When Darkness Falls by Ken Hudnall

The Anunnaki are coming home. The battle of the gods of old come once again to Earth in Ken Hudnall's When Darkness Falls. The residents of a small New Mexico town are caught up in the fray as mortal meets immortal in possibly the final clash for universal domination. Will the Earth be engulfed by the schemes of Asmodeus or Romar, Prince of the Annunaki Empire save humanity or will darkness once again fall on the Earth?

History is silent regarding his race walking the face of the Earth. But Romar, Prince of the Annunaki Empire was proof that once Gods walked the face of the planet. But these were all too human Gods, driven by the same ambitions as we mere mortals.

The Great Lord of Hosts, Anu ruled wisely, but his brother Asmodeus plotted to take the throne by use of the darkest sorcery. Stories of the civil war that erupted between the two factions came down to us as legends of gods and goddesses who warred for the souls of men. Anu’s forces won, but the great Anu was sorely wounded his the treachery of his own sister.

As a last effort to help the races he loved, Anu banished his sister to the Annunaki Colony on Mars and imprisoned his brother in the far reaches of his Earthly Empire. As a sign of his love for the people of Earth, he charged his only son with the job of guarding the emerging races from the evil working of the imprisoned Asmodeus, God of Evil.

Anu and his Annunaki Legions withdrew from Earth to the Heavenly City of Avalon, a station in space orbiting the sun between Venus and Mercury. There he rests to regain his strength sorely sapped by his sister’s vicious attack. His son Romar, immortal as a gift from the Gods, destined to walk the earth until the return of his father for the last battle against Asmodeus, Prince of Evil.

When Darkness Falls is available in eBook format at fine online retails such as Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, Kobo eBooks, iBookstore, and Smashwords.

About Author Ken Hudnall

Military veteran, Captain Ken Hudnall, was an instructor in urban warfare at the United States Army Infantry School and is the author of 40 plus books, including the award winning Manhattan Conspiracy series. The first in the series was written in 1992, but was a chillingly accurate portrait of the terrorist attacks on New York City in both 1993 and 2001. He has appeared on CNN, FOX News, Coast to Coast AM and other major networks as a special consultant in urban warfare. In addition to his works of fiction, he has written extensively on the issues of unidentified flying objects and national security. Ken also hosts a nightly talk show on his radio networkthat deals with the paranormal, conspiracies, and the unexplained. Ken currently lives in El Paso, Texas with his wife. To find out more about Ken, visit his website at www.kenhudnall.com.

Ancient Aliens Guest Michael Carter to Speak at Contact in the Desert 2015

The staff here at Grave Distractions Publications is pretty excited to announce that our author and frequent guest on the History Channel's Ancient Aliens, Reverend Michael Carter will be speaking at Contact in the Desert 2015. The event over Memorial Day weekend will feature some of the biggest names in the UFO universe. Visionaries, such as, Erich von Däniken, Stanton Friedman, Jim Marrs, and George Noory will be conducting talks at the conference.

As an added bonus, Contact in the Desert is giving away a weekend pass in honor of Reverend Carter's appearance. The contest ends on 1 May 2015 and you can sign up at the Grave Distractions Publication website at this link. We hope to see you there!

Reverend Michael Carter is the author of Alien Scriptures: Extraterrestrials In The Holy Bible and A New World If You Can Take It: God, Extraterrestrials, and the Evolution Of Human Consciousness.

GDP Takes Part in the Amazon Match Program

Starting today Amazon has rolled out their "Match Program" for digital editions. The program allows those who have purchased a print edition of a book, through Amazon, to get the eBook version of the book at a reduced rate or even free. It seems that print books purchased at any time, via one's Amazon account, can get the digital upgrade. Think of all the books you've loaned to friends over the years that have never been returned. Now's your chance to digitally reclaim those lost texts.

