$4.99~~ 99 cents (for three days only!)

Paperback: $13.35

Vassal: The Second Book of Tir Athair by Marissa Ames

Peasants tell stories of her sacrifice.
Soldiers tell about him.

Kindle: ~~$4.99~~ $3.99 (for three days only!)

Orison by Daniel Swensen

The power to change the world is now in the hands of a sneak thief — if it doesn’t kill her first.

Kindle: $3.99

HORROR/MYSTERY (includes Dystopian, Suspense/Thriller)

Gasher Creek by J. Birch

Jack Devlin awakes with a shotgun pointed at his face. Sally, a whore, lay dead beside him. Jack remembers nothing; could he really have killed her? And if so, why?

Genre: Mystery, Western.

Kindle: $2.99

Zombie War by Jean Booth

What began as a cure…became a nightmare.

Genre: Zombie Dystopian.

Kindle Presale price: $3.95 (until Feb. 7)

Viennese Waltz by Alex Brightsmith

A calculated dance of duty and deceit.

Genre: Thriller

Kindle: $2.00

Paperback: $11.47

Find the Lady by Alex Brightsmith

Somebody’s nightmare, somebody’s dream, but who is Kathryn Blake?

Genre: Thriller

Ebook: ~~$2.99~~ $1.99 (use voucher discount code MD62C)

Countenance by Joy Ross Davis

Genre: Cozy Paranormal Suspense

Haunted B&B with secrets, ghosts, demons, and angels.

Kindle: ~~$6.00~~ $5.00

Paperback: $14.99

Church of Bacon by Kevin Hammond

A man ends up in prison with a transvestite and a supernatural radio

Genre: Horror

Kindle: 99 cents

Dead Sea Games by J. Whitworth Hazzard

One year after the Emergency, the island of Manhattan is a prison. If Jeremy Walters manages not to get killed, he’ll still face every teenager’s greatest fear: an angry mother.

Genre: Zombie Dystopian

Kindle: $5.95 ($1 Kindle MatchBook program + Kindle Lending Library for Prime members)
Paperback: $15.95

Dark Holidays by Jeffrey Hollar

The holidays are not always a time of goodness and light. With this collection of tales, you’ll realize just how dark the holidays can be.

Genre: Short story collection, horror with holiday focus.

Kindle: $1.99

Paperback: $6.64

Kitchen Antics & Other Tales by LE Jamez

Collection of creepy Flash Fiction.

Genre: Flash fiction collection, horror.

Kindle: 99 cents

Not a Whisper (A Klondike Mystery Book 1) by D.B. McNicol

Cherie finds herself in the middle of a local crime wave where arson, kidnapping, embezzlement and a decades-old murder are just the tip of the iceberg.

Genre: Mystery

Kindle: $4.99 (on sale Dec. 31, 2014 – 7 am PST to Jan. 2, 2015 – 7 am PST for $1.99)

Fog by Michael Wombat

When all you know is to run for your life…

Genre: Supernatural Thriller

Kindle: $2.55

Paperback: $13.72

LITERARY FICTION

Beneath the Rainbow by Lisa Shambrook

It’s those silly dreams that keep us alive, and Freya won’t let death stand in her way…

Genre: Contemporary Drama

Kindle: $3.99 or £2.50

Paperback: $9.99

Beneath the Old Oak by Lisa Shambrook

Meg thinks her mother is broken. Is she broken too?

Genre: Contemporary Drama YA

Kindle: $3.99 or £2.50

Paperback: $9.79

NON-FICTION

The Complicated Geography of Alice by Jules Vilmur

“I’m always angry because I’m always sad, and I’m always sad because I am a girl.” These were the words that changed everything.

Genre: Memoir/Narrative Non-Fiction

Kindle: $9.99

Paperback: $14.77

ROLE-PLAYING GAMES

Becoming: A Game of Heroism & Sacrifice RPG by Brian Engard

Overthrow the tyrant. Survive the woods. What will you become?

Watermarked PDF: ~~$9.99~~ $4.99

Softcover Color Book (Premium): ~~$24.99~~ $13.99

Hardcover Color Book (Premium): ~~$39.99~~ $19.99

ROMANCE (INCLUDES PARANORMAL, URBAN AND EROTICA)

Choice (Origins of the Supernaturals Book 1) by Jean Booth

It was chance, guided by the hands of a god that brought them together.

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Kindle: $4.99

Paperback: $9.99

Hunted Heart by Alison DeLuca

When Tali’s hired to cut out the heart of Prince Kas, the huntress can’t refuse. Tali realizes there’s no escape from the dark magic of the queen’s mirror, though her own feelings for the prince are too complex to understand.

Genre: Adult Fairytale, Genrebent Snow White (18+ only). Proceeds go to SavetheChildren.

Kindle: 99 cents

Autumn Getaway (Seasons of Love Book 1) by Jennifer Gracen

Genre: Romantic Women’s Fiction

Kindle: $3.99

Paperback: $13.79

Winter Hopes (Seasons of Love Book 2) by Jennifer Gracen

Genre: Romantic Women’s Fiction

Kindle: $3.99

Paperback: $11.17

Love Before Honor by Nicole Zoltack

A medieval knight. A Regency lady. The magical Christmas that brings them together.

