THE CATALYST now available on Kindle

[boydm]

I just wanted to announce that I will be leading a Book Klub discussion of my novel, The Ark, starting on May 1. You can check the Reading with the Author board for more details in the coming days.

I also wanted to thank everyone here for helping to make The Ark the number 1 bestselling Men's Adventure novel for the Kindle today! I know the Kindleboard readers have made a huge impact on getting me ranked with the likes of Clive Cussler and WEB Griffin, and I'm very grateful.

Cheers,
Boyd

[Cowgirl]

I'm half way through The Ark and am really enjoying it.  Can't wait to read your other 2 books.

[geoffthomas]

I am looking forward to the Book Klub reading.

[chynared21]

Thanks for the update Boyd but I have a bone to pick with you...I just finished up The Palmyra Impact and you made me cry twice today. What a great story! I love when I can feel like I'm a part of the action, when I can emotionally invest myself for a short time into the story, feel what the characters are feeling and live the story through their eyes. Thank you for writing such a believable story and for letting me into "your" world as I read 

[Steph H]

I'm <thisclose> to being done with The Ark, and have finished both of the other two. It's a tough decision, but I'd have to say I like Palmyra best, closely followed by Ark, but Adamas is right up there also. Thing is, I hadn't really read the description of Palmyra before I read the book, and I had no idea that it was a "natural disaster" thriller rather than a "bad guy" thriller. I kept expecting to find out it was all due to a "bad guy" cause for the longest time. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and in fact it was a breath of fresh air to read something like that. I just wasn't expecting it.   (That's only a minor spoiler, probably not even a spoiler at all, but thought I'd put the tags on just in case....)

[koland]

I've gone through and scrubbed my books once again for the few typos I could find, and the clean copies are now uploaded to the Kindle store. If you download the books today or later from the Kindle store and find a typo, it's definitely one I don't know about, so please email me and tell me about it.

Are the PRC's on your web site updated? Sometimes Kindle won't let you update a book to the most recent version (if you make any bookmarks or notes, for example) and it's just easier to download those again (rather than going thru Customer Service and returning the book, then re-purchasing it, to get the new version).

[boydm]

Are the PRC's on your web site updated? Sometimes Kindle won't let you update a book to the most recent version (if you make any bookmarks or notes, for example) and it's just easier to download those again (rather than going thru Customer Service and returning the book, then re-purchasing it, to get the new version).

The PRCs on my site are updated now. For some unknown reason, they didn't get updated before but I made sure that they were this afternoon. If you find any new typos, please let me know.

The Kindle versions have been updated for a couple of weeks now.

[boydm]

Just a reminder that Kindleboards will be hosting a Tea With The Author chat with me this Saturday, April 25, at 5PM Pacific Time. I hope you can make it!

This chat is in anticipation of the Book Klub discussion of The Ark that begins May 1.

Cheers,
Boyd

[katbird1]

I finished The Palmyra Impact yesterday and loved it.  I think chynared summed up my reactions perfectly.  I'm glad to see The Ark will begin in May.  I think I need a few days to "calm down" after The Palmyra Impact! 

Kathy

[jpmorgan49]

I'll be visiting my daughter in St. Louis this weekend.  I'm hoping I'll be around a computer at 7pm to join the "Tea".  I'm looking forward to it.
jp

[Brenda M.]

I finished Palmyra this weekend and just started The Ark today. What awesome books!! What a ride thru the Palmyra Impact. I did read Adamas, too and am looking forward to the Book Klub May 1st.

[jpmorgan49]

I finished Palmyra this weekend and just started The Ark today. What awesome books!! What a ride thru the Palmyra Impact. I did read Adamas, too and am looking forward to the Book Klub May 1st.

Brenda, I read all three back to back to back...  I was a nervous wreck when I was through....
jp

[chynared21]

I finished The Palmyra Impact yesterday and loved it.  I think chynared summed up my reactions perfectly.  I'm glad to see The Ark will begin in May.  I think I need a few days to "calm down" after The Palmyra Impact! 

Kathy

I had to take a break after The Palmyra Impact...emotionally draining  I'm also trying to stretch out Boyd's books before I run out of reading material but since I've read two out of the three...I think it may be a while before we have something else by him to read 

[LDB]

His books in order were The Adamas Blueprint, The Ark and The Palmyra Impact. Often three items are judged good, better, best. In the case of his three books they are Best, Bester and Bestest because they start out well beyond the typical good and just keep getting better from there.

[pidgeon92]

I shall be the contrarian here... I read The Adamas Blueprint, it took me a good week to get through it, and I really didn't care for it.... It was like an overly long car chase scene, I just wanted it to be over.

