Thursday, July 14, 2016

the video behind Bad Memories

Watch this video ignore the haunted stuff and see the real images of what inspired me to write a work of fiction partly based on real life. This is what my fictional doctor was fighting to stop when he got fired.

I did not discuss or place some of the descriptions in the book as they were too sorrowful to describe.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x139ir0_haunted-history-2013-s01e04-lost-souls-of-pennhurst_shortfilms

This video has the images that describe what my fictional doctor is also having to deal with. This is also why I am a mental health advocate as what happened at Pennhurst and Letchworth Village.

my Bad Memories audio book

On August 8th 2016 my audio book for Bad Memories will be released exclusively at Amazon, Apple iTunes, Audible, Based on the fact that it is a 5 hour audio book the cost will be between $10 to $20 based on what each store sells it at. I hope it will not be too expensive.

It will be read by Graham King and I am looking forward to seeing it for sale. Here is the link to listen to the first 15 minutes https://audibleacxproductionassets.s3.amazonaws.com/checkpoint_wrkp6pd26vui75231467852994118?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAICS7SJCTYHFDYKKA&Expires=1468599835&Signature=SJikeraeg%2FMCJCgWMwQ%2ByjtX6ak%3D you must click on the dialogue box to listen to it.

I am also having a audio book cover designed for it. I hope that it will sell well.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

my new book advertisments

this is my new book advertisement for Bad Memories I have 3 one is for twitter the second is Facebook and the third Instagram


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

kickstarter fund raising

I am doing a kickstarter fund drive https://www.kickstarter.com/…/9579668…/editing-books-i-wrote … 2 get my western edited another translated & to pay a narrator 2 do a audio book

books I recommend you buy

I recommend you buy these authors

Chock-full of interesting characters.” CRYSTAL DECEPTION Scifi suspense

 Blood Moon (Dark Moon Series Book 1) In book one, Blood Moon Werewo 2

 CLOSURE (Zachary Taylor. Book 1) For Zachary Taylor it’s about to ge 1

 Check out: Ella Emerson Author of THE VANILLA BET & the Sky Watcher Series.

  by A.J. Carella at

 A House Divided (Scottish Historical Fiction - Munro Book 2) 8

April 6, 2016 radio interview

this is the April 6th 2016 LA Talk radio interview
http://latalkradio.com/sites/default/files/audio/Writer-040716.mp3



Here is my facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/Douglasbriansandlerauthor/




ways to buy my books

This is the corrections I am making to my blog, here are the links to buy the books talked about on the Tuesday May 10th Artistfirst radio interview, both are 99c

Bad Memories https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/584629 
A Kiss Before Strangling https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/572225

please remember to leave a review at Smashwords and Goodreads.




Thursday, April 28, 2016

more on mental health and my writings

I write my fiction characters flawed and suffering from mental illness of some type so people will love or hate them cause of their actions and not the illness. I want to make my characters real so that some reader may say, damn I see that in me. My poems are also written the ones before 2006 in the fog of mental illness not discovered till 2006.

In 2015 I re-read the poems since I been on meds since 2006 and in therapy since 2003 I discovered that shit was I messed up, but since the poems covered my life I decided to leave them as is. I want people to not stigmatize people with mental illness.

I try to put a little of myself in every character I write. I know that I am a newbie to self publishing but feel this is worth mentioning. My characters in my fiction books are flawed and suffer from some type of mental illness, as I want the readers to love or hate the characters because of their actions NOT the illness. I put some of myself in them, the vulnerable stuff as I need to be able to describe their actions so that readers will identify with them.

I am a mental health activist & suffer and feel that all men and women are flawed & suffer from some sort of mental illness. I try to make my characters real and believable so that each one is unique. Feel free to disagree, but this is the basis of my writing Bad Memories. If you look at the book trailer and cover you will see what I mean. It centers around a asylum and people who are connected to it in one form or another, you the reader must discover the links.

I based my book Bad Memories on the real cases of Letchworth Village and Pennhurst both cases of asylums that had massive abuse, murder, cruel staff and were shut down in disgrace. I took what happened and made it fiction, but there is real stuff behind the book.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

my second radio interview of 2016

this is the second of four radio interviews for 2016, I will be doing LA Talk Radio on April 6th and artistfirst radio May 10th. This is the link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gammonshow/2016/03/19/suspense-author-douglas-sandler-talks-about-bad-memories

The book is available at Smashwords for $1.20 right now.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

other reviews

these might not be here and these are the other reviews.

