The Dark Terror arrives on Monday, March 18, and has been available for pre-order for a few weeks now. I am extremely happy to announce that the first advance review for Book Three – The Dark Passage Series is in and it is wonderful.
“Knaak has created such a fantastic world in The Dark Passage series filled with vampire lore, comedy, suspense, and a hint of romance.” – Rae’s Reading Lounge.
The book tour in support of my second novel, The Dark Descent, continues this weekend in Sacramento. This will be my second appearance at the Arden Fair Barnes & Noble. The first, which took place back in February, was my first signing event ever. Head over to the Where to Buy page and find out how to get your copies of my books if you can’t make the events.
Return Engagement in Sacramento
I’ll be at the Arden Fair Mall Barnes & Noble location this Saturday, starting at 11:00 a.m. Come out and get a copy of my new book, The Dark Descent, and get it signed. I met some great folks the last time and I look forward to meeting many more. Of course, you can order the book ahead of time and bring it with you! Copies of my first novel, The Dark Truth, will also be available.
Saturday, May 26
11:00 a.m.
Barnes & Noble
1725 Arden Way
Sacramento, CA 95815
And, a Return Engagement in Modesto
Can’t make it to Sacramento? Come out to the Modesto, Calif., Barnes & Noble Saturday, June 2, starting at Noon and get a signed copy of The Dark Descent. Copies of The Dark Truth will also be available. Order ahead of time and bring them with you to get them signed! This will be my second signing event at the Modesto Barnes & Noble.
Saturday, June 2
Noon
Barnes & Noble
Promenade Shopping Center
3501 McHenry Avenue Suite E
Modesto, CA 95356
SF Comic Con
I’ll be joined by fellow Trifecta Publishing House authors Samantha Heuwagen, K.M. Riley, and Mark London Williams on a panel about new trends in science fiction and horror literature at the SF Comic Con at the Oakland Convention Center in downtown Oakland on Sunday, June 10 from 3 – 4 p.m. Get tickets now and plan to attend!
From the Comic Con panel schedule document:
3 FROM TRIFECTA: WEST COAST IMPRINT, BAY AUTHORS, NEW TWISTS ON SF &
HORROR
3:00pm – 4:00pm // Rm. 205
Three Bay Area authors, from new West Coast imprint Trifecta Publishing, talk about their new book releases, featuring S.F.-based vampires, L.A.-based zombies, and a near-future U.S. in dystopic disarray. Jerry Knaak, YA author Mark London Williams, and K.M. Riley will hold forth on current releases, and dark tales to come, with late-breaking bonus panelist Samantha Heuwagen expanding the conversation to the very cosmos itself.
Sunday, June 10
3 – 4 p.m.
SF Comic Con
Oakland Convention Center
550 10th St.
Oakland, CA 94607
My author copies of The Dark Descent arrived today! The book drops for sale worldwide Monday.
Head over to the Where to Buy Page to find out how to order your copy.
As soon as you get it, take to social media and post a selfie with you and the book, use #TheDarkDescent.
I am over the moon. I don’t think this will ever get old. Thank you for your support everyone.
Book Two – The Dark Passage Series, The Dark Descent, is now available for pre-order in the Amazon Kindle and select e-book formats for just $2.99, and in trade paperback from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Monday is the official release day!
Barnes & Noble Trade Paperback
Book One – The Dark Passage Series, The Dark Truth, is currently available in all formats.
Check out the “Where to Buy” page for more information.
The Dark Descent, the sequel to The Dark Truth, is now available for pre-order for your Amazon Kindle device for just $2.99.
It is also available to pre-order in select e-book formats as well.
More formats and the trade paperback will be available for pre-order in the coming days.
The official release date for the book is Monday, April 23.
Follow my author page on Facebook or my Twitter feed for up-to-the-minute information on how to order.
In this dark, twisted tale from Trifecta Publishing House of Port Angeles, Wash., ex-San Francisco public relations professional turned vampire Elizabeth Rubis may have escaped her rocky prison in an abandoned coal mine, but trouble keeps following her bloody trail as a new enemy has emerged – an actual church-trained vampire hunter. As Elizabeth discovers new supernatural powers along the way, she continues to evolve into a true demon of the night.
The official release date for The Dark Descent is April 23, 2018, and it will be available in trade paperback and e-book as well as the aforementioned Amazon Kindle format.
