Monthly Archives: February 2012

The Drache Girl

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Well, it’s time to discuss the characters in Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 3: The Drache Girl.  In a lot of ways, this is my favorite book of the series, which I suppose makes it my favorite among all the books I’ve written.  The thing about this book is that I like all the characters best at this point in their lives.  Senta is really fun at age 12, running around with her friends.  I had a great deal of inspiration for this, as I was (and still am) surrounded by 12 year olds all day.  Bessemer, the Steel Dragon, appears more in this book than any of the others. Yuah is at the high point in her story arc, sort of.  I also like Saba Colbshallow the most in this book.  It really is his story as much as anyone’s.

So, over the next few weeks I’m going to go through the characters roughly in the order they appear and hopefully give you some insights about them and how they came to be.  If you have any questions, let me hear them.

His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

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Here it is– the title and cover for the next Robot Wife novella.  His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue.
I get a great many emails requesting another Patience book, and considering His Robot Wife has sold more copies than all of my other books put together, it just seems stupid not to get another one done as soon as possible.

I sat down and tried to think of a new approach that would give me more story opportunities and still be true to the characters.  When it came to me, I immediately had ideas for about five more books.  So you can expect Mike & Patience to make frequent appearances over the next few years.  I definitely plan to have this book done sometime in 2012.  Watch this space for more information.

Update: Blood Moon

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Blood Moon is the sequel to Blood Trade.  We may see a title change before I’m done, because there are already a half dozen books out their called Blood Moon, but it does fit, because it’s mostly about werewolves.  I had an idea for the intro and started writing, finishing just shy of two chapters before I ran out of steam, but I have the basic plot planned out.  I doubt I’ll get back to this before I finish The Young Sorceress or Astrid Maxxim 2, but I might have this one done by the end of the year.

Update: The Young Sorceress

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The Young Sorceress is dragging along.  I have to set it aside and work on Astrid Maxxim for a while because, quite frankly, this book is a hard one.  The real problem is that working a day job while I write, I can only manage a page or two a day, and it is hard to keep a complicated plot in my head from day to day.  Astrid is easy.  It’s all pretty straight forward.  The Young Sorceress follows seven major characters through their own stories and when I rewrite it, that number may increase.  Ideally I would really like to have this done before summer, but there is a possibility that I may not be able to get it done before then.  I’ll keep you informed here.

In the meantime, this is the latest version of the cover.  Same picture, but with a border to make it look more like the rest of the books in the series.

Update: Astrid Maxxim and her Undersea Dome

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I know I’m all over the place lately.  I’ve been writing here and there on four different projects and have others that I’ve been thinking about.  But, I’m at the halfway point in the draft for Astrid Maxxim 2, and I still think I should finish it some time in March– maybe even before.

Astrid hasn’t taken off too much sales-wise, but I put 4 paperback copies of book 1 in the school library where I teach and they have all been checked out constantly for a couple of weeks now.  The kids seem to really like it.

Read an Ebook Week/Month is Coming

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There you go.  Read an Ebook month is March and Read an Ebook Week is March 4-10.  I’ll let you know when it gets here and I’ll be offereing some coupons to celebrate.  Watch this space.

Free Distribution

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The other day I posted my total book sales.  Moe the Cat, friend of this blog, wondered how many free books had been distributed, so I thought I would look that up and post it.  Here we go:

His Robot Girlfriend                                              377,035 downloads
Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess            93,959 downloads
Eaglethorpe Buston and the Sorceress                     78,799 downloads

There have been a handful of paperbacks sold of each of these books, and there have been a few giveaways of other books, but that is pretty much it.  Sometimes I really wish I had 30 cents for each copy of His Robot Girlfriend, but I know it wouldn’t have been downloaded so many times if I charged for it, and it has done its job of bringing me new readers.  I have plans for a couple of other free books, one of which should be available this year.

Phoenix Comicon

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I am tentatively making plans to visit the Phoenix Comicon in late may.  Check out the link here.
Although I’m a huge nerd, I have yet to visit any comicon anywhere, so it will be an eye popping experience, I’m sure.  I’m thinking of making up some “His Robot Girlfriend” T-shirts to wear while I’m there.

Princess Jholiera

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The elven princess in Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess is not a particularly inspired character.  She’s a stock elf and a stock princess, though I flatter myself that I gave her a bit of personality.  She has to have some to deal with Eaglethorpe in their day to day dealings.  She’s his foil, his sounding-board, and at one point (SPOILER) his foe.  I tried to weave a little Shakespeare into the tale (something I did much more blatantly in the second EB story) by making her take up the disguise of a boy.

One thing that I notice of course, is that people either hate or love Eaglethorpe Buxton, but it’s usually him and not his world or the other characters that brings out this diverse reaction.  I would love for someone to write me and tell me what they think of Jholiera.  Incidently I just randomly threw together some sounds to make an elven name.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 3D

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My son took me to see Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D last Friday.  We had a great time.  As far as the film goes, it was a little of a letdown, not that I expected a great film, as The Phantom Menace is the low point of Star Wars.  It is so bad that I have actually heard people say things are “episode 1 bad.”  Since the movie wasn’t made for 3D, there were no cool 3D effects which shot out the screen at you.  I expected this, but one would have thought Lucas could have added some, especially when the spaceships blow up.  Also the 3D seemed to make some of the very cool effects look less realistic.  I’m not sure why, but there you go.

I saw an article on Yahoo the other day in which a commentator espoused the superiority of I-III over IV-VI, saying that the plot was richer and more complicated, that the politics were more layered, and the effects were of course superior.  I have two words for him– JarJar Binks, possibly the worst Science Fiction character ever created.  I also find him racist (JarJar Binks, not the writer), though I’m not exactly sure why– maybe it’s the pigeon English he speaks.

On the plus side, the fight between Obi Wan and Darth Mal may be the best Jedi fight scene ever.  And everyone wears such cool hooded robes.
I have to say I’m not a huge fan of 3D anyway, but when it’s done right (like Avatar) it’s pretty impressive.  I’d go see Star Wars just about under any condition, but really, it wasn’t worth $20 for the 3D, especially when I have the DVD at home.