Digital Format "Dream State" now only $0.99

I know its a little late to be saying Happy New Year, but Happy New Year.

To Celebrate the arrival of 2012 my inaugural novel Dream State has been reduced in price to $0.99.

It is available at Smashwords www.smashwords.com/books/view/7236 and is available in all major eBook formats including the Open Standard ePub and .mobi for Kindle.

I wish for you the best of years, and may your accomplishment far outweigh your expectations.

Robert E

Dream State - reviews and comments

Please use this post to leave your review of "Dream State" by Robert E Crull.

In Honor of French Kiss Friday

Just a little fun inspired by something I saw from a twitter friend, @sueannesjewelry...

“I’d like to freshen up. Help yourself to the finest the mini-bar has to offer,” she said with a grin as she stood on her toes to give him a quick kiss. She wet her lips with a quick lick of her tongue, placed them against his, and could not believe her reaction.

She could feel the texture of his lips in pleasurably painful detail. Each crease and rise was felt by her lips. She could feel the softness of what she thought was a freshly shaven face slide under the pressure of her chin against his. She felt her lips relax in that moment, felt the relaxation flow downward, warming her as it went.

“Hmm, yeah,” she mumbled as she broke away from the kiss. “I was going to freshen up. Be right back,” she said as she dropped flat-footed to the floor in a heap of confusion.

***

As she had done just twenty minutes ago, he wet his lips with his tongue and placed his lips against the shock on her face. He kissed just her bottom lip at first, pulling his lips against it as if he were suckling the juice from an overly ripe peach.

Her response was slow because she was still in shock of what she had felt. She felt the tenderness of his lips as he suckled her lower lip and let the sensation of her touch recede from her mind. Coming back to the moment, she began to react. While he was pouring luscious attention to her lower lip, she began to reciprocate the action on his upper lip.

Once setting her memories in the back of her mind, she reacted with more interest. The slow tender nibbling of each other’s lips would not take long to drive her to wanting more. The duration of her celibate periods did not do much for allowing her the opportunity for slow tender lovemaking. She was normally in too big a hurry for enjoying tenderness. When the hunger for physical release reached its high point, all she could think of was eating. Eating a meal her whole body was involved in.

The end of a journey

Wow…

Just over 12 months ago I decided to attempt the game of publishing a book, and today that decision was fully realized. "Dream State" is now available for purchase via my author site setup by the publisher.

I have found in my life that anytime an event or decision is finalized that I should reflect back on that particular journey, for in any transaction I take on there are always lessons. Each thing I do provides me the opportunity to define and re-define what it is I want, how I want to behave, and what I want to give to others.

The lessons learned through this last year are so numerous I sigh at the prospect of having to count them all. Publishing in the traditional sense is a tough business is the first lesson I learned. Having never tried it before, I went in with the standard bull in a china shop approach. Ok maybe it was more of the shotgun method of marriage. Regardless, I did it unaware of the politics involved and completely naïve as to the proper process.

Lesson two, read the flippin' instructions.

With as many resources available on the wonderful world wide inter-web nets, I should have educated myself better. But I took the Fire, Ready, Aim route. In the end it turned out like I wanted it to; I have more control over my destiny than I would have had if I had used a more traditional method. The trade for control was more work from me to market and advertise. Still, worth every ounce of energy I have put forth and will in the future.

Lesson three. Not everyone gives a shit I wrote a book.

My conversations became consumed with the story line, the process of writing, editing, polishing, etc. All those steps along the way fueled my want to be published, drove me to accept certain things, and helped me to draw the line of the acceptable when necessary. I found myself monopolizing conversations after that first innocent question was asked, "So what are you doing in your spare time?" That was a damning question for the uninitiated. I could and would spend hours talking of the premise, specifics about this character or that. Initially it was a lot of fun, but I fear my poor friends and acquaintances would be far less enthusiastic if they were to be asked.

Lesson four. Good things come to those that wait.

My view on that is "Patience my ass I wanna kill something, NOW!" Patience of a general nature has never been my forte by any stretch of the imagination. I like decisions to be made and action to take place. Needless to say, I am a much more capable person today, because I understand the importance of patience.

Lesson five. People are generally awesome.

This lesson could be in direct conflict with lesson three, however, the folks I refer to here are those that share the love of the process of writing. The wanna be authors, those that have made it, those that are trying, those that support us, and those that have failed. I have been fortunate enough to have found a wonderful crew of people I can say are more than casual acquaintances, many are friends. Claude Bouchard is an awesome PR man, fearless in his support. Luke Romyn has provided me more laughs than I should have had in public. CK Webb and DJ Weaver single handedly made me feel like a real author from nearly the first time we met on twitter. There are many others from the twitterverse that have quasi-adopted me and to all of you I appreciate the support and friendship. My twitter mentions however, would not be complete without a mention for my very good friend Winslow Eliot. She read "Dream State" against her better judgment you see as she is not a sicko like yours truly. She gave me awesome feed back, great criticisms, and made suggestions that will make the next book that much better. From her I learned to pull back, just a little. J

Appreciations extend beyond twitter or any of the other online applications. Chaz McEntire for his editing, what an awesome exercise that was. Owen Hall helped me learn a new way of stringing words together. And Selena Kong allowed me room to stretch out some thoughts that will appear in the next book.

Tam, Rob, Lisa, Elizabeth, and Don all coached, cheered, and bitched at me to get to the finish line. To them I will always be grateful.

Thanks every body.

Robert E

Thank You to Webbweaver

On Saturday November 21, 2009 I had the honor of sitting down with the ladies from the Alabama Chapter of Bookend Babes. Among the members were the founders of the Webbweaver Review site, CK Webb and DJ Weaver. Also in attendance were Sonya Price and Tammie Lane. 


I was accompanied by my wife Tammy for this interview to round out a solid five women to one man. If that doesn't scare you men out there then I guess you are more fearless than I am. :-)


Tammy and I had gotten a room at the Tuscaloosa Hilton Garden Inn and the ladies were going to meet us there.  We thought and talked about video recording the interview, and then tossed that to the side as we all thought we would lock up with the added pressure of the video camera running. Instead we captured the audio portion of the interview, which turned out to be an excellent plan. Before the sit down interview, the ladies sent me a series of questions that I returned to them. We did not revisit those questions in the interview. 


My heartfelt thanks go out to all the participants, and those that provided write in questions to WebbWeaver before hand. 


I appreciate everyone that participates in this journey as it unfolds. Specifically though, I would like to thank Claude Bouchard, Luke Romyn, Winslow Eliot, and Mike Cole along with CK and DJ. These folks all represent the new found friends from Twitter and I appreciate all the encouragement, support, and care each of them give me. 


Thanks Guys.  


Robert E.