Stone Valley Zoo

These fun books all use a little rhyme and have positive messages.  Toki the monkey learns to play nice.  Milo the bear teaches Gerald Gator to make up for his mistakes and Cynthia Cheetah finds out that we are all special in some way.  It is my hope that you and your children will enjoy these stories from the Stone Valley.

Godsword Dynasty Books One and Two

An epic two part story that chronicles the rise and fall of Roan Godsword as he battles against men, women, plots, and even immortal beings.  Roan fights for several reasons, survival, family, and love being among them.  This fantasy delivers on action and romance.

Fun Fact: As I was planning book one in the series, aka, Bring the Rain, Roan was originally envisioned as only a minor character in the story of Skyfyre.  The more the story developed however the more it became obvious that it was really Roan's story and Skyfyre became the minor character.

Hope you'll check out this one, it's well worth the read.

Removed from the Kindle Store

ABC's of Mayan Culture had to be removed from the Kindle Store due to technical problems with the book.  This is most unfortunate since I put in a lot of work to solve these problems.  Everything worked perfectly when it was posted for sell.  I checked the book and all the issues that it had been having were back.

Most of the problem has been caused by the fact that I used a lot of photos in the book from my trip to the Yucatan back in 2011.  The file is just too big unfortunately.  I need to work on a way to make the book work without sacrificing its quality.

It is my hope that it can be reposted to the Kindle Store in August or September.  I apologize to my readers about the problems with this book.  Thank you for your patience and for reading.

Newest Edition to Historic ABC's

ABC's of Mayan Culture has been a difficult but exciting project.  Most of the photographs in this book are ones that I took myself when I honeymooned in the Yucatan.

http://www.amazon.com/ABCs-Mayan-Culture-Historic-ebook/dp/B00D8DLKJQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1370535894&sr=1-1&keywords=brent+maynard

Hope you have happy reading!

Success

This month I have reached my highest author rank ever thanks to you my readers.  Thank you so much for your interest in my Historic ABC's series which has been making this success possible.  I am very happy that you are interested in many of the same things that fascinate me.

For those of you who don't know Amazon tracks its top 500,000 authors and gives hourly updates.  At the end of June 2nd my readers helped me go higher than I have ever gone before.  I truly appreciate all those of you who buy and borrow my books.

As always happy reading and thank you.

Historic ABC's

As of right now my Historic ABC's series is the most popular thing I have up on Amazon.com.  It's nice to see how so many people are interested in many of the subjects I've written about.

Historic ABC’s started out as an idea when I learned that I was going to be a father. There are many ABC books out there that are good and educational. Kids should know that A is for Apple. But I had a hard time finding anything that said A is for Anubis or Attila the Hun, Asgard, Aristotle, and others. History is one of my passions and it was something that I wanted to share with my son. The purpose of these books is not to give a complete list or to give every known fact about the subject. The purpose is to introduce the readers both old and young to a subject in hopes that their interest will be sparked and they will want to learn more on their own.

ABC's of Navajo Culture especially has been selling several copies.  My newest book ABC's of Japanese Culture still hasn't sold which has really surprised me.  If you haven't already I hope you'll do a search on Amazon for Historic ABC's and check out this exciting series.

Early Christmas

I've been getting more interested in some of the best selling authors on Kindle Direct Publishing.  One thing I noticed about a couple of them is that they only sell Christmas books.  So it was that in the beginning of May I tapped into the Christmas spirit to produce a couple of books.  Probably won't sell any until October, but hey, I'm prepared.

Five Little Elves is a poem about workers at the North Pole and The Reason for the Season is a story about a mother who explains why Christmas is important and why we celebrate it.

Want to be an Author?

Publishing through a publishing house today has become much more complicated than necessary.  Once upon a time any aspiring author could send in a manuscript and could have contact with a publisher about a story.  The publishing company would then send a letter accepting or rejecting the book.  Simple.

Today a publishing company will almost never deal directly with an author.  An author must have an agent, someone who the author needs to pay to speak on their behalf.  With the downturn in the economy many publishers don't want to pick up new authors but would rather stick with authors that they know can sell books.  A lot of us just don't have the money or time to work through agents.

Amazon has undertaken a bold experiment that enables aspiring authors to produce and sell electronic books.  Kindle Direct Publishing enables authors to submit their projects and have them ready for sell within hours.

Authors should not use this as an opportunity to be lazy, books ought to be throughly edited and refined before submission.  An advantage that authors have through the system though is that they are able to update the books, in case something is missed.  It is better to fix all issues first however so that your book does not get a bad reputation.

Working through KDP has really worked for me.  Although I am far from a best selling author I have been able to earn money from being involved with this program.  Some authors have more success than others.  Some authors are able to sell daily while others' sales are best measured monthly.  This month I had a very successful week and went up really high in the rankings.  Since then I have not sold a single book.

KDP accepts all kinds of books from foreign language, fantasy, historical, and romance.  Most of the books that I have published have been children's books for my son.  I have also published books for older readers including a novella and two novels.  The possibilities are literally endless with KDP.  If you want to be an author and start selling immediately you should check out KDP.

