The Backworlds

Today is the release date of The Backworlds by M. Pax. I've been a fan of M. Pax for a long time. Check it out :)
 

The Backworlds is here!

The first story in the Backworlds series by M. Pax. A vision of how humanity might colonize the galaxy some day in the distant future.

The Backworlds

After the war with Earth, bioengineered humans scatter across the Backworlds. Competition is fierce and pickings are scant. Scant enough that Craze’s father decides to hoard his fortune by destroying his son. Cut off from family and friends, with little money, and even less knowledge of the worlds beyond his own, Craze heads into an uncertain future. Boarding the transport to Elstwhere, he vows to make his father regret this day.

Available from: Amazon / AmazonUK / Smashwords / Feedbooks

Other links to more outlets can be found at either Wistful Nebulae or MPax

The Backworlds is an ebook and a free read. All formats can be found at Smashwords and Feedbooks.

Zombies Are People Too!

I've always liked Halloween stories, so I decided to make one of my own. The Human Ate My Pumpkin! is a Halloween short story from the Zombie point of view:

The Human Ate My Pumpkin! is .99 cents on Amazon and FREE on Smashwords.

It wasn't just any other night in the unlife of Ned The Undead, it was Halloween! But the world had changed a lot lately, and nothing seemed to turn out the way he expected. Find out why Zombies are people too, in "The Human Ate My Pumpkin!"

Hopefully it will be free on Amazon in time for Halloween. Of course, you can always shell out the 99 cents right now ;) Or, just get it free on Smashwords.

Free eBook Update

Well it has been about a week since Amazon changed the price of Mythik Imagination #1 to free. Although it hasn't had the massive tsunami of downloads I've heard about for other free eBooks, it has been fun to see it high up on the charts. It went up all the way to #6 in Science Fiction, and I think it's still in the top 50.

So if you want to check it out, now is a good time, and you don't have anything to lose :)

Soon I'll be making another surprise announcement (heh, well not too much of a surprise) just in time for Halloween.

Stay tuned, stay Mythik and thanks for reading!

Weekend eBooks

This week I plan to do a little Kindling and have loaded up some cool new eBooks (ha ha, yep I read on the iPhone! Crazy...) You also might want to check these out:

First up is Semper Audacia by M. Pax. $0.99

"Space opera. Novelette. 13,200 words. Alone. Leda is the last living member of the brigade, the sole defender of her world. War took everyone she knew, leaving her in the company of memories and ghosts. Or is it madness?

The siren blares. The enemy is coming. Or is it? The approaching vessel isn't a friendly design, but it answers with the correct code. Leda must figure out whether the arrival is reinforcements or the final assault. In an aging flyer, she ventures out to meet her world's fate, the last stand."

Next is Hunted - The Flash Gold Chronicles by Lindsay Buroker. $1.49

"Self-taught tinkerer Kali McAlister is determined to build an airship and escape the frigid Yukon forever. Unfortunately, she’s the heir to the secrets of flash gold, an alchemical energy source that tends to make her a popular target for bandits, gangsters, and pirates.

With the help of her bounty-hunting business partner, Cedar, Kali has outwitted and eluded attackers before, and she thinks she’s prepared for anything. Then her ex-fiancé strolls into her workshop.

As if fooling her once wasn’t enough, he aims to embroil her in a fresh scheme. Meanwhile, a new nemesis is stalking her, a shrouded figure with an arsenal of deadly machines that make Kali’s inventions seem like toys. This time, it’ll take more than her ingenuity and Cedar’s combat skills to survive.

Hunted is a 27,000-word steampunk novella.

Printed page count equivalent: 120"

And Imperium - A Caulborn Novel by Nicholas Olivo. $2.99

"Vincent Corinthos leads a triple life. As a secret agent, he handles paranormal threats; as a god, he protects his followers from evil forces; as a stock clerk, he keeps the back room of an antique store tidy.

When one of his fellow agents goes missing, Vincent begins with the usual suspects. His investigation reveals that Boston’s latest supernatural threat is also waging war on his followers, and has diabolic intentions for the city’s paranormal citizens.

Now, with the aid of a new partner and a gremlin, Vincent must locate the missing agent, defend his followers and learn the identity of his adversaries before they can revive a malevolent force that’s been dormant since World War II."

I'm already a fan of Buroker's Flash Gold series, and the premises of Semper Audacia and Imperium look pretty awesome. Now I just need to find the time to actually read...

Mythik Imagination #1 is a Free eBook

Mythik Imagination #1 is now a free eBook on Smashwords. It's also free on Barnes & Noble and iTunes. It's not free for the Amazon Kindle yet, but if any volunteers out there would like to let Amazon know they should adjust the price to free, that would be way cool. Thanks to Savvy Self Publishing for the tip on how to make Kindle eBooks free!

I'm not quite ready to announce a release date for Mythik Imagination #2 Weird West Edition just yet, but hopefully it will be ready soon.

I'm trying to make up for time lost over the summer, and if all goes according to plan, the next issues of Mythik Imagination will be much closer together :)

The Great Indy Summer Read Giveaway

Guess what? It's time for The Great Indy Summer Read Giveaway!! Katja at www.coffeemugged.net is hosting this cool event where you could get some free books.

Of course, one of those books just happens to be of the Mythik variety ;)

You can also check out the books at Goodreads.

There will be a LOT of winners, which will be chosen randomly. Find out how you can increase your chances of winning by reading the instructions page.

