The winner of Dancing with the Devil is . . .

This week's winner is Lynn O.  Congratulations!

Read St. Louis 2012 Starts Soon!

Read St. Louis 2012 Starts Soon!
By Brad R. Cook

Here at The Writers’ Lens we love books and the people who read them! So, I want to take a moment to highlight a great program in St. Louis, because I love anything that encourages people to pick up a book.

Read St. Louis showcases books selected by the libraries from several distinct categories. The Libraries host events with each of the featured authors, along with a variety of programs, activities, and discussions designed around each book.

Read St. Louis was started in 2009 by the St. Louis County and St. Louis City Public Libraries as a community wide initiative to encourage St. Louisans to read great books and discuss them with others. As Read St. Louis states on their website, “At the core of the program is a belief that making reading fun, exciting and occasionally educational, will stimulate a passion for lifelong learning in all of us.” – I couldn’t agree more.

This year, the St. Charles City-County Library District has joined the program. This brings the total number of library branches across the metropolitan area to 49, and means the Read St. Louis program will reach over 800,000 card holders. – Wow, I had no idea there were so many.

Read St. Louis kicks off with an event on Saturday, March 24, 2012. Author, Anne Lamott will discuss her latest memoir "Some Assembly Required", at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh. The event begins at 7 p.m.

For 2012, Read St. Louis will feature six amazing authors.

Memoir: Anne Lamott, "Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son"

Teen Fiction: Antony John, "Thou Shalt Not Road Trip"

Non-Fiction: Isabel Wilkerson, "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration"

Children's Non-Fiction: Deborah Hopkinson, "A Boy Called Dickens"

Fiction/New Voices: Teddy Wayne, "Kapitoil"

Distinguished Literary Achievement: Daniel Woodrell, "The Outlaw Album"

To learn all the dates, times, and locations for Read St. Louis events please
visit http://www.readstlouis.org/ but you’ll have to wait until after February 21, when they make the formal announcement to the media.

The St. Louis Public Library is currently celebrating its 100th Anniversary and was recently honored with second place in the library category of the 2011 America's Most Literate Cities, making it the seventh straight year that the St. Louis Public Library ranked as one of the top four libraries in the country. Read St. Louis is just one of the many reasons why, so check out
this remarkable program and the amazing libraries throughout this city – the downtown branch is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen – and if you don’t live in the St. Louis area, I encourage you to contact your local library and see if they can start a similar program. We could all read a little more, its good brain food!

Learning the Basics of Writing from a Master--Erle Stanley Gardner

Sometimes it is hard to remember that even legends started off on the road with a lot to learn and nothing else but hopes and dreams. Erle Stanley Gardner, the world-famous author of various novels and stories, including the famous lawyer detective Perry Mason, started off at the very bottom of the writer's pay scale — in the wood pulps.  In today's market the role of wood pulp may have changed, depending on which author you speak to will give you a different view on the role of wood pulp magazines nowadays or their electronic versions known as e-zines, but the lessons that Erle Stanley Gardner learned starting off as a brand-new author of mysteries and Westerns and stories of adventure hold true for the authors of today as much if they held true for the authors of his own day. The lessons that he learned he kept in his book he called his "fault book." What were the lessons that he had learned and how did he learn to correct them?

Lesson One: First-person narrative is not an easy way to go.

Erle Stanley Gardner would, like many other authors, including myself, often find themselves attracted to the first-person narrative. After all, the first-person narrative allows us to feel as if we are the main character — the hero of our own story. However, the first-person narrative viewpoint is quickly discovered to be restrictive on plot mobility and, depending on the cycle of the writing market and the agent or publisher, may quickly arouse the anger or distaste of the editor or agent because of the author's apparent tendency for possible egotism and rambling.

A notebook entry by Gardner, even after the success of various first-person narrative stories, expressed his concern: "Check up on this — I get better writing in my first-person stories because the characters take charge of things better. Bertha in a taxi says 'Not a damn thing' and drives away. Whereas my characters are too inclined to all act as they should to advance the story — the minute I get them into the third person narrative. Let them take things into their own hands."

Lesson Two: First, get your reader sympathy.