Bad Memories

Reviewed by Janelle Fila for Readers' Favorite 9/7/15

John Miller has a haunting past. While a doctor at the Allendale Asylum, three people died when medicated with the wrong dosage. That past is starting to catch up with John Miller. His friend and former colleague at the asylum, Albert Smith, is murdered. When another man is murdered shortly after his friend, Miller begins to see a new pattern that might shed light on the mystery of his old life.

I really liked the mystery element of Bad Memories. There is something intriguing about reading a mystery and trying to follow along and solve the mystery along with the main character. I thought the author summed up what a mystery is very well when he said that Miller wanted to solve the mystery "for the knowledge that he could take a problem in hand and master it." I think that is why a lot of people read mysteries and want to be able to understand the solution, because they want to master the problem. I thought this was very well said and seemed to reflect the attitude of the book nicely. The story really stayed true to this theme.

I also liked the information that we could gleam from the characters' dialogue.  It gives the reader information within the text that shows the reader how the characters feel without telling the reader how the characters feel. This is a hard concept for a lot of writers, so when it is done well it should be praised. I think there are good examples of that in this text and that helps carry the story forward. 


 Mysterious and Suspenseful By booklover on November 7, 2015 4 stars
Format: Paperback
This debut novel by Douglas Sander came as a surprise to me. It started out rather slow .... my first impression was a very sad man married to a shrew who did nothing but whine and complain and expect her husband to do everything. So my first thought was ... he is going to kill her.

When John Miller decides to take a weekend away from the shrew and the monotony of the job, he first has to put up with the wife's complaints. For a change, he doesn't let her conniving ways stop him. I was still a little perplexed, and then the author started drawing me in. I found out that what I had seen in John Miller was a result of his past. While a doctor at an asylum, patients died because of an incorrect medication dosage.

This weekend he is going fishing with a friend. Unfortunately the friend is murdered. Another man of his acquaintance is murdered shortly after. These deaths bring about ....bad memories. The story line is unique and became more mysterious and suspenseful the more I read. The characters are multi-dimensional. And once I got into it, I did not want to put it down!

Many thanks to the author who so graciously furnished a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. 
 
 Vivid: an impossible-put-down must-read. By Sarah Stuart on March 12, 2015 5 stars
Format: Kindle Edition
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”. This time I did, intrigued by the design of a closed book “Bad Memories: Do not open” and, of course, I opened it… just before midnight. I read it at one sitting, captured in the head of John Miller.

The author paints pictures with words. He didn’t describe the endless monotony of the pill-bottling lab where John worked: I was there, this was my reality. Julie was the wife John loved: the wife for whose sake he turned down what he believed to be a fishing weekend with Arthur; Julie would have dinner on the table. Julie had done nothing all day but read magazines and eat candy. That was the moment for frustrated anger to become murder, surely? No, but Arthur is dead in circumstances the police dismiss as suicide.

Mr Sandler’s characters don’t jump off the page, they draw in the reader, each, however minor, intensely vivid and always cleverly different. “The illness of his skin.” His broken nose – “the gristle tip of a chicken’s fleshless breast”. 
 
A Thrilling Story By Mr. Kibbles on April 14, 2015   5 stars
Format: Kindle Edition
A very enjoyable and suspenseful story. A great variety of characters, vivid descriptions and a real sense of trepidation. Definitely worth a look. 
 
 An Intriguing Plot By Icarus14 on July 19, 2015 4 stars
Format: Kindle Edition
An intriguing plot that becomes more mysterious as the story develops. Things aren’t quite what they seem in Millersburg and John Miller is up to his neck in it. A series of unfortunate incidents becomes a nightmare for Dr Miller and he struggles to cope as one problem leads to another. A good read.
 
A Kiss Before Strangling
 
 Reviewed by Janelle Fila for Readers' Review on 9/3/2015

"A Kiss Before Strangling by Douglas Sandler is a psychological thriller [set in 1950's] about a killer who wants revenge against cops whom he thinks killed his fiancee, but all is not what it seems. The story was creepy in a good way. I liked how there were different aspects of the story going on at the same time, scenes in the theater, scenes from the cops' points of view, and scenes that showed the drama and politics between the mayor and sheriff. But I think my favorite scenes were from the killer himself. I liked the mystery and suspense surrounding that. I liked not quite knowing what was going on, but understanding enough of the physical surroundings. We got into the mind of the killer and could understand at least a little of his motivations and why he felt the need to compulsively do what he had to do.

