I have a new book com­ing out soon.

Per­haps add it to your TBR list, mmmk?

GoodReads

It’s the sum­mer of 1974 and 21-year old Dawn Emer­son has only three things she wants to do: com­pete one last time in the Ellens­burg Rodeo, win back her ex-boyfriend Ryan, and become the best damn music jour­nal­ist at Cen­tral Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity. But all her plans are left in the dust when she’s con­tacted by Creem mag­a­zine to go on the road with one of her favorite groups, the up-and-coming metal band, Hybrid.

At first the assign­ment reads like a dream come true. Not only will Dawn land some much-needed cred­i­bil­ity as a female music jour­nal­ist, but she’ll finally get to expe­ri­ence life from the other side of the stage, and maybe crack the drunken, enig­matic code that is gui­tarist Sage Knightly. Instead, Dawn finds her­self on an aging tour bus filled with ego-maniacs, band pol­i­tics and a whole lot of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. When mon­sters start show­ing up in dress­ing rooms and some of Sage’s groupies become increas­ingly strange and dan­ger­ous, Dawn dis­cov­ers the band is not only going places – they’re going straight to Hell.

And Dawn has a back­stage pass.

***

The Devil’s Metal is the first book in a two-part New Adult Horror/Paranormal Romance and very (very!) loosely based on the author’s exploits as a music jour­nal­ist. Hell comes in dif­fer­ent forms

And by good news, I mean FUCKING AWESOME NEWS.

(By the way, please click on the bot­tom of this blog post if you’re read­ing this on GoodReads…for some rea­son the gifs don’t show up on there and you really need the sweet sweet gifs for this one)

Last week, just out of the blue, I was emailed by Scott Wax­man of the Wax­man Leavel Lit­er­ary Agency. He con­grat­u­lated me on my suc­cess (whut?) and said he’d like to do busi­ness with me.

Cue this emotion:

Then.…

Then, think­ing it was too good to be true, I did some research on him to make sure he’s legit. Turns out, his agency has pub­lished such awe­some titles as:

–Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

–The Hex Hall Series

–Girls of Fire and Thorns

- Deadly Cool

- Defi­ance

- Hourglass/Timpeice

- Angel Eyes

- Shit My Dad Says

And he rep­re­sents Mar­tin Sheen.…MR. PRESIDENT!!

So then my emo­tion was:

Any­hoo, I’m pleased to announce to you that I, Karina Halle, am now rep­re­sented by Scott Wax­man of the Wax­man Leavel Lit­er­ary Agency. It’s funny because when I wrote the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series, I never queried any agents or publishers…I just wanted to self-pub (some­thing to do with impa­tience lol). So the fact that I now have one? WOW.…

Actu­ally, WOW isn’t good enough. This is how I’m feeling:

And even­tu­ally.…

So, Twi­light has Twi­hards and Die Hard has…Diehards?

Any­way, I fig­ure since fans are mul­ti­ply­ing and it has almost been a full year since Dark­house was released, that Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror enthu­si­asts need a name! You’re all kooky, a bit dif­fer­ent, some are pretty main­stream, some aren’t but what you all have in com­mon is the Cult of EIT. But we need to call our­selves some­thing. And yes, I’m included because, lo and behold, I am a huge fan of Perry and Dex (SURPRISE!)

So I’ve asked peeps on the EIT FB page for some help and they came up with a load of fun names. Too many to choose from, actually.

I’ve nar­rowed it down to these ones below and hope you’ll vote and help me decide. The Top Three choices will all win ARCs of On Demon Wings. I’ll run this for 24 hours, so come back here at 2PMPST tomor­row to see who won!

Back in Decem­ber I thought I would try out the Ama­zon Kin­dle KDP Select thingy. You know, where you put your book exclu­sively (at least in e-format) for Kin­dle and in exchange, over the course of 90 days, you can offer your book for free for five days and your book is included in the lend­ing library (which you still get a cut of).

I fig­ured it wouldn’t hurt — after all, in MY par­tic­u­lar case the e-books being bought through Apple or Kobo or Nook were FEW. Kin­dle is where most of my sales were com­ing from.

Any­way, Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary, my sales were THROUGH THE DAMN ROOF. I gave thou­sands of books away for free and the inter­est­ing part was that my books con­tin­ued to sell well afterward.

Then March came, and, well sales are pretty slow. They are a mil­lion times bet­ter than they were back in Decem­ber (oy, all of last year was pretty dry) but com­pared to the fan­tas­ti­cal months of Jan and Feb, it looks pretty dis­mal. C’est la vie.

