Simon Wood

Posts Categorized: book of the month

BARGAIN BOOK ALERT

WeAllFallDown400September seems to be promo month for several of my titles.  So please take advantage of several of these month long discounts.  You have no excuse not to pick me up cheap.  😉

PAYING THE PIPER

The ebook edition of my kidnap thriller filled secrets, lies, mistakes and redemption is £1.00 at AmazonUK.

TERMINATED

The ebook edition of my workplace violence themed thriller is £1.25 at AmazonUK.  This book was inspired by an incident at my wife’s old.

WE ALL FALL DOWN

The ebook edition of my chase themed thriller is $1.99 at Amazon.  Think THE FIRM but with engineers instead of lawyers.  Seriously though the book was inspired by a series of suicides in the UK in the 80’s.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

The trade paperback edition of my bestselling cat and mouse thriller is only $6.99 at the moment at Amazon.  It’s the story of two damaged people who deal with their trauma in completely different ways.

Categories: book of the month

Read more

SHELF LIFE: THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY Tour

TOTGAMy blog tour for THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY has concluded.  So if you missed any of my stops along the way, here are the links to my cyber travels:

TOTGA also picked up a number of nice online reviews:

Quiet Fury
Will Kill For A Story
Carol Taylor Reviews
Debbie Davis
Ebook Friendly
Kings River Life

Please check out all the links and thanks to everyone who’ve helped make TOTGA the success it has been so far.

Categories: book of the month shelf life

Read more

SHELF LIFE: Reader Reaction

TOTGASo THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY has been out for a month (two if you’re an Amazon Prime Member) and reader feedback has been coming in.  Quite a lot of it actually.  On Amazon.com, the book has racked up almost 2,000 reviews so far.  This is understandable as TOTGA (as the cool kids aka my editor calls it) is by far my fastest and bestselling book so far.  Phew!  I may be in publishing for a little while longer.

But a lot more readers mean a lot more opinions.  Luckily for me, people more often than not like TOTGA.  Thank God for that.  I was a little worried about reader feedback because there’d be a lot more people reading out of genre.  More exposure is nice…as long as everyone is of the same opinion and a positive opinion at that.  Well, it looks as if it is so.

Actually I’m quite pleased about TOTGA’s reception.  People, by and large, got it.  They embraced Zoë Sutton warts and all.  I wasn’t sure readers would, considering she is someone suffering from PTSD, which makes her a little difficult to like or understand at times.

But with every book, I get feedback that I wasn’t quite expecting.  So here are a few findings:

  • Quite a few people want or think TOTGA is the first in a new series. I didn’t have any plans to make Zoë Sutton a series character but now you’ve got me thinking. At this point I don’t know how I would take Zoë forward and maintain the same level of danger.
  • I’m surprised and amused by how many women have said they’re going to take fight classes after seeing what happened to Zoë. So be warned predatory men, the ladies are no pushover.
  • I’m touched by the therapists and victims of violence/stalkers thought I got Zoë right. This was a tough book to write because I tried to interview a number of victim support groups and all of them declined to speak to me so I’m glad people feel I got it right.
  • Some people have thought the violence is quite graphic and to be honest, most of the violence is off the page. It’s like Psycho, you see the knife but you don’t see anyone get stabbed. It’s your mind embellishes the rest.
  • And speaking of embellishments, I’ve had a few emails describe scenes/events that never took place. It happens with every book. People always bring something to the story.
  • People think the book is short but it’s longer than my last three and quite a bit longer than the average James Patterson. It’s a product of my writing style that it’s focused and pacey so it tends to feel brief.

When a book meets the public, it’s exciting and daunting because it’s an interpretive voyage of discovery…and the discovery will continue as the book continues to travel.

 

Categories: book of the month shelf life

Read more

SHELF LIFE: Zoë’s Mix Tape

playlist-barrygruff-1I’m a big music freak and as I’ve done with my last couple of books, I’ve created a playlist for my heroine Zoë Sutton from THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY. Zoë’s playlist is pretty dark as she’s a troubled woman, not surprising considering her past problems and her present danger. This mix tape is the kind of thing her therapist would have her make to help her understand herself better. So here’s what I expect to find on her playlist:

1. “Hit me with your best shot” – Pat Benatar
2. “One way or another” – Blondie
3. “Missing” – Everything But The Girl
4. “Showdown” – ELO
5. “Tallyman” – Jeff Beck
6. “I’ve Been Waiting For A Girl Like You” – Foreigner
7. “Wicked Game” – Chris Isaak
8. “Bad Girls” – M.I.A.
9. “The First Cut Is The Deepest” – Cat Stevens
10. “Out of Control” – She Wants Revenge
11. “Hurt” – Johnny Cash
12. “Fox On The Run” – Sweet
13. “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing” – Chris Issak
14. “Out of Control” – Hoobastank
15. “Died in your arms” – Cutting Crew

Readers of the book should recognize the significance of these songs and song titles, so if you have suggestions for Zoë, call them out. I’m sure Zoë will appreciate it. 🙂

Categories: book of the month shelf life

Read more

SHELF LIFE: Wetting The Baby’s Head

baby TOTGAI witnessed the birth of my sixteenth child a week last Sunday.  Although it’s my sixteenth baby, I’m just excited to see it as the first one.  THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY weighed in at 10oz and 8 inches long from head to toe.  Not a bad size and weight all things considered.  For an author, I don’t think there’s a smell like it.  It’s a combination of fresh paper and glue that hasn’t had the chance to breathe in the air.

