Suspended Earth

ADDED 2nd November: I have received a thoughtful and informative reply from Kobo, addressing my concerns quite satisfactorily. I thank them. At this stage, kobo remains in my list of sales venues.

It is with regret that I must inform you all that I may soon be removing all my content from the Kobo platform, and removing my support for their products and service, due to changes to the service agreement they are trying to force authors to agree to by refusing them even access to their accounts to modify profiles, close accounts, view sales data etc, until they agree to a raft of new modifications to the terms, some of which are deeply concerning, as much so as this tactic, which I have no doubt will net a large number of less thorough people who simply click the agree button to gain access.

I have contacted kobo requesting that access without agreeing to the terms, while I consider my position, and depending on the response, may or may not be soon removing all content from their service. Among the most concerning terms, is a gagging item, which effectively stops any author from having access to advice from other authors relating to the terms, advice we all rely on when considering adding any new services to our publishing portfolio. There are vaguenesses in the agreement which i find concerning, and other items less vague and equally worrying. While I hope this is an innocent matter, the fact I must agree with such things to simply view my own account is unacceptable and unforgivably poor business practice.

I apologise to my fans who rely on the kobo service for any inconvenience this may cause, however as the sales on that service are frankly too low to warrant continued support anyway, this matter is more a final nail in the coffin than anything else. Therefore, given the service has taken such a move as this, unless I receive correspondence sufficient to satisfy my concerns, I will have to simply cut my losses and abandon the platform. In that instance, all links for kobo related sites, products and services will be removed from this website in the near future.

I thank you all for understanding.

Hi everybody!

I just wanted to post a quick update for you all, since some people have made contact wondering about a few things.

Well, I realise I have not posted a blog entry in a while. I’ve been a little preoccupied, what with getting married and a variety of other things I won’t bore you with right now. I am still focusing my energies on The Cinder Chronicles, after a great launch for book one, Flame Rangers, a few months back. It sold reasonably, in fact having the strongest launch week so far. It has had steady sales since the customary “cliff” so many people talk about with new releases, each week bringing a number of new fans to the series.

To each and every one of those fans, I say a heartfelt thank you, and assure you that book two, Ice Rangers, is progressing well and should be with you before Christmas this year. This series is already reaching into new markets, or as I prefer to say when not around any accountants, countries, where my science fiction has not broken, and doing quite well there. All those new readers are showing wonderful support. I have had a great deal of wonderful praise in feedback from around the world, which I am always thankful for. My plan at this stage is to complete Ice Rangers, and then Sand Rangers, before moving back to a couple of my long term SF projects, tidying up things with a third book in what will become “The Starlight Trilogy” (Starlight, Armada’s Disciple, The Blues of Deception,) completing the second Nevermind book, Children of Nevermind, and looking at breathing some life into “The Naradhan Trilogy,” which was showing a lot of promise a while ago and hopefully will finally see the light of day in 2018.

Following all that (unless my plans shift again, which based on past experience is a distinct possibility,) I will return to the tiny nation of Cinder, with a second trilogy following the Ranger Trilogy, which will be called “The Merchant Trilogy,” in which the rangers join traveling merchant caravans as they attempt to break the seven centuries of isolation, to leave Cinder and venture out into the rest of the world.

So yes, I have a lot of work to do. I hope you decide to follow along, because we certainly do have a great many adventures still to share!

So once again, thank you for reading. I hope you continue to do so. Don’t forget to check out the official site for The Cinder Chronicles at The Cinder Chronicles Dot Com.

Here we are then. The temperatures are finally dropping, and in about a week, the first book of The Cinder Chronicles goes to market. Flame Rangers will hopefully warm things up a bit! This will be the first book in a trilogy, with books two and three (Ice Rangers and Sand Rangers) to follow. The plan at this time is for that to be followed by a second trilogy, currently in mind as “the merchant trilogy”. So it looks like The Cinder Chronicles is going to be on my desk for a while.

Not that I mind, I’m enjoying it a lot. This little nation of Cinder is capturing my imagination in a good way. But don’t worry if you are waiting on some Science Fiction, I will not be abandoning it. There is too much to be written yet for that to happen!

As the world on this side of the keyboard launches all its nuisances, like water heaters giving up the ghost, and cars doing stupid things, rest assured we are still full steam ahead on a may first release of Flame Rangers. Not only that, but the next installment is already underway.

So I should get away from this post and back to work, so you can all enjoy the tiny nation of Cinder with me in a week or so!

Like the title of this post says, on the first of may, 2016, the first book in my new YA Fantasy series, The Cinder Chronicles will be released!

The official website is now live at thecinderchronicles.com

The first book is titled Flame Rangers, and is a good read for adult and young adult readers alike. I hope you all give it a try! Check out the website for more information! Official Cinder Chronicles Site

Longarm Severed has been out for almost a year already. Where does the time go?

