RELEASE PROMO ~$.99~ THE SHEPHERD by TW Luedke #YoungAdult #Paranormal #YA #Oct #ASMSG

★OFFICIAL RELEASE PROMO★

OCT. 12 - 19 $.99

THE SHEPHERD

by T W Luedke (Travis Luedke)

The Mustread YA Paranormal Thriller of 2013

Add The Shepherd to your Goodreads TBR: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6517376.Travis_Luedke

Skate punks, kleptomaniacs, clairvoyant visions and reincarnation...

...THE SHEPHERD is unlike any other Young Adult novel you have ever read. 

 

Mike Evans here. Sixteen year old skate punk squatting in a white-trash trailer park with my loser drunk Dad. Seems I lost most of my friends when Dad lost our home in foreclosure. Only Anita stuck by me. Worse, I keep having strange clairvoyant visions of things that always come true.  

 

Then I almost ran over Nadia in my Geo. A passing truck finished the job – left a crumpled heap of skin and bone on the road. I fixed her. Me.  

 

Now this fourteen year old girl won’t leave me alone. I sorta let her sneak in my window when she needs a place to crash.  

 

I have a double life: daytime at school, Anita, skating, and then my nights with Nadia. She's my secret friend, gives me money and listens to my problems when nobody else will.  

 

My world is spinning out of control. Old friends have turned enemy, my grisly visions of death won’t quit, and Anita’s intentions make my head spin. Even with all that, I’ve got bigger stuff to worry about.  

 

Nadia’s hiding something. 

˃˃˃ "I could not put this book down. All I keep thinking about is what could possibly happen next. I felt as if I was back in high school with them!"

 

˃˃˃ "It's almost a love triangle of epic proportions or so you think....Travis blew me away with this book, I never saw what was coming."

 

˃˃˃ "Amazing, I loved Mike and Anita. The characters that I didn't feel could redeem themselves did in ways I never thought possible. I loved the ending and so not what I thought would happen. I love the element of surprise."

 

Sharp, witty, dark and gritty, The Shepherd is the must read YA paranormal thriller of 2013. Get your copy now!

 

 Amazon US

Amazon UK

THE SHEPHERD is live on Amazon! #YA #Paranormal #UF #Thriller #OCT #ASMSG

THE SHEPHERD

by T W Luedke (Travis Luedke)

The Mustread YA Paranormal Thriller of 2013

Add The Shepherd to your Goodreads TBR: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6517376.Travis_Luedke

Skate punks, kleptomaniacs, clairvoyant visions and reincarnation...

...THE SHEPHERD is unlike any other Young Adult novel you have ever read. 

 

Mike Evans here. Sixteen year old skate punk squatting in a white-trash trailer park with my loser drunk Dad. Seems I lost most of my friends when Dad lost our home in foreclosure. Only Anita stuck by me. Worse, I keep having strange clairvoyant visions of things that always come true.  

 

Then I almost ran over Nadia in my Geo. A passing truck finished the job – left a crumpled heap of skin and bone on the road. I fixed her. Me.  

 

Now this fourteen year old girl won’t leave me alone. I sorta let her sneak in my window when she needs a place to crash.  

 

I have a double life: daytime at school, Anita, skating, and then my nights with Nadia. She's my secret friend, gives me money and listens to my problems when nobody else will.  

 

My world is spinning out of control. Old friends have turned enemy, my grisly visions of death won’t quit, and Anita’s intentions make my head spin. Even with all that, I’ve got bigger stuff to worry about.  

 

Nadia’s hiding something. 

˃˃˃ "I could not put this book down. All I keep thinking about is what could possibly happen next. I felt as if I was back in high school with them!"

 

˃˃˃ "It's almost a love triangle of epic proportions or so you think....Travis blew me away with this book, I never saw what was coming."

 

˃˃˃ "Amazing, I loved Mike and Anita. The characters that I didn't feel could redeem themselves did in ways I never thought possible. I loved the ending and so not what I thought would happen. I love the element of surprise."

 

Sharp, witty, dark and gritty, The Shepherd is the must read YA paranormal thriller of 2013. Get your copy now!

 

 Amazon US

Amazon UK

Adventures in ebook cover art--Part 3

If you're wanting to get up to speed on parts 1 & 2 of this series of posts on my adventures in ebook cover artistry check these out real quick:

http://thenightlifeseries.blogspot.com/2012/08/adventures-in-ebook-cover-artistry.html

http://thenightlifeseries.blogspot.com/2012/10/adventures-in-ebook-cover-artistry-part.html

In the above-mentioned posts, I have expounded greatly on the merits of hiring freelance cover artists, freelance artists, and freelance digital graphics designers through freelanced.com.  That's all fine and dandy, but it can be a time consuming pain in the ass.  If you want a quick and professional ebook cover, and you're willing to go with an artist's vision rather than your own design, consider exploring the wonderful world of PRE-MADE COVERS.

There's a whole bunch of affordable, high-quality ebook covers to be had if you spend some time hunting for them.  I spend far too much time doing just that.  But it paid off.  I found the cover I needed and wanted, and it was ready to go.  All they had to do was add a little blood.  No cover of the Nightlife Series is ever complete without a little blood.

