New Release- Xavier Doolittle: An End Times Short Story

Xavier Doolittle is the second short in my End Times Saga. It’s going for $.99 on Kindle, Smashwords, and Kobo currently, while the other sites will get the short story when they’re distributed to those stores.

Xavier Doolittle, a minor character from the novel, Times of Trouble, is the Secret Service Chief at the White House. We follow him when he first goes to college and begins abandoning the Christian life. Eventually, he begins working for the government, where they confuse him when it comes to what he believes. When the End Times approach, he discovers his attitude has been completely wrong in this short story in the End Times Saga.

A little over 9200 words and 30 pages.

Sample the Chapter Excerpt

Where to buy the story for $.99

Amazon Kindle (takes you to your store)

Barnes and Noble Nook

Smashwords

Apple (coming soon)

Kobo

Have you read the other story, Jon Ryan yet? Currently available only on Kindle, and going for $.99. Is rated 4.4 stars with 5 reviews so far.

In this short story from Times of Trouble, Jon Ryan dreamed of becoming a doctor his entire life. Before he graduates from medical school, the government takes over healthcare, making him wary about the profession he’s going to school for, but not enough to quit chasing his dream. He practices medicine as medical plagues and disasters occur, all the while the government says they’re on top of things. Eventually, government oppression forces him to make changes to his practice that will affect his life as the End Times approach.

Six chapters, 8300 words, 27 pages.

New Book Review of Times of Trial

Christian blogger LaTawnia Kintz has reviewed Times of Trial for me, and gave it four stars on Amazon. She reviewed Times of Trouble last year for me too. I could use more reviews for either novel, so if anyone is willing to review the novels, please contact me and I’ll send you a Smashwords coupon to download it for free. Download the ebook directly from my website or buy the paperback/ebook from other online retailers.

LaTawnia Kintz Book Review Blog

‘Times of Trial can be read as a stand-alone or with Times of Trouble. Like Times of Trouble, Times of Trial is about the end-times and persecution of Christians in the United States.

The president of the United States is a hater of Christians and Jews and will stop at nothing to make sure he remains the president. He and his equally power hungry goons implement Agenda 21. (Now if you don’t know anything about Agenda 21 – which is very real check it out here. There are also lots of other listings about it.)

Cliff has again written a very insightful novel involving end-time prophecy and current events. This is a very easy book to read but don’t let the ease of it detract you from the reality of what could actually take place.

All right, now I have a couple of critiques… though Cliff has done better in filling in the plot with detail, his dialog is still a bit choppy and stilted. I only say this, because I know how difficult it is to write dialog. So Cliff, this is just to encourage you to write your dialog more fluidly. That is probably the only thing I can think of that may be a distraction for the reader.

I appreciate Cliff’s dedication to get his work out for the public to read. Since he is a self-publisher, it can be a bit harder to get the word out. So I am more than thrilled to review for him.

Thank you Cliff for providing me with a free ebook copy for me to review.”

Novel sales stats for 2012

First off, Happy New Year 2013 to everyone and a big thank you to all those out there who bought/downloaded a copy of one of my novels. I thought I’d blog again this year about how many sales/free downloads my novels had this year. My marketing/promoting consisted mostly of using Twitter, Facebook groups/pages, joining up with a couple Christian author groups to Tweet, and going to message boards. I did some giveaways for ebooks, like on Librarything, and sent some personal acquaintances/relatives paperback copies of Times of Trouble (which actually did help some with visibility), along with a little more than a handful of review copies to a couple of book bloggers, two of which actually gave me a review. I also tried blog interviews early in the year, along with the occasional paid post about my books, but overall, I’d say 99% of my sales would probably be from word-of-mouth. My sales on Barnes and Noble increased by a lot this year, up to 40-50 ebooks sold a month compared to 2 or 3 a month in 2011.  My number one seller is the United States, followed by the UK, Canada, Australia, and then everyone else, mostly Western/Northern Europe, but I did manage to get an Amazon Kindle sale from Japan, which was a borrow for Beyond the New Frontier, and 2 sales on Diesel from South Africa. This is without the updated numbers from Smashwords concerning Apple, Sony, or Diesel from December.