Well, to celebrate the pending anniversary, this virtual reality adventure is on sale for 99c on kindle.

Follow the links from the home page, or the books own page listing from the menu at the top of this site.

Prices may vary in some countries due to exchange rates or Amazon shenanigans.

We have arrived in the tenth month already!

Chances are slim for another release this year, but don’t worry! I have not been idle. Well, not quite anyway. I finally have a setting and a plot basis for my fantasy series, which I will write one day, when I have whittled down the SF backlog a bit more. Children of Nevermind and Naradhan the Silent are both still in progress, each facing stiff competition as to which one I will complete first.

Meanwhile, the spring sale has concluded, and I offer my thanks to all those who chose to part with some cash! Every sale helps.

If you missed the sale, never fear. The ebooks have returned to their modest regular pricing, $2.99 per title in the US, with other countries at various prices according to exchange rates etc. Australians will find the price set back to $3.99 as they were prior to the sale. That is not a lot of money for a good read.

I have had some fellow writers suggesting I join in on Nanowrimo this year. I have never participated, though I have long known others who did. I have yet to make that call. If I do enter, I have yet to decide what would be the chosen novel. If I do decide to go for it, I’ll let you know.

Aussie Spring Holiday Sale! – It’s finally spring in Australia, and I’m taking a little holiday. To celebrate, for the rest of September, all my books are down to US 99c on kindle and Kobo! (other currencies as per Amazon’s standard conversion rates- so AU$1.40 etc)
This includes all my novels, and my short story collection. The two shorts on amazon are not discounted, so remain at their usual 99c, which is the minimum price Amazon will allow – so if you want the novels, be careful to read the description so you don’t get a short story instead.)
The new pricing is active on all channels now. So if there are any of them you have not had the chance to read yet, why not grab them all while the price is good?
Depending on currency and location etc, this is up to 66% off the normal price! Various store links in the table below.

	LONGARM SEVERED OUT NOW CS Paperback	Buy Now on Kobo Buy Now on Amazon.com Buy now on Amazon.com.au Buy now on amazon.co.uk
Amazon/AmUK	Amazon/AmUK	Amazon/AmUK	Amazon/AmUK	Amazon/AmUK	Amazon/AmUK
Kobo/AmAU	Kobo/AmAU	Kobo/AmAU	Kobo/AmAU	Kobo/AmAU	Kobo/AmAU
CS Paperback	CS Paperback	CS Paperback	CS Paperback	CS Paperback	CS Paperback
Shorts and Other Works:
Failing Calamity at Amazon AU	Failing Calamity at Amazon	Failing Calamity at Amazon UK

Hello everybody!

I sit here, tapping away at the keyboard in a rare moment of quiet, pondering the speed with which the year is disappearing. It will shortly become June, and some would argue that means the year is going, and we are all losing time to get things done. I say bring it on! In June, my latest novel, Longarm Severed, will come out of the Kindle Select program, which means I can finally release it to Kobo, so all my non-kindle fans can finally enjoy it, and see what all my talk has been about up till now!

Honestly, kindle select has not impressed me at all. So I will not be releasing any future novels on such a restrictive, exclusive deal. This is a firm, unflinching “never again.” Amazon, you have to do better than this. So for the next few books, you can expect the plan to return to that I used in the past. Kindle, kobo, and paper back simultaneous releases. As you can see elsewhere on this site, kobo ebooks can be purchased for use on pretty much any other ereading device on the market. However, given how the industry has moved, I am considering a launch of my books to other avenues as well. No decision has been made, whether I sign on with one of the cross platform stores, like D2D or smashwords, who can then post releases to apple etc, or I go direct myself, and try to track them all myself. But in the coming months, I will do some research into how the sales seem to flow for SF on the various market places, and from that information, and the terms on offer, decide what expansion I will make into these other digital market places. I recognise that readers being able to transfer from kobo to their device, is not an incentive when their native market puts a book a simple click away.

Meanwhile, in the brief moments available in recent time, I continue work on not one, but two novels. Two novels so different from one another, as to render any possible confused blending comical in my mind. Children of Nevermind progresses smoothly, and I feel confident is going to be enjoyed by fans of that planet. Meanwhile, a new franchise continues to grow with Naradhan the Silent, the first in the Naradhan trilogy, bringing to life a savage and terrifying villain, against who our hero, Ian “Iron” Johnstone, from the short story Failing Calamity, must pit all his resolve in a deadly personal war.

On the side, my unpublished short ‘Luddite Says’ has received some tinkering notes, and will be expanded at some point following those two novels being completed.

It’s a lot to do, and the months to do it in are passing fast! No problem though, please be patient and they will be with you soon!