Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Shawn Penning's Novel, "The Cicadas" Finally Available

Great News! For those of you waiting for the paperback and hard cover version of The Cicadas, the wait is over. If you have already read (or listened to the audio book) the original pre-launch version, then you will be surprised to find several new chapters and a complete revision of the original text.

If you would like to read some of the new chapters, we are in the process of posting them here:

Read (or listen to) The Cicadas

The Prologue and the new Chapter 1 are already posted there and we are in the process of posting at least Chapters 2 and 3, along with the newly recorded audio book chapters as well.

The links to buy The Cicadas (Hard Cover and Paperback) from Amazon are now posted on the right-hand side of this blog, and both are also available at Barnes and Noble.com.

If you would like to read The Cicadas for free, please call your local library and ask them to buy a copy. The USBN numbers that they may need are listed below:

The Cicadas by Shawn Penning, published by IUniverse
Paperback ISBN 978-0-595-46935-2
Hardcover ISBN 978-0-595-48941-1

This book represents over four years of writing and rewriting and writing again.
I hope you enjoy it!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Stephen King's Just After Sunset

I admit it, I'm a huge fan of Stephen King's work. His ability to build believable characters, even unearthly ones, amazes me. His books are usually very long, and sometimes the story line doesn't go anywhere, (i.e. From a Buick 8, Hearts in Atlantis). However, every book written by King or his alter ego, Richard Bachman has become a best seller.

I read a lot of books by listening to their audio book versions and King's stories are usually in the 15-25 disk range, which means I need a very long trip, say from Michigan to Florida, to get through one of them. Just After Sunset is nice because it is a collection of short stories and allows King fans and King-fan-want-a-be's to sample Stephen King in small bites.

Some of the stories I had already read, as they were previously available as stand alone products. In each short story, King does his usual great job of building characters and developing a small part of the world where weird things happen, and then bringing us all in to it, making it believable.

Rumor has it that King recently criticized Twilight author Stephanie Meyer's writing skills when comparing her to Harry Potter's JK Rowling:

"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

King used to be an English teacher and he has sold a lot of books, however, my own humble opinion is that even if Stephenie Myers uses a lot of those adverbs (which King finds abhorrent), it doesn't matter. The Twilight series has captured America's attention in a way that boggles the mind. If that many people love Meyer's work, how can anyone criticize her writing skill? She writes just well enough to sell millions of books and have movies made from her writing.

Sorry about the tangent. Bottom line on Just After Sunset: Brilliant writing as usual from King. A welcome departure from his usually very long novels allowing the reader to take in some Stephen King in small bites.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Review of "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer

Hello Fellow Readers,

While I'm waiting these last few weeks for The Cicadas to become available, I've decided to give some comments on books that I've read recently, beginning with Stephenie Meyer's latest, The Host. Later I'll review Stephenie Meyer's 4-book Twilight series, plus Stephen King's Just After Sunset and Duma Key, an older book called The Giver by Lois Lowry, and others. But now, on to Stephenie Meyer's fifth book, The Host.

I loved it. Now I know that most people, especially the Twilight series' almost cult following of young females will disagree with me but I actually enjoyed The Host more than the Twilight series (Twilight · New Moon · Eclipse · Breaking Dawn). Okay, before you flame me for writing it, you should understand that I really did like Twilight and I understand why the story moves so many people. I mean, what girl wouldn't want a perfect guy with superhuman powers and the ability to read a women's mind and anticipate her needs? Anyway, back to The Host.

The opening scene lost me briefly as the terrified and angry girl chooses to plummet to her death to avoid the alternative--having her body invaded and controlled by some alien entity. But my confusion cleared quickly as the story unfolded and took me on an adventure full of suspense, intrigue, and a little romance. Some of the back story reminded me of The Giver, but like Twilight, Stephenie Meyer manages to make everything fit together in a well designed plot that brings the characters and the fantasy world in which they live to a full and vibrant life.

Twilight was billed as a teen series, but I cringed a little during some of the scenes, knowing that my 13-year old daughter had read it already. The Host is labeled for the adult section, but in my opinion, it is tamer than the 4 books of Twilight, a PG at worst.

Bottom Line: If you haven't yet read Stephenie Meyer's The Host, then you are missing out on a great book. If you haven't read Twilight, you are missing out on a phenomenon.

Shawn Penning
author of The Cicadas

Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Cicadas novel available soon

With all of the delays we've had getting this novel published, I kind of feel like the boy who cried wolf. However, I now have an ISBN number, the cover has been approved, and the final edits have been submitted to the publisher. I will send an annoucement out to everyone who has signed up at TheCicadas.com as soon as the book is available, hopefully in less than a month or two from today.

As of this date, the website has still not been updated with the new prologue and chapter 1, but we plan to have that up prior to the launch. We will also be offering a lot of bonuses to anyone who purchases the hardcover or softcover versions of The Cicadas so stay tuned.

Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy The Cicadas when it finally is published!

Shawn Penning