Author: Author John G Dyer

Born in Chickamauga, Georgia, John Dyer moved to Asia in 1956, when his father took an engineering assignment with a power utility. He attended grades 1-12 at an international school, touring with his family through 29 countries before settling in the Midwest. A computer scientist turned author of fiction, he is a founder of an IBM-affiliated software company, and an early innovator in electronic commerce. He brings a lifelong interest in science and engineering to everything he writes.

It’s a wrap … almost

I wrote the final chapter for my third novel – Resilient – yesterday.

166 chapters. 77,769 words. Woo!

Here’s the pitch:

Set amidst the clash between an advanced, space-faring commonwealth and its stubbornly malignant enemies, Resilient is an epic story of adventure, survival and perseverance.

When a nomadic clanswoman finds herself detained by provincial authorities, a local family’s newborn son becomes just another treasure for her to steal before being deported.

Suban Dhava is a displaced person, unaware of his origins, living at the edge of poverty on a foreign continent — a lawless, turbulent region, scarred by war, isolated by quarantine and embargo — and yet curiously blessed with scattered harbors of hope and redemption.

A forgotten birthplace lies across a seaway, almost within reach. The Anye Accord is civilized, generous — but weary of the Vanya and their habits of subversion and murder. Now only citizens are allowed to cross.

Suban is a citizen — one of many things he doesn’t know about himself. Even his given name has been lost — a word taken from spoken Sanskrit, signifying his clan’s connection to the sea.

It means properly anchored, sturdy, resilient.

Suban will have to be all of these things, if he’s ever to make his way home.

Watch this space, folks!

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Hot off the keyboard!

A new intro chapter for Resilient — Book 3 in the Anye Legacy series — written tonight.

I’m pretty far along at 57,000 words — far enough to think about what the beginning needs to look like.

But I’m not confident about introducing a protagonist while he’s still in the womb.  Character development — where to start? Lets try it.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1

The planet Vidura, a very long time ago

The thirty-meter campaigner Kevarta, chambers heavy with seawater and live catch, was starting to wallow in the trough between swells. Bina Dhava knew what to do about it, but she wasn’t at the helm.

Bina cast a gaze at stress gauge readouts on an upper display panel. They were in the green, but wouldn’t be for long if the pilot didn’t do something. She slid out of the mate’s throne, gripping a safety bar with one hand, the other cradling precious cargo in her belly.

The deck pitched left, then right — and both hands went to the rail. Now standing behind her chair, she strained to let events proceed without interference. Continue reading “Hot off the keyboard!” →

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Curating the backlog …

I just finished some work on this. It’s a teaser – the book isn’t written yet – but I’ve outlined 23 chapters and I think it has promise.

via The Dressmaker’s Apprentice – Sample

The Dressmaker’s Apprentice

A Future Past Mystery

Retired deputy sheriff Eric Burton runs a clandestine online store that caters to buyers who live on other planets. Buyers who, as far as anybody knows, don’t exist.

When a fellow merchant goes missing, an ancient society with off-world connections tasks Burton with protecting their secrets.

  Continue reading “Curating the backlog …” →

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Having been Scouted …

My Amazon Kindle Scout campaign just finished. Here’s what I know about the results so far.

Scout Stats

Quantum Soul received 1,400 page visits. I have no way of knowing how many nominations were made, but I’m hopeful.

My Facebook promotions were a bust – I got over 6,000 post likes for the Scout ad, but Amazon registered only 38 click-throughs. My 99 Cent sale on The Illusion of Gravity garnered 2,000 + likes, but sold 3 books. The vast majority of my Facebook engagement results came out of Nepal and India.

Did the audience recognize the book’s South Asian cultural references? Did the cover resonate there more than elsewhere? Did Facebook show my ad in Nepal and India more than other places? Who knows.

Now I wait to see if Amazon will pick up my book as a Kindle title. And, I have to decide whether to finish Book 3 in the series – Resilient – now in 3rd draft at 90,000 words, or finish Silken Thread so I can see how a romance title does for me.

Comments welcome!

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A Writing Game For Authors

Who wants to have some fun?

Let’s write a chain story!

I propose a short novel entitled ‘The Mark’.

Monica Larsen, an unmarried thirty-ish attorney from Bayshore, Wisconsin has died on the highway, her car struck by a farm tire falling off a service truck.

The afterlife is nothing like what she expected.

I’ve written Chapter 1, appended below.

My thinking is that each succeeding chapter should come in between 1,000 and 1,500 words. Beyond that, the Internet is silent on how this sort of activity should be operated.

Here’s my plan:

  • Each author will determine who writes the following chapter(s) based on a submitted story proposal or outline. This means there will only be one thread to the story.
  • You can write more than one chapter, but let’s try to keep the activity open.
  • Each chapter will be published here and on the author’s website.
  • Every author retains IP rights to the chapter(s) they write.
  • If we do something wonderful, we’ll have to figure out what that means, if and when it happens.

Do you want me to edit Chapter 1 for a smooth transition to your chapter? I can do that.

If I get takers, I’ll build a section on my WordPress site for the story.

Let’s get started.

Continue reading “A Writing Game For Authors” →

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