Happy Release Day-- A Little Delayed

I've been hard at work writing one manuscript and revising another. So, the blog's been a little neglected as of late. I even missed the releases of books by Laura Lond and Sybil Nelson, both good online friends.

Laura, author of the Award winning The Lakeland Knight series has a new novelette out, The Prisoner, which is Free, that's right, FREE on Amazon for the next two days.

Sybil, has just released book four in her Priscilla the Great series, which I am currently reading and loving. Sybil's writing style is very similar to my own: first person with lots of attitude!

If you have a minute, check out these titles, you just might find a great read.

Google Digs Up New Reviews & Deranged Zombie Teddy Bears

If you have a book out and you don't have Google News Alerts setup, you really should. In theory, they'll tell you anytime someone posts news, a blog, or even a new webpage about you or your book.

However, as I recently figured out, the alerts sometimes miss blogs (and other pages) that the Google search engine picks up. I was recently searching for an old review of SZJMB on Google when I noticed pages that I had never received alerts for.

This lead me to search Google for undiscovered links to my book. Most turned out to be worthless, mostly Amazon affiliate links. But some were Gold. I found two reviews and a couple mentions of my book in blogs!

First, I found a great blog: Paranormal Sisters. They gave SZJMB 4.5 stars and wrote a great review. Here's a quote:

"Over all I totally loved and am happy with how it ended, with a slice of sense of humor. But I want more. Whether more of these characters or more of MJA Ware writing, which is lucky we get two bonus short stories along with this book. Yay. "

My reply is: Don't worry Dashley, book 2 is coming along! If you've never heard of this blog check it out, it has some great reviews and they provide updates on Free paranormal Kindle books.

Elsewhere, I found what seemed to be a great review from The Crew of Misfits:

"SUPER ZOMBIE JUICE MEGA BOMB is the first installment of this unique series that is something new, something fresh, and ..."

But alas, the site is now offline and all I can read of the review is that small portion which Google had cached.

I found one more blog: Jess Resides Here (header may not be work safe) recently got a copy and I'm keeping an out for the review.

Last, there was a really cool mention on the blog, Tales of a Semi-existent Being. Apparently, the blogger had a dream (maybe more of a deranged nightmare) inspired by a wonderful zombie book, Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb (his words, not mine) :

"The zombies were giant pink fluffy teddie bears and they zombified you by giving you a hug."

Wow, that's what I call a dream, and the first dream (outside of my own while writing it) to be inspired by the book!

So, if you have Google News Alerts setup for your books, you may still want to check the Google search results out from time to time!

Image Credit: http://nightmarelunatic.deviantart.com/art/Zombie-Teddy-Bear-192973591

Win A Free Zombie Survival Kit, Last Day To Enter!

Just a quick reminder: today is the last day to enter to win a (kid safe) zombie survival kit and a signed copy of Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb (SZJMB). So if you haven't already, be sure to enter at I am a reader, not a writer.

Also, just a couple days ago, Death, books, & Tea, posted a great review of SZJMB. Here's a quote:

"The take on zombies was really good. They were funny, and the fact that something as simple as lemon juice kills them deader? Amazing. This book played to my sense of humour really well, especially the opening."

I also did a guest post with them last year on How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse. If your zombie survival planning isn't up to snuff, you might want to check it out.

Remember, if you are a blogger looking for a review copy, just email me at: mikejweare@gmail.com. I have ebook and a limited number of print copies available.

Stop SOPA/PIPA -or- Why My Websites are Down Today

If you haven't heard of the effort to stop the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation, then you probably haven't been on the web lately.

Basically this is bad, very bad, proposed legislation with (at least) some good intentions. The problem is they are way too easy to abuse.

My company has been a victim of just this sort of badly written law. I own a small(ish) online business and we used to sell on eBay. It was a great source of income. However, due to a poorly written provision in the DMCA (which is, on the whole is a good law) our competitors would file fraudulent take-down notices with eBay, who then was required by the law to pull our products from eBay.

