We have contracted with a few different voice actors to bring some of our books to the audio stage. Narrators Shawn Jolly and JJ Clayborn have begun work on converting some of our works to audio.
Shawn is currently recording Lost and Stranded by Dave Henry.
JJ is currently recording Question of the Day.
Both books will be available on Audible this fall.
If you have a favorite book that you’d like to hear as an audio book, please let us know!
Clayborn Press is putting together an anthology of fantasy works for publication this winter.
The theme is fantasy with emphasis on myths and legends. It could be fantasy based on actual myths and legends, or made up myths and legends within a fantasy setting. Other cince pk ts along those lines will be accepted.
Payment will be done on a royalty share (actual percentages would be determined by how many people participate).
Submissions should be between 2K-10K words. (Email us if your story is outside of those parameters).
Authors will keep their copyrights and may publish the work elsewhere (its a non-exclusive agreement).
For submissions or inquiries, please contact ClaybornPress@gmail.com.
The submission deadline is Aug 1st, 2018.
Science Fiction author TS Hottle has joined Clayborn Press. He is bringing all of the stories from his Compact Universe – a fictional setting which features multiple novels and novellas. The first book, Children of Amargosa, will be out this summer. The rest of his books will follow in succession.
Stay tuned for more exciting updates!
Author Thomas Shuler has joined Clayborn Press. Thomas writes Science Fiction and Fantasy books. His first book, The Demon Eye Gem, is the first in a series of fantasy books that follow a group of adventuring goblins and is available for pre-order.
Thomas is already hard on work on book 2 of this series. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!
Max Ledbetter has signed with Clayborn Press to publish his literary fiction, Unfinished Surveillance. The book follows a post-graduate researcher that has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He goes through a range of paranoid thoughts, and then searches for clues in the environment to prove that he’s right. From predicting a killer venereal disease (AIDS) to predicting an earthquake, this book runs a full gamut of interesting predictions and dizzying analysis.
Max Ledbetter holds a PhD in Zoology and has published academic research in ecology.
His book is expected to release later this summer.
Dave Henry is one of our newest authors here at Clayborn Press. His science fiction book, Lost and Stranded, is due out later this year. We caught up with him and got the low-down from him about his new book.
What is your book about?
It’s the story of a NASA scientist named Roger Daly who creates a wormhole and shoots through it to an unknown planet in a far-off galaxy. Lost and stranded, he embarks on a journey across the planet to find signs of life and a way home. Along the way, he encounters a band of travelers who lead him to a human civilization. There, he finds himself in the middle of a battle for supremacy by warring factions, one of which, to Roger’s shock, is led by a familiar face.
Meanwhile, Roger’s son Bill is in his own dangerous game back on Earth as he seeks answers about what happened to his father, which authorities have completely covered up. His search for answers leads him to learn the truth about his father and long-lost mother. It’s a truth that very powerful people will do anything to keep hidden.
What was your inspiration?
All the science fiction movies I watched growing up, from Star Wars to Planet of the Apes. Stephen King, too. I love his voice and the way he writes characters.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Roger. He is kind of a mild-mannered everyman who finds himself on this heroic journey for survival as he treks across this very dangerous planet with a band of travelers he picks up along the way. But also, because he is flawed and his failings as a father drive his quest to get back home more than his triumphs as a scientist.
Who is your least favorite character and why?
Alan Bannister. He’s a multi-billionaire CEO who went to school with Roger, but the two old friends took very different paths in life. Roger went to work in the public sector for NASA trying to develop his wormhole idea, while Bannister fell back on his family’s wealth and connections to launch a successful technology company.
Is there anything that you hope the readers take away from this story?
I just hope they enjoy it. I tried to keep the plot moving and the action coming, so hopefully it grabs readers and holds them. But also, it’s the story of an estranged father and son and how they reconnect, even though they are worlds apart.
What was the hardest part of writing this story?
Definitely the plot. I laid out what was going to happen in each chapter in advance, then went back and wrote the chapters after they were plotted. That was, by far, the most time-consuming part. I had to make sure all the pieces fit and that it led to something big at the end. Plus, I usually only had 30 minutes to an hour at a time to write the story, due to time constraints, so I had to make sure that when I sat down to write, I knew pretty much what I was going to say.
What was your favorite part of writing this story?
Also, the plot. While it took a long time to develop, it was a lot of fun to think about how to keep all the pieces moving towards something without getting bogged down. To keep it engaging, I’d try to start every chapter with an answer and end every chapter with a question.
Will there be a sequel or any more books in this series?
I have nothing planned at present, however, it’s possible that I might come back to it in the future as there are more places I could take these characters and their stories.
Did you discover anything about yourself while writing this story?
I guess just that I had the discipline to finish it. I had never attempted to write a novel or anything of this length before this, so I wasn’t sure how to do it or if I could do it. But I had a good idea that I completely outlined before I ever started writing it, so that made it easier. The discipline comes in stealing a few moments here and there to write it amidst job, family, and all the other priorities in our lives.
What do you plan to do next?
I wrote a comedy novel called Turtle Island, which is an alternate universe story about an America that diverged from our history before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Turtle Island is what some Native American tribes called America. I plan to write a sequel to that story soon.
Clayborn Press is pleased to announce the addition of Celine Mariotti to our publishing family.
Celine has been contracted for two youth-fiction books aimed at a grade school audience. Both books are slated to release during 2017.
The first book, I’m too young to be president! is a whimsical story about a teenager who enters the election as a joke. Due to a clerical error, he’s allowed to run in the election, and he actually wins. The book is a good way to introduce younger children to the political concepts of democratic elections and the US Presidential Election in particular.
