For the curious reader of science fiction (scifi) and fantasy
I got a nice plug from a site called Ereader News Today, which highlights books in the Kindle store. Looks like another good place to keep an eye on ebook deals.
Anyone who’d like to help give me a boost could go there and “like” it, or whatever. (This Facebook “like” business makes me shake my head like some old-timer going, “What are these crazy kids up to now?” I have to admit. But it does seem to help generate a buzz. So if you’re inclined to do that, I’d appreciate the “buzz.”) Thanks!
http://ereadernewstoday.com/bargain-kindle-book-neptune-crossing/677273/
International readers! You can now buy Sunborn (The Chaos Chronicles #4) in Kindle format outside the U.S.! This has been a long time coming, and it’s mostly my fault, because I didn’t realize for a long time that Tor only had U.S. ebook rights. Anyway, I’ve put a lot of time into trying to make sure everything is right in this ebook version. (If you find any typos, please let me know.)
You can get it now in the Amazon UK store and in the Amazon Germany store.
(Hmm. I just discovered that Tor has a Kindle edition in the German store. That’s a mistake and should be coming down soon, as Tor doesn’t have rights in that geographical area. You should buy the Tor edition in the U.S. and the Starstream version outside the U.S.)
This cover is temporary, by the way, until my crack designer can get to doing a more polished version.
This Starstream edition is DRM-free, and readers of other formats are welcome to convert it to suit their needs. (Calibre is an excellent free program for converting formats and much more.)
An ePub version is coming soon to the Apple store, and that will also be DRM-free.
A woman named Deirdra Eden Coppel likes my blog and has awarded it her Best of Sci/Fi Award! Here’s the very pretty award picture that came along with it. Thanks, Deirdra!
More than that I don’t know, but here’s Deirdra’s blog, A Storybook World.
We might not have the space shuttle anymore, but there’s a lot to be psyched about in space. Here are a few, in case you haven’t heard about them.
Antimatter Orbiting the Earth?
Sounds crazy, but it could be for real. Scientists working with the Pamela spacecraft (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics, in case you were wondering about the name) report that they have found antiprotons in orbit around the Earth, apparently gathered into bands similar to the Van Allen radiation belts. While not in large enough concentrations to cause passing spacecraft to go boom, the researchers note that they could be a source of fuel for future spacecraft.
Water Flowing on Mars?
Could be. New studies of images from Mars orbit sure look a lot like seasonal flows of water. If it’s the real deal, this could mean liquid water close to the surface, and that could mean a greater likelihood of life on Mars. Now, not a million years ago.
Beer in Space!
Now we’re talking. Yeah, people—including NASA types—are really looking into the possibility of beer in weightlessness. Very serious stuff! They’ve already done parabolic flight testing!
Star Trek Theme Park in Jordan?
Okay, this isn’t real space, but damn. King Abdullah II of Jordan is the main investor in a proposed Star Trek theme park, which has secured $1.5 billion in funding. Plans are to build it in Aqaba, Jordan. King Abdullah, you see, is a Trekfan, and even got himself a cameo appearance, back before he was king, in Star Trek: Voyager. You’ve gotta love it. But I haven’t even made it to Universal Studios yet!
By the way, one reason I haven’t posted in a while is that I’ve been really busy writing. I’ve also finished the proofing of text for the World Edition of Sunborn (crazy problems with Word losing styles, which I’ve finally gotten under control). Look for an announcement soon on that!
I’ve just come back from a four-day writing retreat on Cape Cod, in the town of Sandwich, just over the Cape Cod Canal which marks the boundary of the Cape from the mainland of Massachusetts. Allysen set me up at a great B&B in Sandwich (the 1830 Quince Tree House), and I reveled in having time to myself, time to spend near the water, time to write, time to rollerblade along the bike path that runs most of the length of the canal. It was fabulous! Even in such a short time, I started to get more traction on the book.
Here are some pix I took with my cellphone camera, most of them shot from the bike path while I was skating.
The bike path begins near a long jetty that extends into Massachusetts Bay from northern end of the canal. I could have spent a week just watching the boats go through the canal (though I never did catch any of the commercial ships that are supposed to account for half the traffic). Not far along the coast are the beaches, and the salt marshes just inland of the dunes.
