What I learned from my Recreational Reading: Part One
This past week I got sidetracked from writing (after 3 weeks in a row where I achieved my stated goal of 5000 words a week) because I was putting together all the figures l needed for my 2016 taxes. However, in the process I made a list all the books I bought in 2016, whether or not they were ebooks or print, and what I paid for each, and this has prompted me to do a little more analysis on my reading patterns. First of all, I was pleased to discover that I had bought 65 books this year and had read almost all of them. This meant I read, on average, more than a book a week, nicely confirming of my impression that I had read more books in 2016 than I had the previous year. Second, while the Read more…
2017 Goals #2: Do More Recreational Reading
In my goal setting post last January, my third goal was to do more recreational reading. And that is a goal I can definitely say I accomplished. The primary reason for that success was that I discovered the fun and convenience of reading short stories. While I have written short stories—about minor characters from my Victorian San Francisco mystery series––and I have even written about why I like to write short stories in this blog post, I hadn’t actually read many short stories for years…maybe decades. In fact, except for a number of years in my youth when I found the time to read the New Yorker from cover to cover (including the short stories), I don’t really remember when I ever chose short stories for my recreational reading––certainly not mystery and science fiction short stories. So, what caused the Read more…
2017 Goals #1: Writing More Blog Posts
Once I start to think about goals for a new year, I start to think about goals I failed to achieve in the previous year. And one of those goals was to blog more frequently. Well, guess what? Having written only 6 blog posts of substance in 2016 (only about half the number I did in 2015), I think I can firmly say that goal wasn’t met! However, being the analytical person that I am, I decided to blog a bit about why I think that happened. First, when I began blogging in December of 2009, I was primarily detailing my own journey as an independent author, in a time when we were rare enough creatures to actually be quite interesting to others. Second, I soon discovered a few selling strategies that were working very well for me that not Read more…
Holiday Promotions
I thought I would let you all know about a couple of promotions I am running for the holidays. Maids of Misfortune, the first book in my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, is still free in most ebookstores, but I have also made Uneasy Spirits, the second book in the series, FREE until 12/27 on Kindle, iTunes, Nook, Kobo, and GooglePlay. In addition, Uneasy Spirits has just been whispersynced, which means that if you own a copy of the Kindle ebook edition you get the audiobook version for only $1.99. For those of you like to give ebooks as gifts, a reminder that the first four books in the series is available as a boxed set for $8.99–a 40% discount. Finally, Between Mountain and Sea, my first novel in the Paradisi Chronicles series, will be only 99 cents on Kindle between January Read more…
Launch of Chronicle Worlds: Paradisi
For those of you interested in my work in the open-source Science Fiction series that I helped create (see this blog piece on the origin of this series), I am proud to announce that a new anthology of short stories, Chronicle Worlds: Paradisi, set in this world, has just been launched…zooming up to the top of the Amazon best-seller Science Fiction Anthologies list. Part of the acclaimed ‘Future Chronicles’ series of speculative fiction anthologies, published by Samuel Paralta, in Chronicle Worlds: Paradisi, twelve authors take us on an incredible journey with adventurers, scientists and colonists, as they push the boundaries against the unknown, against alien civilization, and themselves. I am excited to have one of the stories in this anthology, “Aelwyd:Home,” which tells the story of Kammie, one of the minor characters in my full-length Paradisi Chronicles novel, Between Mountain and Sea. Read more…
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