We thought we would take a little more time off and do some more reading and research, but isn't going to happen. We've been edgy, irritable, absent-minded, not sleeping well, and haven't been able to put our fingers on the reason. Then, miraculously, it occurred to us--we're not writing. We've been writing continuously for six months, enjoying the hell out of it, and suddenly stopped for a few weeks. Our brain can't take it. It needs the stimulation of being in the year 2315, standing in CIC right behind the Command Station, watching what Max and the rest of the gang do in the next crisis in the lives of the crew of the USS Cumberland.
Having created that universe and populated it with interesting people and races, we have found that we are supposed to spend at least some of our day there every day. So, we've cleared our calendars ahead of schedule and will begin writing of Brothers in Valor, the concluding volume of the "Man of War" Trilogy tomorrow. We still have some reading and research we want to do, so we'll probably split our time between writing and those activities, instead of writing 10 to 18 hours a day as we did for the first two books.
Strange, how this activity of which we never thought we were capable has so quickly become such an integral part of our lives that we find ourselves miserable if we aren't doing it.
There's also the beginning of the germ of an idea for another series, set in the same universe, beginning in the year 2034, telling the story of the formation of the United Earth Space Force in the face of the emergency posed by the Ning-Braha's occupation of the moon, followed by the acquisition of stardrive technology as a result of the war and Man's first tentative steps into interstellar space. But, don't worry, we have no intention of writing that until we have finished this next book and probably not until we are done with the next trilogy of Robichaux/Sahin novels.
In other news, we're under some pressure to start tweeting. I'm very ambivalent about the idea. I mean, who cares what I have to say in 140 characters or less? The people who write about how us independent authors are supposed to promote our work all say that we should tweet. We'll think about it.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Paperback now available
The paperback version of For Honor We Stand is now available in the Createspace store. Here is the link:
https://www.createspace.com/4194358.
It will be available on Amazon.com in a few days. There is no difference in the product as purchased from the two different sites, or in how your order will be fulfilled (Amazon owns Createspace). Although the price is the same in both locations, we make a slightly higher royalty on Createspace than Amazon so, if you're thinking of buying, there is no reason to wait for it to be available on Amazon.
https://www.createspace.com/4194358.
It will be available on Amazon.com in a few days. There is no difference in the product as purchased from the two different sites, or in how your order will be fulfilled (Amazon owns Createspace). Although the price is the same in both locations, we make a slightly higher royalty on Createspace than Amazon so, if you're thinking of buying, there is no reason to wait for it to be available on Amazon.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Here's Something for You Nit Pickers
Spent
much of the day with my new white board working out a fairly detailed
map of the Union and surrounding space. I shot a picture of it with my
camera phone and it came looking pretty good. Coreward is at the top,
rimward at the bottom, spinward is to
the left and anti-spinward to the right. The approximate border of the
Orion Cygnus arm of the galaxy is just below the top of the board and
just above the bottom. The Rendezvous point marked is the rendezvous at
the end of Book II. I reserve the right to refine this significantly
as we write.
The picture is offset in order to get the glare from the flash off of one of the most critical parts of the sketch.
Obviously, it's a good thing that the books are selling as I would clearly starve to death as a stellar cartographer.
The picture is offset in order to get the glare from the flash off of one of the most critical parts of the sketch.
Obviously, it's a good thing that the books are selling as I would clearly starve to death as a stellar cartographer.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Paperback Edition of "For Honor We Stand" About Three Days Out
We've had a few issues formatting the paperback version of the new "Man of War" book, For Honor We Stand for publication as a paperback. It should be available in three or four days. We apologize for the delay to all the folks out there who don't use e-readers.
In other news, the new book is succeeding beyond our wildest expectations. It is the Number 2 Amazon Hot New Release in two categories and #5 in another and is a top ten bestseller in three categories. As of this writing, it is #4 in Kindle Military Science Fiction. The new book's visibility has resulted in a boom of sales in the first book, To Honor You Call Us,, which is now a top ten bestseller in two categories and is in the next ten on the other.
