The wait is over! In the Lone and Level Sands is now available in ebook format (list price $3.99) through Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes (with Kobo and Sony editions coming soon). It’s also available in print (list price $12.99) through Createspace and Amazon (with Barnes & Noble coming soon).
In the Lone and Level Sands is the story of seven groups of people across America as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse.
The ebook will also be available through Amazon, Kobo, and Sony eBooks. A print edition will also be available soon.
Purchasing a new print edition through Amazon will allow you to download the Kindle eBook free of charge.
Just a reminder, you can read the first 19 chapters of the book under the “Samples” section of this blog. You can read a longer sample at the book’s Smashwords page.
Another reminder, the ebook edition of After the Bite is free for the month of November.
I’m very excited to release this novel next week. In the meantime, my NaNoWriMo progress has slowed considerably. I reached a point where it felt like forcing the story out would ruin it, so I’m more or less checking out of NaNoWriMo. I wrote a good 20,000 words and I absolutely plan to finish this novel, just not by the end of November.
I’ve also come up with a new title for one of the books I’m querying agents for. I’m not sure whether I want to change it yet, but I’m thinking I’ll do a blog post about titles pretty soon, as I have a few things to say on the subject.
The tentative release date for my co-authored zombie apocalypse novel In the Lone and Level Sands is November 26th, 2013.
Leading up to its release, I’ve been posting a lot of fun zombie-related stuff on the book’s Facebook page. This blog post is meant to recap a lot of that. If you like zombie fiction, I hope you’ll check these out.
Free Norman Peters! – A blog maintained by one of the minor characters in In the Lone and Level Sands.
After the Bite – A collection of short stories and poems set during the same zombie apocalypse. Published in 2012, the e-book is free for the month of November if you download it through Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes Books, or Sony.
Update: Amazon now also allows you to download the eBook free of charge.
This book is also enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, meaning if you buy a new copy of the paperback edition through Amazon, you can download the Kindle version free of charge.
In the Lone and Level Sands preview – The first two parts (about 16%) of In the Lone and Level Sands uploaded as a .doc to Google Docs for easy reading. This includes the first 19 chapters of the upcoming book, in their entirety.
I’ve been a huge fan of zombies for a long time, and In the Lone and Level Sands is the zombie epic I always wanted to write. I’m happy to finally be releasing my contribution to the zombie genre, and I hope you’ll stick around when it arrives later this month. I also hope you enjoy the rest of this stuff in the meantime. Have fun!
Free Norman Peters! is a companion to our upcoming novel, In the Lone and Level Sands. For more information, check the book’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/intheloneandlevelsands
Anyone who knows me and/or my friend Seth Thomas will know that a few years ago, we started writing a zombie apocalypse novel together. Throughout that time, other projects took the forefront of both our lives, but we never forgot about this one.
I’m glad to finally announce our book, titled In the Lone and Level Sands.
The story follows seven groups of people across America as they deal with the onset of the zombie apocalypse in different ways. When people around them begin killing and eating each other, unlikely allies band together for survival. But the creatures are evolving, and if the survivors want to live, they’ll have to do the same.
In the Lone and Level Sands is set in the same universe as our collection of short stories, After the Bite. We plan to release it in late November, but if you like the book’s Facebook page, you’ll have access to excerpts, a lengthy preview of the book, and a few surprises along the way.
Seth and I offer our thanks to everyone who has followed this book’s progress over the years, and any newcomers to it as well. We’d also like to thank Laura Soret for providing the gorgeous cover artwork.
Stay tuned. Good things are coming. To start them off, use the coupon code “DV23C” (without quotes) to get the e-book version of After the Bite free at Smashwords. The coupon expires on December 1st (subject to change, but only if I have to change it).
I found a healthy way to lengthen my scifi manuscript. It’s still on the short side, but I think it’s solid, story-wise. I’m working on querying, now.
My last post mentioned editing an older project for self-publishing, and that has gone very well. Hopefully I’ll have something substantial to post in the next two or three weeks. I’m pretty excited.
I have another review, this time of 11/22/63 by Stephen King.
11/22/63 is probably my favorite non-Dark Tower Stephen King novel. I say this loosely, as almost every one of his books ties into that series in some way, and this one is no exception. It’s not a horror novel, although the elements of it are there. It’s a gripping story, and a heavy one.