The majority of the Grave Distractions Publications print catalog has been enrolled in this program including the works of: Gloria Amendola, Dr. James T. Baker, Heather Carver, Rev. Michael Carter, Dr. Robert Eisenman, Brian Kannard, Carrie Kirkpatrick, William Michael Mott, Jean Victoria Norloch, Rick Osmon, and Thomas Wood.

The timing of the program couldn't be better with the upcoming holiday travel season. Even if you love the experience of paper on fingers reading, you have an affordable way to continue reading a book without lugging a print edition around the airport.

GDP Welcomes Ancient Aliens Guest Rev. Michael Carter

We're happy to announce that we've published Alien Scriptures: Extraterrestrials In The Holy Bible by Rev. Michael Carter.

Rev. Carter has written articles on UFOs and Religion for such publications as UFO Magazine, Alien Encounters ( A British Publication),The MUFON UFO Journal, Contact Forum, The S.P.A.C.E. Newsletter (Support Program for Abductees Contact Encounters) a UFO support group in New York City. He has spoken at UFO Conferences such as the 2nd Philadelphia, Need To Know Conference, The Annual Long Island UFO Conference with Budd Hopkins, as well as appearing on radio and TV appearances across the nation.  He has appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel’s  Steven Spielberg's production of Abduction Diaries, The Real 4400, and is a frequent guest on The History Channel’s production of Ancient Aliens.

Rev. Carter will be not only taping segments for the new season of Ancient Aliens, but he will be on the speaking/convention circuit in the coming months. Check back with updates on engagements.
 

 

Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians, and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins by Robert Eiseman

Grave Distractions Publications is happy to announce the publication of Robert Eisenman's Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians, and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins. This text has not been in print since the late 1980s and was something of a starting point for Dr. Eisenman's dissenting opinion of "accepted" Qumran theories. Currently the text is on sale in print editions with eBook formats coming soon. Below is the text of the book's back cover.

This is Eisenman's original, ground-breaking work in which he criticizes the archaeology and paleography of Qumran as it had been developed by 'the specialists' up to that time and rather offers his own hypothesis-starting with the fact that it was impossible to consider that the Maccabees were the so-called "Wicked Priests" at Qumran, primarily because everything known about them agrees, for the most part, with the doctrines and positions emanating from the documents known at that time to emanate from the area known as "Qumran" along the Northwestern part of the Dead Sea and which, for that reason, we call "The Dead Sea Scrolls".

In addition, he shows rather that the Establishment against whom the Qumran Scrolls were in an almost homogeneous manner directed was rather that of the Herodians and the Priests that owed both their appointment and authority to them and the Roman Governors that in due course either replaced or ruled either through or in conjunction with them. He also starts in this work to build his case for the fact that the individual came to be understood in Early Christian History as "James the Righteous" and called by everyone "James the Just"-that same individual known by everyone as as "James the Brother of Jesus"-had very much in common with "the Righteous Teacher" described and alluded to in many Dead Sea Scrolls documents. That is why this book, originally published in the early 1980s, was subtitled "A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins".

It was necessary to subject both the archaeology and paleography of Qumran-upon which the so-called "Establishment" or "Consensus of Qumran Scholars' had all based both their theories and chronology to thoroughgoing criticism. This he has done, as only someone who originally studied math and physics, could do, in a meticulously masterful fashion. No one has 'laid a glove' on his analysis since. At the same time and in parallel fashion, he starts to suggest that the 'opponent' of this individual in Early Christian History, Paul, had about the same amount of characteristics with the individual these same Qumran Documents are constantly referring to as "The Spouter of Lying", "the Liar" or "Man of Lying", or "the Scoffer" or Jester" (not someone to be taken seriously)-but, of course, this is not the same individual as "the Wicked Priest" whom prestigious Qumran 'scholars' on the highest level insist upon saddling him with because they saw "the Wicked Priest" and "the Lying Spouter" described in Qumran Documents as the same individual.

