Category Archives: Reading

Reading, Writing

Kal’s June 2016 Forecast

Leave a comment

Wait… where did May go?

The good news I guess is that I’m elbow deep in The Sacred Stars and I hope to have it out to my alpha readers soon.  The fourth book of the Shadow Space Chronicles will continue the military science fiction series as we delve a bit into the Ghornath and just what has been going on with them.  Its a step back from the massive battles of the last book, but with plenty of desperate odds, exploding space ships, treachery, romance, and everyone’s favorite pair of engineers.

I’ve got the final cover for Fate of the Tyrant, and I’ll be pushing that as well as the blurb out here soon, also starting snippets as I lead up to the release later this month.

As I said last week, I’ve been sick so I’ve fallen a bit behind on my writing schedule.  I hope to get caught up this month, which means putting lots of words to page.  My next project is an urban fantasy work, which I’ll be submitting to publishers (if that doesn’t work, I’ll self publish, but either way, it’ll be a while before it sees the light of day).

I hope to have it done by the end of the month or early July at the latest.  My next project after that is the third Renegades book.  I’ll be adopting a more standard novel format for that one, so it’ll have a more linear reading style rather than the collection of short stories and novellas like the previous two books.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Reading

Quick Update

Leave a comment

Just a quick update for now.  I’ve been extremely busy this past few days and also fighting a serious cold.  I’m sort of on the upswing, but I’m still utterly wiped out.  I’m still at work for 10 hours a day plus about an hour commute either way.  To top things off, the whole family has been sick, so things have been a bit stressful.

That said, I’ve been finalizing stuff with my cover artist for the Fate of the Tyrant.  The third book of the Eoriel Saga will be coming out sometime in June, basically as soon as I hear back from my alpha readers, get the edits done, and send it on to my beta readers for a second look.  There’s so much going on in this book that I’ve had to spend extra time on it, in order to do all the characters justice.

I’ll go more into what’s going on with my June update, but since it’s been quiet here I just wanted to pass that along.  That’s all for now, I’ll have more news and posts later.

Reading, Writing

Kal’s May 2016 Forecast

Leave a comment

May is here!  I’m excited for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that I’ve started work on The Sacred Stars, the next book of the Shadow Space Chronicles.  This one takes a step back from the huge battles of The Shattered Empire and The Prodigal Emperor and has a smaller cast as well.  If all goes well, I’ll have it done by the end of the month, which means out to my alpha readers in June and published in early July.

In other news, Fate of the Tyrant is almost ready.  It wraps up the initial trilogy of the Eoriel Saga and paves the way for the rest of the series.  I’ll do a final round of edits and then I just need to wait to hear back from my alpha and beta readers.  Look for a blurb and snippets as well as the cover to appear over the next few weeks.

In other news, I’m finishing the final setup for a store here on the website as well as coordinating things with Sutek Press to start selling signed copies of my books there.  I’ll post more when it’s all ready to go.

Next month I start work on an urban fantasy book I’ve had knocking around in my head for a while.  It’s another book I’m going to send to publishers, so don’t expect to hear much about it right away.

Oh, yeah, and a little movie called Captain America: Civil War comes out this weekend.  I’m going to see that.  Maybe twice if it lives up to the hype.  Expect a review on Monday.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for reading!

Reading, Science Fiction, Writing

Oh… Hugo

2 Comments

So, as some of you have heard, the announcement of the Hugo Award Finalists (as opposed to nominees) has come out.  And we’ve got an interesting variety there.  Everything from some good, well written stuff to, well, Space Raptor Butt Invasion.

There’s been a variety of articles written about all this.  At this point, the Hugo Awards went from quietly excluding people they didn’t like to an outright war between Puppy Haters, Sad Puppies, and Rabid Puppies.  The awkward part being the “right wing” Sad puppies are really the moderates here, seeking to nominate books based upon merit alone.  On the one end you’ve got the people who want the award to be a precious token passed between insiders and on the other you’ve got a host of angry people who are tired of politically correct, bland, crap being given awards because the authors check the right boxes within the exclusive club.

