The Field Update

t’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog. I’ve been working on The Field for about a year now, a lot longer than any other book I’ve written. This is a tough one. It’s at about 85,000 words and a working draft is heading to the beta readers next month with the word count of around 90,000.

This is one of those books that could go on and on like a Stephen King tome but that goes against the way I like to write. I like to write short novels a person can finish reading in a matter of hours, but I get consistent complaints that my books are too short. This time I’m going to take the advice of my beta readers and expand it to around 120,000 words if they believe it should be longer. Please let me know if you would consider being a beta reader on this or future books. 

Regardless of length, the book will be out by December 2014 at the latest.

Free Download: The Day Detroit Went Dark

To celebrate and help promote The Day Detroit Went Dark audiobook, the Kindle version of The Day Detroit Went Dark will be a free download on Amazon.com starting December 24th through December 28th.

Get it here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Detroit-Went-Dark-ebook/dp/B00BIOR5K0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361485307&sr=8-1&keywords=the+day+detroit+went+dark

Here’s a few reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifying and excellent, June 19, 2013

This review is from: The Day Detroit Went Dark (Kindle Edition)

As an ex-Detroiter I can assure you that if what happened in the book really did happen, this is about as close to what would happen without use of a crystal ball. Sadly the city of Detroit has been little more than a war zone for the last fifty years and it only gets worse with each passing decade. Mr.Silver has crafted a great and terrifying read. At once gut-wrenching and in some very small ways hopeful. I finished this in less than twenty four hours. Haven’t done that in a long time. Great book.

4.0 out of 5 stars good story!, March 30, 2013

This review is from: The Day Detroit Went Dark (Kindle Edition)

This is one of those books you just can’t put down, plenty of action and you “just have to know what’s going to happen next.

5.0 out of 5 stars PHENOMENAL BOOK!!! February 22, 2013

This review is from: The Day Detroit Went Dark (Kindle Edition)

This book is incredible. The author pulls me in and keeps my attention throughout. I love the characters. It’s like I’m literally watching a movie and it’s an easy read. Great Job!*****

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better than I had anticipated!, September 23, 2013

This review is from: The Day Detroit Went Dark (Kindle Edition)

So nice to be pleasantly surprised when giving a book a chance! Not to say that this was a pleasant book! No. In fact, both the implications AND feasibility of the story is frightening to say the least! The storyline was smooth and non stop. Not lots of flowery filler. Every word necessary to moving the story along. The short length of the story was enough time to get to know and care about thanks to the author’s style.

The audiobook is here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-Detroit-Went-Dark/dp/B00HEFDJCK/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1361485307&sr=8-1

And here: http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/The-Day-Detroit-Went-Dark-Audiobook/B00HCP9C64/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1387841012&sr=1-1

The Day Detroit Went Dark is also available on iTunes.

Thanks, everyone for making this book a success and Happy Holidays!

New Thomas Edison: RESURRECTOR Cover

I’ve refreshed the cover for Thomas Edison: RESURRECTOR since I felt it needed a change. Here it is:

I took the photograph inside Edison’s Menlo Park lab at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

Also just got word that The System- A Detroit Story and The Day Detroit Went Dark are ‘headed for retail’ on Audible.com. They should appear on Audible any time now. The covers had to change, since Audible requires square covers (just like CDs) instead of rectangles.

The Frankenstein Theory

What makes a good low budget movie? Like any other film, story, characters and acting. I was scanning through Netflix and watched The Frankenstein Theory and even though this film received negative reviews it pulled me in from the start. Yes, it could have been about twenty minutes shorter, but all in all it’s a good independent horror film.

The story revolves around Professor Jonathan Venkenheim. One of his ancestors was the real-life Dr. Frankenstein who created the Frankenstein monster as an experiment in longevity. Venkenheim is convinced that the monster is still alive in the Arctic, so he takes a film crew with him to prove it exists. That’s all I’ll say, not to spoil it for you.

The shooting took place in LA and Alaska. According to Wikipedia, the scenes shot in Alaska involved forty five minute walks through the snow and cold to set up scenes. The film is shot in “found footage” format.