Eisenman lays out here in very clear terms that the two individuals denoted as "the Wicked Priest" and "the Lying Spouter" were two distinct and absolutely separate persons-this again, despite what some 'scholars' attempt to foist on him in order to try to make him look ridiculous . No, on the contrary, in doing so, they only make themselves look ridiculous. Eisenman is very careful here - "the Spouter of Lying" is an internal opponent of "the Righteous Teacher" at Qumran. "He denied the Law in the midst of the whole Congregation"! "The Wicked Priest - certainly no 'Maccabean'/'Hasmonean' - was rather an Establishment and probably Herodian High Priest, meaning, appointed by the "Herodians" and their Roman Overlords.

It was this individual who was responsible either for the destruction or the death of "the Righteous Teacher"-a situation very much paralleling a number of such similar situations described, albeit rather tendentiously, in the New Testament and, of course, by Josephus. Anyone who picks up this short book with its copious footnotes (much of the argument being conducted there, so his gainsayers would, of course, had to have first had a look at these before criticizing him-which usually they have not) will not be disappointed. It is and was his first salvo in the ongoing and running battle he has been conducting with "Consensus" and "Establishment Scholars" ever since and - to his credit - with no little effect."

Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians, and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins is avaible in traditional print and eBook formats at the following on line retailers:  Amazon, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK,  Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Google Books, Kobo eBooks, iBookstore, Scribd, and Smashwords. 

About Author Robert Eisenman 

Robert Eisenman is the author of The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ (2006), James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1998), The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians (1996), Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: A History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Shari'ah (1978), and co-editor of The Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1989) and The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (1992).

 

He is Emeritus Professor of Middle East Religions and Archaeology and the former Director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins at California State University Long Beach and Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College, Oxford. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University in Philosophy and Engineering Physics (1958), an M.A. from New York University in Near Eastern Studies (1966), and a Ph.D from Columbia University in Middle East Languages and Cultures and Islamic Law (1971). He was a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and an American Endowment for the Humanities Fellow-in-Residence at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first examined.

In 1991-92, he was the Consultant to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California on its decision to open its archives and allow free access for all scholars to the previously unpublished Scrolls. In 2002, he was the first to publicly announce that the so-called 'James Ossuary', which so suddenly and 'miraculously' appeared, was fraudulent; and he did this on the very same day it was made public on the basis of the actual inscription itself and what it said without any 'scientific' or 'pseudo-scientific' aids.

Grave Distractions Publications Announces Expanded eBook Distribution

Through our relationship with eBook distributor Smashwords, we are expanding our eBook distribution. Currently Grave Distractions Publications ships to the following eBook markets: Amazon, Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes and Noble, Bilio, Diesel eBooks, Google Books, Kobo Books, Smashwords, and Sony eBooks. We will be adding Inktera, Page Foundry,and Versent as part of our distribution network. These eReader applications will be available on the following platforms:

Cricket Wireless is the leading mobile operator of pre-paid smart phones you can purchase in places like Target and Best Buy. Cricket has roughly 2.5 million monthly smart phone subscribers, and Page Foundry is powering the ebook store app available to all existing and new smart phone customers. Starting this summer, new Cricket subscriber phones will ship pre-loaded with the Page Foundry app (previously, subscribers had to manually download the app from the Cricket app store).

Asus, a leading manufacturer of netbooks, notebooks and tablets, currently has about 8 million devices here in the US pre-loaded with the Page Foundry ebook store app, all part of their @Vibe media store. Page Foundry is one of two pre-loaded ebook store apps on the Asus devices.

Vesent and Inktera are two sister e-reader apps, available for download to Android devices from Google Play (formerly known as the Android Market). Versent and Inktera also sell books through their websites at http://www.versentbooks.com and http://www.inktera.com Page Foundry set up these two sites as experimental showcases of their platform, though they've also started attracting some customers so they plan to continue operating the sites as independent ebook retailers.

The distribution above is currently US-only. Page Foundry plans to add additional mobile operators and device-makers in the future, and further international distribution is possible.(Thanks to Smashwords for the overview)

The additional distribution is in line with Grave Distractions Publications dedication to offering a wide range of markets for our authors and customers. Our titles will be showing up in these new networks in the next few weeks. 

