Update: The Young Sorceress

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I got the following message on the blog, but I can’t seem to find it now.  “Is either the Young Sorceress or The Two Dragons part of the Senta and the Steel Dragon series, perhaps?”

Yes.  The Young Sorceress is part 4 and The Two Dragons is part 5 (the conclusion) of Senta and the Steel Dragon.

Chapter 7 of The Young Sorceress is now done and it’s on to chapter 8.  I expect 15-16 chapters total.  I’ll keep you up to date. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking of the blurb for the book back.  It might go along something like this.

The young sorceress Senta Bly can get into all kinds of trouble.  Imagine the trouble when there are four of her, one extremely secretive and cunning, one giddily happy, one paranoid and frightened, and one apparently intent on murdering her boyfriend Graham and the new girl he’s been seen around town with.  Which if any, is the real Senta?

Astrid Maxxim is Coming to Paperback

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I’ve been vascilating over which if any of my books should go to paperback.  I don’t really sell any, though I do give some away.  On the other hand, my ebooks are starting to sell.  Still, I thought of all my books, Astrid Maxxim deserved a paper treatment, as it is aimed at young readers, who might not have access to an ereading device.  I chose an unusual format– 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 98 pages.  I did this for a couple of reasons- 1) it just works better with the cover illustration, and 2) I wanted it to be different than my other books, since this one is aimed at children.  As I write this, the proofs have already shipped and I should have them by the time you read this.

A Place to do my Writing

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I’ve been hard at work converting my daughter’s bedroom back into the den it once was, now that she’s moved on to her own place.  I’m really looking forward to having a quiet place to work.  As you can see, it’s a work in progress.

Get Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike on your Nook!

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You can now pick up Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike for your Nook by following the link below.  Just as at Amazon, Kobo, and iBooks, it is just 99 cents.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1107759360?ean=2940032863465&itm=1&usri=astrid+maxxim

Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike now at Kobo Books

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Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike is now availabe at Kobo books for 99 cents.  Follow this link right to it: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Astrid-Maxxim-her-Amazing-Hoverbike/book-dHww_7RCZ0eAeEurAyXCNg/page1.html

Patience

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Patience is the Robot in “His Robot Girlfriend”. Just as you might expect, she’s perfect.  What I find interesting is that so many people tell me they love Patience– both male and femal readers.  I guess she’s so pleasant that she’s just hard not to like.
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Though her hair was covered with a clear plastic cap, he could see it was jet black. It matched two dark, carefully arched eyebrows and a set of long eyelashes.        She had no other body hair.  Her face could best be described as cute, with large blue eyes, a button nose, and thick voluptuous lips.  She had the kind of slender and yet curvy body that was just not possible on a real woman.   Breasts the size of apples just kind of floated there above a perfectly flat stomach.  Mike tilted his head down.  She looked anatomically complete.

Of all my characters, none went through as much of a change between first draft and published work as did Patience Smith in His Robot Girlfriend. Originally she was a rather Amazonian figure, physically very imposing, but much more submissive. Some might argue that Patience is still submissive, but I think we find out in His Robot Wife that she really isn’t. When I rewrote a series of short pieces into a long story, she needed to have much more force of personality so that she could advance the storyline of forcing Mike to change. A college professor once told me the main character is the one in the story who changes the most– and that would be Mike.

When I started rewriting, I just wasn’t happy with her physical description, so I started completely from scratch, using some of the actresses that fit that body type: Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman, Alyson Hannigan, as well as a young woman I knew as a model– so yes, there really is a Patience out there. I observed her as carefully as possible (without seeming too creepy) so that I could describe her movements and gestures– like when Patience bounces on her tip-toes or incorporates dance moves into everyday movement. Since then, I’ve tried to find a human being to at least think about when I write most of my characters. 

Her personality couldn’t be base on a real person or even a person that I though up.  She’s a robot.  Her personality couldn’t be readily apparent.  It had to be very subdued.  It had to sneak up on the reader as it sneaks up on Mike.  For that reason I think, quite a few readers find her a dull automoton– Image finding a robot as such.  I think this is a failure for me as a writer.  Still of all the fan letters I’ve ever gotten, I would say that easily 40% (written about any book) tell me how much they love Patience.

