Please Allow Me to Re-introduce Myself

By Gamal Hennessy 

At some point, I invited you to go on a trip.

I promised to take you away from your daily grind and guide you through a world of crime and passion. I offered you a ticket to action, espionage and seduction. I wrote three novels and half a dozen short stories of the best work I could create. You rewarded me with your time and attention.  

Then life got in the way.

 Personal, professional and financial realities cut me off from my fictional journeys. They also prevented me from staying in contact with you since late Spring. I apologize for stopping the trip in such an abrupt fashion, but I’d like to make it up to all of you in two ways.

First, I’m going to make all the books in the Crime and Passion series available on Amazon for $0.99 each for the next thirty days, including my full length novels

If you haven’t had a chance to sample some of my work yet, I hope you’ll take advantage of this 75% off sale to step into my world. 

Second, I plan to have a series of bi-weekly posts leading up to the release of my next novel in November about the role violence plays in being a writer. I hope these essays lure you back into the world of crime and passion and all the other work I plan to create.

I know one less email doesn’t make much difference in your busy life, but I also know everyone can use a break from real life once in a while. If you’re willing to keep hearing from me, I’ll try to make the trip worthwhile. 

If you’ve got any questions, comments or observations, please let me know. I enjoy hearing from you.

 Have fun.

Gamal

If you want to spend more time in the world of Crime and Passion, sign up for the free RSVP Newsletter. 

Selling Books Like a Drug Dealer: Free vs. Almost Free


How much would you pay for an e-Book?
In 2012, price is an amorphous concept in digital publishing. I read more than a few books for free. I have rejected a book priced at $4.99 because I didn’t think it was worth it. I have paid more than $10 for a book I really wanted. You can’t nail it down. It all comes back to a concept that I learned in Economics 101; as a seller, the “right” price is highest price that the market will bear for any particular item.
So how much will the market bear to read my short stories? This question has plagued me since I started publishing. At first, I thought that $2.99 would work, then I tried free on Kindle Direct Publishing, then I tried $1.99 and so on. After six months, these experiments have led me to a conclusion; the price of the story doesn’t really matter at this point.
Why? Because I haven’t found the audience interested in my style of crime thrillers and I haven’t proven to those readers that my work is worth reading. With so many self published writers competing with the publishing houses and other forms of entertainment, I can’t try to compete with everyone. I have to find my niche and focus on appealing to them. And since people only have a limited amount of time and attention, I have to prove that my work is worth the effort before my audience will read my stories consistently.
So I have come up with a new plan; I am going to target a very narrow segment of the reading population and offer them several of my stories for free. My theory is that once I find the right readers and expose them to my work without any financial risk, they will be more willing to pay for other books later. My hope is that readers become addicted to my style, like a crackhead who can’t get off the pipe. I don’t think people should spend their rent money to pay me or start stealing TV’s to buy my e-books, but I will take the royalty payment without asking a lot of questions.
I currently have three urban horror stories available for free on Smashwords for Halloween. Other stories will go online for free in the coming months on Amazon.com. Try them and let me know what you think. The first ones are free. After that we’re going to have to work something out…
Have fun.
Gamal

Who Is Gamal Hennessy?



I'm getting ready to do a radio interview this week, which means I have to be ready for hard questions like "Who the hell are you?" In an effort to prepare for this probing inquiry, I decided to revise my author bio. Then I realized that not everyone will get to hear the radio show (I'll try to post a link to it next week) and you might be reading this and still not know who the hell I am, so I decided to share the bio with you...
Author Biography for Gamal Hennessy
Gamal Hennessy is an author, entertainment attorney and nightlife advocate in New York City. He began his professional career at a Japanese animation company before moving to the corporate offices Marvel Entertainment. After leaving Marvel, Gamal began writing about the culture of New York nightlife and published a book about it called Seize the Night in 2010. Now Gamal writes stories from the shadows, bringing his readers into a world of deception, seduction and violence.

Gamal describes his fiction writing as the Usual Suspects meets Jason Bourne with a little sex thrown in to spice things up. Many of his readers agree, calling his work “gritty, chilling and provocative”. Some see a dark ambiance reminiscent of the Harvey Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant and or the Burke series from Andrew Vachs. All of them say the writing is “well crafted, fast paced and immersive”. New readers can get free digital copies of his work to form their own opinions while he plans his first novel. 

