Mega Sale - Reformed & Beckoning Souls!

Happy Sunday, readers! In an attempt to get some attention on two of my books that have sort of lagged in sales, I have put two of my books on sale for 99 Cents! They are great books that I enjoyed writing, and I'd love to get some attention on them! They are also both available on Kindle Unlimited, so if you are enrolled in this perk, you can get them that way as well!

Here are the two books on sale for 99 Cents -

Click here to buy Beckoning Souls on Amazon

Nathan Gallagher doesn’t believe in ghosts. As a fireman, he’s seen his share of dead people, but they never spoke to him before—until now. His marriage is great, and his relationship with his son is strong, but Nathan is sure that if he tells his family that he’s seeing ghosts, it is a quick ticket to a padded room and a straightjacket. 

When the ghosts become violent and attack Nathan, his secret is revealed—except his wife doesn’t believe his claim about the supernatural. She demands he seek professional help. He knows he’s not crazy, but with no proof that the ghosts are real, he’s committed to a mental hospital against his will. The ghosts follow him, pushing him farther into a terrifying world he can’t find his way out of. 

With his marriage, his sanity, and even his very life at stake, Nathan needs to find out why the ghosts are haunting him before it’s too late. 

Click here to buy Reformed on Amazon

Ryan Shay wants to forget his past. Memories of an abusive childhood, betrayal from his family, and a failure to trust anyone have held him captive his whole life. Afraid to confront his demons, it's a miracle he hasn't wound up a statistic in the war on drugs. Having no real purpose or reason to get better, he has failed several rehab stints and has always gone back to the one thing he finds comfort in – drugs and alcohol. 

After being accused of stealing from a local dealer, suffering from an overdose, and learning he might have a son, Ryan finds a strong reason to break the chains of his addictive past and end the cycle of his shameful ways. He is determined to become clean, despite the constant negativity sent his way from his friends and society. His success is not only for himself, but for someone who desperately needs him. 

What could be viewed as a careless mistake to many is possibly the one thing that might save Ryan Shay’s life.

Please spread the word about this sale, and as always, happy reading to you all!

Kindly,

J.R. 

Fight for Absolution Now Available

Announcing the release of Fight for Absolution

Click here to view on Amazon

Description:

Ryan Shay wants to forget his past. Afraid to confront his demons, it's a miracle he hasn't wound up a statistic in the war on drugs. When he hits rock bottom, he finds a reason to change his ways and break the chains of an abusive childhood that have held him captive his whole life. He's determined to succeed, and not just for himself, but for someone who needs him. His struggles to become a better man and redeem himself make his fight for absolution worth more than anything he has ever experienced before.

From the Author:

Forgiveness won't change the past - but can do a lot for a future. This book was an idea I have thought about for several years.  I am fascinated with the human mind, from addictions, to deep rooted psychology - it is a topic I'm always thinking about.  This story poured out and I wrote it faster than any book I've ever mused about. I was a bit worried about the subject matter at first, which is why it took me so long to actually give the idea a second thought, but now that it is published, I am thankful I did it. It became a journey far more exciting, emotional, and thrilling than I ever imagined it could be. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Introducing Dance With the Devil

            

            Last night, I finally got Dance With the Devil: Book Two in the Troubled Heroes Series published! Sadly, it was way past the deadline I had set for it. Originally, I wanted it posted by mid September at the latest, and here it is mid November, but hey, it has finally arrived!

            While this is the second book in the series, it can serve as a stand-alone story as well. There is no need to read Through Smoke before this one.  It is a series solely on the fact that it focuses on troubled, everyday heroes. 

            Here is the description of the book: Lane O'Reily, a Baltimore Homicide Detective, takes on the case of a lifetime when he is handed a murder investigation involving a string of young women. Desperate to solve the case before another victim turns up, he must rely heavily on his only witness, a survivor to the crimes. She begins harassing and stalking him and with his marriage, career, and life on the line, he must decide if the obsessive witness is leading him down a path to the murderer, or down a trail littered with lies, betrayal and ultimately, a dead end.

            I am relieved to finally get this published. With school coming on strong like it has, I really thought it was going to just sit on the shelf and collect dust, so to speak.  I buckled down, got it edited several times, did self-edits, and finally can take a breather! I hope if you choose to read it, that you enjoy it.

            So, what’s up next? I’m planning on beginning a sequel to Through Smoke and base it on the drought that Texas has experienced this past summer. It is in its first stages, and hopefully the fire can begin rolling on it, pun intended! 

A Little Empathy Goes A Long Way

Yesterday the writing world saw just what NOT to do when receiving constructive criticism through a review.  I won't mention any names since the said person has already been put through the ringer. (I'm sure most of us know who I speak of.)  When I first heard and read about the "train wreck", as many people are calling it, I was dismayed.  It was extremely unprofessional and downright arrogant.  We all know this.  I was sucked into the drama of all of the responses on Al's "Books and Pal's" Blog.  I was furious that another indie author did this. All of us indie authors already have so much stigma we have to overcome and when someone pulls a stunt like this it makes that huge mountain even steeper.

What got me the most about it all was how many people dog piled the blog and Amazon where the book is published.  One star reviews came in quick.  Not one of the reviews had a "verified purchase" attached to it.  They all claim to have read the sample and based their review on that.  I guess it's easy to say that but there's no way of proving it. I downloaded the sample. I have all faith in Al's review but I'm the type of person who looks when people tell me not to.  I have to admit that the writing was very poor quality and I found myself struggling to even make it through the second chapter.  There were mistakes that a basic editor would have caught right off.  However, it still does not give people the right to go onto the book page and SLAM her with one star review after one star review.  Yeah, she made a complete fool of herself on the internet -- the worst place to throw a fit.... but kicking her when she's already down is about as unprofessional as her replies to her review were.

As a student of psychology I can't help but sit back and look at this all from a broad perspective.  I know many people out there have had temper tantrums and rants. The most recent and well known would be Charlie Sheen.  We all get angry. It's human nature and we deal with it in our own ways. For me, I go running or listen to my music. Some sleep. Some eat. In general, we all have pretty "normal" responses to things that anger us.  Her reaction didn't seem "normal" to me at all, even when normal is relative.  She appears to show some mental instability.  We all get our hot headed moments but usually back away and realize that we were in the heat of the moment and it wasn't wise.  However, her comments were over the course of a few days when she did have ample time to cool off.

Maybe I am overanalyzing this.  I am in no way condoning what this author did.  She could have handled it in a much better way and it wouldn't have killed the future of her book(s). But then I still have to wonder if there is some mental barrier getting in the way of her judgment. I guess I'll never truly know. As already stated, I really hope readers don't group us all into the chaos that one indie author has caused.  Not all of us will respond to reviews that way and the majority of us do edit our work before publishing.  It stinks that one bad seed can really mess things up for the rest of us.

As for the people who are piling up the false one star reviews... to me that is stooping right down to her level of unprofessionalism. I really hope people sit back and realize how hurtful it is and eventually take their reviews down.  The main point of all of this is to be more empathetic to other people. Put yourself in their shoes. All of us are battling something in life and we never know what that one thing is that will trigger our anger to extreme levels.