Thank You

Christmas was very big for King's X.  I'm not exactly sure what this means going forward, but after 2 months of modest sales since publishing on Amazon in October, King's X is selling... a lot.  Way more than I expected to sell with a debut.   The screen shot below was the peak of the crazy Christmas rush - at #797 in the entire Kindle store.  I'm stunned.  

Currently it's back to somewhere in 1000's... still stunned.  And very grateful.  Thank you to everyone who has helped with reviews, and tweets, and telling your friends... and thank you to everyone who reads my book.  I don't know if this will last, but it's happening at the moment and it feels really good.  

Thank you all. 

"Wow....just wow!" King's X is Free All Day, today only!

King's X will be FREE on Amazon.com all day - DECEMBER 23rd!*

Click the link below to get your copy!

Download FREE from Amazon US

Download FREE from Amazon UK

"Wow...just wow.  Harper really understands language. ... If you're looking for dessert, skip this.  It's too satisfying by far, completely engaging from beginning to end." 

-- Tamara Rose Blodgett, Author of "The Pearl Savage."

"King's X is a rare reader experience: an authentic thrill-ride that reads like literary fiction.  A must-read...!"
-- Laura Taylor, Author of "Honor Bound"

"The Maltese Falcon" crossed with a real-world "Lord of the Rings." A spellbinding page-turner for fans of "American Gods," "The Stand," The Alchemist," "Outlander," and "The Time Traveller's Wife," King's X merges gripping modern suspense with swashbuckling historical adventure through one stunning paranormal twist. 

  

What happens when we die?  Is it Nothing?  Is it Something?

Molly Reed recalls many past lifetimes...perfectly.  And so does her Enemy.  He has waited patiently for her return and now has the scent once more.  The chase is on... again.

Wendell Book is a young detective stuck working the dark side of Hollywood. When Molly breaks into his apartment looking for his long-dead father, Book knows this runaway girl is different.  Somehow, in ways neither of them can yet see, Book and Molly are connected.  Now he must protect her from an Enemy he could never have imagined long enough for Molly to remember the rest of her story...  The "King's X" is hidden somewhere in Los Angeles, right where she left it...long before she was even born.

*NOTE - This promotion is now over, but I'd like thank everyone who got a copy, tweeted about it or told a friend or left a review.  King's X had just under 5000 downloads on Dec 23rd!  Thank you all!   

Okay... but what does King's X really mean...?

Here are excerpts from a really fun interview I did with author, Tamara Rose Blodgett.  

Besides being an Author of several successful novels and series, Ms. Blodgett is also an excellent book reviewer for both her own blog and print.  There are many kinds of “awesome” - particularly for lovers of the paranormal - to be found right here... http://tamararoseblodgett.blogspot.com/

"Death Screams," the third installment of her successful YA Paranormal series will be released in January.  Meanwhile, Book One, "Death Whispers is FREE for a limited time on Amazon.com.

Ms. Blodgett's insightful 5 Star review of King's X and the complete interview can also be found here... 

http://tamararoseblodgett.blogspot.com/p/thursday-focus-authorinterview-guest.html

Here are some the highlights of our conversation, including an explanation of the title... What does King's X mean?

TRB: Stephen, I really enjoyed your debut novel, King's X. It's written with very realistic dialogue and placed in two different eras in history. What gave you the idea for switching back and forth? It's a unique method and compliments the reincarnation theme well.

STH: Thank you very much, Tamara. And thanks for having me.

The idea to have two converging story lines in different eras started with one of my favorite movies, "The Maltese Falcon." That's always been one of those movies for me, if I see it's on TV, I just stop whatever I'm doing and watch until it's over. Just love it. The characters, the suspense, romance, mystery, dialogue… all just great. But one of the coolest parts of the story is the stuff they only talk about in the actual movie. The history of the "Falcon," the intrigue, the spectacular chase/scavenger hunt that has apparently been going on for centuries, leading up to the events of the movie itself. It is like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is happening somewhere just off camera where we can't see it, so they're just telling us about it. I always wanted to do a story with all those elements, but also really deliver all the stuff they couldn't show.

Danielle Eubank's 3'x4' oil painting
 interpreting the dual story lines.
The shadows of heroes from different eras
cross as Molly flees
 and Broussard turns to fight.