I also liked the idea of someone being so angry with the police that it would drive them to seek revenge, Unfortunately this something a lot of people can relate to right now. And it is easy to believe that someone could go so far off the edge they would act this way. So again, I found this story realistically creepy. It kind of freaked me out how much I could see it relate to real life and how I keep forgetting that I was reading a book and not reading the headlines of a newspaper. This is a timely topic." {authors note: when I wrote this in 1998 I did not know that the fiction book could come to pass.}
 
Old-Style Murder Mystery! By 1DreamReader on April 18, 2015 5 stars
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
If you like old-style murder mysteries, you’ll enjoy this novel. Young ladies are being murdered in a small town by a serial killer who likes to kiss and not tell. He kisses them wildly, then leaves them for dead. One of the victims happens to be the fiancee of a police sergeant. Seems things are amiss at the local police department also. The author adds enough mystery to keep you wondering just who was the killer all through the story. This one had me on the edge till the very end.
 
Exciting! By B Nelson on April 22, 2015 5 stars
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This psychological thriller is an exciting read. In “A Kiss Before Strangling” author Douglas Sandler, does a great job of creating tension and suspense. Every time I thought I had it figured out – boom – another twist in the tale. I definitely liked it enough to read more by this author and plan to check out his book, “Bad Memories” next. Recommended. Five stars. 
 
 Good original thriller By Big Apple on April 14, 2015 5 stars
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
A well-crafted thriller which is suspenseful from the start and never relents. The length is just right and not a word is wasted. Perfect escapist entertainment. An enjoyable read. 
 
 Sally and him were in love at first sight and By TDC Book Reviews on September 27, 2015 3 stars
Format: Paperback
This book starts off with a cop, Younger, taking his fiancΓ© to her play rehearsal. Sally and him were in love at first sight and, according to him, she was one of those gals that was proper, so he was a gentleman which meant no funny business. Meanwhile, in another part of town a killer is kissing ladies and then strangling them. This book follows Younger's journey to unearthing the killer.
This book leaves you gripping the pages while you are trying to figure out who the killer is. It will keep you on your toes, that's for sure! Once you think you know who the killer is, the author changes it. Characters are well written and scenery is described with an artistic touch. The only thing that got me was that it jumps in spots and you really have to re-read to make sure you didn't accidentally skip a page. I give it three out of five stars. 
 
Guns of Vengeance
 
 Good Guys and Bad Guys By Icarus14 on July 19, 2015   4 stars
Format: Kindle Edition
If you like books about good guys hunting down bad guys then you will probably like this one. Marshall Allen Johnson has personal reasons to feel bitter and uses all the skills he has developed as a law enforcement officer to deal out vengeance … even if that means outstepping the law.
 

the thought process of Bad Memories

This is the thought process I used in creating Bad memories. If you compare my abstract paintings, Bad Memories book cover & book trailer you see a pattern with a common subject. Example here is two paintings I painted, they are abstract view of mental illness as I see it.

The top one is called the 2 faces of myself, the face on the left is me normally when I am on my medicine and the face on the right is me before my meds. The bottom picture is me effected by the meds and in a stoned happy place.

This is the book cover for Bad Memories it pictures a dark and dismal cell wing which is what the asylum in the book is and it is corrupt and a evil place, hence the dark and depressingly eerie setting.
Now we come to the book trailer, the images in the trailer are taken from old public domain pictures that show what the patients of the asylum in my book are treated like and the reason John Miller is no longer a doctor. Those pictures are actually true in the bad dark old days of mental health. View the trailer to see why
https://t.co/iaderh8wTO 

I suffer from several mental health issues and this book was written back in 1998/99 and I was not diagnosed till June 2006. So you see the theme of the book and the thought process in its creation.

The story behind Bad Memories also comes from the real cases of Letchworth Village and Pennhurst both asylums who abused, murdered and were cruel to their patients and were closed by a federal judge. The stories were real but made into fiction.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

latest review of Bad memories

As they say everyone will not like what you write, well this review seems to say on one hand she liked it, on the other she didn't. But with several 4 and 5 star reviews, it was enviable that a 2 star would show up. I am posting the review to be transparent and to show that I am not just posting the great ones.

Genre: Mystery/Thriller     Date: 28 January 2016           Rating: 2 stars




Douglas Sandler’s Bad Memories is the story of ex-doctor John Miller, now working as a pill-presser in New York after a conviction for medical malpractice leads to his mental breakdown. Trapped in a marriage to a woman who expected to live on the much higher salary of a medical doctor, John’s descent into depression is alleviated by visits with his one friend, Dr. Albert Smith in Millersburg. When John receives a weekend fishing invitation from Dr. Smith, the last thing he anticipated was having to stretch his half-forgotten medical skills in a key role in a murder investigation.

