Your Weekend Reading Material has Arrived!

I'm excited to announce that Wild Child, Book 3 - The Patriarch is now available for download on all the major retail sites (links below).  If you're a Wild Child fan, I know this book has been a long time in coming and I appreciate your patience.  It took me a while to figure out where I wanted this story to go, but when the direction finally came to me, it really grabbed hold!

Synopsis:  Kyle and Briana find themselves ensnared in the bizarre Evergreen Colony, hopelessly addicted to the magical green water. At first glance, Evergreen appears to be a utopia. Each of the nearly five hundred members enjoys extraordinary physical and mental abilities, perfect health, and nearly eternal life. But there's a catch: once you drink the water, you can never leave. Kyle soon discovers that one man may have secretly developed an antidote--the former Evergreen Patriarch. Can Kyle track him down without being killed, or will they be trapped in the colony forever?

Wild Child, Book 3 - The Patriarch

Amazon USA	Amazon UK	B&N (Nook)	Flipkart
Apple iBooks	Google Play	Kobo	Smashwords

Comments from beta readers:

"Reads like a tsunami coming at your full force!" - Tome Tender Book Blog

"The writing itself is so excellent that it has the addictive quality of the green..." - Mehreen Ahmed, Author & Book Reviewer

"My daughter and I have enjoyed all three of these books immensely! They just continue to get better and better!" - Amy G. Dehart, Amazon Reviewer

"The character development in this particular book was the best I've ever seen in a book before, especially with the female heroine, Briana." - Bailey Crawly's Book Blog

"An exceptionally absorbing read and another fine addition to my e-book collection." - Adisha Kariyawasam, Music Composer & Book Reviewer

I hope you enjoy Wild Child 3.  If you have not read the first two books, I will be publishing all three together as a trilogy in about a week.  For the first seven days I will price it at the same price as Book 3 by itself, so please grab it quickly if you want it (I will send out another email when it is released).

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Theme music for Wild Child, Book 3 - The Patriarch created by London-based composer Adisha Kariyawasam

Why I Will Never Change the Cover of Wild Child

Although many readers love the cover illustration of my young adult thriller, Wild Child (paperback edition), it is occasionally criticized, and there is a certain pattern in the comments.   “Looks amateurish”, “Not polished” and “Unprofessional” are a few examples.

Well, there's a reason that the cover may appear appear amateurish, unpolished, and unprofessional to some people.  It was created by a 17 year old art student in Atlanta, the winner of a city-wide student art contest I held in 1997 for the best cover illustration for the book.  His name is Seron Fuller, and he is an phenomenal artist.

Over 150 students entered the contest.  No guidance whatsoever was given other than to read the book and come up with the design that they believe best depicted the story and characters.  There were lots of interesting designs, but when I saw Seron’s illustration, I was awestruck.  He chose to depict what I consider the perfect moment in the story, when Briana shows Kyle the magical green water.  The expressions on their faces, and their body language, it says it all!  Briana:   euphoric, hyper, and slightly out of control. And Kyle:  bewildered, concerned and uncertain, as if thinking, “What am I going to do with this girl?”

Before I go on, I want to emphasize that the readers who have criticized the cover design had no idea that it was done by an art student, or that I’d even held such a contest.  I know that these well-meaning readers have only had my best interest at heart—most raved about the story and the writing.  They only want to see Wild Child get into the hands of even more readers, believing that a more professional-looking cover would help make that happen.  And they may well be right.

But there are several reasons I will never change the cover design of Wild Child.   

First, a key part of art contest prize was that the winning illustration would be used as the paperback book cover forever.  Not just for the first six months, or until the second paperback edition was published, or until I got tired of the design, but forever. To change the cover now would be going back on my word, and I would never do that.

