An hour after Tan and Uli departed, a woman knocked on Amil’s door at the Traveler’s Cave hotel. She was past middle-age, of Azanta extraction, with a dark flowing mane streaked with grey. Her name was Sumnaya.

She took charge of him at once. “You will not lock your door. I or one of my subordinates will enter at all hours. If you are modest, learn not to be. If you think poorly of the Vanya, you are not mistaken, but I must tell you I am Vanya. Are we reading from the same book so far?”

“Yes, aurata.”

“Good. Many of the women who work here are Vanya. They have come to escape from fathers, brothers and husbands. Do not court or flatter them. They are done with men, even beautiful and civilized ones like you. You will not sport with the Sadhu ladies, either. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me what is wrong with you.”

Sumnaya helped him with his shower, and on the toilet. She put him to bed and brought extra pillows to put under his legs. Despite the stern lecture, and the fact that she was Vanya, Amil found her to be a person of exceptionally kind demeanor.

The next morning, he woke and could barely move. He lay in bed and studied everything he could see. He made a game of deciding which articles were made on Laghu, which were brought over before the Quarantine, and which came afterwards.

He thought: When somebody comes to get me, I will make a list.

It was much later before anyone checked on him. He had already urinated in the bed. The lady who found him alone cringed with shame and regret. “This will never happen again. I promise you.”

By late afternoon, Amil’s care team appeared to be fully engaged in their mission. He felt certain there would be no more incidents. Paca and his son visited, bringing him a robe, slippers, and a second armor vest to wear as a brace.

Amil prayed that evening, thanking the Gods for bringing him there.

Shortly after midnight, the building shook from side to side. Amil heard distant explosions, and shouts from the parking lot outside.  He lay in the dark, unable to help himself, unwilling to call through the open door.

It was only a few minutes later that Sumnaya came and sat on the edge of his bed. She gripped his hand so hard it hurt, but her voice was steady, her posture fearless.

“The Accord is firing lasers into the city from orbit.”

I drew the line art on printer paper with a ball point pen, scanned it into Photoshop and built the stone texture background using rendering and filter tools. Walla!

My debut novel has been admitted to the Amazon Kindle Scout program.

Click here to nominate my book!

Scout lets readers help select new works to publish, and I’m excited to be part of the program. Anzu’s trial period starts today, Friday, January 27 and runs for 30 days. After that, my book could be chosen for publication.

The first 7 chapters are UP at Amazon as of midnight. Come see what I have done.

To nominate my book and help me get published, click on the link below.

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/D3GHNVD4SSPP

Amazon measures traffic to my page, so your participation will make a difference. Please share this announcement, on Facebook, email and by word of mouth. Even if you don’t read science fiction, somebody you know does.

Readers love a chance to get a sneak peek, so spread the news!

Even if the outcome does not include an Amazon contract, the fact that an editor at the world’s largest publisher thinks my book deserves a place on the starting line makes me very happy indeed.

I extend heartfelt thanks to all my first readers, to everyone who offered encouragement, and especially my brother Mike, who collaborated tirelessly through every revision. Please join me in celebrating three and a half years bringing this book to its first milestone.

Warmest regards,

John Dyer

I ran an informal focus group session on The Smarter Artist to see how my test covers fared against top SciFi titles in the Kindle catalog. Here’s what I posted:

If you try, you will spot a few versions of a book entitled Anzu. Those would be mine. I composed 4 of them using illustrations found mostly on DeviantArt. Bottom row #5 is my own work.

I asked: Where does YOUR eye stop and shop?

At this writing, I have 24 replies. Top row #5 got the most hits for me. The Winter Over did best all around.

Now that I am in the final packaging phase, getting ready to self-publish, this was a big deal for me. I have shopped outlets for cover art, messaged a few artists, wrote a design brief or three, but ultimately I decided to test my own eye for this part of it.

The fact that I got even a couple of hits in a sea of best selling titles tells me I can do this.

Also, Starkiteckt offered “Red Gas Giant” for $75. Here’s my latest version of the cover. If you think  I’m making a big mistake, call me on it.

Anzu is about to be tested in the fiery chasm. But first, we need a cover. For your consideration, a selection of concepts.

What say ye?

In the 3 1/2 plus years since I started my novel Anzu, I would say I have been writing for about one third of the time; the rest has been spent with revision.

Not that I have kept track. It could be three quarters revision.

Writers talk about this in their blogs and essays. Famous authors have said they were poor writers, but brilliant editors.

It will just get better each time, we are told.

I hope this is true. The current draft of Anzu is way different from the first.

I refreshed the first 8 chapters on this site today.

If you are not curious about that, perhaps you will enjoy a picture of me with an accordion, given to us recently by a friend who played it when she was a little girl.

Enjoy.