Month: February 2023

Uncommon

I haven’t been an avid consumer of entertainment since I started writing, partly because I don’t want other authors’ stories in my head during the process. But there’s also the matter of what to consume — in that the quality of legacy media appears to be on the decline.

Essayist Derek Thompson (Is America Really Running Out of Original Ideas, The Atlantic, December 2021) proposes that the sorry state of the movie industry is founded not in a poverty of creativity but rather upon market dynamics that no longer reward innovation. To wit, the public patronizes familiar stories above all others, giving Hollywood motivation to publish a tedious litany of remakes.

But Hollywood no longer has a monopoly on filmic art, and Amazon has revolutionized book publishing. We are bombarded with content from every direction, and the challenge for a consumer seeking original, creative and uncommon entertainment is how to find it.

Continue reading “Uncommon” →
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Sci-Fi for those who don’t read Sci-Fi

The eBook edition of my latest novel is free today and tomorrow, February 9 &10 — an opportunity to try something completely different, whether or not you’re a follower of the genre.

Ghosts of Ancient Vidura is literary science fiction — action, adventure, and family drama against an SF landscape, with an underlying theme about what it takes to create a successful life. About the series, readers have said, “There’s nothing like it” and “Something for everybody”.

Helpful hint — If you’re not a fan of SF, the book really shifts gears in Part Two. But don’t skip. You’ll miss something important.

Elevator pitch — The year is 2025, and the aliens have arrived. Officially, not counting twenty-five-thousand years of under-the-table commerce, a secret that can no longer be kept.

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Validated

On February 2, following the launch of my novel Ghosts of Ancient Vidura, I wallpapered social media and then waited for those signs of acceptance one gets when generating his own publicity.

I sold an eBook the first day, and picked up a customer on Kindle Unlimited the next.

It’s impossible to know from KENP how many readers are engaged. Amazon lists the book at 381 pages, an average based on Kindle’s various presentation formats. I see 401 pages read since yesterday. I’m not famous. Let’s agree it’s one person who read the book in two days. The KU subscription motivates readers to give up on books they don’t enjoy, so I’ll take this one as an endorsement.

And then I received a lovely message from a lady who spotted my announcement on Retalk. She’s now reading Elbert, the first book in the AjJivadi trilogy. She said, “You have an engaging style. The book is intelligent and nuanced while still being easy/fun to read.”

So, that makes three new readers and fan mail in the first week. Woohoo!

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Launch Day

Ghosts of Ancient Vidura went live this morning.

An invasion tale with an original twist!

The year is 2025, and the aliens have arrived. Officially, not counting twenty-five-thousand years of under-the-table commerce, a secret that can no longer be kept.

The Space Weather forecast calls for ‘Sunny to Partly Incinerated’. An ancient starship, previously in service as a sightseeing hotel, arrives with a disaster mitigation team. Our off-world patrons say there’ll be no exchange of technology. Behind the scenes, technology is offered. Diplomacy lurches forward.

A human in Oregon experiences past-life emergence — recalling old Vidura and the science that was discovered there. In Washington DC, military authorities cook up plans to hijack spaceships. On Jivada, a sinister cabal maneuvers to rule the two planets. Millions of light years away, an unseen enemy stirs in its nest.

Meanwhile, at a furloughed missile launch site in Nevada, campsites pop up like mushrooms after a soaking rain. An AjJivadi workforce, long barred from Earth tourism, is going on vacation. The ghosts of ancient Vidura have returned.

All my titles are #kindleunlimited.

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