Further, based on customer ratings, To Honor You Call Us is now the #12 top rated Kindle Military Science Fiction book and is #11 in Kindle War Fiction, right behind Uncle Tom's Cabin and four slots above Monsarrat's classic, The Cruel Sea, and several places above the H. G. Wells genre foundation book, War of the Worlds.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not suffering from the grandiose delusion that this means my first effort at writing fiction is actually better than these books in any kind of serious, critical, literary sense. I'm sure people will be reading Uncle Tom and The Cruel Sea long after everything written by H. Paul Honsinger has faded to obscurity, but this rating does say that the book generates a great deal of enthusiasm and approval from readers, which is what I am aiming for, anyway. I'm not trying to write anything like a "Classic of Modern Literature." Good thing, too, because I'd fall flat on my ass if I tried. What we are trying to do is write books that are entertaining. We want the reader to be engaged, to feel the anxiety and anger and relief and triumphs of our characters. These ratings say that we are succeeding in that regard. We will work very hard to get better and better at the craft of novel writing so that we can deliver a progressively better product to our readers.
This has been an exciting journey for us. We hope to entice a great many readers to come along, and that they will feel like they are sitting at the Commodore's Station as Max unleashes his next dazzling ploy against the Krag.
In other news, the new book is succeeding beyond our wildest expectations. It is the Number 2 Amazon Hot New Release in two categories and #5 in another and is a top ten bestseller in three categories. As of this writing, it is #4 in Kindle Military Science Fiction. The new book's visibility has resulted in a boom of sales in the first book, To Honor You Call Us,, which is now a top ten bestseller in two categories and is in the next ten on the other.
Further, based on customer ratings, To Honor You Call Us is now the #12 top rated Kindle Military Science Fiction book and is #11 in Kindle War Fiction, right behind Uncle Tom's Cabin and four slots above Monsarrat's classic, The Cruel Sea, and several places above the H. G. Wells genre foundation book, War of the Worlds.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not suffering from the grandiose delusion that this means my first effort at writing fiction is actually better than these books in any kind of serious, critical, literary sense. I'm sure people will be reading Uncle Tom and The Cruel Sea long after everything written by H. Paul Honsinger has faded to obscurity, but this rating does say that the book generates a great deal of enthusiasm and approval from readers, which is what I am aiming for, anyway. I'm not trying to write anything like a "Classic of Modern Literature." Good thing, too, because I'd fall flat on my ass if I tried. What we are trying to do is write books that are entertaining. We want the reader to be engaged, to feel the anxiety and anger and relief and triumphs of our characters. These ratings say that we are succeeding in that regard. We will work very hard to get better and better at the craft of novel writing so that we can deliver a progressively better product to our readers.
This has been an exciting journey for us. We hope to entice a great many readers to come along, and that they will feel like they are sitting at the Commodore's Station as Max unleashes his next dazzling ploy against the Krag.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
It Has a Great Beat and You Can Dance to It; I give it a Ten!
We're still new at this and there is a lot about being a novelists that we don't know. One of the biggest of those is that we really have no idea whether the projects into which we are pouring our hearts and souls and intellects are any good or whether they are total crap. Our wives tell us they are good, but then again they also tell us that we are handsome, a conclusion about which we are extremely skeptical.
So, it is with great pleasure and no small measure of relief that we see that there are already eight reviews of the new book on Amazon.com and that they are all five stars. Not only that, they are universally complimentary. Now, there are a few reviews that say that they have small quibbles here and there, and we certainly look at all of those things very seriously (actually, we were already conscious of every one and had planned to do certain things a little different as we go along--mainly as the situations will be different and the characters more mature in their relationships), but certainly nothing major. In fact, the reviews are better than the first wave of reviews were on the first book, and they weren't bad at all.
And, of course, based on our experience with the first book, we know that good reviews sell books. Particularly, when people give good reviews on book number two or book number three of a series encourages people to start a series of which they might otherwise be skeptical. No one wants to invest the time to read the first book in a series and find out that the series fizzles.
Series die more often than you might think. I've seen it several times. Sometimes the writer simply has no new stories of any interest to tell about these characters. Or, more often, the characters go through exciting and meaningful experiences and emerge from them completely unchanged--they learn nothing, they don't grow, they don't develop, they don't mature.
Anyway, when people see that the second book is as good as or better than the first, then they have reason to believe that the writer can sustain the series over time.
So, now that there is a second book out and people can see that it is as good as, if not better than the first, we are hoping not only that everyone who read the first book will read the second, but also that people who might have passed on the first will give it a second look now that we have proved we are capable of producing more than one book that is worth reading. Frankly, this was something about which we, ourselves, were worried. After all, we didn't know we had the ability to produce ONE good book, much less two.