I mentioned before that the robot books are not my favorite Wesley Allison books.  That being said, they are my most popular, so I may well write another.  Oddly, I have the hardest time thinking up plots for Mike and Patience, when plots just seem to pop up for my other books.  If a new one ever does pop up though, I will write it.  I have two titles in mind that I think are appropriate, but I’m not giving them up just yet.

The Next Astrid Maxxim Cover Reveal

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The next Astrid Maxxim will be Astrid Maxxim and her Undersea Dome.  Expect it before the end of February.  I am really pleased to present the cover.  As with the first Astrid Maxxim book, the cover was created by Matthew Riggenbach at Shaed Studios.  Working with him was wonderful.  In fact, there wasn’t much work at all.  I told him what I had in mind and he made it happen.  His first draft was almost perfect.  We made a few tweaks and it was done.  I am so excited.  Just looking at it makes me want to write.

As to the story.  As you can see, this second tale places Astrid in adventures under the sea.  I think there’s more action in this story than the first one.  Some of the characters that played small parts in the first story get a little more attention this time too.  Plus more Astrid and Toby.  I’m looking forward to penning more of Astrid’s adventures, though I only have ideas for the first ten or so right now.

New Reviews of Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess

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These two reviews were recently posted at Smashwords.

Review by: Nick Angelis : starstarstarstarstar
Finally! I was starting to get worried after I published an ebook with the tag “comedy” and couldn’t find many books in that category worth a chuckle. It was starting to inflate my ego about the ridiculousness I had written until Mr. Allison gently deflated it with this hilarious tale. I chortled, chuckled, and even cackled a few times while reading this book and recommend it unreservedly. That said, I’m off to procure some delicious pies of my own…

Review by: Alan Face : starstarstarstarstar
What a delightful tale! Wesley Allison, author of “His Robot Girlfriend” and the sequel, “His Robot Wife,” has done it again. His characters and style of writing about them in this story reminds me a bit of Mark Twain. He caught and kept my attention from beginning to end and had me chuckling constantly.
Two thumbs up for this one!
Thanks to both of you gentlemen for your kind words.  For those interested, I do have big plans in the works for Eaglethorpe.  There will be a new tale by the great storyteller (liar) or THREE coming soon– hopefully this summer.

Mike Smith

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Over the past several weeks, I’ve talked about the characters in Blood Trade, Women of Power, and finally Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike.  Now it’s time to move on to His Robot Girlfriend and His Robot Wife.

The story that became His Robot Girlfriend consisted originally of some short flash fiction and the characters were not very well developed. When I decided to turn it into a book, I completely rewrote it, adding an ending. I had to turn some cardboard people into real characters. In the case of Mike Smith, I just decided to make him– me. He was a school teacher, about five years older than me, when I started, and instead of being happily married with two kids, he was a widower with two surviving children. Personality-wise, language-wise, and description-wise, he’s about as close to me as I could get. As I neared the end, I started feeling a little uncomfortable that he was so much like me, and I began working in little things that made him at least somewhat different. In the end, physically at least, Mike changes quite a bit. Patience really gets him into shape. I just started at the gym two months ago (though I don’t have a Daffodil pushing me along), so this might be a case of life imitating art.

By His Robot Wife, Mike has become a fairly sharp-dressed, in shape retired fellow.  This was a natural progression from the end of the first book.  He’s still pretty snarky.

These two books have been reviewed hundreds of times by readers posting to the net, running the gammut from over the top praise to well… the opposite of that.  I get regular fan mail about them and they are by far the most read of my books.  I have to say though, that as a reader, these are my two least favorite of my books.  The don’t have as much of ME in them as say, Voyage of the Minotaur or Tesla’s Stepdaughters.  That being said, I am certainly very proud when someone else tells me they love them.  In the coming days, I’ll talk about the other characters.  Next up: Patience.

Rachel Carson High School

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Part of the setting for Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike is Rachel Carson High School.  It actually went through several different name changes.  I wanted a female scientist and I didn’t want to go with the obvious Marie Curie.  She should also be an American.  I think Rachel Carson is the most important woman (maybe person) that most people don’t know.

Being a teacher, one of the things I enjoyed was playing with the school environment.  All of the meals at Rachel Carson are gourmet meals.  Every child is dedicated to learning.  The students stay after to maintain the school and keep it clean.  Every student is on a specific program– designed to lead them in a different direction in life.  What are the programs?  That will be revealed in a future book.