Senta and the God of the Sky?

Posted on by
Reply

The Sorceress and her Lovers

I’ve been thinking about the next Senta book.  All right, I’ve even got a few chapters written, though I’m trying to get Patience done before I get sidetracked.  But I’ve been thinking about the series name.

As you know, if you’re reading this, Senta and the Steel Dragon is a five book series (plus a novella book 0).  It tells the story of Senta Bly, a girl who grows up to be a powerful sorceress and the steel dragon who grows up to be a powerful… you know, dragon.

I’ve plotted out a new series of five books.  I’m still playing with the individual titles, but the first will be The Sorceress and her Lovers.  This new series tells about the next phase of both Senta’s and the steel dragon’s lives.  Therefore I came up with the series title Senta and the God of the Sky.  I’ve been having second thoughts about the title though, not because it’s not a good or appropriate title, but because readers might be more likely to read the book if I just made it Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 6.

So what do you think?

Brechalon at Kobo Books

Posted on by
Reply

Brechalon: Nils Chapman & Karl DrurySenta and the Steel Dragon Book 0: Brechalon is the novella-length preview to The Voyage of the Minotaur, The Dark and Forbidding Land, The Drache Girl, and the other books which make up the Senta and the Steel Dragon series. Set two years before the events in The Voyage of the Minotaur, Brechalon tells the story of the Kingdom of Greater Brechalon in a world that is not quite like our own Victorian Age. The Dechantagne siblings; Iolanthe, Augie, and Terrence plan an expedition to a distant land, hoping the colony they build will restore their family to the position of wealth and power it once had. Meanwhile the powerful sorceress Zurfina rots in an anti-magic prison, guilty of not serving the interests of the kingdom, and the orphan girl Senta Bly lives her life without the knowledge that she will one day grow up to be the sorceress’s apprentice. Senta and the Steel Dragon is a tale of adventure in a world of rifles and steam power, where magic and dragons have not been forgotten.

Brechalon is free wherever fine ebooks can be found, including Kobo Books.  Follow the link here.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

Posted on by
2

Patience is a VirtueI finished chapter ten of His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue today.  It’s plotted out at 17 chapters, so I’m well past the halfway mark of the draft.  I mentioned the other day that if I continue working at the present pace, I’d have it done near the end of August.  I certainly don’t expect to take that long.  I really want to kick it into gear.

I’m getting up each morning and getting some writing done.  Then during the day, I’m trying to get something else done each day– like work on cleaning my garage  or exercising.  Then at night, I do a bit more writing.  It seems to be working pretty good so far.  I’ll update again when I get to the end of chapter eleven and we can all see how long it took.

Of course, after I finish the draft, there is the inevitable editing, revision, and rewrite.  Still, it’s all good.

More Scammers Promising Free Ebooks

Posted on by
Reply

There is another fake site out there promising free ebooks and I am sad to say that at least one of my books appears on it.  It is pdfebookds.com.  Don’t go there.  It will try to take take control of your computer through dropbox or evernote and probably other programs in an attempt to steel your identity.

It looks like a legitimate site, but there are some clues that it wasn’t put together with too much care.  Read this little blurb about getting free ebooks.

Free Books
Anyone can get free ebooks
Want to get books you need for free? want to download free pdf books? we offer you this, ANYONE can get books for free here, you can too!
Or this one about shipping.
Free Shipping
All Shipped from Amazon
Once you had won a book, the book will be shipped from Amazon US/UK, you will be received in 1-5 days, so why not try to win the one you need!
See?  Your 6th grade teacher was right.  Grammar and punctuation are important.
I’ve said it before and I say it again– get virus/internet protection on your computer.  And it is worth remembering whenever something is too good to be true, it usually is.

Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress at Diesel Ebooks

Posted on by
Reply

Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress tops 40,000 DownloadsEaglethorpe Buxton, famed adventurer and story-teller is back, this time to put on a play about a sorceress. When the sorceress, subject of his play arrives with fire in her eyes, Eaglethorpe must pretend to be his good friend Ellwood. Will he pull off this charade and survive? And what happens when the real Ellwood shows up? One can never tell, especially when Eaglethorpe tells the story.

Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress is available free wherever fine ebooks are sold.  Follow this link to download it at Diesel Ebooks.

The Ungodly Pace of Technological Change

Posted on by
4

Patience is a VirtueIt may seem odd for a science-fiction author to complain about technological change (though I remember Ray Bradbury before he died, complaining about ebooks), but that’s what I’m thinking about today.  Sometimes I love technological change, like when I want a new iPad and I need an improved model to convince my wife that I need to upgrade.  Other times it’s a pain, like when I’m trying to write.

Somewhere I have a sheet of German Postage Stamps printed in the early thirties.  They were 1 Mark stamps, but as soon as they came off the presses, they had to be sent back in to be printed over with 100 Marks, because of the horrible inflation that Germany was experiencing at the time.  It was changing so fast that they literally couldn’t print stamps or money fast enough to keep up with it.

