Find it on Amazon, B&N, Apple Store, Kobo.
It will be available on Google Play the day of, and pre-order should go live sooner.
The release date is 1/21 – This Tuesday!
Archive for the ‘The Wasteland Chronicles’ Category
Lost Angel Available for Pre-Order
Posted: January 17, 2020 in Announcements, Books, Kindle, Promotion, The Wasteland Chronicles, Uncategorized4
5:38 a.m…Origins Preview
Posted: January 24, 2013 in The Wasteland Chronicles, WritingTags: Origins, planning, The Wasteland Chronicles, writing
Normally this would the be the hour I write on my book, but I’m exhausted. I’m still trying to adjust to a new sleep schedule because I have to be at my new job at seven. I went to bed at 8:30 last night and probably couldn’t sleep till after midnight.
Sleeping has always been hard for me. Half the time I’ll fall asleep fairly decently, but the other half of the time my brain won’t turn off. It wasn’t that bad last night because my brain plotted out a good portion of the second book of The Wasteland Chronicles, and I started getting really excited at the possibilities. Ultimately, if what I have in mind comes to the page, it will be better than Apocalypse, more mysterious, and much darker…and of course, the stakes will never have been higher.
It’s hard to imagine getting any darker than Apocalypse, where my MC Alex deals with death and hopelessness galore (but he refuses to give up). Alex will deal with the same, only a greater scale in Origins. And this time, there is a hidden enemy that is very real that is trying to stop him.
As he crosses the Wasteland to seek answers, it sort of becomes like the Odyssey, where myth starts intermixing with science in unexpected ways. Like Apocalypse, Origins will be a book about finding hope in hopelessness.
Originally, I never thought book two would be darker than book one. Apocalypse was plenty dark already, and I really wrestled with whether a certain character should be killed off in that one. In addition to the three heroes (or anti-heroes in some cases), the posse will be getting two new additions – Li (pronounced “Lie”), a stoic, female katana wielder who finds her life’s purpose in following a long dead samurai code, and Lisa, a passionate yet dangerous ex-raider who has it out for the MC.
They will be journeying a thousand miles west, through harsh desert, twisted landscapes perverted by the xenovirus, meeting both friend and foe along the way…along with a mysterious, blind prophet who calls himself “The Wanderer,” a man born in the Old World who watched Ragnarok fall and saw his life burned up forever.
And of course, answers will be provided at the end – the kind that will lead to more questions, setting the stage for book three and possibly a book four. These questions will be answered: what is the xenovirus? Where did it come from? Why is it doing what it’s doing? And can it be stopped?
Some guesses people have made might be right…but so far, no one has guessed the whole truth.
Well…that is somewhat my blurb. Probably much in there that won’t be in actual blurb (I like my blurbs short and snappy), but you get the drift. And of course any of this is subject to change at any moment. I haven’t even plotted an outline yet, although I am very ready to get started. I think I need to let my novella Dark Prophecies cool off for a bit. It’s too close, and I fear it may not be good enough. I tried to keep it simple, but too many things are going on in the 40,000 words that I’m going to have some lines to make the overall thing read well.
In the meantime, I’m probably going to start on Origins soon. I just need a good night’s rest before I dive in, which will either be tomorrow or Saturday.
Results of the 2 Day Promo
Posted: January 23, 2013 in Promotion, The Wasteland ChroniclesTags: Apocalypse, kindle, promotion, The Wasteland Chronicles, writing
A couple nights ago, on a whim, I decided to use two my five free days to give away Apocalypse, curious to see how many copies would be downloaded without any other form of promotion.
The result is, more people have my writing in their hands from two days than over my entire life. It’s kind of weird.
As of 7:53 p.m., here’s the current breakdown:
United States: 2059
United Kingdom: 110
Germany: 21
Spain: 2
Italy: 4
Japan: 5
Total: 2201
What’s crazy is there are a bunch of blogs where you can upload your book, and they’ll feature it for thousands of people on your free days. I did not use any of these blogs (though I did for Night of the Necromancer, which is due to go free next weekend), so if I had used them, the total downloads might have been a lot higher. I may have even broken the top 100.
Still, this number is far more than I was expecting. This morning, I was ranked #1 in Science Fiction Adventure, #2 in Science Fiction, and something like #80 in all genre fiction. I just barely missed being in the top 100 of all Kindle books, coming in at #131 at my highest point. Here are the pics:
Exhibit A: Yes, that is my book next to a man who goes by the name George R.R. It’s probably the only time my name will appear next to his, ever. 😛
Exhibit B: This next one is me at #80 on the Genre Fiction list. The funniest part about this list is I was pretty much the only book that was not romance/erotica…lol.
I was holding my breath to make the Kindle Top 100 Free, but it didn’t end up happening. Perhaps some day, and I feel like I could have made it if I had let blogs know a few weeks in advance I was going free. But, like I said, I did this on a whim out of curiosity. What I learned is, when you have a popular genre, a great cover, and a short and to the point blurb, as well as a well-formatted and intriguing sample, your book is very likely to be downloaded if it goes free. I’m sure lots of reviews and likes help as well, but my book is new and has had any exposure yet (I guess until now). Or, it could have just been luck. There were thousands upon thousands of books that were free at the same time as mine, yet somehow mine climbed its way close to the top of the heap.
All in all, not a bad run. It felt pretty good to get so high on those lists, and to refresh my page every second to see all the downloads. The only thing is, I don’t know how many will actually read the book, because I’m sure a lot of people are just like “FREE!” and they get it, and never read it. I know I have about 5 free books queued up myself, that I keep telling myself I’ll read someday.
Also, if everyone had actually bought those books, I would have made about $4,500. Really, this wasn’t money “lost” per se, because none of these people likely would have downloaded my book anyway, much less have seen it.
All the same, it’s really cool. I have no idea if any of this means anything, so we’ll see if I get a little bump tomorrow from sales or the coming week. The biggest thing I can hope for is that people read the book and like it. Ultimately, I think if you have an entertaining yarn, people will like it, look out for your next thing, or tell others about it. I’m also hoping for some positive reviews, but I recognize there are some things wrong with the book..like the ending being too much of a cliffhanger without enough resolution…but I think ultimately it’s probably the best piece of fiction I’ve written. And I will get better, and am already bursting with ideas for book 2 (but first I want to finish the first book in my new series, Dark Prophecies…hoping to have that one online in mid-Feb at the latest).
If anything, five people in Japan have my book now. Whether they read it or not, that’s a cool feeling.
Also: to everyone who downloaded my book, THANK YOU! I hope you read it and enjoy it. You should also leave a review on Amazon (preferably glowing, but honest works too!).
Double also: As of this edit, the book is still live for another 2 hours and 38 minutes, CST…so go download it!