Second, my books are like my children, and I think most other authors feel the same way.  If you’ve read The Wild Publication Story, you know that I threw 3,000 paperback copies of this little baby in the trash can—every copy I had—before the poor thing could even walk!  Miraculously, she was able to crawl out of  that rubbish bin all by herself and make her way into schools, to help teach young people English, and into the hands of a dozen Amazon resellers, to help those people make a living.  To change the cover now would be like telling my 16 year old daughter, “Honey, you’ve done absolutely amazing things up to this point, but some people think you’re ugly so we’re going to give you plastic surgery.”

Whenever I’ve been tempted to have a new cover designed for the paperback, I always remind myself that it was Seron’s cover that was on all those copies that found their way out of the trash can, and not another.   This may sound silly to some people, but I believe there is a certain magic in his cover illustration, just as there seems to be in the story itself, and that this magic comes across to readers, at least on the paperback edition that you can hold in your hands.

Seron Fuller's Self-portrait

But there’s a far more important reason that I would never change the cover.  When Seron Fuller won the contest and I presented him with his $250 check, I asked him what his future plans were.  He answered, very modestly, “I want to be an illustrator at a Hollywood movie studio.”  I thought this was very ambitious, but on the other hand, with his amazing talent and quiet determination, I did not think that goal was beyond his reach.  I told him so, and I encouraged him to go for it.

Today, 14 years later, Seron Fuller works in as an illustrator in Hollywood, at Paramount Pictures.

Just knowing that his winning the Wild Child cover illustration might have played some small role in his journey to achieve his dreams is worth more to me than any amount of money I could every make from selling mere books.

Thank you, Seron, for being part of the Wild Child magic!

Wild Child Sequel Released!

In response to popular demand, I'm thrilled to announce that "Wild Child, Book 2 - Lilith" has now officially been released.  This is an exciting day for me--as with the original , I poured my heart and soul into this sequel to make it the best possible read I could.

Wild Child, Book 2 takes up where Wild Child left off.  Join Kyle, Briana, Brawn and Brains for another hair-raising adventure with the magical "green water." I've introduced several new, intriguing characters.  The book is also written in the same lean, fast-paced style as the original.  I believe it will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next!

The book is available now as a Kindle book on the Amazon USA and UK bookstores.  Within a week or two it will be available on Barnes & Noble, the Apple iBookstore, the Sony E-bookstore, and others.

If you're not a Kindle owner and you're anxious to start reading the book, it's also available right now on Smashwords in all other e-book formats (Nook, Sony, iPad, Palm) and can be purchased and downloaded immediately.  If you don't have an e-reader, there are a number of free e-readers you can download for your PC, Mac, tablet computer or smart phone, such as the Kindle Cloud.

I hope you enjoy this book.

In the meantime, I'm busily working on Wild Child, Book 3, the next in the series, which I plan to have out by the New Year's holidays.

A big thank you to all the readers and other folks who made Wild Child a smashing success!

Reader Interview - Nathalie Hamidi

Today's interview is with Nathalie Hamidi, my very first reader interview on this blog!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Nathalie Hamidi, and I live in South-West France, in the country side, where the landscape is wonderful, the calm is soothing, but the spiders are huge. I am a stay-at-home mom, and by day I care for two young handicaped boys that don't go to school full time. By night, I put on my entrepreneur glittery superhero costume and work on my bazillion very important überprojects.

When and how did you discover that you love reading fiction?

When I learned how to read, my mom used to bring me Disney comic books every other day - I was an avid comics reader and Donald Duck fan. Then I discovered the Choose Your Adventure books, that I loved too. At the end of one of those, if I remember correctly, was a contest to win something if you drew a superhero. I didn't win but received my first two horror fiction books that way. I can't even remember their titles, because I was so young then.

I asked my mom every saturday to buy me books. And she always said yes, no matter the books I wanted. I read mostly horror/paranormal stuff. I read at school during intermission, on the bus, at night instead of doing homework. I read all summer, day and night. When I grew older and got my first real job, there wasn't much to do there, so my boss let me read there too. I read or re-read almost a book a day.

Nowadays, it's harder for me to read. I have to take care of my children, I'm often on the road to take them to their therapies (I try to read in the waiting room too, but it's getting almost impossible, because people begin to know me there and want to chat), and when I'm home with them, it's hard find the time or concentrate. So I read at night, after working on my projects - a few pages before I shamelessly fall asleep (and drool) on my beloved Kindle.