We live in a world that all too often demands a happy ending. I admire King’s ability to ignore this demand, but for the right reasons. It’s easy to write a tragedy for the sake of being contrary, but King doesn’t do this. Instead, his story is tragic, but hopeful, and shouldn’t it be? How often does life tie up all the loose ends, pack them into a gift-wrapped box, and send them to us on a sunny day, with all of the “good guys” alive and unscathed and all of the “bad guys” locked up or dead? More likely, the outcome of an event is apt to be a little good and a little bad (and usually a little more of one than the other), as are the people involved.
11/22/63 tells a fantastic tale that, because of the way it’s told, could just as easily be about real people and real events. Few authors do this as well as Stephen King, and while some of his craft decisions leave me scratching my head or even rolling my eyes, I always walk away grateful to have read the book and spent that time with his characters and stories. This one gets five stars from me.
As a side note, this is my first experience with an audio book. I think I prefer the print, but Craig Wasson’s reading was superb. Each character came to life in a unique but not over-the-top way. Sometimes he read things differently than I would have, but I could hardly call the different perspective a bad thing.
Since the last few posts have been reviews of other people’s work, and that isn’t what my blog is meant to be about, I thought I’d give a quick update before posting my latest review.
I’ve finished the second draft of my latest manuscript, a scifi/cyberpunk-ish novel called The Foreland. Thanks to the wonderful people at QueryTracker’s forums, I think my query letter is ready to go. I’m not querying agents yet (though I am making a list of them); I’m worried my manuscript might be a little too short. I’m currently exploring ways to lengthen the story without adding fluff or nonsense. I only need to add a few thousand words to get it to the “ideal word count” I’ve read about on so many other blogs, but if I can’t do it well, I won’t do it at all. I think I’d rather have a good story be a little short than have a fluffy story be the ideal length.
I am, as always, working on writing my next big project. I have a few ideas in the works, but few far enough along to talk about right now.
I’ve also picked up an older project for another round of editing, this one more likely to be self-published. Depending on how much of that I get done in the next few weeks, you’ll probably hear a lot more about it very soon.
On to the review:
Three Hainish Novels is, as the title suggests, a collection of three of Ursula K. Le Guin’s books, these ones set in her science fiction Hainish Cycle.
Rocannon’s World is Le Guin’s first novel, and the first in this collection. A lovely tale, science fiction at its finest, and wonderfully told. Some of the paragraphs run on a little long and the story begins to feel exhausted toward the end, but it doesn’t wear itself out and instead comes to a clean, beautiful close. 4/5 stars.
I’m not usually a fan of flowery prose, but in Planet of Exile it’s done so well and in such moderation that it only adds to the story. The story and the writing are both beautiful. Le Guin perfectly captures imagery and poetry in prose form, and this builds up to some moments later that gave me chills and could put most of the horror novels I’ve read to shame. The first few chapters were slow but very much enjoyable, and once I got to the last third or so of the book, I couldn’t put it down. 5/5
The final book, City of Illusions, is the longest, though still not a very long book. I had a little bit more trouble with this one; it’s very wordy, and I had to read over a few sentences a few times to get their meaning, especially when they were full of mythos and things from other Hainish Cycle books that weren’t immediately clear to me. Just as it begins to feel like it’s dragging on, the story takes a sharp turn, and all of that journey leading up to that point becomes clearer, more important. The moral dilemma faced by the main character, Falk, is astounding; page after page I dreaded what would become of him.
This is possibly the first of the three books in which it becomes clear that while the stories in the Hainish cycle take place billions of miles and hundreds of years apart, they are very much a part of one story. It was interesting to see a pebble cast by a character in one book lead to ripples the size of species in another, and there was a very strong thread of emotion connecting characters hundreds of years apart, never knowing each other or their stories, but somehow working toward the same end.
Each book in the Hainish Cycle is like a snapshot, a capture of one moment, one story, only a glimmer of the whole, expansive tale of mankind throughout the millenia. It excites me that there are more Hainish Cycle books to get to, and I can’t wait to see how they fit in. The series being written in one order and taking place in another means that once I’ve finished reading them in the order they were written, I can go back and read them in the order in which they take place, and start to see things new again.
Overall: 4/5 stars. Be sure to check out more reviews on my Goodreads page.
In April I finished the first draft of my latest manuscript, and almost immediately after, a friend asked me to look over one he had recently finished, which I was happy to do, as I like to put some time between drafts of my work. After finishing his and starting on mine, I started to feel like reading something else. I don’t tend to read a lot while revising my own work, but I had spent too long away from the pile of books beside my bed. It was around that time I decided to pick up The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, thinking a short story collection might make for easier reading while I worked on my own writing. This proved to be a miscalculation, as I had trouble putting the book down.