I think this hap­pened for two rea­sons. One, I’m hear­ing over all that March is a slow month for books. Two, I’m sure the mar­ket is now flooded with a shit ton of free books, most of which are actu­ally quite shitty, which in turn turns off poten­tial read­ers.  Also, peo­ple are just over­whelmed — I know I have gone absolutely bonkers with my Kin­dle, pur­chas­ing books left and right over the last month. And have I read any of them? I’ve barely made a dent.

Now I am out of the 90 day con­tract with Select and I’m pon­der­ing when to go back to it (with Dark­house — the rest of the full books won’t be included, as I have no plans to ever give them away for free). Notice I say WHEN because the pro­gram has helped out my lit­tle series more than any­thing. Say what you want about Ama­zon and how they are a hor­ri­ble, unfeel­ing, cap­i­tal­ist con­glom­er­a­tion from hell, but this method TOTALLY. WORKED. FOR. ME.

Now I doubt I’ll be using all of my free days this time around — I actu­ally see a lot of return with the Lend­ing Pro­gram. But I’ll be re-signing up just the same.

But not yet. I’m going to wait until the Easter Week­end (approx­i­mately) until I do it. Until then, Dark­house will be back at Barnes & Noble for the Nook, back at Chap­ters for the Kobo, back at Apple for the iBooks. And of course, back at Smash­words for all of the above (and other for­mats too): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/58699 <———-click here. do it.

I’m doing this to give other e-reader users a chance to read the book (espe­cially with its new cover) but as I closely watch my sales, I pre­dict I’ll see that a large per­cent­age of peo­ple don’t actu­ally use Kobo/Nook/etc. I invite you to prove me wrong of course, and if sales and inter­est shoot up, I may be inclined to leave the books out of the pro­gram. But until that hap­pens, Kin­dle is where I’ll be mak­ing an income. You have to go where the action is.

*of course, no mat­ter WHAT e-format Dark­house ends up being in, you can always buy the book in paper­back from B&N, Book Depos­i­tory, Pow­ells, etc. PAPERBACKS NEED LOVE TOO!

Some­where around the same time I started writ­ing the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series, I became a music jour­nal­ist. This meant gal­li­vant­ing around the world cov­er­ing fes­ti­vals, con­certs and inter­views for pub­li­ca­tions such as Con­se­quence of Sound and Mxdwn. I say gal­li­vant­ing because even though it was “work”, let’s face it, 90% of the job is hav­ing a fuck­ing great time (the other 10% is tran­scrib­ing inter­views — HELL). There was a lot of pho­tog­ra­phy involved, more than enough writ­ing, and oodles of hang­overs, sweat-soaked clothes, and great sto­ries. GREAT stories.

Behold, geeky pho­tos of myself geek­ing out over peo­ple I admire (except Jes­sica Simp­son and that girl from Gos­sip Girl who I think looks like Ada Palomino…cuz I no haz admire for dem).

Some of my high­lights include being back­stage with Faith No More in Fin­land, hang­ing out on the Slayer tour bus in Seat­tle, swoon­ing dur­ing Mondo Cane in Poland, Inter­view­ing Chris Cor­nell, catch­ing an inti­mate Queens of the Stone Age show in Seat­tle, hav­ing drinks with two of the biggest man­agers in the indus­try (and lis­ten­ing to them blab­ber about every­one you could imag­ine), fan­girling over Jerry Cantrell, annoy­ing Danny Devito, hav­ing cof­fee with Liz Phair, being able to have a one-on-one convo with Mike Pat­ton for 30 mins, almost get­ting in a fight in the Slayer mosh­pit, ran­domly hang­ing out with James Mur­phuy after LCD Soundsys­tem, being on stage at FNM a few times, going for din­ner with Dub Trio, watch­ing Brian Pohsen fangirl(boy) over Rob Zom­bie (after I did the same), get­ting John Stanier to sign my copy of Red Fox, and then him ask­ing me to sign his, dis­cov­er­ing that most musi­cians are actu­ally the coolest peo­ple ever…

But noth­ing com­pares to the great­est moment of my life.…

baha­ha­ha­haha. oh MAN. JUST LOOK AT MY FACE. I hate weddings.

Any­way, if you’re inter­ested in read­ing some of my (other) writ­ten work, you can find oodles of it here: http://consequenceofsound.net/author/khalle/

Hope­fully I’ll find the time to do more of it in the future

Right?

I’m a life­long lover of Monty Python so I’ve been dying to incor­po­rate them into a blog post. This works perfectly.

Because, really, now is the time for some­thing com­pletely dif­fer­ent. I’m tak­ing an extremely short break from the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series to work on some­thing that’s a lot like the video. FISH-SLAPPING!

Actu­ally no, but it does involve rabid mon­keys and lots of laughs.

