Tag: Alien Invasion

Conduit: The Surge – 5/11/22

I can’t believe that the release date for my latest book in the Conduit series is so close now!

This book has been a marathon for me to produce. I first released Conduit: The Beginning in 2012. It was my first book and my baby that helped me to discover that writing is something I enjoyed doing and wanted to continue doing. Life got in the way for me and I had to shelve my project for awhile – but the idea didn’t die. I laid out my plans at the time and came back to my series in 2019 with a goal to push my project forward. Here we are, 2022, and my book is finally shipping out to the world.

Conduit: The Surge is a fast paced and fun walk on the dark side. I’m psyched to see one of my first reviews:

“This book was amazing. It had many plot twists and turns and kept me on the edge of my seat. I read it in one sitting and couldn’t put it down. The characters were interesting and well fleshed out and he made you care about them. They were very intriguing. The plot was unique and original and I haven’t read a book like this before. It was well written and I totally recommend it if you want an exciting read that will keep you turning the pages. ” – Amazon Reader

This truly encapsulates what I was aiming for. I am so happy to find others gain enjoyment from the time and effort I put into this story. It was a fun story to write and the series will continue.

As celebration of my release of this story, I am discounting Conduit: The Beginning on 5/11 to .99.

I’m also psyched to say that my discount of Conduit: The Beginning will be featured in my first Bookbub promotion on 5/11.

Conduit The Surge

 

I have been away from my website for a few days recovering from an eventful week-end.  Saturday and Sunday I ran a promotion for my new book, “Conduit: The Beginning”, by offering it on Amazon for FREE!  I believe it to have been a very successful campaign, though I believe there was a glitch with Amazon which may have robbed me of some potential readers.  Several people have told me that my book was not being displayed as “free” when they went to grab a copy.  From what I have read on the support forums, others have had similar issues in the past.

Ignoring the glitch that occurred, “Conduit” managed to hold a spot within in the top 10 free list under Science Fiction/Adventure by Saturday evening with its subcategory, Mystery/Thriller/Suspense, it had landed in the top 30.  I was elated when I went to bed that night.  Being a new author with little knowledge of self-publishing, I was overjoyed that my book was moving so quickly.  Then came Sunday.

Obviously, checking to see how “Conduit” was doing was the first thing I did Sunday morning.  I had successfully maintained my hold on #10 and #30.  My overall rank on all of Amazon had moved up from a dismal 200,000 all the way up to 530!  All day long I was on the phone,  watching my book climb the ranks – I think my wife was about to throw my phone away on me.  By midday, I had overtaken several spots under Sci-Fi/Adventure to land at #6 and #21 for Thriller/Suspense.  I can’t explain how exciting it is to see the book that you have worked on for so long land in the hands of so many readers.  Yes, I know, it’s free.  But I really don’t care.  I hope that people enjoy my story as much as I did writing it.

In the end, I had climbed all the way to #4 in Sci-Fi/Adventure, landing right next to H. G. Wells’ Time Machine in #3.  In Thriller/Suspense, I managed to land in #12.

Not bad for a new guy on the block!  “Conduit” fared well, landing in two top 100 lists.  If you missed the chance to grab a free copy, I am running a discount through the week-end, selling my story for .99.  Not free, but close!

I first started my story “Conduit” with the idea that I wanted to create a new kind of alien invasion story. One, not about green people invading earth or ripping from the chests of helpless victims, but one more about how everyday people would cope with an apocalyptic event involving beings from another world.

With that approach I began thinking about what characters I would want to include. I had an overall base of what personalities would be in the story and even the beginning and the end of my book. I toyed with my idea for some time and went through periods of shelving it to revisiting it later followed by shelving it again. There was a piece missing to it all. How do the aliens invade?

Sure, I could use the standard militaristic invasion, but that whole scenario doesn’t fit with me. My reasoning is this: if aliens are smart enough to have discovered a way of space travel, I would expect that they would have figured out a way to conquer us through other methods then through weaponry. Why not instead use us? Why not find a way to tap into our minds and control us. Discover a way for each of us to pass the alteration ourselves, much like the flu. No warfare would be needed and the world is theirs for the taking.

Stuck on that idea, I shelved my idea once more. I liked it, but I didn’t know how to implement it. That was until I remembered an article I had read some time ago. It was scary to me when I read it:

Zombie Ants (National Geographic)

And that’s when it all came together.

Yesterday, I found this article as well:

Zombie Bees (USA Today).

I find that to be creepy stuff and the creepiest thing of all, it is real. Now what if this could be made in a way to affect humans? Yikes!