Although I joke, bringing a book into the world isn’t much different from bringing a child into the world, although I won’t have to send it to college or pay for its wedding.  There’s the conception—that first spark of passion when the idea for the book is born.  The excitement builds as the story grows from an idea into a story and the page count swells.  It’s not long before it actually possesses a shape resembling the embryo manuscript.  The editing process refines its shape and it starts to resemble the story I wanted to make.  Then before I know it, it’s reached the end of its first trimester.

Then my baby enters a tricky stage as I search for a publisher and/or agent to assist with the birth.  This can be a long and treacherous route filled with disappointment and setbacks, but I always have faith regardless of the passage of time.  I know it has to happen.  It’s happened before.  And it does.  Someone shares my love for my book and offers a contract that carries my baby through to its final trimester.

TOTGAThis is the most nervous of times.  Everything looks sound enough, but I’ve experienced things going wrong.  Publishers can change their mind.  Circumstances can change.  And I have to keep a careful eye on developments.  But with little one, there were no such troubles.  Compared to some of my children (I’m looking at you WE ALL FALL DOWN), this book went to term with few problems.  It arrived on the day they told me.

Now that THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY is born—and did I mention it’s a fine looking kid—I still have a lot of work to do.  Like any proud father, I have to show this baby off.  Anyone and everyone who stops for more than two seconds is going to hear about how wonderful my baby is.  I know it may bore some, but I can’t help it.  I really love this one.  This isn’t to say that I like this one any better than the others.  Well, that’s what I tell my other books.

And what kind of father would I be if I didn’t break out the baby pictures?  So here’s a picture of baby THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY.

So it’s cigars all round and I hope you’ll enjoy the bambino as much as I do.

Categories: book of the month shelf life

Read more

Autograph Hunters, Don’t Let THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY Escape You!

TOTGAI have a soft spot for autograph hunters and book collectors.  Book collectors kindly gave me an education in the education of book collecting and autographing when my first book came out (as I wrote about previously).  So I’ve always made a point of making myself available for an autograph.  If you want a signed copy of my latest thriller, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, I’ve got you covered in three ways.

  • Autographed copies can be ordered from my website bookshop.
  • You can request a bookplate and I’ll send one out free of charge. Just drop me a note here.
  • And I can even autograph ebooks through Authorgraph.com.

So if you want that book signed, just let me know.  I’m here to please.

Categories: book of the month shelf life

Read more

SHELF LIFE: The One That Got Away released today!

 

TOTGAI am a proud father all over again in that I am happy to announce the official release of my new thriller, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY.  The back jacket blurb goes a little like this.

“Graduate students Zoë and Holli only mean to blow off some steam on their road trip to Las Vegas. But something goes terribly wrong on their way home, and the last time Zoë sees her, Holli is in the clutches of a sadistic killer. Zoë flees with her life, changed forever.

A year later and still tortured with guilt, Zoë latches on to a police investigation where the crime eerily resembles her abduction. Along with a zealous detective, she retraces the steps of that fateful night in the desert, hoping that her memory will return and help them find justice for Holli. Her abductor—labeled the “Tally Man” by a fascinated media—lies in wait for Zoë. For him, she is not a survivor but simply the one that got away.”

You don’t have to take my word for it, the books picked up some nice blurbs:

“Simon Wood’s THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY turns the serial killer convention upside down in a genuinely suspenseful novel.”
—Charlaine Harris, author of THE DAY SHIFT

“Wrenchingly intense–the talented Simon Wood goes psychologically dark and deeply disturbing.  For those who like their thrillers twisty, shocking, and relentless.”  
—Hank Phillippi Ryan, author of TRUTH BE TOLD

“Zoe Sutton is one of the most compelling, interesting, and complex heroine’s I’ve read in a long time.”
—Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author of NOTORIOUS

“Marvelously nerve-wracking, The One That Got Away is a wicked roller-coaster of suspense that paints a realistic picture of a serial murderer and Zoë Sutton, the one prey that got away.”
—Gayle Lynds, New York Times best-selling author of THE BOOK OF SPIES

We’ve picked up some early online reviews:

Quiet Fury
Will Kill For A Story
Carol Taylor Reviews

It’s available in paperback, as an eBook, on CD and as an audio download.  I hope you like it and please, please, spread the word by sharing this post and annoying family, friends and strangers.  Word of mouth is everything.

Thanks for listening.

Categories: book of the month hump day post

Read more

Older Entries
 
Newer Entries