The lesson that Erle Stanley Gardner learned can be found in his notebooks.  A mentor and editorial friend of Gardner's once stated that they believed motivation was the key to making appealing characters and awaken the desire which holds the readers enthusiastic interest to the end of the story. His mentor and friend, George Jenkins, chided Gardner on one of the stories that he submitted by saying, "Once again you for conflict of individuals, of villains battling for his own selfish, for sordid reasons, with Speed battling merely to solve a mystery. We appear to lack, in this synopsis, the sympathetic motivation that you had in other stories,...

"By all means have Speed in danger of being shot, stabbed, hung, trapped in the mine, etc., for then our readers will be to see how and if he escaped. They want speed to survive. They want him to survive because they like him, he's battling against crooks, and so on."

Don Moore of Argosy thought the secret resided in a combination of understandable conflict and clarity of presentation:  "The other thing that bothers me in this is that the aims, problems, conflicting schemes, and even the action are so remote, devious, obscure, and cryptic that the story is hard to follow and does not arouse much urge, or suspend in the reader.  . . . . I feel that a conflict over a scrap of paper, no matter how important the treaty, is hardly important enough to warrant a serial."

Harold S Goldsmith at Popular Publications maintained that reader sympathy derived from the principal character's involvement in stories circumstances: "To my mind, character sympathy is built into ways: 1. It is developed because of the trail of a very likable character. 2. It is strengthened in proportion to the opposition that the main character receives."

Thirty or more years later Gardner would reflect this idea in a notebook in reference to a Perry Mason story he was plotting: "Regardless of the market I plan to reach, the Perry Mason story must deal with character conflicts — human emotions and situations which flow out of the relationships, rather than characters used merely to support the situations. Menace and suspense must flow naturally from what the people do and what they do must be logical."

The editorial reactions to Gardner that he received led him into a lifelong study of the problem of how to arouse reader sympathy for his characters. He consulted readers and critics, he read authorities, and he filled his notebooks with observations and conclusions. He worked on this issue until he became a self-made expert.

Lesson Three: Start with the story.

One of the most difficult tasks of a writer is to capture the reader at the beginning in the story. Gardner found, as many other writers and editors, that the failure to do so is one of the most common deficiencies of unsuccessful fiction. An editor of Gardner's identified the reason for one of Gardner's failed stories: "The movies and other things of our hectic life have educated the public the quick reading. You have to catch their interest with the first line and keep 'em moving to the last." This editorial friend cast an ever jaundiced eye at the philosophical openings which so many writers were borrowing from an earlier, more leisurely day of writing. He cautioned Gardner: "It would be a pretty difficult task to interject meditative bits and not slow up the action. However, every now and then, but not too often, it might be done but not at the very opening of the story."

Having learned his lesson, Gardner entered a maxim in his notebook under the heading "Action," which would guide him for the rest of his writing life: "Smash 'em between the eyes right at the start, then brush 'em off their feet, and don't let 'em up until the end of the story."

Lesson Four: Action! Action! Action!

The watchword the Gardner learned immediately from the wood pulps was "action." The way, Gardner learned this lesson and how it was explained to him can best be seen in three editorial criticisms that he received:

One wrote, "Now I will state very clearly what I feel about Push Over. Throughout, it lacks vitality, and he appealed the grips, sensation and, therefore suspense. You will observe there is movement that no action until page 40."

Another wrote, "I like Barney Killigen very very much. The only fault I can possibly find with the story is that Killigen is off stage so much. We do like to see him follow his mysterious actions a little more than to be told about them after they occur."

In the final example was, "On our last Paul Pry story I was very glad to see that you had injected more action scenes in this particular yarn in your previous ones. Considering the type of reader that is buying Gang War, I think each Paul Pry story should have a goodly amount of action-conflict."

Lesson Five: Putting it all together

Gardner was a trained (self trained) lawyer, and like every good lawyer Gardner prepared a brief of what he had learned. He reduced everything he learned to a single index card which he could pop up in front of himself while he sat at his typewriter. What was on that index card?

"Work on every plot until you have

1. Unusual opening incident

2. Complete character conflicts

3. Some emotional appeal

4. Some unusual slant of characters and situation

5. All stock situations eliminated

Make a genuine reader suspense in which he doesn't know what will happen next and surprised either by

(a) What does happen

(b) the way in which it happens."

