The Stone Man - A Science Fiction Thriller (57 page)

I hope I managed to make the Stone Man as scary for you as I wanted him to be. For me, he’s that thing from your dreams that’s chasing you down whilst you’re having to run away through treacle. Except this time, he’s not in your dreams, he’s coming right down your street, and worse,
everyone wants him to get you
.

The key scenes that I was the most excited about writing were, as you could probably guess, Patrick’s death, the boys meeting Henry, and Paul’s reflection at the end. I enjoyed those very much, even if I actually felt pretty sad writing the first two.

The ending only changed as recently as a month or so ago, however. I was on a plane to New York (I really wanted to finish the book there, so that I could write this bit and sign off with ‘Luke Smitherd, Brooklyn, New York, October 2012’ and sound like some kind of porn star jet-setter … rather than a guy who had blagged a cheap holiday by going to visit a mate who lives there) when, settled in nicely by a pint of cider, a shot of Sambuca and a vodka and orange (nervous flyer), it suddenly occurred to me that the
original
ending (having Paul’s situation clearly resolved at the end of the book) not only meant that the whole thing petered out a bit, but didn’t sit quite right for me thematically. I decided that leaving his fate ambiguous felt much better, but if you want to know what I think eventually happened to Paul, I’ve put a quick summary on the very last page. It’s not that different at all—a simple answer to the question ‘Did he get out or not?’—but if you’re someone who’d like to leave it as is, don’t skip to the very last page. If you aren’t, it’s all there for you.

How do I think this book compares to the last one? I think it stands up pretty well. I don’t know which one I prefer more; Angela prefers
The Stone Man
, and whilst I think this one is more exciting, I can’t decide which is the better story. Both books have a strong element of
What’s
going on
that drive them, and whilst I think the mystery element of
TPOTD
(RAAAAAAAA!!!) is stronger and more complex, I think that this book is a bit more of a romp, at least. By the way, if you were to recommend either to a friend, I would suggest they start with this one.
TPOTD
takes a little while to get going—though I think it’s the more rewarding book once it does—and for someone reading a new writer, or someone with less patience, they might not stick with it. If they like this book, they’ll like
TPOTD
.

The release of this second book is very exciting for two reasons; one, obviously I want to know what people make of it, but two, I’m extremely interested to see what happens with its initial sales. You see, once enrolled in the Amazon Kindle Store KDP Select program, you can list your books for free for five days every three months. This is a great feature, and really helped get the book out there … I
think
. That’s because, over the two times I’ve been able to list it for free, I’ve had about 5,000 to 6,000 downloads in total. Great, you might think, and so did I … but then a friend pointed out quite reliably that, in a nutshell, those are quite likely to be piracy bots, downloading it for repackaging and various other nefarious functions.

Plus, let’s put it another way; say a lot of those were legit downloads. Okay. But as far as I can tell, when these downloads happened, there’s no way for Amazon customers to say ‘Alert me when this guy releases a new book.’ So I don’t know if there’s a load of people out there
desperate
to read new stuff by me (Hey! It could happen!) that haven’t been in touch with me, so I can’t tell them that this book is out, and so they won’t
know
about this new book coming out. So after all of this. I really can’t wait to see what actually happens when this book hits the virtual shelves (Prediction: disappointment).

All of which leads me nicely onto something else I wanted to mention.
I’m currently unpublished by conventional means, and so I’m currently trying to build my own ‘fanbase’ if you like, and maybe give this whole self-published-online thing a bit of a go, and maybe even see if I can’t eventually even make a living out of this (Hey! It could goddamn HAPPEN!). And, along similar lines, I like to support other people trying to carve their own creative career path. I think it’s only fair if I’m asking people to post reviews—brief or otherwise—to help me out. So as an avid listener of podcasts, I’ve always tried to leave reviews for the ones I like, to help out guys and girls who are trying to build their
own
following.

And then a funny thing happened; I found out that a lot of the podcasts I listen to are made by people that have already achieved an impressive degree of success. This is because either the ones I like happen to be by British people I know of already (I KNOW these guys have made it ’cos they’re on the BBC) or US podcasts where I don’t know the hosts from Adam. And from the way their podcasts are produced, I’ve always thought they were being made in their bedrooms or something … then over time I’ve found out that they work for Comedy Central, or have their own radio show, or are staff writers for David Letterman. And that doesn’t mean I don’t still support their work—I do—but it got me thinking that anyone that reads my stuff doesn’t really know anything about me.

Hell, I’ve even bought cheap Kindle books thinking that I’m helping out a fellow unknown whose work I might like … and then found out they have five books already in print with major publishing houses. (And then I get into a jealous rage and feed my Kindle to the dog.) So here’s who
I
am.

I’m thirty-jfahgfasdjdgjhg, currently live in Coventry with my girlfriend and two dogs, I work as a self-employed musician/singer (available for hire, by the way) and am unpublished. I have no media connections, literary or otherwise, and when it comes to getting ahead in the writing game, I am relying
entirely
on the support of those who like my work when it comes to getting it out there.

(This is the crawling, begging part. Yes, yes, I know. Let’s just get this over with, eh?)

