Category Archives: Release

In witch the fiziks are rong

In my story The Stars Came Back faster-than-light travel and anti-gravity was accomplished by some general hand-waving and techno-babble about physics implied to be more advanced than what we have today here on earth. But what if… what if our fundamental understanding of physics is wrong? Not just in the way that General and Special relativity  supposedly updated and refined Newtonian physics, but that the basic underlying principled about the universe, including the math in Einstein’s theories, are flat-out wrong?  What if all the string-theory research, phycisists looking for dark matter, scientists trying to perfect nuclear fusion, etc., are all barking up the wrong tree in terms of the basic nature of the problems they are working with? Here are some things for the science and engineering sorts to geek out on. It is looking more and more likely that they are. Continue reading In witch the fiziks are rong

Look at a war none of us have heard about

Well, maybe technically a few readers here might have heard a little bit about  the NAGORNO-KARABAKH WAR. Here is an article titled “WHAT THE UNITED STATES MILITARY CAN LEARN FROM THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH WAR” in the Small Wars Journal.

short version: they made extensive use of cheap off-the-shelf items like old biplanes converted for remote control and other unmanned areal system to identify and destroy much more expensive air-defense systems. Shows how unconventional thinking, uses of miniaturized digital systems, and unmanned systems to reduce your own casualties can radically change the course of things. I do hope our military is paying attention to it.

So should we non-military people.

Komenagen (and general book) question

A quick couple of questions:

How much more likely are you to listen to an audio book than read an ebook or paper book? That is, how much demand is there really? In a recent conversation with a publisher he said that he saw several times more audio book sales for a title than ebook, and physical was nearly nonexistent. I don’t do audio books beyond lectures from The Learning Company’s “Great Courses” series, and am interested to know if I need to pursue that hard, or not, for my particular readership.

Secondly: How important would illustrations for a YA title like Komenagen: Slog be? Illustrations are expensive, but they definitely add to the charm of a physical book, particularly ones aimed at a younger market segment. Would it be enough to chip in a few bucks ahead of time to get it done?

Let me know in the comments section below.

Insanity’s Children is out

Insanity’s Children, the sequel to The Stars Came Back, is up on Amazon. I’ll start working on paper now, and/or the second half of TSCB/prose version (writing is done, just needs formatting check and /sigh/ cover art).

As always, reviews posted to Amazon by readers are greatly appreciated.

A quick note for those who are not already familiar with this series:
The Stars Came Back is the entire original, screen-play format story.
Back from the Dead is the first half of the original story, but in prose format.
Insanity’s Children picks up from where TSCB left off.
Komenagen: Slog is backstory/prequel for some of the characters in the original story. It is aimed at YA boys, but should be a good read for any guy who was once an adventures youth (or wished he was) who didn’t quite fit in perfectly.
The Heretics of St. Possenti is very early backstory (set in current year+5) for a rather unusual monastic order which makes an appearance in TSCB. Strangely, though a “religeous inspirational” category of story, with roots in classic “space opera” it’s ideas were inspiring enough that some gentlemen with appropriate faith backgrounds are actually in the process of founding a very real Order of Saint Possenti with a similar mission; to save vets who have served and struggled only to be cast aside by society and the government they supported.

The “Publish” button has been hit

And “Komenagen: Slog” is a GO!

Funny side note: when I was filling in the fields to publish it asked for “artist”, and I was thinking “cover artist”, so it has Scott listed as a “co author,” but he did the cover art. I’m expecting to add some (no idea how many) interior illustrations when it goes to paper, and most likely I’ll hire him.

Quick secondary note: if anyone reading it finds any typos or errors, let me know so I can fix things and post an update to fix them.

Thirdly: Reviews are greatly appreciated. Even a short note with a rating is helpful. People are much more likely to make a speculative purchase on a 3.5-star book with a thousand ratings than a 5-star book with only two.

1+1 Sale, Today Only (now expired)

A shameless plug of self-promotion post. Today only (14 Dec).

Castalia House is running a 1+1 Christmas sale: buy one physical book (hardbound or paperback) and get one free Castalia House e-book (details at the link). In fact if you want to buy more than one physical book, you can get an equal number of e-books without limit (well, other than the number of titles they have out, of course). Since Back From The Dead (the first half of The Stars Came Back) is now out in print it’s an eligible item. So if you are a reader, or know readers and are looking for a gift, here’s an opportunity.

A good-sized list of books, and I have yet to read a bad Castalia House product.

Hugo Packet

I’m currently having a debate about the “Hugo Packet.” The Hugo Packet is the pile of writing that all the Hugo / Sasquan members/supporters get as part of membership that has a copy of the nominated works so that members can read them and make more informed choices. That is the idea, anyway. So, the question is, should Castalia House send them The Stars Came Back or Shakedown Cruise? Continue reading Hugo Packet