My short story is live on Amazon for the awesome price of $1 (or something quite close to that,) a price so low you’d think I’ve suffered brain damage!
It’s a horror story, but following the epistolary genre of Gothic novels, mixing a bit of dark fantasy and weirdness in there. Most of the text is a single “letter” (a confession actually) written by Martin Goddard, a man dubbed by the populace as The Butcher of Greystone for his mass-killing of everybody in said castle. He’s on death row, in the final hours before his execution, and he writes this confession/short autobiography to set the record straight and explain his side of the story. However, there’s maybe more at play than even he knows. Click on the link and read the sample available to see if you like it.
My goal is to see if it’s viable to self-publish short stories. It may not be very profitable, and the royalties for that price range are awful, but let’s see where the whole thing leads. I have more short stories ready, so I’ll probably upload more in the coming weeks.
If you are curious about the awesome cover art, it’s from an old XIX century Spanish book, and the picture was uploaded under a Creative Commons license. I simply turned up the contrast and made a few changes to make it darker and more brooding.
As always, comments, reviews, and the like are appreciated. And if someone wants a copy review, ask away.
Emperor's Notepad 
Just picked it up.
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Thanks.
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No worries. I think supporting indy writers is key to getting what I like to read.
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I really enjoyed it and now I look forward to reading your story in Cirsova. I wrote a quick review on Amazon.
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Thanks for the great blog. I discovered at about 11:00 pm last night and ended up reading until 2:00 in the morning. Finally someone else who shares my concerns about the current state of SF! I started reading SF before I was 10 years old and read hundreds (thousands?) of books in my teens and early twenties. But in mid-life, family and career and travel took precedence and I read very little. I have recently retired and decided I would get back to SF (as a reader and hopefully a writer). Imagine my dismay when one of the first “stories” I read was “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”.
I thought that it must be an aberration – surely SF had not sunk this low. The story was anything but scientific and it could barely be called “fiction”. But then I read other stories nominated for various awards, including some that you have reviewed, and my worst fears became reality. It’s not even the Social Justice / humanity-hating / non-science that pervades many of the fantasy and magical realism stories that make up the bulk of SF awards these days. Even the so-called straight SF stories are anything but. E.g. “After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall” (also a Hugo winner) by Nancy Kress – a usually reliable writer who has this time ventured into the “Gaia’s going to take revenge for what we have done to the planet but the aliens will save us” genre. There is also the very popular Murderbot series by Martha Wells, whose main attraction is a character who is basically a 21st century teenage slacker dressed up as a robot and who does as little as possible.
So thank you for being at least one kindred voice in the wilderness. I am looking forward to reading all your reviews and hopefully finding something that is worth reading. I also liked your analyses of style and your writing tips. So much so, in fact, that you should find that you have now sold 4 copies of “The Butcher of Greystone” – I look forward to reading it this evening.
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” Imagine my dismay when one of the first “stories” I read was “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”.”
That must have been a horrifying cultural shock!
And thanks for buying the book! Of course, I don’t know if it’s even up to my own standards (it’s always easier to point out mistakes than actually fixing them.) But at least I hope you enjoy it.
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