Mentioning Le Guin’s work will most often draw to mind her fantasy, namely the Earthsea Cycle, which would pave the road for the likes of Neil Gaiman, Hayao Miyazaki, and J.K. Rowling. Perhaps less famous (but equally as influential, not to mention good) is her science fiction work, most of which falls under the Hainish Cycle. What most people won’t think of, however, is horror, which is a pity because she is perhaps the best writer at it. I’ve read books and found them disturbing, perhaps creepy, but never have I seen them as more than words on a page, which are not inherently horrific. Some of the stories in this book changed that for me. I would be hard-pressed to argue that the point of any story on the book is to be a work of horror, but there’s no doubt that Le Guin has managed to capture fear. I’m not talking about the gruesome and grisly, or the idea of some grotesque creature coming to “get” you, but the real horrors: Madness, isolation. The realization that you are not alone in a dark room, the comprehension of that which renders us infinitesimal.
“Semley’s Necklace” opens the collection. A short story on its own, it also happens to be the first chapter of Le Guin’s first novel, Rocannon’s World. Reading that novel was probably my first experience with the horror Le Guin is capable of writing: At first a mild science fiction work, it slowly works its way toward a terrifying realization. It was the perfect way to open both books.
“April in Paris” offers an immediate change of tone, being a more light-hearted fantasy work. “The Masters” presents the idea of persecution of the scientific, a theme that will recur in many of the author’s works, and contains one of my favorite passages in the book. “Darkness Box” is another fantasy piece, and one I enjoyed. Only a few pages long, it presents a world more rich than ones I’ve visited for entire novels.
“The Word of Unbinding” and “The Rule of Names” are both part of the Earthsea Cycle. The latter has elements of dark comedy, and in the last sentence returns the horror theme present throughout the collection. “Winter’s King” takes us back to the Hainish Cycle, and while a strong story, I thought it might have been better if it were extended into a full novel. Entire revolutions are passed over in a paragraph, which I assume is because they are perhaps not directly related to the central character’s internal story, but seeing years go by in a sentence was inescapably jarring.
“The Good Trip” provided a nice change of pace, being a short speculative work between two larger science fiction pieces. Following this is “Nine Lives”, one of my favorite stories in the collection. After this is “Things”, another short but very rich piece, and another favorite of mine. “A Trip to the Head” is a much less “conventional” story, being speculative through and through, and I appreciated the story it had to tell and the way it was told.
“Vaster Than Empires and More Slow” marks the point at which I couldn’t stay away from the book for more than a few hours. Another science fiction piece and part of the Hainish Cycle, this one stands perfectly well on its own. In this story were passages that gave me chills; perhaps for the first time, reading a book terrified me. Yet the story is not gloomy; it is beautiful even at its darkest, perhaps when it is darkest. This is not only my favorite in this collection, but easily one of my favorite short stories.
“The Stars Below” runs parallel to “The Masters” but is perhaps more enjoyable. “The Field of Vision” is one of the most terrifying stories I’ve ever read, and one of the most interesting. “Direction of the Road” offers a change of pace, another dark comedy and one of the most imaginative things I’ve read.
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” was the first of Le Guin’s works I read. After a few years, it holds all the power it did when I first read it, and I was glad to re-visit it. I could write at great length about this story, but for now I’ll just say that I hold this one close to my heart.
“The Day Before the Revolution” solidly closes the collection. It might make more sense to me once I read The Dispossessed, but I did enjoy the story.
Nearly every story left me wanting to start the same story again, so this is a collection I look forward to coming back to time and again. It only grows more relevant with time, and I hope to read it over every few years, noticing things I hadn’t before, taking away lessons that passed me by the previous time. I can tell already that it has a lot to teach.
Hey everyone! I haven’t posted here in a while, but I’m busier than ever! Here’s what I’ve been up to:
Editing!
I’ve been making some minor pre-edit adjustments to the novel I finished in April, which is tentatively titled The Foreland. I think these are pretty much finished, and now I’m going to let the manuscript sit for a few more weeks before I really get down to editing.
I’ve also been proofreading a manuscript by my good friend Seth Thomas. He printed a copy of it for me to write and draw all over, and I’ve been trying to do so every night.
Reading!
I just finished Mile 81, a novella by Stephen King. You can find my review of it on Goodreads. I’m still debating what to read next, but City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin is pretty high up on my list.
Writing!
I’ve been taken on as a staff writer for a Nintendo fan website, Nintendocon. Be sure to follow it for the latest news, reviews, and analysis.
