tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47497530885005563492024-03-12T17:53:02.484-07:00Sean SweeneySean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-2814626886126831342023-11-10T14:42:00.002-08:002023-11-10T14:50:12.549-08:00My MLS team played like adverse shit in the second half of the year; they can do so much better<p>I beg the pardon of my book readers and fans on Goodreads who will see and read this piece about sports and wonder if I’ve lost my mind. On the contrary; while I haven’t been writing fiction lately—and more on that later this weekend, perhaps—this piece has stewed within me, and with a few extra hours of silence today, this is what my mind spat out.<br /><br />And besides, without a true home for my sports ramblings any longer, this will have to do. Hey, George R.R. Martin talks about the Giants and the Jets on his page; I can do the same on mine.<br /><br />***<br /><br />On Wednesday, the New England Revolution bowed out of the MLS Cup Playoffs, its season sealed on another late-in-the-game goal. While it’s just one game, and the final one, at that, it was a microcosm of a season that should have been, a season that unraveled in the dog days of summer.<br /><br />The fact of it is that it happened, but that it shouldn’t have. The Revs were sailing high, sitting second in the East as the Leagues Cup competition opened. <br /><br />But then the bottom dropped out: <b>Bruce Arena</b>, hired when the bottom dropped out the last time in May 2019, placed on paid administrative leave for purported insensitive comments in the locker room. <b>Richie Williams</b> served in his stead—but then we learned a month or so later that he was the rat who went to MLS and reported Arena… and that meant a man who hadn’t coached in the head capacity in the American top flight had weaseled his friend out of a job. Arena resigned.<br /><br />Soon after, Williams was “re-assigned” and <b>Clint Peay</b>, who had been the gaffer at Revs II in MLS Next Pro and another who hadn’t coached this high, took over for the rest of the season.<br /><br />The rest of the season resumed on August 26, 11 games to go, and Williams had charge of the Revolution for the next four games, where New England had a win, two draws, and a loss, with seven points dropped in the latter stages of three games.<br /><br />With seven games remaining and the second change made, the Revs held a “news conference” where nothing of substance went out, and <b>Curt Onalfo</b> made his “It’s time to get out there and play and stop talking about all the baloney. It’s noise. We’re going to focus on winning” speech… which apparently fell on deaf ears in the locker room, and was a running joke on the #NERevs hashtag on Twitter.<br /><br />In those last seven regular season games, the Revolution won two, lost four, and drew one before the playoffs began. And the playoffs happened. The Revs went down a man early on Wednesday, and that 79th-minute dagger pretty much ended a season which started out so well, only to turn out like dog shit.<br /><br />In short, the Revs got what they deserved. The fans, who deserve better than a team who shits the bed year in and year out, are rightly pissed.<br /><br />And as the season ends, here are the things the Revolution need to do in order to set this team back on the Right Path.<br /><br /><b>Clean house</b><br /><br />Revs fans may recall my time on the beat with BSJ and my own entity where I pleaded with management to clean house of the dead weight that had permeated this roster. And that has, for the most part, been done: there are, from my cursory look at the roster, only four players remaining from the <b>Mike Burns</b> Error.<br /><br />But there are several people—four—who need to go, and yesterday would not be soon enough. Those four, of course, are <b>Brian Bilello</b>, Onalfo, Peay, and Williams. <br /><br />Bilello and Onalfo’s press conference on September 13th was rather fucking comical. Bilello, of course, is the court jester of spin control in Foxborough, and his non-answers were just that. Typical for a football club who can’t be transparent, even though transparency was promised in 2014. Add in the fact that he was absent on Twitter, even his lame, “The result wasn’t what we wanted” tweets would have been appreciated, showing that the front office gave a shit. Onalfo’s aforementioned comment was meant to be serious, but it became a running joke with the most die-hard supporters of the club. Get rid of both of these two clowns.<br /><br />To be fair to Peay, he did a great job and should continue to do a great job with the second team. But with the first team, he was pretty much set up to fail. He had no experience coaching at this level, and was clearly out of his depth, especially when it came to substitution strategy. Give him his thanks, and shuffle him back to the reserves.<br /><br />For Williams, he truthfully ruined this team’s chances because, if what has been reported is true, he felt aggrieved by the lack of a job in 2024. Quietly ship him away and never speak his traitorous name again.<br /><br /><b>Hire a proven coach</b><br /><br />We’ve seen what a proven, capable manager can do for this soccer team. Arena came in after <b>Mike Lapper</b>—and we wouldn’t say no to Mike coming back—buoyed the team in May/June 2019, and he righted the ship, leading the team to the Supporter’s Shield and breaking the club’s playoff-less drought.<br /><br />Once the Revs have capable leadership in the front office—we’re certainly not going to get it from those two chuckleheads—the club needs to find a gaffer who can instill quick confidence. We thought we were getting that with <b>Brad Friedel</b> in 2018. That didn’t happen.<br /><br />Finding someone with smart tactics who can properly manage the lads and sub personnel properly needs to be A1 on the agenda.<br /><br /><b>Apologize profusely to the fans</b><br /><br />The entirety of 2023 was an utter shitshow with the Revs, from how it started—<i>annnnnd stickerssssssssss</i>—to how it finished. They’ve taken away the great membership perks. They stayed silent on Arena when they really needed to speak publicly and reassure the fans that they would bring in a quality replacement. That’s not how a Major League team operates. They don’t treat their fans with such utter disrespect.<br /><br />This club has operated under the guise of—and I’ve written this before—that they have given us Division 1 soccer, we should be damn grateful, and not to question them. It’s an absolute travesty how they treat the fan base.<br /><br />Just apologize. It’s horse shit that they haven’t, and empty platitudes don’t cut it.</p><p> <a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a> <br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-34135787693860142222022-06-18T04:20:00.003-07:002022-06-18T04:20:52.245-07:00Making a tough business decision in order to survive<p>Back in 2014, I wrote a blog post at the advent of Kindle Unlimited, the then-new program by Amazon. And I'll be honest: I was skeptical. I was skeptical about it. I didn't think it would work, but then again, it's Amazon. Bezos had struck gold with Kindle, and I must admit that lightning struck pretty hard with KU.</p><p>Suffice it to say, I balked. Even though I had trumpeted ebooks and Kindle in particular since 2010, I personally felt that I had no right to tell readers that they needed a Kindle or a Kindle app in order to read my books. Seriously, who was I to tell anyone who read ebooks how they should read them? I felt that if you had a Nook, a Kobo reader, or an iPad with Apple iBooks already downloaded, you had enough to read me.</p><p>How wrong I was! <br /></p><p>Over the next few years, like <b>Mark Coker</b> had predicted, my sales and the sales of other authors not in KU started to slip, and slip hard. I went from 4,000-plus books sold in 2012 to 336 last year; shit, I only sold 193 in 2019. I really didn't understand it: I had all these new books, from <i>Travel Agent</i> to <i>Scouring Agent</i> and the Ricky Madison books, books with even better writing than books like <i>Model Agent</i> and <i>Rogue Agent</i> that sold really, really well, and I couldn't get a sniff of a sale, or reach the numbers that I once had before KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited entered the fray. Are readers by-passing my books because they aren't in KU? Quite
possible; I've never received a single piece of email telling me to get
into KU or else, though. But even though I had plenty of evidence to the contrary, I steadfastly -- read: stubbornly -- refused to go narrow... until as late as December 2020, when I considered putting <i>Incoming Private Show</i> into KU.<br /></p><p>That refusal has come to an end.</p><p>As of this morning, I have started the process of de-listing all of my books on Nook, Kobo, iBooks, and all the small ebook sites. While I'm sure that Kobo, Nook, and iBooks will be instantaneous, it will take a while for Hoopla and OverDrive, etc, to de-list me and take me off their sites. Once that happens...</p><p>Once that happens, I can put all 30-something of my books and short stories into KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited.</p><p>As I've said before, I crave the success that my friends have. And when I look at the stats they post in certain Facebook groups, all from KU, and I see the amount of money they are making -- life-changing money -- and the amount of books they are pushing out the door, it makes me wonder why I can't get that. <br /></p><p>But alas, I <i>can</i> get that. I can get that by succumbing to KU and finally embracing all it does for authors. My writing skills are superior to what they were. I'm doing everything right, and yet I feel that I'm losing because I'm not selling, because I'm not in KU. As a wide author, I'm not making enough to make fiction writing a full-time profession any longer, I'm not making enough from it to put food on the table, to pay my mortgage, to pay my bills; I've scaled back since 2017, and my hope is that I can make enough through my fiction by going narrow with KU to grow my audience and get back to a full-time status.<br /></p><p>Time to do just that. Hopefully lightning will strike for me like it has so many others.<br /></p><p>KU, here I come. See you there.</p><p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a><br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-89147840286752237722020-12-29T10:08:00.003-08:002020-12-29T10:16:07.650-08:00Looking ahead to 2021<p>Within the next two-plus days, the sands in 2020's hourglass will run out, an imaginary hand will twist its wrist and spin it, and the long year of 2021 will begin. For many, seeing New Year's Eve approach has to be a relief; 2020 has not been kind to them, and in the years to come they will flinch when anyone mentions the numbers associated with this horrid year in their presence.</p><p>For me, I count myself fortunate. Outside of brief scares, I have not been exposed to COVID. We thought my mom might have been exposed following a late summer outbreak here in my hometown, but she, luckily, turned up negative. Extended family members contracted it and have recovered. </p><p>And outside of my wife's stroke back in May and my heart condition rearing its ugly head on me over the last month or so, my family has come out unscathed. We are incredibly thankful for that, and our hearts ache for those who have lost loved ones.</p><p>In looking back, we were lucky. We listened to the experts and wore a mask from the middle of March on whenever we left the house. We social distanced, we washed our hands, we sanitized. </p><p>In short, we controlled what we could control. </p><p>And as I look ahead to next year, I have to continue that mindset. Control what I can control, don't sweat the small stuff. Insert whichever cliché you need, but those are two that I will utilize when it comes to my writing business in 2021.</p><p>What can I control?</p><p>My writing output, for instance. I'm not setting a word count goal, per se, like I've done in the past, but when I plan to have two books out in 2021 and <a href="https://seansweeneyauthor.blogspot.com/2020/12/cover-reveal-incoming-private-show.html" target="_blank">one is practically already scheduled to come out in the summer</a>, it means that the book I'm about to start writing needs to take priority during my daily writing time in order to have it ready for a near Christmas 2021 release. When 10 a.m. arrives, I need to be in my office typing away until 2 or 3 p.m. Not doing this will hamper that goal.</p><p>On the flip side, I have to remind myself not to get completely angry at myself should other things -- like one of my other writing lives, or an emergency -- pop up, and subsequently hampers the writing schedule. That falls under not sweating the small stuff; emergencies happen, and in my other writing job, things happen that take me away from the fiction. I just have to remind myself to get back to the writing as soon as humanly possible. And if that means getting a page done in the overnight, so be it, or promising myself to write more the next day in an effort to make up for it.</p><p>What else can I control? Improving my marketing skills. I've said it time and again: my marketing skills are positively dreadful, but I'm working to improve them. I've done quite a bit of reading over the last quarter, and my hope is to continue to tweak my marketing, and not relying on the same tired methods that haven't necessarily worked, or have tailed off in their effectiveness.</p><p>And one of those things, unfortunately, is to possibly look into Kindle Unlimited for the release of INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW, at least at the start. I know that those who have bought my books on Nook, Kobo, and iBooks are shouting, "No!" at me, but I have to at least try it out and see if it works for me, with an incredibly well-written book. And honestly, if it doesn't, once the 90-day exclusivity period it up, I can easily take it out of KU and upload to the other markets.</p><p>Other things that I can control? My health, the maintenance on my new house and the various tools I need, and whether I'm wearing a mask. <br /></p><p>What are the things I won't sweat about in 2021? Book sales -- <a href="https://seansweeneyauthor.blogspot.com/2020/12/while-my-website-is-down-consider-this.html" target="_blank">I have no control over whether or not people buy my books</a> -- the weather, the Revolution or Arsenal winning or losing, and whether or not people get vaccinated. I'm sure there will be other things that come up.</p><p>In short, I'm going into 2021 with a great deal of optimism for myself, my business, and the world at large. </p><p>I hope you're doing the same.<br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-18487411265719224382020-12-26T15:51:00.006-08:002020-12-26T15:51:55.321-08:00Cover Reveal: INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW, coming Summer 2021<p>The last couple of days, outside of Christmas, I've been hard at work on making <i>INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW</i> a much better book. Earlier in the week, I took many hours editing and polishing the novel up, bringing it up to fourth draft status.</p><p>And now, I have a cover for you, as well as what the book is all about:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-GHO2DLfzm2Npg46vhM1j7LIuPZ_JY1tNqiZm6ER6-ttdUak01Ds654KntqmHiQ3u1siKcauDYLtziQSyaaaSeeFmd09cZzAV9TSV4_diJYCp01z4mm9i0zQ2zefiHTIPd74-OZXuzg/s2048/IPS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE-GHO2DLfzm2Npg46vhM1j7LIuPZ_JY1tNqiZm6ER6-ttdUak01Ds654KntqmHiQ3u1siKcauDYLtziQSyaaaSeeFmd09cZzAV9TSV4_diJYCp01z4mm9i0zQ2zefiHTIPd74-OZXuzg/w250-h400/IPS.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><p></p><p><i>When 20-year-old Alyssa Young is murdered at work, police in her hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts have little in the way of clues. And when Detective Ricky Madison discovers what she does for a living — she’s a cam girl, an Internet stripper — and that it’s difficult for anyone to know where she is working, it’s a head scratcher that he doesn’t think he can solve without help from her friends. Two are away, and one of her co-workers is useless.<br /><br />But when one of her best friends, too, is murdered in the same violent fashion, Ricky wants to prevent a third death from hitting his streets. <br /><br />A public plea for help gains him critical information, and it leads him to look into Alyssa’s past to find the unscrupulous person behind it.</i></p><p>Coming Summer 2021, <i>INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW</i> is the third book in the Ricky Madison series, behind <i>THE LONG CRIMSON LINE</i> and <i>PERSUADED BY THE REFLECTIONS</i>. Unlike the first two books, which are thrillers, IPS is more of an erotic police procedural. You know how much I like to push the envelope with Ricky Madison stories, and I push the sex levels in this one to the fullest. </p><p>I honestly cannot wait to show you the book. I hope you enjoy it.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-65538550003617770312020-12-18T11:03:00.003-08:002020-12-18T11:03:47.575-08:00While my website is down, consider this my bookstore<p>Every so often, I have a website glitch. When that happens, I move everything here. In short, I had an issue... and while the issue was sorted on the home page, it's not sorted everywhere else. So until then...</p><p>WELCOME, WELCOME ONE AND ALL!</p><p>Basically, I had tried to freshen up the site with the new covers to Obloeron, as well as for Turning Back The Clock and Galactic Treason (formerly A Galaxy At War), and any new links. With the glitch -- which was completely my fault -- that didn't happen.</p><p>And for the record... there are sooooo many new links. If you're on Amazon, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sean-Sweeney/e/B004ODLSIW?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1608307115&sr=8-1" target="_blank">this link here is the best link</a> as it has all the Sean Sweeney books. You can also search for John Fitch V and D.L. Boyd to see my novels under those names. All told, there are 29 novels as of today, with the 30th novel, INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW, planned for a Summer 2021 release.<br /></p><p>Also want to let those who use Kobo Plus know that all of my books are available on that platform and service.</p><p>So without further ado.......<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">***<br /></p><p>My books are available in a wide-range of places. Whether it be
for Amazon Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, etc., my work can be read on
practically every e-reading device, and all of my titles are available
in old fashioned ink and paper, trade paperback style.</p>
<p>Titles with an asterisk — * — are available in audiobook form. Trade paperbacks are found
under the Amazon Kindle links.</p>
<p><strong>THRILLERS</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/lcl-new-cover/" rel="attachment wp-att-445"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-445" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LCL-new-cover-188x300.jpg" width="188" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>The Long Crimson Line: A Thriller</strong> <strong> </strong></em>(Ricky Madison 1)
</p><p>In the city of Boston, women are dying in a heinous manner. The
police are baffled. They have no clues, nor any leads. The public is
frightened.</p>
<p>Enter Ricky Madison, florist—an ex-Worcester cop with an insubordinate streak.</p>
<p>Madison and his friend, Mary Ruggles, find the patterns the killer is
using, until they discover the one thing that ties all the murders
together—the killer may not be male, and that the killer is a devotee to
one of the most sought-after killers in the history of the world.</p>
<p>WARNING: The graphic nature of this book is not intended for those under the age of majority where local laws apply.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Long-Crimson-Line-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00YQ89B5C/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Crimson-Line-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00YQ89B5C/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-long-crimson-line-sean-sweeney/1122215469?ean=2940150963863&itm=1&usri=2940150963863" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-long-crimson-line-a-thriller" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-long-crimson-line-a-thriller/id1001696387">iBooks</a>, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/547763" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2017/12/26/persuaded-reflections-thriller-now-available/persuaded-cover/" rel="attachment wp-att-443"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-443" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Persuaded-cover-187x300.jpg" width="187" /></a></p>
<p> <em><strong>Persuaded By The Reflections: A Thriller</strong></em> (Ricky Madison 2)
</p><p>Det. Ricky Madison is back is this gritty, pulse-quickening sequel!</p>
<p>Now suffering from PTSD following the events of The Long Crimson
Line, Ricky returns to Worcester, Mass., the city where he was once a
police detective; he’s undergoing therapy in both solo and group
settings, and in his first session, he meets a young lady struggling to
cope with her love life’s tribulations–she’s a cutter, and he offers her
his ear whenever she needs it.</p>
<p>When elements of past crimes he had investigated creep back into the
present, Ricky is brought back into the fold of Worcester Police to help
link the crimes together–even though the one in charge of the
investigation isn’t thrilled about his presence.</p>
<p>Together, the two comb through the facts and similarities of the cases until Ricky discovers the one responsible for everything.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persuaded-Reflections-Thriller-Ricky-Madison-ebook/dp/B077H4VKR8/">US Kindle</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Persuaded-Reflections-Thriller-Ricky-Madison-ebook/dp/B077H4VKR8/">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/persuaded-by-the-reflections-sean-sweeney/1127477110?ean=2940158716249">Nook</a>, <a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/persuaded-by-the-reflections-a-thriller">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1314090793">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persuaded-Reflections-Thriller-Ricky-Madison/dp/1981237194/">Trade paperback</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/547763" rel="attachment noopener wp-att-326 noreferrer" target="_blank"><img alt="LoneBostonian" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-326" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/LoneBostonian-200x300.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>The Lone Bostonian </strong></em></p>
<p>One hundred years in the future, after a world war and another
economic downturn, the United States is in recovery. A Chinese company,
Gong & Dinow, manufactures inexpensive tablet computers. Everyone
has them.</p>
<p>Little does everyone know, those devices will lead to the destruction of the East Coast.</p>
<p>A man from Boston survives the carnage and rows to what was
Washington D.C. in order to inform the president… and to begin the
healing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Bostonian-Dystopian-novel-ebook/dp/B00PESCXS0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lone-Bostonian-Dystopian-novel-ebook/dp/B00PESCXS0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lone-bostonian-sean-sweeney/1120720742?ean=2940150357204&itm=1&usri=2940150357204" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-lone-bostonian" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/491676" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-lone-bostonian/id939906030">iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2013/09/06/redeemed-hits-virtual-shelves/redeemed/" rel="attachment wp-att-248"><img alt="Redeemed" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-248" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Redeemed-220x300.jpg" width="220" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Redeemed</strong></em></p><p>All he wanted was a second chance at life.</p>
<p>Duane Thompson’s incarceration following a crime-filled night on the
streets of Boston lasted just a little over a decade and a half. When
the Commonwealth paroled him, his second chance at life stalled. No one
wanted him near their businesses.</p>
<p>Despite being dogged by the police officer that had initially
collared him, Duane does get his second chance, helping the poor in a
small Central Massachusetts city. But when a woman is hounded by the
same cop, Duane comes face-to-face with his greatest challenge.</p>
<p>Yet unbeknownst to him, while all of this is going on an extremist government has begun reshaping Boston in its twisted image.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Redeemed-ebook/dp/B00F01WY5I/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Redeemed-ebook/dp/B00F01WY5I/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Redeemed-ebook/dp/B00F01WY5I/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/redeemed-sean-sweeney/1116848088?ean=2940148673200&itm=1&usri=2940148673200" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/redeemed-15" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/352989" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/redeemed/id704250068?mt=11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Redeemed-Sean-Sweeney/dp/149229912X/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trade paperback</a></p>
<p><strong><em>The Jaclyn Johnson code name Snapshot series</em></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2019/06/27/jaclyn-johnson-box-set-now-available/jj-box/" rel="attachment wp-att-461"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-461" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/JJ-box-186x300.jpg" width="186" /></a></p>
<div class="we-truncate we-truncate--multi-line we-truncate--interactive ember-view" id="ember722">
<div class="we-clamp ember-view" data-clamp="" id="ember724">
<p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr">Waiting at your fingertips is the full,
nine-book JACLYN JOHNSON EXPERIENCE. From MODEL AGENT to SCOURING AGENT
and everything in between, slide alongside Jaclyn — the CIA’s top
counterterrorism agent — in her souped-up car as she battles terrorism
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to London and to Sydney.
