Enid AuthorFest of 2025

 So coming up this April is the Enid Author Fest. It's one of my favorite events of the year. Dozens of authors come and present their books to sell to new viewers... Wait. You should know about this, I talk about it every year...

Wait, are you new?? Ok, well here is a link about it, HERE. Anyway, I want to talk about what I have planned for the AuthorFest this year.

Shiver and Fears is taking a break this year... Oh yeah, I've said that too. Ok, ok. So the books we will be presenting are The Origin: The story that explains the start of the whole magical twins thing:

Although this is the 7th book of the series, Magical Times. It doesn't really affect the order of the series. This book is a prequel to the whole series and will answer most questions people tend to have after reading the first book.

Next, we have the first book, In a Deal of a Situation, which starts the book series. It introduces all the characters you will learn to love and hate while reading the book.

Both of these books have been republished by Ingram Spark which is the reason why, although I'm taking a break from it, one of Shiver and Fears' books is also to be sold at the signing.

Shiver and Fears: There's a Ghost in My Film is the first Shiver and Fears book to be published by Ingram and is being introduced at the signing.

Now, although you can come and purchase the book at the AuthorFest, it is perfectly fine to purchase this book at your local retailers such as Walmart, Barnes and Noble, and Book A Million (If those still exist)

But, do know. We will have a few other things to share at the AuthorFest. Each book purchased at the event will be a free audiobook provided by Audible and visitors will get a free open chance for free merch, whether or not a book is purchased.

But, I encourage you, wherever you live- Kansas, Kentucky, Texas. Take a trip to Enid for the AuthorFeast. Dozens of authors would be pleased with your appearance!

I Want the Prize

 Now I can make a full story about how this started, but instead I'll get to the point.

Friday is my birthday. I had received  a special gift yesterday, and what was so special about that gift was that it came with a free gift as well. I made the choice to use that extra gift as a give a way prize!

Now, if you are wanting this prize, then here's what you have to do:

1. Go to https://www.audible.com/acx-promo 2. Redeem the audiobook by using one of these codes: E98EZUGGSEWJ5 ER6L86UL66Y9R HCESN98RE2ANU 3. Email shiverandfears.gmail.com and let us know you've read the book 4. Be present for the next live video 9-18-2024 at 9 PM 5. Answer 3 questions about the book

Now, if there is anything that I'm leaving out in this information, let me know. Because it's simple to me.

The book you have to read is Shiver and Fears: Rules of Horror. Now the only suggestion I have for you (If you tried a code and it didn't work, ) is to just purchase the audiobook. Hopefully, you can answer the three questions that will be received this coming Wednesday on the live video. So be sure to be there.

Now, I will say this. If every person who tries to answer the question does not get all three correct, then the give a way will continue. Want to know what this prize is? Go to YouTube!

Tough Butter part 2

  If you've read the blog from yesterday, then you've been informed about the hard struggle of telling people about the Author Fest event. But what is this blog about? This blog is about everything else that I am responsible for.

For one thing, I just got word that after 2 months the new audiobook has FINALLY been published. Now I have 50 codes to give away, and I have no idea how to give them away!

I also have over 100 cups, over 20 books, 50 stickers, and 5 pillows to sell. Where does a person like me get this stuff sold at? There are nearly a dozen marketers who say they wish to help make progress, but of course, they are wishing for payment. I don't have time for this!

I would give payment to someone who is willing to help grab attention, but there are no promises. I have dealt with some marketers before; they have grown my followers list on Instagram, posted me in multiple areas on Facebook, and have had interviews which are somewhere on a podcaster's list, but look where I've gotten to...

So I'm not in the mood to pay someone who can't promise me a change in public attention. Have you been messaged by someone on Instagram who states they want to present you? I've told them multiple times to go ahead and present me with no cost. I never hear from them again.

That's why I'm hoping to get some attention with my idea of publishing other young writers. They shouldn't have to go through junk like this. Someone who wants their story and get paid for it. TOTAL SHAME. Editorial service costs about $50 for every 500 characters. PLEASE! It's even more struggling when you try publishing audiobooks. Payment, payment, payment, that's the only way to get help.

Not for me. I'm willing to help young authors write stories because I'm not concerned about money. I have a job already, so why ask for more just to be helpful? I get companies, but some of these people work for Fiverr. They mostly get paid when they get a position for their work. It's like celebrities who present themselves at Cameo.

Anyway, enough complaining about this "help" that I get offered. It's hard to try to get attention to sell books, pillows, audiobooks, and stickers when there's nowhere to present yourself. I mean, a video about the cool stickers I have gets about 120 views on TikTok, 23 on Instagram, and 20 on YouTube and completely unknown on Facebook, but I can only guess 0-3. That doesn't include comments or likes. Those are around 0-7, and that's IF you combine them.

In other words, publicity is complicated!

