I wasn’t sure if I had fallen back into loving horror. Then I bought a box set of Five Nights at Freddy’s Fazbear Frights (the covers remind me of classic Goosebumps—both have bold, creepy designs that don’t rely on gore). Then I binged multiple episodes of The Magnus Archives (the first episode is so good and utterly horrifying). Then discovered, all over again, how much I like Lovecraftian horror in general. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Books
Reading A Big Paperback
It’s been a while since I’ve read a massive paperback book. The kind of book so large that it’s not fit for the human hand. The kind you hold up with spread fingers, and it’s way too heavy, but you need to keep it aloft or it will fall on your face.
And, well, it’s just been nice. The look of ink on real paper and watching the remaining pages shrink. It’s satisfying in a way that digital books are not—and could never hope to emulate. Continue reading
Poem: The World of Books
I remember that feeling of the shelves,
The walking through them like a forest of dust,
That smell and that particle,
The quiet of it all. Continue reading
Ads and More Ads
They were not kidding when they said it would become hard to find time to write when you started to see some success. My Actually Author series is going pretty well (I’m at 974 orders!) and I spent a lot of time on ads.
A lot. Continue reading
My Non-Fiction Trilogy
I got the paperback of my recent book.
And that makes three. This is the first trilogy I’ve ever published. Though I do plan to write future books in the series, I cannot explain how proud it made me to hold what I’ve been working on for the past few months.
Collectively, it’s over 300 pages of my musings, thoughts, advice, and experiences with writing books and being a storyteller. Continue reading
New “Are You Actually” Book!
When I said I would publish books faster, I was not kidding. Behold, the newest of my continuous stream of creations: Are You Actually Going to Improve as A Writer or Just Fade into Obscurity?
This one is exclusively writing advice. Stuff like plot, characters, and how to world build without expositioning all over the place for the first few chapters.
It was also, by far, the hardest of the Actually Author series to write. Though the next one in the series is also proving to be a difficult one to handle. It’s about Amazon Advertising, and what stuff I’ve found to be effective after testing for the past year or so.
I may take more than a month on that one.
Anyway, here’s the cover of the current book: Continue reading
Revisiting Old Books
I was a voracious reader growing up. I still am, but it has nothing on how fast I chewed through story after story when I was a kid. I would go to the library and easily fill a bag with twenty books, then finish three or four within a day or two.
And lately, I’ve reread some books from back then. The pulpy fun novels that got me into the stories I now write myself.
Continue readingI Wrote A Book in About 9 Days
I need to curb some excitement right off the bat because there are a lot of caveats to this. I did, yes, write a book in about 9 days, but there’s more to it than that.
So, first off, for those curious, I wrote the next book in what I am tentatively calling the “Actually Author Series.” They are my nonfiction books about the art of writing books and how to do it quickly. Continue reading
Sprinting To Amazement
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I write fast as it is. That’s a brag—I think I earned it. I’ve written more than a million words and I’m still in my twenties. That’s probably worth some credit.
But even I was not prepared for how effective writing sprints are for me.
Like, these things are absurd. Continue reading
Advertising Is Hard, You Guys
As an author, I am bullheaded. And the latest thing I’ve been slamming my noggin at over and over is getting my advertising to work. I’ve published 3 books so far, and, as a very small author in a very large pool, I know that the only way that anyone is going to know about anything I write is to advertise, either on social media or in person or through paid advertising. Continue reading
FREE Book Giveaway! Yes, Really!
Hey everyone! Bonus post!
I Have A Question For You…”Is It Dystopia Time?” https://t.co/nH5eLfYSPF #giveaway #win via @RealKingSumo
— Brandon Scott (@coolerbs) April 4, 2020
I realize that a lot of people aren’t really in a place where they can justify buying books. So, I thought I’d make this free for a few people.
All you need to do is enter your email. And, then, at the end of the month, I’ll send three digital copies to people.
And I think some of you will really enjoy it.
If you like Dystopian Satire, this is perhaps the most ridiculous one you’re ever going to read. I decided to take the tropes of the genre and dial them up as high as I could go.
Surveillance cameras in a doorway? Try 11, all jockeying for the same view.
It’s silly, absurd, but still has fun characters and an exciting plot.
It’s the first of a five-book series that I’ve been working on for years and finally am getting into publishing each book. I expect to get the next one out within a month.
So, yeah, if you want to get into the story without spending any money, enter now!
My Writer’s Block
Okay, honest here, I’ve written a lot. Over 20 books. Depending on how you count novellas, it’s a lot more than that. For more than 2 years, closer to 3, I wrote around 1500 words a day. That’s over a million words. Continue reading
Tear It All Down–Why I Wrote The Book I Did
Sometimes I write articles to answer questions in a place I can always point to later. And, lately, a question I’ve gotten a few times is “what made you write this book?” So, here’s the answer: to tear down an old cliché.
I make no bones about this, I am tired of stories with “being the chosen one” as the reason for a protagonist to be a protagonist. Characters that are talented, characters that are part of an elite group: that’s fine. Stories about average joes are not the only type of tale, and it would be boring if they were. But, specifically, what ground my gears when I began writing Just Another Chosen One were those tales of heroes who would always win in the end.
“Destined” to save the world.
Where’re the real stakes there? Continue reading
The Battle For Books
Being a writer in 2017 is not easy. We have competition and not just from our fellow wordsmiths. How can a book compete with Netflix and Hulu and movies? I mean, I love books, duh, and I read a lot of them, but even I am a lover of movies. How could you not love movies? They’re so good lately. Continue reading
Starting Off Dead
The easiest way to get me to buy a book is for the first few sentences to blow me away, or for the premise to be amazing, or for your name to be J.K. Rowling or Neal Shusterman.
So, to this end, when I’m not already a fan of the author and the premise isn’t an immediate hook, I have a little test I will do, which while not at all fair, is fun and a learning opportunity. And the test is this: if I read the first sentence, or the first page, and my eyes don’t bounce off once, then it goes on the to-buy list.
Again, super unfair. But it is an interesting exercise. And, by doing this sort of test a lot, I’ve noticed a few reoccurring methods of structuring the beginning sentence from book to book. Continue reading
Coolerbs Writes 