American Animals... Finally Published!

I feel in a way that I've been in a battle with Kindle Direct Publishing this weekend.  They refused to publish my newest book twice and I was getting scared that I would have to either delete a lot of it or completely redo my formatting.

Thank goodness the book has finally been published and can now be viewed on Amazon.com!  The reason amazon was saying no was that they were saying that I was writing in non-supported languages.  I wrote the book in seven different languages.

It is in English, Spanish, Navajo, Shawnee, French, German, and Hopi.  English, Spanish, French, and German have always been the main European based languages here in North America.  I also chose to include various Native American languages as well.  Navajo and Hopi are close to my heart since I've been living on the Rez for a while now.

Top 100,000

I am officially one of the top 100,000 selling authors on Amazon!

Author Rank Rising

With three book sales this month and a five star review things are looking up after a long dry spell.  My ranking among the 500,000 top authors is almost at its highest!  I am very excited about the new ventures I am pursuing with my writing.

New Title

I just finished a new project that I've been working on. It will be available very soon! The last book I wrote like this focused on great thinkers through history who have influenced the world. This book however focuses on the great generals of the past who have helped shape our world. Hope you enjoy the read.

Possible Cover Design

While I am still in the production stage of writing and publishing Bring the Rain I decided to go ahead and design the cover for the book!

I'm very excited to complete this project and see how things go from there.

Bring the Rain Coming Along

I explained the back story of Bring the Rain to my dear wife Pamela last night.  I didn't even get into the main plot details and she seemed interested in it.  She made a really good suggestion too.

Bring the Rain takes place on a fictional continent in the southern hemisphere of a planet.  Three empires dominate most of the land.  Two of the Empires the Tridorians and the Didorians are in conflict with each other.  As is common with ancient Empires both of them rule what they consider the known world and therefore refer to themselves as the "rulers of the world."

A hundred years before Bring the Rain begins Didoria won a sizable area of land from Tridoria.  Now the Tridorians have come back for what was taken from them and plan on destroying Didoria while they are at it.  Didoria with its well trained army goes onto the battlefield full of confidence not knowing of Tridoria's secret weapon.  A weapon that makes sounds like thunder and big clouds of smoke.  A weapon that can penetrate Didorian armor with strange metal balls.  Unfortunately for Didoria this is not their only problem; the empire is suffering from a terrible food shortage.

The characters of this world are both looking for ways to solve problems and looking for ways to profit from them.  I hope you'll enjoy enjoy reading about them as much as I am enjoying writing about them.

The book is an exciting adventure story full of love triangles, deception, and ambitious characters?  Watch for Bring the Rain by Brent Maynard on Amazon and Create Space.

Last Second Sale Today!

You have until Midnight to pick up some of my work for FREE!  Please if you are one of the people who is lucky enough to get one of my children's books leave a review!  Reviews increase sales and get more people interested in buying my work.

Have a great day of reading and adventure and remember, it's free!

Bring the Rain

Bring the Rain is the title of my latest pet project.  So far it is up to 20,000 words.  It is a fun project for me that deals with several love triangles.  Hopefully people will like reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

Set Back

I've been using a USB to store the majority of my projects for the last TEN years.  It's busted.  I'm hoping we can still salvage the files someway or another but the USB will no longer hook up with a computer.

:(

Now on Create Space

The Chronicles of Uncle Trent has moved on from being a strictly digital book to a physical one as well!  Copies of the book are available at Createspace.com!  Physical copies are more expensive than digital ones.  Hope you'll check it out if you don't have a kindle or if you'd like a physical copy.

https://www.createspace.com/4215252

Now on Facebook

I added a new page on Facebook!  If you like my writing go ahead and Like me on Facebook.

So Many Projects

My biggest weakness as a writer is that I always want to be writing.  So much so that I continuously start new projects.  I keep doing new things which means that older projects either get pushed back or stay unfinished.  Right now I have so many ideas flying through my head that it is insane!

I've started planning a fantasy love story that I'm excited about.  Hopefully it will come out as well as can be hoped for.  The Uncle Trent sequel is also coming along slowly; it is also going to be a love story.

I'm not sure why but I seem to be in a romantic mood lately.  Might have something to do with my anniversary coming up.

Hope all my readers are enjoying what I've written and will leave reviews for my work.

Stats

Amazon tracks the stats of all the authors it sells for.  Something that they've started to do is author rank.  They only track the top 500,000 authors, which is a lot of authors!  It gets updated every hour and is based on how many books are being sold.  My highest rank so far was in November, it was 105,440.

Amazon also tracks the individual book sells.  They track the top two million books.  Currently my highest ranked book is The True Story of Hope the cat coming in at a very modest 474, 446.

So, I might not be a top selling author but my work is getting read, which is a reward within itself.

