Writing Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Books by Bowen Greenwood

July 6, 2016July 5, 2016

Fire and Thunder Paperback

clean, christian,, thrillers, thriller, mystery, mysteries, suspense, fantasy, science fiction, spy novels, cozy mysteries

Fire and Thunder, my new Christian fantasy novel launched on June 18 to great results. It made it as high as #3 on Amazon’s list of religious science fiction and fantasy for Kindle. But I know not all of the readers out there are Kindle users.

The paperback version of Fire and Thunder is live now. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard “I like to feel the book in my hand,” and I don’t want my traditional readers to feel left out. You can get Fire and Thunder in paperback for $14.99.

Fire and Thunder is a bit off the beaten track for most readers of thrillers, but it’s still pretty heavy on the suspense. Here’s what the book’s about:

A terrifying vision of a city in flames drives a young team of heroes to choices they never imagined. Each has a power exactly like the stories of miracles from the Bible, but none of them knows how it happened or why. As they learn how to live with these gifts, their choices will drive some apart, and bring others together. United, they’ll fight to save millions of lives as they discover what it takes to do right, the cost of doing wrong, and what it really means to be heroes. Sequel to the Amazon bestselling Christian fantasy novel Sons of Thunder, Fire and Thunder reunites the reader with Connor Merritt, Anna Wales, and other familiar characters while introducing new friends, new powers, and a nightmarish new threat.

Click here to get your copy of Fire and Thunder in paperback!

July 5, 2016July 5, 2016

Do you read a lot?

Lots of folks say they read a lot, but some people take it to the next level. My mother goes to the library once a week and comes back with a whole bag full of books. If you’re the kind of person for whom distracted driving means a Kindle, not a cell phone, you know what I’m talking about.

Today Amazon’s got a deal worthy of your consideration, if you’re a really high volume reader.

Kindle Unlimited is their program for “All you can eat” readers. For a monthly fee, you can borrow as many books as you like at no extra charge. The Kindle Unlimited program includes everything from famous books like the Harry Potter series down to less-famous books like my own. Normally, it’s $10 per month, and for that price you get to read as many e-books as you can get through.

It’s a big deal for lesser-known authors like me, because we’re compensated when people borrow our books through Kindle Unlimited, and it ends up being a major portion of the financial health of our books. Most of my colleagues at Cleanindiereads.com have books in the Kindle Unlimited program.

So today only, you can save up to 40% on a Kindle Unlimited membership. Your exact price depends on how many months in advance you buy. The smallest discount is for six months, the largest for 24 months. If you read a lot, and especially if you want to explore the movement of authors trying to provide a cleaner reading experience, check it out. Save up to 40% on kindleunlimited

July 4, 2016July 4, 2016

Redesign

I’m working on a redesign for the site. I want to keep what’s been working while making some changes aimed at expanding my ability to support other writers who are producing thrillers and other suspenseful books without profanity and sex scenes.

June 19, 2016June 16, 2016

Fire and Thunder launches today!

My newest novel, Fire and Thunder, goes live today. What’s more, it’s free!

Hurry up and grab a copy, because prices are going up tomorrow.

Here’s a summary of the book:

Download Fire and Thunder free on Kindle today only!

June 18, 2016June 17, 2016

Surprisingly Good Customer Service

My mother visited recently. We sat down to watch a movie together, and chose “Spotlight.” Not really my kind of movie, but Mom likes it.

Embarrassingly, because I wanted to persuade my sainted mother of the virtues of the pure-Internet TV experience, We had some playback issues where the movie quit about a third of the way through. Eventually we gave up and went on about our visit.

Two days later, I got an e-mail from Amazon saying, “We noticed you had a playback problem. Here’s your money back.”

I have to say, honestly, I was impressed. Amazon’s not perfect, but good job on this one!

June 15, 2016June 15, 2016

Another great sci fi novel!

I just finished reading Star Crossing, by Alexis Glynn Latner. It’s the third novel in the Aeon’s Legacy series. I’ll get to the point right away: if you like science fiction, read this book and read the whole series!