The other part might be that I wanted to do a reincarnation story that I'd never seen before. Not so much like a ghost story with this eerie notion of, "hey, maybe she's remembering a past life." Since the beginning of wondering about things, people have wondered "what happens when we die?” The thing that gets me about this question is, it's not so much that we DON'T know the answer, it's that we CAN'T know. We can speculate. We can create beliefs and religions to address the issue. But we can't KNOW. Why is that? What's really stopping us? Once I asked that question, a pretty cool story started to brew. I realized that somebody may be keeping the answer a secret on purpose. And from there the whole world of King's X opened up for me. I knew I was onto a really special kind of villain, and a story that was going to be kind of like the Matrix, only instead of taking place in a computer, it's all of history - everything we think we know - that's been distorted all along. You cannot die. You are immortal, and incredibly powerful. But someone doesn't want you to know. They have kept you, and all of us, ignorant and afraid, since the beginning of time. Like children on a playground, like sheep before the Shepherd, we have been managed, guided… ruled. But by who… ?

TRB: Where did you get your idea for King's X and could you tell us what that title means? Do you plan to make King's X into a series? I certainly see the potential for that.

The Sign of King's X
Where did this come from?
Why does it mean what we think it means?

STH: You know when you were a kid and crossing your fingers behind your back meant that you were somehow free to lie to your best friend, or your Mom, or your teacher, with no consequences? I always wondered where the hell that thing came from. I learned that the sign used to have a name. Kids on playgrounds everywhere called it "King's X." They use to say it out loud to protect against being "it" while playing Hide and Seek or Ghost in the Graveyard. Then I wondered… okay, so where did THAT come from? 

Why "Good Luck?"

All the history in the book is based on something real. That includes the ring, the "King's X" itself. I didn't invent it so much as embellish a lot of real things. The history and legend of the King's X will take you pretty far back in time, from kids on the playground, to medieval knights and pirates, and eventually all the way back to King Solomon.

The "King's X" itself is a ring. It's either magic or of a forgotten science or both. It does many things, but the most important is this: Once you've worn it, even once, certain rules no longer seem to apply to you. For one, you no longer "forget" as the rest of us do. Every time you come back, you will gradually recall every lifetime you have lived since that first time you wore the King's X, with perfect clarity. So every skill you've mastered, every book you've read, every lesson you've learned, will be with you. You will be quite awesome, my young Jedi.

A series? Yes, and hell yes.

TRB: What type/style of a writer are you? Seat-of-Your Pants? Outline King? Master Plotter?

Or... "we're just friends, I promise..."

STH: I wish I was good at outlines. The truth is that I start with an idea, try as hard as I can to outline it, but once I introduce characters into the equation, they completely take over and start going in different directions. I think, if I'm going to hang my hat on something as a storyteller, I have big ideas, and very real, very human characters. I've got a strong sense of both empathy and logic that lets everybody have a will of their own, and they just aren't going to do something stupid even if it would make my life easier because it fits the outline. You mentioned in your review that you had to check the cover to make sure I was a man because of how real the women are in my book. That. I take a lot of pride in that. The same is true of my villains. I don't see anything they do as black and white because I try really hard to be walking in their shoes when telling their story. They are not "evil" so much as they are real people making real decisions that lead them to being a "villain." You may hate them, but you also have to sympathize at least a little.

TRB: Amen to the character's humanization, Stephen!

TRB: Did you model any characters after real-life people? Is there a character that resonates with you?

STP: King's X is big myth-making kind of storytelling. So these characters are all pretty archetypal. The fun part is in, like I said in the last question, walking in their shoes. Wendell Book isn't just "good," he's really noble deep down, with many things he can and can't recall that have shaped him. The Shepherd isn't just bad, he's as cold as ice for solid reasons, all self-made, and that to me, is really scary.

My favorite character is probably Shahin, the moorish pirate with a dark past, an aversion to bloodshed and addiction to women. I was always a Han Solo fan, and Shahin is the Han Solo of King's X. Also, he is going to play a bigger role in the next book, so I've been thinking about him more lately.

TRB: What are a few things the reader can expect from subsequent installments?

STH: This book is the story of how our heroes in the modern era first encountered the King's X in the distant past. The next book will pick up the story of the modern heroes a little bit later (actually, that's why I set the story in 1968 - in the next book they will be around 1980, and gradually move forward getting closer and closer to real time). But there will always be a separate-but-equal story from a past era that weaves together with the first. The second book is going to be about 17th century pirates and some pretty famous historical figures from the Elizabethan era. And of course it will feature tons of action, suspense and a little romance. After that, I've got plans for ancient Rome and certainly Solomon's court with an alternative history of the romance between Solomon and Sheba. I can't wait.

TRB: Me either!

TRB: What is your hope for readers to experience by reading your novel?

STH: Wow… that's a great question. I guess there are two things. One, King's X is a big roller coaster with more twists than you will see coming, so I hope everybody has fun. And second, I hope it makes people think. The idea that you really are more than you appear to be is very powerful. And King's X does have an implicit challenge when you read between the lines. Something like… "You are more than what you appear to be. Now, what are you going to do about it?"