Gloria Amendola on Night Vision Radio Wed. 11 July 2012

Grave Distractions Publications author Gloria Amendola will be discussing the Rennes-le-Chateau mysteries and her latest book "The Tower and the Dream" on LA Talk Radio's Night Vision Radio. Gloria and friend of GDP Rene Barnett are planning a tour to the Rennes-le-Chateau area this September and will be giving tour details during the show. Tune in to LA Talk Radio channel 2 at 10pm CST for all the action!

The Tower and the Dream by Gloria Amendola

Gloria Amendola is an intuitive who has a passion for esoteric knowledge and dream language. In her private circles, she blends the western tradition of research and evidence with the Eastern path of meditation and going within for answers. She is a trained facilitator and accomplished shamanic drummer, and works with a variety of disciplines in her teaching. Gloria has written original scripts for theater. Three of her plays have been produced – in New Haven, New York City, and Seattle. Her play, Magdalene’s Mind, was translated into Finnish and Russian, for performance in those countries.

Gloria lives on the shoreline of Connecticut but she often travels to sacred sites throughout the world to experience these powerful landscape temples firsthand. She is a modern day Templar aligned to Rennes le Chateau, France. She follows in the footsteps of the enigmatic Knights Templar, walking where they walked, gathering impressions from the traces they left behind.

The Tower and the Dream is Gloria’s first novel that follows the esoteric adventures of Marta. She was living a normal suburban life until that one fateful day in October – the day everything changed. It all started when she collapsed in Providence and an angel appeared. From that moment on, nothing would be the same.

As Marta struggles to cope with her losses, she begins to hear curious voices from the ancient past. The voices offer her messages that seem bizarre at first, but as she listens more carefully, she finds herself traveling back to New Mexico, to the land of her birth. It is there in Santa Fe where the magic finds her and where visions push her to the brink. Is she losing her mind?

Or is she being guided to find something long forgotten? Why is she hearing the voices of those connected to the Jesus story, and the Knights Templar? Why does Joan of Arc appear? Why Francis Bacon and John Dee? And what do Mary Magdalene and Ben Franklin have to do with any of this?

Follow Marta on her journey – a journey she always sensed was waiting for her, but never thought she would have the courage to take…until now.
Marta was living a normal suburban life until that one fateful day in October – the day everything changed. It all started when she collapsed in Providence and an angel appeared. From that moment on, nothing would be the same.

As Marta struggles to cope with her losses, she begins to hear curious voices from the ancient past. The voices offer her messages that seem bizarre at first, but as she listens more carefully, she finds herself traveling back to New Mexico, to the land of her birth. It is there in Santa Fe where the magic finds her and where visions push her to the brink. Is she losing her mind?

Or is she being guided to find something long forgotten? Why is she hearing the voices of those connected to the Jesus story, and the Knights Templar? Why does Joan of Arc appear? Why Francis Bacon and John Dee? And what do Mary Magdalene and Ben Franklin have to do with any of this?

Follow Marta on her journey – a journey she always sensed was waiting for her, but never thought she would have the courage to take…until now.
The Tower and the Dream is now available in eBook and traditional print formats at the following online retailers: Amazon, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, Google Books, iBookstore, Scribd, and Smashwords.

Cyber Monday Deals

It's Cyber Monday and have we got some deals for you.  These offers are good Monday 28 Nov 2011 only.  Get 'em while you can.

Print Editions 25% Off

These print editions are 25% off the regular list price at our printing partner CreateSpace's site.  Use code H8N6WJCJ at checkout to get your savings:

Faith for a Dark Saturday

Graves of the Golden Bear

Prior Knowledge

Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead 

Walking with the Widow's Son 

 

99 Cent Kindle Editions

No coupon needed!  These Kindle titles will be 99 Cents all day Monday!