What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite authors?

I think you guessed I'm all about paranormal and horror. I love books that can scare me, make me wonder about the sounds I hear at night, make me avoid having my feet dangling on the side of the bed just in case some monster is drooling under it. I loved the younger Stephen King, but with time I can relate less with his stories. I also love Dean Koontz and Graham Masterton. My long-term goal is to find all their books on Kindle and re-read them in English.

Lately, I've also found a new interest in Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampires series, and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. I know most people despise their work, but they make me smile, dream, wonder, think and sometimes their words make my heart flutter. I never knew I could read paranormal romance, but now I'm a fan.

There are also lots of authors that I haven't got to, and most of them are indie. I'm a big supporter of indie publishing, and want to help and promote indie authors by buying their books. Next on my reading list are: anything new by Amanda Hocking, all books by J.A. Konrath (semi-indie), Christopher Smith (Bullied series) and, of course, Mike Wells!

What is your favorite thing about reading fiction?

I love fast-paced stories, but I also love introspection. I need to care about the main character, I want to feel the need to make things right for him. I'm all about giving advice, strong advice on how to make all perfect again, but the characters in the books I read never listen to me! ;)

I love that it takes me away for a while from a tiring day-to-day life that has a lot of disappointments and requires me to lower any expectations I would have, in order to rejoice for any little improvement. Fiction takes me away from the mood rollercoaster I live in, to bring me to the fictional mood rollercoaster that I enjoy.

I remember crying at the last book of Hickman and Weis' Death Gate cycle, because I didn't want it to end. I want that from reading. Caring about the characters, fearing for their lives, being scared about what happens to them, and wondering what I would do if I were in their place. I want escape.

Do you have any “pet peeves” about authors, something they do that really annoys you?

Not really. I tend to avoid genres that don't interest me, or stories that may bore me - if the blurb doesn't take me in, I probably won't even sample the first chapter. I also avoid cryptic books that require to be read thirty times and have a degree in philosophy.

But lately I've been really mad at an author. She wrote a great story. First book was amazing. Second book made me care further about the characters. Third book finishes on a cliffhanger. Not really a problem, because I like cliffhangers in a series. But that was the last book of the trilogy. That pisses me off! I don't get to know what happens next to the characters, and maybe 10% plot is resolved. I will probably never read anything else by this author, ever again.

Do you write fiction yourself?

I do, I wrote a story about fate, nightmares, demons and magic.

I can't publish it yet. I wrote that novel for NaNoWriMo 2010, and I intend to go full indie on it, but first I need to edit the hell out of it, and also, translate it in English, which is not my mothertongue. I'll probably also publish naughtier things under a secret pen name.

I'm a more successful reader than I am an author.

What is your favorite Mike Wells book and why?

At the time of writing, I've only read Wild Child, but Wild Child 2 - Lilith is next on my to-read list. I also have my eye on Baby Talk.

I love Wild Child because it is fast-paced. Also, it deals with the supernatural, so that's my kind of book. I wanted to slap Kyle and Briana for their decisions, as I almost always do for characters I care about. Also, I'm totally and irrevocably in love with Brains (and want to slap Brawn). I also love that Mike made it a series, I want to know what happens next.

Thanks so much for your interview, Nathalie!

Readers all over the world can only rejoice at having the opportunity, like I did, to get their hands on so many compelling stories, all thanks to indie publishing. Indie publishing gives the power back into the hands of the authors and the readers. Let us, reader, choose who is worth our time and our dollars.

Nathalie Hamidi is known to lurk on Twitter (@nathaliehamidi) and blabbers about everything but mostly about unimportant stuff on her weblog (High Maintenance and Deranged). There, you can read her thoughts about writing, laugh at all the stupid memes she posts, and have a peek at her most intimate and shameful life events (in French in the past, in English nowadays). She also promises not to keep on talking about herself in the third person.