We had no recourse except to file paperwork that would allow the other company to sue us. We spoke to a lawyer who told us a law suit would cost at least $10,000 a month. Being a small company, we had no option but to stop selling on eBay (or they were required by law to revoke our account).

Our business survived and thrived (though I'm sure we would have been profit able sooner if we had been able to continue to sell via eBay) in spite of the bad provision in this law. But imagine what would happen if the same thing happened, except not just to an eBay auction, to entire websites. Under SOPA, a competitor (or even just someone who doesn't like you) can file a false claim and get your entire website taken down. No due process, no court order, nothing!

This would not only spell disaster for me and my family, but also for my 6 employees and their families as well.

And this isn't just limited to businesses, under this proposed law it could happen to anyone. Check out this great link from Google for more information on this legislation and what you can do to help stop it.

As for me, I've taken down both my business and author websites (www.mjaware.com) today in protest.

(image source: natcom.org)

And the Winner Is: Lisa F

Sorry, I'm a day behind in announcing the winner (not the first time this has happened). There was a great turnout I'm definitely going to do another giveaway soon.

Congratulations to: Lisa F

Lisa wins both a $5 Amazon gift card and a signed copy of Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb (SZJMB). Everyone else, keep an eye on the page; for the next contest.

In other news, I've just completed the last short for a new short story collection. It still needs lots of revising and editing, but once it's ready, I'm releasing it as a free ebook in an effort to increase sales of SZJMB. It's a tactic that's not working great (sales were down this month), but is creating most of my sales; I include a free SZJMB five-chapter preview with each short story collection, which gets some of the free readers to purchase SZJMB.

I love Giveaways: Young Adult Faeries & Fantasy Hop & Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

I love giving away copies of my book--anything to get it read. And I am a Reader, Not a Writer runs the best giveaways. So, I sorta didn't look at the YA Faeries and Fantasy Hop before I signed up.

I just figured zombies are fantasy, right? Well, when I took the time to actually read about the hop I realized it was more a fairy tale kind of hop. So, what I've decided to do is giveaway a $5 Amazon gift card and a signed copy of Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb (did you notice the way I put 'and' in italics, to make it seem like also getting my book is such a huge bonus ;-)

This way the winner can pick out their own Fantasy book (albeit probably a used one for $5).

There's well over 100 other sites offering giveaways too, so be sure to take a moment and see the huge list!

I'll ship anywhere in the US that the postal service will deliver to (P.O. boxes are fine). A winner will be picked on or around Jan 13th 2012; only the winner's first name and last initial will be posted, but the winner must provide a complete name and shipping address.

Good luck!

Giveaways and My First 1-Star Review

When I started this blog I didn't want it to be too self-promoting. Of course, I've ended up posting many Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb (SZJMB) reviews here, especially the 5-star ones. So, I made myself a promise to also post my first 1-star review.

Well, it happened a few days ago on Barnes and Noble, but I think I'm going to chalk it up to a mistake. Why a mistake? See for yourself--here's the entire review:

Zombies asome!#12 Zombies asome! #1!!!

I dont like zombies but that was asome!!!!

Now it's possible that the reader was being sarcastic and really just hated the book. But when you consider the typos and spelling errors, I think a more likely explanation is that they rushed it out (probably on their nook keyboard) and didn't realize they put 1-star--at least that what I keep telling myself. So, there you have it my first 1-star review. Now, I can say I kept my promise.

On to important stuff. First, Congratulations to Chandra H. the winner of the Best of 2011 Blog Hop. She wins her choice of three books and a copy of SZJMB. This was my most successful contest to date with almost 300 total entries (counting extra entries). Thanks to everyone who entered.

If you didn't win, don't worry. Head over to I am a Reader, Not a Writer for a chance to win not only the book, but the last of my totally asome (purposefully misspelled) Zombie Survival kits.

I hope everyone has a great 2012!