The really sad part is that the award that used to mean quite a bit became so relatively worthless that both sides are now willing to burn it to the ground to spite the other.

That, my friends, is what you get when you push things too far one side or the other.  I’m afraid the same thing is happening now in US politics, where we have a clown show up for the presidential nomination.   Not because any of these candidates will make things markedly better, but because at this point, both sides are so raveningly angry that they just want to punish “those other people.”

As of this time, I’m coining the term a “Hugo” for a clusterfuck of gratuitous proportions, made up of angry people who want to see things destroyed.  I’ll be certain to use it in my books going forward, where appropriate.  Sadly, that’ll be the only weight the award will carry going forward.

It’s a Hugo of a situation.

Reading

Review – Renegades: Out of the Cold by Kal Spriggs

Leave a comment

A review up for Renegades: Out of the Cold over at between the bookshelves.

 

betweenthebookshelves's avatarbetweenthebookshelves

29764009Genres: science fiction
Series: Renegades #2
Synopsis for Out of the Cold: The Renegades are coming out of the cold. 
They have escaped from an alien prison, stolen a ship, survived pirate attacks, and now they are finally returning to civilization. 
Yet civilization brings all new threats. Old enemies await and new enemies abound. They’ll have to work together to survive, even as their own pasts and fortunes seek to tear them apart. Along the way, they’ll face an infamous assassin, slavers, bounty hunters, and get caught up in the biggest war that humanity has ever seen.
Because the Chxor are coming and if the Renegades won’t help stop them, who will?
Rating: Farm-Fresh_starFarm-Fresh_starFarm-Fresh_star
The author was kind enough to give me a copy of this book in exchange for a review. This does not in any way affect my review of this series.
I enjoyed this installment just as…

View original post 248 more words

Reading

Forums, Store, and Audio Snippets

Leave a comment

Good morning everyone!   Just a heads up on some of the things I’m working on.  I’m looking into an online forum, setting up a web store where you can buy T-shirts and other stuff, and doing some other updates to my website.

Right now I’ve got a few ideas of what to put in said web store, but I’d love some feedback.  What kinds of things would you like to see? Signed books?   T-shirts?  Coffee/Tea mugs?  Anubus plush dolls?  Let me know what you’d like to see and I’ll put it up.  I hope to have it set up sometime in the next couple weeks, but I’ll be able to add and remove products depending mostly on interest.

The forum is also a work in progress, though it may take me another month or so to get started on it.  A big part of forums is participation, so I’ll be checking it regularly and hopefully those of you into such things can have some fun discussions there.

Lastly, I’m working with a very talented young woman to start doing some promotional audio snippets for my Renegades series.  Depending on interest, I may do those for some of my other books.  I’ll post links when I get the chance, but again, I’ll want some feedback from people.

Lastly, Renegades: Out of the Cold has been out for almost two weeks.  If you read and enjoyed it (or even if you didn’t like it), please post a review!  Reviews are how Amazon recommends books to readers.  I currently have zero reviews for just over a hundred sales.  Reviews help new readers to find me, so if you get the chance, please post a review!

Reading

Moving On…

Leave a comment

For those of you who have been reading my stuff from the beginning, you’ll know that I got started in self-publishing with my Renegades novellas.  It all started with Renegades: Deserter’s Redemption.

From there I published The Gentle One, Declaration, and Ghost Story.   Feedback was pretty good, so I took the step and published my first novel, The Fallen Race.

I’ve recently come back to the Renegades Series, which I hope to write more regularly (I’ve got book three planned and I’ll start outlining in July).  What I’ve learned from the series is that having lots of separate small stories doesn’t draw the attention of readers as much as larger stories.  Also, it doesn’t sell as well.  I make more money off of one sale of the Renegades: Origins omnibus (even priced lower) than I do off of a reader buying all five of the novellas.

