New Video Book Trailers for two Horror books

I had been thinking about making a video trailer for my books for a while now, but I've been pretty busy. Most recently with producing audio book versions of my books and stories.

First of all, should any of these links change, you can get to their latest replacement versions and any new one on my TheJZMurdock YouTube Channel. See if I change or enhance these videos, I have to create new versions which would supercede these older versions.

Well, today I finally got around to looking into it. Here are the results.

I used some the music my son Nikolas, also the model on the cover of my ebook, "Simon's Beautiful Thought" (which was shot a few years ago) and who I got the title from for one of my books, Death of Heaven. The other book video trailer is for Anthology of Evil.

As he put it on Facebook today:

"A couple of my dad's books now have vids to show them off. He used a title of mine for a metaphysics write up I did but it wasn't going anywhere. So he asked if he could use it and I figured the title anyway, would be more likely to get out that way. He even used a couple of songs I composed in high school for the vids. Enjoy and buy the books!"

I like his attitude.

I don't think they came out half bad. Enjoy!

Death of Heaven video book trailer

Anthology of Evil video book trailer

NOTE: I just thought I'd add that today (1/9/2013) I uploaded my first audio book to Audible.com through Amazon/ACX. It was "The Mea Culpa Document of London" that first appeared in my "Anthology of Evil" (see above). Below is what I also posted today on my Facebook page:

Over the past week or two I've been learning about producing audio books. Today I have uploaded my first audio book to Audible.com through Amazon/ACX.

It is The Mea Culpa Document of London and has a somewhat extensive history. The actual audio book is less than half an hour in length. I'm not sure when it will be available for download however. I obviously wrote, but also narrated and produced the audio book and continue to learn as I go. My first version last week was, well, passable. The current one is not too bad and I hope to get better at it as I go.

For now I can only offer you the ebook version available on Amazon.

This was a story I first wrote at my University and got one of my Professors, Perry Mills interested in it as he was a student of medieval literature and it led to interesting discussions in his office in the PAC Theatre building at WWU in Beillingham, WA. I also wrote another story, "Poor Lord Ritchie" at about this same time and Perry and I had talks over that story, also.

It was Perry who suggested the concept of a "crucible sword" into the story which turned out to be a very good idea. I will always have fond thoughts of Perry. He had also wanted to do a one man stage show of the "Lord Ritchie" story, but it was never to be as I could never get the staging just right and then I graduated and moved away.

This story grew over the years since the early 80s and I have added on to it, telling the story of the Dr. of History who either, forged it, or discovered it, which is part of the story in Death of Heaven called, "Vaughan's Theorem", and tells the tale of his violent descent into insanity.

The original "Mea Culpa" story is contained in my book, "Anthology of Evil" (as is "Poor Lord Ritchie" which I have also read into audio book format this past week); a collection of short horror tales, many of which you wouldn't normally consider, perhaps, a horror story, in the traditional sense. But I'm seldom that traditional.

Thanks for reading and soon, thanks, for listening.
Cheers!

Is deluding yourself good?

Humans are very good at two things. Delusion and repetition. We tend to reproduce what we have done in the past, we have a tendency to repeat our mistakes, for instance. We don't like to admit we have screwed up, we don't like seeing what we don't want to acknowledge as real, and so we tend to delude ourselves about reality. These are both, bad things and they take control away from ourselves. We freely give up control just to avoid feeling bad. But we can use that, use what is bad, for our benefit, too.

So how do we do that? How do we control ourselves in areas where we seem to freely give up control?

It's been said that focusing is the best way to achieve a goal. Focusing and sticking with it. Exclude all else and only see one thing, your goal, however you need to do it. Trick yourself if need be. Alter your perception for what you want to focus on. In a word, delude yourself, but consciously and with purpose and intent, not just to avoid, embrace.

So instead, delude yourself and become repetitive.

Use your "God given abilities" to be somewhat OCD. You see, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, can be a good thing. Unless you actually have OCD of course, in which case you have to be very careful. OCD is not a great thing to have by a long shot. But I believe we are all susceptible to it. So, why not make use of it? To go with nature is the best way, after all, to do things.