The Frankenstein Theory was released in March, 2013 to a few theaters, video on demand and  DVD. If you like well made independent films, t’s worth your time to watch it. Check out the trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2646378/

 

 

The Sharknado Buzz

I got caught up in the Sharknado buzz and watched the reprise on Thursday night. Sharknado is a true stinker, not only in the implausibility of the plot, but by the bad acting and poorly executed action sequences.

In case you’re not familiar with Sharknado. the plot revolves around a hurricane building off the coast of southern California (Santa Monica Pier, exactly) producing a set of waterspouts sucking up densely populated sharks and spewing them all over Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, consuming people in their trajectories.

Was this the sanitized version? I suspect so since it was placed in the 7-9PM time slot. Here’s a typical action sequence: we see a stock wide angle shot of a surfer gliding across a wave, the surfer tiny and the scene panoramic, then cut to a head and shoulder shot of the actor in front of a green screen, barely wet, pretending to surf. This is pretty much the motif of most of the action sequences, including sharks eating people. We rarely see  any real, raw action. It’s all implied and highly unsatisfying.

The voice over CNN reporter really was the cherry on top of this badness cake. The nervous lady who articulates “attention K Mart shoppers” at our local outlet sounds more professional and polished.

I just read about The Asylum studio that produced Sharknado and countless other low budget science fiction and horror flicks in the latest GQ that came this morning. Apparently their budget per film is $500,000, produce “mockbusters” such as Atlantic Rim from Pacific Rim, American Battleship from Battleship, etc. , and haven’t lost money yet. They have a fanatical following and Sharknado is right up their alley.

Yes, there is a big buzz about Sharknado’s campiness, and a Sharknado 2 is in the works. By all means, go ahead and watch it, but be prepared to be disappointed. I expected to be mildly entertained, but Sharknado missed the mark. I’m sure The Asylum fans love it. If you want to see a good, low budget shark movie, watch The Reef.

Grade: D

Links to trailers:

Sharknado  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwsqFR5bh6Q

The Reef http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UD2gbjB3vw

The Asylum http://www.theasylum.cc/

Write Your Novel Like You’re Making a Movie Part 5

Pre-production Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a graphical representation of a scene from a camera’s viewpoint. Why bother with a storyboard? Creating a storyboard will quickly illustrate what’s essential and interesting in your scene and what’s extraneous or boring. If you’re writing a scene that seems to drag and is highly narrative, bust out a quick storyboard with dialog and see what to cut. Just like in the world of filmmaking, a lot of your scenes will (and should) wind up on the (virtual) cutting room floor.

When I was writing the opening scenes of The Day Detroit Went Dark I was into the manuscript about fifteen pages when I thought it started to drag. I went back to the outline and re-examined the first few sequences. It was apparent there wasn’t enough action. I drew a storyboard of the first chapter, cutting out the non-action fluff, then wrote the scenes from that. I wound up with about ninety percent action and ten percent glue to bind the scenes together. Bottom line? Storyboards work.

The Day Detroit Went Dark

AVAILABLE NOW

Kindle Edition on Amazon.com

Caught in the middle of a fatal car chase and drug fueled gun battle, Clive Bradshaw decides to call it quits, leave the city and live a simpler life with his wife Emily and young daughter Amy. Emily drops him off at the foot of Detroit on his last day of work. Clive steps out of the car and into a city on the verge of collapse, rife with corruption, no city services, overworked and underpaid police and fire departments manned by skeleton crews, fighting a hopeless battle against brazen, uncontrolled crime.

…then the pulses hit…

Everything that produces or relies on electricity is destroyed. The electrical grid, vehicles, aircraft control systems, machinery, communications, computers, refrigeration, water pumping stations, all the systems that support everyday life, gone in an instant. Nothing gets into the city and street gangs rule supreme. Chaos reigns, but it’s all overshadowed by an outbreak of a deadly disease, bubonic plague. The disease threatens not only Detroit but the entire country. The plague must be contained…at all costs.

Follow Clive as he struggles to survive, find Emily and Amy and avoid the plague in The Day Detroit Went Dark.

GET IT HERE ON AMAZON.COM:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Detroit-Went-Dark-ebook/dp/B00BIOR5K0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361485307&sr=8-1&keywords=the+day+detroit+went+dark