They held it at the Crown Plaza Hotel near DIA this year, which was a new venue. The new location was sort of a mixed bag, while I felt there was plenty more room for vendors, artists, and media, there was a bit less room for panels (which is a big part of why I attend!)
That said, it was a fun convention. I was supposed to have three panels: Ow! My Spleen, Where Did This Chocolate Come From?, and Combat in SF and Fantasy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to the panel on Chocolate, though I heard it went well.
The Ow! My Spleen panel discussed injuries of characters, always a fun topic. While I didn’t get everyone’s name from the panel, I was moderating, also participating was Sam Knight and Chaz Kemp. Both of them had some great contributions about what horrible things to inflict upon characters (all in the name of plot, story, and character growth, of course).
The Combat in SF and Fantasy panel went excellent as well. We had Johnny Woodard, Betsy Dornbush, Chaz Kemp, and Courtney Farrel and one other author whose name I couldn’t remember (I think I have his business card, he had great things to say). We had a very full room, with great discussions and I really want to thank Johnny Woodard and Courtney Farrel for their excellent expertise that they brought to the subject and it was awesome to have Chaz Kemp with an artist’s perspective.
All in all, I really enjoyed Starfest and I hope to be back next year!
We’re getting into the last three days for the Kindle Scout campaign for Valor’s Child. What does that mean for you? Well, this is an opportunity to both help me to get a publishing contract and a chance to get a free book in the process.
For those of you who haven’t seen one of my posts, Valor’s Child is the first book of my new Young Adult series. I like to describe it as a cross between Ender’s Game and Starship Troopers.
Jiden’s parents barely scrape out a living on the dry, dusty world of Century. Jiden wants more for herself and she is ready to step into a bright future, one which may lead her far from the frontier world of her birth. She’s just got one obstacle: five months of military school. She’ll be away from her friends, subjected to long hours and a crushing work load. Yet as the challenges mount, she finds that there may be more to life besides comfort and security… things like duty and service.
You can find the Kindle Scout campaign here. All you need is an Amazon account to vote. As a secondary note, if the campaign doesn’t get selected, I’ll explore some other options as far as publishing/self-publishing.
Okay, seriously, what happened to my winter? Sunny and 70 degrees in Colorado since early February makes me wonder when the other shoe will drop…
But corny weather jokes aren’t why you’re here (I hope, because that wasn’t even funny for me, I’m just running at a severe sleep deficit right now).
The good news: I’ve sent Renegades: Out of the Cold off to my alpha readers and as I get their comments, I’ll edit it and send it to my beta readers. I’ve also started in on a book for submittal to a publisher, it’s titled Prisoner of the Mind and it deals with the origins of Kandergain and Shaden, two of the most powerful psychics in the Shadow Space Universe. Right now I’m just over two thirds of the way done, so I hope to have it finished soon!
I hope to have it done by the end of the month. And by hope, I mean I’m going to have it done. Which is good, because my plan is to publish Renegades: Out of the Cold in early April.
My writing project for April is the fourth book of the Shadow Space Chronicles: The Sacred Stars. For those of you wondering what happened to the Ghornath and Strike Leader Maygar… well, we’ll get into that! Assuming that novel goes smoothly, the plan is to have that one available for my readers in June.
As a reminder, my Kindle Scout campaign for Valor’s Child is winding down, please nominate it if you haven’t yet. Also, I’ll be at Starfest in Denver this weekend (11-13 March) so be sure to see me there!
I’ll be at Starfest 2016 here in Denver this coming weekend (11-13 March).
While I’m there, I’ll be moderating two panels: Combat in SF and Fantasy and Ow! My Spleen! I’m also trying to get an author table, but I haven’t heard anything about that so far.
Here’s my schedule:
Saturday 12 March @ 1 PM Ow! My Spleen!
All too often in a book or movie, the characters undergo severe physical trauma, only for them to undertake heroic acts in the following scenes. How do you write realistic fiction where your characters are injured and face the consequences yet still manage to allow them to do what you need?
Sunday 13 March @ 11 AM Where Did This Chocolate Come From?
Every time our character turns a corner in a secondary world, it seems there is a decision to make. Even something as simple as a drink (and brawl!) in a tavern can lead to a thousand questions about commerce, culture, and connections. Our panelists will talk about these decisions, pitfalls and rabbit holes, and when to say when.
