NEW SAMPLE: When the Nightbird Lands, Chapter One
When his grandson dies in Iraq, a lonely Korean War veteran must make peace with his estranged daughter before scheming relatives steal his grandson’s possessions.
Only available for ONE WEEK. Read, review and share!
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/548779
EXCITING NEWS: the first 50 pages of ‘The Pale Ancient and the House of Mirrors’ are now available on Smashwords for FREE. The sample will only be available until May 15, so read it, review it and spread the word!
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/533131
Here’s some quick info on the book:
An amateur foreign journalist goes missing while investigating a blood-cult in a small Chinese town.
Mary Hudson is a new China-based writer who dreams of cementing her name along the expat greats. When she accepts a friend’s invitation to see “real China”, she thinks she’s finally found the story she needs.
On the way there she meets Richard. He is seeking out cryptic messages taped all over the town. The messages point people towards a condemned house on the city outskirts, where from afar you hear bees, up close you hear a eunuch’s song.
And inside you wander forever in the mirrors.
Some flash fiction, available in Dual Coast Magazine:
The traveler pulled out a chair and sat down across from me. I looked up.
“Tonight’s the night?”
The traveler was quiet. He was here before me, and I always figured he’d be here long after I left. Two years ago, he pulled the chair out like he did tonight, ordered the bottle like he did tonight, and took a sip, careful not to let his beard fall into his drink.
Two years, and I guess I don’t need an answer.
Tonight is the night.
Read the rest here.
Two sample chapters from the novel Little Red King are now available. The first deals with John’s introduction to expat nightlife. It’s found here.
The second is LRK’s first real chapter, following The Seven Year Laowai 1. It’s found here.
Set in 2008 Wuhan, Little Red King is more or less about the doomed romance between a new foreign teacher and a Chinese graduate student. The never-sent query is here (or the post right below this one), and the structure of the book goes 7YL1, Ch 1, 7YL2, Ch 2…and so on, with the 7YL departing midway through while the main story takes over and returning at the end to help tie everything together.
More sample chapters are coming. The next one will be about a bad baijiu hangover, based on a true story of a certain former expat who had the bright idea of mixing Sprite with ricewine, to mute the taste. Unfortunately, it worked.
I said it in a Facebook message and I’ll say it here and I’ll say it again and again: I want Little Red King to be a fucking gut punch. So, while things will start out innocent enough, keep in mind this is a doomed romance. I want the sense of doom to set in, and I want it to set in quickly. I want this story to linger in people’s heads for years.
I want a lot of things. Right now, what I want most is for people to read the damn thing.
So feel free to have a look, and yes, I am open to feedback. Some four to five years on, the book remains a work in progress, though less of a work in progress than last time. So what do we call that?
Progress?
If you’re lucky enough not to know what a query letter is, I’ll let Nathan Bransford explain:
A query letter is part business letter, part creative writing exercise, part introduction, part death defying leap through a flaming hoop. (Don’t worry, you won’t catch fire and die during the query process though it may feel precisely like that at times). In essence: it is a letter describing your project.
The following is a query letter for Little Red King. I never sent it out. As of now, I don’t have a final query letter that I’m ready to send. From here:
“Hold strong,” Michelle, a traditional Chinese woman, tells John Ingram as he tries to use chopsticks. John has come to China to teach English, and thanks to her, he learns how to use chopsticks. He holds strong.
He holds strong when he finds himself more sideshow than teacher.
He holds strong as he descends into an expat lifestyle of cheap alcohol and easy women.
And right as he finds the strength to put that life behind him and pursue Michelle, another teacher assaults a student. John finds himself being blamed.
Now he must hold strong, or lose Michelle forever.
LITTLE RED KING is literary fiction complete at 123,000 words.
Gimmicky as hell, but the Hold Strong metaphor is vital to the story.