Another highlight was taking a scenic ride on the Cape Cod Central RR, along the canal and past the cranberry bogs. It was a foggy evening, but that just made the canal eerie and beautiful in a different way. (For more money and an advance reservation, you can have an elegant dinner or a family-style supper on the train. That’s definitely on my to-do list with Allysen.)
The last evening I was there, I got it into my head to skate the length of the bike path (6.5 miles) and take a picture of the train going over the beautiful 1930’s lift bridge at the south end of the canal. I succeeded, though the picture didn’t come out very well, so here’s a shot of the train passing along the canal, right next to the bike path. And another of the RR bridge against the setting sun. Once I saw the train cross the bridge, and the sun setting behind the bridge, I realized that I’d just watched the sun go down, and I had six and a half miles of skating between me and my car! Flank speed! I just made it before the light failed.
Finally, I got to enjoy my favorite beer, Cape Cod IPA—and (somewhat to excess) my favorite foods, fresh fish and chips, scallops, and shrimp.
I’m ready to go back!
Let the fireworks begin! It’s July 4th, so I’m taking one-fourth off the price of Dragon Space: A Star Rigger Omnibus, and its fellow star rigger novel, Eternity’s End! The following coupons will get you the discounted prices at Smashwords, where you can download multiple formats, including .mobi for the Kindle and .epub for just about every other reader, including the Nook and Sony. The coupons are good at Smashwords for all of July. You paste them in at checkout.
Many of my fellow Backlist Ebooks authors are also advertising books at great prices. Edit: You can see a list of some of them by clicking Comments under the Smashwords thread here.
Meet the newest member of the Starrigger Ranch! Cap’n Jack is a border-collie/lab mix, probably with some other seasonings, as well, who joined our family just three days ago. Jack came to us from a shelter in Connecticut, courtesy of the rescue group http://www.helpsaveone.org/. Guesses vary on his age, but average out to about two years.We know that he came from West Virginia, and that he’d been hit by a car and lost or abandoned. But his leg injury is all healed up now.
Jack is a terrifically sweet guy, and has made himself right at home. Our cat Moonlight isn’t so sure yet. She was a bit alarmed, at first, but stood her ground. Now, she seems to regard him as a big oaf who is all too often between her and where she wants to go. They’re not yet to the point where she can just walk past him. But I was cheered yesterday to see Moonlight curled up on the sofa, and Jack crouched on the floor nearby, woofing an imploring “Please play!” Moonlight was unperturbed, and declined the invitation.
The only big problem so far is that Julia’s having some allergic reaction to his dander, so we’re swabbing him down with Allerpet/d to try to minimize it, and the Roombas are working twice as hard. And I keep calling him Hermione, which was the name of our boxer who died back in January. (Even though he really looks way more like our old dog Sam—not the beagle of recent years, but the border-collie/lab mix I had about twenty years ago. I don’t seem to have any of old Sam’s pictures scanned in; I really must dig through the photos piles and find some.)
This weekend, we’re going to meet another rescue dog named Igby—don’t ask!—and see if he might be a good brother to Jack. (I almost said Sam just then. I’ll get it straight eventually.)
Update: Igby was a charming little guy, but didn’t seem like the right fit. So for now, at least, it’s Captain Jack and his cat-friend(?) Moonlight.
I’ve known for a while that folks outside the U.S. have been unable to buy the Sunborn ebook, at least in the Kindle store. All this time, I thought it was a glitch at Tor. Turns out it was a glitch here at the Starrigger Ranch. It seems Tor only holds U.S. ebook rights. This discovery has caused yet another flurry of consternation and ebook production here at Starrigger Central, as I gear up to publish an international edition, for readers in the rest of the world.
This involves several steps:
That said, I hope to have it up in a couple of weeks. So if you’re outside the U.S., and you’ve read the first three Chaos books and have been wondering why the hell you can’t buy the fourth, please be patient just a little longer!
Starrigger HQ out.
Here’s a video of a recent test flight of Spaceship Two, which by this time next year could be offering rides into space to the public. (Got $200,00 I could borrow? I’m good for it. I promise.) The amazing thing about this video isn’t the test flight per se; it’s the mode of reentry. Watch it, and you’ll see the spaceship raising its tail feathers and bobbing like a badminton shuttlecock—intentionally!
I’m going to try to tweak this so that it’ll fit on my page here. But if you want to read it with some explanation, view it here, again courtesy of the Bad Astronomy blog.