Sunday 13 March @ 3 PM Combat in SF and Fantasy
A lively discussion about what works (and doesn’t) in books and media as far as fighting and conflict. A friendly discussion about violence, bloodshed, and what effect it has upon characters. We’ll discuss what goes on in crafting a scene, what makes a fight scene realistic without being over the top, and we’ll dive into examples of combat done right versus where authors/directors have gone wrong.
If you are here in Colorado, I hope to see you there!
Hello everyone! Valor’s Child is now on Kindle Scout. The excerpt there contains the first five thousand words. Those of you who nominate it (if it gets selected for publishing), will then receive the entire novel for free.
The planet Century lies at the very verge of human space. It is a frontier world, where hard work is not only essential to survival, it is a way of life. Jiden knows all about hard work, and she’s ready to buckle down and fulfill her dreams, to rise above her parent’s modest background and to stake her claim and be successful on her own merit.
Yet there’s one hurdle she has to face, her grandmother insists she attend the Century Military Academy’s Prep School. She plans to keep her head down, to get past this last obstacle, and then to pursue her dreams. Yet nothing goes to plan: she becomes the center of controversy, she finds herself drawn into infighting among the other candidates, and worst of all… she finds a resonance within her heart at the ideals of duty and service.
Remember: your support is what will get this book published. Please take the time to go to Kindle Scout and nominate it. Here is the direct link: Valor’s Child on Kindle Scout
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)
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
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.
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.
Leo Champion’s Desert Strike is a book. Okay, review done. No, seriously, it’s a book. And it’s got things in it. Go read it.
In all seriousness, there’s a lot going on in Desert Strike. We see war on a global scale, with a Chamberlain-esque government determined to avoid it, a hyper-violent enemy determined to murder and/or enslave the good guys, and a strange semi-benevolent star-spanning nation which supports both sides in return for the resources they’re fighting over.
Mix into this massive landships up-to and including aircraft carriers, a mix of tech that feels gritty and at the same time cutting edge, and incompetent leaders within the good guy’s chain of command, and you have a very interesting setting for the story that unfolds.
The book has several characters, and what Leo Champion does best is making those central characters seem real with believable goals and ambitions. You have a bad-ass, general, Jaeger, driven by anger and revenge. You’ve got a young, rookie pilot, O’Conner, who wants to leave his mark. These are the “Tropes” the “of course he has this person” but Leo goes further than that, he makes them real. The side characters abound, with momentary glimpses at a bigger universe, then whipping back to the central plot.
And what a plot. The enemy has been given free rein, and they use it. This isn’t a book where the good guys have it easy, where victory is well within grasp if they only work hard for it. If anything, I’d say the odds are too heavily stacked against them. At times, you feel that the only victory left is a pyrric, one, where the planet is left a radioactive wasteland… yet somehow you still cling to hope that the good guys will turn the tide.
Desert Strike is a book which surprised me in a lot of ways. I’ve enjoyed reading several of Leo’s books, but he writes in a certain tone, one which is instantly recognizable. Desert Strike takes his normal tone and softens it a bit, ironic in a book about combat and war. It has a fun edge to it, one which isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself, a bit of tongue in cheek even as a character’s life is in the balance.
The aerial combat feels like Vietnam Era, the ground war feels like something from the far future, and everything fits in a way that is hard to describe. If you’re a fan of military science fiction, I think you’ll enjoy the solid characters and gripping combat. If you just like exploding stuff, well, there’s plenty of that here for you too.
It’s about to go hot.
On the dry world of Arkin, the Zinj are taking over. A technologically-competent strain of Islam that make ISIS look like the Amish, they’re challenged only by the nations of the West – and a divided West without much will to fight.
Among those who do have the will are fighter pilot Egan O’Connor, a working-class kid from a tough neighborhood, ready to test himself and serve his country. He’s a chivalrous rookie ready for an honorable battle.
Jimmy Newland’s a cavalry NCO who’s earned his spurs. He’s ready to fight but he doesn’t want to; he’s seen enough skirmishes to know how bad it can be. But he’ll do his job if the cold war gets nastier – as it’s about to.
And there’s nothing chivalrous at all about Air Marshal Elisabeth Jaeger, a career intelligence officer promoted to field command. Twenty-five years ago she saw her husband murdered by the Zinj; she’s spent the time since avenging him. As she’s about do on a scale just a little bit broader than spywork…
Kal Spriggs 