Scary Creepsmas folks!

 Well, once again we end the year with a Shiver and Fears annual event. That's right, it's time to start the Scary Creepsmas give-a-way event.

Every year it's done differently. This year we are starting a fundraiser. Yep, the same fundraiser with the cup, pillow, and books. We have decided to donate a piece of the funding to a school that is in need of a copy machine.

As of right now the school only uses three and one is being VERY difficult to use. It gets jammed, it complains about being empty when it's really not, and sometimes shuts down for awkward reasons! It needs to be replaced.

The goal is to reach nearly $400 dollars. If we reach that goal, a teacher is willing to donate $1000! You think I'm joking, I'm not!

We have a variety of items for you to choose from. Additionally, we are planning to offer a discount on stickers that you can pay for using the PayPal code found on our monthly news website. 

Furthermore, we are giving away audio books daily on Instagram. Each day, an Insta story will be posted containing a special code and link. If you are the first to use this code on the link, the book is yours! 

We understand that our giveaways are limited this year, but we are working on something bigger for the future. We hope that everything will work out in the end.

The Haunted Cell Phone Blooper and Cast Interview

Now that the video is FINALLY published for youtube, it's time to look at what happens behind the scene. Meet the cast and how humble they can be being in a Shiver and Fear original! What kind of fun did these teens have while skiing over the spring break?

Well you might find out just by watching the video. Recording this adventure was not easy. It was only a 4 day trip and the skiing didn't start until day 2. Not to mention with all the pre-scheduled event for the trip squeezing in filming time was difficult. But what was hard after getting home?

Well, crazy story. So Isaac Grave (a.k.a.) Jeff Davis was only available on Sunday. Which, if you don't know, that's church time. I was a part of the church choir and Isaac had to leave first thing afterwards. So the only time to film was DURING church time. But things kept getting in the way. Isaac would show up late, I would have other responibilities at the church, or even we had other plans.

What was even more challenging was getting to interview the cast. If you notice not everyone got the same questions. There's another story.

Just know, me and the cast all come together at different days of the week. Some show up on Sundays, some on Wednesdays. But we are always together at the church.

Shiver and Fears New Book

 

    So Shiver and Fears JUST finished another book. This is the 2nd Terror Tales book written for 8 characters. The book was written to explore 3rd grade kids and their interest in writing. The new Terror Tales: Into the Legendary Store was created to give young readers a feature in the power of creative writing. 

    After making the choice of the 7 best story titles. I wrote the story best to fit the title. The hardest one, I think was The Masked Giant. This was a challenge because the title already reveals the plot. Not to mention there is not a very good plot twist that can lead into a giant wearing a mask. The reason why this book was chosen, was because of the challenge of coming up with a plot. This will show kids that no matter what a story is behind a title.

    Into the Legendary Store has been published but only as a preview edition. This gives our 3rd graders a view of the book before it's officially ready. The reason for this is that although the book is done, there is no cover illustrated for it. When will the cover be ready? Not even the Shiver and Fears artist: Cameron Dunk knowns. But what is important is that the book get done for future projects such as the book written by multiple other 3rd graders called What a Story!

This book will feature the creative minds of the rest of the 3rd graders who didn't get into the Shiver and Fears novel.

    So far The Whispering Box, The Little Neighbor, and The Whispering Monster are the only stories written for the next project What a Story! So although this book will feature a small amount of students tales, it'll also feature artwork based on the tales too. (Once again, made by 3rd grade kids)

When will these books be ready? And what kind of stories are we looking at? It's a surprise, even I don't know!

Author live in person

School is finally out for this teacher, and what a month of work. Just earlier Shiver and Fearshad been presented in front of young readers of the grade of 3rd. After reading An Old Bite, A Puppet Family and a summary of The Ghost of Future Me, students were wowed with dozens of questions. Even the teachers were amazed with the story behind Shiver and Fears.

Throughout the week, I was no longer known to those kids as a teacher they've seen in the hall. I was now Mr. AJ Hard, the teacher who published books. Although, it's ashame. Today 4 of our student will be making their way to 5th grade. Them and the other 8 never knew this about their own teacher! Why were they never told? It wasn't because I was ashamed or anything. It was because I didn't want to lose the realationship I already had with them.

To those students of mine I was a teacher and I wasn't ready to advance that title, not just yet. Although I did think, maybe if I had shown them one of my books, maybe they would better understand  how a book is formed.

Anyway, I hope that next year  Shiver and Fears can reach out to more students. In fact my plan is to have a book published by the school, for the school. But we'll have to see what this year holds for us!

Let's Meet an Author: Roland Page

Can you believe we still have author for you to meet. You'd be amazed on what this guy has for us today! This is Roland Page:

Roland Page wrote the book “Eating the Forbidden Fruit” (His middle name is Sato)

His work is now available here<

Roland enjoys Tattooing (That's very unique), Writing and Mentoring on ECommerce. 

