Spencer Baum

Homecoming Masquerade got its 100th review on Amazon this week. Thankfully, it was 5 stars.

Thanks to everyone who has written reviews for my books!

Last week I told you why I am so excited about the audiobook for The Homecoming Masquerade.

At that time, it was only available on Audible. Today, I’m excited to tell you it is available as an audio download on Amazon and iTunes as well! Download it if you’ve got a road trip coming up, or need something to listen to on the plane. I listen to audiobooks on long, evening walks (a nightly ritual that I find very helpful to my writing).

And if you’ve never really given audiobooks a try, this is a good one to start with. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!

Festival of the Moon audio is also complete and should be live in a few weeks!

New this week:

5 New 5-star reviews of Homecoming Masquerade:

“Read this book it is so gosh darn awesome and cool and awesome and FREAKING great. The plot is great I want to read more!”

“I enjoyed this book very much it kept me wanting to read on. I would suggest this book to anyone.”

“Great story, well written with lots of twists and turns. Keeps you in suspense while entertaining you.”

“Couldn’t put it down…did start a little slow but did pick up….gonna go get book 2 now.. hope it’s just as good”

“The plot was very original and that was the best thing about this book. I liked that they had a character from Oklahoma in there. I would totally check out the second book.”

5-star Review of Zombie Apocalypse Serial:

“This is a fast, light read, full of irreverent humor and spot-on social commentary. The story line is an interesting twist on an old tale. Looking forward to reading the rest of this series.”

Thanks everyone who takes the time to review one of my books. All reviews, good and bad, are helpful to the author and the community of readers.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest for an Amazon gift card and swag from Sarra Cannon. Rafflecopter has selected Amanda Pohrte as the winner. Amanda, I’ve sent you an email so we can get you your prizes. Look for it, or get in touch with me via email or FB if you’d like to use a different email than the one on Rafflecopter.

To everyone else…there will be another contest soon!

If you’re reading my blog, odds are good you like to geek out on at least one fictional universe. I’ve been known to go geek on Star Wars, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Dune, and, most notably of late, The Walking Dead.

I’ve seen all the shows, I’ve read all the comics, I even watch the Talking Dead fan show that airs on Sunday nights. And of course when The Walking Dead novels started coming out, I put them in my TBR pile.

The first of these novels, The Rise of the Governor, finally found its way to the top of my reading list this week. In honesty, I opened the book expecting something froofy. This was a tie-in novel after all. I was guessing I’d get some hastily tossed together story by a genre writer who pumped out a different zombie novel every month.

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

I was very pleased to find that I was wrong. By page 2 it was clear to me I was in the hands of a skilled writer who approached the task of writing a story in this universe with all the seriousness a rabid fan would want.

Rise of the Governor has everything you’d expect in a zombie apocalypse novel. There’s a small party of survivors on the road. There are dangers from both living humans and the undead. There are tons of clever weapons, both store-bought and homemade, and there are scenes of extraordinary gore. But more than this, there is a human story that burns from chapter 1 through to the end, and it’s one hell of a story.

Our band of survivors is centered around the enigmatic Phillip Blake. Together with his brother Brian, his friend Nicky, his daughter Penny, and some others who either get eaten quickly or otherwise find their way out of the central story, they navigate the early days of the zombie apocalypse as presented in The Walking Dead. In the early scenes, Phillip Blake is a savior. He’s a charismatic hero with an inner strength that keeps his whole group alive. He is fearless in the face of the undead, he is quick on his feet, and he truly loves the people he is helping to protect. His relationship with his cowardly brother in particular is sweet. Phillip’s brother is the primary narrator of this story, and through his eyes, we see that even though Phillip has it well within his power to bully and abuse Brian, he’s always chosen the higher ground. He looks out for his weaker sibling, and when Brian can’t man up to the killing involved in the zombie apocalypse, Phillip gives him another task instead, one that is equally important. Phillip charges Brian with looking out for Penny, the little girl whose fate Walking Dead fans know all too well.

The apocalypse forces these characters to react. Their reactions are swift, unplanned, and violent. Their reactions change them. Nick turns to his Bible, determined to figure out the right and wrong of this new world. Phillip, as the leader of this crew, is forced to look inside himself over and over again. He finds himself facing an ever-larger chasm in what once was his soul.

And Brian…well, the change in Brian is shocking, intense, and entirely believable. He is an exceptionally well-crafted character.

The transformation of the man who would be governor from regular guy to villain to monster is powerful, and worthy of the character Robert Kirkman created in the iconic comic book. The final third of the book is horrifying, and not in a cheap zombie thrills sort of way. This is intense psychological horror that is very well played. If you’re into the zombie genre, this is a must read.

Two authors are credited on this novel: Robert Kirkman, who created The Walking Dead, and Jay Bonansinga, who has a made a name for himself writing shocking horror thrillers. I am quite familiar with the work of Robert Kirkman. I’m looking forward to reading more from Jay Bonansinga.

