Michael's Blog (195)

A COVERT WAR, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YNIP3S/?tag reached the top 100 today on Amazon. It is still a bargain price. Check it out

The week zips by when you have a lot to do, but so does the day. This morning I took my wife to the doctor. Then I went up to our local hospital to chase up an appointment I needed but hadn’t received. Spent about an hour and a half in there and achieved little. Dash back home for a dental appointment, then a short break before my weekly snooker match with my mate, Ricardo. Now it’s early evening, I’m fed and watered and getting down to the business of writing my blog, a bit of keyboard…

A COVERT WAR: ENT bargain book for today (July 8th). $0.99 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YNIP3S/?tag Check it out

It’s been quite a week one way or the other: highs and lows. Well, not really ‘lows’. I saw a brief surge in my book rankings, which pleased me no end. I received a cheque from my publisher which put a smile on my face, but the next day had to pay out for new glasses for Pat, so that took care of the cheque. My Goodreads ‘giveaway’ for SHADOW OF THE WOLF came to an end, so congratulations to Maureen, DJ, Elizabeth, Tabitha and Joanne. A copy each is on its way to you. I hope you enjoy the…

I did something during the week that I’ve rarely done before, and that was to enter a short story competition. I’m not a great believer in short stories because to me they are more or less like and extended joke with a punch line at the end. There’s very little room for all the artistic merits about building characters, drama, mystery etc., but I succumbed this time with a story of a flight I once took in a Harrier jump jet. I was fortunate enough in 1996 to be in the back seat of a Harrier…

It’s been quite a week one way or another. I finally managed to get on with some writing, or rather, catching up with what I had managed in the past. I’m putting together a kind of family saga, but with a difference. I’ll be running two stories in parallel; both of which are connected, but not that it’s entirely obvious from the outset. More astute readers may catch on early in the book, but I intend something of that nature to happen to all the readers as I will be dropping clues left right…

My latest addition to the Amazon kindle ranks is THE EAGLE'S COVENANT. I have reduced the price to $0.99, and will keep it low until the end of June. This is a modern thriller set in modern Germany. The two main characters are Joanna Schiller - the young, English widow of Hans Schiller who was heir to the colossal, Schiller corporation - and Conor Lenihan, ex IRA, ex SAS and a killer. Events bring these two together after Joanna's newborn son is kidnapped by a terrorist gang of whom Lenihan…

Back in harness again and looking forward to getting on with my next novel. This will be a ‘composite’: a mixture of two books written a long time ago but never having seen the light of day. The whole project has been growing on me for some time. I had started another thriller last year, but the advent of Amazon Kindle and indie publishing, along with the fact that I had levered the paperback rights to my books from my publisher meant that I spent most of the year working in that direction.…

Almost at the end of the month and the end of a book promotion that has achieved some positive results. I had a bargain book promo on eReaderNewsToday (ENT) for ROSELLI’S GOLD. It sold 141 copies that day. There was also a trickle follow on of sales following the promotion, but I did keep the price down to $0.99. It was put back up today. Next month I hope to promote THE EAGLE’S COVENANT with ENT, but I will only know if they have picked it up when they contact me. If I don’t hear from them,…

I have just persuaded my publisher to reduce the price of my book, THE BOY FROM BERLIN. This is the only title of mine on Amazon to which I do not have the rights. The price is $4,99 (£3.30). It has been released as a paperback in America by Harlequin Books, so I have great hopes for it. The link is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009R6A26U/?tag



Short blurb: Secrets lurk around every…

THE EAGLE’S COVENANT is now available in paperback in Europe only. I ordered a copy for my son, Terry because he designed the book jacket. I always send him the books he’s designed so he can scrutinise the results. I have also ordered some copies for myself and will no doubt buy more at some future date. I can’t release this book in America because Harlequin Books have the English language rights over there, and will be releasing the book in November this year. This means that all my books,…

Some people have good and bad days. Me? I have good and maybe not so good days. My week began on a good note because ENT posted my bargain book deal (ROSELLI’S GOLD), which resulted in 141 sales. There is usually a follow on effect from this, and my other title which was a bargain deal (THE DEVIL’S TRINITY) is still selling; something it was failing to do before the daily deal was posted on ENT. My not so good moment came when I realised that I was in a quandary about a decision I’d made…

ROSELLI'S GOLD a bargain book deal today on ENT. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069TYFK2/?tag

Late today; should have posted this yesterday. Had some good news over the weekend: my bargain deal, THE DEVIL’S TRINITY, was picked up by ENT, and the result was 122 sales that day. Compare that to an average of one sale every two weeks and that’s a huge result. It lifted the book from about 350,000 in the rankings to 1200. It also reached #34 in the Action & Adventure category. There’s usually a follow on effect, although I’m not expecting too much. The ranking is now falling away as…

My latest Kindle title, THE EAGLE’S COVENANT is now available on Amazon (both sites) at $2,99. Check it out at htttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJZE6Y0/?tag

I have been promoting one of my titles, THE DEVIL'S TRINITY since dropping the price two weeks ago to $0,99, but very little happened. Then yesterday ENT picked it up and posted it as a bargain, daily deal and bingo! sales started climbing. I was looking at a sale of about one or two as a result of the price drop, but just a small ad (free) for a day on ENT and I have a big smile on my face. It reached #34 in the Action & Adventure category, and at the time of writing it is beginning to…

Life is full of little surprises, and none of us are immune to them. My last post included a piece about a young, lady writer I joining Acclaimed Books and hoping to publish a collection of quotes that made people happy. I had passed on a recollection of something that had made me happy and included in that was a reference to my church here in Torrevieja. I subsequently learned that any reference to God, church or religion of any sort was not welcome, and would be edited out of any quotes…

I have a lot of thinking to do about the way in which I will go with respect to my writing. I am currently working on a project which could take all of this year to complete. This isn’t a problem as any writer will know, but I keep getting distracted by wanting to turn my attention to other projects like book promotion and marketing etc. I also have another title waiting to be published on Amazon. This is THE EAGLE’S COVENANT, which was published in hardback about four years ago by my…

THE DEVIL'S TRINITY by Michael Parker is now $0,99. Not an Satanic novel but a thriller set in the Gulf of Mexico where a terrorist threatens to rip apart the underbelly of the USA. Check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A40ZUWE/?tag. Available in UK too.

Shocking news yesterday. Pat and I had just come back from church when we received a phone call from our neighbour to tell us that our Vet had murdered his wife. This was the Vet who came to our house four weeks ago to put our dog, Lucy down. We have used his practice for a few years now and he has operated on our cat and dog, plus giving them the usual vaccinations etc. The shop, which is in a local village, was always busy with a mixture of Spanish as well as ex-Pats. The vet’s daughter…