Back in 2004/2005 I wrote a roman­tic com­edy script called THE TRAVEL DIARY which then later became WANDERLUST. Which is now called Wan­dered, lusted because DAMN YOU JENNIFER ANISTON you stole my movie title (but not damn Paul Rudd, I could never damn you Paul Rudd). The script was mildly suc­cess­ful in attract­ing inter­est from pro­duc­ers but alas, the com­pa­nies that really liked the script could never afford to make it. The movie would have been set in Europe, on the Mediter­ranean to be exact, and that would have put it into a high bud­get bracket. Fac­tor in the rabid mon­keys and a big cli­max on a ferry and, well, who would take a risk on wee screen­writer like myself.

Fast for­ward to 2012. I’m in the midst of my delight­fully macabre but emo­tion­ally drain­ing Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series. I’ve plot­ted out Book #5, On Demon Wings, in detail and am ready to jump right in but.…but…

I’m not ready for it. It’s not going to be an easy breezy cov­er­girl book to write. It’s going to be emo­tional and scary and dif­fi­cult and I’m just not “there” yet. It’s a com­mit­ment I must make, of being a crazy per­son for the next few months as Perry’s story becomes my story.

So, while I plan to start ODW in a few weeks and attack it with guns a blaz­ing, I decided to start with an appe­tizer. An amuse bouche if you will (well, it is a-muse-ing, cue Chan­dler Bing).

I’m adapt­ing my script Wan­dered, Lusted into a novel. An adult con­tem­po­rary fluffy (but not too fluffy I’M STILL ME) funny roman­tic read. With heart. And a love­able main char­ac­ter called Chris Warner whom I am a bit in love with. And a girl-guy trad­ing of POVs. And a nice bout of escapism on the sunny Mediter­ranean. Ahh­hhh, just feel the sea breeze, smell the lemons on the trees. And it’s a stand-alone too, which is rare these days in the land of sequels and series (ahem, EIT 8 books).

Want more info? Here’s the offi­cial blurb:

“The hol­i­day from hell just got ugly.

As if get­ting dumped on his vaca­tion wasn’t enough, British jour­nal­ist Chris Warner finds him­self stranded on the Mediter­ranean with a des­per­ate boss push­ing dead­lines down his throat and an uncer­tain future.
…
Enter Jamie Cooper, a free spir­ited and slightly unsta­ble travel writer whose arrival only seems to make mat­ters worse. All Chris wants is to get back to Lon­don, win back his ex and start climb­ing up the cor­po­rate lad­der. Unfor­tu­nately, Jamie has dif­fer­ent plans for him and the may­hem that fol­lows turns both their lives upside down and up again.

“Wan­dered, lusted” is a rowdy roman­tic com­edy about two active yet aching char­ac­ters who embark on a jour­ney through hell, high water and a lot of wine, in order to find them­selves, each other and a mis­placed diary that holds the key to their happiness.”

This is going to be a fun lit­tle sum­mer fling before I set­tle down with Ms. Perry Palomino and Mr. Dex Foray. I’m still torn whether I should self-publish or seek tra­di­tional pub­lish­ing for Wan­dered, lusted, but I’ll let you know how it goes!

Well, it’s the last day of Jan­u­ary. All I can say to that is THANK THE LORD. Because, I don’t know about you, but 2012 so far has kicked my ass, worse than it’s ever been kicked before. And I’m 30…there’s been a lot of ass-kicking in my life (and I have a rather large ass).

This month has been espe­cially try­ing. Los­ing my job, plus other finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties have led to me being over­come by worry and strife. I haven’t even been able to write, all I can think about is try­ing to keep the roof I have over my head. My days have turned into long cover let­ter writ­ing ses­sions, apply­ing for every job I can think of. But it’s not easy — as most of the unem­ployed world knows. My overqual­i­fi­ca­tions mean that I’m turned away by sim­ple jobs like being a cashier. I’m sim­ply not good enough for anyone.

I’ve been hit by fam­ily prob­lems as well as other nasty issues that chip away at your heart and leave you reel­ing. Through all of this trauma and trou­ble though, I have learned a few things about myself. I learned I have hid­den resolves of strength and deter­mi­na­tion I never knew I had. I learned it’s OK to lean on your friends and loved ones and to ask for help and sup­port. As one friend pointed out, most peo­ple really do want to help you. I’ve also learned that I am a per­son worth respect. Every­one has self-worth and I’ve learned it’s OK to stand up for your­self and say “you know what, I’m worth it” (sounds like a L’Oreal ad).

All of that said though, this month has been excel­lent in one major way: my books.

Thanks to my tire­less invest­ment in self-promotion, mar­ket­ing and PR, I’ve sold more in Jan­u­ary than I have…well, ever.

