FYI: This post sets off a busy day here on The Scoop. I am going for four today as I have a backlog of posts on digital short stories. My problem of late has been I have enjoyed reading them way too much as I have been able to find a diversity of stories to read which I think fuels my desire to read even more. Starving in Malibu is a prime example of that. Dianne Sherry Case has written three things now that I have read: her full length novel Elephant Milk, Starving in Malibu, and one more…

Check this out ,I got this right from the source, Matt Williams himself, who better to tell you about the story and his main character:

“ I started writing Jak Phoenix in September 2008, after beers with friends led to the inevitable conversations nerds have about movies, comics, space and how we always had ‘better ideas’ than the churned-out supply of Hollywood remakes and reboots.

‘Better ideas’ is a pretty subjective term, but after the 50th conversation about…

My Mother always told me: DO NOT JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER! That would be a big mistake here. The squirrel on the cover is cute and funny but the story inside is all too real and surreal at the same time. The story revolves around a poor guy that gets downsized after working at the same place for 25 years. Basically he is told one day that his services are no longer needed and he is shoved under the bus. Dribbles then comes into the picture as our now unemployed everyman has hatched a plan…

I wanted to lead the day off with this one and today is big, four posts on four very different digital short stories. Robert Ford, Cody Toye, Matt Williams & Diane Sherry Case each bring something to the table. I am going a different route today with the posts, short sweet and to the point. Remember when it comes to downloading these stories there are plenty of free applications to make it easy to read these stories on just about any e-reader: smartphone, laptop, home computer, tablet,…

Vampires anyone? Laurie Bowler has taken the genre to a whole new level with her body of work. She is definitely a busy gal with her newest full length novel, The Depths of Darkness. She also has her new series Across the City which has three installments in publication already: The Beginning, The Battle Begins, and Carnage with a fourth on the way, The Alliance. Laurie will be my guest in The G-ZONE next week April 5^th @ 8.30am EST to discuss all that and much, much, much more.…

Two sisters, one story, & plenty of emotion, this is the recipe for Wicked Good. An excellent one at that as this novel is surprising in its quality and ability to not just grab the reader, but evoke a myriad of emotions that range from tears to hope and inspiration to a few smiles and uplifting moments along the way. Did I, the heartless reader and blogger that I am just write tears? Yes, I did and as manly as I am ,if you cannot shed a few tears as you read this novel, well then your…

-The western, what is the deal on that? Where did that come from?

At the heart of every western a man or woman faces danger, hardship, or overwhelming odds. It’s a timeless theme of courage, especially when their quest takes them into the vast unknown, where they must face the elements and other enemies head on, with little more than a horse, a gun and meager supplies. People always tell me they don’t like westerns, so I thought, why not create the type of western people…

Hey, I didn’t post this early today; I am a bit whooped on from a busy weekend. My youngest daughter had her birthday this weekend, we had a houseful Friday night, and then last night we were partying with Big Daddy Abel, author of the Open Mic series, and the Amish Outlaws at the Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pa. The houseful of people and the birthday celebration were nice; I love having the family around. The concert was intense and jam packed as they turned people away at the…

Yesterday I had the privilege of announcing the first winner in the Trestle Press Spring Submission Contest: Jeffrey Martin for House of Misery. Serious stuff and it is an intense read. More on that in a bit. The contest winners will be announced at different times during the week on my blogtalk show The G-ZONE until we reach the conclusion on or around the 15^th of April. The submissions were many. They varied in style and substance, and were all together amazing. My experience…

The stories just keep pouring out of Laurie Bowler. As I am writing this post she is releasing The Depths of Darkness, a full length novel (I will be posting on that next week). She also has Across the City, the fourth chapter in the continuing saga ready to edit. I already have the cover done for that bad boy and will put it up on Facebook after I put this post up. Hopefully you will like the cover art. Laurie will be my guest again in April on The G-ZONE, my blogtalk radio show.…