For instance, if you want to lose weight, you of course need to adjust your diet, but you can do that and you will continue to gain or at least, to not lose weight. So you need exercise. Which it seems is most people's problem. No matter what they try they tend to not do enough proper exercise.

So, convince yourself that your one and only problem in losing weight is that you have to exercise. Now, go with that. Exercising could solve all your problems. Delude yourself, if need be. Tell yourself that you have nothing to worry about but getting in your daily exercise. That once you get a regular habit of exercising going, your money, your life and your health problems if any, will go away.

It doesn't matter that it's not true, it only matters that you convince yourself that it is. Now, what about after you lose the weight, after you get where you want to be and the only thing it has solved is, your weight?

Well honestly, you KNEW you were doing this to delude yourself, but now that you have lost the weight, you can delude yourself about your next step. Just remember and be aware that YOU have to control your delusions. You are for all intents and purposes, tricking yourself into doing what you want to do, anyway.

As for the repetition part, you have to start and repeat your exercises. You have to make it a bit of an obsession. Not that you have to do it every minute of the waking day, but you have to design a workout routine and stick to it, obsessively almost 

You should work out the same hours each day, but then doing the same exercises wears off after a while, doesn't it, and you need to change it up. Because your body is built to adapt. So even though you obsessively do the routine at the same hour each day, if and when possible, you need to alter that. So it's okay, to say, not exercise at 4 PM but instead go to a movie, as long as you exercise enough, before or after. But you have to exercise, daily.

See the danger in obsession is specificity. You have to be aware of that, of what the bigger picture is.

Get it? As I said, once you get there, then you can move on to your next issue. Just maintain, continue with your exercising. Once you achieve your desired weight, you can cut back as you don't have to work out so hard to maintain as to lose.

But don't think that your bad habits, capabilities are just simply, bad for you. Use what you have, good and bad, so that in the end, YOU achieve what YOU want to achieve.

2 - 99 cent Horror ebooks for a limited amount of time

For a limited amount of time this New Year I am putting two of my Horror ebooks up for $.99 each. The first is:

Death of Heaven

The other book is:

Anthology of Evil

I just thought you might like to know.

Have a Happy New Year and...

Cheers!

A New Year's eBook Anthology Giveaway!

How about a New Year's Day eGift, right?

UPDATE 1/1/2013 - 1PM So sorry all, I forgot to set "Anthology of Evil" up for free last night, for today. It is now though and will remain available for today and tomorrow. Cheers! Happy New Year's!

I'm giving away another ebook today and tomorrow called, "Anthology of Evil" that includes some of the short horror stories I've given away this past week and then some.

That's all I have to say on this one but you can see more about it on the Smashwords page for the ebook.

I would like to wish you all a very prosperous and happy New Year for you, your family and those you care about.

Happy New Year's!

Also, Death of Heaven will continue to be free through today!

I yam what I yam....

First off, Happy New Year's!

This is no big deal, but I want to address this, so you’ll understand if you already don’t.

This will be a little odd, for a reason. I'm a little odd, but I try to be useful.

I don’t want to turn anyone off from reading me. Without readers, there's no sense in writing. But that’s the talent, to say things people may not want to hear, and yet make them hopefully, thank you in the end for saying it.

I failed that in a blog I did recently, surely. But sometimes it's just good enough to start a thought about something. Or better, a conversation.

When I got into all this I told myself I wouldn't keep my mouth shut when I saw a wrong, I’d try to call the truth out, as I see it.

I deep down seem to have a true journalistic attitude in the Edward R Murrow sense, though I hated the idea of journalism when I was in college. They write in an upside down pyramid style, big info then details, where fiction is details then big picture. It’s just backward. And kind of boring.

But after years of tech writing, of also putting the most info up front, which I hated as there’s no suspense, no fun, I guess that after a while, I just got used to it. Because it doesn't bother me so much anymore.

After these past three plus years of blogging, I guess I've become a journalist of a sort.

So when I see that something needs to be stated, at times in the toughest terms possible (I mean sometimes people just need to be hit in the head with a brick), well then I feel I should do just that.

THE PROBLEM with that as you know, is walking the double edged sword of journalism/public service, along with having fans in writing fiction and entertainment. I mention this because someone pointed it out to me recently. They were concerned for me and I said, I'm not, because I'm doing what I need to be doing.