Here’s the numbers for each book in order of publication:

Out of Time
Kindle(ASIN B006GDO3BC): 1107
Barnes & Noble Nook: 37
Kobo, which includes WH Smith, Angus & Robertson, and Chapters Indigo: 42
Apple: 51
Sony: 4
Smashwords: 2 paid, 64 free
Paperback (ISBN:1453896961) : 8

Don’t Mess With Earth
Kindle(ASIN B005OOKZJI): 52
Nook: 39
Kobo: 2
Apple: 5
Diesel: 1
Smashwords: 2 paid, 47 free
Paperback(ISBN 978-1602643413): 2

The Usurper
Kindle(ASIN B007K9WDA4): 92 paid, 518 Select downloads (January – March)
Nook: 47
Kobo: 4
Apple: 14
Smashwords: 1 paid, 18 free
Paperback (ISBN 1453702725): 12

Shattered Earth
Kindle(ASIN B006M2U3O8) – 8 sales, unpublished it, but will bring it back this year
Nook: 48
Kobo: 20
Apple: 52
Smashwords: 1 sale, 61 free
Paperback (probably only available on Amazon, since I retired it on Createspace): 3

Dust Storm (western short story) – plagued by Smashwords’ meatgrinder, so it wasn’t published to Apple or Sony until later in the year. Sold on Kobo once I uploaded there myself.
Kindle(ASIN B006KH7H4E): 9
Nook: 7
Kobo: 1
Apple: 1
Sony: 1
Smashwords: 2 paid, 12 free

Voyager and the Aliens (sci-fi short story)
Kindle(ASIN B005NK19MU): 14
Nook: 2
Kobo: 5
Apple: 9
Diesel: 1
Smashwords: 1 paid, 27 free

New Frontier
Kindle(ASIN B006ONBPVU): 99
Nook: 58
Kobo: 2
Apple: 7
Sony: 1
Smashwords: 5 paid, 62 free
Baker & Taylor Blio: 1
Paperback (ISBN 1468119540): 18

Times of Trouble
Kindle(ASIN B0075CNFFI): 309
Nook: 343
Kobo: 1
Apple: 0
Sony: 0
Smashwords: 128 free
Paperback (ISBN-10: 1469964791) 43

Times of Trial
Kindle(ASIN B00824G5UA): 99
Nook: 120
Kobo: 3
Apple: 0
Sony (for some reason, not available on Sony): 0
Smashwords: 31 free
Paperback(ISBN-10 147745327X): 5

Final Frontier – published in October
Kindle(ASIN B009ORP5U0): 26
Nook: 22
Kobo: 0
Apple: 0
Sony: 0
Smashwords: 0
Paperback (ISBN-10: 1481192191): 0

Beyond the New Frontier – combo of New & Final Frontier, available on Amazon to borrow for free or buy for $3.99
Kindle paid(ASIN B009NVH76M): 28, KDP Select: 724, Borrows: 2
Paperback (ISBN-10: 1480185590): 1

The total equals 1694 free and 2858 paid sales. My goal for 2013 is to double the paid sales without having to rely on free giveaways as much. I’m also working on a prequel to Times of Trouble, most likely called “Times of Turmoil.” I also re-designed a whole new author website on weebly. I was using webs.com, but it was way too clunky, but Weebly seems to be pretty user-friendly. Please check it out http://cliffball-indieauthor.weebly.com when you have time (waiting for domain name transfer, so it night re-direct back to webs.com). Now, I just have to figure out how to transfer my domain name over to it.

Character Timeline for my End Times novels

Since I’m about to start working on a prequel to Times of Trouble and Times of Trial, I decided I should probably work on a timeline for the characters, since I also had to figure out how to keep the timeline straight in Times of Trial after writing Times of Trouble. This is a rough draft, but I’m sure some people are curious about the dates in the novels of when the characters were born, got married, went to college, etc. Since this is a 100+ year period, I might have to break up the next novel into parts, but I’ll just have to see how it goes.

