Revised “Carpathia” now available

One of the writing projects I’ve been working on has been a revision to my first novel, Carpathia. I love that book unconditionally, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t need to be cracked open and worked on a bit. Typos (sigh!) primarily but I also excised a few plot holes and generally tightened the over-writing I tend towards.

There’s a new cover, too, featuring the photograph “Morning Light” by Nicole Ruby. The photo has been a favorite of mine from the moment I saw it. For more of this artist’s work, please visit her website.

Today, the revised version of Carpathia is available for Kindle and I expect the paperback version to go live shortly after I receive the proof from CreateSpace. If you previously bought the Kindle version you should get an automatic update from Amazon. If you don’t, let me know.

I’m calling this the definitive version of the novel, because I don’t expect I’ll be digging back into it again. Well, at least not until someone points out the new typos I created cleaning up the old ones. 🙂

 

Updating What I’m Working On

Many months ago I blogged about my work in progress, a Military/Sci-Fi novella, and even posted a short excerpt from one chapter. The idea, based on a few other books I’ve seen, is to tell an overarching story through what I call ‘connected vignettes.’ In this case the story covers the final year of a future war between an alien species and human who have migrated from Earth.

A couple weeks ago I completed the rough draft of Green Zulu Five One (and other stories from the Vyptellian War) and sent it to a diverse group of folks to read and let me know what they think. As of today I’ve heard back from almost everyone and their feedback — positive and constructively critical — has been very encouraging. Side note: It never fails to amaze me how two people can look at the same thing but see it in completely different ways — we really are awesomely complex creatures.

Updating my novel “Dead Man’s Land” … again.

First and second drafts of my second novel, Dead Man’s Land, are finished. I’ve handed it off to some Beta readers, and am anxiously awaiting their feedback.

There is still much to be done before my target publish date of January 2013. I need to also put out a revision of Carpathia that includes the first few chapters of Dead Man’s Land as well as fixes some small errors. Some chapters of Carpathia will also be included in DML. #Synergy.

I wouldn’t mind taking another stab at the cover I did for DML a loooong time ago. I like the one I made, but will never pass up the opportunity to play with Photoshop 🙂

Rear cover blurb and synopsis for Amazon/Smashwords need to be written. My Amazon author page, Independent Author Network page, Goodreads page — all will need to be updated to reflect the new book.

Then there’s the marketing stuff … the stuff I really don’t like and therefore do reluctantly. I created a Facebook page for The Carpathia Timeline, which is the umbrella these stories fit under, and will need to start adding content and pushing it.

It isn’t easy being an Indie author. But it sure is fun 🙂

Updating my work in progress: “Dead Man’s Land”

Months ago I wrote a blog post called “Sequel For me like a pig” in which I informed the world and sundry (or at least the eight people who read this blog) that I was working on another novel.

Dead Man’s Land (working title) is not so much a sequel as the next story set in the paranormal/steampunk universe I created in my first novel Carpathia.

Finishing a chapter today (Sept. 10, 2012) put me just north of 117,000 words, with a bit more plot to go before wrapping it up. I had envisioned the story taking about 90,000 words and being out by Halloween of this year, but I will likely be wrong on both counts.

DML is set in 1916 France and England during what we would consider World War I, but of course to the characters it is simply “the war.” An event occurring late in Carpathia becomes the central plotline as the war has become a costly stalemate and each side begins looking for unusual ways to break the deadlock.

“Carpathia” moves to next round in Best Indie Books of 2012 contest

What a wonderful piece of news to wake up to!

I was informed this morning (Sunday, July 1) that Carpathia made the cut as a Semifinalist in The Kindle Book Review’s Best Indie Books of 2012 contest. I’m pleased (and, honestly, pretty surprised!) to display the badge of honor provided by The Kindle Book Review (@Kindlbookreview).

My little book is one of 12 semifinalists vying for the five slots that will comprise the Finalists in the Suspense/Horror category. Part of the criteria for selection was:

“These books were chosen because they hooked us in the first few pages, were well formatted and well edited. These titles also had above average star ratings!”