Publishing!
Laura, the wonderful artist who did the cover for After the Bite, has been kind enough to draft up a new version. This one has much better title text, is easier to see, and is (hopefully) much better-looking in print (I’ll know for sure as soon as my copies arrive).
The people behind /r/shutupandwrite’s Critiquecast have been kind enough to critique my microfiction piece “The Reaper Runs Faster”. If you don’t know what Critiquecast is, it’s a podcast in which a group of amateur writers critiques other amateur writers, with hilarious and probably not-safe-for-work results. It’s a lot of fun, and you should check the podcast out.
As always, I’m working to try to get short stories and novels published traditionally. I’ll be a lot more specific about this if and when I have anything specific to announce.
That’s the gist of what I’ve been up to. What about you?
Hey guys! A few weeks ago I posted a release notice for my latest novella, Six and Seven. Since then I’ve been working on a few things, included fixing some formatting errors that popped up in the e-book (which today I think I’ve finally resolved).
While repeatedly going over the book looking for errors, something caught my eye. It’s the little copyright notice at the beginning of the Smashwords edition of the book. It’s where I claim the copyright and ask people not to share the book or read it for free.
The text itself was copied from an example given by Smashwords, and I had never really thought much about it. Reading it the last few weeks got me thinking, though. The truth is, I don’t really care if you read my books for free, or if you share them with someone else. That’s not to say I like working for free; I certainly enjoy being paid for my writing, but if it came down to someone reading my books for free or not reading them at all, I’d choose the former.
I don’t think this should be the case. I think people have a right to be paid for the work they do. But I also understand the plight of the modern consumer: All of the free samples in the world don’t help if you get to the end of a book and just feel ripped off. This is especially true the weaker the economy is and the tighter someone’s budget is.
I’ve decided to try an experiment, a new business model. I’ve always released my books free of DRM when given the option, and I’ve never hunted anyone down to see if they were sharing it with a friend. I’m taking that concept to the next level. From now on – at least for a little while – if you want a copy of one of my* ebooks, just ask.
(*I’ll have to exclude After the Bite and any future co-authored books. This experiment is my decision and it wouldn’t be fair to implement that on a work that isn’t wholly mine.)
Send me an email at justonesp00lturn (at) gmail (dot) com, let me know the title of the book you want, and the format (I should be able to handle most, including pdf, epub, mobi, whatever calibre is capable of converting to). I’ll send you a copy for your reading pleasure.
What I will ask in return is that you consider rating my book on goodreads, amazon, smashwords, wherever. I’m not asking you to give me good reviews, and I don’t want you to feel compelled to. I’ll only ask you to give an honest review. And if you don’t feel like giving one at all, that’s cool, too.
Another request is that if you want to share the book with a friend, please use this same method. It wouldn’t be fair for me to encourage people to share works that were created and distributed by other bookstores and by Smashwords. They do work over there that I feel they deserve to be paid for, and if you disagree, that’s the beauty of having a choice of which, if any, you support monetarily.
I don’t know how long I’ll extend this offer. I am, after all, trying to make writing my career. But I believe the vast majority of people will pay for something they feel deserves that support, and I know it’s hard to to decide that based on a small sample of a whole work.
This brings me to the second part of this post.
I recently received some very helpful feedback regarding Six and Seven as it is currently being presented. That included some criticism I more or less agree with, that the cover is a little bland, and doesn’t really demand attention like a cover should.
Six and Seven is an illustrated work. I’m not a good artist by any means, but as I was writing it I was digitally painting scenes that popped into my head, and these are included in the book. I also made a “cover” version of each illustration, with the intention of making them available here on my blog for people to download their favorite and replace the book’s “official” cover with. I still intend to do that, but I thought of something that might help solve this little uncertainty I’m having at the same time.
I’m going to put the covers up on here and let anyone give their input on them. Whichever gets the most positive attention will likely become the “official” cover of Six and Seven. And hey, if you just want to comment and tell me they’re all terrible, go ahead (though it won’t do much good; I already know I can’t draw, that’s why I’m a writer and not a painter :P).
I’ll most likely be repeating this information on my other social networking sites. Feel free to share at will; if you have a friend in the market for some new books, I’d really appreciate you sending them my way (or sending my books their way).
Here are the covers. Click one to make it larger, and if you want, leave a comment letting me know your thoughts, your favorite, your least favorite, what have you. Thanks!
One was closer.Here and ThereDead Eyes, Water MouthSomewhere, Somewhen, Somewhybelow everything that ever existed
Faded Pages 