</p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr">Feel what Jaclyn feels the day she meets
Tom Messingham. Her thoughts as she encounters Tasha Verkler. Her
tete-a-tetes with Parkerhurst and Desmond Daly, better known as Salt.
And go deep into her meetings with Alex Dupuis and President Eric
Forrister.</p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr">And as an added bonus, several never-before-seen short stories that simply add to the mystique that is Jaclyn Johnson.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jaclyn-Johnson-Experience-Books-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B07R81MW3Z/">Amazon Kindle US</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jaclyn-Johnson-Experience-Books-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B07R81MW3Z/">Amazon Kindle UK</a><br /><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-jaclyn-johnson-experience-sean-sweeney/1131437988?ean=2940161209967">Nook</a>, <a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-jaclyn-johnson-experience">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-jaclyn-johnson-experience/id1462240962">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/1-model-agent/" rel="attachment wp-att-291"><img alt="1 model agent" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-291" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/1-model-agent-196x300.png" width="196" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Model Agent * </strong></em><br />
</p><p>The human body consists of two-thirds water.</p>
<p>As concertgoers on a steamy day in Boston find out, water can kill as much as it gives life.</p>
<p>A terrorist attack at City Hall Plaza has the authorities perplexed.
The government, in response, sends in a capable but young agent – an
agent born from the ashes of terrorism itself – to handle it.</p>
<p>But as her partner dies and the terrorist strikes again, Jaclyn
Johnson – code named Snapshot – finds herself in a situation she has
trained a decade to face: She’s up against a man with enough money to
finance a war against his competition. With a deadline in place to stop
him – and with a car holding enough hidden tricks to evade capture –
Snapshot infiltrates his hidden installation and finds out her target’s
true end game, a secret that could have the world fighting over water.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O0UA1Q/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Model-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B004O0UA1Q/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Model-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B004O0UA1Q/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/model-agent-sean-sweeney/1113548600?ean=2940012657800" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Model-Agent-A-Thriller/book-Zn--pF7YIU6AhjNYAwk_MA/page1.html?s=GKUQIwB9kUiLF5wV1sP_4A&r=5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/model-agent-a-thriller/id433110490?mt=11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/42673" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Model-Agent-Thriller-Sean-Sweeney/dp/1460962621/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US trade paperback</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Model-Agent-Thriller-Sean-Sweeney/dp/1460962621/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK trade paperback</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/2-rogue-agent/" rel="attachment wp-att-292"><img alt="2 rogue agent" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-292" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2-rogue-agent-186x300.png" width="186" /></a>
</p><p><em><strong>Rogue Agent *</strong> <strong> </strong></em></p>
<p>When the 2012 Summer Olympics opened in London, security was at a
fever pitch. They said it was going to be the safest Olympic Games yet.</p>
<p>They were wrong.</p>
<p>Heightened security did not stop a terrorist attack on the final
group stage match of the Olympic soccer tournament between the United
States and the host Great Britain, played at the fabled Wembley Stadium,
the home of British football. And when an agent of al-Qaeda claimed
responsibility for the attack, it sent both the United States and the
United Kingdom into a heightened state of alert.</p>
<p>There is only one problem for the terrorist: Outbound Eurostar
service to Paris and flights out of Heathrow have been shut down – but
flights into London continue to come in.</p>
<p>At the request of the President of the United States, the CIA calls
upon the one agent – Jaclyn Johnson, a.k.a. Snapshot – he can trust to
seek out the killers of many American citizens and bring them to
justice.</p>
<p>But what occurs in London during Snapshot’s mission leads to
political maneuvering – and Jaclyn going against everything she knows.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B0053YNKYG/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rogue-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B0053YNKYG/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Rogue-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B0053YNKYG/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rogue-agent-sean-sweeney/1102937276?ean=2940012918376&itm=1&usri=sean+sweeney" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Rogue-Agent-A-Thriller/book-ituIEFfts0KStVEtBKph1A/page1.html?s=GKUQIwB9kUiLF5wV1sP_4A&r=6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/rogue-agent-a-thriller/id444819699?mt=11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/63847" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Agent-Thriller-Sean-Sweeney/dp/1463565763/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US trade paperback</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rogue-Agent-Thriller-Sean-Sweeney/dp/1463565763/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK trade paperback</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/3-double-agent/" rel="attachment wp-att-293"><img alt="3 double agent" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-293" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/3-double-agent-186x300.png" width="186" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Double Agent * </strong></em><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>
<p>With an attack against the Las Vegas Monorail, CIA Director Alexandra
Dupuis calls in the agent she counts on in dangerous situations – even
though that agent feels betrayed by the very government she serves, the
very country she protects – in order to protect American interests.</p>
<p>In Jaclyn Johnson’s latest adventure, Dupuis sends the secret agent
into the path of a radical Christian terrorist, one whose designs for
Sin City would spell disaster for not only the entire southwest, but for
the country as a whole, too.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Double-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B006C4X6U4/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Double-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B006C4X6U4/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Double-Agent-Thriller-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B006C4X6U4/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/double-agent-sean-sweeney/1111483327?ean=2940013524019" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Double-Agent-A-Thriller/book-D2K3ExUTOEWdujifNGphEQ/page1.html?s=GKUQIwB9kUiLF5wV1sP_4A&r=9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/double-agent-a-thriller/id507967746?mt=11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/107450" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Double-Agent-Thriller-Sean-Sweeney/dp/1467969370/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US trade paperback</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Double-Agent-Thriller-Sean-Sweeney/dp/1467969370/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK trade paperback</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/4-promises/" rel="attachment wp-att-294"><img alt="4 promises" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-294" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/4-promises-186x300.png" width="186" /></a>
</p><p><em><strong>Promises Given, Promises Kept </strong></em><br /></p>
<p>Tom Messingham and Tasha, Jaclyn Johnson’s teenage ward, are safe and
sound on the east coast following Jaclyn’s daring mission to Las Vegas,
and it’s time for her to head west again—this time to break up the
human trafficking ring that had ensnared Tasha a year prior. Yet as she
arrives in Tasha’s hometown, Jaclyn has several obstacles—a town wiped
from the map, plus a persnickety police chief with one foot in the
grave—to overcome before she can keep her promise to her new friend.</p>
<p>Set between the novels DOUBLE AGENT and FEDERAL AGENT, Jaclyn Johnson
squares off against an unknown pervert in another nail-biting thriller.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Promises-Given-Kept-k-ebook/dp/B00EJLCJZK/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Promises-Given-Kept-k-ebook/dp/B00EJLCJZK/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/promises-given-promises-kept-a-jaclyn-johnson-novella/id691799407">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/promises-given-promises-kept-sean-sweeney/1116460504?ean=2940148395348&isbn=2940148395348" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/promises-given-promises-kept" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/347267" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/5-federal-agent/" rel="attachment wp-att-295"><img alt="5 federal agent" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-295" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/5-federal-agent-186x300.png" width="186" /></a>
</p><p><em><strong>Federal Agent * </strong></em><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>
<p>A failed execution in Atlanta has CIA director Alex Dupuis concerned.
And with President Eric Forrister and Republican challenger Dick
Bennett headed there for the final debate of the election cycle, she has
every reason to be: she doesn’t want the escaped prisoner, a man with
ties to the Ku Klux Klan, to disturb it.</p>
<p>She sends Jaclyn Johnson into action after three weeks’ convalescence
with her orders: protect both the president and his former White House
Chief of Staff so that harm doesn’t befall them.</p>
<p>But what Jaclyn doesn’t realize is that the candidates may not be the
ones under fire after all and that the deranged Klansman has someone
else in mind—someone who isn’t what he seems on the outside.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Federal-Agent-Thriller-k-ebook/dp/B009YLBBZO/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Federal-Agent-Thriller-k-ebook/dp/B009YLBBZO/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Federal-Agent-Thriller-k-ebook/dp/B009YLBBZO/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/federal-agent-sean-sweeney/1113687354?ean=2940015895957" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Federal-Agent-A-Thriller/book-GoLLlXuiE06VPwLPXgmpiw/page1.html?s=GKUQIwB9kUiLF5wV1sP_4A&r=2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/federal-agent-a-thriller/id576877007?mt=11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/249613" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/6-literary-agent/" rel="attachment wp-att-296"><img alt="6 Literary Agent" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-296" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6-Literary-Agent-183x300.jpg" width="183" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>LITERARY AGENT * </strong></em><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>
<p>Jaclyn Johnson is back in an all-new, pulse-pounding adventure, and this time, the deck is stacked fully against her!</p>
<p>It’s the holidays, ex-FBI agent-turned-author Jack Henshaw has been
kidnapped, and the secrets he holds has the government worried.
Jaclyn—along with her British boy toy, Tom Messingham—are sent to
Detroit, Henshaw’s hometown, on Christmas Eve to begin their
investigation.</p>
<p>Things turn out not as they seem, and while an ex-member of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police claims responsibility—as well as giving the
Americans a list of outlandish demands—Jaclyn’s investigation grinds to a
halt until she gets the break she needs.</p>
<p>It’s a break that could unravel national security as Jaclyn knows it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Literary-Agent-Thriller-k-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B00IX93048/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Literary-Agent-Thriller-k-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B00IX93048/">UK Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/literary-agent-sean-sweeney/1118891403?ean=2940149392964&itm=1&usri=2940149392964" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/literary-agent-a-thriller" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/literary-agent-a-thriller/id839661881">iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/417855" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2015/01/29/travel-agent-now-available/7-travel-agent/" rel="attachment wp-att-333"><img alt="7 Travel Agent" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-333" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/7-Travel-Agent-186x300.jpg" width="186" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Travel Agent </em></strong></p>
<p>Jaclyn Johnson is back for her sixth full-length adventure, and this
time the CIA’s blonde bombshell has her work cut out for her.</p>
<p>Jaclyn, British secret agent Tom Messingham, and Tasha are
vacationing in Australia, but little does Jaclyn know that she is being
set up to take the fall for an assassination in Sydney. The trio,
together with an old friend, must find out who’s behind it before the
true terrorist’s ultimate gambit comes to fruition—all while Jaclyn
learns that not everything is all right in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Agent-Thriller-k-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B00SS0CSVI/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Travel-Agent-Thriller-k-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B00SS0CSVI/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com.au/Travel-Agent-Thriller-k-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B00SS0CSVI/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Australia Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Travel-Agent-Thriller-k-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B00SS0CSVI/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/travel-agent-sean-sweeney/1121116721?ean=2940149951376&itm=1&usri=2940149951376" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/travel-agent-a-thriller" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/travel-agent-a-thriller/id962714587">iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/514314" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2016/02/15/chemical-agent-a-thriller-is-here/chemical/" rel="attachment wp-att-387"><img alt="Chemical" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-387" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Chemical-186x300.jpg" width="186" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Chemical Agent </strong></em></p>
<p>The first trip home for Jaclyn Johnson was supposed to be a memorable
one: Gone from Seattle for well over a decade, she was home to attend
the unveiling of a statue for her father, killed on 9/11.</p>
<p>Instead, her trip turned into a memory she would rather forget.</p>
<p>Thrust into an awkward position following a tragic murder at their
hotel, a murder she couldn’t stop, the CIA counterterrorism agent must
do something of which she had never dreamed in this, her seventh
full-length adventure: reconcile with her nearly-forgotten past, all
while moving forward in life without one of her closest allies.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Agent-Thriller-Johnson-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B019LXTL8I/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle/trade paperback</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chemical-Agent-Thriller-Johnson-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B019LXTL8I/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chemical-agent-sean-sweeney/1123167032?ean=2940157941475" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a></p>
<p><a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/chemical-agent-a-thriller?utm_source=linkshare_us&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=linkshare_us&siteID=je6NUbpObpQ-jLgNMowUqSRtZTj6STB8CA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/chemical-agent-a-thriller/id1069999128">iBooks</a>, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/601939" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2017/02/14/ticket-agent-now-available/ticket/" rel="attachment wp-att-433"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-433" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Ticket-186x300.jpg" width="186" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Ticket Agent </strong></em></p>
<p>Over the last few years, Jaclyn Johnson and Tom Messingham have
turned into quite the terrorist-fighting tandem: the pair have worked
together up close and personal, their bond strong.</p>
<p>But the job is about to affect their marriage: with the pair
investigating attacks in the remote wilds of South Dakota to the
military academy at West Point, the call comes in. Tom is to report to
London immediately, as a business tycoon, Oliver Klozov, appears to have
plotted to kill rival footballers–soccer players–in one of England’s
top leagues. Klozov, the owner of the Southwest Aces FC, is allegedly
behind the death of another club’s top-notch goal scorer, and he’s
threatening more—for promotion to the top flight.</p>
<p>It is when Jaclyn discovers her cases and Tom’s case intertwine when
she receives a chilling email—Tom’s life is in danger, and Klozov’s
crosshairs are locked on him.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ticket-Agent-Thriller-code-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B06X8ZMS1Z/">US Kindle</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ticket-Agent-Thriller-code-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B06X8ZMS1Z/">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ticket-agent-sean-sweeney/1125779690?ean=2940157327163">Nook</a>, <a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ticket-agent-a-thriller">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1205756073">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2018/02/26/scouring-agent-thriller-now-available/scouring/" rel="attachment wp-att-449"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-449" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Scouring-186x300.jpg" width="186" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Scouring Agent</strong></em></p>
<p>A well-timed string of attacks and events in Washington, D.C. has
President Eric B. Forrister and the CIA scrambling for answers in the
ninth Jaclyn Johnson thriller novel.</p>
<p>How well-timed are they? It just so happens the attacks occur as Jaclyn is out of the country, on her honeymoon in Wales.</p>
<p>With Tasha Verkler, Jaclyn’s ward and confidante, at the head of the
investigation alongside Desmond Daly, a.k.a. Salt, the duo look to
discover who’s behind these brazen attacks—the new Supreme Court Museum
has been bombed, two Justices dead; the Senate Majority Leader killed by
a sniper—until the unthinkable occurs: Jaclyn and Tom’s ride home from
Heathrow is also bombed.</p>
<p>Do Jaclyn and Tom make it back to the United States, or does Tasha manage to solve it herself?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07934H4LD/">Amazon Kindle US</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07934H4LD/">Amazon Kindle UK</a>, <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scouring-agent-sean-sweeney/1127848803?ean=2940158782237">Nook</a>, <a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/scouring-agent-a-thriller">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1336583982">iBooks</a></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSI5NUSvvaFkdiruwSs3qvCF94oUGYcGxuUY4GeoQeRM8evGiSa_wLDoq2mYxcaYwzDd3DK2qxbyb8wTrHK8P4-gKGEsCX666a2ct9Gbs8V8ZLJhHcMj2W8m9IMJGrgXMeSqM3xTNrxu0/s2000/RoyalSwitch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSI5NUSvvaFkdiruwSs3qvCF94oUGYcGxuUY4GeoQeRM8evGiSa_wLDoq2mYxcaYwzDd3DK2qxbyb8wTrHK8P4-gKGEsCX666a2ct9Gbs8V8ZLJhHcMj2W8m9IMJGrgXMeSqM3xTNrxu0/s320/RoyalSwitch.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Royal Switch</em></strong></p>
<p>There was nothing to suggest that this baseball season would be any
different than the last 20 seasons Harry Edelson had covered, even
though Oklahoma City now had a Major League franchise to call its own.