For those of you that didn’t tune in on Monday to my blogtalk radios show The G-ZONE, shame on you. Okay, maybe you had something to do, but you can at least listen to it on the archive, who knows maybe you will find another author you find interesting. The reason I am pointing this out is this: Tom gave me a new insight into how and why he writes. I found his answers to my questions compelling as well as very telling and it helped me to appreciate his hard work even more. Here is…

TGIF and welcome to the almost weekend. We have a stellar day planned and a huge weekend ahead of us here @ The Scoop and The G-ZONE. We have another tripleheader of posts tomorrow for Digital short Saturday and a very nice novel for Self Published Sunday. Today on The G-ZONE I get to interview Jeffrey Martin and also make the 1^st announcement of winners in the Trestle Press Spring Submission Contest. Tuesday I will be making the next one. Let’s shift gears: Are you…

Busy, busy, busy. I want to thank everyone for their kind words and support for the work I have been doing with various cover art projects, logo art and posting lately. It has meant a lot to me and helped propel me forward. Tomorrow I get the honor of announcing the first winner in the Trestle Press Spring Submission Contest on my blogtalk radio show The G-ZONE.  It is an honor and also a blast to be a part of this. I will be doing a little bit each week as we get closer and closer to the…

It is hump day, Wednesday, for those of us not keeping count. The end of the week for me is just 5 short days away. Wait, then a new week starts again. I need a vacation! Our main character in the novel tried that and her work followed her. Does that mean when I get to take a few days off, some novels, digital short stories and graphic novels are going to follow me? I hope so! The beach wouldn’t be the same without them. Fortunately when work follows me on vacation, I love it and get to…

Me, a huge fan of the Oregon Files?  You never have to ask me that question twice, yes, and then again yes. I just love the work they have done with this series from the get go. More on that in a minute: today on The G-ZONE ,our blogtalk radio show, Big Daddy Abel dropped by; catch it on the archives, and on Weds. John DeDakis, author/instructor/ and CNN Producer will be stopping by at 8.30amEST, breakfast with the G-Man. Good stuff, so please join us for the fun , good conversation and…

It is Monday and as such I am staring a seriously long and fun week ahead. The posting schedule I have set up for this week and next is chock full of great novels, digital shorts, self-published authors and graphic novels. The Scoop is counting down to its 500th post in just about a year in business. We are, to say the least, very proud of this achievement. I want to thank all the readers, followers, social network friends, authors & bloggers that have read our posts as well…

Humor comes in many different forms. Yesterday I touched on Tom Sumner’s All I Wanted Was a Haircut. His brand of humor is a bit different from BDA (I need to save keystrokes here people, so from now on through this post I am going to refer to Big Daddy Abel as BDA), all of it in good way. Besides that, I needed to lighten the mood today from my earlier post on Laurie Bowler’s Across the City Chapter Two. There is no bloodletting or vampires in BDA’s Open Mic Volume Two, hopefully that…

It has been a busy weekend here @ The Scoop. There are some amazing digital short stories out there and this is another one of them. Call Me Smitty is a three part series thus far; today’s post is on the first installment. B.R. Stateham will be my guest in The G-ZONE April 6^th @ 9am EST. I think it will be fun. What exactly is this digital short series all about, well check it out:

“From the mind of B.R. Stateham, author of Death of Young…

Is it actually Saturday? Yes, today I have it right and all has been restored to its proper order. Now if I could only figure out what to with all the body parts lying around, figuratively of course, from this digital short. Seriously, back up the truck because what goes on in these virtual pages won’t fit into a normal pickup truck. If you enjoy buckets of blood with a side order of severed limbs and vampire organs, then you have come to the right digital short story. Pull up a…

Being the smart guy I am, I needed to look up the word sublime in the dictionary. The results of that inquiry are as follows: Under verb used without an object: to convert (a solid substance) by heat into a vapor. I do this very well; ask those that are around me. I decided to read on, I figure why not I am on a roll: and as an adjective: complete, absolute, utter and haughty. The last one sounds like it is an interpretation from England. So in conclusion, to use the word sublime…