Bad Memories is a classic mystery novel set sometime after WWII, with John Miller its reluctant detective in a string of multiple murders that the Millersburg PD is either incapable of or uninterested in solving. While the novel showcases a strongly nostalgic sense of setting and era, it is undermined by the frequent editorial errors that disrupt the reading, and although the vacillations of confidence that John suffers from are expertly sketched into the plot, the final reveal came across to me as something of a Hail Mary save, with a wealth of additional details suddenly being pieced together by our reluctant hero. A few more breadcrumbs would have helped that final scene to be more credible for me. 

Review by J.C. Steel

Friday, February 26, 2016

new book trailer to Bad Memories

this is the link to the new book trailer to Bad memories https://t.co/uOrIzzMZuS I hope it will make you want to buy the book, cause right now its $1.20 

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Monday February 15th radio interview link

this is the link to listen to the latest radio interview I did on the George Wilder Jr. Show on 2/15/16 go to 29:20 of the broadcast to listen to my interview
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/georgewilderjr/2016/02/16/author-doug-sandler-talks-writing-bad-memories-on-the-george-wilder-jr-show 


the book is available on Smashwords at 60% off regular price. listen and enjoy.

Monday, February 15, 2016

video of me speaking before my class at Florida State University

This video is of me speaking before my speech class at Florida State university and I present it here to further show I can speak publicly.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8sZStDUtDA

I have a radio interview I just finished when he produces the show I will post the link so you too can listen to the latest.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

round two of other authors promoted by me

please check out these other authors.

, includes some explicit , but is written for the romantic story:

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Friday, January 8, 2016

the second review of Bad memories


Book Review: “Bad Memories” by Douglas Sandler (@douglas5102)






A good look at Douglas Sandler’s Bad Memories (2015) reveals the writing requires a fair bit of editing. However, the story quickly establishes John Miller as an intriguing protagonist. Miller operates a “pill machine” — a gadget that stamps medical tablets one at a time. It is from such a robotic, repetitive and exhausting work routine that Miller steps into a mystery, an echo from his past working at an asylum.
Having left his dominating wife Julie at home, Miller intends to go on a fishing trip with Albert Smith, the doctor with whom he used to work at the asylum. However, once he discovers Albert is dead, memories of his past come back to haunt him: “Once a man has killed, he may kill again.” The memories prompt him to take action and investigate another death.

As often seen in this type of fiction, it is through the protagonist’s attempt to uncover horrific secrets that his own secret is gradually revealed. Also common is the protagonist’s inner conflict between a desperate need to evade the prying eyes of others and a burning desire to expose everything and find relief. But Sandler manages his protagonist well – he keeps a firm grip on Miller, so much so that the former physician remains tortured by bad memories throughout his investigative journey. You cannot help but admire Miller, a reflective soul, a keen eye to silent and prolonged suffering, a frequent visitor to nightmares. Miller’s private thoughts make him one of the many unforgettable literary characters this reviewer has encountered. Almost like Ben Mears.


In the end, the mysteries have a fascinating twist. It is here that you really want to know the answer, but Sandler keeps you dangling, in the same way that Agatha Christie did and still does. In the usual manner, characters keep dying and/or evolving until the truth is finally revealed. As Miller desperately tries to sort out his confused mind, you become seriously concerned about his sanity and safety, like you do with Louis Creed.
The ending is satisfying, but here is a question for Sandler and other authors to reflect upon. Do we really want the protagonist to find the answer he wants? Do we want Miller to restore his faith in humanity and himself, so that we as readers can feel good about life in general? Or, do we want him to soldier on, using his medical knowledge to solve more mysterious while struggling to tame his own shadow? This reviewer would probably prefer a broken mirror pieced together by glue – you can see a reflection again, but the cracks are always there.

Transparency: The author of this book has offered a free review copy, but the coupon for Smashwords did not work. So this reviewer purchased a copy.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Newest Review of Bad memories








BOOK REVIEW by Patricia Gavin for Amazon Book Review 1/3/16
“Bad Memories” by Douglas Sandler
Copyright 1998/2015 American Creative Services, Panama City,
Florida
ISBN 9978-150786409
Cost: $2.99 Smashwords/Amazon ebook
$9.50 Amazon/softback

TRAIN RIDE TO MILLERSBURG; TURN OFF THE TV AND TAKE A RIDE!