He covered the move of the team from Kansas City that winter and
observed the new owner – a Russian billionaire – signing the best
players he could, including the reigning National League MVP, Bill
Revere.</p>
<p>Ancient rivals, observing the events from afar, note the new owner
wants to upset the balance of power in the American League. But as the
season progresses – even as early as Opening Day – Harry observes odd
things happening in the Royals’ clubhouse. It comes to a head at the
All-Star break, when Revere severely injures himself. He is carried off
the field, and everyone thinks his season is over.</p>
<p>Not so: Revere recovers, but his form has changed. He slumps and
eventually breaks out of it, yet the story written that night changes
both his and Harry’s lives: Harry notices something different with
Revere in the clubhouse and dutifully reports his findings. Soon,
Harry’s running for his life – but that does not quench his desire for
wanting to know exactly what’s going on in that clubhouse.</p>
<p>It all leads to a road trip like no other, which has Harry perfectly
placed to write an expose that’s hard for any baseball fan to ignore.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Switch-League-Thriller-ebook/dp/B004VS3R66/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Switch-League-Thriller-ebook/dp/B004VS3R66/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Royal-Switch-League-Thriller-ebook/dp/B004VS3R66/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/royal-switch-sean-sweeney/1112024258?ean=2940012678416" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Royal-Switch/book-IdQ-58aLaUyHBDZSgW6brw/page1.html?s=GKUQIwB9kUiLF5wV1sP_4A&r=10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/royal-switch/id493223789">Apple</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52162" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><strong>MYSTERIES</strong></p>
<p><em><strong><br /><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2016/06/20/alex-bourque-returns-beach-blanket-bloodshed/coldaltar/" rel="attachment wp-att-398"><img alt="ColdAltar" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-398" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ColdAltar-203x300.jpg" width="203" /></a></strong></em>
</p><p><em><strong>Cold Altar </strong></em></p>
<p>A small-town cold case gets new life when a woman hands a 22-year-old
private investigator his first assignment. Going with the notes his
father used when he first investigated the case, Alex Bourque delves
into the 31-year-old mystery: an 11-year-old boy, kidnapped without
witnesses, abused and murdered. There is little evidence to go on except
a white L on the boy’s chest as well as a black smudge on his forehead,
but with the help of his girlfriend Lauryn, Alex makes do with what he
has and tries to solve the case from scratch.</p>
<p>Yet there are people who don’t want him to find out what happened,
and they’ll go to any lengths to stop Alex from discovering the truth.</p>
<p>A classic whodunit in the vein of the late Robert B. Parker, COLD ALTAR is the first book in the Small Town PI series.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Altar-Small-Town-ebook/dp/B007YIVY3S/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Altar-Small-Town-ebook/dp/B007YIVY3S/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Cold-Altar-Small-Town-ebook/dp/B007YIVY3S/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cold-altar-sean-sweeney/1110475171?ean=2940014475273" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Cold-Altar/book-lqJbSujCXEaujXGFJ6PUyw/page1.html?s=xdEEh2-KIUKNxes2ePcqjw&r=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/cold-altar/id549838442?mt=11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/156542" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2016/06/20/alex-bourque-returns-beach-blanket-bloodshed/voirdire-4/" rel="attachment wp-att-399"><img alt="VoirDire" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-399" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/VoirDire-203x300.jpg" width="203" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Voir Dire </strong></em></p>
<p>PI Alex Bourque has jury duty. As he’s challenged by the prosecution
during jury selection, the defense has a brilliant idea: Hire Alex to
help defend an accused murderer.</p>
<p>Yet as Alex delves into the case, he discovers that the defense
attorney has done a shoddy job in building the defense. He also
discovers something’s not right with the defendant—especially something
that could set the man free.</p>
<p>(Note to Nook users: Use Smashwords for your .epub file)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Voir-Dire-Small-Town-ebook/dp/B00AGV6BMY/?tag=seansweeney-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voir-Dire-Small-Town-ebook/dp/B00AGV6BMY/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Voir-Dire-Small-Town-ebook/dp/B00AGV6BMY/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Canada Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Voir-Dire/book-yFexb9Q-tEmJqL4VuCAVFQ/page1.html?s=GKUQIwB9kUiLF5wV1sP_4A&r=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/voir-dire/id585951993">Apple</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/261147" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2016/06/20/alex-bourque-returns-beach-blanket-bloodshed/bbb/" rel="attachment wp-att-397"><img alt="BBB" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-397" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BBB-203x300.jpg" width="203" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Beach Blanket Bloodshed </em></strong></p>
<p>A body washing behind Small Town PI Alex Bourque turns his and
Lauryn’s Cape Cod vacation upside down in the newest installment of this
first-person tale.</p>
<p>Unable to trust police, the dead man’s wife turns to Alex for answers
surrounding her husband’s murder. And when the investigation leads him
back to the Cape, he enlists the help of a sexy Provincetown police
officer, who offers not only her usually-unused skills to him and his
fiancée, but other things, too.</p>
<p>BEACH BLANKET BLOODSHED is a ripped-from-the-headlines tale that’ll quicken your pulse and steam up your reading glasses.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beach-Blanket-Bloodshed-Bourque-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01H9GECTC/">US Kindle</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beach-Blanket-Bloodshed-Bourque-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01H9GECTC/">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beach-blanket-bloodshed-sean-sweeney/1123945538?ean=2940158115004">Nook</a>, <a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/beach-blanket-bloodshed-an-alex-bourque-mystery">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1125827658">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2016/08/23/small-town-p-series-ebook-bundle-now-available/small-town-pi-bundle/" rel="attachment wp-att-415"><img alt="Small Town PI bundle" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-415" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Small-Town-PI-bundle-300x300.jpg" width="300" /></a></p><p><em><strong>The Small Town P.I. Series bundle (only available in ebook)<br /></strong></em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Small-Town-P-I-Sean-Sweeney-ebook/dp/B01KSCXZF6/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Town-P-I-Sean-Sweeney-ebook/dp/B01KSCXZF6/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a><br /><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-small-town-pi-series-sean-sweeney/1124423555?ean=2940156920624" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a><br /><a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-small-town-p-i-series" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a><br /><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1146534762">iBooks</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2014/07/29/new-murder-mystery-novella-available-etailers/invitationtodrink/" rel="attachment wp-att-309"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-309" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/InvitationToDrink-195x300.jpg" width="195" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>An Invitation to Drink… or to Die: A Murder Mystery Novella </strong></em></p>
<p>96-year-old Benedict Morton thinks his family is trying to kill him,
so he hires Connor Wood, P.I., to attend his birthday party and sniff
out who would do the deed. But when Morton is murdered that night, Wood
has to sort it all out with a cast of characters that are clearly
antagonistic right from the off.</p>
<p>Was it eldest son James, the one who may or may not be the executor
of Morton’s will? His sister Tracy, who has a vindictive streak a mile
long? Their half-brother Peter, who has a short fuse? The bastard son
Jared? The surly cook? The maid? The butler?</p>
<p>This classic whodunit shows everything isn’t as it seems, and it’s up
to Wood to determine exactly who it was that killed the old man.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Drink-Die-Mystery-Novella-ebook/dp/B00M66I8ZK/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invitation-Drink-Die-Mystery-Novella/dp/1542426685/">UK Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/an-invitation-to-drink-or-to-die-sean-sweeney/1120015185?ean=2940149659340&itm=1&usri=2940149659340" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a></p>
<p><a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/an-invitation-to-drink-or-to-die" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/461829" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/an-invitation-to-drink-or-to-die/id963348943">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<p><strong>FANTASY</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2016/12/11/avast-mateys-peg-legged-privateer/paulina/" rel="attachment wp-att-427"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-427" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Paulina-188x300.jpg" width="188" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>The Peg-Legged Privateer: A Tattered Sails Novel </strong></em></p>
<p>Set sail for a world of pirates, magic, and high adventure…</p>
<p>Long in the service of the 12th Baron Wilton, the privateer known as
Paulina has reached her limit. Between a township that doesn’t care for
her, the Baron assuring her pledge that she’ll go down with her last
ship, and his lascivious advances toward her newest paramour, Paulina
plots to betray him.</p>
<p>She just needs a little help in the form of her all-women crew to do it.</p>
<p>Taking four ladies along with her, Paulina takes the Good Queen Bess
for her maiden voyage through the Caribe, where mystical beings and
scoundrels alike look to thwart her and send her to the Realm of the
Locker.</p>
<p>But they don’t count on the steel and magical energies this quintet
utilizes to stain the wine-colored waters an even darker shade.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peg-Legged-Privateer-Tattered-Sails-Novel-ebook/dp/B01N2R2AIO/">Amazon Kindle US</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peg-Legged-Privateer-Tattered-Sails-Novel-ebook/dp/B01N2R2AIO/">Amazon Kindle UK</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-peg-legged-privateer-sean-sweeney/1125290667?ean=2940156997398">Nook</a>, <a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-peg-legged-privateer-a-tattered-sails-novel">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1183537367">Apple iBooks</a></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2NIYz-3mGMik2c9Yy69K5fEzvt_NMTKYmp3YGY1FkUdHoA1aLa7yHmsua-MfW_S72dB34X2Gt6WwTY5ezbgLx0dAAClNHjzb5E89OeQAZE8jIB33tb4nLBG7d3TxP46VCez6h0NoXug/s2048/OBLOERONBOXSET.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1863" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2NIYz-3mGMik2c9Yy69K5fEzvt_NMTKYmp3YGY1FkUdHoA1aLa7yHmsua-MfW_S72dB34X2Gt6WwTY5ezbgLx0dAAClNHjzb5E89OeQAZE8jIB33tb4nLBG7d3TxP46VCez6h0NoXug/s320/OBLOERONBOXSET.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><em><strong> </strong></em></p><p><em><strong>The Obloeron Saga</strong></em></p>
<p>When one man puts aside a great destiny, it falls on another to pick it up.</p>
<p>This is the full, six-book Obloeron Saga bundle, which first appeared
in 2009 under the author’s old pseudonym, John Fitch V. The first five
fantasy novels were published before 2013, and now the series comes
together with the previously unreleased third novel, Krampel’s Revenge.</p>
<p>In addition, there is previously unseen prose in the form of three
short stories the author has weaved into the tale, and gives the full
look at some previously unanswered questions from the original three
novels.</p>
<p>Starting with the short story The Creation of Flad-rul, the SAGA
tells of Krampel Paddymeyer’s journey from that of slave to bounty
hunter, from bounty hunter to war hero. Then the original trilogy picks
up with Krampel’s grandson, Grumpet, his heir, as well as continues the
tale of Radamuck Rosar’s journey with these two great men. Add in a
halfling with a warrior complex, a bit of love, and plenty of orcs, and
you have a fantasy story set to stand the test of time.</p>
<p>The Saga includes:</p>
<p>The Creation of Flad-rul (short story/prologue)<br />The Rise of the Dark Falcon (prequel one)<br />The Shadow Looms (prequel two)<br />Krampel’s Revenge (prequel three, previously unreleased)<br />Krampel’s Flight to Kayiko (short story/interstitial)<br />The Quest for the Chalice (original one)<br />The Return to Lowbridge (original two)<br />The Fall of Myrindar (original three)<br />Grumpet’s First Day (short story/epilogue)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Obloeron-Saga-Sean-Sweeney-ebook/dp/B016YC0MAK/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Obloeron-Saga-Sean-Sweeney-ebook/dp/B016YC0MAK/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-obloeron-saga-sean-sweeney/1122884055?ean=2940151134354" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-obloeron-saga" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/586869" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1544989702" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a><br /></p>
<p><strong>The individual novels are also available for sale. <br /></strong></p><p><strong>YOUNG ADULT</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/bookstore-2/zs_final_small/" rel="attachment wp-att-32"><img alt="ZS_Final_Small" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-32" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ZS_Final_Small-205x300.jpg" width="205" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Zombie Showdown </strong></em></p>
<p>For a group of sophomores at Gardner High School, it turned out to be a class trip gone awry.</p>
<p>For 15-year-old twins Christian and Rachel Sanderski, it was the opportunity to tell the truth.</p>
<p>A zombie attack while the kids are on a ghost tour forces Christian
to save a group of his friends. The events of the next day, though, lead
to Chris and Rachel’s admission – they are the long lost descendants of
a legendary gunman who once called Tombstone home. Their mother had
forbidden them from saying a word about their genealogy in order to
protect them.</p>
<p>With the admission, a weight has lifted from their shoulders and,
with the help of their friends, Christian and Rachel battle the zombies
in a late night brawl. But when the kids are told of the coming of The
Three dead cowboys their ancestor had sent to Boot Hill Cemetery, they
steel themselves for the fact that they may never return home.</p>
<p>Action and adventure, friends lost and friends found. And love, too…</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Showdown-Sean-Sweeney-ebook/dp/B00EMJP13G/">US Kindle</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zombie-Showdown-Sean-Sweeney-ebook/dp/B00EMJP13G/">UK Kindle</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/zombie-showdown-sean-sweeney/1104173374?ean=9781537107981">Nook</a></p>
<p><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/zombie-showdown/id691802369">Apple iBooks</a> <a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/zombie-showdown" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/348404">Smashwords</a></p>
<p><strong>ROMANCE</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/d-l-boyd/2020scollay/" rel="attachment wp-att-499"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-499" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020Scollay-225x300.jpg" width="225" /></a></p>
<p><strong><em>Scollay Love</em></strong> (by D.L. Boyd)</p>
<p>It is tough to lose the place where you met.</p>
<p>For uptown Boston Brahmin gal Charlene Phillips and downtown West End
boy Joe Cafario, their starkly different lives come together in Scollay
Square, Boston’s famed center, where they fall into a forbidden love
amidst the tassels of the Old Howard and the aroma of slow-boiled hot
dogs at Joe and Nemo. When their love is ended after Charlene’s final
defiance of her parents, the two remain true to each other, despite
their forced separation.</p>
<p>When Charlene returns and they reunite in the Square, the city of
Boston is about to go through a major change—one that Joe is hell-bent
in stopping.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Scollay-Love-Romance-D-L-Boyd-ebook/dp/B013PISTTC/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scollay-Love-Romance-D-L-Boyd-ebook/dp/B013PISTTC/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK Kindle</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scollay-love-dl-boyd/1117919573?ean=2940151117814" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/scollay-love-a-romance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1140319675">iBooks</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/2020/07/01/glorious-slip-now-available-in-the-bookstore/gloriousslip/" rel="attachment wp-att-470"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-470" height="300" src="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/GloriousSlip-225x300.jpg" width="225" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Glorious Slip </strong>(by D.L. Boyd) <em></em></p>
<p>Nick Smith is a student of history, especially that of his state’s capital, Boston.</p>
<p>Little does he know that he is about to live it.</p>
<p>Jettisoned some two and a half centuries into the past, Nick
discovers that he has landed in Colonial Boston. He marvels at finding
the Shawmut Peninsula in the years before the Revolutionary War, and
witnesses Bostonians’ palpable anger.</p>
<p>Working a farm and falling in love with a young lady three years his
junior, Nick must avoid conflicts with his new brother-in-law, a Crown
loyalist.</p>
<p>Ride along with Nick as he rubs elbows with early America’s greatest minds, all while concealing America’s destiny.</p>
<div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></div>
<div><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></div>
<div><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/glorious-slip-d-l-boyd/1137156772?ean=2940162953081" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nook</a></div>
<div><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/glorious-slip" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kobo</a></div>
<div><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/glorious-slip/id1517637310">iBooks</a></div>
<div><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1026929" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></div>
<p><strong>The classic John Fitch V novels </strong></p>
<p><strong><em>Turning Back The Clock</em></strong></p><p><strong><em></em></strong></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong><em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivx4V2t-Owna22a5o7oLU0N-qKT4tfc20Nt09hyphenhyphenFyaqL5IEhaE0l-Q2Kyw-U2tBYEYP1SdZ6hgLgwrM-hbuxq7Zg3KTtgKoixUdbnydV4gF_eWzXnm158pasGjlIqirLVBevlbfUm9u-k/s2000/TBTC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivx4V2t-Owna22a5o7oLU0N-qKT4tfc20Nt09hyphenhyphenFyaqL5IEhaE0l-Q2Kyw-U2tBYEYP1SdZ6hgLgwrM-hbuxq7Zg3KTtgKoixUdbnydV4gF_eWzXnm158pasGjlIqirLVBevlbfUm9u-k/s320/TBTC.jpg" /></a></em></strong></div><strong><em><br /> </em></strong><p></p>
<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Greg Patterson just watched his beloved Boston Red Sox lose to the
New York Yankees in the 2003 American League Championship Series when he
gets a radical idea: Build a time machine to make sure that one of
baseball history’s worst sales — the sale of Babe Ruth — never happens.