The second book, Alexander, My Angel is the story of a young boy who struggles with the loss of a parent. He begins to contemplate suicide so that he can be with the parent again. He sees a young boy – a ghost of a civil war soldier – who teaches him how to cope with the grief and the loss. It’s a compelling and useful tale for children who may be suffering from the loss of a parent or who are dealing with suicidal thoughts.
The essential non-fiction guide from Amazon Best-Selling author Johnathan J. Clayborn is now available for Pre-Order on Amazon Kindle.
This book is essential for anyone who is thinking about getting chickens or has recently started keeping them and would like to know more. More than 200 pages of straight-to-the-point information covers everything you need to know to get started.
The book will be available on May 19, 2017. You can pre-order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y4RQPNK
We caught up with Scott Evans and asked him a few questions about his recent novel, The Caribbean Prisoner, which is now available on Amazon Kindle.
What is your book about?
The story follows a college student name Randall Wake whose father has passed away, leaving him feeling quite alone in the world–his mother died years earlier. He decides to take a leave of absence and travels to St. Thomas, in the U. S. Virgin Islands to get away from it all. While he’s on the Island, he meets two women in their mid-twenties, also on vacation. He develops a romantic and sexual relationship with one, while having a secret crush on the other. At first, all goes well–lots of drinking, dancing, laughing and love-making. But after a few hostile encounters with some Navy boys, their adventure takes a dark turn when things go horribly wrong. Disheartened and confused, Randal heads back to the states, winding up in Miami Beach, where he gets involved with a woman who’s a cocktail waitress by night and a grad student in psychology by day. She inspires Randall to expose the sexual abuse he learned about while on St. Thomas. Randall enlists in the Navy to go to the Recruit Training Center in Orlando, Florida, to confront the sexual predator who, Randal believes, has ruined so many young lives. He soon finds himself in a life-threatening situation.
What was your inspiration?
Although the story of The Caribbean Prisoner is set in the early 1990s, it’s based (loosely) on a trip I took to the U. S. Virgin Islands in the mid-1970s when a brutal murder took place on Charlotte Amalie. It was the talk of the Island, of course, and it got me to thinking about the odd isolation one feels when visiting an island for the first time, especially when brutal events unfold. Like Randall Wake, I did join the Navy and went through boot camp in Orlando. Rumors of sex scandals there made many of us uncomfortable.
Who was your favorite character and why?
I most identify with Randall, of course, by I like the two intelligent female characters Sherry and Marion the best. Both are bright and beautiful, and neither hesitates to call out Randall on his occasional B. S. I wanted to write a fairly traditional moody thriller-mystery from a male point of view that included strong female characters. I hope readers feel I’ve done those women justice. Randall’s love interest on the Island, Maggie, is another favorite, as is the bartender and the musician at the Galleon House, which is a real place on a hill in Charlotte Amalie.
Who is your least favorite character and why?
I have two least favorite characters. The first is the troubled and violent young Navy boy name Jimmy Collins. He’s crass, misogynistic and quite disturbed. However, as the layers of the onion are peeled away, we learn about Jimmy’s abuse, both from his father and from a father figure later in life. He becomes a somewhat sympathetic character. The worst character is the Chief Ubel, who eventually reveals himself as a sadistic sexual predator. He’s a true psychopath who feels no guilt or remorse about using and damaging people under his control. I think of him as Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men. He, too, “can’t handle the truth”!
Is there anything in particular that you hope the readers take away from this story?
Yes. Several ideas can be taken away. One idea is that no matter how emotionally damaged or stilted a person is, he or she can find a path to compassion. Another lesson that should come across is that sexual encounters become intimate and produce consequences whether we want them to or not. Sex just for pleasure isn’t always guilt free. But the most important social point of the book is about male-on-male sexual assault, which usually goes unreported–even more than male-on-female assault–because of the shame felt by the victims. This actually is a serious problem in our military, even now, though it rarely gets reported.
What was the hardest part of writing this story?
First, trying to capture Randall Wake’s state of numb depression without making the story depressing. Second, the sexual assault scene. It made me squirm, and I hope I captured it well enough to make readers squirm as well.
What was your favorite part of writing this story?
Writing the love scenes between Randall and Maggie. I wanted to show some good, satisfying love-making, since I knew I’d be alluding to and then showing some sadistic sexual assault later. I wanted there to be a good contrast between the good, the bad and the ugly.
Will there be a sequel or any more books in this series?
Probably not. Though I have a series of “literary” mysteries and thrillers, The Caribbean Prisoner stands on its own.
Did you discover anything about yourself while writing this story?
Yes, I discovered (again) that I enjoy doing the research needed to make stories authentic. In this case, that was especially important because I was writing about real places and institutions, like the Navy, so I tried to get most of it right, taking as few “liberties” as possible (pun intended–when sailors are off the boat or away from the base, they’re on “liberty,” which sometimes–as in the case of Jimmy Collins–provides more freedom than he can handle.
What do you plan to do next?
I’ve finished the fourth book in my literary series. It’s titled The Paris Papers, and it’s about an American scholar name Joe Conrad, who gets his hands on the lost manuscript of Ernest Hemingway’s first novel. If authentic, the manuscript is potentially worth millions, and someone has kidnapped Joe’s daughter and wants to exchange her for the papers. The story takes place throughout the city of Paris, so it takes readers on a quite a tour–a romp around Paris! If I were pitching it to Hollywood, I say, Midnight in Paris meets Taken.
A new historical fiction book by author Scott Evans is available today. The book, The Caribbean Prisoner, is the story of a young man on vacation in the tropical Virgin Islands. He is enjoying sun, sand, and sex – but his plans are ruined by a terrible murder. Now, he must wrestle with the consequences and see if he can bring the person truly responsible to justice.
Get your copy today. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKSYWZR
