Hello everyone! I’m happy to announce that Valor’s Child, my military science fiction/space opera young adult novel is coming to Kindle Scout. I’m really excited about this book, I’ve had some great feedback on it and I hope it will appeal to a broad audience. The general theme of this series is going to be a cross of Ender’s Game and Starship Troopers.
So what is Kindle Scout? I’m glad you asked! Kindle Scout is a publishing service within the umbrella of Kindle. Basically, Kindle has stepped up things and created their own in-house publisher. The way it works is actually quite novel: Authors upload their manuscripts to Kindle Scout, where anyone with an Amazon account can view their work. Those who like it can vote for it (you get up to three votes at a time). The best part for readers is that if the book they voted for gets selected for publishing, then they’ll receive a free copy when it is published. That’s right, just for participating you get a free copy. Pretty cool, huh?
In this way, Kindle Scout is crowd-sourcing books. What they provide for me as a writer is that they have all the assets of a publisher: they pay for copy-editing and they help to promote the book.
This is something of an experiment to me, so we’ll see how it works. Hopefully a lot of my readers will check it out. I’ll post the link on Friday when it goes live. (Edit: It will go live on Saturday 13 Feb)
Snow, snow, and more snow… Oh, wait, that’s the weather channel.
February is here and I’m pleased to say that my YA novel, Valor’s Child, will soon be available on Kindle Scout. I’ve had great feedback from beta readers on this one and I can’t wait to see what the rest of you think about it. I’ll be posting on Kindle Scout mid-month and it’ll run a 30 day campaign. What does that mean for you, dear reader? Well, it means you have a chance to read a big chunk of the book, to vote for it there on Kindle Scout, and if they pick up the book for publishing, you’ll receive a free copy from Kindle. I’ll post more about that later, but who doesn’t like free books, right?
In other news, I’m continuing work on Renegades: Origins and I’m beginning work on two additional projects which will be submitted to publishers upon completion. One of them is a steampunk novel (I did some worldbuilding for it here) and the other is an origin story on some of the most powerful psychics in the Shadow Space Universe. As soon as I finish off this Renegades novel, those are next on the plate.
Speaking of Renegades, I’m also considering doing an anthology for the universe with collected short stories from a variety of authors. I’ll post more about that at a later date, but right now it’s a strong possibility.
The latest installment of character biographies is now available, this time for the Eoriel Saga. These biographies are up to date as far as the first book, Echo of the High Kings and include biographies for most of the main cast of characters with a small number of characters that I’ll add as I get time.
Depending on how much people like these, I may expand this to include other characters or I might just post the appendices for the later books with appropriate spoiler warnings.
I have been able to add a few details on characters which hasn’t been explicitly stated in the books. As a bit of fair warning, these biographies are based upon “common knowledge” so they may not entirely resemble the truth… or they might well be entirely fictitious!
The Freeport Mutineers, a short story in the universe of the Eoriel Saga, is available now from Amazon. The best part is, like any good story about pirates, it’s absolutely free! (well, for today and tomorrow)
Troubled by the rumors spread throughout the Southern Fleet, the young officer turned to the Marines and Sailors under his command… yet he and they were betrayed, arrested, and convicted of mutiny, all under the orders of the ambitious Lord Admiral Hennings.
Faced with the prospect of not only his own death, but that of the men under his command, Wachter must somehow find a way to do the right thing. Yet there is little hope with he and his men jailed, weaponless, and condemned, while the town of Freeport lies under martial law and the threat of dark sorcery.
Only one course lays open to him, to break his oaths and to swear allegiance to the cause of another, to become exactly what his enemies have accused him of being: a mutineer.
My short story, Look to the Stars, will be available for free January 22 & 23 on Amazon since I’ll be at CoSine this weekend. You can get it here.
Mason McGann is a smuggler, a liar, and a cheat. With his ship impounded by customs, he figures he has no choice left but to auction off information about the lost Dreyfus Fleet. But things are never what they seem when you hold information that can change the course of history.
Look to the Stars is a short story in the Shadow Space Universe
I now have the draft cover for my soon-to-be-released short story: The Freeport Mutineers. This is an epic fantasy story set in the Eoriel Saga universe. The basic premise is simple, a young man, faced with true evil, must decide what to do.
Troubled by the rumors spread throughout the Southern Fleet, the young officer turned to the Marines and Sailors under his command… yet he and they were betrayed, arrested, and convicted of mutiny, all under the orders of the ambitious Lord Admiral Hennings.
Faced with the prospect of not only his own death, but that of the men under his command, Wachter must somehow find a way to do the right thing. Yet there is little hope with he and his men jailed, weaponless, and condemned, while the town of Freeport lies under martial law and the threat of dark sorcery.
Only one course lays open to him, to break his oaths and to swear allegiance to the cause of another, to become exactly what his enemies have accused him of being: a mutineer.
The Freeport Mutineers will be published on 23 January, 2016.
I’m excited to announce that coming out on January 23rd, I’ll have a new short story available from Amazon, titled The Freeport Mutineers. The Freeport Mutineers is a short story set in the Eoriel Saga universe, just after Admiral Hennings has seized the town of Freeport.
Young Midshipman Wachter is about to face the rope.