Faith for a Dark Saturday

Holidays with Sundae: Conversations with My Cat

Northwoods Conspiracy

Peter Peacock Passes

Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead

Spirits of the Border: School Spirits

When Darkness Falls

Thanks again for supporting independent publishing this Cyber Monday!

GDP Donates Web Site Design to Westmoreland Food Bank

Grave Distractions Publications has joined with the Westmoreland Tennessee Food Bank to help fight hunger in the northern part of the state. To assist in the fight, Grave Distractions has donated website design, photographs, and technical support for Westmoreland's Food Bank. The site is currently in beta testing, but can be viewed at www.westmorelandfood.org. Please visit the site and help feed a family in need no matter what part of the country you hail from.

Cyber Monday at Grave Distractions

Looking for Cyber Monday deals from Grave Distractions Publications?  We've got you covered.  These deals are good through Monday only. 

Ebooks Via Smashwords

Get each of these titles in Mobi and EPUB formats for $1.99 at Smashwords.  Use each title's unique coupon code at checkout for your discount.

Dogs to Men: XF79J

Faith for a Dark Saturday: MQ75J

Going Home to Heaven: ML32C

Holidays With Sundae: Conversations With My Cat: PW63P

Hospice Mementos: A Salutation to Dawn: YR46G

Love Notes: Unwrapping the Gift of Intimacy: TW68S

Peter Peacock Passes: VU28N

Prior Knowledge: SU46M

Quest: XF39E

Sex and Bondage in Three Colors: NF49F

Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead: YY53A

Truth: A Novel: LP49R

Paperbacks via Create Space

Use code FLCJZSRW on any of these titles at checkout and receive $5.00.  

Faith for a Dark Saturday

Full Life

Going Home to Heaven

Hospice Mementos: A Salutation to Dawn

Peter Peacock Passes

Prior Knowledge

Sex and Bondage in Three Colors

Sex and Bondage in Three Colors

Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead

Truth: A Novel

Merchandise at Zazzle 

Visit our Zazzle Store and receive the following discounts:

Free shipping on orders over $50 using coupon code FREESHIPFORU.

40% off all calendars using coupon code 40CLNDRS2011

Black Friday on Zazzle

Just one of the many designs at our Zazzle Store

Zazzle has the following deals on Black Friday, November 26, 2010 All times are PST.  Check out our store and save on some cool Christmas presents.
12:01 AM   50% Off All Mugs
2:01 AM   $10 Off All Custom Binders
4:01 AM   75% Off Harry Potter T-Shirts
6:01 AM   70% Off Holiday Cards and Invites
8:01 AM   50% Off Christmas Ornaments
10:01 AM   $20 Off iPhone & iPad Cases
12:01 PM   75% Off Business Cards
2:01 PM   65% Off All Posters
4:01 PM   $8.80 Off $0.44 Postage Sheets
6:01 PM   50% Off All T-Shirts

Get Your Inner Thomas Paine on with Kindle Singles

In an news release yesterday, Amazon announced the following in a press release:
 
"Less than 10,000 words or more than 50,000: that is the choice writers have generally faced for more than a century--works either had to be short enough for a magazine article or long enough to deliver the "heft" required for book marketing and distribution. But in many cases, 10,000 to 30,000 words (roughly 30 to 90 pages) might be the perfect, natural length to lay out a single killer idea, well researched, well argued and well illustrated--whether it's a business lesson, a political point of view, a scientific argument, or a beautifully crafted essay on a current event.

Today, Amazon is announcing that it will launch "Kindle Singles"--Kindle books that are twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book. Kindle Singles will have their own section in the Kindle Store and be priced much less than a typical book. Today's announcement is a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world.  "Ideas and the words to deliver them should be crafted to their natural length, not to an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price or a certain format," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. "With Kindle Singles, we're reaching out to publishers and accomplished writers and we're excited to see what they create." "

The idea holds promise on a number of levels to say the least.   What better way to publish a journal length article or story without having to expand or contract one's content into a book or magazine article.  Sounds like the Kindle world may be reviving the age of the monograph in the digital age.  Thomas Paine and Voltaire must be smiling somewhere.