“Bad Memories” is a page-turner mystery and reminiscent of the “who dunnit” Hitchcock films
that takes the reader from inside the mind of a laboratory technician who is the unhappily married
John Miller. Miller has lost his medical license as the fall guy in a fraud scandal at an asylum
where he met his wife Julie who has not lost hope in his innocence that allegedly he killed three
patients with mis-prescribed medications purportedly improperly labeled.
In the wake of his humiliation, John Miller manages to snag the ever-manipulative Julie after Dr.
Younger, who set John up to take the fall for the death of three asylum patients. dumped her. Julie
and John Miller’s marriage is a mistake, but the inevitable consequence of two people who meet
at the low ebb of the tide in both their lives and cling together for survival after both leave their
jobs at the asylum.
The story begins and draws the reader in with an argument in the Miller’s Manhattan apartment
on the upper East Side. The demise of the Miller’s marriage leads them to float upon a tide of
affairs that eventually washes them both upon the shores of LaQuerencia, an estate north of New
York City, in a small town on the Hudson called Millersburg.

BAD MEMORIES/2-2-2
LaQuerencia belongs to an empire builder named Paul J. Allen who has died. It is there in the chateau on the Hudson that the Miller’s marriage will become redefined and they will separate after an invitation from Dr. Alfred Smith, the county coroner in Millersburg.
Smith, who supported John Miller through the end of his career at the asylum and loss of his medical license, has invited John for a weekend fishing trip (without his wife), despite the protests of Julie who does not want to be left alone in Manhattan for the weekend. John insists on his weekend getaway and ignores Julie’s pleas for company. En route to Millersburg from Grand Central Station, John meets the attractive Sally Daniels who is accompanying her father to attend the reading of Paul J. Allen’s will. Allen owned LaQuerencia and the company where Daniels’ father was once employed as a sea captain. However, when John Miller arrives via train from Grand Central Station in Millersburg, he finds his colleague Dr. Albert Smith, the county coroner, in an apparent suicide.
John is challenged to discover the true cause of Smith’s death and his fishing trip turns into a ‘who dunnit” expedition to solve the murder of Dr. Alfred Smith and Paul J. Allen. The story involves a cast of characters who have also arrived with John Miller on the same train from Manhattan. Dr. Smith is quickly replaced by the previous coroner Doc Watson and Miller’s “sixth sense” detects an alliance between both the local District Attorney Benny Godfrey and the new coroner Watson. Both men are too anxious to pronounce Dr. Smith’s death a suicide.
Miller is invited to delay his return to New York to attend the reading of the will of the wealthy zoologist and South American rubber magnate Paul J. Allen by Daniels who he meets on the train. Allen’s death has also been ruled suicide by gunshot, but Miller happens to discover blood stains under Allen’s desk and an empty slug logged in the binder of a book in his library at LaQurencia while a guest at the estate. Convinced both Smith and Allen were murdered, Miller remains at LaQuerencia to unravel the mystery of both their deaths.
Miller meets the heirs apparent to the fortune of Paul Allen, owner of the massive estate, LaQuerencia, and is invited to spend the weekend with them as one of the members of the will is delayed due to car trouble. The heirs are a motley crew who were at one time disenfranchised in a South American rubber expedition Allen funded. In his final wishes, Allen’s heirs expect they have been called to Millersburg where Allen’s will hopefully will right past wrongs Allen and redeem Allen’s past deeds in the eyes of his disenfranchised employees.
“Bad Memories” is a book that once you pick up I found it hard to put down. The book itself could have been edited and laid out more professionally as there were many formatting and grammatical errors. However, the character development of the protagonist John Miller and his own self-doubt and loathing make the reader want to turn the next page to find out how Miller regains his self-worth and resolves the mystery of his own medical demise and deciphers the murders of his colleague Dr. Alfred Smith and the rubber magnate Paul Allen.

BAD MEMORIES/3-3-3
Julie and Miller may go their separate ways in the end, but the book brings together an engaging cast of characters who each add their own personal drama to the storyline. It could easily be staged as a play. From the beginning one wonders if it was the proverbial “professor in the library with the candlestick” as the writer reveals each clue to the reader. From the conniving and greedy District Attorney Benny Godfrey, whose ambition aligns with the local law enforcement to dispense quickly with the cause of death as suicide, to the complacency of the newly installed Coroner Watson, the story brings together good and evil and allows good to triumph in the end as Miller regains his medical career and is vindicated in the process of solving the deaths of Paul J. Allen and Dr. Alfred Smith.
Sandler, has overcome multiple disabilities to bring “Bad Memories” to the page and it is worth the read. The story is entertaining and fast-paced. Sandler is also author of “A Kiss Before Strangling”, “Guns of Vengeance”, “Poems form the Heart” and “Postal Strikes: A History 1890-2014”. A great read for a long winter afternoon. Turn the television off and take a train ride to Millersburg.