Find Roland at http://www.authorrolandpage.com

he likes to read Sci-Fi , Stephen King and Michelle Obama books 

However Roland writes: crime fiction, urban fiction, family drama, true love 

Usually that's all the information we give about our authors, but Roland had a little more to share:

Age: 55 

Birthplace: Osaka Japan military base

Former Occupation: Police Officer 

Other Novels in Progress: Skin Deep (Tattoo Industry Drama), and Walking the Purple Road (90 day hospital stay battling Lupus) 

 

he states, "I am a Lupus Warrior"

This made me think what other things would you like to know about our choices of author? Is their something we leave out? Comment and tell us!

Let's Meet an Author: JaLeissa Speight

It's that time again, we have another author we would like you to meet,

this is JaLeissa Speight

she is the writer of "You Are My Sonshine" (pretty clever huh?)

You can find her book here at amazon < click here

Jaleissa enjoys spending time with family and cooking

She doesn't have a website yet, but check out what she has on social media

She enjoys reading Thriller (I'm sure she'd love "The Unlucky Charm")

but writes Children’s stories herself

wow, we have a few other authors we want you to meet. In the meantime, keep up with Shiver and Fears with our other blog stories

Any questions you want to ask? Comment below, we would see if we can get JaLeissa to answer!

Illustration partner

Before I tell you some fun news let me make sure you know about what you alrweady know. My artist partner Randon Timberlake has re-illustrated a few book covers for Shiver and Fears. and he still is, but as time passes it might be time to work with another partner. So that's where this artwork comes in. If you haven't heard, Shiver and Fears got an upgrade with the book "Why I Don't Play Video Games" more gruesome huh? This was put together by Mei Wu and artist found on social media. We'll see how well this goes. Meantime, we're not sure if Random still wants to work with us. Who's artwork do you like more? Randon or Mei? Randon did his picture for the book "Puppet Family" Awkward don't you think? I think so for sure.

Meanwhile here is another fearing story to tell! We are monsterfying our fans early this year! Why, you may ask, here is what we're thinking: Starting in the month of October give us 10 days for entries, 20 days for votes, and 1 day to reveal winner. (broken up evenly) By starting in August, that's a whole month to enter in the contest, a month to chat with our judges and enough time to choose which monster is the best for the whole year!

 This is an example of one of our monster fans. This isn't really the guy who entered, but he sent a picture of someone, I guess his brother, and we made a monster out of him. That's the fun part of the contest, it doesn't have to be a portrait of yourself, it can even be a drawing! Just as long as we have a name behind it, you're in.

We are encouraging social media fans to send us a picture by DM, but for you blog readers, enter the contest by sending your picture to shiverandfears@gmail.com. Just remember to add your name so if you win we know who it belongs to.

That's all we have for now, but if we have any more news... well, you know how to find us!

What's the result?

 So let me tell you what's planned for this summer. Shiver and Fears is publishing their last book! With this stupid virus being a fake hazard The bookaversary party will be hosted live video and Shiver and Fears is taking the last breaths.
 Books have been selling, but still at a slow rate. If I were living off the sales of these books. My office would be the library and I'd be living in a box on the street. (Kind of depressing huh?) Well, it's come to the conclusion Shiver and Fears don't need to be sold if they are even made for money. Which is good, because they aren't making any anyway.
So this is what's happening to Audiobooks  We're posted samples of them on Youtube, book 31- will be posted on Wattpad for now on, no more contests, events, fewer comments and attention grabbers. Free audiobooks will only be given to the first 5 birthdays of each month until 2021 then free audiobooks will be no longer e offered.
It might sound like Shiver and Fears is closing, but that's not what's happening. What's going on is we're taking out the time and effort to produce and promote it.
You might have questions, and I'm willing to answer. It might help you understand what's going on.

Changes for Shiver and Fears

  Ever since Shiver and Fears started it was always because I wanted to make a real actual book. After one was published I got caught in a few things. I wanted the royalty checks, I wanted the fame, I wanted to be all over the network.

   Long story short- Why did I write these books? To have my written story out in public. That all. It wasn't for fame, it wasn't for the money. Just to have a book published from me and in the hands of others. The question is, do I have that? The answer is with Shiver and Fears at the library, online book stores, multiple websites, so yes. 

   So what does this mean for Shiver and Fears books? No more? Not with all these new story ideas in my head, not to mention, I wouldn't want to leave everyone hanging with Magical Times. As of now Shiver and Fears will publish the 30thbook later this year and then the rest will be posted at Wattpad.

Why this sudden change? What's wrong? Let me just say this, There are people in life who thing being a writ is pointless, and without a thought of encouragement, they will say things to make you feel worthless. Now I have over 200 fans who wouldn't want to stop reading a Shiver and Fears book for nothing, so why is this one critic getting to me?