There is, of course, another dimension to reviews. They are an emotional pay off. Sure, if a book is good and if it catches on with an audience, it makes money for trivial stuff such as food and health insurance and car payments. We like those things. We like them very much. But, after working twelve and sixteen hour days, seven days a week for three months to produce a novel, it is very gratifying to read good things that people might have to say about it. We put an extraordinary amount of effort and work very, very hard to develop the battle scenes and tactics, conceive of the maneuvers and the weapons and the back stories, and to get all of the little details just right. We spend many, many hours sweating the small stuff, and there is lots and lots of small stuff. These reviews are a reward for those efforts, and it does feel very, very good.
So, to the people who write the reviews, thank you. They do mean a great deal to us.
So, it is with great pleasure and no small measure of relief that we see that there are already eight reviews of the new book on Amazon.com and that they are all five stars. Not only that, they are universally complimentary. Now, there are a few reviews that say that they have small quibbles here and there, and we certainly look at all of those things very seriously (actually, we were already conscious of every one and had planned to do certain things a little different as we go along--mainly as the situations will be different and the characters more mature in their relationships), but certainly nothing major. In fact, the reviews are better than the first wave of reviews were on the first book, and they weren't bad at all.
And, of course, based on our experience with the first book, we know that good reviews sell books. Particularly, when people give good reviews on book number two or book number three of a series encourages people to start a series of which they might otherwise be skeptical. No one wants to invest the time to read the first book in a series and find out that the series fizzles.
Series die more often than you might think. I've seen it several times. Sometimes the writer simply has no new stories of any interest to tell about these characters. Or, more often, the characters go through exciting and meaningful experiences and emerge from them completely unchanged--they learn nothing, they don't grow, they don't develop, they don't mature.
Anyway, when people see that the second book is as good as or better than the first, then they have reason to believe that the writer can sustain the series over time.
So, now that there is a second book out and people can see that it is as good as, if not better than the first, we are hoping not only that everyone who read the first book will read the second, but also that people who might have passed on the first will give it a second look now that we have proved we are capable of producing more than one book that is worth reading. Frankly, this was something about which we, ourselves, were worried. After all, we didn't know we had the ability to produce ONE good book, much less two.
There is, of course, another dimension to reviews. They are an emotional pay off. Sure, if a book is good and if it catches on with an audience, it makes money for trivial stuff such as food and health insurance and car payments. We like those things. We like them very much. But, after working twelve and sixteen hour days, seven days a week for three months to produce a novel, it is very gratifying to read good things that people might have to say about it. We put an extraordinary amount of effort and work very, very hard to develop the battle scenes and tactics, conceive of the maneuvers and the weapons and the back stories, and to get all of the little details just right. We spend many, many hours sweating the small stuff, and there is lots and lots of small stuff. These reviews are a reward for those efforts, and it does feel very, very good.
So, to the people who write the reviews, thank you. They do mean a great deal to us.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Error! Error! Ster . . i . . . lize!!
I am not NOMAD. I am not perfect.
Of course, neither was NOMAD. That's why it blew itself up and got some of its parts recycled into the Romulan Cloaking Device from "The Enterprise Incident."
A reader just pointed out a rather embarrassing time/distance error in For Honor We Came. At the Cumberland's stated speed of 10 c, the distance between Radhid IV and Rashid V B, approximately 4 AU, would take just over 3 minutes to cross, not "just over half an hour" as I the book originally said (this is just before the Battle of Rashid V B). I can see what I did. I went through the steps to compute the time to cross at the speed of light (1 AU = about 8.1 light minutes, then multiply 8.1 minutes times 4 AU) meaning then to divide the result by 10 because the ship is traveling at 10 c, and then forgot to divide by 10. Duh.
Well, one of the great things about e-publishing is that we have already corrected the error and uploaded it to Amazon and B & N. Anyone who buys the book from a few hours from now on will get the corrected version. If you have already purchased, you should be able to delete the book from your reader (but not, please, from your account!) and then download it again, which should give you the corrected version.
No telling yet whether we will be able able get it fixed in the print version, which is in process but not yet final.
This stuff just makes me buggy. Time/distance errors are one of the things that annoys me the most in science fiction, especially in movies. Remember in Star Trek V when the Enterprise goes to "the center of the Galaxy," in about one and a half reels? Well, given that it is about 27,000 light years to the center of the galaxy, and even if we assume that the ship can go 1000 times the speed of light (Warp 8 in the Original Series was 512 c) that's a 27 year trip. I practically banged my head on the seat in front of me about that one (that and the business about a Klingon ship being picked up on sensors but going unnoticed because no one happened to be looking at the right screen at the right time--as though Spock didn't have something like the "Back Room" on my ships where other people are looking at the sensor data to back him up).
