News from the Golden Age
Robin Sullivan is trying to get Orbit to hire me to do the audiobook version of Riyria Revelations. This would be the mainstream publisher’s version–not a free podiobooks version.
I don’t know how I feel about it because it’s a lot of work and I don’t know what it might be worth to do, but if you think they should consider me and you have a Facebook account, you might leave a comment on the discussion there.
It’s an interesting idea…
I just left a new post over on Lammas Wood about Debora Geary’s newest release.
Seems like I’m not the only one rolling out new fiction this week.
Enjoy.
Here’s what I got so far, crew. The story is complete and this is my draft cover art along with the “blurb” that will go along with it. I suspect we’ll clean up the blurb as it gets closer but I wanted to give you all a sneak peak at what’s coming. I’m contemplating the podcast idea but I think this is too short for Podiobooks–it would barely fill the required five episodes unless I made them REALLY short episodes. Someone made the suggestion that I offer it to Tony C. Smith over at StarShipSofa and I think that might work out quite nicely if Tony wants it.
UPDATE: Wow! That was fast!! A Light In The Dark seems to be available on Kindle already. I messed up the blurb, and it won’t let me fix it yet, but apparently the book is for sale.
UPDATE (Again): Barnes and Noble and Smashwords now available. (Note: The Smashwords meatgrinder put some bullets in front of the chapter headings for some of the formats. I’m working on fixing it.)
When Captain Bjorn Gunderson docks with what he thinks is routine cargo, he embarks on a very different voyage. On a milk run from Welliver to Breakall, a tiny rock punctures his ship, The Wanderer, and leaves the crew adrift twenty-thousand years from home. With food, water, and air running out, a desperate crewman takes a reckless gamble, risking his life in a daring bid to find safety. What he finds instead puts them all at risk.
Join Captain Gunderson and his crew on the final voyage of the Solar Clipper Wanderer in book one of Tales from the Deep Dark — A Light in the Dark.
An award winning producer of science fiction and fantasy podcasts, Nathan Lowell has produced eight novels totaling over 160 episodes and 70 hours of podcast fiction. Since 2008, four of his productions have been finalists in the Parsec Awards and his book–Captain’s Share–won the 2010 Parsec Award for Best Podcast Fiction (Long Form). In 2010, Ridan Publishing began producing his work in paper and ebook formats. Those books are available online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the iBook Store, and from Ridan Publishing.
A Light In the Dark is the first of a series of novellas set in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper. The series focuses on the happenings in and around a renegade outpost, a place outside the jurisdiction of the Confederated Planets–a place where the normal rules don’t apply and where anything might happen.
For more information about the books and author, visit the Trader’s Diary at http://www.solarclipper.com.
Novel Nibbles are a series of shorter works offered in ebook only format for those who would like something to read on their phones and other small screen mobile devices. Coming in at around 20,000 words, they’re shorter works for smaller screens. See http://novelnibbles.com for more information and other titles in the Novel Nibbles family.
One of Robin Sullivan’s recent posts reminded me that I’ve not really done much here lately except stop by and tell you what’s happening. Some people are getting insights into the why of my brain with the Talking On My Morning Walk podcast but that’s pretty scattered. I’m about to dive into another month of frenetic activity – and while I should be writing – I also need to stop and take stock.
“Why” is an interesting word. Why do I write? Why do I tell stories? Why do I tell the stories I do?
I believe in the power of the everyday hero. I am tired of the “we have to blow up the world” stories. I remember the wonder and joy I found in Heinlein, Bradbury, and Asimov. I miss those stories and I want them to come back. I figure the only to get them to come back is to write them.
To be clear, I don’t really remember the stories that well. What I remember is how they made me feel. What I know is that, as a kid, I found them strangely empowering, wonderfully engrossing. They were stories about people I could grow up to be — people I might want to grow up to be. I want to tell stories that give those feelings to others. As Hugh McLeod says, “The market for something to believe in is infinite.” I like that idea–that people want something to believe in. If I can inspire them to find it through my story telling, that seems – for lack of a less corny phrase – a worthy goal.