Genre: Time-travel Romance, Christmas

Kindle: $2.99

The Test of Time by Nicole Zoltack

If Katia can’t master the test of time, she’ll never be reunited with Landon.

Genre: Time-travel Romance

Kindle: $3.99

YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S (Includes YA and MG)

Captured: A White Road Tales Novella by Jackie Castle

He will lose everything if their secret is found out.

Genre: YA Fantasy

Kindle: 99 cents

Illuminated: The White Road Chronicles Book 1 by Jackie Castle

If the Wizard of Oz swept you away and Narnia enchanted you, then follow the White Road Chronicles for a new kind of adventure

Genre: YA Inspirational Fantasy

Kindle: 99 cents

Storyteller, Book 1: The True World by Lisa T. Cresswell

Lily Lightfoot can make weird things happen while storytelling.

Genre: MG Fantasy

Ebook: $2.99

Storyteller, Book 2: The Quest of Galamar by Lisa T. Cresswell

The tale of half-breed fairy Lily continues.

Genre: MG Fantasy

Ebook: $2.99

Swallow Me, Now! by Melissa Gijsbers

Could life at Sam’s new school get any worse?

Genre: Middle Grade, Age Level 8-12

Kindle: $4.99

Paperback: $15.28

Flight of Blue: Keeper of the Keys Chronicles by A.E. Howard

One boy stands between the Darkness and everyone he loves.

Genre: MG Fantasy

Kindle: $2.99

Paperback: $11.45

Ghostnapped by Ashley Howland

Genre: MG

With the help of a ghost named Susan and her trusty Labrador Thuds, Alex must solve the mysteries of the present – and the past – to rescue her brother from a monster before it’s too late!

Paperback: $8.99

Obi the Super Puppy and the Mystery of the Red Mist by Ashley Howland

Who’s behind the evil red mist, which controls animals and toys? Can Obi and his friends save the day before it’s too late?

Genre: MG

Paperback: $3.61

Bump in the Night by Michael Johnson

A bedtime story for clever children who do not frighten easily

Genre: YA Horror/Dark Fantasy

Kindle: $5.99

Paperback: $13.35

Edgar Wilde and the Lost Grimoire by Paul Ramey

Everybody needs a hobby. Edgar’s is digging up a town’s dark, forgotten past.

Genre: YA Mystery

Kindle: $1.99

Minionmas, zombies and 15 fans

For the holidays, I ran a contest for the Dark Fairy Queen writing group minions. I called it Minionmas and the way to enter was by sharing the work of others. People gathered chances to win by sharing (and purchasing!) books and content of their fellow minions and by tagging it with #Minionmas. We had over a hundred entries, which made the #DFQ very happy.

I did this because I believe that for indie authors to ever succeed, they must band together to support each other, generously. Helping others makes them want to help you.

The winner (chosen randomly from the entries) won a guest post on Yearning for Wonderland.

The winner was J. Whitworth Hazzard and his very insightful post on the perils and pleasures of being an indie author is below. Please read it and leave some #minionluv in the comments.

And, for what it’s worth, he actually has 16 fans.

15 Fans

By J. Whitworth Hazzard

As of today, I have exactly fifteen fans. Trust me, I counted them carefully.

For someone who’s put out three serials on Amazon, been in four anthologies, and won a score of flash fiction contests, that doesn’t seem like a lot, does it? It’s not a mistake.

Mistakes were big for me in 2013. I learned some big lessons this past year, in what I consider my journey from novice to almost-but-not-quite-published writer.

My biggest lesson was that now is my time to fail. In all sorts of wonderful, spectacular ways. It’s not a bad thing to fail, either. It’s a very, very good thing. Off the top of my head, I can rattle off failures in grammar, plotting, editing, formatting, cover art, hiring contractors, critiquing, marketing, and networking. Hell, I even pissed off one of my beta readers so bad, they don’t talk to me anymore. I screwed up. And I’m glad I’m doing it now.

The small scale failures have helped me to balance my enthusiasms. There’s less pressure to be perfect and more incentive to take risks. When you allow yourself to take risks, you’ll wind up with stories that don’t fit into a marketing category, but damn if those aren’t the stories that are fun to tell. Dead Sea Games, a plucky little tale about a teenage survivor of the zombie apocalypse in New York City isn’t the kind of work that attracts the six-figure, debut novel deal. Those aren’t going to land on my desk. Realistically, (and this is a hard truth to swallow) my craft just isn’t there yet.

If some dark fairy queen did drop off a contract with lots of zeroes attached, I’d likely start having anxiety attacks. My work is fair on most days, good on some, and great rarely, and though I wish that readers would give authors second and third chances, I don’t think that’s realistic. With the world filling up with authors of the published and self-published kind, and entertainment of all other stripes filling the small voids, a reader’s time to invest is shrinking rapidly.

