Update On Progress!

UPDATE ON PROGRESS!

Well, it's been a while since my last post. A lot has happened and I want to bring you up to speed:

After the last one, a friend of ours (my wife and I) discovered an article that my local newspaper wrote about me as a writer. It surprised us completely as I hadn't asked them if they would be interested.

It was a quarter page spread. Pretty significant and cool!

In it the piece discussed the screenplay as well. (Which caught me off-guard as I was just making the decision to write the other three books in the series before I began the scripts. "Plan B" had to go back to "Plan A" as I realized it's now out there.)

To be fair, it's what I have been talking about all along. So, not really shocked by it.

Even though marketing continues, the sales have gone "dormant" which is what I expect right now.

Activity is switching to the screenplay and getting that in the right hands. To that end I find myself with a mentor who works and lives in Hollywood. (I cannot divulge their name as I feel privacy is in order right now.)

But I feel fortunate to have them there to help bring it to life. With the right blessings, and hopefully finding the right people, the script might be able to turn into the movie that I dreamed about all of those years ago...

Once the screenplay is written and I'm in the editing phase, I'll begin pre-production on book two. 

The working title for the second novel is:

When Night Has Fallen

I think it's an appropriate name for book two. (Once I have the logline down, I'll post it here too, of course.)

Anyway, that should bring you up to date for right now. I hope your day is going great and you have an awesome week!

Mark

Some Movies Are Meant To Be Read

SOME MOVIES ARE MEANT TO BE READ

So I wanted to update you on the progress:

So far, so good. Sales are moving forward. Albeit at a slower pace than I was first thinking. However the marketing efforts are reflecting that.

I'm working on a limited budget so I do what I can.

Having said that, I'm starting to hear back from those that have read it (these are straight from my facebook feed):

"Incredible book Mark! I just finished. What everyone should have for a rainy day is a copy of this book to read. Hence I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye in the kitchen corner window box! AAH" - Kelly H.


"It was great!!!!" - Tera C.

(I'm not adding their full name here for privacy. However, if you look at my facebook you can find them there.)

I also have a review on Amazon (with another hopefully on the way soon).

So far people are responding well.

It's pretty cool. 

I'm just trying to find marketing that actually works well and that I can scale it up. 

(I'm going to do another facebook ad soon but I didn't have too many sales from this. Although I'm creating a post that will be more geared for the reader. So we'll see.)

The exciting thing is I'm on my way and I only look up. (Once I figure out what actually is bringing in good results then I'll know where to focus my attentions on.)

I love this!

Hope your day is going great and I'll talk to you so more later.

Mark

Dream, Recurring                                         Link to Amazon for the book

Mark Canniff's Website         My website if you want to learn more.

Launch Day!

LAUNCH DAY!

*Please Share*

It's finally arrived. The book is now available on Amazon to order. I'm giving you the link here for you to explore with:

"Dream, Recurring"

I hope you enjoy the story.

"Cynical by nature, a photographer discovers that she's haunted by a being after she starts having a recurring dream. Revealing a secret that only the dead know - with the entity bent on keeping it."

If you would like to check my website out for more information, please take a look at:

www.markcanniff.com

Have an awesome day and week!

Mark

1 Week To Launch! Plus The Last of Chapter 1

1 WEEK TO LAUNCH! PLUS THE LAST OF CHAPTER 1

Well, here we are. One week before the book becomes available. Whew! What is happening right now is that I'm waiting for the second proof to come in. I believe this one will pop out and look good enough for print (see the image above). It should be arriving no later than the 8th of this week. (Thursday.)

If it looks good, then that becomes the "production" run and all I have to do is actually publish it next Tuesday. 

Once it is out in all markets (the 13th), then I will focus only on publicity, advertising and marketing.

Don't forget that if you feel so inclined, leave a review. I hope you like it.

Now, without further ado, here is the last of chapter 1:

Chapter 1 (cont.)

Liz was still not saying anything.

‘Liz!’ Sam was forceful. She needed her to snap out of her fear and be strong for a moment.

Liz finally spoke. ‘I... I... I can’t.’ 

‘Yes you can! Now tell her to leave!’ Sam yelled.

It seemed forever before she had the strength to say anything.

‘Go home.’ Liz finally spoke. However, her words were almost a whisper.

‘Louder!’ Sam voiced.

Liz cleared her throat, wiping her tears.

‘You can do this babe. I believe in you!’ Peter needed to give her the strength she was looking for.

She looked at her husband and saw the love in his eyes. He believed her, after all this time. She forced herself to speak.

‘Go home.’

Sam needed her strong right now. ‘Louder! Say it like you mean it!’ 

‘Go home! You are NOT welcome here anymore!’ Liz yelled.

With that, the ghost disappeared.

‘Nice work, Liz!’ Lucy mentioned.