1915 – George Leonard Evans born in New York City, grandfather of Michael Evans
1920 – Charles Atwood born in Fairfax, Virginia, great grandfather of Brian
1940’s -George Evans collaborates with the NAZI’s, begins to gain power; Charles Atwood fights in Europe during WW 2
1948 – Tom Atwood born in Virginia, grandfather of Brian; Evans protests the re-creation of Israel, tries to talk England out of giving them any land whatsoever
1952 – Amy Atwood born in Virginia, Tom Atwood’s sister
1950 – George Evans marries Vera Thompson
1952 – Jason Michael Evans born in California
1971 – Jason and Amy meet in college at the University of Southern California. Amy is a born again Christian, Jason was raised as an atheist, but after some time with Amy, Jason also becomes a Christian
1973 – Jason and Amy get married
1974 – Aaron Atwood born in Virginia, father of Brian, family moves to Delaney, Nebraska after Tom serves in Vietnam
1975 – Michael James Evans born
1976 – George, not liking the fact that his son and heir is a Christian, has Jason and Amy killed off, adopts Michael, vows to make the Atwood family miserable because they converted his son
1990 – Charles Atwood dies
1993 – Michael graduates high school, sent to Harvard
1993 – David Collins born in Florida to a powerful political family with connections to George Evans
1997 – Michael graduates Harvard. George is 82, transfers everything over to Michael, dies a few months later
2000 – Brian Atwood’s parents marry
2001 – 9/11 Terrorist attacks, Lynda Delaney’s parents marry, Aaron Atwood joins the Army, goes to Afghanistan, Lynda’s dad goes to Iraq
2002 – JahAngir Karimi born in London
2003 – Heather Delaney born nine months after her father returns on leave
2004 – Aaron returns from Afghanistan
2005 – Frank Atwood, brother of Brian, born in Delaney; Paul Delaney born nine months after father returns on leave
2008 – Brian born
2009 – Lynda Delaney born nine months after father is on leave
2011 – Melissa Atwood born; Mike Delaney born nine months after father on leave
2012 – Lynda’s father dies in Iraq before U.S. withdrawal; Michael discovers Karimi in orphanage, raises him to be the future Islamic savior
2015 – Collins is sent to Harvard, paid for by Evans
2019 – Collins graduates Harvard
2020 – Collins becomes Mayor of Miami, Florida using Evans’ political connections
2028 – Tom Atwood dies
2024 – Collins runs for and wins a Florida State Senate seat
2026 – Brian serves in the U.S. Air Force for four years 2026 – 2030
2027 – Lynda attends Pensacola Christian College 2027 – 2031
2032 – Brian and Lynda marry; Collins elected as a U.S. Senator for Florida
2035 – Brian’s parents die in a mysterious car wreck
2038 – Collins elected President of the United States
2042 – Collins declares his dictatorship, Karimi takes over Iran, Lynda dies of breast cancer
2043 – Collins assassinated, United States falls apart, Christians are raptured, Evans takes over, Karimi is revealed as the anti-Christ, Yellowstone Caldera blows up
204? – Tribulation period

I don’t know if this clears anything up, but I hope it helps, and if anyone has any helpful suggestions, please leave a comment.

#SampleSunday – Times of Trial: an End Times novel

Here is a sample from the first part of Chapter 4 of “Times of Trial.” Available at: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple iTunes, Kobo
Chapter 4

