When I released the first tortured edition of Upgrade in 2014, it sank without a trace (from a sales perspective). While sales aren’t the total arbiter of success, they’re definitely a leading indicator! The re-master launched last Friday. Today, it snuck into the top 100 of the cyberpunk genre on the world’s biggest bookstore. No clue if 96 is as high as it’ll go, but it feels like I might have finally given this book the treatment it deserved.

No. Wait, you want something better than that? Okay. I entered, and “won,” NaNo back in 2014. I was itching to write a cool, edgy cyberpunk book. I’d originally titled it Uplinked, but after conversation with my wife that changed to Upgrade. I had so, so many ideas for this book. Bionics. Particle cannons. Plasma weapons. Always online, always ready. Love. Hope. The people lost in the cracks. I would do William Gibson proud, man. A little peer pressure crept in. October of that same year, a few friends were talking big about how they’d win NaNo. I’d never heard of NaNo, thought, “How hard can it be?” and wrote Upgrade (or a hyooooge chunk of it) during November. Despite knocking something like 65,000 words out of the park during NaNo, well in excess of the 50k threshold, I discovered Read More …

The first third of Chromed: Upgrade is available for download on the house. You’ll still need to wait until November 9 to get the whole thing, but that’s not that far away. Until then, this might just whet your appetite. [GIMME] Remastering the original Upgrade’s been a blast. My editor had my back, and dipping back into the universe was a fun ride. I don’t mind admitting I like my own story! I can’t wait to hear what you think.

From the current WIP – presented without comment. You may remember Sadie’s recovery time from Reed’s psychotropic drug in Upgrade was … pretty quick. She leads that kind of lifestyle. Even in the life of a busy corporate bee, you needed coffee. Sadie found a once-was mom-and-pop cafe across from Human Energetic’s plaza. The syndicate bought out the owners, turning it into a company drone stall. She was surprised it was open, what with the rioting and looting, but this close to Human Energetics, there was little of either. Some half-hearted tire fires. A burned out car. Nothing much else going on. Inside the coffee shop was no different. No one here except the young man behind the counter, the hologram HumanE logo shifting on his apron. All the surfaces were spotless, gleaming whites and steels. A well-stocked cabinet held Read More …

I’ve been getting deep into Upgrade’s sequel. It’s hard to return to a world five years on, but it’s also hard to put on pants and I do that most days. Most. Here’s a scene I’m working on. I’m not sure if I’ll keep it for the final. Here is the first time in the new book we see Harry and Lace. You probably shouldn’t read this if you haven’t read Upgrade, because it will quite probably cock up a bunch of the emotional pull of a subplot. You’ve been warned. Harry leaned close to Lace, smelling the back of her neck. She wore her hair up, a hint of a smile on her face at his touch. “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” “I own this place,” she said. “It’s my place.” Harry Read More …

Y’all want to see how the work on Upgrade’s remaster is coming along? Truth, it’s taking longer than I reckoned. My writing back in the day was … well, let’s agree my craft has progressed a shade or two since then. I’m really pleased with how it’s turning out, but to get to the satisfaction point I need to wade through the mire first. ICYMI, I mentioned I’m re-editing Upgrade prior to the sequel. This quick vid shows just how much of each chapter is changed. I’m keeping it pure so Han still shoots first, but also making it cleaner (read: deleting shit even I don’t understand anymore).

Yeah, I went there with the post title. Upgrade is the book I am most asked for a sequel for. Sadly, it didn’t sell very well, so I never completed the next two (2!) books I’d planned in the series. Upgrade offers a complete story, but it leaves the door open for said sequels, leaving many people with nothing to do but send me angry emails with the subject: Where is the fucking Upgrade sequel?! I hear you. So, you’ll get the next story before year’s end (assuming I don’t get cancer and die first, or something else as dire … new kittens arrived, and they’re hell on productivity). Before I launch the new book, I need to ask myself a really important question. Why didn’t the first one sell well? I’d originally dismissed lackluster sales a result of people not Read More …