Peter had to know. ‘Is she gone for good?’ 

‘Well, we’re now going to smudge the home with white sage. It should release the spirit.’ Sam stated.

He looked at her. ‘Oh okay.’  

They began the smudging ceremony just as the sun was beginning to shine for the day. 

Moving into each room, including the attic, Sam lead them in a prayer, cleansing the house. Lucy was putting the equipment away as Sam was taking Liz and Peter through their home.

It took a while but once she was done, they could all feel as if a weight had been lifted.

Liz hugged both Lucy and Sam. ‘Thank you so much! I don’t know what we would have done, without you two.’

 Sam replied. ‘You’re welcome, it’s what we do. You should be okay now but if it ever comes back, buy some white sage and cleanse your home.

This you can do yourself.’

Liz and Peter nodded as he mentioned, ‘We will.’

As Sam and Lucy were saying their final goodbyes, they let them know that the evidence will be ready for them in a few days.

They nodded, relieved they finally could come back to the home they loved so much.

I hope you enjoy!

Mark

2 Weeks To Launch! Plus More of Chapter 1

2 WEEKS TO LAUNCH! PLUS MORE OF CHAPTER 1

So the first proof copy came in for me to review. (The first hard copy of the book. Lol.)

While the interior is perfect, the cover appeared a little on the dark side. So I have made an attempt to brighten it up to see if that will help.

The other thing I did originally was to have a "mat" look too. I've switched that to glossy.

Hopefully I'll have the cover where I want it. We shall see! (It's down to the wire now. :) )

Okay, as promised, here is more of the chapter:

Chapter 1 (cont.)

Both Liz and Peter were listening to the two. Liz was scared. She was having a hard time controlling herself. Peter was doing his best to keep her calm.

‘What is your name?’ Sam asked. 

Once they know contact is made, no matter when it is first discovered, the spirit has come out of hiding and Sam is able to have direct communication with them. It’s as if they have given permission.

She waited for a response. 

Sam finally spoke. ‘Hello, Jane. Why are you here?’ 

They waited for a response.

‘Well, you may like this family but they live in fear of you.’ She expressed.

Just as soon as Sam said that, Lucy could see the ghost dart off into one of the bedrooms.

‘Where did she go?’ Lucy asked. 

She looked up from the screen to see which room it was. 

Lucy went first as they moved to the bedroom on the left. When she arrived, she began opening the door slowly. The full spectrum camera was capturing the images inside as the room was being revealed. She wasn’t looking at the screen, so she couldn’t see what the camera saw as they both stepped inside.

‘This is the children’s room. She’s in the corner, over there.’ Sam uttered pointing to the right-hand side.

Both of them immediately point their cameras to the same area.

Lucy noticed the EMF meter was going wild, where it didn’t before. She could obviously tell that there was something she couldn’t explain which was causing that, because it was reading zero from before.

‘You must leave; this is not your home anymore!’ Sam stated.

This just upset the spirit.

With Lucy holding onto the full spectrum, she could see, clearly what was happening with the ghost. It moved very quickly from left to right, as if it was frustrated, pacing back and forth. Then without warning, it rushed up towards Lucy.

‘Whoa!’ She yelled.

What she could see from the camera, was the woman’s face. It was skinny, almost like skin and bones, with dark eye sockets, where the eyes would have been.

She showed Sam immediately. ‘Look at that!’ 

‘Oh yeah, she’s pissed.’ She replied.

Sam knew with the spirit in this state that it would be the best time to remove it from the house.

She yelled to the Livingroom. ‘Liz, Peter, can you come here please?’ 

No sound came.

‘Liz?’ She called again.

Nothing.

‘That’s weird.’ Lucy looked at Sam.

Sam knew this was a problem. ‘Uh oh.’ 

They rushed to the Livingroom to see the ghost standing in front of the husband and wife. Tears were rolling down Liz’s face as she was frozen with fear. Peter couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Sam looked right at her. ‘Liz, you have to tell her to leave. Only you can do it because she’s connected with you the most.’

I hope your day and week is awesome!

Mark

3 Weeks To Launch! Plus More of Chapter 1

3 WEEKS TO LAUNCH! PLUS MORE OF CHAPTER 1

So the picture above shows you the cover of the book. Hope you like it. I'm currently just waiting from CreateSpace to see the proof. If it meets with my expectations then it'll be ready for launch and I'll be good to go. 

Don't forget to check out my posts from "10 Weeks To Lunch" all the way to this post if you would like to read the chapter from the beginning. (Once I have the entire section released, I will provide a link to all of them in a single blog where you can read the whole thing. :)

In the meantime, it's all about getting the word out there now. Almost there!

So here is more of Chapter 1:

Chapter 1 (cont.)

the full spectrum is usually the first one to spot something.

