Category: On Writing

The Night’s Venn Problem

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I’ve waxed lyrical about marketing on here before – we’re almost doing it again! Rebekah did a marvelous new cover for Night’s Favor. This book is a huge pain in the ass to do a cover for, because it’s not your usual werewolf book. It’s also not your usual police procedural, thriller, or supernatural suspense. It’s the all-y’all version of those things, and this makes finding readers a hyoooge challenge. What she came up with is the best damn cover it’s ever had. I mean, you can see what’s going on there, right? We’ve got Val, who’s looking a little fucked if we’re honest with ourselves, and the werewolf about to turn him into a Val-sized snack. This particular scene happens before the book starts, but that’s not really important. We want a werewolf, we want it now, and we Read More …

Your Ears Just Got Lucky: Win Tyche’s Flight!

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You got that right – you can snare a copy of Tyche’s Flight in freshly minted audio. I’ve teamed up with Saffron Bryant and Mary O’Paddock to bring you an audiobook giveaway bundle. For a bit o’ variation, the copies of Tyche’s Flight and The Waters will be delivered via authors-direct.com, and Speak will come at you from Audible. That’s just how it’s gonna be. (ICYMI, you might dig on my review of Speak). Win Audiobooks

We interrupt your vigorous holidaying for this important announcement šŸ”ˆ

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Tyche’s Flight is now out in audio! It’s been Big Huge Funā„¢ļø putting this together, not least of which because I got to work with the supremely talented Tim Paige. I’ve pulled together a massive two-hour audio sample for your listening pleasure. You can put on your cans and drown out the cries of over-sugared children during this festive time: [https://dl.bookfunnel.com/5jr33w65w3] I love everything about this. If you want to hear Nate and Grace kick Ezeroc ass from Absalom Delta, now’s your chance. The complete book is almost ten hours of murderous insects, self-serving Republic military, and a starship running a little low on luck. You can fatten up your audiobook library just about anywhere: [Audible] [Apple Books Audio] [Kobo Audio] [Google Audio] [Nook Audio] [Scribd Audio] [Beek Audio] [eStories Audio]

The Cost of Great Things and The Importance of Libraries

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I had time to listen to an economics podcast while boiling my head in battery acid, because I appreciate pain at many levels. The podcast was interesting though. There’s conversation in there about the cost of entertainment, with the interviewee claiming he feels best (I paraphrase) at the $1-2/hr entertainment level. It’s no surprise this resonates with those who choose reading for leisure. If I open Tyche’s Flight, my Kindle tells me there’s about 7 hours left to go; at USD$3.99, that’s $0.57 an hour. The sequels rock out to $0.71/hour because I’m a price-gouging hack; that’sĀ still pretty decent. The books are a reasonable length (although tend to not feel long, being “page turners” in the parlance of my people). Some people will get more or less value here due to consumption speed. My wife has a reading rate I Read More …

The 1-Star Challenge

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When I read about John Scalzi’s 1-star challenge what feels an age ago, I wanted to grow up to be a Real Author(tm) who had people hate him that much. Life lesson #784: you should be careful what you wish for. After some some folks who were pissed theirĀ freeĀ first-in-series of mine didn’t conclude every plot loop ever and decided to storm Amazon over it, I needed some group therapy. I talked to a couple author buddies to see they could help peel the Band-Aid off. Man, people have opinions, especially when they’re safe behind John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. These three brave souls agreed to furnish us with the review they just couldn’t understand. Side note: if you want to work on your resilience training, put your work on a public forum. The Nova Chronicles: Books 1-5 What is Read More …

The Storm Within [REDACTED]

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I finished outlining The Storm Within yesterday. Wait, what? This is the sequel to Blade of Glass, the artist previously known as Prince Boundless. We also have a series name (The Splintered Land), and all three books have titles (which my cover artist will be delighted about, as now she has something to work with). Blade of Glass The Storm Within Three’s Boundless Like the original Blade of Glass outline, all the important parts are missing: Sorry about that. Writing starts … today!

Audio Test – Check One, Check Two…

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Hey y’all. I’m experimenting with audio at the moment. There’s been a few requests for various of my books in audio format. I’d love to do this, but also love to not be bankrupted by the process (audio’s expensive to make!). To that end, I’ve been thinking things like, what if I got a local narrator, or what would happen if I took some acting lessons and tried it myself? One of the big challenges is the New Zealand accent on the untested ear. Most audiobooks I’ve listened to have North American narrators; is this the expected norm? Do people dig our accents from down under, or are we bad to listen to? I’ve put together a quick audio test – have a listen, and give me some feedback on the accent: I’m aware the video’s a bit shit (ancient Read More …

I Wrote an Epic Fantasy šŸ¾

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You know what this is? The length of the Boundless first draft. Finished it today! It needs a few chunks added, which I’ll finish over the next couple days, then editing (ROUND ONE) begins. But, the story’s code complete. Geneve reached the end, someone died who deserved it, and someone died who didn’t. That’s how these things go. Spoilers: Boundless is a working title. I need to come up with something suitable. Also, to work out where that dragon I misplaced in chapter 25 went… In case you’re curious about length: My Ezeroc Wars books (Tyche’s Flight…) are about 85,000 words long. Night’s Champion (Night’s Favor…) are about 120,000 words. Chromed books (Chromed: Upgrade…) are about 80,000 words. So, this is bigger than any of those. Just sayin’.

The Pursuit of Readers šŸ“š

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I’ve been thinking: how do you find your ideal reader? There’s a lot of advice on this, most of which is using personas. This is an old trick I learned in IT Landā„¢ļø Way Back Whenā„¢ļø. The idea is you work out who uses your product, and/or who you want to, and design services around those people. If you’re writing a mobile banking app for retirees to check their account balances, you damn Skippy better make sure you take into account their tech familiarity and ability mismatch scenarios, or it’ll crash and burn (…and/or no one will use it). My deep, introspective* thoughts suggests there are two interlinked parts: Who you write for, and Who you market to (or, perhaps, how you market to them). * In the shower last Tuesday. A friend and I talked about the different types Read More …