A New Kid on the Block!

Yesterday, Martin Crosbie went live with his new venture of a book advertising sale online site and it looks amazing and he has started it off with a bang! he is doing a giveaway of free $25. amazon gift card to a lucky winner who signs up for the newsletter!

So head on over and check out a new place to advertise your book sale and enter for a chance to win $25.00! Get your book in front of thousands of readers and a chance to win some money!

Martin Crosbie In a press release, Amazon called Martin Crosbie’s debut novel “My Temporary Life” one of their success stories. His self-publishing journey has been chronicled in Publisher’s Weekly, Forbes Online, and Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. Martin’s recent release “The Dead List – A John Drake Mystery” was awarded a publishing contract by Kindle Press.
He’s also the author of “My Name Is Hardly – Book Two of the My Temporary Life Trilogy“, “Lies I Never Told – A Collection of Short Stories“, “How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon’s Kindle – An Easy-To-Follow Self-Publishing Guidebook, 2015 Edition“, and “Believing Again: A Tale Of Two Christmases“.
Martin was born in the Highlands of Scotland and currently makes his home just outside Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada.

You can connect with Martin at martin@martincrosbie.com or say hello to him on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/martin.crosbie.3.

Where to advertise your physical book!

Hey everyone! trying to get your written book seen? Try this one on for size. Showcase your physical book with other indie authors in a display window at our local mall! this weekend we are having a home and garden show. Lot’s of vendors and visitors will see your book! Only $5.00 a month whether you have one book or ten! A landing page directs the curious buyer to where they can get an ebook copy of your book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or wherever you have your ebooks sold through.  So check it out and let others know!  Iowa Book Source

Like what you see? Every two weeks or so I will change out the decorations to keep it fresh and appealing to the eye.  Have a great day all!

Iowa Book Source is live!

Here is the sign in the window and here is my display window. If you are an author and would like to get your book in front of people in this display window and an ebook link where the person can buy it just let me know!

The Funky Tulip!

What is the Funky Tulip you might ask? Well let me tell you!

Pray to the Shadowman part 4

I’m back at doing the blogging thing. I kind of took a break after my brother passed. I guess it hit me much harder than I had thought. You just never know how you are going to deal with the passing of someone until it happens. I have been working on the story and working out the kinks of how exactly I want things to go. So here we go onto the next episode of Pray to the Shadowman.

All excerpts from Pray to the Shadowman, copyright 2016 by Wendy Siefken

Fear the Walking Dead, episode 5 and 6

here the final show has aired and has wrapped up this season with a nice little bow that blew all of us away. I did not write on the 5th episode last week because it was so hard to nail down just how I felt about it. I rewatched it several times and warred within myself as to who was the good guy and the bad guy. Who would be the Rick Grimes of the group. I debated, this way and that. Watched the 5th and 6th episode together this Sunday and started to watch the reruns of The Walking Dead from the very first episode and you know what? I found my answers about the 5th episode!

To begin with nobody on this show is Rick Grimes or any other cast from the TWD show because this isn’t that show. FTWD may be a spin off and in the same universe but it’s a whole different show all together. The 5th show we saw the characters swing wildly from good guy to bad guy except for two people. The Dr. and The lead military guy.

Daniel went from good husband and father, provider to bad guy who could get out secrets with a steady hand an a sharp instrument to feeling horrible because his daughter finally saw him for who he really was.  He had intentions of killing Andy off because Andy was no longer useful he had given all the information he knew.

Ofelia was also manipulative in that she conned Andy back to her house where she and her father Daniel tied him up to question him. She didn’t want him to be hurt but then again she didn’t set him free when she saw her dad cutting him up either. She did start dating Andy to try and get meds for her mother. I think in some way she liked him too but not enough to help free him.

Liza is working her tail off learning everything she can from the Dr. all the while trying to find her son Chris and Grizelda. Talk about your crash course, I think this rates right up there with even the toughest classes ever. All hands on, all on the run. Putting people down with the cattle gun, wow. That I didn’t see coming but it is efficient and effective. She thinks the Dr is up to something but no, she is just trying to save as many wounded as she can all the while holding onto her staff. Who wants to take a guess as to what she did with that gun at the end of episode six when all the wounded were dead? Yep, that’s what I was thinking too.