So, anyway, it's fixed. Thanks to reader RxScram for pointing out the error.
Of course, neither was NOMAD. That's why it blew itself up and got some of its parts recycled into the Romulan Cloaking Device from "The Enterprise Incident."
A reader just pointed out a rather embarrassing time/distance error in For Honor We Came. At the Cumberland's stated speed of 10 c, the distance between Radhid IV and Rashid V B, approximately 4 AU, would take just over 3 minutes to cross, not "just over half an hour" as I the book originally said (this is just before the Battle of Rashid V B). I can see what I did. I went through the steps to compute the time to cross at the speed of light (1 AU = about 8.1 light minutes, then multiply 8.1 minutes times 4 AU) meaning then to divide the result by 10 because the ship is traveling at 10 c, and then forgot to divide by 10. Duh.
Well, one of the great things about e-publishing is that we have already corrected the error and uploaded it to Amazon and B & N. Anyone who buys the book from a few hours from now on will get the corrected version. If you have already purchased, you should be able to delete the book from your reader (but not, please, from your account!) and then download it again, which should give you the corrected version.
No telling yet whether we will be able able get it fixed in the print version, which is in process but not yet final.
This stuff just makes me buggy. Time/distance errors are one of the things that annoys me the most in science fiction, especially in movies. Remember in Star Trek V when the Enterprise goes to "the center of the Galaxy," in about one and a half reels? Well, given that it is about 27,000 light years to the center of the galaxy, and even if we assume that the ship can go 1000 times the speed of light (Warp 8 in the Original Series was 512 c) that's a 27 year trip. I practically banged my head on the seat in front of me about that one (that and the business about a Klingon ship being picked up on sensors but going unnoticed because no one happened to be looking at the right screen at the right time--as though Spock didn't have something like the "Back Room" on my ships where other people are looking at the sensor data to back him up).
So, anyway, it's fixed. Thanks to reader RxScram for pointing out the error.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
It's HERE!!!
No kidding. This is not a teaser. The second volume of the Man of War Trilogy, For Honor We Stand is now available as an Amazon Kindle e book. The Nook edition on Barnes & Noble and the paperback edition will be along shortly. It was a good pregnancy, but a difficult birth. We really like the way the baby looks. We hope you do, too.
Here is the link to the book on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/For-Honor-Stand-Man-ebook/dp/B00BFE6IOC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360786484&sr=1-1&keywords=for+honor+we+stand
And here's a look at the cover. It should look pretty familiar.
Here is the link to the book on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/For-Honor-Stand-Man-ebook/dp/B00BFE6IOC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360786484&sr=1-1&keywords=for+honor+we+stand
And here's a look at the cover. It should look pretty familiar.
Monday, February 11, 2013
It's Still Coming . . . Still . . . Coming . . . Really!
First the news that people care about: the new book should be out by the end of the week. Cover: done. Blurb: done. Reformatting: done. Three edits by authors: done. Kathy is on her second edit now. When that is finished, we will upload it. It could be as early as Wednesday, but having dashed people's hopes before I'm not going to say we expect it then. I can't see how, though, it would not be sometime this week, and almost certainly before the weekend.
This book has been a lot harder than the first. First, it's longer by almost 20,000 words. That may not seem like much, but it is a big jump in the complexity of the book. Second, speaking of complexity, the battles, especially the first one, are much more intricate than anything in the first book. The second battle is no slouch, either. This stuff has to be checked carefully. Bearings, ranges, times, distances, weapons deployments, sensor displays all have to be correct and consistent. This is hard, tedious work and is one of the reasons that there are very few authors in this genre who write battles the way we write them. Third, there is an inherent issue with sequels. The first book need only be consistent with itself (and with what is plausible). The second book must not only be internally consistent, but also must be consistent with the first book. What deck are the Mids' classrooms on? What is the order of the maneuvering stations from right to left. How many status lights are there on the weapons console and what are they? What's Chief LeBlanc's first name? If we mess up stuff like that, readers catch it. All this stuff has to be obsessively checked.