Will Pubit's LendMe Program Hurt Author's Sales?

Barnes and Noble has recently opened its new Pubit tool for publishing eBooks on their Nook platform.  The Pubit system allows users to upload their book in a variety of file formats (HTML, RTF, TXT, DOC or DOCX) to be converted into an eReader friendly ePub file.  The system seems to mirror Amazon's Digital Text Platform (DTP) for the Kindle.  The thrust behind the Pubit tool is to allow independent authors and publishers the chance to get into the ePub marketplace with relative ease.   Even Barnes and Noble's marketing efforts are bent towards indie authors/publishers.

Looking simply at margins, using Pubit to publish an eBook is not a bad deal.  Pubit is offering a 65% return on the sales price to the author.  Considering the delivery costs and price matching of Amazon's 70% royalties program, Pubit is an attractive option.  This is especially true if you've been using Smashwords to distribute your book to Barnes and Noble.  Pubit will allow independent authors and publishers to forego Smashwords middleman fees.  All would seem to be running on greased grooves for Pubit's contribution to the independent publishing universe.

That is until you take a close look at Pubit's terms of service.  If you blink you'll miss that when signing your book up for the Pubit service, you are also agreeing to their LendMe program.  The LendMe program allows the purchaser of an eBook to "loan" their copy to another Nook user for up to 14 days.  This is taken directly from the Pubit terms of service agreement:

""Barnes & Noble shall have the right to institute a program whereby customers of any eBook Store can loan eBooks to others. A customer who has purchased an eBook may loan such eBook to one (1) lendee during a lending period. No more than one (1) copy of any one (1) eBook can be on loan from an eBook lendor at any given time. The lending period is for up to fourteen (14) days. By submitting your eBook for distribution using the Service you agree to allow your eBook to be distributed through Barnes & Noble's lending program pursuant to the terms listed in this Section IV.H. and as may be modified from time to time by Barnes & Noble, in its sole discretion."

According to this TOS clause, there is no limit on the number of times one may loan a book.  Theoretically, if one could lend an author's book out an infinite number of times for periods of less than a day if the borrower returns the book the same day.  If you look closely, Barnes and Noble may modify the program from time to time.  Taken to an extreme, Barnes and Noble could turn the LendMe program into a sort of Netflix for print.  The question that no one seems to be asking is what will that do to the sales of independent author's works?  The old adage of "why buy the cow when the milk is free" comes to mind. 

Naturally, I was concerned about this program and the impact it would have on the authors Grave Distractions Publications represents.  On one hand, an author's works could reach a wider audience by being freely distributed via LendMe.  This could potentially lead to long term sales growth by fostering a fan of one's work.  The potential short term consequences are a loss of sales.  So what is the answer?  Is there any advantage to the author/publisher for being forced into the LendMe program?

I didn't have that answer for my company, so I turned to the experts at Barnes and Noble.  One would think that they would have done marketing research on the effects of LendMe and sales.  I penned a nice email to the Pubit team voicing my concerns and asking for data to set my mind at ease.  For my effort I received a form letter saying that: "We respect authors' copyright and would never institute a program that we did not believe created an opportunity to generate sales."

While I appreciated the warm fuzzy of Barnes and Noble creating a program that they felt would assist my authors, I like hardcore data.  After a couple of emails back and forth reiterating my request for something tangible to make me believe LendMe would be beneficial.  After another couple of rounds of emails, this is what I received: "We understand your request for data.  Our response is that participation in PubIt! is dependent on the accepting the whole agreement which includes LendMe.  If you are not comfortable with the program as described we cannot be of further assistance."

I could have understood proprietary data being an issue or even "we're taking a chance and want you to take the risk with us."  However, the answer Barnes and Noble gave brought back memories of "because I'm your father, that's why".  The question remains, will Pubit's LendMe program hurt an author's sales?  I don't know the answer.  If Barnes and Noble does they're not saying.