And don’t forget to join me, and fellow authors K.M. Riley and Michael Esola for a panel discussion about fiction writing and publishing, and a book signing, at the Emeryville, Calif., Barnes & Noble location on Saturday, April 28, at 2:00 p.m. PT. It promises to be a lot of fun.
Several book signing events are in the works as The Dark Descent gets ready to go to print. I am very excited about the release of my second novel, the sequel to The Dark Truth. I hope you are too as we learn Elizabeth’s fate.
I am very excited to announced the next confirmed event – a panel discussion with two published authors, one of whom is my Trifecta Publishing House labelmate K.M. Riley. Amazon bestselling author Michael Esola will join us to discuss fiction writing and publishing. We’ll also have a book signing.
K.M. Riley, a recent guest on the Get the Knaak podcast, is the author of the recently released Fever Rising. Michael Esola’s latest novel is called Hybrid, and it dropped last August.
Join us Saturday, April 28 at 2:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Emeryville!
After an enjoyable signing event at the Gilroy, Calif., Barnes & Noble location, The Dark Truth book tour has drawn to a close. However, The Dark Descent releases four weeks from tomorrow on Monday, April 23. I’ll post pre-sale information as soon as it becomes available.
I did four signing events, three radio interviews and one in-studio TV appearance. Event calendar announcements for two of the signings appeared in local newspapers and accompanying web sites. Thank you to all of the media professionals who accommodated me.
I’d like to thank friends and co-workers who came to out to support me, and of course, the people I met at these events – those who purchased on the spot, ordered later, or just stopped by to chat. I have met a lot of great people so far, and I am looking forward to meeting more book lovers.
Details have yet to be finalized, but I have several more events in the works. I’ll be returning to a couple of locations and adding a few new ones for The Dark Descent book tour. I was interviewed for the Write About Now podcast recently. I’ll let you know when the episode is available for your listening pleasure. I am also scheduled for an appearance on Write Now with Sarah Werner in July.
Work on The Dark Terror continues. I don’t know where it’s going to go or how it ends, but it’s been a wild ride to write the first 12,000 words. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to get and read The Dark Truth, and get ready for The Dark Descent. April 23 will be here before you know it. And you don’t want Elizabeth knocking on your window in the middle of the night.
If you have read the book, please drop a review on the web site for the store where you made the purchase. Any and all feedback is welcome and encouraged.
Thank you all for your support.
– Jerry
I am proud to unveil the cover for my second novel, The Dark Descent, which is due out in April from Trifecta Publishing House. This is Book Two – The Dark Passage Series. The Dark Truth has been on the market since November and is an Amazon Bestseller. The third in the series, The Dark Terror, is due out in February 2019. Click here to find out where to buy.
Without further ado, here is the cover for The Dark Descent:
Becoming a published author carries a lot with it. It starts with a tiny seed of a dream, which grows into the dream itself. It doesn’t have to be an honest-to-goodness REM sleep dream. It can be a pipe dream, a daydream, a thought. Hell, King Kong came from a pipe dream. The dream eventually becomes a goal. The goal turns into a story and characters and hours and hours of typing, research, reading, Google searches (some that could land you on a government watch list), more typing, editing, emails, texts, paralyzing self-doubt, more typing, hesitation, trepidation, consternation.
That stack of vampire books you’ve collected over the years that your friends and co-workers made fun of you for finally comes in handy.
More typing. Did I mention typing?
After all that, and 59,000 words later, you write “The End” and try to figure out how to get this masterpiece you’ve spent 13 months composing published, so you can share this story with more than your wife, your editor and your friends.
More research, more reading, more typing, more email.
You get lucky, or experience serendipity or divine providence (if you’re into that kind of thing), and get offered a contract from the first publisher you query. More typing, re-writes (6,000 more words), more editing, beta readers, cover concepts, release dates, pre-sale.
Along the way, you achieve certain milestones and new dreams form or come to the surface.
I have idolized writers my entire life – the Beats, Shelley, Poe, Stoker, King, Koontz, Lovecraft, Rice. I have been fascinated by the men and women who have been able to tell tales via the written word. I write for a living, but this is different. Books are extremely valuable to me. I can’t bring myself to throw books away. They must be donated or passed along. Books helped make me who I am, what I am.
