The Field Free Download

The Field is on promotion on Amazon.com and will be a free download ending on Friday, December 19th.

Get it here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Field-John-Silver-ebook/dp/B00QVYW91W/ref=zg_bs_158592011_f_37

The System – A Detroit Story – Free Download

The System – A Detroit Story – is now part of Kindle Prime and will be a free download on Amazon.com from Friday September 26th through Tuesday September 30th.  It’s available here: http://www.amazon.com/System-Detroit-Story—ebook/dp/B005HZKIBE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1313788718&sr=1-1

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.

Transformers 4 Update

Thought I’d take a look at what was left of the Transformers 4 set in Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit today. Not much! I shot these with my iPhone from the People Mover.

 

It looks like a construction company was wrapping up a demolition project.

Here’s more debris:

Even though a lot has been removed, there’s a long way to go until the area is clear.

I know I said it before, but when you total the cost of multiple sets/locations like this throughout the country (and world) it’s easy to see how this film will easily burn through its $170 million budget.

Man of Steel Shot in Detroit?

Big time rumors are flying around regarding Detroit being used as the location for the Man of Steel sequel. The other buzz is that Ben Affleck is playing Batman in the movie. The announcement should come out next week. If the movie is indeed shot here, I’ll get as many set photos as I can and post them on this blog.
Here are a couple of links for more info:
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/detroit/index.ssf/2013/08/detroit_to_get_man_of_steel_se.html

http://www.freep.com/article/20130823/COL36/308230117/superman-batman-detroit-man-steel

 

Elmore Leonard Visitation

I was going to go to Elmore Leonard’s visitation today, which is in walking distance from where I live. I stayed home out of respect for the family’s privacy. It turns out the hundreds of people showed up.

Link here: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130823/ENT09/308230074/Hundreds-attend-visitation-crime-novelist-Elmore-Leonard?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

It just shows how loved and revered Elmore Leonard was in these parts. He will be sorely missed.

 

 

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.