Sunday, July 29, 2012

A Blog in 3 Parts

Part One


The big news today is Shadow Spinner! Shadow Spinner is my next planned release. I'm hoping it will be completely finished before the end of the year, but, until then, I'm going to be releasing it serially. I experimented with this a while back here on the blog, if any of you remember, which is what prompted this experiment. Of course, I'd meant to start doing  this months and months ago, but I had to wait for art. It was worth the wait!
"The Tunnel" is now available for the Kindle. I'd really like to make it free, but Amazon is being... problematic and telling me that they have no "option" for that. Duh, I knew that. I also know that they can go in and make something free, so I'm working on it. However, even though it's $0.99 as its set price, I'm making it FREE for the next many days, as many as Amazon will allow me for this selling period. Since it is free, I'd really appreciate it if you'd (yes, you, the person reading this post) go over and download it. I mean, you can't beat the price, and, even if you don't have a Kindle, there are plenty of free Kindle apps for whatever platform you have. After you read it, please click the "like" button, because I'm just gonna assume you're going to like it. What's not to like? If you could see your way around to leaving a short review and a rating, that would be great, too. This is just the first chapter of Shadow Spinner, and it's quite short, so it won't take up much time. Look, here's the link! Go get it now while it's FREE!!!


Oh, and I didn't forget: The incredible art has been done by the artist who may or may not be Rusty Webb. He's kind of undecided at the moment, but it's incredible despite his identity crisis. Somewhere around chapter 4 or 5, there will be an alternate cover, and it's even more cool than this one!

Part Two


I ran a contest last week. It may have been a bad week to run a contest as traffic was down and comments were way down. Oh, well. It is what it is. You can go back and look at the contest post if you missed it. At any rate, Donna, over at Mainely Write, has walked off with the prize. At least, she will have once I hear back from her so that I know which option she wants. By the way, if you haven't visited Donna before, you should. She posts lots of great poems. I find most modern poetry less than satisfying, but Donna's stuff tends to the great, so go check her out.

Part Three


Remember back in April when everyone was A-to-Zing? Back during that whole thing, I discovered a bunch of books and stories I wanted to read about things that were fictional at the time but are now, if not real, on their way to being real. My "V" entry was about virtual reality, and I mentioned a short story by Stanley Weinbaum, "Pygmalion's Spectacles." It was an appropriate follow up to my recent read of the After, as they both deal with themes of reality and what, exactly, reality is.

However, Weinbaum's story was written in the 1930s and has an incredibly accurate look at what virtual reality might be like. How real does "real" need to be. How much will our own brains supply to fill in the gaps? Is virtual reality as real as real reality? It's pretty short and well worth reading. And it's FREE for the Kindle, so you should follow the link and go check it out.

14 comments:

  1. Congratulations on another release Andrew. Not to be pushy but are there plans for a 'House' sequel?

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  2. Two free books!
    The second I saw that cover I knew it was Rusty's artwork. The dude rocks.
    Congratulations to Donna!

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  3. OK got The Tunnel, thanks. Lot of books with that name though.

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  4. Dude, that cover art is amazing! Rusty is really good. If our kickstarter goes through, we need to find an artist. I'm sure it goes without saying, but you're lucky that you found a great artist who can produce high quality covers. That's a hard thing to find as an indie author.

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  5. Hey! Neat! Thanks so much for the kind words about Mainely Write stuff. I didn't start out to write poetry, but it just happened.
    I downloaded "The Tunnel". Looking forward to reading it and commenting! And I got Pygmalion's Spectacles." That sounded like something I'd like, too.
    So back to the contest! Thanks and I'll go digital, I guess. Wish they could find out how to do autographed copies of ebooks!
    djtsmith at gmail dot com is where I'm at, if that's what you need!
    And congratulations again on hitting 200 posts!

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  6. OOPS!

    I still owe you the shirt. I have it on a list. Sorry about that.

    Anyway: I missed your contest because I had to do my job for a change, but I never win stuff anyway.

    I have already downloaded your short story and I'm sure it will be amazing. "House" was phenomenal, and I expect no less of you.

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  7. First off, congratulations on a new release. Of course I will be downloading it for free tonight. I thank you in advance for the free book, because anything free is worth the time in my opinion. There are not enough free things in this world, and I try to appreciate all of them.

    Second, I love the cover. Rusty is so talented. Is the boy Asian? I love that he looks Asian to me because I am Asian and have never identified well with white (Caucasian) people because that's just not my demographic. Anyway, I like the diversity. It's different and fresh.

    Third, in looking at your traffic stats there might be a way to get more traffic to your blog. Do you have it registered with Technorati? Are you also linking it to your Goodreads page because Goodreads sends out a letter that has blog posts in it. Additionally, you might want to think about joining twitter as you can get some bleed from there and can tweet the link to your blog entries.

    I don't even know if you were looking for any advice on traffic but that's what I have to give.

    Oh and the occasional "controversial" post always drives up blog readership.

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  8. Wait, Michael Offutt: You're Asian?

    I had no idea. I can't tell by the photos and I'm socially awkward.

    Anyway: Andrew: I have posted a blurb about you and will keep doing that for a bit.

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  9. Sarah: Yes! I'm working on it, right now. Well, actually, it's on pause while I finish Shadow Spinner, which got the go ahead because it's shorter.

    Alex: Yeah, Rusty's work is awesome.

    Jo: Well, "The Tunnel" is only the name of the chapter. The book is Shadow Spinner.

    ABftS: Yeah, I know. It's about the only break I've had, but it was possibly the best one.

    Donna: Yeah, I don't know how to do the e-signing either. I'll be emailing you soon.

    Briane: You would have had a good chance at this one; too bad your job was being your job.
    And thanks for the shout out on your blog!

    Michael: Well... I can't tell you what Tib is without giving away part of the story, but he's not straight up Caucasian.
    I've never heard of Technorati, so no... I'll look into it.
    I do link from goodreads.
    I've avoided Twitter so far because I just don't have time for another thing like that right now. Maybe after I finish Brother's Keeper.
    I seem to be doing pretty well on the controversial post part. heh
    Any time you have suggestions, feel free. I'm not always the most up on the tech part of all of this. Yes, Twitter counts as "tech part."

    Matthew: Thanks!

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  10. Awesome cover! I read the portions on Charter Shorts, but does my downloading the first chapter help you in some way? If so, I'll go ahead and do it.

    Virtual reality has been imagined in so many interesting ways. Oddly, I've heard of Pygmalion's Spectacles, so I wonder if I've read it? No idea. Will have to look into that.

    Congratulations to Donna! I was out of state, though I went there with the delusion that I'd have time to screw around on the computer at night after the kids were in bed. What a joke! HAHA!

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  11. Shannon: I think? I think each download helps with the ranking and stuff, although I'm not really sure. That may only be for paid downloads.

    I mentioned Pygmalion's Spectacles back in V post.

    heh heh I know the feeling of thinking you might get something accomplished and having the kids dash that bits.

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  12. I love the cover! I intended on downloading it but I don't have Kindle or the Kindle app on my iPad. Any chance you will be offering it on Nook?

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  13. Jennifer: I can't offer it on the Nook, because I have it enrolled in the KDP Select program. The Kindle app is free, though.
    I'll be offering the complete book on the Nook. As soon as it's finished.

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