But as he’s researching out that fateful event, he runs along another
piece of information that he had never known.</p>
<p>It leads him to ask: What if the Black Sox Scandal never happened?
Could the scandal that rocked the baseball world in the early 1920s and
the sale of the Sultan of Swat be connected? And if it’s possible, can
these two incidents be reversed in order to correct the failings of the
Red Sox and end the recent domination of the Yankees?</p>
<p>Greg and his friend Brandon Roy build the time machine and
immediately head back to 1919, where they meet Harry Frazee, Shoeless
Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Charlie Comiskey, and the catalyst of the
whole thing, Babe Ruth. Greg also falls in love in the past, making for
an exciting conclusion to their time in 1919 Boston.</p>
<p><em><strong>Galactic Treason</strong></em></p><p><em></em></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb07Mzj_a8pJ4SL1xJEYN57eV4FjZ0ewgdjMH6rNbVX8hnsPQ6d0Up7ogLElv-_QBCm0g4TlDCAMrv2gHR8FOrmxvi562ckbWxh7FPN6npj8GPRVa93rqGQ_wLCkPMB2kg0VDwTVIITLQ/s2000/GalacticTreason.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb07Mzj_a8pJ4SL1xJEYN57eV4FjZ0ewgdjMH6rNbVX8hnsPQ6d0Up7ogLElv-_QBCm0g4TlDCAMrv2gHR8FOrmxvi562ckbWxh7FPN6npj8GPRVa93rqGQ_wLCkPMB2kg0VDwTVIITLQ/s320/GalacticTreason.jpg" /></a></em></div><em><br /><strong><br /></strong></em><p></p>
<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Captain Ryan Germayne, son of the legendary Jaxson “Hot Shot”
Germayne, has been living up to his late father’s reputation. He is the
best pilot the Galaxy of Free Systems “GFS” has. His equally talented
first mate gunner, Joslyne, happens to also be his wife.</p>
<p>Some believe that the GFS has grown too large, too bureaucratic for
the regular person across the galaxy. This small group of rebels is
slowly, but steadily, growing in numbers. In time, their numbers grow by
two more.</p>
<p>As Ryan rises in rank and power at lightning speed, he begins to
change. Even personally executing former friends and comrades no longer
seems to bother him. Joslyne soon wonders to what lengths her husband
would go, how low he would sink, and how cold blooded he would become
for his new beliefs. And can she continue to stand beside the man he is
morphing into?</p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-67497707999080784332020-11-13T07:33:00.009-08:002020-11-13T07:33:57.257-08:00A New Freebie -- From My Fantasy Series<p>As most of you know, I consider myself an "Every Genre Author." It's true. I've touched upon pretty much every genre there is, achieving a great deal of success over the last decade as a thriller author.</p><p>But when I started writing back in 2003, I was *just* a fantasy author. I had loved reading <i>Lord of the Rings</i> -- my father, who would have turned 77 today, handed me <i>The Hobbit</i> when I was 11 -- and R.A. Salvatore's <i>Forgotten Realms</i> novels, and I decided to start writing about this halfling called Yanos Kingsfoil. A friend of mine called him a halfling with a Conan complex, which tickled me. Over time and with more words on the screen of my old Gateway computer, the story became more about the dwarf king, Radamuck Rosar, and finally about Grumpet T. Paddymeyer. After about a year an a half, I discovered my backstory, which became a set of prequel novels.</p><p>Well, today marks a few things: Back in 2013, I had taken the series off the market. I wasn't pleased with the writing. It was amateurish, and I had grown past that stage. In fact, I felt rather embarrassed by it. I didn't want anyone to see it. But with maturity and introspection, I decided in the winter of 2014-15 to go back and re-write/salvage what I could from that six-book series, and even inserted some short stories in that world I had written in 2009 into the prose in order to beef them up. The renewed series came out in a box set on Nov. 2, 2015.</p><p>And I had resolved, at some point, to get all the books out as singles, in both ebook and paperback. This past week, I finally did that -- and the first book in the series, <i>The Rise Of The Dark Falcon</i>, is now free on Kindle and iBooks (here's the link <a href="https://mailchi.mp/f8199a4cc736/free-for-you-well-you-get-first" target="_blank">from my newsletter; feel free to subscribe to it</a>).</p><p>And here they are! <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE315tZ5MG6A9n71Z70-AGYHiriNgJFJ30f74_nxPJoQCynrYKF5iWGr9vFmHgJztdUoPl8572Oev14iLWtc_t0olaEyJlmKo5BJhq4tVFNUYerHECEzridAMsfqJi5eZYnSNzbsDK8rM/s2048/PREQUEL1DARKEBOOK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE315tZ5MG6A9n71Z70-AGYHiriNgJFJ30f74_nxPJoQCynrYKF5iWGr9vFmHgJztdUoPl8572Oev14iLWtc_t0olaEyJlmKo5BJhq4tVFNUYerHECEzridAMsfqJi5eZYnSNzbsDK8rM/s320/PREQUEL1DARKEBOOK.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNdEI78O352pulTSezyDygSra8KmFS5mWqNEml_p1FzZe795JfSuVsLs7p9oJ04pqylgVMuVDEI3ac5pqZjeVHKiwRoTij3bCkRpA8Oqv5cqaaHHyhxodfmZABVpjIGCkbC8FQlgQNaDY/s2048/PREQUEL2SHADOW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNdEI78O352pulTSezyDygSra8KmFS5mWqNEml_p1FzZe795JfSuVsLs7p9oJ04pqylgVMuVDEI3ac5pqZjeVHKiwRoTij3bCkRpA8Oqv5cqaaHHyhxodfmZABVpjIGCkbC8FQlgQNaDY/s320/PREQUEL2SHADOW.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixp4BoBtDlsPt-ZzRNtZQMFH9c7rQ_D-SRc2qGDEg9YKdsV5umvZcL2yaHsIn24wyMBahgG5cYdppUghMqMugAZezgf4NY7M7njm6aI1yC9r8FKyA43gJC7jC7iLko8pM4Mm_tJ0ajrwk/s2048/PREQUEL3KRAMPEBOOK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixp4BoBtDlsPt-ZzRNtZQMFH9c7rQ_D-SRc2qGDEg9YKdsV5umvZcL2yaHsIn24wyMBahgG5cYdppUghMqMugAZezgf4NY7M7njm6aI1yC9r8FKyA43gJC7jC7iLko8pM4Mm_tJ0ajrwk/s320/PREQUEL3KRAMPEBOOK.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG0ZMjnI9lpLj16Y4VRPqyznvz1CKnFoxBo5HLZlIIwHAkB4rwN_LgFRp08XQa8sspAANog3zTPU8RSotqZ3dh63yFU0s8A67Hc5VS_C4lNbJcCM9VxYvTjNDjSJrnDhwsH4Z2dW9mNUw/s2048/BOOK1CHALICE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG0ZMjnI9lpLj16Y4VRPqyznvz1CKnFoxBo5HLZlIIwHAkB4rwN_LgFRp08XQa8sspAANog3zTPU8RSotqZ3dh63yFU0s8A67Hc5VS_C4lNbJcCM9VxYvTjNDjSJrnDhwsH4Z2dW9mNUw/s320/BOOK1CHALICE.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWY_kcWzdE9r6AX5TKvXb-nSW55R10YkaICXkABLTnQqy_NQ9URO2-2M7lD51j-L84OKpuNVfCgN0bPbuqMxRlPmDicyYrGFe30Fb05epY7UTDsOa5fty6CVfb5jHPll3mcoJOv_zBIE/s2048/BOOK2LOWBRIDGE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWY_kcWzdE9r6AX5TKvXb-nSW55R10YkaICXkABLTnQqy_NQ9URO2-2M7lD51j-L84OKpuNVfCgN0bPbuqMxRlPmDicyYrGFe30Fb05epY7UTDsOa5fty6CVfb5jHPll3mcoJOv_zBIE/s320/BOOK2LOWBRIDGE.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVe3TKW4o4fsZ9aDFhmzZH8cOi0_j7HaRNaU5BWbIUEShQzOeFoH4ri_9_C1LBG0l8iFEovwQd0LF7b2zxrE9hfY-t5IGL7Q3DIRNDBj8PjJLbQXsDz13r6G5f2dP2paeS0mxgUbkCpIQ/s2048/BOOK6FALLEBOOK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVe3TKW4o4fsZ9aDFhmzZH8cOi0_j7HaRNaU5BWbIUEShQzOeFoH4ri_9_C1LBG0l8iFEovwQd0LF7b2zxrE9hfY-t5IGL7Q3DIRNDBj8PjJLbQXsDz13r6G5f2dP2paeS0mxgUbkCpIQ/s320/BOOK6FALLEBOOK.jpg" /></a></div><p>I'm so pleased to have this series back out in the wild as solo books again. It is my genuine hope that readers who like Lord of the Rings, Forgotten Realms, World of Warcraft, etc. dive into these books. Try The Rise Of The Dark Falcon for free, on me. If you like it, move on to The Shadow Looms. In all, it'll be $14.95 for the other five ebooks, which is a rather good price, if I do say so myself. The paperbacks are $9.95 each, all on the Amazon placements.</p><p>So that's that. My first series of novels from long ago, re-released, the writing refined and strengthened. I'm so happy that they are finally out -- I still have two more to load up to Nook, with their hacking now resolved -- for single consumption again.</p><p>Happy reading.</p><p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a><br /></p><p><br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-59874875157598396282020-10-27T05:50:00.005-07:002020-10-27T05:55:00.219-07:00A New Hope... with a new cover<p>After posting my update blog Monday, I decided to go forth and find a new cover image for <i>Scollay Love</i>, my first historical romance set in 1950s/1960s Boston, and the first book that I wrote under the D.L. Boyd pen name. I'll admit, the title is weak... but the old cover, it was weaker.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60AZKg7-Y6h9A4s0Q_srGuusQRlHU0Ulx87inIiy9ShYko4PiNRuupVoGDExTxee9ItuSrNmQiVMJo3IT7-Fz1NaSR6yL6pm_3p-rxGdlhtxSR3wM6xQ0eQFL4GUqShExP6KKF5xqKY4/s2000/ScollayLoveRed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60AZKg7-Y6h9A4s0Q_srGuusQRlHU0Ulx87inIiy9ShYko4PiNRuupVoGDExTxee9ItuSrNmQiVMJo3IT7-Fz1NaSR6yL6pm_3p-rxGdlhtxSR3wM6xQ0eQFL4GUqShExP6KKF5xqKY4/s320/ScollayLoveRed.jpg" /></a></div><br /> I had hoped that this cover would show two 1950s era teens -- late teens, early 20s -- in love. And at 99 cents, I had hoped the romance community would flock to it.<p></p><p>They didn't.</p><p>And so, with my revamped business plan, getting <i>Scollay Love</i> a new cover and getting it out in paperback was one of my priorities.</p><p>This is what I've come up with:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUjJTdNj_vatCS3a12sbjQJGYAA65ijbXQd2ldR4ZOGmEpJu6YS2zmPN9SZdY5Xly_u_jdoOSQxI9-nAiblUQI8eXQYf8nHKXIbf92XKpgs9nWqd6tAPuXtdehXy2PC2t6Ng5MWxnXMKo/s2000/2020Scollay.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUjJTdNj_vatCS3a12sbjQJGYAA65ijbXQd2ldR4ZOGmEpJu6YS2zmPN9SZdY5Xly_u_jdoOSQxI9-nAiblUQI8eXQYf8nHKXIbf92XKpgs9nWqd6tAPuXtdehXy2PC2t6Ng5MWxnXMKo/s320/2020Scollay.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p>A more fun cover, if I do say so myself! It catches the eye, which is really what covers are supposed to do. And to remind you of what the book is about...</p><p><i>It is tough to lose the place where you met.<br /><br />For uptown Boston
Brahmin gal Charlene Phillips and downtown West End boy Joe Cafario,
their starkly different lives come together in Scollay Square, Boston’s
famed center, where they fall into a forbidden love amidst the tassels
of the Old Howard and the aroma of slow-boiled hot dogs at Joe and Nemo.