However, nothing was happening. The house was in fact eerily quiet.

‘Peter, are you seeing anything?’ Sam asked.

‘No, nothing.’ He replied.

She needed to dig deep. ‘Hmm, where are you?’ 

Both Sam and Lucy know that paranormal events happen in waves. You might go hours before capturing everything all at once, then nothing for the rest of the night. Sometimes, the place comes alive, almost right away. When that happens, the investigation is a busy one.

This was not one of those.

Lucy kept looking for an explanation, a physical reason behind the haunting, however, she couldn’t pinpoint anything. To her, if anything was to happen tonight, she might not be able to explain it away as easily.

Hours went by, both Lucy and Sam were dutifully recording and looking for any sign of the woman. It was approaching 3am, both Liz and Peter had fallen asleep on the couch, however, Sam and Lucy were continuing to investigate. They go through the night from dusk to dawn, before they call it quits.

Suddenly a noise came from the attic. It was the sound of footsteps.

‘I was just up there. There was nothing going on. I thought I was done sweeping it.’ Lucy recounted.

Sam looked at her. ‘I guess not. The static camera is up there, don’t worry.’

Both Liz and Peter woke up from the sound.

‘Oh no, here she comes.’ She uttered.

Peter squeezed her hand, gently. ‘Lucy and Sam are here, don’t worry.’

Liz felt a sense of reassurance but she couldn’t shake the feeling of fear either.

Sam started the questioning. ‘Who are you? Can you knock on a wall if you want to communicate? Two knocks for “yes”, one for “no”. Do you understand?’

They waited for a response. A few moments of silence, pausing to see if it understood before two knocks on a wall came.

‘Okay, an intelligent response.’ Sam expressed.

Lucy needed to know, male or female. ‘Are you a woman?’

Again, Lucy and Sam had listened for the sound. Then, two slow thumps.

‘Where is that coming from?’

Sam shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’ 

Before they could ask another question, Lucy heard “hey” whispered in her ear.

‘Who was that?’ She asked.

Sam looked at her. ‘What are you talking about, no one mentioned anything.’ 

‘No, I just heard the word “hey” spoken right beside my-’ Lucy began.

‘You’re what?’ Sam asked.

‘Shh... I can see something on the full spectrum.’ Lucy quickly stated.

There, in front of the two women, Lucy could see a faint shape on the camera’s screen. It seemed to be slightly smaller than they were and possibly took the form of a female.

‘She’s here.’ Sam voiced.

Hope you have an awesome day (and week)!

Mark

4 Weeks To Launch! Plus More of Chapter 1

4 WEEKS TO LAUNCH! PLUS MORE OF CHAPTER 1

So I'm currently working on the cover design. It's looking good, just need to iron out a few tweaks.

(CreateSpace can take images up to 40MB. Mine is significantly larger than that. We'll see what we can do. :) )

Anyway, as promised, here is more of the first chapter:

Chapter 1 (cont.)

Sam asked, ‘Why don’t we agree to meet back here say at about four o’clock, so we can set up the equipment? That will give us the time we need, before it goes dark.’

Liz nodded. ‘Sounds okay to me. Did you want my husband here?’

‘Yes. If it comes to it, the two of you may have to forcibly tell it to leave and we would rather you both were here for that.’ Lucy replied.

‘Okay, that makes sense. I’m so glad you’re here. I have a good feeling about this.’

‘We make no guarantees but we’ll do our best.’ Lucy didn’t want her expectations to be too high because they might not be successful and they didn’t know what they were going to find.

Liz nodded, ‘I understand.’

Four o’clock came round, Liz and Peter were waiting in their car, outside of the house.

Lucy and Sam went straight to work. Unloading Lucy’s car, setting up the camera locations and base-camp.

It took almost an hour to have the cameras ready for aiming. Sam was the one that always did the aiming while Lucy was at the computer telling her the directions she needed them moved.

Finally, the four static cameras were ready and rolling.

‘Great job Sam! I think we are good to go.’ Lucy voiced.

‘Awesome.’ 

Liz and Peter looked on as they watched this all unfold.

‘Okay, so this is what we need from you two...’ Lucy began. 

Peter nudged Liz, turning to Lucy so they could keep their attention on her.

Lucy continued, ‘While we do this, stay here and watch those cameras for us. There will be a digital recorder in here too, if you feel the need to ask questions.’ 

He nodded. ‘Will do.’

Turning to her best friend, ‘Okay Sam, I think we are ready to begin.’ 

The sun had just set and twilight was upon them. Even though the last rays of light were slowly disappearing over the horizon, the house quickly went dark as Lucy switched the lights off.

‘Here we go.’ Sam stated.

They began in the Livingroom, since that was their base and everyone was in there.

They started by asking if anyone was there, pausing for an answer which they couldn’t hear.

