THE HARDEST HIT Now Available in Paperback!

My middle grade novel, The Hardest Hit, is now available in paperback.

Eleven year old Sam Parker loves to play hockey. But this is the year that he will start body-checking. His natural fear of getting hit is temporarily overshadowed by finding out his parents are getting divorced.

Determined to keep them together by being a hockey superstar, Sam instead suffers a bone-crunching check from the school bully in his first game of the season. The resulting pain and fear brings out the worst in Sam as one difficulty after another piles on. Even his best friend, Jill, doesn't always seem to understand what he's going through.

When will his head stop hurting? Will he ever be able to play hockey again? How can he keep his parents together? Or can he? It will take everything Sam has to bounce back. Every one of his problems feel like ...the hardest hit.

The Hardest Hit is part of the Sam the Hockey Player series (first book).

You can get it HERE (preferred) or on Amazon (within a few days) or order it from your favorite bookstore.  The Hardest Hit by Frank Scalise, ISBN 978-1463550059.

Updated Cover for THE HARDEST HIT!

Artist Gordon Ennis updated the cover of The Hardest Hit for me. The result is a cover with much more vibrant, striking colors. Compare (and actually click on the covers to enlarge them to really see how big a difference there is):

OLD VERSION:

NEW VERSION:

Your thoughts?

In The Hardest Hit, we meet eleven year old Sam Parker. Sam loves to play hockey. But this is the year that he will start body-checking. His natural fear of getting hit is temporarily overshadowed by finding out his parents are getting divorced.

Determined to keep them together by being a hockey superstar, Sam instead suffers a bone-crunching check from the school bully in his first game of the season. The resulting pain and fear brings out the worst in Sam as one difficulty after another piles on. Even his best friend, Jill, doesn't always seem to understand what he's going through.

When will his head stop hurting? Will he ever be able to play hockey again? How can he keep his parents together? Or can he? It will take everything Sam has to bounce back. Every one of his problems feel like ...the hardest hit.

The Hardest Hit is available now as an ebook for $2.99 and will be available as a paperback for $8.99 before the end of the month.

THE HARDEST HIT Is Now Available!

My middle grade novel, The Hardest Hit, is now available!

In The Hardest Hit, we meet eleven year old Sam Parker. Sam loves to play hockey. But this is the year that he will start body-checking. His natural fear of getting hit is temporarily overshadowed by finding out his parents are getting divorced.

Determined to keep them together by being a hockey superstar, Sam instead suffers a bone-crunching check from the school bully in his first game of the season. The resulting pain and fear brings out the worst in Sam as one difficulty after another piles on. Even his best friend, Jill, doesn't always seem to understand what he's going through.

When will his head stop hurting? Will he ever be able to play hockey again? How can he keep his parents together? Or can he? It will take everything Sam has to bounce back. Every one of his problems feel like ...the hardest hit.

The Hardest Hit is part of the Sam the Hockey Player series, and the first one to be published.  There will be others, some following Sam at this stage of his life (11-12). Others will feature Sam at other stages in his life, such as first grade or as a toddler. In each of these books, the target reader/listener will be the roughly the same age as Sam.

The Hardest Hit is available as an eBook from Amazon or Barnes and Noble now. It will shortly be available for all other formats wherever you like to buy your ebooks, but Smashwords has them now. The paperback version will be available within a couple of weeks, and I'll post that information when it happens.

Couple of New Books Coming!

Okay, so both of these aren't exactly coming out tomorrow, but I thought I'd mention them anyway.

My first middle reader novel in the SAM THE HOCKEY PLAYER series, called The Hardest Hit, is only waiting on cover art. When that is ready, the book will be available on Amazon, B&N, etc. as an eBook and a paperback. It could be out by May.

A Street Officer's Guide to Report Writing is my police report writing textbook, which I co-authored with Doug Strosahl. This textbook will be out in January 2012.  You can get a look at it here.

ALL THAT COUNTS #75 in Kindle Sports!

All That Counts is currently #75 in the Fiction/Sports category on Kindle! 

With hockey in full swing, treat yourself to a novel about the blue collar players who pay to play recreational hockey.  If you love the sport, this book is chock full of all that is glorious about hockey.  If you're new to the sport, the story is told in a way that helps you discover the finer points of the game...you'll even understand icing by the time you're finished!

All That Counts is also available as a paperback from Gray Dog Press.

ALL THAT COUNTS eBook on Amazon!

If you're looking for a Kindle version of All That Counts, it is now available on Amazon. Here are the three reviews about the book that are posted there:

"I thoroughly enjoyed All THAT COUNTS. Colorful story telling around the adult recreational hockey scene, which many know has as much to do with life & friendship as it does about the actual game. Anybody who has ever played hockey, or would like to, will love this book."

"I read Frank Scalise's book 'All That Counts' because I'd met him and enjoyed our conversation, not because I'm a hockey fan. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it is, even for someone like me who had no interest in the game. The characters are so real that it feels as though I'm following friends through the season from game to game. The book flows beautifully, is well written, is funny at times, and held my interest from beginning to end. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of one of his "River City" novels!"

"I don't know much about hockey, at least I didn't when I first read "All That Counts" but I know a lot about life, love and changes while we search for what it is in this world that really matters. This is a great novel about just that, a man searching for all that counts through a new adventure. He moves from skating out as a hockey player to the overwhelming challenge of becoming a goalie. This a an entertaining read about friendship, adversity and overcoming obstacles, as Graham discovers 'All That Counts' in his life."

If you haven't read "ALL THAT COUNTS" yet, you can now get the eBook version for just $2.99 at Amazon or at Smashwords.com in any format.  The paperback is still available through Gray Dog Press or any book outlet.

Ebook version of ALL THAT COUNTS available!

If you're in to eBooks, All That Counts is now availabe in all formats. You can get it from Smashwords or virtually any other outlet (Sony, B&N, etc.). The Kindle version is available only at Smashwords, but it'll be up on Amazon soon, too.