Now when all your friends ask "Who is Gamal Hennessy?" you'll be able to tell them. 

If you'd like to read some of my work for free, please check out Afraid of the Dark, Spare Some Change and The Replacements on Smashwords

Have fun.
G

The Horror That Lives Just Around the Corner

                  
When I was learning to write, I was taught about the distinctions between different types of fiction. Horror, of course, was one of the main genres and came in two varieties. It was broken down into natural horror (stories based on threats like criminals, sociopaths and the violently insane) and supernatural horror (stories based on unconfirmed concepts like vampires, zombies and ghosts).  Right now the craze in horror is completely of the supernatural variety. All you have to do is look at all the media devoted to the zombie apocalypse to see what I’m talking about. But in spite of the current trend, I write natural horror because I believe that it makes the stories much more frightening.
I have three urban horror stories currently available for free on Smashwords:
  • The Replacements is a story about three high school boys who are forced to face their worst fears when they try to buy a girl in the sex trade.
  • Spare Some Change reverses the power dynamic between an urban yuppie and a homeless man deep in the tunnels under New York City.
  • Finally, Afraid of the Dark is set in a near future society where government sponsored killers roam the streets answering to no authority but their own.
I try to create a sense of realism in my horror that infects the mind of the reader. I don’t want you to imagine a theoretical horror. I want you to feel like “This could happen to me.” That’s when you get scared. That’s when horror works.
I know Halloween is traditionally about supernatural horror. I know that vampires and zombies have a lot of cache in modern entertainment. But I don’t relate to supernatural horror, so I don’t have any inspiration to write about that. Stories about being terrorized by homeless maniacs or slave traders might not be the trend now, but try not to follow the trends. I’m trying to tap into primal fears and the fear of someone who might be just around the corner is more powerful than the fear of something that might only exist in our collective imagination.

Have fun.
G

Asset Management and Sharing Secrets is Now on Sale

Sex Lies and Spies is offering two new stories on Amazon today.
We are offering one espionage story in Asset Management and one erotic story in Sharing Secrets.
Amazon Prime users can download the books for free. If you are in the press, a blogger or a book reviewer & you'd like press copies of my August books please let me know.

Asset Management: ($1.99)
Rose Mendoza is an ambitious young executive looking to make her mark at the security firm of RSVP. One of her first projects is getting rid of an enticing veteran operator named William Baker.  But as Rose learns about Baker’s plans and his connection to the brutal vigilante Ria Marlen she is pulled into a crisis that could end her career or even end her life.




Sharing Secrets: ($.99)
There are two seductive daydreams in this collection:

The Open Window combines voyeurism and exhibitionism on a cold winter night in New York City that burns away the chill for everyone involved.

Toy Story describes a visit to a sex museum that leads to a man’s first encounter with his lover’s personal playthings.



Be sure to check out our other crime, erotica and espionage stories for your Kindle, iPad and smartphone.

Afraid of the Dark (Crime fiction)
Bedtime Stories (Erotica)
The Replacements (Crime Fiction)

Have fun.
Gamal

And So It Begins...


I am happy to announce that the Sex and Violence Series launches today with three new short stories:
Afraid of the Dark $1.99
Bedtime Stories $.99
The Replacements $.99
 All three titles are available for the Kindle and Nook Apps.
If you decide to read these launch titles, please feel free to review them and leave comments. Feedback can only make my work better, especially if you think they are perfect.
Have fun.
G


 

Sample Pages for the Replacements Now Available


If you’d like to get an early sample of my new story The Replacements, you can get a PDF here.
The Replacements Description: Three young men travel from the suburbs to the city in search of forbidden pleasure. They think they are prepared to commit a crime, but are they ready for the surprise that their dealer has set up for them?
The full version goes on sale June 29th in the Amazon, Nook and Smashwords store for $.99.
Have fun.
Gamal

First Look at the Replacements



The third book in the Sex and Violence Series goes on sale June 29th!



The Replacements: Three young men travel from the suburbs to the city in search of forbidden pleasure. They think they are prepared to commit a crime, but are they ready for the surprise that their dealer has set up for them?
Like Sex and Violence on Facebook for free samples of this book and news on other upcoming releases.

Have fun.
G