Troubled by the rumors spread throughout the Southern Fleet, the young officer turned to the Marines and Sailors under his command… yet he and they were betrayed, arrested, and convicted of mutiny, all under the orders of the ambitious Lord Admiral Hennings.
Faced with the prospect of not only his own death, but that of the men under his command, Wachter must somehow find a way to do the right thing. Yet there is little hope with he and his men jailed, weaponless, and condemned, while the town of Freeport lies under martial law and the threat of dark sorcery.
Only one course lays open to him, to break his oaths and to swear allegiance to the cause of another, to become exactly what his enemies have accused him of being: a mutineer.
My fellow Henchman Press author, Mark Wandrey, has his latest book out. Twilight Serenade is the fifth book of his space opera series.
I haven’t had a chance to read his series yet, but I’ve heard good things about it. It’s supposed to be big-scale, epic space opera with the kind of grand scope that I tend to look for in Science Fiction.
The galaxy is not a safe place.
More than five hundred years after Earth’s destruction, the descendants of humanity’s survivors are finally coming into their own under the leadership of First Among the Chosen Minu Groves. They’ve gained allies and slowly built strength, and now Minu has decided that the time has come to bid for freedom from the Tog, long humanity’s sponsors in the interspecies Concordia.
The Higher Order species, though, have been proven to possess fleets of starships to enforce their iron will. To leave her species helpless against such a foe is not acceptable to Minu. So she’s about to set off into the deep darkness of space looking for the rumored ghost fleets, remnants of the Lost’s ancient armada from an eons-ago war.
Those ships could be the final piece Minu needs to permanently ensure humanity’s freedom. But as her plans develop, the greater mysteries of her own history, her husband’s fate and the very nature of the Concordia may prove to be her own undoing – and with her, all of mankind.
As part of the new site content, I’m introducing character biographies to the website. I’ll have background details and general descriptions of central (and some side) characters for each of the series I write in. Up first (because it’s the smallest cast of characters) is the the Star Portal Universe and the cast of Fenris Unchained.
I tried to strike a balance of giving enough background to develop the character without including any real spoilers. As one might imagine, on Fenris Unchained, this was more difficult than I’d like, but I think I did alright.
Ideally I’ll add pictures of the characters at some point, but for now, I’m taking the time to go through and do the same to all my other universes. The good news is most of this is already done in the form of notes I keep for myself, I’ve just got to scrub those and make sure I don’t give away any spoilers.
Up next I’m working on characters from the Eoriel Saga and then from the Shadow Space Chronicles. If this is well-received, I’ll continue to do more of them. As always, I value feedback on these, please let me know what you think!
You can find the first set of character biographies here or just check in the Star Portal Universe section.
Glynn Stewart’s Hand of Mars picks up a few years after his previous book (Starship’s Mage) left off. The story remains focused upon Damien, who has grown in skills and abilities, but seems to be the same person we saw at the end of the last book.
The story revolves around a planet where a corrupt governor has ironclad control over a planet and has even subverted the Emperor’s appointed military officers. Damien, sent to help one of the Emperor’s Hands of Mars, must investigate, find out the truth, and set things right. What seems like a simple proposition goes rapidly sideways with drastic political and military repercussions.
Damien remains an interesting character, with a strong personal sense of responsibility and an overall sense of integrity. His earnestness, his desire to do what is right, is put to the test… yet at the same time, he never truly has to make a difficult decision. The bad guys in this novel are really, really bad, willing to wipe out tens of thousands or even millions of people, just to get their way. When he confronts them, we have that sense of satisfaction as he brings them to justice… but there’s never any doubt over whether he’ll make the right choice.
I did enjoy watching Damien grow. There was no doubt about where he was headed, growing in both experience and authority, and it was nice to see the character rise in that fashion. Glynn Stewart handled it well, giving Damien time to shoulder more and more responsibility and letting the reader see the character develop.
The side characters in this novel don’t feel quite as engaging as in Starship’s Mage. There it was easier, I think, due to the smaller cast, a single ship with a small(ish) crew. I didn’t feel as much personal attachment to the characters in the sequel, which removed a lot of the dramatic tension regarding their survival. They were interesting, from Hand Stealey to her Marine escort and many of the other characters… but they felt more like a backdrop. This was Damien’s story, and they were here to support that.
Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. It remained a fascinating read and as always, the magic system and the universe are engaging. I read the book quickly and felt satisfied at the end. It’s a quick, engaging read with good guys confronting the bad. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book and I enjoyed watching Damien’s character grow.
ROGUE MAGE TURNED INTERPLANETARY ENVOY
Three years ago, as Ship’s Mage of the starship Blue Jay, Damien Montgomery was pursued to the edge of human space by both the agents and enemies of the Mage-King of Mars — before being brought in from the cold.
Now, trained in new skills by the Mage-King himself, Damien has been sent to the planet Ardennes alongside Alaura Stealey, Hand of the King. A rebel movement there has destroyed cities fighting a Governor seemingly lost to corruption.
But not all on Ardennes is as it seems. As allies becomes enemies and an entire world comes apart in chaos around him, Damien will find both his skills and integrity tested to the utter limit.
Kal Spriggs 