TRB: I loved the action, the thinking and the challenge...

What the Elevator Pitch Can Never Tell You

True story:  I called for an elevator from the lobby of a Las Vegas hotel; when the door opened, Chris Angel was standing inside, levitating a beautiful female tourist.  I'm pretty sure he was actually seducing her, using the old "I'm a magician" line to convince her to let him "levitate" her in the elevator, because his method involved a lot more groping contact than other magicians I've seen.

  

This... but in an elevator.

Anyway...  levitating women in elevators.  Now that is an excellent elevator pitch!  The surprise, the mystery, the sexiness, and the visual gives you a really accurate idea of what to expect from the Chris Angel magic show (coincidentally happening later that night at that same hotel).

Elevator pitches for books are a little different.  They rarely involve touching, groping, or levitating. 


Writers are generally pretty good at expressing themselves.  In fact, in many cases, expressing themselves well is pretty much the only thing they can do.  Get a couple of drinks into a normally shy and reclusive writer at a cocktail party, and chances are you'll generate some pretty good conversation.
  

But one of the surest of surefire ways to trip a writer up and watch him fail at self-expression, is to ask him to tell you about his book.   

Tell you about some else's book?  Sure!  No problem at all.  Most writers can break someone else's story down to all the bits that might make you want to read it, and provide just the right amount of insight on why you really should (or maybe shouldn't).  

But ask the same writer about his or her own book and you might just get the deer in the headlights.  Not always, of course, because writers get better at handling the question with time, but if it's a first book... you might want to freshen your beverage pretty soon.

There is a simple reason for this.  Your own book is incredibly important to you, personally.  It's got a huge amount of you in it.  You dove as deep as you could into the bottomless pool of your  own psyche, came back to the surface with a little piece of gold... and wrote about the journey.   

They may as well have asked, "God:  Yes or No, and Why (show your work)?"

(Note - They're asking you about the Sexy, Violent, Aspirational, Dirty Playground of your Innermost Thoughts  - It's Part 1 of this rant, it's much shorter, and it's right here).

This is why writers must work out an elevator pitch for their book.  Can you say what it's about between floors in an elevator?  Many, surprisingly, can't.  

Fortunately, this is not an elevator.  If it were, I could tell you about my book (because I've worked on it really hard).  But this is my personal Blog.  And this is a rant wherein I get to say what I want to say.  So I'm going to say what I can't say at a cocktail party or in an elevator.  

I'm going to tell you (briefly and without spoilers) what no elevator pitch can ever tell.  

The Subtext!  Or, what my book is really about.   The sexy,violent, aspirational playground.  

Part of the elevator pitch for King’s X usually involves something like, “imagine 'The Maltese Falcon' crossed with 'The Lord of the Rings.'  

Now, that may very well be a pretty interesting thing to say, but what does it really mean?  

This is where the Tyranny of Genre really starts to assert its iron fist. 

Is it a detective story?  A mystery?  

Yes.  Much like “The Maltese Falcon” a modern detective suddenly finds himself in the middle of a chase that’s been going on for centuries.  Everyone is looking for one special item, something called the “King’s X.”  Only instead of a jewel encrusted statue, the King’s X is a ring.  Perhaps a “magic ring.” 

So... is it Fantasy?  Sort of.

Normally when we think of “Fantasy” stories we picture dragons and monsters, wizards and magic...  a dreamscape presented as solid flesh and blood.  King’s X takes place in the “real world,” the one you and I live in.  But at the same time, it seems to feel that this “real-world” - and all the wonders that exist within it - might just be a dreamscape presented as flesh and blood.  

The history of the world, as told to you by anyone, is not concrete. It is a tale that can change greatly depending on point of view.  The history of the United States, for example, is a radically different story when told by a professor of Economics from Harvard or a tribal elder living on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota.  Both of their stories may have merit, both may be “true” in one sense, but neither one of them tells the same story, or the complete story.  “Real” is in the eye of the beholder. 

The "magic" ring of King's X reveals something to all who wear it.  A great secret jealously kept since the beginning of "history."  You do not really die.  None of us do.  Much as you have heard many times in tales that rely purely on faith and belief, within you is an immortal spirit for which your body is a shell.

The "real world” of King’s X features familiar places and history we know a great deal about, but it is very much about the way we “behold” things.  Imagine, for example, what you would be like right now if, like Molly in the story, you could remember past lives in perfect detail.  If you could remember every book you've read, every skill you've mastered.  What would this lifetime have in store for you?  How good would you dare to be?  Or, if you were so inclined, how evil?