Great Thinkers

I have a great love of history and this book was a way for me to talk about a few historical figures who have made some big impacts on our world in a very simple and brief way.  This book is so simple that a child can use it.  For every letter of the alphabet there is a thinker with a brief summary of the thinker's beliefs or accomplishments.  Not a lot of information is provided but the hope is that the reader will seek out more information on his or her own.  A quotation from the thinker is also posted on the page.

Whether we agree with them or not, (and there are many philosophers in the book that I disagree with) the ideas of these men have, in many ways, shaped our modern culture.  By no means is this a complete work with every philosopher.  It is a very simple to the point introduction to several philosophers.

Something to remember when considering a great thinker, "We are what we think.  All that we are arises from our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world." - Buddha.  Regardless of whether or not this book is something that interests you - think great thoughts because thoughts make us into who we are.

Rescued Animals of Pinon, AZ

This is a picture of my son and I with Hope, one of the animals that my wife and I have rescued during our time in Pinon.  As much as we love animals and especially Hope, the reality is that we can't keep them all and have to find them homes.  Animals are mistreated everywhere in the world but on the Navajo Reservation it is especially bad.  Hope was abandoned as a kitten not yet weened off his mother's milk.

My son loves animals and animals seem to love him.  I started writing the Rescued series for him as children's books for him to enjoy.  I hope you will check them out.  Two of the stories are about Hope and the other one is about Angel, a dog.

Happy Reading.

Learn Colors in Spanish, Aprende colores en ingles

Want your child to know some basic colors in another language?  Oso Azul Quiere Jugar/ Blue Bear Wants to Play and the other Color Bears books might be what you're looking for.  Written in Spanish and English this simple children's book is perfect for teaching the colors, wether you want your child to learn English or Spanish or want your child to be bilingual.

While Oso Azul was the first Color Bear book that I wrote the three books have no particular order as they are all stand alone.  I Like Music or Me Gusta la Musica teaches words dealing with music as well as the colors.  Red Bear's Castle is a story about imagination that also teaches the colors.

All the books focus on teamwork and friendship.

Happy Reading

Off to Dreamland

Having trouble putting a child to sleep?  This poem I composed for my son works for me.  Hoping that you have a happy reading experience and that your little ones drift off peacefully.

Thanks for reading.

The Adventures of Chuck the African Penguin

African Penguin?  Penguins living in warm water areas?  It's not as rare as you might think.  Penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere and they are as far north in some areas of the world as Peru.  The African Penguin only lives in and around South Africa.  Their breeding there is made possible by a cold water current that flows from Antarctica.

This story was inspired by my son Xander.  We went to go see some penguins in Tennessee over the summer and he was so taken with the birds that it became obvious he had a new favorite thing in the world.  He got hold of a penguin toy in the gift shop and refused to let it go.

This got me thinking about writing a story about penguins.  The more I thought about it though I decided to write a story based in reality instead of fantasy.  I started researching African Penguins and learning all I could about them.  Chuck is a regular penguin who is hatched, watched over, and eventually is able to learn hunting skills and go off on his own just like in nature.

Because Chucks habitat is literally only miles away from where lions and elephants live I wanted to incorporate other animals into the story as well.  While this isn't a true story it is a story that could happen.  It is an adventure with educational value.

So if you've ever wanted to learn a few things about Penguins check it out in the Kindle Store.

Chronicles of Uncle Trent...check it out.

The Chronicles of Uncle Trent is one of my recently finished projects that took several years to write.  It is told from the perspective of two teens, Bobby and Trisha who are brother and sister.  Their Uncle Trent is secretly a wizard, but they've known this for years.  Someone has kidnapped their uncle and now it is up to them to remember something, something from the past, to save him.  As the story unfolds it soon becomes clear that Uncle Trent isn't the only one who needs saving, the world itself is in danger.

The story is based on true imaginary adventures that I had with my nieces and nephews and on mythology.  I am very confident that readers will find it an enjoyable read.  It is one of my favorite projects that I've published because there is so much of myself and my family in it.

By no means is Trent me nor am I Trent.  Trent is much more outspoken than I am and a wizard among other things, but his life and experiences are based off of my own.

The book finishes off with a surprise which will lead into the next story.  When I finished the book I was unsure if I wanted to write another one or not, so I ended the story in a way that it could be the end or open the way to another story.  The day after it was published on Kindle I knew I had to write another.

Nemesis will be written from the perspective of Trent and his arch enemy.  Chronicles of Uncle Trent are based around imaginary adventures whereas Nemesis will be more about Trent's adult life.  Readers shouldn't worry, the book will be more grown up but still kid friendly.  Readers can look forward to the sequel later this year assuming all goes well.

Birthday Sale

Well, today is my birthday and I decided to give away about ten different titles for free for today only as a way to celebrate.  I hope that those of you who get my books for free today will also purchase one of my stories for full price and that you will please post reviews for my books on Amazon.com.

2012 was a busy year for my family and I can't wait to see what 2013 will bring.  One thing that I can promise that it will bring will be more stories.  I look forward to writing much more and publishing my work on the Kindle.

I hope that you find one of my stories to be a great read.  Thanks again for reading.