Last year, Amazon offered to pay a stipend to a professional voice artist of my choosing to create audiobooks of Homecoming Masquerade and Festival of the Moon. In December, I had the privilege of listening to a dozen professional voice artists audition to read my books.

Although I originally had a woman’s voice in mind to read these books, it was a male voiceover artist named Robert Forge who won the part. Robert’s smooth narration, combined with his incredible ability to bring the characters to life, was head and shoulders above the rest, and I am so glad I got to work with him.

I am a bit of an audiobook junkie. I think it’s an incredibly effective medium. And, removing my author hat for a moment to let my inner audiobook junkie speak, I am telling you that Robert Forge’s recordings of Homecoming Masquerade  and Festival of the Moon are the best performances I’ve ever heard in the medium. He didn’t just get the books, he transformed them into something much greater than they were. His every word of narration is charged with meaning. His pacing is superb. You can’t help but get caught up. The words, the pauses, even the breaths, create this incredible rhythm to the story that I’ve never heard before, and that frankly blew me away when I listened to them.

And the characters….good grief, what he’s done with the characters is just astounding. Every single one of them has a distinct, memorable voice. By chapter 2 of the book you forget you are listening to a performance and feel like you are on the ballroom floor, right in the middle of it all. Listening to this audio production as it came together was a real joy for me. If you like audiobooks, if you are headed out on a trip soon, or if you just want to try something different, please head over to Audible and give it a try. It’s very rare that I feel comfortable bragging about a creative project, but this is one where I can’t help myself. What Robert has done with my books is truly exceptional.

Here is the link to get Homecoming Masquerade on Audible. Enjoy!

The question: When is Girls Wearing Black 3 coming out?

The answer: The minute it is ready to read, which I hope will be soon!

In the old world of publishing, an author would finish a novel and turn it over to a publisher. The publisher oversaw edits and cover design, and also picked a date in the next calendar year to release the book. It was important for the publisher to have at least a year of lead time because they would use all that time to build buzz for the novel. Since the book was limited by the amount of shelf space in the bookstore, publisher and author worked hard to market the release date of the novel because there was a window of only a few weeks during which they could expect the book to get the best shelf space in the bookstore.

In the new world of publishing, where most novels are sold for ereaders, a book doesn’t require many months of marketing before it is released. Shelf space is unlimited. My books are just as prominent on Amazon and iTunes today as they were a year ago. These days, when a novel is ready, an author doesn’t need to pick a date way out in the future and make readers wait for it. We can just hit the publish button and you can start reading!

And since you are eager to read the next Girls Wearing Black book, my intent is to roll it out the minute it is ready to read.

When I began GWB3 in November, my most ambitious timeline had the book ready for release in February. Obviously, I didn’t make a February release date, but I can report to you that the novel is rolling along quite well and I am confident the novel will be released this spring. I am 90% certain my working title for the book will be the final title. Once I’m 100% certain, I will reveal a title and a cover. Keep watching here for updates, and thanks so much for your interest! There are few things I love more than getting the question, “When is the next book coming out?” That question means the previous books captured your imagination, and that’s the reason I do this!

Beautiful Demons by Sarra Cannon is high on the “Customers Also Bought” tab for the Girls Wearing Black books on Amazon. I downloaded a copy earlier in the month and started reading it on Monday. Despite being deep in revisions on my own manuscript and facing a looming deadline for the Festival of the Moon audiobook, I finished Beautiful Demons in just two days. It was a fantastic read, and I’ve already downloaded Book 2 in the series. Read ahead for my review of the novel and to enter a contest to win an Amazon gift card with enough money to get all the books in the Beautiful Demons series!

Beautiful Demons by Sarra Cannon

Here’s my review of Beautiful Demons:

Harper is an orphan who is bouncing from one foster home to the next, leaving a trail of paranormal “accidents” behind her. When Harper is upset or threatened, objects that aren’t nailed down go flying and people get hurt. On some level, Harper is aware that she is the cause of these accidents, even though they aren’t really her fault. She has powers that she hasn’t learned how to control.

She lands at Shadowford Home, a boarding house for wayward children in a small town named Peachville. Shadowford Home is her last chance. If she messes up here, her next stop is juvenile detention.

Shadowford is a great place to read about, a mysterious house with unusual characters and plenty of oddities. Harper’s first night at Shadowford is creepy and intense, and I found myself desperate to know more about what was going on. The author has a gift for foreshadowing and suspense. Even before the story gets going (and the story gets going quickly–Cannon is skilled at moving things along), I was eager to learn more about Shadowford Home, about the mysterious characters populating this story, and Harper’s own past. It seemed like every new person we met had an agenda, and while the author gave me enough info to be curious about these people, she also left enough out that I didn’t immediately know where it was going.

Harper begins as a new student at Peachville High and right away finds herself in trouble. A cheerleader is murdered and there is evidence suggesting Harper is the one who did it. Together with a boy named Jackson, Harper seeks out the truth of what happened, and learns that Peachville has an explosive secret.