When their love is ended after Charlene’s final defiance of her
parents, the two remain true to each other, despite their forced
separation.<br /><br />When Charlene returns and they reunite in the Square,
the city of Boston is about to go through a major change—one that Joe
is hell-bent in stopping.</i></p><p>Hopefully the book -- which should be available in paperback in a few days -- will find its readership now.</p><p>And for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013PISTTC/" target="_blank">99 cents</a>, it's an absolute bargain to see how I flex these new muscles.</p><p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a> <br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-58559359444554946782020-10-26T07:57:00.006-07:002020-10-26T07:57:46.941-07:00A quickie update in the business plan re-evaluation: So far, so good<p>As you're probably aware, I'm in the middle of re-vamping and re-evaluating my business plan. I <a href="https://seansweeneyauthor.blogspot.com/2020/10/re-focusing-re-writing-and-reviewing-my.html" target="_blank">outlined my goals earlier this month</a>, and I wanted to use this time with you to give an update on my progress.</p><p>So far, so good: I'm through the hard part, a series of deep edits to three books: <i>Turning Back The Clock</i> and <i>A Galaxy At War</i>, which I wrote under my old 00's pen name of John Fitch V, as well as to <i>Royal Switch</i>. When I wrote that initial post, I had already gone through <i>TBTC</i> and chopped some 18,000 words and some change from the original book, removed head-hopping, as well as passive voice. I did the same with <i>Royal Switch</i> and ended up chopping 4,000 words from the original text and massaged some of the prose there. I had intended on re-writing the entire book from scratch, but after review, I think it's better this way. And that opening to the book? Not as big of an info dump as I thought!<br /></p><p><i>Galaxy</i>, though... it was as I suspected. Much like <i>TBTC</i>, there was unpolished writing full of head-hopping, passive voice... just a really unrefined book, if I'm being honest. I've said it before, I'll say it again -- I really wasn't a great writer back then. Great storyteller, sure. I weaved a good tale. Did I execute it properly? Absolutely not.</p><p>That is why it pains me to relay to you that I cut over 32,000 words -- more than a third of the book -- from <i>Galaxy</i>'s original word count, turning it more into a story the size of <i>Zombie Showdown</i> or <i>Scollay Love</i> more than anything resembling the <i>AGENT</i> series; it's like the old dime novels, with some beef to them. Still, my hope is that the book is better from this exercise, and I will re-read the story around Christmas to make sure it is just that. I will do the same with <i>TBTC</i> and <i>Royal Switch</i>, then re-brand with new covers. My hope is that all three books will be out for public consumption in March.<br /></p><p>And speaking of new covers...</p><p>So far, Terry has come through with four of the six new covers for <i>Obloeron</i>. I've gotten peeks of what he has done, and it's amazing. At some point this week, I will make the refreshed cover for <i>Scollay Love</i> -- which should just be the old cover, resized for paperback -- and I will get back to my website and make sure I don't have the wrong links for Apple iBooks; some of them go to the Euro pricing, not the American. I've gone through the links in the bookstore to make sure I have no broken links.</p><p>Phew.</p><p>What's next? In looking at my list, I see there are many things I can do. Copy and paste the <i>AGENT</i> novels into specific three-book files for segmented box sets. I can do that. The same for <i>Obloeron</i>. I can sign up for BookFunnel to distribute my not-yet-written freebie; I still haven't decided if it should be a Jaclyn freebie, or something else. </p><p>I can start doing additional research for <i>Glorious Rise</i>. I can look into more advertising. I can do this. I can do that.<br /></p><p>Really, so much still to do! </p><p>But the fact that I've gotten most of the really hard stuff out of the way... yeah, I'm happy with that, and my progress.</p><p>We'll take the victories, however small, as they come.</p><p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a><br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-59547766587602765852020-10-09T08:13:00.000-07:002020-10-09T08:13:15.337-07:00Re-focusing, Re-writing, and Reviewing My Outdated Business Plan<p>Over the last two weeks or so, I have taken some time to do something I've intended for the last three years: re-work my business plan in order to reclaim my audience. The last three years, it has been rather difficult to do that, whether it be taking on jobs that break up the writing week or ones that prevent me from writing, period, or not having enough money to adequately strengthen my reach via advertising on Facebook or Amazon.</p><p>That ends now. But I also end it with a <i>mea culpa</i>.<br /></p><p>For most of my writing career, I've made many mistakes -- but I can safely say that I've learned from them and now want to put what I've learned into action. I've learned that some of my books, mainly my earlier ones, suffered from poor writing. I feel that I've grown as a writer, with my more recent books showing that my writing now is crisp, clear, concise. It's my intention to strengthen those books by any means possible and re-release them in 2021.</p><p>I've already done that with one book, <i>Turning Back The Clock</i>, one of my John Fitch V novels. When I started a deep edit on that book last week, the original novel was over 101,000 words. When I finished earlier this week, I had removed over 18,000 words, or the equivalent of 33 pages. I fixed the voice, I eliminated the head-hopping, and I just removed prose that simply didn't work for me not as the author, but as a reader. It's an 11-year-old book, but it reads so much better now with what I've done to it, and I hope the readers feel the same way. In all honesty, I fell in love with the story all over again!<br /></p><p>The next book to strengthen is <i>TBTC</i>'s follow-up -- but under my name -- <i>Royal Switch</i>. Again, something I messed up on, even though I've said that I did it for momentum reasons: I published <i>Royal</i> two months or so after I published <i>Model Agent</i>, and I wanted to take advantage of that momentum. Suffice it to say, that didn't happen.</p><p>I've known there were problems with <i>Royal</i> for some time -- in fairness, I thought way back then that I needed an info dump right at the beginning of the story; I've since changed my mind and earlier this year made the decision to re-tool that section. But not only that... in starting to re-read the book this morning, I've found amateurish, crap writing that is, to be sure, thoroughly embarrassing to me as a writer. No wonder the book foundered and has barely sold (11 copies since January 2015!).</p><p>What to do about that? Well, I'm going to completely re-write the book, all 75,000-plus words, almost from scratch. The story is sound, but the way I executed the book... I failed at that. My intention is to make the book better with stronger writing than I showed in 2011.</p><p>I also want to do something similar with another JFV novel, <i>A Galaxy At War</i> -- a book just as old as <i>Turning Back The Clock</i>. I have yet to print out and read the story, but I'm sure I will encounter the same problems that I have with <i>TBTC</i>, <i>Royal Switch</i>, and the <i>Obloeron</i> novels. It's another book that barely sells (5 copies since January 2014), and that could also be due to the mistake I made with the cover: it's relatively bland and doesn't scream sci-fi. I want to invest in this book not only with the writing, but with the cover art. I'll be talking to fellow author Daniel Arenson about his cover artist for his <i>Earthrise</i> sci-fi novels and Matt Verish for his stuff, as I'd like to improve that incredibly important facet. It will cost me a pretty penny, but as I've said, I can't be afraid of the cost. </p><p>What else do I need to do to regain the audience? A new cover for <i>Scollay Love</i>, new Obloeron covers -- Terry C. Simpson is working on those for me -- plus paperbacks for all of the above. I also want to pen a new 30,000-word novella that I'll give away as an enticement to join my mailing list, something I've failed at doing over the last five years; my hope is to get that taken care of by Christmas. My whole focus was on writing stuff that will inevitably sell, when I should have taken a longer look at the bigger picture. If I'm going to continue doing this, I need to do this correctly, and I need to grasp the bigger picture. I need to give something away to my fans. I need to spend money to gain my audience back. I need to do this. I need to do that.</p><p>In time, I will get that done. It won't be overnight. This is a marathon, not a sprint -- but I can't let years pass without doing anything, like I have since I first recognized the problem. If you want a problem to go away, you have to do something about it. You can't just ignore it. <br /></p><p>The time is, as they say, now.</p><p>Thanks for not giving up on me. <br /></p><p><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a><br /></p>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-12003500346865234272020-07-01T07:57:00.000-07:002020-07-01T08:08:12.587-07:00Finally, I'm published again! Happy Book Day, Glorious Slip!After nearly two and a half years -- an absolute lifetime in the publishing world -- I've published my 29th novel and second under the D.L. Boyd pen name today, that being the first of a time travel historical adventure and romance series, <i>Glorious Slip</i>.<br />
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No, I'm not crying... well, sort of. I am definitely crying.<br />
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The reason? I never thought I'd get this book out. It was a long time writing the first draft, more than a year, given that I had new jobs -- trying to get money into a house when you don't have a college degree is tough, and when you are partially handicapped with a heart ailment, there is only so much I can do -- and Kim had a computer issue (not her fault at all!). Then trying to find the right cover... and sure, this doesn't exactly scream Revolutionary War:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3uen3joMXXJU7A142rRM8Y1ViamsTOarxRbbRHaUds152P5g5X6O3aMGSP_OtEJHINhJUJ35RYQMAQomyg3_9hVsxAaBp929rnVRjuS0N4Z7mwzDmD0DTC813t5F7cx9Td_MSFEffRVg/s1600/GloriousSlip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3uen3joMXXJU7A142rRM8Y1ViamsTOarxRbbRHaUds152P5g5X6O3aMGSP_OtEJHINhJUJ35RYQMAQomyg3_9hVsxAaBp929rnVRjuS0N4Z7mwzDmD0DTC813t5F7cx9Td_MSFEffRVg/s320/GloriousSlip.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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But it's what I had, and I'm happy with it.<br />
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Honestly, I'm so happy with the way the book came out. The story was several months in the making, after I had read <i>Outlander</i> and was aghast that Diana Galbadon took upward of 47 pages to get Claire Randall back to 1745. I thought to myself, "If I took 47 pages to get my protagonist to her destination, my readers would put my book down and find something else." Determined, I did months of research outside of what I already knew about the Revolutionary War, and I sketched out the entirety of this three-book series. I wrote then I could, given the new jobs that I had. Sometimes I went weeks without writing, until the offseason of the Major League Soccer season between 2018 and 2019. While the Revolution were in Spain, and with no streams of the matches to watch, I buckled down after SuperDraft and belted out the last few chapters. I did some revision and added some Doc Brown-esque writings -- you'll see when you read the book -- and then edited it over the summer of 2019, in between Revolution matches.<br />
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Kim did a wonderful job in editing, I got it back in February, and then waited. But now the book is live, to my joy. The first book that I've published in over two years... you have to forgive me, I'm emotional about it.<br />
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I hope you enjoy it, when you get to it. It's a solid read that introduces you to the character of Nick Smith, who must keep silent about what he knows... and in the second book, which I'll start writing this fall sometime, is when things start to really pick up. It's a suitable first book in a series, and at 99 cents for the ebook, it's a good value. I know a few people who have picked up the paperback and have raved about it.<br />
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I'm sure you will, too.<br />
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Happy Book Day, <i>Glorious Slip</i>. You're out in the world, and I couldn't be happier.<br />
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Pick up your copy at the links below:<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/glorious-slip-d-l-boyd/1137156772?ean=2940162953081" target="_blank">Nook</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/glorious-slip" target="_blank">Kobo</a></div>
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<a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/glorious-slip/id1517637310" target="_blank">iBooks</a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1026929" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a> </div>
Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-75595990083675569672020-06-27T12:44:00.001-07:002020-06-27T12:44:55.408-07:00Inside the characters of GLORIOUS SLIP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over the last few weeks, I've let you know about the pre-order for <b><i>Glorious Slip</i></b> as well as gave you <a href="https://seansweeneyauthor.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-first-glimpse-chapter-of-glorious-slip.html" target="_blank">a chapter snippet that you can peruse at your leisure</a>.<br />
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Today, I'm going to tell you about the characters.<br />
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Characters are so important to any story; we see through their eyes, we feel what they are experiencing. And in <i><b>Glorious Slip</b></i>, the characters are on the verge of the American Revolutionary War, so there's plenty to see and feel as they go about their lives.<br />
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Nick Smith<br />
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Nick is our protagonist. He is a 21st Century boy who loves American history, and little does he know as our story opens that he's about to live it. Nick is a tall young man from Fitchburg, Mass., and he looks to keep the Wood Family safe when he arrives in 1765. He meets a young lady whose mother dies soon after his arrival, and he must navigate through early family squabbles while debating with himself about telling the young lady the truth. He bears witness to several key points in history during this series.<br />
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Constance Wood<br />
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Constance is the aforementioned young lady. She helps manage the Wood Farm after her mother Wilma's passing, and falls for the handsome stranger that her mother has hired. She accepts Nick's word pretty much as gospel, and after marriage, does her level best to support him in every decision he makes... like witnessing a pivotal moment in American history that could, if the shots go errant, kill him.<br />
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Samuel Adams<br />
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One of the heroes of the American Revolution, Adams lives near the Wood Farm and meets Nick in the intervening minutes following Wilma Wood's passing. He invites Nick to join the Sons of Liberty, as well as doing a number of tasks for him. The two men are close, as if Samuel knows the truth about Nick.<br />
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Henry Knox<br />
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At 15 years old, a young supporting character that rises to do great things for his country in due time. Henry is a bookseller in Colonial Boston during this time, and he meets up with Nick every so often to converse. Nick, even though he's older, holds young Henry in high esteem -- and for good reason.<br />
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John Wood<br />
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Our main antagonist in the story. John is the oldest surviving male at the Wood Farm, and he is an arrogant bastard. He is kicked out of the family, and he eventually gets his revenge. Is a Crown Loyalist among Colonists upset at the continued taxation.<br />
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Colton Wood<br />
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At first Colton is on Nick's side, but after one particular event, he turns on his siblings and Nick to join John's side. Both become Customs Commissioners and welcome the embargo of Boston.<br />
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And there are more where this comes from.<br />
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Reserve your copy at the links below in time for its July 1 release:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/glorious-slip-d-l-boyd/1137156772?ean=2940162953081" target="_blank">Nook</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/glorious-slip" target="_blank">Kobo</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">iBooks (coming soon) </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1026929" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></span></div>
<br /><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-73647082708955469112020-06-17T02:54:00.000-07:002020-06-27T12:43:21.111-07:00A First Glimpse: A chapter of GLORIOUS SLIP<span style="font-size: small;">With just under two weeks to go until <i>Glorious Slip</i> is live (July 1!) for only 99 cents, I'd like to give you a glimpse into the book with one chapter of the story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">I hope you enjoy, and after reading, I hope you pre-order your copy at the links provided. And just so you know, you can order the paperback and read it before the ebook goes live. I'm just saying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">##### </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Nick flailed his arms as his head broke the surface some eight-to-ten seconds after colliding with it. A lacy cloud poured from his mouth as he gasped, taking in the cool air through wet lips. He bobbed slightly, his chin and mouth ducking underneath the surface. He choked as he noticed water had flowed in with that initial bob, his gag reflex kicking in as the panic instantly swept through him. <br /> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The water inside him didn’t get out fast enough: Nick managed to spit it out in a torrent.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />Yuck, Charles River water! he cried internally. Charles River water in my mouth! The worst! Fuck, god-damn it, stay out of my belly!<br /> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The coughs racked his clenched chest as he tried treading water, swinging his arms back and forth and letting his shod feet kick out beneath the surface. He felt the chill nibbling against his face even as the water lapped against him, and he did quick math.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />If I climb out of wherever the hell I am, he thought, then I’m going to catch a pneumonia. But if I stay in here, wherever here is, then I’ll turn into an icicle and die. He exhaled; another cloud spilled and twisted away to nothingness. The thoughts stemmed from a long lost memory: he was in his single digits back then, and the stubborn little boy wouldn’t get out of the local YMCA pool following a swimming lesson — the air outside the pool was too cold that day, he recalled, leading to his continual bobbing and subsequent demerit as soon as someone yanked him from the water. The latter, though, emerged from his ceaseless watching of Titanic around the same time. The decisions I have to make.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />Nick tried to calm himself even as he remained buoyant. He tried to breathe normally, even as the cold water surrounded him and made his heart thump quicker than usual. He shook his head and blinked his eyelids, if only to make sure no stubborn droplets clung.<br /><br />Up ahead, Nick noticed the moonlight dancing on the water, as well as what looked like a rather curved land mass just beyond it. He made out a few rocks on what he felt was a jetty, much like the one in Provincetown, since he couldn’t see over it. He guessed the jetty was only about one hundred feet away, which he figured would only take a few strokes of his water-logged jacket to reach.<br /><br />Nick nodded, all as he shivered. He used both hands to displace the water in front of him, the motion countering the knife-like pains shooting through him. The cold seeped into his brain, which forced him to concentrate on getting to shore.<br /><br />God, if you get me through this, he thought, I’ll go to church on Sunday. I don’t know where, but I’ll get there. Jesus Christ, this is cold.<br /><br />The distance between Nick and the jetty dwindled over the next few chill-induced minutes until he felt safe enough to set his feet on the sloping scree. He closed his eyes as he hit the shallower waters and hefted himself up onto his quivering legs. Nick took three sloshing steps before he hit his knees on a somewhat un-rocky area, pulling his soaked body ashore. He kept his head bowed as he breathed, his eyes closed. His breath tingled as it escaped, caressing his cheeks like a lover. <br /><br />Even as the water behind him stilled from his motions after a few moments, he heard the collision of beads against the rock, as if his harrowing ordeal gave him extra-sensory perception. He knew that wasn’t true, but with every drip from his hair to the rock, it resembled the slow pop of bacon frying on medium-low heat.<br /><br />Nick blew out another long breath between pursed lips, all while the blood rampaged in his ears; he wanted to groan as he felt the sides of his head develop their own heartbeat, but he stifled himself.<br />The shivering — much like he had feared in that pool at the Y — started soon after.<br /><br />“Warm,” he managed to spit. “Need to get warm.” Another breath vomited from deep within. “Need to get warm now.”<br /><br />His teeth started their repeated chattering as the cold slowly moved deeper into him. He tried to think of warmth, if only to trigger a psychosomatic response within him. He thought of the Florida Keys where his wizened second cousin once removed had lived before he died a year ago, and how the old man had showed him where all the twenty-something co-eds skinny-dipped in a private cove off the Caribbean. Nick tried to get his lips to respond to that memory, to no avail.<br /><br />He thought of sitting in a sauna, the steam canvassing its depths as he waited for a lovely co-ed or a twenty-something like himself to enter, her dirty blonde hair pulled up into a teacher-like bun, and subsequently drop her towel, exposing herself to his gaze, all while a mischievous smile played all over her face. He felt a bit of heat radiate from his groin.