So a big THANK YOU to everyone who read my book and took the time to write and post a review!

And CONGRATULATIONS to my fellow semi-finalists. A quick glance at the list and I have 11 more books to add to my To-Read List!

Finalists will be announced September 1 and the top book, The Kindle Book Review’s Best Suspense/Horror of 2012 will be named October 1. I don’t have any expectations of going past this round, but as they say in Hollywood, just being nominated is an honor!

Looking for a GREAT read? Head over to The Kindle Book Review and check out the semifinalists in all categories of the contest. You’re sure to find an Indie book to enjoy.

DVD Bonus Features: Carpathia fun facts

I had a lot of fun writing Carpathia, which started out as a challenge to myself to simply write a novel!

I’m not sure if other authors do this, but during the process I included some “Easter Eggs” in the story that would make it special to me. Not sure why, but the other day while working on my next novel — and inserting an Easter Egg 🙂 — I thought it would be interesting to go back and see if I could remember all of them.

There aren’t many, but for the pleasure of the tens of you (haha) who have read Carpathia, here are the ones I can recall, in no particular order. There may be some spoilers in here, so be warned.

• Several of the character names have hidden meaning:

1. “Stump,” “Ainsworth,” and “Hart” are the names of U.S. Navy ships that were assigned to Destroyer Squadron 10, my first command after boot camp.
2. “Olivia” was a shout-out to author O.M. Grey, whose book Avalon Revisited and support influenced my decision to write a novel.

Sequel for me like a pig

During my annual Mother’s Day call to home (before you ask: yes, I do call my parents more often than holidays and birthdays) my dear Mom said something that really threw me for a loop.

At the urging of my brother and I, Dad gave Mom a Kindle Fire for Christmas, and she’s slowly coming around to the idea of using it as an eReader. So I sent along a copy of Carpthia, but honestly thought she’d look at the cover, see it was written by me, maybe glance at the Prologue and then stop.

To be sure she’d comment on it, say the typical Mom things about being impressed and proud of her son. But read it? Nah, not really her cup of tea.

Interview by Kevin Rau

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Kevin Gerald Rau, author of the H.E.R.O. series. Although I’ve interviewed dozens of people myself (maybe hundreds), this is the first time anyone has asked me any questions so I had a lot of fun with it.

To read the interview, click here.

Kevin and I met through Twitter (Follow him @kevin_rau). A full-time computer program and system administrator, he does the art work for his superhero characters, which look super-cool as you can see by the picture above of Rampart.

“H.E.R.O stands for Homeland Extraordinary Response Organization (H.E.R.O. and the series is about the superheroes of Metrocity. You get all the great benefits of a novel – the dialog, thought process, quirks, interpersonal relationships and so on, plus all the action of a comic book (without the pictures).”

To learn more about Kevin and his H.E.R.O. novels, take a look around his website.

Thanks, Kevin, for taking the time to talk to me.

CCCXCVI = 396 = sum of a twin prime (197 + 199)

396.

That’s how many folks out there downloaded a free copy of Carpathia this past weekend at Amazon.com. That’s so … so … cool!

No, 396 potential readers isn’t a number Stephen King or John Grisham would be interested in (both probably have more people in their Liechtenstein fan clubs) but to me its a very large number indeed.

I’m amazed that so many would want to read what I wrote, although I also realize the price tag helped motivate them quite a bit.

Thanks to everyone who spread the word, retweeted the tweets and shared the Facebook post.

If you downloaded the book, I sincerely hope you enjoy it. Either way, feel free to post a review on Amazon or Goodreads, or to drop me a line and let me know.

First review of “Carpathia”

Author and blogger C.C. Cole was kind enough to read Carpathia, and write a 4-star review on her blog and Amazon.com, which included the following:

“The characters are interesting, well developed, and the action picks up and moves at a pace with enough surprises to keep the reader’s attention with minimal confusion.  For readers that like manly heroes, beautiful women, vampires, werewolves, steampunk backdrop with the added interesting element of dirigibles in the air!”

To read the full review click here.