A day earlier….
“I’m starting to fear for our safety, Eric. Some of our neighbors keep calling CPS and the cops on us for homeschooling the kids, our house gets egged, and someone keeps smearing dog or cat poop on our doors. Along with the graffiti on my car and neighbors who slam their doors every time they see us outside, this is the last straw for me. We should take up that offer to move to Wyoming,”
“I think you’re right, Karen. I was hoping that things might get better. It’ll probably take us a week or more to get there if we go by the back roads. Selling the house and moving all of our stuff would take too long, so maybe we should take only essentials, like food and our camping gear,”
“You want us to camp on our way there?”
“Renting hotel rooms would cause too many questions. If we eat at a fast food joint, or buy anything, I’ll pay in cash. We don’t want the TSA to find out where we’re going,”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, dear. What should we tell the kids?” asked Karen, as she ran her fingers through her hair.
“Tell them exactly what we’re going to do. They’ll understand. Let’s go talk to them about it.”
Their four children were summoned to come to the kitchen table to discuss with their parents what the family was going to be doing. After listening to what his parents wanted to discuss, Nathan, who was the oldest, asked, “What about our friends? Shouldn’t the Tyler’s come with us?”
“They can’t. They have a responsibility to the older members of the congregation to watch out for them, but when I go inform the Pastor about what we’re doing, I’ll ask again. I’m pretty sure it’ll only be us though. Besides, you can make new friends in Wyoming,” answered Eric.
“I guess.” Nathan shrugged his shoulders.
“Here, we have a map of the roads we’re going to travel on,” Eric laid out a map of Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming, “we’ll be going through the Indian Reservations here in Arizona because the TSA doesn’t have jurisdiction there. If we can find out the places to drive through in Utah without being harassed by the TSA, we should make it. We’ll be camping out the whole way, so bring warm clothes and all of your blankets. Everyone understand?”
“Yes, Dad,” the four answered.
“We’re also leaving all electronics here. We don’t want to be tracked. So no cell phones, tablets, iPads, or portable games. Where we’re going will be pretty much off of the grid.” the kids began whining about how that wasn’t fair. “Enough. That decision is final. Ok, get to work packing the essentials; we’ll be leaving in the morning.”
The family spent the next four hours packing their warm clothes, blankets, camping gear, and getting it into their Suburban. The next morning, Karen asked her husband shortly before they left the house, “Do you think we should lock the doors to the house?”
He thought about it for a few minutes before answering, “Probably not. I don’t think we’re coming back, so we don’t need any of that stuff. If anyone is that desperate for a newer TV, mattresses, washer and dryer, and all of that other stuff, then they’re welcome to it. Come on, let’s go.”
Before leaving the driveway for the church, Eric said, “Let’s pray. Dear Heavenly Father, please guide us on this journey. Help us to avoid being seen by government forces. Please help those who aren’t able to make this journey, and please protect them. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Once Eric got back into the Suburban after talking to Pastor Tyler, he asked, “So, where to next?”
Karen looked at the map and said, “Ok. Our route will have us driving up State Highway 77 through Globe, Show Low, and then to Holbrook. Once in Holbrook, we’ll have to travel on or next to I-40 for a few miles, then we’ll turn off again onto 77, which looks like a farm-to-market road on the map. I have us going through Chinle, which is just outside of Canyon De Chelly, and we’ll camp out for the night. Since we have four wheel drive, we can get off the main road to do that,”
“Sounds like a plan. Before I drive away, does anyone need to use the restroom?” Nobody said they did. “Good, because we’ll be in this car for at least two hours before we reach Globe.” Eric put the Suburban into gear and began driving north.

Sales for the year so far

Now that it’s June, here are my sales numbers for the year so far, from regular sales to when one of my novels was in KDP Select to free giveaways. These are all from mostly just promoting online on Twitter, Facebook, and a bunch of message boards. The novels are listed in order of publication, from 2008 to 2012.

Amazon US Kindle
Out of Time – 34
Don’t Mess With Earth – 13
The Usurper  – (regular sales) – 67
KDP Select numbers for The Usurper – 329
Shattered Earth (which I unpublished on Amazon) – 8
Voyager & The Aliens – 3
Dust Storm – 4
New Frontier – 50
Times of Trouble – 89
Times of Trial – 9

Amazon UK Kindle
Out of Time – 8
Don’t Mess With Earth – 4
The Usurper – 8
KDP Select for The Usurper – 176
Voyager & The Aliens – 1
Dust Storm – 0
Times of Trouble – 4
Times of Trial – 1

Amazon Germany
Out of Time – 1
The Usurper (KDP Select) – 4
New Frontier – 1

Amazon France
The Usurper (KDP Select) – 2

Amazon Italy
The Usurper (KDP Select) – 2

Amazon Spain
The Usurper (KDP Select) – 6

Barnes & Noble Nook, which is partially through PubIt, B&N’s publishing platform and through Smashwords
Out of Time – 17
Don’t Mess With Earth – 17
The Usurper – 15
Shattered Earth – 19
Voyager & The Aliens – 1
Dust Storm – 3
New Frontier – 12
Times of Trouble – 109
Times of Trial – 7

Apple iTunes
Out of Time – 29
Don’t Mess With Earth – 4
The Usurper – 5
Shattered Earth -25
Voyager & The Aliens – 4
New Frontier – 3
Times of Trouble (only available since May)
Times of Trial (not yet available)

Kobo
Out of Time – 10
Don’t Mess With Earth – 1
The Usurper (Kobo has yet to list it)
Shattered Earth – 8
Voyager & The Aliens – 0
New Frontier – 0
Times of Trouble (only available since May)
Times of Trial (not yet available)

