I’ve finally had to admit it. I’m over-committed.
I never planned to spam my blog followers with daily ramblings. Twice or thrice a month would suffice. But I’m down to one post a month.
So I changed the tagline in my posts to “An occasional blog”. Truth is good. (Unless, of course, you’re a politician of any persuasion.)
So why am I swamped? Continue reading
It’s been a long month.
Apart from the usual writerly stuff (you know, the stuff a writer thinks s/he’s going to be doing like… er… writing) authors across the world have been struggling with Amazon‘s widespread and apparently random deletion and blocking of reviews and trying to navigate the European Union’s new GDPR law.
Read on… Continue reading
Had a great time at the UK’s annual Sci-Fi and Fantasy Convention (Follycon) in Harrogate. Met some old friends and made some new ones. Learned a lot and had a few new ideas sparked. Delighted to say that my friend David Allan got his first publishing contract. Congrats, David!
The final part of my sci-fi trilogy (Janus Arrival: Journey’s End) was released on April 1st and sales are very satisfying. I’m already at work on my next book. Continue reading
Turning Worlds
So much catching up to do now my I’m back home! The world just keeps on turning, even if I’m not watching it. (Quantum physicists are invited to comment below on that observation.)
Distribution Channels
My novels’ distribution network continues to grow effortlessly! I use the Mention app to notify me if my name or my book titles appear on anyone’s web pages. No, it’s not an ego issue, it’s… professional… market awareness… all that stuff.
Anyway, Mention notified me that while I was on vacation, Continue reading
Some of you might have noticed a long silence from me.
Many will be grateful.
But now I’m back!
I just spent the whole of October on a road trip covering New England in the Fall and a batch of Canadian cities. Exhausted!
If you want to visit New England in the Fall, you just have to go in the Fall. And I highly recommend it. Stunning views!
Do note, however, that half the small-town New England service industry shuts down after Columbus Day. October is “out of season”. Er… “New England in the Fall”… Fall? You know, that period just AFTER Summer? A period that usually includes October? Ah, well. It’s their cash flow.
Anyway, it’s hard to blog while driving or striding through russeting forests. (Yeah, I made that word up.) So I took a blog vacation.
On my return, I had to catch up with all my snail mail (yes, people still use that in Europe, especially governments and other people wanting money from you). Then I surveyed my “TO DO” list. It was too long, so I set it aside and took up my “REALLY URGENT TO DO” list, which was a little shorter.
First up has to be a final revision of the last volume of my Janus Paradisi Trilogy: JANUS ARRIVAL. I hope to send it out to beta readers in a couple of weeks for editing and publication towards year-end.
Yes, I know Christmas is a lousy time to publish, but part two came out in April and I owe it to my existing readers to bring the saga to a conclusion soon. It will help them sleep at night, without worrying about how my oppressed characters are faring, out there in the deep beyond.
While I was away, I found praise winging my way on the InterWebs!
First up: A full-page article from Scifibook Review
If you like science fiction, you should be reading Sheron’s blog. I was delighted to see such a respected reviewer commenting favorably on my work. Many thanks!
Next: Another couple of particularly glowing 5-star reviews on Amazon. Writers love reviews, even if they aren’t all 5-star, so do a writer a favor and post a review of the best book you read this year, no matter who wrote it. Thank you on their behalf.
Oh, and a belated Happy Halloween to you all.
Whichever way you consumed your pumpkins (in coffee, beer, cheesecake, soup, sandwiches, cupcakes…), I hope you enjoyed them!
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
KINDLE/NOOK AND NOVELS GIVEAWAY COMPETITIONThe contest I announced last week is now over and the winners’ names will be released next week. So keep those fingers crossed.
REVERSALS(Apologies to followers who received a draft copy of this post, sent in error last week. And this contains an update.)
It’s well known that book reviews are important to readers making buying choices. My two Janus Paradisi novels enjoyed a straight flush of 5-star reviews and I was a happy man!
Of course, I’m eager for more reviews and took a look to see if I’d garnered any. I found the opposite: a whole bunch of reviews had vanished.
Of course, I queried this with Amazon: no reply.
I queried again: no reply – for a few days.
Then came the good news: Amazon reinstated those reviews after investigating. Thank you, Zon!
I want to make it clear that I strongly approve of Amazon’s campaign to stamp out fake and bought reviews that boost a rich author’s lousy book to top position, misleading book-buyers. I guess I was just collateral damage, but anyways, Amazon refunded me the stars and so now I’m happy again.
An author friend suggested I’d drawn attention by being a new author with 100% 5-star reviews. So now I’m hoping for a few 4-stars… although it feels odd to be wanting worse reviews to enhance credibility and sales.
Ah, well. Such is the modern world.
I had to mention this. You have to hand it to this guy: following a long list of acting appearances including the Harry Potter movies, Captain America, and Broadchurch, he’s been in both Game of Thrones and Dr. Who.
Well done, that man! And he’s from Yorkshire! Just like me.
So we’ll be looking for his appearance in Westworld soon?
Happy reading, until next time.
(Grab it here or click the image below.)
Writing the short descriptive blurb for the promotion was hard. (Hell, I took 60,000 words to tell the story and now you want it in 70 words?) You see, there are three different stories in the novel, intermingled with the main plot. Although I hope everyone gets equal value from the overall experience, each protagonist’s story might appeal more to a specific type of reader:-
I show the alternative blurbs below this image of the text I chose. Let me know what you think of them and if they are too overly-targeted or just market-segment themed 😉
2091: Earth is dying.
Agent Zag Bishop penetrates a corporate conspiracy to expose the truth about the space program.
With affections divided between his powerful boss, Angel Flores, and Katya Ulyanov, the young recruit with a secret past, Zag seeks to join humanity’s greatest adventure.
Spies, lies, assassins, intrigue, corruption, romance, betrayal, mistrust, hi-tech and space travel.
Grab it now!
2091: Orphan Katya Ulyanov escapes the desert camps and earns her place as a security agent. She falls for her boss, Zag Bishop, lover of the agency’s manager, Angel Flores.
Hiding a secret past, Katya struggles with her conflicting emotions and nightmares, and Zag’s mixed messages.
Zag and Angel discover the true objective of the corporate space program and plan to leave for a paradise among the stars.
Will Katya win through the intrigue, corruption, romance, betrayal, and mistrust?
Will she grab a place on humanity’s greatest adventure? Will Zag stand with her?
2091: Security company chief, Angel Flores, has risen far on a dying Earth.
She takes agent Zag Bishop as a lover when her affair with the agency’s owner wanes.
Together, they discover the truth about the corporate space program and plan to join humanity’s greatest adventure among the stars. But Zag is attracted to a young recruit, Katya Ulyanov, a girl with a secret past.
Can Angel overcome the corruption, betrayal, and distrust to gain Paradise?
For more background on the key players, see the interviews they gave in an earlier post.
And Happy Reading!
I recently had a great time at the 68th British National Science Fiction Annual Convention: meeting old friends; making new ones; attending some fascinating panels…
The panels prompted my restless mind to explore tangential threads, as they should. Example… Continue reading
