New Story Release

I released a new story today.

Falling On The Sword:  A Gabriel Carter Story

After a seemingly open and shut case involving a domestic violence scene gone wrong becomes political and personal, Philadelphia Homicide Detectives Gabriel Carter and Susan Locke must question their loyalties and ethics in order to make sure justice is served. 

This is the next story in the saga of Detective Gabriel Carter.  The first was called Hard Times.  These two stories and a few future stories will lay the ground work for the first Gabriel Carter novel Dead Man's Hand.

You can find the story on Smashwords and Scribd.
The story will be available for Free.  I'm playing around with how long I am going to be keeping stories available for free in order to get more readers and fans like you.  So tell your friends or anyone you know that likes reading.  And if you like this story or any of my stories please leave a review on the site that you downloads the story from and Goodreads.

In other news: the next batch of stories might come out a bit slower than the first batch because I am working a job that will have me working 16 hour days six days a week.  While I will try to do as much writing as I can, I want to be able to continue delivering you all high quality material, so I will only release a story if I am satisfied with the work. 

Thanks for all your support.

TCB

AJA

Legend

The word legendary gets thrown around way too often these day, but today we lost a true legend of American Crime Fiction.  Though some might not know the name Elmore Leonard, I know everyone is aware of his work from the massively successful television series Justified (based on his short story Fire in the Hole), or the films 3:10 to Yuma, Jackie Brown (based on the novel Rum Punch), Out of Sight, Get Shorty, and my personal favorites Mr Majestyk and Valdez is Coming.  I never got to meet Elmore Leonard, but I can say that as a fan he might have influenced my writing more than any other person.  His simple stripped down prose painted the picture of sad, desperate people in extraordinary situation, but what made him special was that he never took the situation too seriously, always knowing the right place for a joke.  And while his novels are often hilarious, the humor never undercut the stakes.

It is a sad day.  But I know he lives on in his work.  I know I'm going to be rereading my favorite Leonard novels as I do every year.

Goodbye Elmore, I wish I got to meet you to thank you for your stories and characters, you've brought me laughs and thrills and joy.


TCB,

AJA

New Novella Release

Reese Parker, a former Philadelphia Homicide Detective turned Private Investigator, is hired by a mysterious man to find a young woman as a serial killer has been leaving bloodless bodies around the city. This case takes him on a dark path through the city introducing him to predators lurking in the shadows that may have been responsible for his sister's disappearance seven years ago.

This novella serves as the start of a new novel series called Lurking In The Shadows that will deal with a ragtag unit of desperate people that may very well be humanity's last hope against the forces of evil.

I am so happy to be delivering horror for the first time to you guys.  You can download the book for free on Smashwords and scribd until September 3rd.  So check it out and be sure to write a review for it on the website that you downloaded it off of.

TCB,

AJA

Amazon Author's Page

So I now have an Amazon Author's Page.  I have to admit that it's pretty cool, well cool for me, it pretty much looks like every other Author's page on Amazon.  You can find it at amazon.com/author/alexjankrom.

Proud Americans release

I have released a new short story called Proud Americans.  It will be available for free on smashwords and scribd until August 26th.  So please check it out.

The story of two brothers. One who went to war, and the other who stayed home. Chris Reinhart spent his childhood protecting his little brother from bullies, but when Brian joins the Marines, Chris learns that he has to let his brother go and find himself, even if that means letting him go to war. Sacrifice isn't just paid by the soldiers on the battlefield. 

Also just a reminder that this is the last week that And All That Could have been will be available for free.  You have until August 19th to get it for free so don't delay.

And as always The Mercy Seat and Hard Times are available where all ebooks are sold for the low, low price of $0.99.

TCB,

AJA

New Cover Art

So here is the cover art for Proud Americans, which is currently scheduled for an August 12th release.

Short Story Release

A new short story by yours truly.

And All That Could Have Been

"How'd you get to be so lucky Ernest White?"

To observers Ernest White had the perfect life.  He teaches at the local high school.  He coaches the basketball team.  He has a beautiful wife and two amazing kids.

If only they knew that perfect life was built on one horrible sin he committed when he was just a kid.  Can Ernest survive when his sin comes back to haunt him?

You can currently find And All That Could Have Been on Smashwords and Scribd.  It will be up on Kobo shortly.  The story will be free from now until August 20th.  So check it out and write a review if that's your thing.

TCB,

AJA

Hard Times up on Kobo

Hard Times is now up on Kobobooks.

Nicholl Fellowship

Two screenplays written by Alex J Ankrom, Castles Made of Sand, which is soon to be a novel, and Jin, based on the short film of same title and also soon to be a novel, were named 2013 Nicholl Fellowship Quarterfinalists.

To put that in prospective, this year 7,251 scripts were entered (nearly 1,100 by past quarter and semifinalists) and only 372 made it past the first round.

This is the fourth and fifth time a screenplay by Alex J Ankrom was named a quarterfinalist.  The is the third time Castles Made of Sand has been named as a Quarterfinalist.  It made it to the Semifinalist round in 2010.

In 2009, his screenplay Going South was also named a Quarterfinalist.