Like many good authors, Gardner could not keep his lessons to himself. One of the joys of a writer community is the willingness to share our craft and what we have learned with fellow authors, regardless if they are well published are just starting out. Gardner shared these lessons with other writers. One of his pieces of advice that has been preserved to this day was written to beginning writer and a neighbor of this. Gardner wrote, "The main criticism I have had with your stories was that your characterization wasn't clear and that you wrote the whole thing as though it had happened. The reader wants to feel it is happening. In other words, don't step outside of your plot and write it as history. No one gives a damn about history. Write so that your reader is sucked into this world of the action, build suspense.

"One good rule is to get an attractive hero in the first sentence, get him into trouble in the first paragraph. Have a villain in the second paragraph. Then put in three pages getting the hero in a worse predicament. Have him grasp the solution which gets them out of the frying pan into the fire. Introduce the heroine. Get the hero out of the fire and have him pull the heroine out.

"But the wood pulps want a hero. For the most part they want a manly, young, attractive hero who possesses almost superhuman qualities, either patent or dormant. They want they yarn in the third person for the most part, and they want action.

"Try to write a story without a single cut back. That is start it and have it sweep along, one thing to another, with every single detail told by action. Don't say that the villain is a mean man with a wicked wallop. Show him sliding from his horse in a rage because the animal jerks away from him. Show him swing a terrific fist and crash the horse on the nose. That gives the reader the idea of the wickedness in his wallop. Then when the villain advances toward the hero with double fist the reader gets some suspense because he seemed what happened to the horse. But if you tell the reader the villain is bad and has a mean wallop it's history, and the less history you get in a yarn the better your chance."

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

Dancing with the Devil

When writing mysteries, crime dramas, and horror writers, sometimes have to delve into the darkest part of humanity and what it means to be human. This Monday, The Writers' Lens is going to give its readers an opportunity to do the same. This week we're giving away a free copy of Dancing with the Devil by Louis Diaz and Neil Hirschfield.

Dancing with the Devil is one of the most accurate, painful and memorizing memoirs regarding undercover work that I have read. Most people get snippets of news and tiny peek at the war on organized crime across the television sets over breakfast or dinner and then go about their daily lives believing that they are completely safe from the terror is just outside the door. We often forget that there are human "sheepdogs" the stand between the wolves and the people. Some the "sheepdogs" wear the uniform and probably show their badge. Others must go undercover.

We rightly welcome home our veterans from wars overseas, and into family arms and friends they can find sanctuary again. But what is it like to return home every day and know that your home, your loved ones, your closest of friends, or in the middle of a war zone? What is it like to not be able to tell them what you do for fear that would put them into danger?

Reading books like Dancing with the Devil and talking to those who have lived this life would open your eyes to a world you may never have understood existed.

How do you win a free copy of this memoir?  To enter the contest, simply leave a comment or question on The Writers' Lens between now (February 6th) and midnight February 11, 2012. Please include your email so I can reach you if you win. The more comments you leave, the greater your chance of winning the contest. If you refer others to The Writers' Lens who mention your name in their comments, we will enter your name again in our random number generator along with theirs, also increasing your chances at winning! The winner will be chosen after 11:59 PM on Saturday February 11, and the announcement made on Sunday, February 12. Good luck and comment often.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

Congratulations!

The winner of The Writers’ Lens, St. Louis Reflections giveaway is

Linda O’Connell!

Thanks to everyone who commented. Good luck with the next giveaway!

For more on St. Louis Reflections or St. Louis Writers Guild please visit www.stlwritersguild.org

Thom Reese: Humanizing sci fi & horror

A hearty WELCOME to Thom Reese, a fellow L&L Dreamspell author! 

Thom's the author of THE EMPTY, DEAD MAN’S FIRE, THE DEMON BAQASH, 13 BODIES: SEVEN TALES OF MURDER AND MADNESS, and the upcoming release, CHASING KELVIN. He was the sole writer and co-producer of the weekly audio drama radio program, 21ST CENTURY AUDIO THEATER. Fourteen of these dramas have since been published in four collections. A native of the Chicago area, Thom currently makes his home in Las Vegas.