Key to this effort is telling the stories I want to read. A few people are very upset by the ending of Owner’s Share. I understand. It’s an upsetting ending. It’s not a Hollywood ending. It’s not happily-ever-after. It is the story I needed to tell. It’s the story I wanted to read. While some are wondering how this “something to believe in” meshes with the ending of the series, I think it makes perfect sense.
Before I wrote Owner’s Share, listeners made me promise not to kill him. The last Harry Potter book had just come out and there was a great deal of angst over the ending of that book. My listeners didn’t want that to happen to Ishmael. The more I thought about it, the better I liked the idea of continuing on, of telling more stories – different stories – set in this universe with Ishmael doing the exploration. The idea of “something to believe in” kept ringing in my head. How does one pick up the scattered pieces of a shattered life and move on? How do you find something to believe in?
These aren’t trivial questions, but are they questions that we ‘common people’ have to deal with. Ishmael is an Everyman. For all that many find him to be a Mary Sue (or Gary Stu, as the case may be), he’s still a common guy. The ending of Owner’s Share leaves him with something to believe in — and a new course to follow. He has a new guide and a new outlook. He has to do what anybody would have to do. Carry on.
For me, that’s a much more interesting challenge than happily ever after and it’s why I think the next series will be better. I’ve got new stories, and a new outlook to tell those stories with. I’m really looking forward to telling them and I hope you’ll all be with me when I do.
Oh, why do I write?
Because I have to.
Balticon was a blast and the photos are beginning to surface. I have a new set coming from JR Blackwell and I’m really looking forward to them. What really surprised me was how many people said they like the Talking On My Morning Walk podcast and how many more were looking forward to the Ravenwood sequel.
I had several meetings with Ridan and we talked about the future. There’s a lot happening and not all of it is mine to share but …
Hardcovers. They are coming. The problem we’ve had is quality and Robin is looking at actually doing a real print run of 250 if she can find an offset printer who will do them with the quality we need. Since we now have two titles that need them, we’ll probably run them both at once. A lot of them will zip out so the warehousing of the remaining few cases won’t be too much of a burden on my basement.
Schedule. I’m moving to a four month release schedule instead of the six month. That means we’re looking to finish the last three share books by this time next year. I know that’s slow if you’re waiting for the books but fast considering all we need to do to make them really work in print. Sad but true.
New works. I’m still thinking about the novellas. Odin’s Outpost is a key element in the universe that we haven’t explored much yet and I want to get into that part of the Golden Age a bit before we turn Ishmael loose again. Then there’s the Ravenwood sequel and Cape Grace — both of which I’ve been promising for far too long.
While you’re waiting, there’s a lot of good stuff out there and coming out in the near future.
Scott Sigler’s Galactic Football League series will release the third book – All-Pro – in a few weeks and his second book, The Starter, is on podiobooks and in print already. If you’ve never run into this series, this is a good time to pick up the first book, The Rookie, on Kindle and get a taste for it. Even if you’re not a football fan, I really do think this might be some of Sigler’s strongest work.
Debora Geary has her sequel to A Modern Witch coming out to beta readers soon (yes, I’m one – yay!) and if A Hidden Witch is half as much fun as A Modern Witch was, you’ll wanna keep an eye open for that.
Also Brand Gamblin’s The Hidden Institute is still looking for an audience. Steampunky with a lot of social commentary, I still can’t recommend it highly enough.
Last but not least, don’t forget D.A. Boulter’s The Courtesan. It’s been doing very well in Kindle sales lately and his fantasy book The Steadfasting was a joy – very much in the flavor of Ravenwood in terms of common people caught up in magic and the fantasy quest.
I need to get back to work now, but I wanted to let you know what’s happening here.
Safe voyage.
