Monday 26 November 2012

Free again!

From this Thursday (November29th) until Sunday, The Calling will be free at Amazon Kindle. Go ahead, help yourself! If you like science fiction and you're somewhere around the age range eight to twelve or thirteen, it might be the thing for you. Or if you have kids at that age, get it for them.

Also this Tuesday The Calling will be advertised on Young Adults Promo Central   including an interview about the book and the writing process.

Happy reading! And remember, if you would like to write a balanced review of the story on Amazon, that would be a service to other maybe-readers and to me as well.

Friday 23 November 2012

Selling Books in Thunder Bay

So finally a box of 25 copies of The Calling arrived on the doorstep a few days ago. And despite my doubts about the printing quality, the covers and insides look terrific. Thankyou CreateSpace!

I've started talking to the book shops in town and expect to have at least one book signing sometime in the next few months. Sorry that I can't be any more vague than that!


Anyway, it means I can spend a few minutes designing a poster to use at such events, and to display wherever the book's sold. Victor Habbick's artwork crackles and flames off the screen! It's a pity that the copy I ordered for him has my original home-made cover on it! Is that artistic license or poetic injustice? I can't decide.

Friday 9 November 2012

Young Science Fiction

While I'm waiting for the first delivery of The Calling in print, here's a review of another young readers' science fiction author. It will be brief, since I haven't yet read a whole book of his!

Sigmund Brouwer is the author of a significant series of young-reader science fiction, as well as many novels for adults. His Mars Diaries stories were published some years ago and have been updated by the author and re-released as Robot Wars. They feature a physically disabled boy named Tyce who lives on a colony on Mars. He learns to use a mind link to control robots and takes part in some amazing interplanetary struggles. Actually I did skim-read one or two of these some years ago when they were still Mars Diaries, but then we had to move house and move continent and I couldn't fit them in the suitcase! I hope I can buy the series for my sons who are just the right age now.

The stories are thought-provoking. Sigmund Brouwer is a great writer, and he brings out all the character struggles and conflict very well. Search for them at Amazon or start at the link above. I hope to be able to write as well as he does... when I get the time!