And I have grown to love bookstores. I could live in a bookstore. I’ve been known to crawl around on the floor of a bookstore. I could live in an Irish pub too but that’s a story for a different day. As much as I have an affinity for musty, dank indie bookstores, I don’t mind the big chains either. If they sell books, they’re okay with me. Now, if someone were to combine a bookstore with an Irish pub …
Becoming a published author has given me a seat at a table where I’ve always wanted to sit. I’m in the company of people I admire and envy, yet to whom I now feel somewhat equal. Those new dreams start to materialize and take shape. First, write a novel; second, get it published; third, put it on sale. Ah, there’s the rub, right? Where? Online, of course. Amazon. Smashwords. iTunes. Barnes & Noble’s web site. My publisher, Trifecta Publishing House, handled all of that. Boom, done. However, bookstores are the Holy Grail to me. If you are on the shelf in a bookstore, you’ve made it. That’s rarefied air.
My publisher has a major distributor. However, in today’s day and age, you, the author, must do a fair amount of hustling. So, I have sent hundreds of postcards and e-mails, and I have personally visited several bookstores. Some clerks look at you like you have three heads. Others promise to give your information to those who handle such things.
My local bookstore, which I adore, ordered two copies and sold them before I could see The Dark Truth on the shelf. I don’t know if they have ordered any more. I have a signing scheduled there in five weeks. My local Barnes & Noble ordered four copies right in front of me. They were gone by the time I went back, if they ever got them in.
My cousin Jason is a student at State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo in Geneseo, New York, near my hometown of Rochester. My father played college basketball at Geneseo. My friend John Tournour (also a published author), “JT The Brick” on the radio, went to SUNY Geneseo. If you have read The Dark Truth and got to the acknowledgements, you know that Jason’s constructive criticism was a big help to me in the beginning. He told me that he was a valued customer at Sundance Books in Geneseo. He said he would talk me up to the proprietor. He did. He suggested I call the store. I did. I spoke to the second in command. She said they were looking forward to the book’s release. She said they’d be happy to carry it.
Jason sent me a photo of The Dark Truth at the checkstand when he picked up the copy Sundance had ordered for him. There were none for the shelves. This was several weeks ago. Before the holidays.
My cousin tweeted a photo today. It’s a picture of two shelves at Sundance Books. The upper shelf is all Stephen King. The lower shelf is mostly Dean Koontz novels. Koontz happens to be my favorite author. Nestled between several Koontz books and a novel by Marko Kloos is The Dark Truth by Jerry Knaak.
This is the first time I have seen my book on a shelf in a bookstore. This may not be the first store to carry it or shelve it, but this is the first time I have seen it. I got chills seeing my volume on the shelf next to The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz. It is fortuitous that my last name begins with a “K” and that my work will be placed among stories by two of the best-selling authors, let alone two of my favorite. I staged a photo of The Dark Truth with my own copies of IT and The Silent Corner just to see how it would look. It looked pretty good. But to see it on a shelf among the greats – it looks like it belonged.
It looks like I do too.
We are now less than two weeks away from the official launch of my debut novel, The Dark Truth. I received my author copies a week ago yesterday, and it was like Christmas in October. Getting that book in my hot little hands was the realization of a dream come true.
Receiving actual physical copies of The Dark Truth and seeing my words, the words that came out of my head, a story that originated in the deep, dark recesses of my brain, on paper in book form, gave me sorely needed validation.
I have never been big on validation. I have always been confident in my work and my abilities as a professional communicator. I always felt like I knew what I was doing. We won’t discuss my actual insecurities. But, as it often does, life threw me a curve ball. And like fictitious Pedro Cerrano and the real life Aaron Judge, I had a hard time hitting this breaking ball.
Writing this book and getting it published is something that can never be taken away. Professionally, I was always a singles and doubles hitter, to use another baseball analogy. I rarely hit home runs. I crushed a few, but I had warning track power at best. I knocked this one out of the park, Aaron Judge style.
The official release date for The Dark Truth is Nov. 20, two weeks from yesterday. If you have not already pre-ordered it, you can finds the links to do so just below. If you have, I thank you, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much I enjoyed writing it. I am 46,000 words into the sequel, The Dark Descent, which is due out in April 2018 from my wonderful publisher, Trifecta Publishing House.
Amazon Trade Paperback
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Trade Paperback
Barnes & Noble Nook
Smashwords e-book
Kobo e-book
iTunes e-book
Also, here are all the different ways you can follow me on the interwebs.
Blog: The Jerry Project
Podcast: Get The Knaak
Facebook: Jerry Knaak Author
Twitter: @GetTheKnaak
Amazon: Jerry Knaak Author Page
Goodreads: Jerry Knaak Author Profile
Instagram: @jerryknaak
Publisher: Jerry Knaak Author Page
Jerry Knaak.com 