<br /><br />Still, it wasn’t enough. He grimaced as he stood, his body trembling from the cold, and tried looking out in a 360-degree pattern, all as his clothes clung to him like a second skin.<br /><br />“Where the hell am I?” he asked.<br /><br />It was a good question, he had to admit. He saw nothing resembling lights in any direction, only the darkness of distant hills reflecting the moonlight. One looked impossibly high for Boston.<br /><br />If I’m still in Boston, he thought. There are no lights anywhere, no sign of lights atop the skyscrapers. Maybe I got carried all the way over to Nahant? Nick shook his head, thinking it impossible. Even if I did, I would see something resembling life here, or some streetlights. He raised his hand. This isn’t life. The stars ain’t streetlights.<br /><br />Nick turned and sat down, taking the opportunity to look out at the moon and where he had emerged from the water — or where he had dropped into it.<br /><br />That vortex, or whatever the fuck it was, carried me a long way from Boston, that’s for sure, Nick thought with a few bobs of his head. The chills returned, even though there was no wind to be had. He instinctively wrapped his arms tight around himself, if only to try to withhold as much warmth as he had within his body for as long as possible. His jacket felt heavy, even in a sitting position. Then it dropped me, right here, into whatever this is. He stared out at the moon’s reflection before letting a tenuous swallow slip into his gullet. <br /><br />Nick soon felt numb, as if he’d never feel warm again.<br /><br />God, don’t let me freeze here, he thought, all as the darkness closed in on him.<br /><br />***<br /><br />He didn’t freeze.<br /><br />Nick awoke just as a strengthening sun rose over his right shoulder. Pushing himself up, he detected a weight against his right cheek; he brushed the gravel and dirt aside, then rubbed the excess off with his fingertips until he felt sure he had a somewhat clear face. The shivering didn’t exactly return at once, though; seeing the sun so bright and unencumbered by practically anything made his heart swell double its size. He smiled, even though it hurt his flesh to do so.<br /><br />The smiling, though…<br /><br />Nick groaned reflexively, all as the sides of his head continued their incessant thrum. He swallowed, even though his saliva dragged down a parched throat with the effectiveness of rubbing sandpaper against a sheet of damp particleboard.<br /><br />“I shouldn’t have drunk that much on an empty stomach,” he mused. “One would think I would have learned that lesson by now. Oy.”<br /><br />He managed to get to his feet, the air pockets snapping inside his knees — he groaned — and looked toward the rising sun, holding his hands out in welcome, trying to draw in all the heat. He kept his eyes closed, the exhilaration at the warm touches seeping into his flesh. Nick shoved his shoulders back, the stiffness in his lower back giving way; he let another groan fly. A renewed vigor seeped into his joints with every deep, salt-infused breath; he wanted to stay there until he deemed himself adequately warm and dry from the mid-evening plunge, but he knew he had to find a way home, back to his off-campus apartment. He had class in only a few hours, and he needed to put the finishing touches on his discussion paper before handing it in. If there was anything he felt especially proud about, it was his penchant to stick to deadlines.<br /><br />His thoughts about meeting it dissolved as soon as his eyes widened.<br /><br />He had turned ninety degrees to his right. In that simple gesture, that simple movement, he finally got a good look at his surroundings.<br /><br />The gasp rippled from Nick’s mouth as he took it all in, all while shuddering in quiet disbelief. In the full light of day, unencumbered by the veil of night, he looked out and just from the sight alone, he knew right away that he was not in Boston any longer — but he couldn’t place where on Earth he now stood, either. For a moment, he thought the vortex, or whatever it was, had flung him halfway across the state, yet he wiped the thought clear even as it came to him: even in the rural towns beyond Sturbridge, the roads were paved and well maintained.<br /><br />Here, wherever the hell here was, they weren’t. The roads looked incredibly narrow, far narrower than anything he had experienced in his life, and puddles dotted the ways, darkening the dirt and softening it.<br /><br />He saw sturdy constructions here and there, some nearly on top of their neighbors. He saw red brick forming the façade of each, yet the roofing, from his rather distant vantage point, looked rather primitive. Large pastures full of green and blooming flowers flanked the rearsides of these buildings — he felt sure they were dwellings, for a light gray smoke trickled from well-used chimneys — with livestock munching away at a fence abutting the nearby road. <br /><br />Yet his eyes grew even larger as he set his gaze on the recognizable dark mountain from last night. Unmistakable, there were paths carved into it, and even from this distance, about a mile or so away, maybe even less, he saw several different things scurrying about its side. <br /><br />He swallowed. He hoped they were friendly, and that they’d have an idea of how to get back to Boston from here.<br /><br />Am I in Amish country? he added as an afterthought. That’s the only explanation as to where I am. I’m hanging with the fucking Amish.<br /><br />Nick walked away from the shoreline and wandered down a house-less lane, taking great care not to sink into the mud. A light pile of snow caressed the side of it, caked in the same stuff on which he now stood. It was no more than five inches high at the base of the long fence, which he noticed was built almost in an X pattern between the fat posts set ten feet apart. He had seen fences constructed like that during field trips to Old Sturbridge Village during his high school years.<br /><br />And on days warmer than this, too, he thought as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and pulled it closer to his belly. Thankfully, I didn’t catch pneumonia, unless I did, I’m dead now, and this is whatever paradise is supposed to be. Although I have to say I didn’t think paradise would be this muddy, or have the remnants of a winter storm on the side of the road, but hey, who am I, really?<br /><br />Nick turned right onto a wider boulevard, this one just as muddy as the last. He noticed several piles of horse droppings smack dab in the middle, and he immediately side-stepped the first batch. In doing so, he almost stepped in the second, missing it by mere centimeters.<br /><br />He let go of a throaty grunt and refrained from pulling the back of his wrist against his brow.<br /><br />“So much for looking at the scenery,” he muttered, “of which there is none. Have to watch out for landmines instead.” Nick twisted his lips in disgust. “Crap.”<br /><br />He continued his impromptu morning stroll, the sun clearly behind him. His shadow remained tight to him, he saw, while he tried to find the source of chickens cooing nearby. His sneakers only sank by a couple of millimeters in the loose mud; the corners of his mouth sank that amount, too.<br /><br />Definitely Amish, Nick thought as he firmed his jaw and nodded his head.<br /><br />“Are you lost?” a voice called from behind.<br /><br />Nick whipped around and found a matronly woman standing several feet away. She had the look of Mary Poppins, but with light wrinkles near the corners of her eyes. The woman’s dress was well worn and not a bright navy, and she carried a rather large bag on her arm that was just as well-worn as her clothes. Her gaze pierced him, as if doing so with a great deal of scrutiny. <br /><br />Surely she’s looking at my damp clothing and wondering if she should call the police, he thought. Yet now that I think about it, maybe I should be the one calling police. She certainly doesn’t look like she belongs in, well, my time — unless she’s Amish, of course. <br /><br />“Yeah,” he replied softly. “I don’t know where I am.”<br /><br />The woman approached cautiously. Her head tilted to the left as she halted practically in front of him.<br /><br />“Are you looking for work, by any chance?”<br /><br />Nick blinked. He didn’t understand the question, nor did he understand why she continued to shower him with that intrusive look. He wanted to say, “No, I’m looking for a way home because I’m going to miss class,” but he wasn’t sure if she would understand that — especially if she were Amish; ending one’s schooling in the eighth grade sounded too foreign to him, and he didn’t have much time left to get his degree.<br /><br />What he did after that was purely up to the job market. He had thought about teaching history at a high school — his alma mater was in the process of phasing his old history teacher out, given that he neared 70 and really didn’t want to slow down, despite the superintendent’s misgivings about the man’s age and drinking problems — but wondered if teaching at a middle school was a safer bet.<br /><br />“I don’t really know?” He didn’t try to hide his anxiety, at least not in his voice. Did she want him to work as her private dancer, a take-it-off kind of boy? As a masseur? “Don’t really think I’m looking for a job, but I think I’m open to anything?”<br /><br />“I have a farm that needs a hand,” the woman said. “My husband passed away a few weeks ago; murdered, actually —”<br /><br />Nick blinked again at her forwardness. Who is so open about such things? Christ, if my pseudo-wife was murdered — okay, let’s not go that far. I don’t even have a girlfriend, the woman in the bar with the skin-tight dress notwithstanding. It’s been a while since I’ve had a true blue lady in my life, one that actually wants to Netflix and Chill with me. But I don’t believe I’d be telling total strangers that my spouse was recently murdered and that my farm is looking for a hand, but what do I know?<br /><br />“I’m so sorry to hear that, ma’am, but I’m not a farmer. Really,” he said as soon as the woman’s sadness and her own anxiety rippled, “I’m just a student of history.”<br /><br />“Oh,” the woman replied. “It would be nice to have someone to give my son a hand. Lord knows my eldest remaining son doesn’t know which end of a hoe goes in the ground. Too busy playing politics.”<br /><br />“I’m sorry, eldest remaining son?”<br /><br />He knew he shouldn’t have asked, but it came out too fast, even before his brain had the opportunity to put his tongue on lockdown. But since she was being so open and honest, he might as well pry even more information from her.<br /><br />“Yes, my eldest first-born son died in the war. Left us in a right pickle, not his fault of course, and now with my husband gone and our youngest ones doing what they can, we could use a man of strength around our farm, especially with John, the eldest remaining son, that is, being such a useless Crown sympathizer.”<br /><br />Nick tilted his head by a fraction of an inch at hearing those last words and tried to process what it meant. He had never heard the words “Crown sympathizer” outside of his classes — not even in the small work groups the professor wanted did he heard those words flung about in such haphazard fashion — and hadn’t considered using them in any every day conversation. <br /><br />“I’m sorry — did you just say Crown sympathizer?” he asked, growing aware that he felt a numbness near his shoulders, his flesh tingling.<br /><br />“I did. My son thinks George, king for all of nearly four and a half years now, is the bee’s knees, if that’s the proper saying. Glory in the name of Britain indeed. Boy wishes he could live in London. If we could afford it, I would have put his powdered wig-loving self on an outgoing ship and made sure he stays in that dirty little town long before now. But no, the Sugar Act hurt us, even though he says it was necessary.”<br /><br />Nick tried to move his lips, but he heard nothing emerge from his throat, other than a light gurgle. He thought he was in the midst of choking, or worse, having a stroke, but he didn’t feel his left arm going completely numb, or that the side of his face sloped, as if his skin and flesh wanted to fall off his skull. None of that was happening, but he realized that he didn’t feel so good.<br /><br />He tried to process everything the widow woman had said, and it made his mind spin: from her eldest son being killed in the war to Crown sympathizing eldest-remaining son, to George — certainly she can’t mean Prince William’s son, right? he wondered — but what really threw him for a loop was her casual mention of the Sugar Act. That meant —<br /><br />Nick never got the words out. He felt his eyelids shoot back into his skull, all while his legs lost all connectivity with his brain.<br /><br />He toppled hard as they gave way, and saw nothing else.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Thanks for reading! You can reserve your copy at the links below.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/glorious-slip-d-l-boyd/1137156772?ean=2940162953081" target="_blank">Nook</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/glorious-slip" target="_blank">Kobo</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">iBooks (coming soon)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1026929" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></span><br />
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Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-40164079012585042772020-06-10T06:07:00.000-07:002020-06-10T13:24:26.622-07:00Introducing GLORIOUS SLIP, now available for pre-orderAfter a year or so of waiting for the right moment, <i>Glorious Slip</i> under my D.L. Boyd pen name is now available to pre-order, and available for print copies. I'll share a snippet of the book in the coming days, just as a taste, but first I want to tell you what the book -- and eventually the series -- is about.<br />
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First, the blurb:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Science fiction meets adventure meets romance in this first of a planned historical trilogy by D.L. Boyd!<br /><br />Nick Smith is a student of history, especially that of his state’s capital, Boston. <br /><br />Little does he know that he is about to live it.<br /><br />Jettisoned some two and a half centuries into the past, Nick discovers that he has landed in Colonial Boston. He marvels at finding the Shawmut Peninsula in the years before the Revolutionary War, and witnesses Bostonians’ palpable anger.<br /><br />Working a farm and falling in love with a young lady three years his junior, Nick must avoid conflicts with his new brother-in-law, a Crown loyalist. <br /><br />Ride along with Nick as he rubs elbows with early America’s greatest minds, all while concealing America’s destiny.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70kMKpZjgBSAC5NCZ1tN1IGvFlIbzerrCAkELFvzMNlmZYaiZmjt1gmdO2WYjs6CjYbVRMsl7ZgxIF06baj3-j7Fi2OU7isZRnVeX6FGtcqAFE5UHCnO4LVnWU80xcya27uer7XFVhbw/s1600/GloriousSlip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70kMKpZjgBSAC5NCZ1tN1IGvFlIbzerrCAkELFvzMNlmZYaiZmjt1gmdO2WYjs6CjYbVRMsl7ZgxIF06baj3-j7Fi2OU7isZRnVeX6FGtcqAFE5UHCnO4LVnWU80xcya27uer7XFVhbw/s320/GloriousSlip.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Not a bad pull, huh?<br />
<br />
I conceived the story, an <i>Outlander</i>-esque tale but not as long-winded, back in the fall of 2017, and it took until February 2019 to get the first draft done. Lots stood in my way in 2018, mainly in the form of a new job, and there was the whole two radio shows that I did, which inevitably de-railed any momentum. I managed to finish it when the New England Revolution were in Spain for preseason training in February 2019.<br />
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The story, set in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, was intended to be a historical romance, but as it happens, I focused more on the adventure side of things... there <i>is</i> romance, just enough for a taste, but the story is more adventure than anything. You will feel Nick's feelings pulling you in several directions, you will feel for him when he makes an important realization of what he must do.<br />
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And not only that, you will feel his pulse quicken as he watches an important event in American history play out before his eyes.<br />
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<i>Glorious Slip</i> is the first of three books in this series (I will start writing book two starting this fall, after I finish the first draft to <i>Incoming Private Show</i>, which I hope to resume writing sometime next week), and is available for pre-order at the rather low introductory price of 99 cents for ebook, and $9.95 for trade paperback.<br />
<br />
For those picking up the ebook, it will go live on Wednesday, July 1 -- right in time for the Independence Day holiday.<br />
<br />
Reserve your copy here:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon US</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089WGXJ7Z/" target="_blank">Amazon UK</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/glorious-slip-d-l-boyd/1137156772?ean=2940162953081" target="_blank">Nook</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/glorious-slip" target="_blank">Kobo</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
iBooks (coming soon)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1026929" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></div>
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Print copies are available through Amazon.Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-20075371581452808212019-07-22T11:40:00.000-07:002019-07-22T11:40:10.830-07:00Getting another project off the groundOver the last couple of years, many readers have inquired as to which book I'm writing, and which books -- if my WIP happens to be part of a series -- they should re-read or catch up on in time for that WIP's release in ebook or print form.<br />
<br />
As you already know, my book production has slowed to a crawl over most of the last two years, since the Fall of 2017. I lost a lot of time due to a pair of radio shows, and those shows really slowed my roll. You can't really get into a groove when you write for three days, take a day to drive half an hour, do an hour radio show, and then drive home and collapse, then write for two days and take another day for a show. You just can't.<br />
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At least I can't. Your mileage may vary.<br />
<br />
And with the exception of <a href="https://seansweeneyauthor.blogspot.com/2019/06/jaclyn-johnson-box-set-now-available-on.html?fbclid=IwAR3afkruTeYaxeSxQkLbQ5oztxcBEGzVVAfCXlFxOMp5wyQLim1ufEDrvRM" target="_blank"><i>The Jaclyn Johnson Experience</i>'s long-awaited release</a> back in May... I can't tell you how much of a <i>relief</i> it was to get something out in 2019, especially not having released anything in some 15-16 months before that.<br />
<br />
But there is more coming on the horizon. It may be in the distant horizon, but it's coming. The first book in the <i>Glorious</i> series is currently at my editing crew. I think there will be some work to do on it when I get it back at the end of the American soccer season, but I'm not really worrying about it until then.<br />
<br />
The erotic thriller I penned? I truncated the thriller aspects and just made it an erotic novella. It's at a group of editors now, and I suspect that will be out in due time.<br />
<br />
Yet... there's more.<br />
<br />
Over the last couple of days, I've spent some time brainstorming out a new book that'll be part of my Ricky Madison series -- you know, <i>The Long Crimson Line</i> and <i>Persuaded By The Reflections</i>. I don't have a title just yet, but I have five pages, printed, of plot, character sketches, and thoughts for Ricky to encounter during this tale. Generally, Ricky novels are 90,000-100,000-word behemoths, and I think it's fair to say this one will be, too.<br />
<br />
In reading over my outline -- which right now is jumbled and really in no particular order -- I have to say that I'm actually impressed. I really like how this story came together, all done in a few days. Moving my fingers across the keyboard like lightning as I let my thoughts flow across the screen. It was almost too easy to let things come to my mind.<br />
<br />
I found there will be a couple of redundancies, such as characters' mothers who have no idea what's going on with their sons -- which is, when one thinks about it, realistic. It's something that Ricky might expound on in thought. We'll see. I don't think that it's a bad thing to have a redundancy such as these. You don't necessarily run into two people who are exactly alike... but sometimes you encounter similar traits and things in different people. It happens, and I think -- at least what I have written now -- that's how this novel will play out.<br />
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My hope is that I'll get started on it either this week or next, and we'll see how far I get. I'll still have soccer to cover, so the thought of plowing through this story is out -- and I doubt that I get to do something like that again. The days of 3,000 words per day are long gone. I'm not going to rush this book, and my hope is that it'll be just as gritty as <i>Persuaded</i> is.<br />
<br />
Even so, the fact that I've managed to get another project off the ground -- one which I think will be so much easier to write than Glorious -- is pretty remarkable.<br />
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<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-279784379369147132019-06-27T15:41:00.001-07:002019-06-27T15:41:24.876-07:00Jaclyn Johnson box set now available, on sale at a low introductory price... for nowEarly in May, I released THE JACLYN JOHNSON EXPERIENCE, a box set on ebook only to all online retailers. Right now, it's priced at the low, introductory price of $4.99. Five bucks for <i>nine</i> books, plus a novella and a few never-before-seen short stories tied into the world? Really, it's an unbeatable bargain.<br />
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How long will I keep the price at $4.99? Right now, I haven't decided. I had originally said that price would remain in effect until Mother's Day. That was last month, and it's still priced at $4.99. I could keep it there until the Fourth of July, but again... I want as many eyes on the box set as possible, and who knows how many shares, retweets, etc. that I'll get. I want many people to purchase this set at $4.99 before I raise the price. After all... <i>it's a bargain</i>. Legal thievery. And all that. People should easily one-click a nine-book box set at that price.<br />
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And that cover is absolute fire.<br />
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<br />
Seriously, there are flames in the cover. That's just how fire it is.<br />
<br />
I'll take a few questions now.<br />
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Q: <i>Why just ebook? Why not an ink-and-paper version?</i><br />