Fifteen fans are enough for me. I love them. I know them. And they’ll get me through this awkward phase. This horrible, ego-crushing stage where you have good ideas and good intentions, but can’t seem to translate them to success, either on the page or on the bottom line of sales. I hope I eventually grow out of this stage, but it takes a kind of fearlessness/obstinacy to keep making these mistakes.

Fifteen million fans would crush me under the weight of each tiny error and my journey would be over. But my fifteen fans forgive me my blatant overuse of commas, my melodramatic cheese, and the giant plot holes regarding zombies on the streets of New York. These fans are the basis of my motivation. They sustain me.

I think of myself as a storyteller. Happiness, to me, is sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories. I’ve watched eyes light up as you unfold mysteries and hit those punch lines with perfect timing. That is what I’m hooked on, and if I only ever get to tell stories to a room of fifteen people…well, that’s good enough for me.

Get J. Whitworth Hazzard’s first book, Dead Sea Games: Adrift, for only 99 cents on Amazon – you’re sure to be hooked!

Synopsis

One and half million people used to live on the island of Manhattan. Used to. Now—after the Emergency—all but a tiny fraction of those wander the streets as the living dead, searching for human flesh to devour. Jeremy Walters is one of the few survivors, living on the rooftops, making every day count adrift in a sea of zombies.

The adults may be content just to be alive, but Jeremy knows that the Colony is a cruel joke. To a teenager, just existing isn’t enough. Without hope, without a future, without any chance of escape, they might as well all be dead.

When two of their own go missing, this fifteen-year-old boy with a bad attitude and reckless streak a mile wide is determined to go after the lost survivors and bring them home. He’ll teach them all what it means to be a true hero. Zombies, gangs, and treacherous NYC landscape are the least of Jeremy’s worries. He’s got to come back alive—or his mother will kill him.

About the Author

J. Whitworth Hazzard lives in the vast cornfields of Illinois with his wife, and four nearly perfect children. A Geek-for-Hire by day, J. Whitworth has worked for over a decade fixing minor computer problems, some of which he did not even cause. He prepares technical documents for a living and tries not to include any zombies in reports on server upgrades and network outages (although not always successfully).

Dr. Hazzard has a PhD in molecular biophysics that he now uses to figure out how to scientifically justify the existence of mythical creatures. Trained in science and critical thinking, J. Whitworth spends his leisure time writing fiction that would make his former professors cringe. He has been a life-long writer and has spent more than his fair share of time writing about all kinds of ridiculous things. His dream of writing for a living started in the 5th grade when his five page story “The Blood and Guts 500” entranced and thrilled his classmates. His passionate prosody received a standing ovation and from that day forward he was hooked on the art of story telling.

Follow Dr. Hazzard’s adventures in fiction on:

Twitter: @Zombiemechanics (https://twitter.com/zombiemechanics)

Facebook: J. Whitworth Hazzard (http://www.facebook.com/jwhitworthhazzard)

Web: Zombiemechanics Blog (http://zombiemechanics.com)

Tales of a Zombie Olive

So my lovely friend Holly is running a zombie flash fiction contest on her hilarious blog, Confessions of a Stuffed Olive.

She draws funny cartoons of olives, cats and other creatures. The winner of her contest will get their story illustrated by her.

Artwork owned by Confessions of a Stuffed Olive

You may recall the last time I did a zombie-themed story. That little story won the Fan Favorite contest run by J. Whitworth Hazzard.

I swore then that I would not write another zombie tale.

I lied. Not only did I have to write another flash fiction zombie tale, it had to be a funny one. CURSE MY LUCK!

Of course, my sense of humor is a little warped, so you can see the result:

A Life-Long Dream

She carefully traced a carmine line around her lips. They weren’t nearly as full as they used to be, so she had to employ all her arts to evoke youthful beauty. A hint of blusher, a quick hairbrush and she was ready to go.

“I, Norma Jean Pintucker, accept the crown of Miss Yuba City; it’s a life-long dream for me. I’d like to thank my agent, Quincy…”

Norma Jean frowned. What –was- her agent’s name? It rhymed with “squirter”, she was fairly sure. Her memory was worsening.

As she drove her 2006 Audi to the Convention Center, she fretted, “Werter. Frankfurter.” She examined her reflection in the rearview mirror, “Ugh, my skin looks so pasty.”

Once she reached the stage door, she patted her hair into place and whispered, “Showtime.”

The crowning ceremony had already started without her. That wasn’t right. She struggled through the heavy velvet curtain, applause ringing in her ears.

“I’m here!” she shouted, pushing some highlighted blonde stranger in a showy dress away from the microphone.

She plucked the tiara from the velvet pillow and stepped into the spotlight.

“I accept the crown of Miss Yuba City today. I’d like to thank my agent, Quincy-“

She was saved from recalling his name by the scream in the audience.

“Quincy-“

Just then, her lower jaw fell off and clattered to the stage floor.

She gingerly placed the tiara on her head, kicking her jaw into the orchestra pit, “Thank you, ish been a life-long dream.”