These are my sales of the books last month (Dec)

these are the sales this month (Jan)

As you can see, I’m finally bring­ing in some money for my efforts — but it’s an ongo­ing game. It doesn’t mean the sales will con­tinue. It doesn’t mean I’m mak­ing all that much (Dark­house costs buy­ers 99 cents — I only get 30 cents out of it — plus 2454 of those 3424 books were free down­loads). And the pay­ment is extremely spo­radic. But it’s a great relief to know that nine months of con­stant tweet­ing, face­book­ing, blog­ging, net­work­ing, writ­ing, yap­ping, annoy­ing peo­ple, whatever…it’s finally start­ing to get some­where. And peo­ple every­where are lov­ing the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series. I think that’s the best part of all… I get to share some­thing I cre­ated, some­thing I love, with other people.

Speak­ing of, one of the most excit­ing times this month, was watch­ing all four books reach the Ama­zon Best Sell­ers list…at once!

And this was the high­est rank­ing for Darkhouse:

I know this is peanuts com­pared to the really suc­cess­ful authors, but I’m tak­ing a moment to pat myself on the back. The work is not over, but I am grate­ful and thank­ful for this mile­stone in my life.

In other news, the blurb (for now) and pub­li­ca­tion for Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror, Book #5 is out now, check it out at Good Reads here and please add it to your books: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13442031-on-demon-wings

Thank you!

Turn it up! I’m quiet

Remem­ber, Dark­house (Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror #1) will be avail­able for FREE on KINDLE on Jan 3rd and 4th.

Red Fox (EIT #2) and The Ben­son (EIT #2.5) are both FREE on Smashwords.

Start 2012 off with the first 2.5 books in this fan favorite ghost-hunting series for FREE!

Need more con­vinc­ing? Check out these two amaz­ing reviews of Dark­house:

5/5 Stars from Unput­down­able Books “Oh my freak­ing God! Why did I take so long to pick up this book?
The entire time I was read­ing this book, I felt as if I was watch­ing an episode of a brand new series. Now, I can’t wait to read the next installments. ”

4/5 Stars from Demons Read Too “The sim­i­lar­i­ties between my life and that of the main char­ac­ter, Perry, were freak­ishly uncanny. I enjoyed slip­ping into her world and going along with her some­times wacky, but often under­stand­able trains of thought. The mys­tery of the light­house had its creepy moments, but what I loved came more through the ban­ter between Perry and Dex. The roman­tic under­cur­rents were paced real­is­ti­cally, and fun to watch unfurl.”

Dark­house also won the Top YA Hor­ror of 2011 from Unput­down­able Books as well.

And the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series placed on another Top 10 of 2011 List HERE.

First things first: Because it’s the hol­i­days and I am in the Christ­mas spirit (yes, I said Christ­mas, so sue me), I have decided to make Red Fox a free book. In dig­i­tal form, at least. And pos­si­bly for­ever. I’m cel­e­brat­ing its new cover and also I really liked this whole “giv­ing” thing with The Ben­son. And it’s the sea­son to give. Yadda, yadda.

So, folks, if you haven’t read Red Fox yet (the sec­ond book in the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series) or you want an edi­tion with the new cover, just head on over to Smash­words here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66366 and down­load it. It’s avail­able for any e-reader device.

Red Fox is actu­ally my favorite book of the series (other than Lying Sea­son) and really deserves more atten­tion, so hope­fully this will bring it some. If you can help spread the word, that would be great.

The other thing is, I’ve been hear­ing a lot about the KDP Select Pro­gram. This is the pro­gram where authors make their e-books avail­able through Kin­dle and the books are pro­moted and shared, with the author get­ting a piece of the fund pie. You have to enroll for 90 days but the catch is, in a very Microsoft-type deal, the books can ONLY be avail­able through Kin­dle. You can not sell your E-book ver­sion any­where else. At least not for those 90 days.

I like the idea of get­ting free pro­mo­tion and actu­ally mak­ing a bit of com­pen­sa­tion for my work. I don’t like the idea of Ama­zon try­ing to take over the sys­tem and essen­tially make all other e-readers moot. That’s just…not very nice. That said, you can down­load the Kin­dle app for your iPhone or iPad and the .mobi for­mat does work in other devices.

So I have decided to do a lit­tle exper­i­ment. An Exper­i­ment in Pub­lish­ing ha. Might end up being an Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror, I don’t know. Any­way, I have enrolled Dark­house in the pro­gram. The rest of the series (Red Fox, The Ben­son, Dead Sky Morn­ing, and Lying Sea­son) will still be avail­able else­where (B&N, Smash­words, iTunes) but Dark­house will be exclu­sive to the Kin­dle for the next 90 days.

Let’s see what happens.…