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A: The answer is simple: I've always been about producing low-cost books for consumers. I know it's their money and they can spend it how they want, but I don't want people to drop a ton of cash on me. Back when I originally published The Obloeron Trilogy, back when it was just a trilogy, it cost readers upward of $30 for a trade paperback book, with the fonts uber-tiny to make sure the costs were kept to an absolute minimum... and it was still $30. That's just how it is in the indie world. This is a nine-book endeavor, plus a novella, plus some short stories. This would be upward of $100 for three separate thrillogies -- if that's a word -- editions, because there's no way to get all nine in one. No way at all.<br />
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Q: <i>If I have all nine books separate, why would I get the box set?</i><br />
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A: Do you have the novella? I know you don't have the shorts. This edition gives you everything. And it's only $4.99 that you weren't using, right?<br />
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Q: <i>What will happen if you decide to write another Jaclyn novel? It wouldn't be the complete collection then, would it?</i><br />
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A: At some point, I will write another Jaclyn... just not right now. I have an outline/plot treatment that's been stewing for some time. Maybe I will get to it in a couple of years, after the <i>Glorious</i> series is done and dusted, or after I get fired from the soccer job. And then again, I could start a whole new JJ series, just not under the AGENT moniker... which is how I had planned to do things seven or eight years ago, but I was talked out of it. We'll see. My mind might change by then.<br />
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Q: <i>Can I have it for free?</i><br />
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A: Sure! I'm sure it's up on a pirate site by now; download to your heart's content. But please be sure to tell 10 people about it, because that would be so nice.<br />
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Q: <i>And where can I get it should I want to get it by legal means?</i><br />
<br />
A: Very simple. It's available on Kindle (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jaclyn-Johnson-Experience-Books-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B07R81MW3Z/" target="_blank">US</a>/<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jaclyn-Johnson-Experience-Books-Snapshot-ebook/dp/B07R81MW3Z/" target="_blank">UK</a>), <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-jaclyn-johnson-experience-sean-sweeney/1131437988?ean=2940161209967" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-jaclyn-johnson-experience" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, and <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-jaclyn-johnson-experience/id1462240962" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a>. If you're in another country outside of the US/UK, you can always click the link and easily pop in your Amazon extension (.de, .ca, .au, etc) in place of .com or .co.uk.<br />
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Q: <i>What are you working on now?</i><br />
<br />
A: Right now I'm a few days away from giving Glorious Slip -- current working title, may revise it -- its third-draft read-through. The hope is that I have nothing to do to it and that I can ship it off to Kim by the Fourth of July for her eyes, as well as to Bruce for re-title suggestions. Once that's done and dusted, I can get started on the cover -- I have to give Kent a call -- as well as the second book in the series. I'm hoping to get that started in August, but if not, October is a more reasonable time frame to get it underway. I'm also halfway through an erotic thriller that I will release under a pen name. Just need to work on the transition from the erotica part to the thriller part.<br />
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Thanks for your support!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-17060768256568534532019-02-20T05:10:00.000-08:002019-02-20T05:16:17.207-08:00A little flash fiction for youA few months ago, before I started the stretch run in GLORIOUS SLIP, I needed to get my fingers back into fiction mode after X amount of time away from it. This flash fiction piece was the result; I had seen a cartoon on Facebook depicting this scene, and I figured it was a good exercise to get the writing muscles re-attuned.<br />
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Hope you enjoy.<br />
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Copyright 2019, Sean Sweeney<br />
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Death Meets An Alien </div>
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Passing the TV, Bob flicked the porn off as he returned to his bed, feeling plenty lighter in his groin. He had just left the bathroom, content with his clean-up abilities for the present, the tissues wadded and sent to his septic tank. Traces of his seminal fluid remained on his skin, matting the thin hairs between his groin and navel to his body. He didn’t care about that; the cleaning job was to make sure that his baby-making goo didn’t coat the inside of his underwear and turn it into a crusty mess; the rest, he figured, would come off in the shower tomorrow morning.<br />
<br />
“Ah, lesbians are like plumbers,” he said as he slid under the covers again. “They never cease to help clear my pipe.”<br />
<br />
Bob’s head hit the pillow a heartbeat later. As soon as he closed his eyes, the scenes from the porno replayed over and over again as he drifted off, a dreamy smile tracing along his lips. He saw their bodies collide together, their legs scissoring as they mashed their groins against the other. He didn’t remember anything else after the duo separated and approached him; two pairs of breasts, full and fake and coming to rest alongside each other, came crashing down across his conscious self before sleep claimed him.<br />
<br />
The heavy clunk of metal against the wall jolted Bob from his heavy slumber hours later, the breath catching in his throat as he jerked from the mattress. He didn’t make a move for the slick goop lingering in the corner of his eye, focused he was on the open door and the darkness beyond it.<br />
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“Hello?! Who’s there?!”<br />
<br />
No answer came. Bob ground his teeth together.<br />
<br />
“I’m calling the police!” he shouted.<br />
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“The police won’t help you.”<br />
<br />
Bob felt the blood draining from his face, replaced by cold clamminess. The voice came through high-pitched and Arctic, and with such force that it felt all the air in the room had departed. He couldn’t help but notice just how his body shivered from hearing it; he clenched his buttocks almost on instinct, as if preventing his bowels from voiding its contents into his jammies.<br />
<br />
The creature slipped into the bedroom a moment later, and Bob didn’t hear his floorboards shifting under the being’s weight. He heard nothing over the sound of his blood thundering in his inner ears.<br />
<br />
But the being’s voice sliced through the din with utter sharpness, with the force of a razor grating against Bob’s nerves.<br />
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“I have come for you, Robert Wellington,” it said half a moment before the door closed of its own volition. “Your time has reached its end.”<br />
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Bob tried to speak. He did his best to pry open his jaws and let sounds flow, but the fright at the being’s presence — a long black cowl shielding its face from anyone’s gaze, along with the scythe it held in one bony hand — reverted him to mere babble. His throat felt as if a python had slithered across and held him within its mighty grasps, for his breath felt choked. His chest ached from the fierce beating his heart gave the inside of his sternum. He continued his lengthy shiver, even as he did his best to shrink underneath the heft of his comforter.<br />
<br />
“Why?” Bob squeaked. He thought he had shouted the word, but it came through his lips like a whisper.<br />
<br />
“Do not ask why,” the specter of death hissed. “Accept.” It moved forward, easing itself toward Bob’s left foot. It lowered the scythe, almost bringing it parallel to the bed. “Accept. Your soul is mi—”<br />
<br />
<i>Crack.</i> The door flung itself open again, the knob driving into the wall. This time, the angel of death spun to see who dared intrude; Bob glanced that way and saw rays of bright light streaming into his room — along with fog rolling and rising.<br />
<br />
Bob blinked.<br />
<br />
<i>What the f—?</i> he thought, his mind spinning.<br />
<br />
The fog cloud grew in size and density until it filled the threshold to Bob’s bedroom. Bob blinked again, then glanced at the specter; it kept whatever served as its gaze fixed on the doorway.<br />
<br />
<i>Can I get away?</i> he wondered. <i>Its concentrations are now elsewhere; surely I can slide out of bed, open a window, crawl out, and shimmy down the drainpipe. And without making a single noise.</i><br />
<br />
The thought disappeared as eerie tones resembling a long, throaty whistle purred from the hall. The resonance made Bob recall the times he watched <i>War of the Worlds,</i> right before —<br />
<br />
He sought out the bedclothes and grasped them, hard, until the cartilage in his knuckles popped.<br />
<br />
Then, Bob stared deep into the fog as it shifted, and through the vapor stepped an extra terrestrial, an alien, its ovoid head and beady black eyes seeking one thing — him, its own gaze landing right on him, almost immediately upon entry.<br />
<br />
“Robert,” it said, its voice almost sounding computerized, “we have come to take you away from Earth. The information you have garnered for us resides in the probe we inserted into your rectum the last time—”<br />
<br />
Bob wanted to scream.<br />
<br />
“Which Robert are you looking for?” the specter of death interrupted, gliding toward the alien.<br />
<br />
The alien, to its credit, blinked its eyes and turned to face the specter.<br />
<br />
“Gilbride. He lives here, right?” <br />
<br />
Bob blinked as the alien pulled what looked like a map from hammerspace; the being wore no pants. All extraneous sounds save Bob’s racing heart and that of the paper unfolding disappeared.<br />
<br />
“See, our information led us here. Robert Gilbride lives here.”<br />
<br />
“No, no,” the specter rebutted. “He doesn’t live here any longer. I took his soul ages ago.”<br />
<br />
“Are you sure?”<br />
<br />
“Quite positive. Once you’re mine, you’re mine. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.”<br />
<br />
The alien threw up its hands, almost in defeat.<br />
<br />
“Rats. You didn’t happen to retrieve a probe, did you?”<br />
<br />
“That,” the specter replied, “is not in my purview.”<br />
<br />
“Damn it. That information is critical to our intended invasion. But onto other matters: Since you are so in-the-know, do you happen to know where Evelyn Bulfinch lives?”<br />
<br />
“Why yes, she’s in the next town. Double chimney, satellite dish. Colonial home. Scheduled for reclaiming in October 2025.”<br />
<br />
Bob noticed the alien almost grinned when the angel of death gave the month and year.<br />
<br />
“We’ll have her back well before that,” it said. “You have my guarantee.”<br />
<br />
The alien then crossed its thin arms against its chest and raised its head toward the ceiling. It shimmered into nothingness, almost as if it defragmented itself. The fog cloud fizzled away, and the supernatural light retreated, leaving everything dark — almost too dark for Bob’s liking.<br />
<br />
Then, the specter spun again, facing the bed, and Bob knew this was it. The end of the road.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-56040496564369081542019-02-19T08:57:00.000-08:002019-02-19T08:57:25.412-08:00Second draft was -- surprisingly -- enjoyable to writeBy a general rule, I do not like to do massive changes to a story once the first draft is written. I just don't. Pulling at a plot thread leads to unraveling, and soon I have a mess on my hands. I prefer to make cosmetic changes -- i.e. grammar, word choice, punctuation, expounding on certain thoughts -- and let the book go from there.<br />
<br />
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule: I obviously made massive changes to THE OBLOERON SAGA a few years ago; I re-wrote the opening to MODEL AGENT, but didn't do a massive re-tooling of the book. I believe that I'm going to do something similar to TURNING BACK THE CLOCK this summer, and get it out in time for the book's 10th anniversary -- not to mention the 100th anniversary of the Black Sox Scandal and the Sale of Babe Ruth -- in October.<br />
<br />
But I couldn't do that with GLORIOUS SLIP. There were some egregious errors -- stuff that just wasn't realistic -- in the first five chapters (well, from Ch. 2 to Ch. 5, and into Ch. 6) that just needed changing. I couldn't let them stay.<br />
<br />
And to my surprise, the second draft as a whole was actually pleasurable to write. I believe that it was more pleasurable than writing the first draft. I actually felt more alive during the second draft than I did pulling teeth for the first.<br />
<br />
Now don't get me wrong; the first draft read well despite the problems, but now I believe that the book is absolutely solid and I don't believe I'll have much to change when I re-read the book in June. Of course, I could be wrong and that there will be loads to do, putting the kibosh on me working on TBTC's 10th Anniversary edition.<br />
<br />
If all goes well and we get a cover that is fire for this book, it is entirely possible that this book will be available for September 2019.<br />
<br />
Again, and I keep saying this... I can't wait to show you the book.<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1581582924"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-7662895599852763562019-02-16T04:58:00.000-08:002019-02-16T04:58:21.255-08:00First draft to GLORIOUS SLIP finally done, on to the second draftPhew. That took a while, didn't it?<br />
<br />
This past Wednesday afternoon, I put the capper on the first draft to GLORIOUS SLIP, the first book in my planned men's adventure time travel series. The draft checked in at 189 pages, and at 81,850 words, it is my shortest full-length novel. And with the exception of THE QUEST FOR THE CHALICE, my first novel (part of THE OBLOERON SAGA), the 15 months it took me to complete the first draft was the longest I've ever needed to do so.<br />
<br />
Take a bow? Not quite yet.<br />
<br />
On Friday, I dove into the start of the second draft, added about 101 words to the prose, tweaking the first chapter and a half. I stopped after coming to a part which will need all my attention in the next few days: a massive re-write of a 1,900-word scene that just doesn't make sense to anything resembling a realistic happening -- or realism, period. I suspect it shouldn't take me more than a few days to straighten out, but there are some other threads attached to this scene in the next chapter or so which also need re-writing; you pull at one thread, and the entirety of the project falls apart, right?<br />
<br />
That can happen, but I don't think that will necessarily happen here: this activity should oh-most-definitely turn the start of the narrative to titanium.<br />
<br />
So why did it take me so long to write? You have to remember something: when I started this novel back in November 2017, I ran into some issues that I didn't foresee whatsoever.<br />
<br />
There was The Great Root Canal post Thanksgiving, which took me out of service for a couple of days (seriously, so many dental issues that took up a lot of time between then and this past Christmas... 13 months of driving back and forth to my dentist in Holden, about 45 minutes or so each way).<br />
<br />
There was the fact I really couldn't get a handle on this project; I wanted to tell a complete story, like I always do, and I wanted to do so in a completely different voice, so it made the writing feel like I was pulling teeth.<br />
<br />
I also had two trips to my hometown every week to do a pair of local sports radio shows, which also demanded on my time, especially when it came to teams that I didn't cover personally; I couldn't write afterward, because those trips and shows took a lot out of me emotionally.<br />
<br />
And in April of last year, I took on a wonderful dream job: on top of covering the local high schools, I started covering the New England Revolution soccer team, and even though it's considered part time, I threw myself into it like I always do. All of those things wrapped into one, unfortunately, and it meant GLORIOUS had to go on the shelf. I did get a little written during the tail end of the World Cup in July, but that was it for the first draft until the offseason began -- and even then I was still busy with high school sports until December. And even then, with me taking some time off from the high school sportswriting because the newspaper owed me so much money from November alone, it was still a challenge to open the file and get some words in.<br />
<br />
With the Revs spending the preseason in Spain and now in Florida, and with what appears like no streams of the matches in sight, I resolved at the end of January to get the first draft, at the very least, completed by the start of the regular season on March 2. That's accomplished, yes, but I'm not giving the story time to breathe like I usually do; I feel that with the time I have afforded to me, I should at the very least try to get most of the book's issues sorted -- which, like I always say, are in the first half of the book.<br />
<br />
Will I get the full second draft completed by the start of the regular season? Probably not. Maybe; I'm not counting on it, though. I should be able to crank the re-writes out this week, and then there's some additions to the story that I came up with a couple of weeks ago: some Doc Brown-esque letters by the protagonist to his parents that wouldn't be delivered until after he had disappeared, so I have those to write. If I get the second draft finished by then, fantastic. If not, it won't bother me until June, when the Revs have a few weeks off due to the Gold Cup. I don't suspect that there will be too much to re-write in the second half of the novel, but you never know.<br />
<br />
In all seriousness, I don't want to rush such an important book. It's the first in a planned trilogy, with a lot of the action happening in books two and three. This is a set-up book, to hook the readers and get them to buy books two and three, whenever I get to write them (and if something else gets in my way, it may be a few <i>years</i> before I get the opportunity to sit down and churn out the pages). I'm going to take my time with these re-writes and revisions (read: small tweaks, such as grammar or expounding on other things), and make sure the book is pure fire before I send it to Kim for her edits. I may send it to Bruce, too. He's a history buff, and I'm sure that he'll have things to contribute, advice-wise.<br />
<br />
I really can't wait to show you the first book. It's going to be some time, though, so please be patient with me.<br />
<br />
Thanks for your time, as always.<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_145900900"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-36303781425252004022018-02-26T07:09:00.002-08:002018-02-26T07:09:14.721-08:00Getting into my new hobby<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvopoILkTXPJjXimgVko8wA9xIOyVhJOXhsom_k4_88Ua5858QnyvYHTcZNPh5qCESoHn1pDp2CHEBBvk3RFrONPWwyLyFVLtTq1YNBZO80dYZy57qxdyl5uDNVPl20WO_qEjko4E6AEM/s1600/Painting2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvopoILkTXPJjXimgVko8wA9xIOyVhJOXhsom_k4_88Ua5858QnyvYHTcZNPh5qCESoHn1pDp2CHEBBvk3RFrONPWwyLyFVLtTq1YNBZO80dYZy57qxdyl5uDNVPl20WO_qEjko4E6AEM/s320/Painting2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Just a couple of paintings that I've done over the last week or so. I bought the Bob Ross "Liquid White," and that has helped with my mountains. I've wanted to do the wet-on-wet technique, but I don't think my paints--$6 paints at Michael's--have the firmness he requires. So I'll do what I can with what I have.<br />
<br />
One of the things I've also wanted to do: self-painted book covers for the Obloeron Saga. So that's a possibility.<br />
<br />
We'll see.<br />
<br />
www.seansweeneyauthor.com <br />
Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-6365436176633260032018-01-25T06:53:00.000-08:002018-01-25T06:53:29.840-08:00Scouring Agent: A Thriller, now available for pre-order!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
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table.MsoNormalTable
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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
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mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt;
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It's getting to be about that time! </div>
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And what time is it? You guessed right: it's time for a new Jaclyn Johnson novel!</div>
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Scouring Agent: A Thriller, the ninth Jaclyn Johnson adventure, is ready for pre-order at all ebook platforms. A trade paperback edition is coming, too. </div>
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Here's what it's all about: </div>
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<i>A well-timed string of attacks and events in Washington,
D.C. has President Eric B. Forrister and the CIA scrambling for answers in the
ninth Jaclyn Johnson thriller novel.</i></div>
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<i>How well-timed are they? It just so happens the attacks
occur as Jaclyn is out of the country, on her honeymoon in Wales.</i></div>
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<i>With Tasha Verkler, Jaclyn’s ward and confidante, at the
head of the investigation alongside Desmond Daly, a.k.a. Salt, the duo look to
discover who’s behind these brazen attacks—the new Supreme Court Museum has
been bombed, two Justices dead; the Senate Majority Leader killed by a
sniper—until the unthinkable occurs: Jaclyn and Tom’s ride home from Heathrow
is also bombed.</i></div>
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<i>Do Jaclyn and Tom make it back to the United States, or does
Tasha manage to solve it herself?</i></div>
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Intense!</div>
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<i> </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3Gvt19vYWpNGj3rof5c5PRxGMJaMdaf0msJTJvKVdBXzF5XOeWqWhADcPYg_bMw2lL9CP9BcuEO9CengNniltF7SzYCU0BNzHcHWwU6TTZjqKKhuXvmN7mTUNS_7bfGwHbg4C5Bng4k/s1600/Scouring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="994" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3Gvt19vYWpNGj3rof5c5PRxGMJaMdaf0msJTJvKVdBXzF5XOeWqWhADcPYg_bMw2lL9CP9BcuEO9CengNniltF7SzYCU0BNzHcHWwU6TTZjqKKhuXvmN7mTUNS_7bfGwHbg4C5Bng4k/s320/Scouring.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