Can a race of savage beings win their struggle to exist in mainstream society?
The reyaqc, a people who have no inherent characteristics of their own, survive by infusing genetic information from humans and animals alike, often leaving the donors hollow, vacant shells. They’ve been with us for centuries. Many live in isolated communities on the fringes of society. Others walk the cities of the world, unable to reveal their true natures for risk of discovery. Donald Baker is a reyaqc and he fears for his people. For with the rising human population and technological advances, the reyaqc can no longer live undetected. His life-long desire is to bring his race into the mainstream of society. But now a lone rogue terrorizing the city of Las Vegas threatens to expose the reyaqc prematurely. As the death toll rises, Donald must battle not only the rogue, but his own savage nature.

The Writers’ Lens is about Bringing fiction into focus. What brings your writing into focus--the characters, the stories, the love of words? All elements are important, but to me it always comes back to the characters. A book can have a fantastic plot, with twists, and reversals, suspense, and heartbreak, but if the reader hasn’t connected with the characters these means nothing. First, give me someone to cheer for, then put that character into difficult situations of any kind and I’m on board. Plot is very important, but it’s the characters making their ways through the plot that keeps the reader moving from page to page.
 

What makes your book/characters unique? My most recent release, THE EMPTY, is unique–I hope–in concept. It deals with a race of people with an insufficient genetic matrix. In order to survive they must infuse DNA from others. They are human in form, and all infuse from humans, but some take genetic material from animals as well. Many live and function within human society, while others live on the fringe of civilization in animal-like packs.

As to the characters, my goal is to make them as human as possible–even my non-human characters–to give them realistic motivations and struggles. The setting and situations might be science fiction or horror, but the inner struggles of those involved should be the same as those we all, as humans, deal with in life. In my first novel, THE DEMON BAQASH, I utilize the journals of the demon. Through those journals, the reader sees the demon’s struggles and conflicts, and though this is an evil spirit, I sought to make him the most human character in the book. Writing these passages was interesting and challenging. It took me to some very peculiar places emotionally.

What inspired your latest book? I’m not sure that I can pinpoint the exact inspiration for THE EMPTY. Part of it came from the thought that all of us are chameleons. We change to our environment. We put on a new skin year by year as we hit different life stages, but also, some people more than others, do so hour by hour as we connect with different individuals. The Thom Reese at home with my family is not necessarily the same as the Thom Reese in a work setting. It also comes from the idea that at some level we are all empty. Well, maybe not empty, but not full either. Incomplete. Very few people are satisfied with every area of life, with every decision, with every emotion. Sometimes we’d like to see what it’s like to put on another skin, to see life through a different lens. Add this together with my sci-fi/horror take on fiction and we have the core of THE EMPTY. Once the concept was in place, the ideas cascaded and soon I had an entire mythology surrounding this peculiar race.

What do you think readers will like about your book? THE EMPTY treads the thin line between science fiction and horror, and so I believe readers of either genre will find it appealing. I can never speak for others, and obviously I’m biased where my own work is concerned, but I find the concept compelling. It feels fresh to me. And, as always, it comes down to the characters. I follow the life of Dolnaraq (Dol-nar-aq), a particular reyaqc (aka, Empty), from his childhood in the late 1800s through the present day. Reyaqc live about fifty percent longer than do humans and so he is now in the latter years of life. Through his long existence I am able to tell the tale of the reyaqc species while setting the story in numerous exciting locales: the Siberian wilderness, pre-WWI Germany, New York of the early 1900s, and present day Paris and Las Vegas. Dolnaraq goes through many changes, both philosophically and physically, and is thrust into horrible situations which could lead even to the extinction of his species. There are key human characters as well. A physician, Julia Chambers, in particular, who is drawn unwittingly into the world of the reyaqc, and is confronted with both moral and physical dilemmas. Plenty of tension, thrills, exotic backdrops, and surprises.

Would you share a bit about your next project? My next release, CHASING KELVIN, is the second in my Marc Huntington series. The first was DEAD MAN’S FIRE, released this past September. The series follows the adventures of recovery specialists, Marc and Dana Huntington, as they travel the globe recovering lost and stolen possessions and missing persons. In CHASING KELVIN, they land in the midst of a terrorist attack while recovering a stolen diamond. There’s plenty of twists and turns, a love triangle, real danger to the primary characters, and an ending that I doubt few will anticipate. I’ve just put the finishing touches on it.