Beautiful Demons is a quick but powerful read that I recommend to fans of Girls Wearing Black. The paranormal parts of this story are fascinating, but secondary to the human element, which I really appreciate. The teen with powers she can’t control, the small town with dark secrets, the popular clique at school that is more than it seems–all of these are elements that show up often in paranormal literature, but in Beautiful Demons they are tied so strongly to the humanity of the characters that it feels wholly original. Harper’s journey of self discovery may be supernatural, but it is done so in a way that mirrors the discoveries everyone faces in adolescence.

And the strange town that is hiding dark secrets was perfectly executed. There are some great twists in this novel and the author does a marvelous job of holding back the answers to the best secrets until the very end. The prose is concise and easy to read. Sarra Cannon packs a lot of plot and character into a short novel that I devoured in just three nights. Highly recommended.

And if I haven’t convinced you to check it out yet, here’s some more incentive. Beautiful Demons is free on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes.

And now…the contest.

Beautiful Demons is Book 1 of a six book series. I calculate the total price of all six books as of today to be $15.95. Since these books have such appeal to fans of Girls Wearing Black, I will give a $15.95 Amazon gift card to one person from the fan list on my Facebook page, so you can buy them all (or buy whatever you want if you’ve already read them).

BUT WAIT….there’s more!!

Last night I emailed Sarra Cannon to express my admiration for her work and let her know that I wanted to tie a contest to my review of her novel. She emailed back and offered to include a Beautiful Demons Swag Pack for the winner. It will include a signed bookmark, a demon tattoo,a ribbon and a sticker.

Click on the widget below to enter the contest for your chance to win a $15.95 Amazon gift card (courtesy of me) and a Beautiful Demons swag pack (courtesy of Sarra Cannon). The widget will ask you to like my author page on Facebook if you haven’t already. A winner will be selected on March 15.

Have fun, and happy reading!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Van Cliburn died today of bone cancer. He was 78.

My piano teacher was a teenager when Van Cliburn won the first ever Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow and became an international superstar. I think she had crush on him, one that started in her youth and carried well into adulthood. By the time she took me on as a student, she had amassed a huge collection of Van Cliburn recordings and these were presented to me and her other students as the gold standard of classical piano playing.

Consequently, today, whenever I hear any pianist play Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, or Brahms, I compare their performance to the Van Cliburn recording that rolls in my head. To me, Van Cliburn is the greatest pianist who ever lived. His voicing on the keys, his expression, his control–they define what I think classical piano should sound like.

News of Van Cliburn’s death has me listening to my favorite recordings today. As I listen, I find myself thinking of my father.

Today when we think of people who helped end the Cold War, the first names to come up are usually Reagan, Gorbachev, Thatcher, and John Paul II. From my vantage, it was a much bigger operation than that. My father helped end the Cold War too. He was a scientist who designed instrumentation to measure the explosive power of test blasts the Department of Defense performed in a ceaseless effort to keep the American military ahead of the Soviets. My uncle was also in on this. He designed giant Electromagnetic Pulse simulators for the Air Force, (simulators that still stand south of Albuquerque). There were thousands of people across America engaged in a battle of ideas back then, all of us aware that the Soviet Union was an empire hellbent on world domination, whose tanks rolled into every country that wasn’t strong enough to repel them. When my dad and my uncle talked about the importance of their work, they always spoke of how it wasn’t important so much that they were doing the work, but that the Soviets knew they were doing the work. That was really what it was all about. None of the weapons America made in those days were meant to be fired. None of the defenses were meant to be used. Their purpose was to just be, to stand out in the open, to be visible to spies and satellites. They were a giant Beware of Dog sign on the American fence.

People like my dad, like my uncle, like Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev–they are important to history because they made sure the button never got pressed. And while the decades passed with the missiles still in their silos, the Soviet Empire crumbled from within. It crumbled because of an economic system that wasn’t in keeping with the needs of humanity, and a culture that ever-so-slowly came to realize they were on the wrong side of history.

That’s where Van Cliburn comes in. He played so beautifully at the first Tchaikovsky competition that the Soviets had no choice but to fall in love with him. “Van looked and played like some kind of angel,” the Russian pianist Andrei Gavrilov told Cliburn biographer Howard Reich. “He didn’t fit the evil image of capitalists that had been painted for us by the Soviet government.”

Can you imagine? Someone whose music is so beautiful it changed an entire society’s perception? In the 1950′s, no American would have been allowed to speak to the Soviets about peace, love, and understanding, but that’s exactly what Van Cliburn did when he arrived in Moscow. His music spoke for all of America. He showed us at our best, and the people of the Soviet Union liked what they saw.

Today there are other artists who get even more credit for tearing down the Berlin Wall, and rightly so. But Van Cliburn was first. His courageous performance in 1958 changed the world for the better. In the end, it wasn’t a 50-megaton bomb that ended the Cold War. Nor was it a couple of powerful politicians sitting down in Geneva. It was many people, and one of the most important was a soft-spoken man from Texas with a huge heart and a remarkable talent.