Welcoming Ian Healy...

Oh... excuse me. Ian THOMAS Healy. That's what you get for inviting your friends around... you mess up their name because they don't always use all of it. Erm.

[And INSPIRING to the Insecure Writer-eh?  Look at the perseverence here...]

So Ian is one of my long-time ABNA friends with a story which may interest some of you. He decided at some point to self publish several of his works... and was doing fine... not quittin' the day job, but getting good reviews and selling some books... and then he managed to land a BIG book deal (several books—8 comes to mind, though I am known for making stuff up).

I've read one of his novels and one of his shorts and can tell you his style is fantastic. He is funny and whimsical, but still has a great plot and realistic characters woven in—there is a fair trick to that. (the book I read was about a troop of Vampires trying to take over the Canadian Hockey League... seriously—and it was GREAT—Blood on the Ice for those of you interested)

So I am welcoming Ian today to give a little promo for his latest book and share a little of his wisdom with you. Without further ado, Welcome Ian!



The Book of Firsts

It’s been a long time coming. I wrote the first draft of JUST CAUSE between February and October of 2004. It was the first serious novel I wrote featuring my own original characters and universe (compared to a Star Wars fanfic which was a 2003 project). JUST CAUSE was quite different than it is now. It was about 25% longer and much more epic in scope, covering a time period from World War II all the way up to the present-day Mustang Sally storyline. It was the first book I ever submitted to agents (earning a staggering 140 rejections). It was also the first book I ever shelved, and went on to write other things. It was the first book I ever did a serious, major revision that entailed cutting out approximately forty thousand words of story and replacing it with twenty thousand new. The parts cut out have since become seed plots for future Just Cause Universe novels that you will get to see eventually. It was the first book for which I learned to write a query letter and a synopsis. It was the first book that I made into a hard copy galley proof (through Lulu.com, and no, you can’t buy it there), which was given to beta readers as a gift. It was the first novel I turned into an ebook, and the first book that I sold to a publisher. And now, it’s the first one that you can buy in both print and ebook editions, and I am very proud of it.



About Ian
Ian Thomas Healy's goal is to be to superhero fiction what Anne Rice is to urban fantasy and William Gibson is to cyberpunk. When not writing, which is rare, he enjoys watching hockey, reading comic books (and serious books, too), and living in the great state of Colorado, which he shares with his wife Richelle, his children Patrick, Caitlin, and Zachary, house-pets Smokey, Samwise, Morrigan, Isis, and approximately five million other people. Connect with Ian online at www.ianthealy.com and follow him on Twitter as @ianthealy. Get JUST CAUSE in print and ebook editions from www.newbabelbooks.com. His backlist is available in ebook format on Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all other ebook retailers.

JUST CAUSE back cover copy
Some superheroes can fly, or lift great weights, or shoot lightning bolts.

Mustang Sally runs.

A third-generation superhero, Sally's life changes forever when she fights and loses to the notorious villain Destroyer, who killed her father just before she was born. She dedicates herself to tracking him down so she can even the score.

When all you can do is run, you'd better be fast, but can even the fastest girl in the world run quick enough to save her teammates' lives from Destroyer and his growing parahuman army?

Get JUST CAUSE from New Babel Books
Author website http://www.ianthealy.com/
Write Better Action Using Cinematic Techniques http://www.writebetteraction.com/
Visit my online bookstore! www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ianthealy


Love the way you put that... doing for Superheroes what Anne Rice did for Urban Fantasy... very nice. Thank you, Ian!