But, we're past that. The third book should be easier, if only because we are learning from our mistakes. We're going to compile a "Bible" of names, positions, control configurations, specifications, etc., to use as a reference in future books to keep it all consistent. The formatting error that took more than a week to root out of the manuscript won't happen again, etc. Anyway, we are hoping that For Honor We Stand turns out to be worth the wait. It has been a labor of love. It's our baby and we don't want it born prematurely or with any birth defects.
This book has been a lot harder than the first. First, it's longer by almost 20,000 words. That may not seem like much, but it is a big jump in the complexity of the book. Second, speaking of complexity, the battles, especially the first one, are much more intricate than anything in the first book. The second battle is no slouch, either. This stuff has to be checked carefully. Bearings, ranges, times, distances, weapons deployments, sensor displays all have to be correct and consistent. This is hard, tedious work and is one of the reasons that there are very few authors in this genre who write battles the way we write them. Third, there is an inherent issue with sequels. The first book need only be consistent with itself (and with what is plausible). The second book must not only be internally consistent, but also must be consistent with the first book. What deck are the Mids' classrooms on? What is the order of the maneuvering stations from right to left. How many status lights are there on the weapons console and what are they? What's Chief LeBlanc's first name? If we mess up stuff like that, readers catch it. All this stuff has to be obsessively checked.
But, we're past that. The third book should be easier, if only because we are learning from our mistakes. We're going to compile a "Bible" of names, positions, control configurations, specifications, etc., to use as a reference in future books to keep it all consistent. The formatting error that took more than a week to root out of the manuscript won't happen again, etc. Anyway, we are hoping that For Honor We Stand turns out to be worth the wait. It has been a labor of love. It's our baby and we don't want it born prematurely or with any birth defects.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
It's Still Coming
Well, gang, the new novel is still coming--it may just be a few more days than I planned. Essentially, I made a big mistake in formatting the manuscript that is requiring literally thousands of individual corrections before it can be uploaded for publication. I won't go into the details, mainly because it makes me look rather stupid.
Anyway, the book is written. We are just dealing with the manuscript issues and with inputting editorial corrections. It is looking as though it is not going to be ready before the end of the month, but early February is a good bet. I apologize for the delay--it is my own damn fault.
I am truly eager to get this one out. Once I get the book written, I sort of mentally move on to the next one. So, I really want this novel out of the way so I can start working on Brothers in Valor. I have very little patience for this part of the process. It is no fun at all.
But, I am working literally 12-16 hours a day to get the book out and it will be in your hands as fast as it can humanly be done. I think it's going to be worth the wait.
Anyway, the book is written. We are just dealing with the manuscript issues and with inputting editorial corrections. It is looking as though it is not going to be ready before the end of the month, but early February is a good bet. I apologize for the delay--it is my own damn fault.
I am truly eager to get this one out. Once I get the book written, I sort of mentally move on to the next one. So, I really want this novel out of the way so I can start working on Brothers in Valor. I have very little patience for this part of the process. It is no fun at all.
But, I am working literally 12-16 hours a day to get the book out and it will be in your hands as fast as it can humanly be done. I think it's going to be worth the wait.
Monday, January 21, 2013
"For Honor We Stand" to be Released this Week
Sorry for the lack of updates, folks, but I figured people would be more interested in reading a new novel than in reading a bunch of blog posts. We've been pushing hard to complete the next novel in the Man of War Trilogy, For Honor We Stand. The book is in final editing right now and should be issued this week. We did not make our original goal of having it out on January 21, but that date did keep our noses to the grindstone and we won't be missing it by more than a few days.
This has been a fun novel to write. It has somewhat more "action" than the first book, and the diplomatic intrigue as well as the overall conduct of the war story are told on a higher level, so to speak. There are major developments in terms of alliances and events that will dramatically shape the future course of the war against the Krag.
It did turn out longer than the first book. Book Two came out about 146,000 words, in comparison to Book One which was about 130,000.
The ending is very dramatic, if we say so our selves. And we do!
It will be out in just a few days. I will post an announcement here and on the Facebook page when it is about to go up.
This has been a fun novel to write. It has somewhat more "action" than the first book, and the diplomatic intrigue as well as the overall conduct of the war story are told on a higher level, so to speak. There are major developments in terms of alliances and events that will dramatically shape the future course of the war against the Krag.
It did turn out longer than the first book. Book Two came out about 146,000 words, in comparison to Book One which was about 130,000.
The ending is very dramatic, if we say so our selves. And we do!
It will be out in just a few days. I will post an announcement here and on the Facebook page when it is about to go up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)