What's your favorite way to interact with fans/readers? I love interacting with people face-to-face, having that give and take, and getting a feel for a person. For that reason, I would say that book signings and conventions are my favorite places to interact with readers. That said, I have access to far more readers, and they with me, through social media. I use Facebook daily, and have met so many readers and book lovers there. It’s the largest social media site, and so makes me the most accessible. I invite any book lover to friend me there. Even if you haven’t read one of my books. I’m a reader too. I love talking about a wide variety of books.

How much fact is in your fiction? The short answer is, enough to make the story believable, but not so much as to bog down the pacing. As to the long answer, my goal is to get the facts right. As a reader I find it irksome when something with which I have experience is presented inaccurately. It causes a break in the reality of the story. My books tend to have science fiction/horror/fantasy elements. As such, there is already a break with reality. My goal is to present a believable premise within the context of this artificial reality. In THE EMPTY, characters speculate on how a species with insufficient genetic information could survive. Theories are tossed about. I use real science as the basis of these theories and then take the leap to “what if this were to happen.” By nature, I’m a storyteller, not a researcher. But part of telling a great story is doing sufficient research to allow the reader to suspend disbelief and engage in the story.

If you could meet one of your characters, who would it be and where would you meet? Dolnaraq from THE EMPTY. He is both a savage and an intellect. He’s creepy yet endearing. He can be ruthless, but has a strong moral compass. I doubt I would like him as one likes a friend, but I would find him fascinating and full of insight and knowledge. As to where we’d meet, Dolnaraq would likely choose his study. I would pick a pizza joint.

What movie stars would be perfect for Dolnaraq and Julia? Why? I’ve never really pictured an actor for the role, but I suppose Anthony Hopkins for the older Dolnaraq. He has such a subtle power and authority about him. For the younger Dolnaraq, I’m not sure, perhaps Matt Damon. He doesn’t look like Hopkins, but as the reyaqc are constantly infusing DNA from different sources, their appearance is in constant flux. Damon, I think would bring the needed intensity to the role. As for Julia, probably Halle Berry because of her quiet poise.

Find out more about Thom and his work at:

His blog: Through Thom Tinted Lenses

THE EMPTY 

THE DEMON BAQASH

DEAD MAN’S FIRE 

Book trailer for DEAD MAN’S FIRE 

Author DiGiuseppi: THE LIGHT BRINGER offers readers inspiration, comfort & hope

I met Chris DiGiuseppi and Mike Force, authors of THE LIGHT BRINGER, at a book-signing held recently at 6 North Cafe in Chesterfield, Mo. In today's interview, Chris addresses issues that interested me both as a reader and writer.

16 PEOPLE WILL DIE on Police Officer Alan Crane's watch. But while tragic and untimely death is no stranger to the jaded ex-Marine, his newfound supernatural ability to lead these people to their spiritual fates sends him on a sensational and frightening saga that will ultimately answer: Why these sixteen? What do they have in common? And why has Alan been chosen to bring them to the light?

Chris DiGiuseppi has more than 20 years in law enforcement at various levels, up to and including assistant chief of police. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and Northwestern University School of Police Staff Command. He is trained in various aspects of law enforcement and holds degrees in human resources and business administration. Chris lives with his wife and children in Missouri.

Mike Force has spent more than 30 years in law enforcement, the last 19 as a police chief. He has numerous certifications in various areas of law, forensics, investigations and criminology. Mike is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and served  22 years in the U.S. Marines, where he retired as a captain.  He oversaw operations for 27 military installations worldwide. He holds degrees in political science and human resources. Mike lives with his wife in Missouri and has three grown children and a granddaughter.

The Writers’ Lens is about Bringing fiction into focus. What brings your writing into focus–the characters, the stories, the love of words? In my opinion, our story is brought into focus by the mixture of fiction and real emotion, which is derived through our experiences of true events we’ve experienced.  These aspects allow our readers to relate to their experiences with death and how they felt when enduring those instances.    

 

What inspired your book? THE LIGHT BRINGER was inspired by many of the tragic incidents that Mike and I encountered over our 50 combined years in law enforcement.  Those instances typically revolved around death and those family members who were left behind in tremendous grief and pain. As a police officer, I yearned to try to do more for those people who were caught in such despair. The initial motivation for the book was something that helped me in dealing with those difficult circumstances but as the journey continues, I’ve found that the book has offered inspiration, comfort and hope to others as well.