The Aeon’s Legacy series tells the story of the slower-than-light colony ship Aeon, setting out from a dying Earth to find a new home for humanity. Because distances in space are so vast, and light is so slow, the colonists mostly make the journey in stasis, or suspended animation. When their first destination proves unworkable as a future home, Aeon sets out on a thousand-year voyage across space, with her precious human cargo back in stasis. While they’re frozen in time, though, the rest of the universe goes on without them. Aeon’s Legacy is a story about 21^st century humans encountering a universe vastly changed from the one they left.

Star Crossing is a different kind of book from the first two books of the series. Hurricane Moon, the first book, was very hard science fiction. Downfall Tide, the second, introduced more speculative elements but also ramped up the pace of the action. Now, the third book keeps the action going non-stop, but also stretches the speculative nature of speculative fiction farther than ever before. Energy beings that get into ships electrical systems, something akin to a Bermuda Triangle in space, and more give the protagonists plenty of reason to stretch their skills to the utmost.

What I love about this series is the author’s interest in moral and ethical issues. Some of the protagonists’ actions to save themselves lead to wildly unintended consequences and condemnation from the rest of the human race. Latner is always revealing surprising outcomes of characters’ past actions, and weaving them together in a way that shows the interconnectedness of humanity.

So often in Hollywood and the Big Five publishers, if you see a reference to faith, you can safely assume you’re being set up to see the character as a hypocrite or a villain. Latner is beautifully, refreshingly different. Many if not most of her characters are religious and though their specific beliefs are often very different from mine, no one – from Christians to Wiccans to everything in between – is ever a caricature or a parody. Their faith is a serious part of who they are, and treated with respect. For that, even when I disagree with her, I will always recommend Latner’s books to anyone who will listen.

What I don’t like about this series is that through her characters, the author advocates for some opinions that I don’t share. I know that many folks read my books and my website because I do my best to provide an alternative to the profane, hypersexualized entertainment industry in America; for them I must warn that Star Crossing includes profanity, sexuality that’s definitely present though not explicit, and some politicization of sex and sexuality.

The beautifully constructed world is more than worth averting your eyes a few times, though. The rich, authentic characters and the studious eye for ethics and morality make the whole series, and Star Crossing in particular, books you shouldn’t miss. My advice is to buy them today!

June 13, 2016

Why do I use a Kindle for reading?

Since iPads, Android tablets, and almost everyone’s phone all have a Kindle app these days, what’s the value of buying an actual Kindle e-reader device? Let me share with you why, even though I have a Kindle app on my phone and tablet, I still like to have an actual physical Kindle.

I spend a lot of time outdoors — camping, backpacking, kayaking, and more. Outdoors means exposure to the elements. It means there’s a level of risk you don’t normally face while sitting in your living room on the couch.

It’s not always a place you want to take your $600 iPad. If you’re planning to sit in a canoe on a lake, do you really want to risk losing that kind of investment? But a Kindle is less than $100. That’s a lot less scary to take out in the wild.

Also, I do a lot of reading in bed as I fall asleep. The harsh glare of an LED screen right in front of my eyes keeps me awake. But a Kindle’s e-ink display, combined with a normal bedside lamp, makes it easy to fall asleep.

If you think you might like one, Amazon’s Fathers’ Day sale makes this a great time to try it. For less than $60, you can experience all the ways in which reading on a Kindle beats reading on an iPad.

Amazon Kindle 6-inch – $60

June 7, 2016June 12, 2016

Want to read Fire and Thunder for free?

Are you interested in reading my new novel, Fire and Thunder, before anyone else?

Would you like to read it for free?

Are you willing to express your opinion?

If you said yes to all three, you should be an advance reader! Advance readers get free copies of books by Bowen Greenwood in exchange for posting their honest reviews on Amazon.com. Reviews are crucial in the e-book world. They help readers decide if this is the right book for them. There are also a number of marketing channels that are only open to books with a sufficient number of reviews. If you’re willing to post an honest review, it would delight me to share with you a free copy of my latest book.

Here’s a bit about the book:

The offer for a free advance review copy of Fire and Thunder has expired. Join the email list to be notified of free offers, new books, and more. Plus you get a free political thriller just for signing up.