The kids Chris and Alicia were both supposed to be good kids who did nothing wrong, they go to a house and try out the clothes, toys and just generally trash the place. Teenage aggression at its finest. Do I think they had a right to do it? Heck yeah! they had been under an incredible amount of stress with the world ending, Chris’s mom leaving like that, Alicia’s mom and new boyfriend arguing and bickering the whole thing. These two by far so far, have neither been manipulative, secretive (other than the normal teenage stuff) or vying for someone’s attention, affection or drugs. O.K. Alicia drank, and possibly Chris too. but eh. they aren’t addicted to it.

Travis, now here is a real corker of a character. He refuses to be bullied by the military into shooting the waitress. But will beat the tarnation out of someone for breaking their word to him. Travis seems the meekest person on there he is a high school teacher not a cop or any military person at all. (that we know of yet) But he definitely earns a bit of respect from Daniel when he pummels Andy even though he let Andy lose in the first place who then hunted the group down and shot Ofelia. It’s o.k she was only grazed in the arm.

Madison, well, she is a person who is pretty much the same throughout. She wants her family together no matter the cost. She will use you up and spit you out if it means getting her son back. Was I surprised she let Daniel do what he did? yeah, I kinda was. Everyone has their limits right? Travis was so shocked and appalled that she knew and allowed it. And yet might I remind everyone Travis didn’t set Andy lose either.  So now we are down to just a few characters. The so called nutty ones.

Nick, well, Nick is Nick. He is an addict with a heart, but also his number one focus and need is his drugs. He meets up with Strand who is talking like some radio announcer who isn’t quite all there. But then again, he manipulates the poor neighbor into going total bonkers and saves Nick in the chain cages in the compound. He is offered a chance to make a run for it with Strand when the time comes and he is like, sure dude, whatever.

Strand, is an enigma wrapped up in a damned onion. Who the heck is he? what is his game? has he embraced the madness as he said so eloquently in the 6th episode? Or does he have a secret mission. Oh one thing I noticed that you all should too. The cufflinks say with love from A. A boat can’t do that, only a person can. When shit hits the fan Strand and Nick make a run for it and leave the rest in the cages. Nick questions it but Strand says if they take the time to set them free, they will kill them. So they book it only to get trapped. It looks like it’s the end for Strand and Nick but no, here comes Madison, Travis and gang to the rescue. Liza finally gets the damned locking door open and they escape.

So when it is all said and done what was bugging me? The fact that this show is not The Walking Dead, there is no core group that could survive. There is no “good guys” or clear cut “bad guys”. It’s just everyone trying to survive and we don’t know who will survive to the next show and who will get bit or killed. Just as the show the Golden Girls was during the same universe as Dallas, did not mean they had the same energy or flow. In 5 episodes they swung the characters so wildly that took TWD several seasons to do. So here we are at the end of the show and well, I have to say I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next season to come in the spring of 2016. I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog as much as I did have of writing it.

The Cast:

Madison Clark — Kim Dickens
Travis Manawa — Cliff Curtis
Nick Clark — Frank Dillane
Alicia Clark — Alycia Debnam-Carey

Liza Ortiz — Elizabeth Rodriguez
Chris Manawa — Lorenzo James Henrie

Daniel Salazar– Ruben Blades
Griselda Salazar — Patricia Reyes Spindola
Ofelia Salazar — Mercedes Mason

Recurring Cast:

Dr. Bethany Exner — Sandrine Holt

Matt — Maestro Harrell

Strand — Colman Domingo

Reynolds — Shawn Hatosy

Tobias — Lincoln A. Castellanos

Jazz — Megan Danso

Art Costa — Scott Lawrence

Fear the Walking Dead airs on AMC in the US at 8 p.m. CDT

Pray to the Shadowman; Part 3

Been working on the story again and I keep thinking this thing over and over. Charlie and I are having the same thoughts. We know how well a story can really get into our lives and become very real to us. I just hope that this one doesn’t affect us in a bad way.  I hope you enjoy the excerpt and please feel free to leave feedback. Thank you!

All excerpts from Pray to the Shadow-man, copyright 2015 by Wendy Siefken

How do you stop something not borne of flesh and blood but of thought, need and prayer? 

A shrill scream from a child from down below sent John and Dan racing back down the stairs to find the locked door now open and police officers backing out of the room. John pressed forward until he stood in front of everyone and froze. A young boy lay tied to the bed in the middle of the room. His small frame showed malnutrition and wounds from his restraints. It was obvious by the smell he had been tied to the bed for several days.  Right now, he was screaming staring with terrified eyes at the men gathered at the door.