There are two primary ways to see the world we live in.  One way is light, easy, and optimistic.  The other way is dark, difficult, and pessimistic.  

You know these two ways perfectly well.  You can identify them co-existing in yourself as you move back and forth, constantly choosing between them from moment to moment.  You can see them operating in others all around you.  We call them character traits, opinions, or points-of-view.  In the “real-world” we all have a little bit of both in us.  In the world of a traditional Fantasy, characters tend to pick one side or the other and stick with it.  There we call these two opposing ways of seeing things, “Good” and “Evil.”  

In fairy tales it’s pretty easy to see what these stories are really about: Us.  We know the dark side of ourselves as the Wicked Queen.  She compulsively looks into the Mirror, and the Mirror informs her point of view.  So she is forever envious of what others may have, forever jealous of the beauty in others, and forever vain, clinging to her appearance on the outside because she fears the ugliness within.  

We also know the dark side as the dragon, high atop his mountain, hoarding and protecting stockpiles of gold and virgins - two things for which he has no use whatsoever, yet still keeps only for himself.  

Yes... I know these are two different movies,
but it's really the same story.
Just ask Alec Baldwin on the wall there...

On the light side, the “good” side:  There is a sleeping beauty within you, even now, who lays dormant, waiting for the hero’s kiss to awaken her.  Whether you are woman or man, the sleeping beauty is you.  The hero she waits for is also you.  How does the hero save Sleeping Beauty?  He must first defeat the Wicked Witch/Queen and the Dragon - both also you.  

Once the hero awakens her, the Kingdom which had lain frozen and lifeless, will come alive again... that’s yours too.  It’s your world, this world, seen from a new perspective.  

The characters in King’s X are real people with real problems.  A runaway teenage Girl caught between a Cop and Killer in Los Angeles.  A beautiful slave girl caught between a Soldier and a Criminal in ancient Palestine.  Their stories are connected because - just like yours and mine - depending on the ever changing point of view -  they are all questing heroes, sleeping beauties and wicked witches stuck gazing too long into their own mirrors.

Real-World Fantasy.  What is magic?  What is "reality?"  Look!  You can fly!  You can peer into a looking glass to see and speak with others on the other side of the world!  You can harness and wield fire to create or destroy anything you want to.  


And within your mirror is a wicked witch, a noble and courageous hero, and a sleeping beauty waiting to awaken. 


There... I guess that's all I wanted to say.  I think this is your floor.  

A Sexy, Violent, Aspirational, Dirty Playground of Thoughts

The Tyranny of Genre

Moments before the
big discovery of "Not Food."

Once upon a time, people lived in a world without a great deal of stuff to keep track of.  At first there were only two categories for everything in the world.  “Food” and “Not Food.”  
Things have changed.

Today, there are so many things to be aware of besides food/not-food that we have developed and mastered the art of categorizing everything for easy reference. The quicker you can define something the better.

In literature, the process looks kind of like this:

A 400 page novel becomes a 5-10 page Synopsis, then continues its spiral to a 1 page Reference Sheet,  a 1 paragraph Description, a 25 word Logline, until it is finally reduced to a single word Genre.  

I wrote a book called King’s X.  Here’s the problem it has with genre descriptions.  I could describe it with any of these words.

Mystery

Thriller

Suspense

Literary

Adventure

Romance

Paranormal

YA (2 words condensed even further!)

Historical Fiction

Historical Fantasy

Fantasy

Conspiracy

Epic

I could probably go on, but the point is... if all of those tags are accurate, then no single one could even come close to describing my story.  And all of them together paint a pretty confusing picture.  Not to mention the fact that genre is in the eye of the beholder anyway, so each one of those words means many different things to each individual person who sees them. 

Needless to say, for all it’s fastidious organization and all around anal-retentiveness, there is something very messy about this system.   

It’s also soulless and unsatisfying.  

Who cares what he's reading?

Books are intimate experiences that take place in the unassailable privacy of our minds.  That is a sexy place, a violent place, a place where we can contemplate our highest aspirations and even reach for them without fear, a place where we can roll in the glorious mud of thoughts and deeds we might not share with everybody. 

Who knows what she's reading? 

Sadly... “Sexy,Violent, Aspirational, Dirty Playground of Your Innermost Thoughts” is not a Genre.  

One of the first things any writer must do after completing a book is create an elevator pitch.  Can you describe your book between floors in an elevator?

Yes.  I can.  And sometimes I even do.  But I’ve also spent years researching, developing and finally writing King’s X.  There is a lot going on here.  

It’s a Sexy, Violent, Aspirational Playground, dammit!


NEXT TIME:  Part 2  What the Elevator Pitch Can Never Tell You