Giving away five copies of Anabar series for Young Adult Book Club

From July 1 until July 7, I'm giving away five copies of Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises as part of the YABC Festival celebrating the first six months of the Young Adult Book Club (YABC) on Goodreads.com. YABC
This giveaway will be available for the first five YABC members that post a comment here asking for the books.
Readers can find much more about both books at my Anabar Series Blog: http://anabarseries.blogspot.com/

Shameless Comparison to Pottermore

I know some of you might accuse me of trying to take advantage of J.K Rowling's announcement of her new Pottermore website venture, but (here goes) I believe I have been trying to do a similar thing with my Anabar Series blog. Since I began working on my blog several months ago, I have been trying to make it an interactive immersive experience for readers of my Anabar series.

I carefully read Rowling's press release announcement of Pottermore, and I was happy to see her include ideas similar to what I am doing with my my blog.

The press release states: "J.K. Rowling has written extensive new material about the characters, places and objects in the much-loved stories, which will inform, inspire and entertain readers as they journey through the storylines of the books."


Well, everything on my blog is new material I have written, and I hope it will entertain my readers and add to the experience of reading my books.


Rowling's press release also states: "In the new website, the storyline will be brought to life with sumptuous newly-commissioned illustrations and interactive ‘Moments’ through which you can navigate, starting with the first book..."


Again, I am trying to do much the same thing. My blog now has new photographs, posters, notes, a map, and a journal. I believe these feature will bring my stories to life. I also have plans to continue to add to my blog every week in the foreseeable future. To be honest, I am having fun working on my blog - I hope readers and potential readers will have fun there too.


I think Pottermore is great news for those of us trying to promote our ebooks. Rowling had injected a huge amount of legitimacy to ebooks with her announcement. That can only help us all.


Please check out my blog. I would love to hear what you think.
http://anabarseries.blogspot.com/

New horror short stories and blog

I've just opened a new blog at Bad Dreams From Will Granger where I am promoting the first of my new horror short stories.


The Deadly Path is the tale of five-year-old Cindy, who often watches from her bedroom window as an old man passes by her house in the middle of the night. Strangely drawn to the man, Cindy sneaks out of her house and finds him by following a golden path that only they can see. She watches as he buries strange coins by the corners of several houses. 
What Cindy does not know is that people start dying in those houses. Cindy's life changes when her best friend dies in a fire, and she finds one of the coins buried under the ashes.

Gladitorium Immortuos takes place in Ancient Rome. Soldiers capture some Immortuos (Zombies), which are then used in a new form of gladiatorial combat where the audience gets to participate. The Roman crowd loves the new games, and everyone is happy until...well, ah, when do things ever end well with Zombies?

Anabar's Run featured on Indie Snippets Blog

Thanks go to Bryan for posting a snippet feature on Anabar's Run at Indie Snippets Blog. Bryan runs a great blog where he promotes many authors with interesting "Snippets" or excerpts of 200 words or less. He provides a great service for writers and readers alike. Please check out his blog at http://indiesnippets.blogspot.com/ follow it, and help spread the word about it.

Getting featured on Indie Snippets is my latest step in promoting my books and my Anabar brand. I also just moved my Anabar Series blog to Blogger at http://anabarseries.blogspot.com/ . I believe I have succeeded a creating a fun and interesting site for my readers, especially the Middle Grade readers. I will continue to add to site site.

I think my Anabar Series blog is an example of what writers can now do with our books to add to the overall experience of reading. I believe we will see more and more writers creating interesting websites to compliment their books.

Continuing YA discussion on Wall Street Journal boards

There is an enthusiastic discussion going on at the Wall Street Journal web page at this page.
Many people are debating Meghan Cox Gurdon's article Darkness Too Visible
Her subheading, "Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?" should give you a good idea of what she says in her article.


I agree that some YA fiction is excessively vulgar, and I think the best way to deal with this is for parents to pay attention to what their children are reading. 
Whatever your position on this, post a comment so we can discuss it. Also, if you agree with me, join me on the WSJ site - I need some backup there!
Thanks,
Will

Free ebooks! My First Giveaway of Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises

Hi everyone,


I know other authors offer giveaways from time to time, so I decided to offer free copies of my books. Hopefully some of you will take advantage of my offer and enjoy read the books. If you post a reply here or send me a message on Twitter at my Twitter page  by June 23, I'll be happy to send you a Smashwords.com coupon code for free copies of both Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Thanks,


Will

Profiteering Instead of Therapy in Vulgar YA Literature

There is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Darkness Too Visible" (Link to article) by Meghan Cox Gurdon in which she includes the sub heading, "Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?".  She makes the point that there is too much extreme violence and explicit sexual content in YA literature today.


I agree with her to a point. While I am not in favor of censorship and banning books, I think parents have the responsibility to know what their children are reading and to control it if they do not feel it is appropriate. It is also not responsible parenting to have no idea what your kids are reading. That is not permissive or enlightened - it is lazy parenting.


Some argue that Ms. Gurdon and others who agree with her cannot see that writers of such depravity are helping young readers by teaching them about what the world is really like. 
I say that it is a bullshit excuse to say that this extreme violence and sex is being written solely with our kids' best interests in mind. These writers are not some sort of quasi-therapists or inspirational figures who are seeking to enlighten our youth - they are simply profiteering and taking advantage of the market.
Still writers should write what they want, and they should do so to try to sell their books. You have to be honest if you want to be a writer. 
That's why I think it is the parent's responsibility to make the decisions about what is appropriate.

Editing complete on Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises!

Thanks to some excellent suggestions, I spent the last two weeks editing Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises. I fixed some grammar and spelling issues, but more significantly, I corrected some details and made everything a bit more concise and clear.

I enjoyed this process. It was fun getting back into my stories and getting to know my characters again. Try rereading something you wrote over a year ago - it is a unique experience.

I am confident both books are now in much better shape, and that readers will enjoy them more. Now that I am into my summer break from teaching, I have plans to do several things to build up my writing career.

First, I will move my Anabar website over to Blogger and plan to continue to add to the content. I want the site to be a very interesting and enjoyable place place for readers. My goal is to add a ton of content over the summer

I am also writing a horror short story that is vastly different that Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises. It is the story of a little girl and an old man who share a nasty talent. I have had the basic story in my head for some time, and I am enjoying finally writing it. Actually sitting down and writing is still the best part of all of this.