Fear the Walking Dead episode 4

This weeks episode of Fear the Walking Dead opens with Chris up on the roof recording with his camera what has been happening to the city around them. The burning of houses, the putting up of the fence to keep them all safe. The military taking over their area and doling out rations to each family who are considered the “Lucky ones” to be living in the safe zone. It’s been 9 days since the military arrived and still no more medicines, no steady electricity and no outside news or contact. He sees a reflection from a house outside  in the dead zone. 

Pray to the Shadow-man.

Well, here is the next portion of our story that we are working on. I hope you like it.

All excerpts from Pray to the Shadow-man, copyright 2015 by Wendy Siefken

Six months later,

Detective John Casey stood in the middle of the living room looking over the gruesome scene. A chair sat in the middle with what was left of an adult torso while body parts were scattered around the room from floor to ceiling. The torso showed signs of torture like cuts, burns, whipping, and others he couldn’t quite identify just by looking at them. It looked like every one of them were inflicted antemortem. The police and techs were going over every inch of the house trying to find out who the victim was and why he died like this.

“We need to find out who owns this house and who this might be.” He motioned to the corpse. Looking over at the new rookie he said, “Rick, why don’t you run down the information for us. The letters in the foyer were addressed to several different people; we need to nail this down.” John said.

“Yes Sir, I am glad to get on that.” Rick turned to the door, looking a little green.

A call came over the radio, “John, you need to come up to the third floor in the attic.”

John headed to the stairs as another rookie came charging down with a hand over his mouth.

“Don’t contaminate the crime scene!” John yelled after him. He shook his head as once again he started up the stairs. The stairway was wide and carpeted with what had once been a luxurious red runner held in place with a brass rod now tarnished and faded. The hand railing was a dark mahogany that had seen better days. The house at one time had been a grand place but had now fallen into disrepair. Reaching the second floor landing he walked down a hallway looking at the police as they went about their work collecting evidence. In the first room he came to a detective was putting C.D.s into an evidence bag with a T.V. and a blue ray player. Techs were dusting for fingerprints everywhere, on doorknobs, dressers, bed railings and anywhere that a hand may have touched a surface. The next room he passed was dark inside due to the windows covered with what looked like tinfoil. A flashlight shone around illuminating pictures taped to a wall next to a bed.

He passed a bathroom where items were being placed into an evidence bag from the medicine chest as well as the counter tops. There were two other doors across the hallway, one room held chains and hooks as well as other shiny metal items that John didn’t want to contemplate right now. The last door was locked with several keyed deadbolts and a master padlock. A tech kneeled in front of the door with his lock picking kit laying open. A sign on the door read “Favorite”.

Shaking his head, he finally reached the stairs leading up to the attic. A smell of mothballs and rotting flesh assaulted his nostrils as he placed his foot on the first step. Bracing his hand on the wall a moment, the odor alone told him, it was going to be bad. John reached the top step where he paused long enough to pull out a handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth. A stocky man stood by a doorway leading into a room. John looked around and could see several doors leading into rooms with the stairway being the central spot.

“Jesus Dan, it smells horrible up here! It must be a hundred and twenty degrees up here to boot!” John said.

“Through here John, brace yourself; it’s a regular chamber of friggin horrors up here.” Dan said as he led John into the first room.

A table sat in the middle of the room with decorations for what looked like a birthday party with six chairs sitting around it. In the chairs were six little bodies posed in different positions and different stages of decomposition. The warm dry air had mummified them, forever freezing them like a picture from a nightmarish postcard. It was very evident even to John that these children had been tortured before they died.

“There are two more rooms like this one up here. Each staged with six little bodies.” Dan said with disgust.

“What kind of place is this? How is it we have never known about it?” John said as he bent down looking at one of the bodies and continued. “I’ve been a cop for over ten years and you Dan, for what like fifteen?”

Dan shook his head, just as puzzled, “None of this makes any sense.” Dan said.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Fear the Walking Dead, Episode 3

this episode of Fear the Walking Dead showed a lot more zombie action and whole lot more hysteria and partying from the general population at large. We open with Travis, Chris, and Liza stuck at the barber shop with the Salazar’s. There is a riot/street party for some going on outside the door. They have safety as long as the rioters don’t get inside. As luck would have it, the rioters break in next door, setting the building on fire.