[Linda Cannon-Mott]

I also read the Adamas Blueprint which was ok, I started The Palymyra Impact and put it down after the first 2 or 3 chapters.

[dablab]

I am reading The Palmyra Impact now and find it very good.  This book is keeping me on the edge of my seat.  I hate that I haven't had much time to read lately.  I also enjoyed the Adamas Blueprint.  I look forward to reading The Ark. 

[Anju No. 469]

I thought I would start with the Ark, but it will be tomorrow or the day after.  Distant Cousin 2 book klub is starting, and I'm not sure when Jamie and Claire Voyager is starting, but hope to get The Ark done before those two.

[TM]

For those that did not care for it... can you please tell me why? I am considering these as the premisis sounds interesting, but leery. Mainly becuase I have ran into way to many books (especially with self-published authors, not not limitted to them) where the premisis of a story sounds very good, but they way it is present or told suffers. That is something that is not always seen in samples.

[pidgeon92]

For those that did not care for it... can you please tell me why? I am considering these as the premisis sounds interesting, but leery. Mainly becuase I have ran into way to many books (especially with self-published authors, not not limitted to them) where the premisis of a story sounds very good, but they way it is present or told suffers. That is something that is not always seen in samples.

Not sure there is really a correlation between how an author is published and the quality of the story. Plenty of outstanding stories will never see the light of day, and there is more than enough schlock on the bestseller lists.

As for The Adamas Blueprint, I didn't like the characters. Not the protagonists, not the antagonists. The storyline was lackluster and predictable; not so different from a lot of basic Hollywood action movies. Of course, this is merely my opinion, lots of people here disagree with me.

[TM]

Not sure there is really a correlation between how an author is published and the quality of the story. Plenty of outstanding stories will never see the light of day, and there is more than enough schlock on the bestseller lists.

As for The Adamas Blueprint, I didn't like the characters. Not the protagonists, not the antagonists. The storyline was lackluster and predictable; not so different from a lot of basic Hollywood action movies. Of course, this is merely my opinion, lots of people here disagree with me.

Thank you for your response...

However, I do at times see a correlation, mainly becuase in many cases a self-published author is one their own. When a book is published by a tradition publishing house... there is more of a team working with the writer, one that can point out issues such as you mentioned and makes suggestions for a re-writing. Not to say I have not seem some really bad published books...

I just think that any author can benifit by others input on their book, what works - what doesn't, and such. There just seems a better chance that a author with a major publisher will get that.

[Linda Cannon-Mott]

I do plan to finish The Palmyra Impact, I needed to switch genres for a while. Needed a light, fun, funny read. I have so many TBR books and the majority of them are authors I've not read before. Attempting to keep up with our authors here and other recommendations is full time enjoyment. I have more books than time unfortunately. 

I have spent time the last 3 days reading samples and deleting the ones I don't like. My samples were out of control, had planned to do it weekly but will do 2 or 3 a day until I get through them.

[LDB]

I have to say I don't see much difference in author's with a big publishing house behind them and those on the do it yourself system. I'm reading one by Coonts right now, and he's DEFINITELY big time with full blown support staff. I've found two MAJOR typos in the first 65 pages so I don't look at the publisher as very meaningful.

[TM]

I have to say I don't see much difference in author's with a big publishing house behind them and those on the do it yourself system. I'm reading one by Coonts right now, and he's DEFINITELY big time with full blown support staff. I've found two MAJOR typos in the first 65 pages so I don't look at the publisher as very meaningful.

yes, there can be issues with a major publisher as I said... but on average, less (and honestly typos are not a big deal with me).

I think all authors benifit by others input... this doesn't make sense, this contradicts with what you wrote earlier, dialog does not seem natural, hard to lke any of your characters, yopu needto flesh this out, and so forth.

While books from the big publishers may still have those issues (especially since much is subjective), one can easily have more confidence in books from those publishers since one knows the book is being read and commented on (with suggestions) by more than just the author. When it comes to self-published books, one has no idea if there was a layor of critque involved... so people would aturally be more leery.

And I have read many self-published books versus those published with the major publishers... and found that on average, the self-published have more issues.



Editted to add: A major book series that does have many of the issues and someone slipped by is the Vince Flyn books... so yes, published books do have these issues also, even with editors... but the chances of that happening are smaller (Vince Flynn's editors should be fired!)

[LDB]

I've read the Vince Flynn books and enjoyed them completely so I'm not sure what issues you find with them. I guess I just can't make a blanket judgment about categories. I think each author has to be taken individually regardless of publishing route. Tremendous resources are wasted on the worthless cage litter of Noam Chomsky and Al Franken and both are huge publishing house products so I just can't see where that adds anything by default.