I kind of have that feeling today.  Some of the technology I describe in His Robot Girlfriend and His Robot Wife seems quaint now, and some of the stuff in the new book is already sounding antiquated.  I’m going back and making some changes, particularly to how processes are processes.  I already know I’m not going to get too far in front of the change, but I at least want my story to be up-to-date with present technology.

Specifically in this case, Mike pays with a cash card.  Credit cards and debit cards are already facing extinction.  It won’t be long before apps on telephones replace making a purchase at a cash register or a store counter.  Think of it– scan your item, press pay, authenticate (probably with a thumbprint) and walk out of the store.  No more standing in line, no more waiting, no more identity theft.  It’s a lot closer than you think– much closer than 2037, when my story takes place.

 

Whew!

Posted on by
Reply

I’m writing this on the 7th.  I’m a bit ahead.  Today is the first full day of summer vacation.  I checked out of school yesterday.  For those of you who don’t know, this involves me sitting around waiting for an administrator to come and check my room and sign a paper.  Some teachers needed the morning to finish cleaning and packing, but I didn’t.  I was all done.  So I sat there from 7 to 11 and watched Brave on my iPad, played “Liar’s Dice” with my son, and waited.

Once I was checked out though, we celebrated.  I took the whole family out for Ice Cream. Then we went to the movies and saw Iron Man 3 (really good).  And finally went to Famous Dave’s for Barbecue.

Today, I slept in… till 8!  Got up and did some writing, did some chores, and feel really good about not having to work for a while, at least on anything buy my books.  I’ve been writing as much as possible this past month and I’ve gone from being 336 pages behind to just 300 pages behind.  😀  And I’m just getting started.

The Pile

Posted on by
4

Work in Progress: Nova Dancer and CosmosSo, I’ve just published my 17th book.  I’m hard at work on the next ones.  Yes, “ones.”  As you know if you’ve read more than one post here, I have several projects in the works at any one time and often flip from working on one to another.  If I had a robot double of myself who could write, while I just thought up ideas… well, I don’t know if that would be great or not.  After all, I like thinking up new stories, but I like writing them too.

As I said, I’ve published 17 books.  I have 10 books that I’ve started and have at least a bit of written– in some cases about half the book, in others a chapter or two.  I have 11 other books plotted out, but not started.  Then I’ve got a pile of story ideas– 53 books worth.  Many of them will not ever be written, I imagine.  Some are ideas for sequels and some of them are completely new ideas.  Some of them may be incorporated into other books.

The great thing is, they are all written down.  Some of them I look at and think “When did I think up that idea?”  I know if I hadn’t written it down, it would be long lost by now.  There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Update: Blood Moon

Posted on by
Reply

Update: Blood MoonI’ve been reading some of my partially completed manuscripts, trying to get a feel for what to work on next.  I’m really dedicated to getting the next robot book done and I was cruising pretty well through 89 Eridani before I sat it down to complete said robot book and Astrid Maxxim.  Still as I was reading through the first part of Blood Moon, I really felt it compelling me to get back to it.

I think the first chapter of Blood Moon may be the best chapter I’ve ever written.  It’s definitely the best first chapter I’ve ever written.  It’s not the language or the writing, but the story and the characterization and the ideas.  There is a lot of wow factor stuff in it.  A big surprise in where and how we find our heroine and what she’s doing, an immediate rush of action, and one of my favorite new characters that I’ve created in a long time.  Plus it’s got vampires, werewolves, and zombies right in the first chapter.

I definitely intend to get back to this book before the end of the year.  Of course, I’ll keep you posted of my progress right here.

What Needs to Get Done

Posted on by
2

Patience is a VirtueOne of my main goals is to be at least partially supported by my writing by the time I retire from teaching.  Last year, my wrinting was responsible for about 5% of my net income.  In some ways that’s more than I ever could have hoped for, and I can’t help but be very happy.  But I’m going to have to drastically grow that amount within the next six to seven years.

I’m going to do that by building my name as my brand,  following simple but effective marketing, and most of all by getting some writing done.  When people read a book and they like it, they need to be able to find another book by that author.  They also need to find one that they like as much as the first.  For that reason, I have to get writing.  I’ve gotten really good at getting caught up on the extra stuff that comes with writing– researching, edition, designing, promotion, this blog.  Now that I have some real time, I need to get writing.

So what are the dates I’m shooting for?  If I follow my current speed:

His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue — August 5, 2013

82 Eridani: Voyage — November 25, 2013

The Sorceress and her Lovers — April 14, 2014

That’s not good enough.  Not only was I expecting to finish The Sorceress and her Lovers in 2013, I was expecting to finish Blood Moon too.  I got to kick it into gear.  The writing is the thing.