May 25, 2016May 11, 2016

Death of Secrets Audiobook

Did you know my first novel, Death of Secrets, is available as an audiobook? This bestselling political thriller considers the end of privacy as we know it. Kathy Kelver, a young college student, nearly trips over a murder victim on her way home from work. As he dies, he hands her a thumb drive hiding new technology that could end the very concept of keeping something secret. Kathy must run for her life and discover her own inner strength to survive and warn the world.

I have to say, I was extremely fortunate in the narrator of this book. He’s a skilled voice actor who does an excellent job. So if you enjoy having a story read to you instead of reading it, check out Death of Secrets as an audiobook.

And, if you’re not already a member, you can try Audible free for 30 days, and it comes with free audiobooks. Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

October 15, 2015October 15, 2015

A special gift for Sons of Thunder fans

This is a long way from finished. I don’t have a deadline for myself, or even a plan. But today I scribbled a few lines of what’s going to be the second story in the Sons of Thunder universe. Enjoy!

***

Not many people walk toward a man with a gun. Most run in the other direction, of course. It’s the rational thing to do. Heroes run toward the man with the gun. Very few people walk, and of those that do, even fewer smile and wave while walking.

But calmly walking into danger came a lot easier to a man whose skin was bulletproof.

Connor Merritt’s wild dark brown hair refused to obey combs and brushes. He wore a black leather jacket. Frayed cuffs marked the bottom end of his blue jeans, brushing slightly against the ground as he walked.

“Freeze! Back off man! I’ll kill you!”

The man with the gun shifted its barrel away from the man he’d been mugging and toward Connor. He grew more and more agitated with every step Connor took, waving the gun and pushing it forward toward Connor as a substitute for pulling the trigger.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll do it man!”

The three of them stood in a parking garage. Outside, hints of the dawn to come oozed into the sky in the east, but the sun’s entrance still hung in the future. Instead, buzzing fluorescent lights provided the only illumination. Cigarette butts and discarded gum littered the ground. At this hour cars dotted the area like checkers toward the end of the game.

Two men stood in the aisle between yellow-lined parking spaces. Both were African American. One stood perfectly immobile, frozen with fear. The other seemed to vibrate like a violin string, he was so wound up. Behind Connor, the silver four-door sedan from which he emerged to begin his walk waited with its door open, dome light adding a tiny contribution to the garage’s dim lighting.

Tall, skinny, like a potential basketball player before training bulked him up, the gunman looked slightly older than Connor. His curly dark hair pressed tight against his scalp.

“I know there’s more to you than that,” Connor replied. “You don’t want to be a murderer.”

“Shut up man! Just shut up and walk away!”

“Walking away from you isn’t going to do you any good. Put the gun down.”

The gunman did the opposite. He pulled the trigger.

The lead slug punched Connor low on the left side of his torso. It hurt – they always hurt. Objects moving at hundreds of feet per second – thousands, sometimes – were pretty much destined to hurt.

But the slug, misshapen by impact, fell to the pavement in front of Connor.

Not before the second one hit. And the third. And the fourth, fifth, sixth… the gunman gave up only after completely emptying his ten-round magazine.

About a month prior, Connor Merritt met a man named Ethan Moses and a girl his own age named Anna Wales. They told him something he refused to believe at first: the things that occurred in the Book of Acts and the Gospels weren’t just stories from another age. They were real and, more important, they could happen today as easily as they could happen two thousand years ago.

In the Bible, zealots stoned the Apostle Paul to death, but he stood and walked away without so much as a scratch. Today, Connor could take ten rounds of nine-millimeter hollow point and keep smiling.

In the Bible, a believer baptized someone, then found himself suddenly in a completely different city. Today, Connor’s new friend Anna could teleport.

God still gave people miraculous gifts and, for some reason, all of a sudden he did it more than ever before. Connor didn’t understand why. He didn’t understand how. He didn’t even really understand much about God.

But he looked at the scattering of misshapen lead and copper slugs in front of his feet and understood one thing for sure.

Supernatural gifts were real.