If you’ve enjoyed this book, please do at least one of the following, listed here in order of priority:

1.
           
Put a nice review and star rating on Amazon. A sentence, even! That’ll do!!

2.
           
Mention it in a Facebook status or tweet about it (with a link.)

3.
           
Recommend it to a friend.

(Common response you will get from friends in this situation:

“I don’t have a Kindle.”

Your Response: “Aha, but the Kindle App is free, turning your smartphone or tablet into a perfect eReader.”

Their response: “Oh … well, I only have an Android smar—”

You: “It’s on the Android store too.”

Them: “Ah. Um. Well … these days, I don’t have much time to re—”

You: (Pulling out blunt object) “Buy. The bastard. Book.”)

4.
           
Add me on twitter (@travellingluke) or Facebook (Luke Smitherd Book Stuff)

5.
           
Visit
www.lukesmitherd.com
and put yourself on the Spam-Free Book Release Newsletter mailing list. You will NEVER be spammed, and this will ONLY be used when there’s news about an upcoming book, so let’s face it, you’re hardly going to be inundated …

Seriously, though; you guys doing any of those is a MASSIVE deal to me. As long as I know people are enjoying my stuff, I’ll keep making it. So if you want to read more, click the button marked ‘5 stars’ on Amazon. (Or four, I
suppose
. Jeez.) As for the future, this time I am going straight into writing the next one (spare me your cynicism! It’s happening, right??) and it’s going to be one of two novels.

One is a book-length story (working title
Everyone Is Your Killer
) that was the other story I prepped whilst I should have been prepping this one. It’s about 70% plotted, I have the ending, and I just need to work out a few of the finer details so it’s ready to go. The second is, to my own surprise, an anthology book of short stories. I have a list of about seven story ideas that I don’t think will make long enough books, so I’m thinking ‘Why not follow the lead of one of my writing heroes and release a book of short stories in between every few novels?’ Don’t worry, they’ll all be along the unusual, slightly twisted lines of my previous work. Or maybe you should worry, I don’t know. Although I’m reliably informed that the better option is ‘Be Happy’.

But.
I’m putting an actual, no foolin’, chiselled-in-stone deadline on the next one. The date today—before I go back and redraft the whole thing—is the 20th of November 2012. I’m aiming to have this published online by the end of the month. Then it’s Christmas, always a very busy time of year in my line of work, and then we’re obviously into 2013. So … I’m saying to you that the next book will be finished by … hmm … right, no later than the end of June 2013. There. And you know what, don’t be surprised if it’s up a few months earlier than that (of course, the best way to find out release date news would be to be updated as it happens, and you know what to do to find out about
that
.)

One thing a few people suggested I add—and I feel pretty uncomfortable mentioning it, to be honest, but I’d probably be stupid not to—is a PayPal address for donations, seeing as the book price is so low. Well, on one hand, as far as I’m concerned, the fact that you paid even a tiny amount for this book makes me very happy indeed … but, at the same time, if you WANT to send me a couple of bucks, then who am I to stop you, eh? You can PayPal it to
[email protected]
if you feel so inclined, and if not, you’re still my favourite reader. You, reading this, right now. You’re the best one.

In the meantime, thank you very much for purchasing, and reading, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. If not, I’m sorry it disappointed, but thank you anyway for giving it a chance (just go easy on the review, eh? Or even better … just, y’know, keep it to yourself? Please?!?) See, I think I’m starting to get into a bit of a groove now with the practicalities of the whole writing game, and I think that maybe …
maybe
… I’m starting to get the hang of it. We’ll see.

Speak to you soon, and remember, enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.

Stay Hungry,

Luke Smitherd

Findern,

Derby,

November 20th, 2012

AND NOW FOR THAT EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM THE BEGINNING OF ONE OF LUKE SMITHERD’S OTHER NOVELS,
THE BLACK ROOM, PART ONE: IN THE BLACK ROOM,
AVAILABLE NOW ON THE AMAZON KINDLE STORE.

THE BLACK ROOM, PART ONE: IN THE BLACK ROOM

Chapter One: An Unexpected Point Of View, Proof That You Can Never Go Home Again, and The Importance Of The Work/Life Balance

***

Charlie opened his eyes, and was immediately confused. A quick re-assessment of the view, however, confirmed he was right; he suddenly had breasts. Not very noticeable ones, perhaps, but when he'd spent over thirty years without them, even the appearance of a couple of A-cups was a real attention grabber. As he continued to look down, the very next thing to come to his attention was the material covering them; a purple, stretchy cotton fabric, something he had never worn, nor had he ever harboured any plans to do so. As he watched his hands adjust the top, he came to the most alarming realisation of all; those weren't his hands doing the adjusting. The giveaway wasn't in the slenderness of the fingers, or the medium-length (if a little ragged) fingernails upon their tips, or even the complete lack of any sensation in them as he watched the digits tug and pull the purple top into position. It was the fact that, whilst they were clearly stuck to the end of arms that were attached to his shoulders (or at least, the painfully skinny shoulders that he could see either side of his head's peripheral vision; his shoulders were bigger than that, surely?) they were moving entirely of their own accord.