Donald J. Bingle Writer on Demand TM March 2023 |
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IASFA This is just a short newsletter, mostly to let you know about this promotion of free and 99 cent books from the IASFA. If you are a fan of military science fiction, you should get on their mailing list to get notice of all sorts of cool promotions. And, if you are a writer in this genre, or in fantasy or science fiction in general, you should also check out the organization, because it is filled with people who have been very, very sucessful as independent authors. Craig Martelle, who runs the IASFA, also runs the 20BooksTo50K group and conventions. Anyhow, click on the pic to be linked to their latest promo, which includes my book, Forced Conversion, for just 99 cents. Link via the photo above. Catch the promo on TikTok or FacebookReels. Follow me on social media @donaldjbingle. |
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| | Surrounded by Love: A Memoir by My Mom My mom used to give me a little grief because I wrote a couple of memoirs about my dad, but I didn't write a story about her. She did, however, write her own short memoir and, trust me, I probably spent a lot more time and effort trying to smooth out and edit her narrative into a better story than I spent on my award-winning story, Father's Day. It's not that my mom didn't have an interesting childhood or that she was bad at writing, it was just that when someone is telling a story about their life to family members, they tend to leave out some details they know everyone already knows and add some details that only family members really would care about, so the flow and mix of information is a bit different than it would be for a general audience. I've run some panels on writing memoirs, and my most important adivice to memoirists is that just because something is true doesn't mean it makes a good story. You know what I mean. We've all been trapped at a party or event at some point with someone who is telling us about something that happened to them, but there are too many details and no real plot or punch line or point to the narrative. It's just not a story. It so happens, there's a really cool, almost unbelievable story in my mom's life history along with all of basic facts and the heartwarming emotions embedded in it. So, I did my best to not only edit her tale for typos and grammar, but to structure it to make that story a bit more impactful. Don't get me wrong--this is all my mom's story and my mom's writing. I wouldn't have told her story the same way if I was writing it. But, I feel good that, even though I didn't write stories about my mom like I did about my dad, I tried to use my writing and eiting skills to help bring just a little more history and heartwarming joy to the world by helping her tell her story herself. Take a look. It's on Amazon and In Kindle Unlimited here. | | |
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| | The Last of Us, A Mini-Review I never played the game, so this review is based only on the episodes of Season 1 I've watched so far. Generally, I think this is a good show--great production values, good acting, appropriately creepy and gross special effects, and a compelling story. Sure, the base plot is a standard zombie movie trope (I was reminded of Z Nation, with DJ Qualls), but, let's face it, the trope is what it is because zombie stories need a giant McGuffin to propell the characters through various obstacles when it really might be smarter to just hole up somewhere. (On that subject, you might want to take a look at my zombie tale, Options, in Bumps in the Road, Edited by Chad Lutzke (Black Bed Sheet 2016).) And the writing has some interesting bits--incorporating extensive flashbacks that skip from the time of the outbreak to the time of the main action in a series of vignettes for various characters. One particularly cool things is that the flashback characters are not always the obvious ones and the tale moves into their stories in sometimes unusual ways. One the other hand, it is occasionally glaringly obvious that while the writers may have played some, particularly this, video game, they obviously haven't played a lot of rpgs like Dungeons & Dragonns, because their stiuational awareness when skulking through zombie and marauder infested territory is sometimes spectacularly bad. Yes, I understand the zombies are not attracted by light, but they are by sound. Marauders can be attracted by both. Yet, people flash lights about, talk, light up rooms in abandoned skyscrapers (that tattered newsprint on the window with multiple tears and gaps won't hide a light inside from those in the streets below), and travel directly through major urban areas infested with bad things and bad guys instead of skirting around them. Mapping may be an issue, too. I'm not sure what compelled someone travelling from Boston to Wyoming to go as far south as Kansas City, either. Still, it's a fun, quality series for the most part. I recommend you put it on your to-be-watched list. | | |
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The Dick Thornby Thriller Series The omni version of The Dick Thornby Thriller Series became available this year. Now you can give an entire series of exciting spy thrillers about a regular guy who takes on some of the biggest and most bizarre conspiracy and disaster theories you can find on the world wide web in one honking big book. If ebooks aren't your thing, you can grab Net Impact, Wet Work, and Flash Drive in print here. And, both Net Impact and Wet Work are available in audio. See the links at the end of this newsletter. And, if you want to start off an Audible subscription with either Net Impact or Wet Work, go here or here, respectively. Dick Thornby isn't Hollywood's idea of a spy. He's a new kind of spy for a new kind of world. |
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Runners, by William Alan Webb and Kayla Krantz Hunted for surviving, now they’re surviving by hunting!
Molly, Ella, and their friends were hunted because of their biology. They became lethal because of their need.
When a virus of unknown origin wiped out 90% of biological females, the world was plunged into chaos. The US government declared that surviving females must be protected for the good of humanity.
Every female of child-bearing age underwent forcible surgery to attach a brain implant, a Core, which recorded their location at every movement. Locked down and stripped of their rights, those who wouldn’t obey were sold into slavery.
Unless they ran.
Pursued by government agents named Consecrators, local strong-arm thugs called Bleeders, and even her own mother, Molly is tired of running. Now it’s time to fight back.
Perfect for fans of The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games! |
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Donald J. Bingle is the author of seven books and more than sixty shorter works in the horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, steampunk, romance, comedy, and memoir genres. His books include Forced Conversion (near future military scifi), GREENSWORD (darkly comedic eco-thriller), Frame Shop (murder in a suburban writers' group), and the Dick Thornby spy thriller series (Net Impact, Wet Work, and Flash Drive). He also co-authored (with Jean Rabe) The Love-Haight Case Files series (a three-time Silver Falchion winning paranormal urban fantasy about two lawyers who represent the legal rights of supernatural creatures in a magic-filled San Francisco; Book 2 just came out). Don also edited Familiar Spirits (an anthology of ghost stories). Many of Don's shorter works can be found in his Writer on Demand TM collections. Get the audiobook version of Net Impact at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes and the audiobook version of Wet Work at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes. Full disclosure: Various links in my newsletter or on my website may include Amazon Affiliate coding, which gets me a small referral fee (at no cost to you) if you purchase after clicking through. |
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