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Freebies

Planning for November

No Comments » Written on May 13th, 2020 by
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20 Books Vegas

Between battling cancer, recovering from chemo, and oh yeah the whole COVID-19 craze, I haven’t traveled far from home this year and don’t expect that to change any time soon. No appearances, lectures, readings, or coneventions. Obviously, I’m not alone in this.

Lots of people have come up with creative solutions and stopgaps. I’ve participated in Stu Segals’ virtual Strolling with the Stars, both as the designated guest and as a viewer of many others. I spend at least three mornings each week sitting in on live interviews of luminaries within the indie publishing community. To no one’s surprise, various conventions have decided to go virtual (a big example being the Nebula Conference later this month), and even my monthly writers’ workshop group has shifted to meeting on Zoom.

At this point, I suspect the only event I’ll be physically attending this year is the annual 20BooksTo50K conference scheduled for November — assuming that in six more months the world will have stopped burning quite so much. It’s three very full days of brilliant presentations focused on the indie business side of writing — as opposed to other professional writing conferences I’ve attended where the emphasis is on craft — from marketing to managing cash flow, cover design to blurbs, pros and cons of KU vs. going wide, newsletter onboarding and general care & feeding of one’s subscribers, back lists and sell through, and on and on.

Flash Drive

Before those three days of presentations, there’ll be a day of industry professionals making themselves available for conversations and questions. Representatives from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Microsoft, Podium, Tantor, DreamWorks, Findaway Voices, Publisher’s Weekly, Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, Reedsy, BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, Cover Artists, and so many more. It’s going to be a crazy wonderful opportunity to make some serious connections (and have the following three days to expand on them).

But wait, there’s more. On the fifth day, there will be an Indie Book Fair. I’ve already reserved a table (well, half a table). I’ll be there with a good assortment of my titles, and while I’ll be only too happy to sell them, I’ll naturally sign anything that people bring in. These kinds of events can often be very “hit or miss” bur I’m expecting a huge response because of all the lost opportunities for fans not being able to travel to conventions this year.

Flash Drives

Which is why I wanted to do something special. Something different.

Which is why I arranged for some custom flash drives. What you’re seeing in the images on this page are basically credit card sized (52mm x 83mm) flip drives, the bit that plugs into the USB slot snaps up and unfolds from a hinge and you’re good to go.

I’ve had these made up by the fine folks at usbmemorydirect.com. They feature an image of the Amazing Conroy on one side and the logo of my publishing imprint, Paper Golem, on the other.

My plan is to load up the drives with copies of my books and give them away during the Indie Book Fair on the last day of the 20 Books Vegas conference. Mind you, I have a limited number of these flash drives, and when they’re gone that’s it — unless it’s a huge success, in which case I’ll make more for other conferences in 2021. And… now that I think about it, I’ll probably hold a couple in reserve as a giveaway for the folks on my mailing list.

And that’s my travel plans for the rest of 2020. I hope to see some of you in Las Vegas, and if you are coming out (I should mention the conference is at Sam’s Town) then I hope you’ll come by for a flash drive full of my fiction.

B.W.O.P. Update – Catalan, Finnish, Polish, and (Mexican) Spanish now available as free mobi & ePub files

No Comments » Written on February 12th, 2015 by
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As you know, Bob, the Buffalito World Outreach Project (BWOP) is my attempt to use science fiction to reach the entire planet, spreading the first tale of the Amazing Conroy and his buffalo dog, Reggie, to speakers of as many languages as I can.

Toward that end, it gives me great pleasure to announce that shiny, new and improved, and free downloads are now available in both ePub and mobi formats for the following languages: Catalan, Finnish, Polish, and (Mexican) Spanish.

Gossos bufal Puhvelikoirat
Gossos bufal : (mobi) | (ePub) Puhvelikoirat : (mobi) | (ePub)
     
Pieski buffalito Perros bufalo
Pieski buffalito : (mobi) | (ePub) Perros bufalo : (mobi) | (ePub)

Freebie Friday – January 2, 2015 – “Cat Futures”

No Comments » Written on January 2nd, 2015 by
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Cat Futures

I’m not sure if I’ll remember (or have the time) to do this every month, but if it happens that I do, I’ll make available a new ebook short on the first Friday of each month. It will show up on my website’s Freebies Page.

I’m starting the year with “Cat Futures,” originally published back in 2005 in the long gone online zine, The Town Drunk. As I mention in the story’s introduction, every author has to write a cat story sooner or later, and this was mine. I hope you like it.

Solstice 2014: Celebrate Short Fiction Day

No Comments » Written on December 21st, 2014 by
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Author, Photographer, and all-around selfless person, Sally Wiener Grotta, brought this to my attention, and now I’m bringing it to yours:

Please join us in marking today, December 21st (or as it’s known in the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice), as Celebrate Short Fiction Day.

Nancy Christie, the founder of Celebrate Short Fiction Day, says, “The winter solstice marks both the start of winter and the shortest day of the year. So why not take advantage of the long winter night to curl up with a good short story?”

Seriously, like you needed an excuse?

All over the Internet, authors and small presses are making samples of their short fiction available to you for free today. Here’s a link to the freebies from Sally’s Pixel Hall Press, and here’s a link to an updated (i.e., better ebook code than the last version) of a short story over on my Freebie Page.

Please help spread the word, and the fiction!

New Freebie: “Bugjuice”

No Comments » Written on September 24th, 2014 by
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AUTHOR

In honor of the changing of the season, elsewhere on the website I’ve revamped the Freebies Page, complete with a new policy for the ebook shorts that will show up there.

To celebrate you’ll find the electronic debut of “Bugjuice,” a story first published in 2000 in Jeffrey Dwight’s Age of Wonders from SFF net. I hope you like it.

Psst! Click the cover image at right to go to the Freebies Page.

“Buffalo Dogs” now available in the Mexican idiom

No Comments » Written on April 17th, 2012 by
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I keep forgetting to mention it, but there’s a new addition over on the B.W.O.P. page.

Mexican Spanish

Professional translator Sabina Trigueros has very kindly provided a second Spanish version of “Buffalo Dogs,” this one in the Mexican (as opposed to the continental) idiom.

And yes, that is very cool!

Buffalito Winter Freebie!

No Comments » Written on January 26th, 2012 by
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You know, it’s been a while since I posted a Freebie. Time to rectify that.

If you head over to the Freebies section of my website (http://www.lawrencemschoen.com/schoen-freebies/), you’ll find a new addition, a PDF of a recently published short story entitled “Yesterday’s Taste.”

This is a Conroy and Reggie story that I wrote for Colin Harvey. He was putting together Transtories, an anthology for Aeon Press in Ireland, and asked me to send him something. The gimmick of the anthology was to base some aspect of the story on a word that began with “trans.” It seemed like a fun challenge, and the result was “Yesterday’s Taste. Colin accepted the story less than 24 hours after I emailed it to him. Tragically, Colin died of a stroke in the summer of 2011, two and a half months before the book’s release.

I’m very fond of the story, and I hope you like it.

“The Moment” – dead link situation

1 Comment » Written on March 15th, 2011 by
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Whoops!

Unbeknownst to me, the old links to downloadable copies of my Hugo-nominated short story, “The Moment,” did not survive the changeover of this site to its current WordPress incarnation.

My sincere apologies to anybody who has gone to any of the dead URLs seeking a copy of the story. I wish someone had alerted me to this problem sooner. I’ll talk to my WebMaster about either restoring or redirecting those links, but in the meantime, you can download the story here: “The Moment”