Now technically I should NEVER do anything to lose fans, yet I probably will if I tell the truth. I mean, you're going to piss someone off sooner or later, right? Which leaves me pretty much in a quandary.

My brother is an artist. He could have put his art in galleries and such and made a group of money, but then he'd have had to contend with himself, as a person, not wanting to conform the the gallery style of being an artist. So he is happy doing what he can do as he has been doing it and he works with that. Well? Me too, it would seem.

So the best case is for me to never lose readers, but the reality will be that sometimes I will.

But hopefully some people, will stick with me, even if and when I'm pushing some limits. And perhaps some others will feel attenuated to me somehow, in some way, and continue to return.

I was once told many years ago that what is important in picking a movie critic to follow, is not that you agree with them, but that they are consistent in their views. Then you will just know, if they hate a certain type of movie, so will you, or maybe you will know that you will love it. As long as you have that certain consistency from them, then you can know more about a movie than you would otherwise. Sometimes you can learn more from someone you disagree with, than from someone you tend to always agree with.

The thing about me is that I’m less afraid to lose readers as long as what I'm saying is the truth. Even if it's what’s on the edge, or calling the kettle not just black, but perhaps a green fuzzy, or simply just to be me. But I'm always pretty much what I am.

It’s a conundrum. For me at least.

I believe in calling them out, putting them down, showing them up for who they are, the bad, the cruel, the insane, the lost or misdirected. This political stuff from this past election, is a prime example of what I'm talking about. I'm kind of glad it's over now.

Anyway as Popeye says, "I yam what I yam and I ain't no more". More correctly:

"I yam what I yam and I yam what I yam that I yam / And I got a lotta muscle and I only gots one eye / And I'll never hurt nobodys and I'll never tell a lie / Top to me bottom and me bottom to me top / That's the way it is 'til the day that I drop, what am I? / I yam what I yam."

But I jest.

All we can ask is that people try to be informed and make good decisions, then share them openly and listen to reactions. Then to act appropriately, in an inspired fashion. Life can only get better from that small effort.

There is so much ignorance being shared as intelligence, seek to separate the one from the other. It can only serve you well. Seek not to be selfish and try to consider that the greater good can be good for you and not just something to be put down as a bad thing because you do not benefit directly from it.

Here's an inspiring video online that someone did. In thought of the year we are about to make use of, either for the best or the worst, whether we plan our actions or fall into reaction.
Words of Wisdom ☮ Peaceful Hearts, Enlightened Minds

To the past: I hope you have had a happy holiday season!
To the future: All the best to you in this near year.
To us all: Cheers! That is, be of good cheer and blaze a trail forward with accurate and good intent.

An After Christmas eBook Giveaway!

So, it's almost New Years? Want a New Year's Eve eGift?

I'm giving away another ebook today and tomorrow called, "Gumdrop City".

It's a murder story that doesn't mess about. "Gumdrop City" was published in 2010 in Zilyon Publishing’s “The Undead Nation Anthology”. It is a horror story, pure and simple, but also a true crime story about a child serial murderer. I have also worked on this as a screenplay with a producer in Hollywood. So, hard telling if someday you may be watching a movie and think to yourself, "Gee, this seems kind of familiar."

This story is also included in my book, "Anthology of Evil", which I will be giving out free on New Year's Day.

Happy Holidays!

Tomrrorw? Another freebie!

Also, Death of Heaven will continue to be free through New Years Day!

An After Christmas eBook Giveaway!

So, missing Christmas yet? Ready for another eGift?

I'm giving away another ebook today and tomorrow called, "Japheth, Ishvi and The Light".

Be aware, it's a zombie story. The first one I ever wrote with a bit of horror, a bit of comedy. It is based on the Biblical tale of Abraham and his son Isaac and is about the religious commune they live in. Of course, their names are different, Japheth and Ishvi. Throw in some devastating confusion, a few soldiers, God, and well, there you have it..

This story is also included in my book, "Anthology of Evil", which I will be giving out free on New Year's Day.

Happy Holidays!

Tomrrorw? Another freebie!

Also, Death of Heaven will continue to be free through New Years Day!