   Well, it's not really the critic, it's more of his reason. My own cash has gone to dozen of marketers who know the skills to get the word out about people's work. But spending money and not getting anything back out of it, but more views, I guess is pointless. I mean what would you want 1000 people who know your name? Or 1000 who enjoy your work? Because 1000 people who know your work means you say AJ Hard and you know about his work, But 1000 people who know your work means they've seen what you've done and want more from you.

   I don't really have that, and no one knows how to have that, not even me! So why work so hard to become famous if all everyone is going to say is "AJ Hard writes books" and not "I loved his story, can't wait for the next one."? But if you're still receiving "Keep writing, you love it" and of course it's true should you really throw all your work away? NO of course not! 

   Maybe in ten years, when I learn the steps of R.L. Stine I might go back to publishing my work. For right now I've done what I wanted to do. And I just have to remember that!

Let's Meet an Author

We're doing a thing where we take a moment to give attention to other authors. Many authors would like recognization and some people don't consider that. Well, this author wants to give notice to an author at least once a month.

So meet:

Tabatha Smith Waybright

Her book is called On Mystic Mountain

You can get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2VOT4dG

She enjoys reading, writes, sews and cares for my Grandkids!

learn more about this author at Tabathaswaybright.com

She writes fantasy but enjoys reading faith-based books, fantasy, and Sci-Fi

check out our next author in May!

The Answer to Your Question

Saturday I told you about why I'm not too concerned about editing. You might disagree with my choices, If you do, then understand you haven't left a comment post, so I assume I'm correct!
Now the question I left you with earlier is why am I going after adults when Shiver and Fears is for young readers? Here's your answer:
Who buys books online? Who handles mostly all the money? How many kids themselves have a social media account? Now, you might have an answer I can't disagree with, but once again, no comment means I'm correct.
The answer is mostly parents. Parents spent time shopping online and on social media, parents have hold of all the money (given the choice and give some to their child) So even if I can convince 5 kids to buy a Shiver and Fears book, they wouldn't be able to without a request to their guardian.
There's also another reason too, I grew up reading Goosebumps, it was my choice in reading for years. Now that I'm an adult I try to reach out to other adults my age who have a big chance of loving goosebumps as well. Because if they love Goosebumps, Shiver and Fears might interest them as well. Although they are the ones who would read and complain about grammar, it's important to understand editing isn't as free as publishing or as simple as social media promotion.
It's important to realize authors do their best and judging more on minor spelling and grammar mistakes than the story itself is very poor judgment to me and anyone else who wants to be a simple writer.
 In fact, come back later this month and I'll show you how well a story can be told with minor mistakes!

Kyle Massey in the House!

2 months ago, Shiver and Fears published their audiobook starring Kyle Massey. Let me start by introducing Cory with this video:

So in honor of this occasion we placed him in our book No Body Park. Kyle Massey visits his aunt for a few days and noticed an empty park. If there's a park then where are the kids who play on it, it's a mystery Kyle wants to solve, but is he ready for the truth?
Think it's an interesting story? Want to read it? Well after waiting all these months you finally can. For the next two months we are giving away audiobook codes for audio copies of No Body Park. Our narrator Diontae Black was excited not only that he gets to read a Shiver and Fears book, but also one that stars Cory in the House, Kyle Massey.
If you want one, this give-a-way starts now! Comment why you want a Shiver and Fears audiobook and we'll send you one, while supplies last.

BTW: we also have a special guest coming this spring. Let's just say he's a friend of Creeps...

"Love" Horror Fiction

Shiver and Fears are sending love to many fans in different ways. One way we are doing this is by having a giveaway. Fans are commenting "Love That Book" and are receiving audiobook codes. You can get your audiobook code by commenting "Love that book" on the blog.

We are also giving codes to the first 5 birthdays on Facebook. So far we've given over 11 codes so far.
Another way we are sending love to our fans is by having them meet Creeps. Who is Creeps? If you really don't know Creeps, you're really behind. He's our pet mascot, for the 10,000th time:

< This is Creeps!

He's Shiver and Fears mascot, we found him. He may look a little mean, but he's nice.

especially when you give him a Valentine!

This Valentine's Day we are passing out Creeps' cards to a bunch of children at a public school. Shiver and Fears actually will be making a few appearances to a lot of kids for St. Valentine's Day.

Now, you might think Shiver and Fears isn't very scary if the author is celebrating Valentine's Day because Valentine's Day isn't scary. If that's the case, you haven't read: "The Dangers of Love" a valentine favorite from Shiver and Fears <click here

Word of advice, you should wish Creeps a Happy Valentine's Day on social media, He doesn't like feeling alone for Valentine's Day and might go on a rampage if he feels left out. I mean just because he's an ice monster doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings. I mean, he does love his fans... especially for dinner!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!