Category: On Writing

It’s Vogel Time

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If you want to do me a solid, head on over to the nomination form and pop Tyche’s Flight* in for a Best Novel award. The competition is brutal in the SJVs; many amazing artists are going head to head. It’d be nice to win for a change, but being accepted as a nominee rocks several degrees of awesome. [Click Here for the Nomination Form] Nominations close 8.00pm on 2nd February 2018 (NZST), which isn’t that far away — feel free to punch the drives to their limits and head there now. You can nominate multiple New Zealand artists for the award, so don’t feel like you’re burning your one golden ticket on me. The SJVs provide many golden tickets. If you need help with making a nomination for Tyche’s Flight, you can use these handy copy/paste entries: Title of Work or Name of Read More …

Where I Talk About the Reader Survey

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The people have spoken. Below you’ll find a tear down of of my December 2017 Reader Survey. I’m sharing this back out because: Respondents might dig knowing what everyone else said; I’ve got a bunch of author friends who will find some of this pure gold; and It’s fucking cool. The usual disclaimers apply. Self-reported results are notoriously iffy, and the sample size is limited. Also, I’ve got a huge amount of unconscious bias which will be evident in how I parse this stuff. Let’s see how sub-par my brain is, hey? Ruling the World Why start small? I want to write more books in my latest Tyche story universe, because a) I enjoy it a great deal and b) readers seem to as well. This is what biz people call win-win. First up? What to call the universe. I rejected about Read More …

Pew! Pew!

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I was invited to participate in Pew! Pew! 4: Bad versus Worse. This is a level of awesome I hadn’t anticipated. Pew! is a humorous anthology series where the greats of indie sci-fi (everyone else on the cover except me) rub shoulders with the newbies (me). You can get it here: https://www.books2read.com/Consensus This volume is a 50/50 mix of heroes and villains. My story, Consensus, is about a huge asshole named Austin (that’s not why he’s an asshole) who goes on a not-quite-heroes journey to start a new megacorp. I would dig it if you could check it out and let me know what you think  Blurb for Consensus: Decisions shouldn’t be hard. As a lead researcher for Reed Interactive, Austin Ainley created The Decider. It’s tech that can nudge people towards making the right choices. Despite his brilliance, Reed threw Read More …

Tyche’s Deceit

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My latest book, Tyche’s Deceit, is out! You can get it here: https://www.books2read.com/TychesDeceit The enemy is already here. After the encounter with the merciless Ezeroc on Absalom Delta, Grace Gushiken and Nathan Chevell make a run for home. They have a new mission: to warn humanity. Aliens are real. And they are already among us. The crew of the free trader Tyche are hunted by men in black, fearsome fighters who share the Ezeroc’s powers. When the Tyche lands on Earth the ship’s placed on lockdown. Her crew are scattered and on the run. Without their ship or friends, Grace and Nate have no escape. The Republic and its military have been corrupted to the core by the Ezeroc. Humanity’s homeworld is at risk. As hope dwindles, Grace and Nate receive an offer they can’t refuse from an unlikely source. The Read More …

Tyche’s Flight

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My latest book, Tyche’s Flight, is out! You can get it here: https://www.books2read.com/TychesFlight I’m somewhat in awe of this review from Alternate Realms Magazine: Parry’s gift is in taking a time-worn plot and characters, and refurbishing them into an engaging read. Unlike many Space Operas, the technological details in Tyche’s Flight are plausible, if not always possible, and the writing usually flows seamlessly so that it fades into the background, highlighting the ongoing turmoil. A colony world goes dark. Grace Gushiken is a grifter and a liar. Worse, she’s an esper, an abhorrent creation of the Old Empire. Grace keeps her blade sharp and her wits sharper. She’s on the run from the Republic’s justice. Nathan Chevell captains the free trader Tyche, an ex-war heavy lifter. He’s no pirate, but he’s no white knight either. An encounter with espers saw him discharged Read More …

A Wanted Woman

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With the release of Tyche’s Flight just around the corner, I thought I’d share the start of the book. You get to meet Grace for the first time, even though you probably already know the cut of jib already. I’d love to know what you think, so face your fears and drop me an email ? Grace had less than a day to live. Oh, sure. She might be able to stretch it to a day and a half. But what’s twelve hours against your lifetime? Not a lot. Her room at the hotel was burned. The only thing she had left was her stash with her sword and a few Republic coins for emergencies. She hadn’t expected to be on this particular crust for this long. She hadn’t expected to be here at all. When Grace got caught, she’d die. Simple Read More …

When you’re out of options

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I try and put my people into tricky situations. Not just the guns-and-lasers-and-swords situations, because that kind of goes without saying. No, the type where they’ve got to make a choice where the first path is shit, and the second path is also shit. I especially like it when the actors do it to each other. Here’s a piece of Tyche’s Crown, the third of the Tyche’s Journey trilogy. The story so far is that … spoilers, so I’ll just say that Kohl is not having a great time, and Nate and Grace need to rescue a couple of their friends from the clutches of evil scientists. Oh, it’ll be fun. “Hey,” said Nate, then, “Hey.” He moved across the ready room to grab her, and Grace slumped into his arms. “Grace? Are you okay? Grace?” “I’m … fine,” said Grace. “You Read More …