FYI: Social media

Just to let everyone know, I'm not on Facebook or Twitter.  My social media presence is basically just this blog, Goodreads, and kboards.  So if you want to interact with me on social media, those are the places to do it.

Otherwise, thanks for your support, and thanks for reading.  :)

Progress report

I'm doing the mobi edit of Mind Games.  I'm at the 20% mark on my Kindle, so I'm a fifth of the way done.  Not bad for a few days' work, especially in the wake of the holiday season, but I hope to increase that pace a little.  I'd like to finish it by the end of next week.

After the mobi edit comes the formatting and final proofreading.  That shouldn't take long.  And I still need to tweak the cover a little, but that's a few hours' work at most.  I'm well on pace to have this book published before the month is out.

After the launch, I plan to dive right into the first draft of book 3.  I'd like to get it done by the end of March at least, and preferably by mid-March.  Then I'll put that aside and work on a short story for Alasdair Shaw's next anthology.  His deadline is the end of April.  I've already got a skeleton of a story written, so I sort of know where I'm going with it.

So that's where I'm at. My goal for 2018 is to get the first half of the Wheel of Fire series published.  I'd love to get book 5 out there, too, but I think that's stretching it.

Thanks, Patty!

Howdy, folks!  Welcome to 2018.  I hope y'all had a great New Year's Day.  :D

First, a promotion update.  I lowered the price of Cities of Mars to 99 cents for Patty Jansen's promotion, and I can attribute several sales to it.  I made three sales of the book on Kobo, and that retailer has been sort of a dead zone for me, so I'm pretty sure those sales are from Patty's gig.  (I had a number of sales on Amazon, too, but the book was already selling on Amazon, so there's no way for me to separate out the signal from the noise there.)  So... thanks, Patty!  It was a pleasure.  :)

I'm currently trying to set the price back to $2.99 everywhere.  I'm saving Amazon for last so I don't have any price-matching snafus.  So if you're browsing my product pages and notice the price discrepancy for that book, well, that's why.  Hopefully it will be back at full price everywhere by the end of the week.

I've got the beginnings of a short story down for Alasdair Shaw's next anthology.  I need to let it percolate in my brain for a while, though.  For now, I'm turning back to book 2 of the Wheel of Fire series, Mind Games.  I'm about to start the mobi edit.  After that will be the formatting and the final proofreading, and then I'll need to tweak the cover a little, and then it'll be ready to release into the wild.  I'd like that to happen this month, but no promises.  February seems more likely at this point.

My goal for the series is to get book four out before year's end.  It won't be easy.  And life tends to get in the way of my goals.  But I need something to shoot for, so there it is.

In the meantime, I hope y'all make 2018 a great year for yourselves.  :)

Patty Jansen's promotion: ALL BOOKS 99 cents

Patty Jansen was gracious enough to include Cities of Mars in her end-of-the-year promotion, so now I'm doing my part to get the word out.  Every book included is 99 cents.  Just click the image or type in the URL:

So go check it out.  Lots of different flavors of SFF to choose from.  Who knows?  You might find your new favorite author, and for just 99 cents.

Cities of Mars is on sale: 99 cents

It's December, and Santa Tanyard comes down the digital chimney bearing gifts.  For the rest of 2017, you can get Cities of Mars for $0.99.  Ho, ho, ho!  :D

Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting my work.

Finally!

I've finally got this battle scene at the bridge finished.  I've been wrestling with it for a few days, and it's been slow going.  I initially had Shariel using a Reliant rifle (with bayonet) in the fight, but I switched that out for her usual Felid sword and an Agrarian rifle.  I also ended up changing some tactics and movements.  I ended up adding a couple thousand words, I think.  Anyway, it's done, and there's now a nice heap of mutilated bodies at the bridge, so I can move on.

In other news, Alasdair Shaw has announced the theme for his next anthology.  It's "The Renegade."  I already have an idea.  Once I finish this second draft of Mind Games, I'll work on the first draft of the short story I plan to submit to his anthology.

Keanu is the real deal

I recently watched John Wick for the first time.  Yeah, I know... I'm late to the party.  But I've seen it now, and seeing John Wick 2 is definitely in my future.

It was interesting to learn that Keanu Reeves has done some 3-gun training for the movie.  For those who don't know what "3-gun" is, it's a variety of shooting sport that involves pistol, rifle, and shotgun shooting on a timed course.  I've never done it myself, but it seems to be one of the more popular shooting sports nowadays.

Here's Keanu training 3-gun style:

Nice shooting, Mr. Wick.  Looking forward to the sequel.  :D