Aidan J Reid

Hotter than Hell #competition #free

I’m writing this post from a hostel in Cartagena.

Temperatures hit 32°C (90°F) today which is just about the point where my pale skin begins to bubble. Fortunately, I’ve found shade (and cover from the dodgy street sellers) and figured it was about time I wrote a blog post with the latest news. (more…)

How To Get Amazon Reviews For Your First Book #writing #selfpublishing

I REALIZE IT’S BEEN A WHILE since I wrote anything remotely related to authoring. Yeah. It’s a word.

So, I wanted to take a moment to explain what I do to get reviews for my books.

What triggered this particular post was reading the RTE best reads of the year by Sinead Crowley. Some of the listed books are probably wonderfully written (certainly if you judged by the glowing testimonials by…

7 Surprising Truths About My Year of Sobriety #alcohol #sobriety

NEXT WEEK MARKS 12 MONTHS since I quit the booze. Again.

You’ve heard of yo-yo dieters? Well I guess my thirties has seen me operate at both ends of the drinking spectrum.

On the boozing extreme, I would have binged hard but limited the damage to weekends. How bad did it get? Well, blackouts were par for the course. I didn’t have a good handle on things. I drank to get drunk. Why? Escapism.…

Five brand new short stories.

My Mate Mark – A dark humour tale about a murderous doll. Santa and Rudolph Save Christmas – One for the kids. Title says it all! Shadow Stalker – A warped tale about guardian angels. LYNK – The missing piece that connects us to an ancient advanced civilisation. Sparky – A teenage superhero with nuclear powers.

I’ll probably make them all free when I do release them. First up will obviously be the Santa one which I’ll co-write with my young niece and nephew (their names are on the cover).

Gotta get my skates on. Less than three weeks ’til Christmas!

  You can already grab a few of my stories for free.

Spectrum

Crystal Clear

ROT (Origin of the Feces).

Alt Media Novel Ideas #altmedia #creativity #altnews

I’VE ALWAYS HAD a fascination with the weird and wonderful.

Whether it was the X-files as a teen, ghosts and the paranormal as a young adult, or now – as a dork in his mid-thirties – keen subscriber to alternative media channels like David Icke, Max Igan or Richie Allen.

Whether you believe in what some may label ‘conspiracy theorists’, isn’t the point of this post. With my writer hat firmly in…

Heaven's Lottery (Part 2 of 2) #shortstory #reading #scifi

We didn’t leave the house that night though we could hear others gathered outside talking away. A lot of them were still out when we got up next morning. The street was littered with cans.

The Whelan’s were sayin’ it was the end of days, preachin’ about the final Judgement. That didn’t go down well with The Richmond’s. The young couple clearly didn’t fancy their chances in whatever the trial…

Heaven's Lottery (Part 1 of 2) #shortstory #reading

When you picture the world endin’ it usually don’t have the soundtrack of Johnny Logan playin’. I got nothin’ against the man myself. If a body’s got talent, plough on I says. So long as it’s still giving some enjoyment to other folk.

But you should know when to call it quits. I’m not talkin’ the exact day or the minute. The way I see it, it probably looks somethin’ like this: some innocent…

Oh Yeah. That Marketing Thing. #books #amreading

SO, I RELEASED A NEW NOVEL TODAY.

My fifth. Can you believe that?

I haven’t done too much in the way of promotion, because, well…I’ve done that in the past, thrown a lot of money at it, and didn’t get much return on the old investment of either time or energy.

Instead, I’m employing a slightly different method – one that I think many indie authors might be better served doing (instead of gaming…

Child's Play #shortstory #amreading #evil

In a school yard, a group of kids dressed in uniform were huddled together in a ring, staring over the shoulders of two boys in the centre. They were kneeling, staring at one another from opposite ends of a chalk circle drawn on the ground.

One of the boys – a ruddy bruised face and shiny black hair the colour of beetle skin – slid off his knees and got to his feet.

“How you wanna set them up?” (…

Sigil is Free. That is All. For Now…

SHORT UPDATE TO ANNOUNCE that my Irish based thriller SIGIL is free to download via Amazon US/UK for the next couple of days.

It features the Catholic Parish priest Fr Tom Regan in what I can now officially confirm is his FIRST outing (more on that shortly).

A suicide in the small sleepy village of Ballygorm raises Regan’s suspicion.

But he’s alone in his scepticism. Using his amateur sleuthing…

Social Maps and Mental Health

I WOULDN’T CALL IT PROCRASTINATING.

But I really should have finished my next novel at this stage. I’m still applying the final brushstrokes and will announce a release date next week.

In the meantime, I’ve been busy. Honest! (more…)

Shelf-Help, #OMAD, Cauliflower Wings and Colombia

I’VE BEEN A VEGETARIAN for the past seven months.

It’s something I flirted with before but it stuck this time because I decided if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. I’d start eating healthy and nutritious food. (more…)

What are you reading?

FAMINE OR A FEAST.

Or as Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid would put it, “Wax On. Wax Off.”

Specifically I’m talking about my bookish habits. In recent weeks I’ve been positively chomping through the pages of my ‘to-be-read’ list. (more…)

Fr Regan. I’ve been expecting you…

ALWAYS A PROUD MOMENT seeing a project in print or the first time.

Especially this one. Yage is the sequel to Sigil and sees the Catholic Priest Tom Regan dust off his clerical collar again in a mystery thriller set in Peru.

I’m going to release this one in mid-September and it will be my fifth (!) novel.

How did that happen?! (more…)

ROT and the Spin-off #reading #shortstory

THE FIRST FOUR STORIES from the ROT universe are free to download on Amazon.

At least, for the next 48 hours.

Get them while they’re ROT. Ahem…

ROT Series

Later this year, I hope to eventually release a spin-off from the series, featuring one of the main characters, Ian.

To those who haven’t read ROT, Ian is a faun and I’ve entitled his story ‘Faunzy’. It will be under the series banner, TROT.

Tr…

Help! My Spanish Teacher is a Zombie #thewalkingdead #language

TO BE MORE PRECISE…an army of zombies.

Since arriving back on Irish shores three months ago from Colombia, I’ve continued to work on my Spanish.

Fortunately, Dublin has no shortage of Spanish speakers for practice. But I’m finding that private study is my preferred option for keeping my interest levels high. Even more so if I’m interested in the material (No more boring grammar books). (more…)

‘Quit Lit' and the Origin of Zombies #sober #alcohol

I’VE BEEN OFF THE BOOZE since December 2017.

This isn’t the first time I’ve joined the ranks of the teetotal.

On other occasions (I was off it for a year while living in Colombia), I trialled the lifestyle and for one reason or another, always found myself slipping back into old habits. Familiar company. (more…)