Now I thought this was gorgeous, a real eye magnet.  Beyond the obvious aesthetics of the image, the woman actually looks like the Main Character in my novel, as I envisioned her.  I didn't have to compromise my standards and preference of design to go with this cover.  It pretty much fit my needs perfectly. This was the MOST AFFORDABLE cover I have ever purchased, $60.00.  I probably would've paid double that for this image because it fit my needs so well, and it looks awesome.  (Don't tell my cover artist)

Who did this wonderful cover? Amygdala Design.  She has numerous PRE-MADE COVERS available on her site for $60.  Her custom design services start at $150.00.  At this level of quality, you cannot complain about those prices.  I have seen cover artists charge much more for this quality of work. Here's the full URL of her site if you want to check her out:

http://amygdaladesign.net/

Have I forsaken my days of hiring freelancers to get the quality of cover art I want at my price?  Not necessarily.   But I will definitely consider Amygdala Design for the next cover art project I have coming up.   Definitely.

Until next time.

Travis

Adventures in ebook cover art--Part 2

Quality ebook cover art is hard to come by for less than $150-$400.  But it can be done, consistently, if you do what I do. I hire freelance artists/graphic-designers, at the price I'm willing to pay, to make a cover based on my own design concepts. See the first post on adventures in cover artistry: http://thenightlifeseries.blogspot.com/2012/08/adventures-in-ebook-cover-artistry.html

Here's where I go for my ebook cover artists:

http://www.freelanced.com/

Initially, I found a buttload of talented artists working in illustration and graphics design when I posted my ebook cover art job.  Fifty different artists applied for the job.  It was difficult to choose just one.  After going through this process several times, hiring artists and working through multiple mockups-proofs, I settled on the "prove you're the one" method.

The problem with artists is they usually have a day job.  They do this graphic design stuff on the side.  Finding time to do what I want at the price I'm willing to pay is an issue.

Sure, if I wished to throw hundreds of dollars at an artist, they'd drop everything and have my work done in two days.  But I'm kinda cheap.  That's what my wife says.

I sorted through many an artist who took a week or more getting back to me by email in order to find those who respond immediately and get the work done in days rather than weeks.  Its no surprise that the artists who run full a time graphic design business are the most prompt and professional.  Its their bread and butter to do this stuff.

Lisa Strong is the latest graphic designer I hired.  She's awesome on timeliness, professionalism, and she does as many modifications and proofs as necessary to reach a finished product you're happy with: 

http://www.freelanced.com/lisastrong

Here's the cover for "The Nightlife Las Vegas" she finished in five days.  Two of those days I wasted in not getting back to her on my opinion of the initial proof work.

The trick to a good cover is the K.I.S.S. principle, Keep It Simple Stupid.  Everything on your cover must be recognizable from a thumbnail image.  Most ebook shoppers will never see more than a thumbnail image of your ebook until they click on it.  Your ebook better be one cool-ass lookin' thumbnail, especially if you're an unknown Indie author.  Us Indies are always judged by our covers, initially.

This cover by Lisa Strong, has a wonderful thumbnail appeal.  Everyone can see the elegant bright white fonts and the blood splattered Las Vegas sign. Simple. Colorful. Grabs the eye. The concepts embodied in this cover are effectively communicated at both thumbnail and full size.

Give Lisa a shot.  If you're not getting what you want on an ebook cover design, perhaps you need to provide better tools and references for what you want.  I scoured the web for imagery and tools to give to Lisa. I provided her with a set of Photoshop blood splatter tools for use on my covers, along with the sign image. 

Make your cover artist's job easy, and you will get what you want.

Stay tuned for my next blog post detailing the various stages of development working through several artists on "The Nightlife Las Vegas" cover.

Travis

"The Nightlife New York" now FREE on Amazon

I want everyone to know "The Nightlife New York" is now a FREE download on Amazon, Smashwords, and Apple. 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090P1MIU

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/217404

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-nightlife-new-york/id556103375

Enjoy.

"The Nightlife Las Vegas" is soon to follow ;)

First mockup for 'The Nightlife Las Vegas"

Joshua Allen has done a very sharp mockup of a concept for "The Nightlife: Las Vegas" cover--the second in the Nightlife series.  Its a work in progress, but you can see it coming along nicely.  I'll continue to post each subsequent version until we get to the finished product.

Joshua Allen is a professional book illustrator and comic artist: http://www.freelanced.com/joshuamallen

The Nightlife: New York is on smashwords.com $.99!

Its done, 'The Nightlife: New York' is published on Amazon and smashwords.com.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/217404

Here's the blurb:

Vampires, strippers, escorts, night clubs, gangbangers, pimps and corrupt cops, the Nightlife of New York is never boring.

Is she a beautiful blond guardian angel as he imagined, or something else entirely?  When Michelle saves Aaron's life she shares the benefits of her blood (after getting him shot accidentally).  He awakes a changed man, living in a purgatory of eternal night, never to see the sunrise again.

Michelle drags Aaron through a hardcore learning curve of vampiric nightlife.  Forced to adapt to servitude, Aaron is subject to her authority and compulsion.  She orders him around like a puppet on a string, a dog on a very short leash.  First things first, he must learn to feed properly without creating bloodslaves (humans addicted to the powerful drug-like effect of their venomous bite).

And then she puts him to work--a male escort in the sex trade--same as Michelle--she's no angel.  Aaron walks a tightrope of strictly controlled feeding regiments and intensely erotic sexual adventures while catering to the neurotic control-freak tendencies of his new master.  It's do or die, Michelle vows to eliminate him if he proves too dangerous or difficult to control.  The real kicker--amidst all these shocking and degrading new adjustments, Aaron finds he's falling in love.

Can he manage all this and retain some scrap of his humanity?  Innocence is a luxury few can afford in the decadent nightlife of New York City.  In a world where sex, blood, and power over women is so readily accessible, Aaron struggles against the predatory instincts deeply rooted in his new psyche.  He must find his way quickly, maintaining rigid self-control, or risk the consequences of Michelle's wrath.