Hard Times Release

My newest short story Hard Times has been released on Smashwords and Scribd.  It will be up on Kobobooks.com and iBookstore in a few days.  It will be FREE for until August 12th.  So check it out now and feel free to write up a review on the site that you downloaded it and at Goodreads.

Thanks to all and be on the lookout for more content coming soon.

TCB,
AJA

Terminated: A Novel Four Parts

So one of the things that I've always loved about Charles Dickens was that all of his novels were originally serialized in magazines.  One of the great potentials of epublishing, I believe, is that it allows for the Serialized novel to make a comeback.

So here I'm announcing my first attempt at a serialized novel:  Terminated: A Novel in Four Parts.  I will be releasing the first part of the novel for free while the other three parts will be released for $0.99 each.  And then after releasing all four parts, I will collect them for $1.99.

Be on the look out for: 

Terminated Part One:  The Fall of Jimbo, or How To Succeed In Business Without Really Dying

Terminated Part Two:  Never Get Off The Elevator, or Dew the Right Thing

Terminated Part Three:  Jimbo & The Forest of Dead Trees, or Time For a Rap Battle

Terminated Part Four:  Princes of the Universe, or Kneel Before Carrot

The first review is up on smashwords!

So someone has finally reviewed The Mercy Seat up on Smashwords.

"The Mercy Seat is an interesting thriller that makes up for its lack of surprise with suspense and great writing. Although, I wish the story had a few little twist and turns, I loved the characters and felt connected with Dwight as he went through his torture in the seat."

Can't wait to see more reviews.

TCB,
AJA

Much better cover art for Hard Times

And this kiddies is why you always get professionals to do the visually artistic stuff.

Very special shout out goes to Il Cho for this wonderful piece of work.

Be on the look out for Hard Times coming July 29th.

TCB,

AJA

Temp Cover Art for Hard Times

This is the next short story that I'm releasing next.  It's called Hard Times, and it's the first story featuring a major recurring character in my writing: Philadelphia Homicide Detective Gabriel Carter.

Update on The Mercy Seat

After a quick check of the various websites that have The Mercy Seat on them, the story has been downloaded a little over 100 times.  I thank all of you that has downloaded the story, but I need your help getting more.  If you liked the story, I would greatly appreciate if you tell your friends about the story and write a review on the website that you found the book or on goodreads.com.

Also, The Mercy Seat can now be found on kobobooks.com.  I hope to have the story up on Apple's iBookstore soon.

And again you can find The Mercy Seat on scribd.com and smashwords.com.

The Mercy Seat will remain available for free from now until August 5th when it goes up in price to $0.99.  Also that week the story will be made available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  I will post the links to their pages once they are available.

TCB,

Alex

The Mercy Seat Has Been Released

The Mercy Seat has been released for free, but due to some unforeseen technical difficulties it is currently only available on Smashwords.

Here's the link to smashwords.  Read and enjoy.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/339722


If you experience any problems trying to read the .epub format I suggest downloading a program called calibre which will allow you to convert the file into any other format (.mobi, .pdf, .rtf, .lit).

The program is free to download and use and can be found at http://calibre-ebook.com/.


Again I hope you guys enjoy the story, and it would be a great help if you'd spread the word or write reviews for it.

Thanks and be on the look out for information on the next story here and on facebook and twitter.

TCB,

Alex J Ankrom

Cover Art

Hot off the presses boys and girls.  Here is the finalized cover art for my short story "The Mercy Seat."

A special shout out to my sister Lyddia Ankrom who took the photo, and Maxwell Michael Towson for the cover design.

TCB,
AJA

The Mercy Seat

After careful consideration, the first short story that I am going to publish will be "The Mercy Seat." It will be released on July 22nd, 2013.  So be sure to mark your calendars, because for the first two weeks the story will be available for free, then after the two weeks are up it will be available for $0.99.

I will be sure to post links to the story on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, and the rest of the e-reader websites as soon as the story is released.

Heres a little story synopsis:

Open three small boxes.  That's all Dwight Clanton needs to do in order to find salvation.  Open them, and he will learn why he finds himself chained to a chair, sitting across from his captor.  Can Dwight Clanton survive The Mercy Seat, or will he find himself in a darker nightmare?

Social Networking

So I've always been a bit of luddite when it came to social networking.  Instead of a great way to connect with long lost friends or coworkers or fans or customers, it's always seemed like a big scam designed to help SkyNet hunt us down come Judgement Day.  But now that I'm taking this whole e-publishing thing serious, it's time to jump on the bandwagon.


So here goes, me being a begging hypocrite:

Like me on facebook:  facebook.com/AlexJAnkrom

Follow me on twitter: twitter.com/AJAwriterostuff

Check out my goodreads:  goodreads.com/alexjankromwriter

Really hope that SkyNet doesn't come online soon.

TCB,
AJA

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.  I'm glad you found it.  I'll be stopping by periodically to drop information about what I'm working on and release dates for upcoming stories, novellas, and novels and where you can pick them up.

I'll also from time to time input what the late great George Carlin would refer to as brain droppings, little tidbits on interesting things that I've found in my travels on the information superhighway as well as the real highways and byways.

I'm going to make a promise right now to update at a fairly regular pace, and if I slip I give all of you permission to give me shit about slacking off.

TCB,

AJA