Sony Reader
Out of Time – 1
Everything else – 0

Smashwords paid/giveaways
Out of Time – 1/39
Don’t Mess With Earth – 1/26
The Usurper – 0/9
Shattered Earth – 0/37
Voyager & The Aliens -0/14
Dust Storm (I unpublished it because I couldn’t get the formatting right) – 2/12
New Frontier – 5/41
Times of Trouble – 0/87
Times of Trial – 0/1

Createspace Paperbacks, all of which were sales from mostly Amazon
Out of Time – 2
The Usurper – 7
Shattered Earth – 3
New Frontier – 12
Times of Trouble – 30
Times of Trial – 0

Total between January & end of May: 1423

Overall total since 2008: 26381

I’m posting this because some writers get discouraged, but you just have to keep at it. While I don’t have the money or much in the way of resources to push my novels to greater visibility, I think I’m doing pretty well. I took The Usurper out of KDP Select because my sales were actually worse overall, and I had a grand total of 3 borrows, so I didn’t think that program was worth it. Stay tuned for the sequel to New Frontier, plus a short story anthology based on minor characters in the two End Times novels, and a novel about Michael Evans, the man-behind-the-scenes in both End Times novels.

#Newrelease: Times of Trial the 2nd novel in End Times series

Times of Trial is now available, and it’s the 2nd novel in my End Times series.

A preacher and his family, the Tyler’s, have a church that is dying in Arizona. Even though the church is dying, they take care of the remaining senior saints, including the ones in nursing homes and in hospice. The remaining family, the White’s, leave the same church and head to Wyoming to live in a community that was originally started by Doomsday Preppers back in the early 2000′s so they can attempt to escape the increasing persecution of Christians.

Meanwhile, President Collins orders the activation of Camps across the country that will house believers who he thinks are a threat to his rule. His patron, Michael Collins, manipulates events in the Middle East. The Tyler’s end up with others in a camp in Arizona, while the White’s and the community they live in gets attacked by government troops. Evans continues to manipulate events as the Rapture takes the Christians, and he gains ultimate power.

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

 

The next novel I’m writing is a sequel to New Frontier, and I will also write a short story anthology of some minor characters mentioned in both End Times novels. Eventually, I’ll write a novel about the character of Michael Evans, the patron of President Collins and the man who manipulates events around the world.

Next novel, Times of Trial, possible book cover

This is a possible cover to my next novel, Times of Trial, but it probably could use some tweaking or something altogether different. I could use some feedback if anyone’s willing to give me some. I would appreciate it.

  The novel is a parallel novel to Times of Trouble. A preacher and his family, the Tyler’s,  have a church that is dying in Arizona, and they take care of the remaining senior saints, including the ones in nursing homes, etc. The remaining family, the White’s, leave the same church and head to Wyoming to live in a community that was originally started by Doomsday Preppers back in the early 2000’s so they can attempt to escape the increasing persecution of Christians. Meanwhile, President Collins orders the activation of Camps across the country that will house believers who he thinks are a threat to his rule. His patron, Michael Collins, places a new man in charge in Iran, who consolidates his power and attempts to take a swipe at Israel. Israel strikes back, but the rest of the world sympathizes with Iran. The Tyler’s end up with others in a Camp in Arizona,  the White’s and the community they live in get attacked, other events happen that also occur in Times of Trouble, and Evans continues to manipulate events as the Rapture takes the Christians, and he gains ultimate power.

More reviews & the Book trailer

Here is the book trailer I made for Times of Trouble. You do what you can afford….

And I received another review on Amazon, a 4 star:

“scarily prophetic!April 16, 2012

By Dirtboy’s Girl

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The way Mr. Ball writes I wonder if he isn’t living as a fly on the wall in the White House. You meet the characters and can feel their joy and sadness, anger and frustration as he tells the story. There were points in the story where I found myself talking to my Kindle telling Brian what I thought he should do next. Fast paced story that has you reading until the end. Another awesome “novel” by Cliff Ball!”

Plus, my parents sent a paperback copy to the late preachers’ wife (Mary Singleton) of a church I grew up in in Tempe, AZ, which was Tri-City Baptist (now in Chandler) and she sent a letter back saying she enjoyed it, she bought 5 more copies, and would ask the church library to stock it. Very cool!

Interview with The Usurper / Times of Trouble author Cliff Ball

Interview with The Usurper / Times of Trouble author Cliff Ball.