More than that, I’ve learned that readers can be confused when they see so many titles.  Daunting, I think, is the term.  I’ve been told by several people that they don’t know where to start.  I’ve also received negative reviews from people who started the novellas in the middle of the series.

Going forward, I’ll be publishing the Renegades stories as more traditional novels.  That means an end to the novella and short story format.  It also means I’ll be pulling the plug on the Renegades Novellas.  If you want to get a copy, I’d advise you to buy one soon, otherwise, you’ll “have” to buy the Omnibus (which has way more content for less overall price, I’m terrible, I know).

I’m also pulling the Renegades ebooks off of Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and other online retailers (other than Amazon).  That will allow me to go Amazon exclusive.  Since that opens far more marketing opportunities for me (and chances to discount books for my readers), it’s the way to go for now.

For now, The Fallen Race ebooks will remain on these other retailers, but I may pull it in the near future as well.   The reasoning is simple, I sell far more through Amazon than I do through all the other retailers combined.  In fact, it isn’t worth the time for me to go through the painful process to upload a book with Smashwords to gain access to these other retailers.

Make no mistake, this is actually a step forward.  You may see fewer titles under my name, but that’s to help new readers find me more easily.

That’s all for now.   Thanks for reading.

Fantasy, Reading, Science Fiction, Writing

Kal’s April 2016 Forecast

Leave a comment

April is here and with it Book II of The Renegades (get it here).  It was great to write again in that universe and with those characters and the feedback I’ve heard back has been great.

I’m currently finishing work on a couple different projects, mostly editing and some rewrites.  I’ve finished outlining the next story of the Shadow Space Chronicles, The Sacred Stars, which follows up where The Prodigal Emperor left off.  The Sacred Stars  gets back into the combat/military science fiction in a big way, with all new toys for the characters to play with.  If I’m able to stick to my schedule, I’ll start writing it in May, which puts it on track for a release in July.

One of the projects I’m editing and rewriting is Fate of the Tyrant.   I’m doing my best to make certain it is every bit of the book that my fantasy fans deserve.  If the edits and rewrites go well, I’ll have it done at the end of April and that means a release in June.

Another project I’m working on is one with my main publisher, Sutek Press.  They’re interested in doing an anthology in my Shadow Space Universe.  I’ll announce more when the details are worked out.  But if you’re interested in writing in that universe, Sutek Press might be interested.

The next few months are light on conventions for me.  My next one is in July at Liberty Con, and from there I’ll have one a month for the remainder of the year.

For those of you who live in Colorado or might be in the area over the next few months, I’m trying to set up some book signings at various locations.  I’ll post details soon.  If you’d like me to do a signing in your area (and it isn’t too far away) message me here at the website or on Facebook.

Thanks for reading!

 

Reading, Science Fiction, Writing

Book Sale and Release for Renegades: Out of the Cold

Leave a comment
Renegades: Out of the Cold
Renegades: Out of the Cold

Renegades: Out of the Cold is now available from Amazon!  As a limited time promotional event, the first novel of the series, Renegades: Origins, will be available for $2.99 and my short story  set in the same universe, Look to the Stars, will be available for free for the weekend.  My novel, The Fallen Race, set in the same universe will also be discounted to $2.99 for the weekend.

The Renegades are coming out of the cold.

They have escaped from an alien prison, stolen a ship, survived pirate attacks, and now they are finally returning to civilization.
Yet civilization brings all new threats.  Old enemies await and new enemies abound.  They’ll have to work together to survive, even as their own pasts and fortunes seek to tear them apart.  Along the way, they’ll face an infamous assassin, slavers, bounty hunters, and get caught up in the biggest war that humanity has ever seen.
Because the Chxor are coming and if the Renegades won’t help stop them, who will?
Get your copy here.