Nick Bryan

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Blood Will Stream Video #3 – Five Favourite Books I Had On My Bookshelves

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So, my attempt to do some authentic YouTubing to promote my upcoming book about a YouTuber being murdered continues! First, I filmed a broad intro to the book, then I unboxed my print proof.

Now my third video is here, and I thought it’d be fun to talk about some authors other than myself this time. So, in the end, I decided to do the my five favourite books I have on my current bookshelves! So excluding all ebooks and everything I’ve left at my parents’ house for space reasons!

An odd criteria, maybe, but I’m pretty pleased with the five I found. Click the video below to see what they are and what I said about them, including a brief anecdote about the one time I met Neil Gaiman. (Yes, he’s on the list.)

And, video messing aside, today marks one week until the release of Blood Will Stream! So that’s pretty nerve-wracking. Pre-order now to make me feel better about it all! Links to available pre-orders can be found in its entry on the main Hobson & Choi page!

Blood Will Stream introduction video – up now on YouTube!

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So, since launching the cover and details for the fourth Hobson & Choi book the other day, I’ve been kicking around the idea of doing some YouTube videos to promote it – since the book is about a YouTuber being killed, it didn’t seem like the worst idea.

With time running down before the all-important 4th October launch date, I’ve decided to get stuck in and do an intro video to explain what the book’s about and what the big differences are between this one and the previous three. Hopefully if you’re on this website, you might be just the target audience for such a thing.

And yes, I also nervously fidget with my hands a lot. I know.

Anyway, here it is:

Hope you enjoyed that. If it’s enticed you to pre-order the book, I’ve added all the available pre-order options to the main Hobson & Choi page! (Not print, I know. They won’t let me offer pre-orders for print. Sorry.)

It was somewhat fun to do. I have plans for at least one more, which should be with you within the next week, and then… I don’t know, ideas welcome.

Tweet me at @NickMB with things to talk about! Or ask random questions and I’ll do a Q&A maybe!

Hobson & Choi – Case Four: Blood Will Stream – COVER AND PRE-ORDER DETAILS

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Hello.After many Twitter mumblings and late-into-the-night formatting sessions, I’m excited to report that the fourth book in the Hobson & Choi series is happening!

It’s called Blood Will Stream, it’s about the locked-room murder of a YouTuber and it should be with you on 4th October 2016, just under a year after the third one.

Which is exciting in itself, but also means another cool part of any Hobson & Choi book launch – a new cover by Design For Writers! As you can see, they’ve very much taken the online streaming theme and run with it.

To go alongside that, here’s a nice sales blurb:

“I used to think knowing people just by online handles was totally cool, but these internet murders might be changing my mind.”

After YouTuber GrazGrim is found dead in his locked bedroom-studio, the police are ready to write it off as a suicide.

The online fandom only have one chance for justice: John Hobson and Angelina Choi, internet detectives!

But can Angelina persuade Hobson to take the case on? And will anyone like what they find?

Blood Will Stream is the fourth book in this darkly comic London crime series. The detectives are back in whodunnit territory, revisiting their love-hate relationship with the internet.

Hobson & Choi has been #1 in Dark Comedy on Amazon, broken records on Jukepop Serials and now returns with an all-new mystery never seen anywhere else!

So there we go. This is really happening. As the blurb implies, this is the first H&C book written specifically for book format, rather than forged from rewritten webserial chapters, and I think it’s the best yet. Although it does mean I haven’t had any pre-validation from online comments.

Still, if you want to validate me, you can always pre-order using the links below! (Seamless…)

And it’s also on Goodreads here for those of you who go there. If you have a blog, YouTube channel or other book reviewing outlet and want a review copy, email me at nick@nickbryan.com and we can probably work something out.

Probably some more stuff to come – it has been pointed out that one suitable promo campaign for this book would be to do some YouTube videos, so you might get to see that over the next few weeks. You lucky, lucky people.Now, as has become tradition, it’s 3D time…

Trapped In The Bargain Basement – Hobson & Choi Case Three – OUT NOW

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One of those blog posts that kinda writes itself – Trapped In The Bargain Basement, the third book in my mismatched-detective-duo London crime series Hobson & Choi comes out today! It should be out now!

In this third book, the team look into the dark heart of a massive towering shopping centre. But how is it evil? And why? And whose fault is it, and can it be proven? All these answers plus romantic subplot complications in this third volume!

I’ll be honest, it’s a very plot-heavy series, so I’d recommend starting from the first book (The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf) if you’ve not read any before. Helpfully, said debut book is currently free and you can get that from the dedicated page here.

However, I do think Case Three could be one of the best yet and you don’t have to just take my word for it. The first review went up yesterday on fellow indie author Virginia McClain’s blog, which you can see here accompanied by a nice guest post by me about how to turn your serial into a novel.

Here’s a nice pertinent quote from Virginia’s review: “This third installment of the Hobson & Choi mysteries delivers just as much fun and whimsy as the first two books, but with the delightful addition of more wolfhound. My favorite thing about all three books is the characters and their engagement with each other…. Whoever’s perspective we’re following, there’s a good chance that we are going to be forced to take a good look at our own privilege, even if we aren’t forced to stare at it too long, and can safely return to pinning things on the ‘bad guys’ a few pages later. It’s this odd but compelling mixture of dark humor and introspection that keeps me returning to Bryan’s books.”

(It’s weird being referred to by my surname again, by the way. Reminds me of being back at all-boys grammar school.)

So there we go. Trapped In The Bargain Basement is out now in both print and digital and on this page should be a rank of buttons to help you buy it. Enjoy!

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf – FREE AT LAST (on digital)

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The first Hobson & Choi book, The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf, has been around since early 2013 in various forms: on Jukepop Serials, podcasted, in the self-published book and recently in serialised form on Wattpad.

Well, as the H&C Empire begins gearing up for its third installment (and I’ve already written the first draft of Case Four), I’d like everyone to at least give my grim-yet-fun urban crime book series a shot so I can have some chance of buying that heavily armoured central London fortress.

For that exact reason, the very first H&C case is now free on all major ebook platforms that I could upload and set it as free on.

So if you’ve been meaning to try the series but held back by money, it now costs nothing. How long this price will last, I don’t know – I am a man, not a publishing machine – but at least the rest of 2015, I think.

I considered announcing this on Tuesday with the cover reveal, but because I didn’t get it set up in time wanted to maximise the impact of the strategic announcement on the internet content media #landscape, here’s the freebie news a few days later.

If you’ve already read the first H&C story arc in one format or another, consider grabbing the freebie anyway for Book-One-only bonus short story The Left Hand Is Always Right, which I enjoyed writing muchly.

Anyway, that’s enough text considering all I’m announcing is The Free Thing Is Free. Go now to the dedicated page to begin yoinking from your ebook retailer of choice. And if you enjoy it, you can move quickly on to Case Two and (soon) Three, feeling good about your real contribution towards my fortress.