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Get it at the following links!<i></i></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07934H4LD/" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle US</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07934H4LD/" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle UK</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scouring-agent-sean-sweeney/1127848803?ean=2940158782237" target="_blank">Nook</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/scouring-agent-a-thriller" target="_blank">Kobo</a></div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1336583982" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a><br /><i></i></div>
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<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a> Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-30577403929031550092018-01-01T09:14:00.001-08:002018-01-01T09:14:18.264-08:00Looking back at 2017, my hopes for 2018Over the last few years, I've resolved to do this, or set out to do that, as the calendar turns from the old year to the new one. You can look back at my archives for them.<br />
<br />
As we enter 2018, I resolve to do none of that. Instead, I look toward hope.<br />
<br />
I'll be honest: 2017 was a rather mixed bag for this author. I was successful in several ways. I achieved my resolution of publishing two books during the course of the calendar year, which is usually an assurance from me; accomplishment, sure, but when I'm doing two and sometimes three books a year, it gets to be old hat. I had a successful Plastic City Comic Con at the end of July, where I sold 20 books, many to local friends who had never bought a book of mine before. And I think I prepared well for it. I found several new readers, all of whom I hope I'll keep as 2018 winds it way toward 2019, and so on.<br />
<br />
Where did I fail?<br />
<br />
How much time do you have?<br />
<br />
Many of my failings occurred due to my financial situation. As a freelancer sportswriter, my income is dependent on the amount of stories I write, as well as the newspaper's budget. If the weather sucks--hello, potential Snowicane later this week--and games get cancelled, I'm out X amount for that day. If the paper doesn't have anything for me, then I don't work. And I only work for one paper now exclusively, plus two one-hour appearances on the local radio station. The radio money helps, but it's not enough to devote extra funds toward making my publishing business as successful as it can be.<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm also responsible for a certain amount of the bills/expenses here. Let's just say that with our expenses, none of which we can really cut, coupled with a limited amount of sports stories and subpar book sales (only 400 this past year, down from 2016 by about a third), I wasn't able to do everything I set out to do publishing-wise last year.<br />
<br />
Buy artwork for covers in order to freshen up the backlist? Couldn't do it. The Obloeron Saga, Royal Switch, Scollay Love, and the Furball and Feathers children's series remain ebook only for the time being, and Furball and Feathers are on the shelf until I can get the money for new covers.<br />
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Advertise more? Couldn't do it. Reclaim my audience? You're having a laugh.<br />
<br />
With certain entities such as Kindle Unlimited/KDP Select limiting single copy ebook sales (I refuse to go narrow and exclusive, as I have fans that use Nook, Kobo, and Apple), as well as Facebook limiting organic reach on my posts (<a href="http://k-lytics.com/facebook-news-feed-algorithms-affect-authors/" target="_blank">and with Facebook doing more to limit organic reach in 2018</a>) and Twitter sending me emails every day to spend money to advertise with them, sometimes I feel like I'm pretty much yelling into a funnel cloud when it comes to everything marketing-related. You have to spend money to make money, yes, that's a given... but you can't spend what you don't have. Without large amounts of money coming in the door, I'm just treading water.<br />
<br />
So...<br />
<br />
I hope to get what I didn't get done in 2017 done in 2018. This isn't a resolution, per se. If I get it done, fantastic. If I can't, well... there's nothing else I can say except for people reading this to buy books, review them, tell people about them, buy them as gifts, and keep buying them, since my outside fiction writing income isn't growing by any stretch of the imagination.<br />
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But there's plenty more that I hope to accomplish in the next 364 days and some change roll on.<br />
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* I'm in the midst of a new men's adventure/historical romance series--the <i>Glorious</i> series--which I'm planning on releasing under the D.L. Boyd pen name. It's <i>Outlander</i>-esque, but not as long-winded, I hope. I'm about 17,000 words or so into the story, and I suspect the first book will take me until the end of March to write. Of course, I'm trying not to rush the story, so I'm writing about a page or so a day (because the early portion of the series is slow-going, too, and I want to make sure it's right; plus my time has not really been my own, between re-learning how to balance my time after this past fall, as well as dental issues which kept me away from my manuscript). I'm also trying to be careful of minutiae, while utilizing a different voice for the story. If all goes well, book one's first draft, like I said, will be done by the end of March. That's three more months. Book two will take me until the end of July/early August, while the third book should take me through the end of the year. Again, if everything goes right. The release schedule is a little more complicated, but we'll see how everything falls into place. Of course, I could get all three written rather quickly, but I doubt that will happen. Just going by the last couple of years.<br />
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* If there's time, I hope to get a few other projects revised and out for human consumption, such as a currently not published princess piece I wrote a few years ago involving my cousin's daughters. They are a little older now, so I want to give them something a little older, and possibly edgier. I need a solid cover for it, too... which involves money.<br />
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* With that type of schedule planned, plus all of my other commitments between sportswriting and radio commentary (planning the garden, actually carrying out the garden, taking up a great deal of time and preparation, I may be biting off more than I can chew when I say that I want to do other things writing-wise. I would like to plan out the third Ricky Madison novel, and I'd like to write an erotic thriller, like the old Skinemax late-night flicks of the 1990s (don't lie, you watched them, too). Those two thoughts may get pushed to 2019, dependent on how I do with the <i>Glorious</i> series and other projects.<br />
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Definitely on the writing/publishing agenda in 2018: <br />
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** Write the first <i>Glorious </i>novel, finishing the first draft in late March<br />
** Publish <i>Scouring Agent: A Thriller </i>in mid-to-late February<br /><i></i><br />
<i>** </i>Write the second <i>Glorious </i>novel<br />
<i>** </i>Publish the first <i>Glorious</i> novel (fall)<br />
** Write the third <i>Glorious </i>novel<br />
** Possibly publish the second one by the end of the year<br />
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Anything outside of that plan, I'm going to consider gravy.<br />
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It's a lot, and I hope I and come out of 2018 happy and accomplished.<br />
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Happy New Year, 2018.<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_103759378"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-60184695183585870862017-12-28T06:09:00.000-08:002017-12-28T06:09:43.941-08:00Happy Book Day (A Little Late)!This week has been such a whirlwind that I didn't have time to write this blog post until today. Two days ago marked Book Day of <i>Persuaded By The Reflections: A Thriller</i>, my 27th novel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRhgfxR1_on8Wg7bHXZKVfjbIu_F-6x5mohIJwNibsCXl_a0oZ1VpS8m5Duza5zvCiFyf_jnpjXjD5Vrd_g7fW6m6DEzjOmQFW0siuPTsEt9HKM_p8_9CVysHJNk5wrMweOu7CN5urFw/s1600/Persuaded+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="997" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRhgfxR1_on8Wg7bHXZKVfjbIu_F-6x5mohIJwNibsCXl_a0oZ1VpS8m5Duza5zvCiFyf_jnpjXjD5Vrd_g7fW6m6DEzjOmQFW0siuPTsEt9HKM_p8_9CVysHJNk5wrMweOu7CN5urFw/s320/Persuaded+cover.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>
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Think about that for a second. Twenty-seven novels, done and dusted. Twenty-seven opportunities for readers to be entertained.<br />
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And in about two months or thereabouts, we'll have novel No. 28--the next Jaclyn Johnson novel, the ninth overall--available for readers to sink their teeth into. Imagine that.<br />
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Anyway...<br />
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So how did <i>Persuaded</i> come about?<br />
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Easy.<br />
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My father's cousin Anne had read <i>The Long Crimson Line: A Thriller</i> during a family trip to the Caribbean last summer, and she gave me great feedback on her return. She also wanted to see the storyline continue--which was interesting to me, because I hadn't plotted out anything beyond Ricky sitting at that Causeway Street bar with Amanda Kovack. <i>The Long Crimson Line</i>, to my eyes, was a standalone.<br />
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However, after thinking about it for a few weeks--and knowing how standalones don't really sell, looking at my sales numbers for that particular book, which is a shame since <i>TLCL</i> has some of my best writing--and after getting more feedback from other readers, I came up with the storyline I put forth in this novel. <i>TLCL</i> is now the first book in a potential trilogy, currently a duology. I have a potential third book involving Ricky percolating in the back of my mind, and more than likely would write the book in late 2018-early 2019. We'll see, depending how the <i>Glorious</i> series evolves.<br />
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(And I'll tell you more about <i>Glorious</i> when I feel a little more confident about the story.)<br />
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One of my pre-readers and good friends Ted Flanagan called <i>Persuaded</i> "gritty." I liked that. He also called the setting--Worcester, Mass., a place I visited in <i>Model Agent: A Thriller</i>--an underutilized resource. It's quite possible I will use Worcester again. I don't know how, but I may.<br />
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And so, <i>Persuaded</i> is in the wild, and we're having a great launch so far. I hope you'll give this book a shot.<br />
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It's like nothing I've written before.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persuaded-Reflections-Thriller-Ricky-Madison-ebook/dp/B077H4VKR8/" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle US</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Persuaded-Reflections-Thriller-Ricky-Madison-ebook/dp/B077H4VKR8/" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle UK</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/persuaded-by-the-reflections-sean-sweeney/1127477110?ean=2940158716249" target="_blank">Nook</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/persuaded-by-the-reflections-a-thriller" target="_blank">Kobo</a></div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1314090793" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a></div>
Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-51227013694512661212017-11-18T04:03:00.000-08:002017-11-18T04:03:07.015-08:00Persuaded By The Reflections, now available for pre-order!The day we've waited for is here--the day <i>Persuaded By The Reflections: A Thriller</i>, my 27th novel, is available for pre-order. Let the balloons and streamers fly!<br />
<br />
But seriously...<br />
<br />
I'm incredibly proud of how this book came out. Between David's striking cover--I've gotten plenty of comments of how it has drawn readers in--and the work my team and I have done to make this book tight, this might be my best work to date. (Well, until <i>Scouring Agent</i> comes out in February. But we're just arguing semantics here, aren't we?)<br />
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Now: I've been rather vague about what this book is about. That ends today.<br />
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The blurb:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Det. Ricky Madison is back in this pulse-quickening, gritty sequel!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Now suffering from PTSD following the events at the end of THE LONG CRIMSON LINE, Ricky returns to Worcester, Mass., the city where he was once a police detective; he’s undergoing therapy in both solo and group settings, and in his first session, he meets a young lady struggling to cope with her love life’s tribulations—she’s a cutter, and he offers her his ear whenever she needs it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">When elements of past crimes he had investigated creep back into the present, Ricky is brought back into the fold of Worcester Police to help link the crimes together—even though the one in charge of the investigation isn’t thrilled about his presence.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Together, the two comb through the facts and similarities of the respective cases until Ricky discovers the one responsible for everything.</span><br />
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Just screams bestseller, doesn't it?<br />
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So it's available now for pre-order, and I want you to pre-order this wonderful book as it's only 99 cents from now until Christmas Day (consider it my Christmas gift to you). Release Day is Dec. 26, so on that day, the price goes up to $2.99, its usual price. You're getting a steal and a half here!<br />
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Here's where you can pick up your copy:<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persuaded-Reflections-Thriller-Ricky-Madison-ebook/dp/B077H4VKR8/" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle US</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Persuaded-Reflections-Thriller-Ricky-Madison-ebook/dp/B077H4VKR8/" target="_blank">Amazon Kindle UK</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/persuaded-by-the-reflections-sean-sweeney/1127477110?ean=2940158716249" target="_blank">Nook</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/persuaded-by-the-reflections-a-thriller" target="_blank">Kobo</a></div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1314090793" target="_blank">iBooks</a></div>
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Remember that those who have Kindle get the book at 8 p.m. on Christmas Night. So after the kids are asleep, you can fire up your Kindle, sync it up, and <i>Persuaded By The Reflections: A Thriller</i> will be at the top of your reading list!</div>
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And a reminder of the cover:</div>
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If you haven't read <i>The Long Crimson Line: A Thriller</i> before now, you don't have to read it to know what's going on. <i>Persuaded</i> is its own story; I do reference material that occurred in <i>TLCL</i>. So read it anyway, and the links to buy are in my bookstore.</div>
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Christmas is coming.... and so are Ricky's demons.</div>
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I can't wait to show you the book.</div>
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<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a> </div>
Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-81187552402493296432017-10-30T08:45:00.000-07:002017-10-30T08:45:42.940-07:00A First Look (Kind of): Cover reveals for Persuaded and Scouring<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">One of the things I promise readers who sign up for <a href="http://seansweeneyauthor.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=efd3d6c4705dc36027cb9f499&id=9ac41daa3e" target="_blank">my newsletter</a> is a first look at everything--and that includes cover reveals.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">Earlier today, I sent out three.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">Wait, what?! </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Three?! What do you mean by three!</em><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">Yup, three. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">In continuing the story of Det. Ricky Madison in </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Persuaded By The Reflections</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">, which is coming soon and if you're on the mailing list, you'll be among the first to know that it's available, I would need to update the cover to his first book, </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">The Long Crimson Line</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">. That'll brand any future Ricky story (and quite possibly there will be a third), and will give David a template with which to work.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">So without further ado, here are the covers to </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Persuaded</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;"> and </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">TLCL</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO0UZyjDDt3dXv5O1kAGuac3WFUSFkJ0aVVH0iBFI9oaCtkM2txVPFqH0huNZ2uf8gdS6UXoiEp1sQILc3_f8Jb9DQPW2t7wxh9YY6-JbDM7dnp6y0h1c7HkbRHPsTKZgjres1dpTjE6A/s1600/Persuaded+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="997" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO0UZyjDDt3dXv5O1kAGuac3WFUSFkJ0aVVH0iBFI9oaCtkM2txVPFqH0huNZ2uf8gdS6UXoiEp1sQILc3_f8Jb9DQPW2t7wxh9YY6-JbDM7dnp6y0h1c7HkbRHPsTKZgjres1dpTjE6A/s320/Persuaded+cover.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">The hope is that I'll get everything--the new cover, ebook and wraparound for the </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">TLCL</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;"> trade paperback, as well as </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Persuaded</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">'s ebook and trade paperback--uploaded by Thanksgiving. And just so you know, you'll see Facebook ads from me in the next two weeks giving away </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">The Long Crimson Line</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;"> in .mobi and .epub format in an attempt to grow my newsletter coffers.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">Of course, if you want to buy it, I wouldn't be offended.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">And that brings us to the third cover reveal for </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Scouring Agent</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">, the next Jaclyn Johnson thriller. The plan is to release </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Scouring</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;"> in the first quarter of 2018. It's at third draft right now, and it's a tight novel. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">So... who's ready for some releases?! They are coming soon.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;"><a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a></span>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4749753088500556349.post-43600616461621924562017-09-07T03:56:00.000-07:002017-09-07T03:56:04.761-07:001,000 MODELsEarlier this week, I hit an important milestone.<br />
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MODEL AGENT: A THRILLER, the first Jaclyn Johnson novel, finally made it to 1,000 sales.<br />
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Of course, it's not really a big deal (internal monologue: of course it is). I've hit 1,000 books sold on three previous occasions: my first 1,000, as well as for ROGUE AGENT and DOUBLE AGENT. The fact it finally happened for a six-and-a-half-year-old book.... one that I gave away well over 105,000 Kindle and iBook copies of it to get eyes on the series... well, I'm happy to finally hit it.<br />
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Backhanded compliment time: I'm happy because--and I believe I've said it before--I don't believe the writing in MODEL is as strong as the rest of the series (my opinion; you may have a differing opinion). Yes, it's a good story and there are parts where I'm using my fastball, but it's not the way it could have been. It could have been better. Remember that I published it one month after I finished writing the first draft, doing so on a dare. I didn't give the book the requisite three months that I usually give my work. Now here we are, six and a half years later, with the book in print and the audiobook already done, I'm not going back and making wholesale changes like I did with OBLOERON.<br />
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I did, however, strengthen the start of the book last year. To go through the entirety of the book would have sent me to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. True story.<br />
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Still, MODEL is a good first book. It introduces the protagonist and what she can do. Yes, some scenes are comic book-ish--and that's okay, because she is a comic book character within the realm of a fast-paced thriller novel. The readers who understand that love the story. The ones who don't, don't. I'm not going to twist their arms and convince them otherwise.<br />
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But it could have been better!<br />
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(Maybe not. Who knows?)<br />
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And looking ahead, there are a few milestones approaching. ROGUE AGENT is 53 copies from 3,000 sold. DOUBLE AGENT is approaching 2,300 copies sold (32 copies away). FEDERAL AGENT, the fourth novel, still has a ways to go before hitting 1,000 (188 copies away). And it goes from there. Yes, I am ecstatic with those numbers, and I cherish each reader who has paid upward of $3 of their hard-earned dollars for the digital copy/$13 for the print.<br />
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Would I love for the readers who downloaded MODEL for free to continue on with the series? Of course I do. The series is eight books long, with the ninth coming in early 2018. If readers can get by the first book and enjoy the second, I'm sure they will love the remainder of the series.<br />
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Because it only gets better from there.<br />
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<a href="http://www.seansweeneyauthor.com/">www.seansweeneyauthor.com</a>Sean Sweeney, Authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490780334950734433noreply@blogger.com0