Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Mythik Imagination #1 - Three Pulp Sci-Fi Short Stories On Sale Now

Wahoo, Mythik Imagination #1, the first in a (hopefully) long series of Pulp Sci-Fi Short Stories is now on sale at Amazon and Smashwords :)

It will also be available at Barnes & Noble soon, as well as a few other places.

But you, dear readers, shall be rewarded for having eyes on this screen. Umm, at least hopefully it can be seen as a reward... Anyway, just for being a cool Mythik Blog Reader, you can get MI#1 for free! Just check out the Free Stuff page for details. You don't even have to do anything for it. Really.

If ya wanna see the blurb and whatnot, check out the Press Release page. And for an up-to-date look at what else is coming down the ole' Mythik freeway, take a look at the Books page.

I have to say, it has been a heck of an interesting (and totally fun) experience. Those of you who have already been through the process know it's not just a simple matter of writing something and then hitting the upload button. I've definitely had to learn a lot of new things in the past few months. One very cool thing about the internet is that you can almost become an instant expert in a new field of study (although I use the term "expert" very loosely, and "instant" is an exaggeration.) But you know what I mean.

We're not quite to the point where we can become a Kung Fu master overnight or learn how to fly a helicopter in a few seconds like in The Matrix. But, by visiting the right web sites, you can learn a heck of a lot about independently publishing an Ebook. I've had a lot of help from people who have been successful at this sort of thing and very graciously willing to share their experiences with the rest of the world. So I'll be having an upcoming post with some thank-you's to those kind folk. For those of you who might be considering a dip in the indy epub world, I'll also try to give back a bit by sharing my experiences, workflow, and tips and tricks. Ha, not that I'm an expert, but I can at least point out some stuff that seemed to make things easier, and things that were mistakes ;)

Since I started this blog (which I think is about  6 years ago in "internet years" - kind of like "dog years" but goes by even faster,) I've had the notion that the line between reader and author is very blurry. I still think that's true. After all, it seems that everybody has a blog about something, which makes everybody an author of some sort. So I'm thinking the Mythik Blog audience is:
  1. Readers of my books (ha ha, well hopefully)
  2. People with curiosity about the blog posts
  3. Other writers
What I think has the most potential for coolness about all this is the possible interaction between all three types. Readers can suggest new things and also get a peek at the behind the scenes writing world. Writers can chime in with their observations. The curiosity seekers can demand that Weird Wednesday not be postponed again. ;) It could turn into an alchemical mix that becomes magic. Ha ha.

Finally, I have a funny story. When I was (ahem) somewhat younger, I was in a race with Isaac Asimov. You see, I had read somewhere that he sold his first story when he was 21. (Ha, I just looked it up. It appears he was only 19 when he made his first sale. I lost the race before I started and didn't even know it.) So my ambition was to sell my first story before I was 21. Well that came and went. Heh, it's been a few years since then - okay a lot of years since then, but check this out: As I was publishing to Kindle, I noticed that someone had made a purchase from the UK store. So I took a look, and for a fleeting instant, my little book was in the UK Science Fiction/Short Stories top 100. Here's a pic:

Yep,  #94 just ahead of Phillip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov.

Thank you, unknown UK Amazon customer :) 

Well, MI#1 is out there, as good as I can possibly make it. Hopefully, it won't be too embarrassing. When Terry Gilliam first screened The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, he said "Remember, keep your expectations low." He can get away with that - heck, he's Terry Gilliam. If I say that, people will think, Sure, I'll keep them so low I won't even bother to look.

But I will just say that if you do give Mythik Imagination #1 a try and don't like it, well hopefully it will get better and you'll like the next one ;)

Thanks for reading!
Jon

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your first release! I look forward to checking it out. :)

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  2. Congratulations!
    Looking forward to your game picks for Monday's blogfest!

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  3. Thanks Alex. That blogfest is a lot of fun :)

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