M. David Blake
Biography
Over the course of his first three and a half decades, M. David Blake has been a ditch digger, a troubleshooter, a gallery artist, a woodturner and a poet. He has run soundboards for live performances, done lost-wax casting, scooped ice-cream while serving as a barista, crash-tested software used by a significant portion of the entertainment industry and reassembled the shattered skull of a murder victim.
After being asked to leave one college, he graduated from two others... and in the process utterly flunked a course dedicated to the study of science fiction.
Blake currently lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife, their daughter, the memory of a geriatric cat, and several thousand books.
Google+ : http://gplus.to/MDavidBlake
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Books
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Smashwords book reviews by M. David Blake
- Zombie Nights
on July 02, 2010
(no rating)
I'll refrain from leaving a rating, since I have not read this piece (anyone who looks closely at my bio should understand why I don't find stories about zombies to be particularly appealing), so it would not be fair for my numbers to affect Tom's status one way or the other.
As another writer whose work has climbed quickly, and surprisingly high given the fact that "We Don't Plummet Out of the Sky Anymore" is my first published bit of science fiction, I can see a few reasons—and these are just off the top of my head!—behind his story's success:
• Tom is prolific. Since November 2009, he has posted twenty-three works on Smashwords... and all of them are free. If people read and like one of his stories, they are likely to check out others.
• Looks like Tom has a website, and uses Twitter prodigiously to tout the availability of his stories. If people are following him at all, I suspect they are getting notifications each and every time he adds a new story, along with frequent reminders about any they may have missed.
• Artwork is usually responsible for the first impression a book delivers, and often decides whether or not the reader even bothers to check out the blurb. A lot of Tom's books have interesting covers. Do the math.
• A lot of people really do like zombies. It's probably sort of like the current vampire craze: If you are into it, you know why it's popular. If you aren't into it, you can't understand why it's popular. Either way, there is a large segment that doesn't understand your perspective. A title like "Zombie"-anything is going to reach a few people that wouldn't bother with other sorts of literature.
• Some people will probably read this story simply because it is the most downloaded thing on the entire site. Some of those people are probably also reading my story.
So why does this piece not seem to have any glowing reviews? If any story gets enough readers, some of them will comment. Those who feel the strongest—with either a positive response or a negative—are the most likely to share their feelings. Unfortunately for this particular title, the readers who reacted negatively spoke up first, and the story's prominence as the most-downloaded title on the site raised a few eyebrows.
If you are still curious about why this particular story is currently number one, download it, and read it. Bear in mind, you'll be adding to Tom's number of cumulative downloads if you do, so the story is quite likely to stay up here.
Oh, one more thing! If you read the story, take a moment and leave an honest review. Your words might help someone else decide whether or not they should give it a try.
- Life... With No Breaks
on July 14, 2010
** FULL DISCLOSURE ALERT **
I sort of know Nick. Not in an honest-go-goodness, face-to-face sort of way, but in a "he's a writer and I'm a writer and we both hang out at a place called MobileRead.com" sort of way. We've spoken to each other a few times in passing, and Nick has always been a gentleman when we did. Which is to say, he puts up a good front.
At one point Nick asked about possibly changing the cover of his book from what it was (and if you didn't see the old cover, you really aren't missing much) to what it is now. I responded by telling him that the old cover reminded me of a collection of sermon notes from the seventies, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but probably wasn't exactly what he had in mind. That, according to Nick, tipped the scale.
There you go! My little footnote in this story was made by confirming a third party's artistic suggestion to someone else.
Months went by, and I forgot all about this book (aside from remembering the artwork discussion any time I ran into Nick). Then, one day, and completely out of the blue, Nick offered a limited free promotion. Being a writer, "free" seemed an ideal price, so I plunked down my thank-you and downloaded the thing.
I began reading with low expectations. In the first few pages I thought my fears might have been confirmed, when a few stylistic quirks tipped me off that the work really was what it claimed to be: namely, the unexpurgated, caffeine- and nicotine-induced self therapy of a sleep deprived typist.
What kept me reading past the first couple of pages? It was the voiceover. From seemingly out of nowhere, an odd, slightly tense speaker began reading the words... and then leading me along... and then I wasn't reading, but listening to his discourse, alternately manic and introspective. From out of nowhere, the ghost of Lenny Bruce (as perhaps portrayed by Woody Allen) was speaking to me, and I, captivated, could not break away.
(4.35 from 31 reviews) 