Lucy went around the room with her EMF meter looking for any sign that a fluctuation was happening. None came. She also held the full spectrum camera, and a digital recorder which she has attached to her vest so it can keep recording without the need for her to hold on to it. Sam was holding onto the K2, a camera, plus a digital recorder, which was attached to her vest in the same way. 

Every once in a while Sam would ask another question, waiting for an answer which they couldn’t here.

As they slowly moved through the house, beginning in the Livingroom, moving to the kitchen, then into the hallway, slowly into the bedrooms, Sam wasn’t picking anything up.

She immediately noticed something. ‘It is almost like she knows we’re here and doesn’t want to give her presence up. Are you picking anything up on the full spectrum?’ 

‘No not yet.’ Lucy replied.

Often when the K2, EMF meter and cameras aren’t showing anything, 

Hope you enjoy!

Mark

5 Weeks To Launch! Plus More of Chapter 1

5 WEEKS TO LAUNCH! PLUS MORE OF CHAPTER 1

September 13, 2016 is creeping up on you and me and I can't wait!

I have it now formatted and looking good in CreateSpace (wow what a challenge). Plus it is in Kindle.

All that's needed is the cover which I will be having here shortly.

Once all of it is done. I need to "proof" the hard copy from CreateSpace. When that is approved I will be focusing entirely on marketing for the rest of the time. :)

So, without further ado I give you two more pages of chapter 1:

Chapter 1 (cont.)

the Livingroom was a little disheveled, the dishes were clean and put away but they could see some mail on the kitchen table.

All in all, it wasn’t bad. However, Liz prided herself on running a clean home. Even the smallest mess was too much.

Turning to Sam and Lucy, Liz uttered, ‘Sorry about the mess. We left in a hurry.’

‘Don’t be. We aren’t here to judge how clean your home is, we’re here for you.’ Lucy replied.

‘Thank you, Lucy. That makes me feel better.’ Liz had a small sense of relief, even though to her, she could have presented it better.

Sam wanted to put her at ease. ‘Listen, we understand that you all left as soon as you could. Don’t think that you should have come back here to clean it up, open some windows, just because you fear how you think we are judging you, or not.’ 

Liz stopped in her tracks. Stunned by what Sam had said, almost as if she could read her mind. She looked down.

‘I’m sorry, I just hate it when guests come over and they see a clutter.’ Liz’s issues were coming out and she couldn’t get past them. She was stressing out.

Lucy grabbed Liz’s shoulders. ‘Let’s just focus on WHY we are here, okay?’

Liz couldn’t say anything; she was terrified of what might take place. So, she gave a short nod. A tear was beginning to roll down her face, she needed this thing gone so she could have her family back.

Lucy hugged her. ‘It’s okay. We’re here now.’

Liz didn’t return the hug, she felt some relief from it but was still too scared. However, she gathered her strength up so they could continue with the investigation.

She took a deep breath and began giving the tour.

As they walked around the house, Liz would show the areas that events took place. Lucy was writing them down, while considering where to locate the static cameras.

The locations that they were able to pinpoint were, the hallway, the children’s bedroom, the spare bathroom and the attic.

Sam was giving some impressions of what she was feeling too while the tour was taking place. This was dutifully noted by Lucy as a way to review at a later stage, once the evidence was in.

It took them about half an hour to move through the house, Sam, kept reassuring her that they are going to do their best. When they were finished with the viewing, they all went back to the Livingroom.

‘So, what we are going to do is set up some cameras in the rooms that you have shown as the “hotspots”.’ Sam articulated.

Lucy felt the need to add to what Sam just spoke of. ‘If you don’t mind, we would like to use the Livingroom as base-camp. It seems to be the quietest. In addition, we will have our other equipment running too to see if we can find reasons behind these events.’

‘Such as what?’ Liz asked.

Lucy explained, ‘Well, for instance, we have an EMF meter that will see if there are high EMF signals in the house. Those readings may affect you and your family in that you may think something is there, feel a presence when there isn’t, or if it is really bad, we may be able to show why it is, so you could have someone come out and fix it. 

‘For example grounding your home better would help it go away. If there are, this would need addressing as it could be unhealthy.’

Liz nodded. ‘Oh, I see. I don’t think it’s a grounding issue.’

Sam was optimistic that they might find peace for this family. ‘I’m hopeful we will be able to connect with the woman that has frightened your family so much. We’ll see if we can help her crossover.’

‘That would be amazing if you could.’ Liz was praying for that to happen.

Remember, reading last week's and this week's will allow you to finish that sentence from the previous post.

I don't really want that to happen but it'll throw the process. Sorry.

I do hope you enjoy and remember we now have passed the halfway point of the section. You should be able to see a fair bit of progress.

Have an awesome day and week!

Mark