What do you think readers will like about your book? I think THE LIGHT BRINGER attempts to solicit thought from the reader about how they live their life while offering them an opportunity to think beyond their own mortality. We’ve found that many readers who enjoy the good vs. evil premise that the story is based around and additionally like the message that revolves around seeking clarity of purpose in dark times.

 

How much fact is in your fiction? A good deal of fact is in our fiction. The first half of THE LIGHT BRINGER is based around true incidents that Mike and I encountered throughout our lives. I find that factual incidents added to a fictional story enhances the writing as it allows the author to focus on real emotion from actually experiencing the events.

What makes your book/characters unique? Our characters are a compilation of other people that Mike and I have met in our personal lives. We composed our main character in THE LIGHT BRINGER around our values and the way we visualize a real police officer – empathetic, compassionate,with a willingness to help and the desire to do what’s right.

How do you find time to write and do a demanding job? It’s not easy.  I have a full time job and a family with five children. I mostly write late at night or when I get time on the weekends. I try to pace myself as I only write when I’m motivated and passionate about the story. I’ve often began projects then stopped for several months until that craving to create the story rises to the surface once again. 

Would you share a bit about your next project? We are currently working on the next book in the series (it’s a trilogy). The second book goes into more depth regarding the characters’ backgrounds and the organization of good and evil in the world. It brings us closer to sparking thought about the haunting question of “Why do people die?” We hope to have that manuscript to our publisher and released within 2012. I’ve additionally finished a manuscript on a murder-mystery/thriller that I’ve recently sent to my agent and hope to begin searching for a publisher on that endeavor as well.

What's your favorite way to interact with fans/readers? I love a format which is interactive so I can learn from my audience. We’ve been invited to numerous speaking engagements and my favorite times are when we’re in a group where communication flows both ways. I’ve met so many interesting and inspirational people through these events as the experiences have been invaluable.

Since this is a collaborative work, how did you work together? I came up with the basic outline of the story, then Mike and I collaborated on putting it together. We would brainstorm about the various chapters, then one of us would write it up and send it to the other, who would add or delete ideas. This went on until we had a solid draft prior to professional edits. Our success stemmed from our core values and thought processes being very similar. Additionally, those real incidents we used throughout the story were our own experiences, which also made the writing between the two of us easier. Attempting to write with a co-author who you don’t share the same thought process or values would be extremely difficult.
 

How did you find your agent? We found our agent through networking.  A friend of Mike and I, who is a life coach and motivational speaker, introduced us to our agent. Her name is Linda Langton and she owns Langton’s International Agency at www.langtonsinternational.com. She can be contacted through her website at this page for those interested - http://www.langtonsinternational.com/contact.html.

In January, THE LIGHT BRINGER was the number 3 bestseller at independent book-sellers in the St. Louis area. What type of marketing has been most successful for you so far? From my experience, two avenues have played well in marketing. Television and radio interviews seem to attract publicity but the “word of mouth” approach by doing speaking engagements and other types of face to face interactions have played out great. Networking is the key to success in getting published and in marketing – meet everyone you can and try not to pass up any opportunity to network!  

MIKE COMMENTED: Just wanted you to know that I looked over Chris’ answers and concur completely. We’ve actually discussed many of the questions many times and I’m always amazed at how much we think alike. I can’t overemphasize the importance of an absolute sharing of core values to the success of collaborative efforts like THE LIGHT BRINGER. Although we have separate life experiences, Chris and I have shared so much over the past twenty years that we are just a couple of half-wits who, together, make a pretty complete package. Seriously, though, Chris and I have both learned so much from each other and I couldn’t imagine having come this far with THE LIGHT BRINGER alone or with another partner."

 

THE LIGHT BRINGER is available in paperback and ebook at Amazon, Barnes& Noble and Books-A-Million, as well as at St. Louis-area independent book-sellers such as Main Street Books, Roses Bookhouse, Left Bank Books, Pudd'nhead Books, Subterranean Books, and Sue's News (stlindiebook.com)

Visit the authors and view their book trailer at www.thelightbringerbook.com