Here we go again, sliding past the year’s halfway point – the longest day (or the shortest day if you’re Down Under).
The Earth just clocked-up another 470 million km (282 million miles) – a half orbit of the sun – since a cold and snowy December 31st. And what’s changed? Continue reading
Chocaholics and parents might have noticed it was Easter again last month. To me, that meant eating chocolate at the British Science Fiction Association‘s Annual Convention!
Code-named Ytterbium, it was held this year at London Heathrow’s Park Inn.
As always, I rolled up ready to meet old friends, make new ones, and learn about current trends in Science Fiction. And I did all three!
I was really pleased to meet Geoffrey Carr of the Economist and chat about a zillion things, including his first venture into Sci-Fi, Genesis.
Sadly, our intense chatter left little chance for anyone else to get a word in.
Happy, too, for my good friend David M. Allan, who just signed up for a sequel to his novel The Empty Throne.
I returned home to a garden badly in need of attention. We sanded-down and re-stained the shed, which had badly deteriorated in the past 4 years of weather despite the 7 years’ guarantee of the original coating manufacturer. (Huh!) Of course, the work was disrupted by blazing sunshine, rainstorms, hailstorms, and even a fluttering of snow.
(Happy Spring, everyone in the northern hemisphere!)
The Luxembourg ban on using power tools on Sundays and public holidays didn’t help. (FYI, there are three midweek public holidays here in May.) But I do appreciate the quiet Sundays when I don’t need to get out and make noise.
As usual, life intrudes on art. I am way behind on my online critique group contributions but managed to complete two short stories in time to submit to anthologies just before their deadlines. I also had to make serious changes to my upcoming classic noir novel, Private Vices, but that should be off to my trusted advisor this month for a final overview before I send it out to Advance Readers.
RIGHT! Back to work.
Well, have I been busy, or what?
BEYOND NOWA collection of published Science Fiction and Fantasy short stories ideal for December gifting. Continue reading
In my previous post, I dangled some “click bait” about how I was over-committed, then offered only a cliffhanger. My bad.
Seriously, I found myself in a time bind over the last few months… Continue reading
NEW MUST-HAVE PARADISI CHRONICLES RELEASES (details below)
As my regular readers know, my JANUS PARADISI series takes place in an open-source sci-fi universe. A what?
Essentially, a group of authors agreed on the backstory and main features of a time and place where all action will occur, then write their own stories within those parameters.
These stories can be from any sub genre (hard sci-fi, space opera, fantasy, romance, whatever), as long as they stick to the overall parameters, such as planet names and environments, technology, history, and so on. They can use other writers’ characters (with permission), usually giving them walk-on parts, or referring to great events in other writer’s stories. Continue reading
Beware Book Pirates!
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been running an Instafreebie promotion (where science fiction readers sign up to my newsletter and receive a free copy of my novel, “FACES OF JANUS“).
Then Google Alerts notified me that the novel was available on a few pirate sites. I checked and found that one site claimed not only to have my novels but also every anthology I ever was published in. Some charge for their copies (and keep the income). Others hand out copies for free. Forever.
I explored a few pirate sites’ extensive book lists. Some of these pirates claim to have as many ebooks as Amazon! Most likely, these were cover shots only and downloaders would get a nice virus instead of my book. (Be warned!)
As my free offer was limited in time and scope, I was at first unhappy about this. But I decided to ignore it, because… Continue reading
The latest in a long line of Chronicle Worlds Anthology best sellers just hit the Amazon electronic shelves!
Another world. Another chance…
In the last decades of the twenty-first century, seeking to escape a devastated Earth, ten families focus on constructing spaceships to colonize the world they call New Eden, in the Paradisi System. But the world they claim for their own is already inhabited, and the Ddaerans, although human in appearance, possess abilities that the Founders and their descendants do not…
In this latest title in the acclaimed ‘Future Chronicles’ series of speculative fiction anthologies, twelve authors take us on that incredible journey with adventurers, scientists and colonists, as they push the boundaries against the unknown, against alien civilization, and themselves.
Discover Chronicle Worlds. Discover Paradisi.
Discover Paradisi here.
Contributing Authors:
It has been a long journey, but here I stand on the verge of publishing my first novel.
I always wanted to write, but my first High School English teacher convinced me I was barely literate. I think he resented me being taller than him, as a later (taller) teacher promoted me from bottom of the class to (almost) pole position.
Too late!
It was my final year of school and my small fantasies had been strangled. Hurrah for education! Continue reading
Well, that Brexit thing was a blast. Britain will pull out of the EU (European Union). To some, it’s like Hawaii pulling out of the US of A. (It isn’t.) And lots of lies on all sides, it seems.
Gosh! Anti-establishment folk, politicians and urban elites telling lies? Unbelievable! Spooky times!
Andy as Debt Collector in A Storm in the Stars
I took a long break between posts this year. I’m sure you noticed.
So where have I been? Continue reading