1st winner will receive 10 different books

2nd & 3rd winners will receive 5 different books

4th & 5th winners will receive 3 different books

6th – 10th winners will receive 2 different books

So have fun and good luck!

The eBook Revolution and the New Writer - Part 2

If you've already read Part-1, welcome back. If not, don't worry. I'm sure you'll figure out what's going on. On second thought, this is a bit of a tangent before I bring it all together, so maybe read Part-1 first after all.


Part-2
Here's a short tale, beginning with a quote from Peter Egan:

"In any contest between the two, doing beats having every time."

I've been a gearhead for almost as long as I've been making up stories. In my misspent youth, I used to devour every issue of Road & Track. The first thing I would read in every issue was the column by Peter Egan, called Side Glances. The columns easily equaled (and many times even surpassed) the thrilling racing reports, luscious Lamborghini photos, and retrospectives on such classics as the '38 Phantom Corsair. Side Glances often had humorous stories about old sports cars (usually British) combined with little nuggets of wisdom about life. It always related to cars in some way, but you never knew exactly where it would end up. A side glance as you travel down the road of life, I guess.


I liked some of the columns so much I would cut them out and put them on my fridge. One of my favorites was when Peter told the story of what happened when he and his friends were testing some cars at the local race track. It's been a while, so my apologies to Mr. Egan if I get the details wrong.


Some guy rolled up in a 300ZX or maybe it was a 944 (I told you it was a while ago.) The guy started chatting with them about cars and racing etc. Then he said something to the effect of "Ya know, I've always wanted to go racing..." Which of course, pushed the wrong button for Peter's friend (sorry, nameless friend, Google wasn't much help this time.) Peter's friend had probably heard some version of this a thousand times. One thousand and one was apparently one too many. He said to the guy: "No you haven't. You haven't always wanted to race." The point being, if this guy had "always wanted to go racing," he would have. But he didn't.


Instead, this guy chose to do other things with his time, money and effort. Which is perfectly fine, of course. But he enjoyed believing that someday he would choose differently and actually go racing.


The rest of the column was about how we all have things we might like to say we've always wanted to do. But truthfully, we really didn't always want to do them. Instead, they were just things we'd idly think about once in a while. And usually that thought would involve the word "someday." But you can't put "someday" in your iCal, can you?


I'm sure many philosophers or self-help gurus have already covered this ground, but it seems to me that people eventually end up just where they really want to be, whether they want to admit it or not. So Peter told about things he'd thought he'd always wanted to do and the things he actually did. Some things, like skydiving, were just occasional thoughts he would have, but other things, like racing and writing, were passions. You see, life can interfere with the best laid plans, but where passions are concerned, you find a way.


It may involve sacrifice and setting priorities. It might even take a long time. I'm sure when Peter's friends were going out to dinner, driving brand new cars, and buying new houses, he was perfectly happy with the beat up old station wagon that doubled as a tow car and spending all his disposable income on used tires and other parts for his race car. Instead of having stuff, Peter chose to do his passion. I'd think he'd say it turned out pretty well. By the time he wrote that article, he was living his dream, testing cars on a race track and getting paid to write about it. Something he probably would have gladly done for free. He's continued to live that dream in the decades since then.


But, it's not as if he just magically woke up one morning and found he was working for Road & Track and suddenly living his dream. He'd been living that dream all along, even when subsisting on PB&J while sleeping in the back of his station wagon on race weekend, before he "made it big." And it was all because he believed doing beats having.


So the moral of this little tale, and how it relates to ePublishing and the New Writer, is this:


If somebody (such as imaginary Bart from Part-1 - see, go read Part-1 if you haven't) has written a book and published it on Amazon & Smashwords, etc., that's only the beginning, not the end result. Bart is already beyond the "someday" phase, which is great. But he needs to keep going. If his passion is writing, then he needs to just do it and not worry about sales and how many followers his Facebook and Twitter accounts have. What he does need to do is write more books and have an idea what he will be writing next month and next year. Writing and finishing a book is a great accomplishment. I am sincere when I say "Congratulations." I am sarcastic when I say "Now go celebrate it with a million other people in exactly the same boat as you."


Note: I am not saying "Build it and they will come." I'm not saying marketing isn't important. But look at the big picture. Don't get caught up in the hype of this new thing called ePublishing. If writing is your passion, then make it your career. You're not going to be able to quit your day job overnight. But have a plan. Literally make a business plan. Google it. Figure out where you want your writing career to be in a year, three years, five years, ten years from now. If you want to have the success of a pro, then act like a pro and be a pro. Set your goals, then make a map of how you want to get there one step at a time.


None of the ePublishing success stories happened over night or in one month. They all required a lot of hard work, time, and effort. You might have to sacrifice some things. Maybe you have to get up an hour or two earlier to find the time to write. Maybe you will need to pass on that new TV and invest in better cover art or editing for your next book. Doing beats having.


The New Writer is the same as the Old Writer, except now we have more options, and more control. With this new power comes new responsibility. Instead of getting caught up in who has what sales, take charge of your own writing. Make it as good as you can. The New Writer is their own CEO and the head of their own marketing and art departments. Delegate to others if you have the budget, but remember it's all up to you, so you better be prepared.


So I would say to Bart, don't worry about whether you sell 10 books in a month or a hundred. You will do fine if you think long term. If this is your passion, then you're here to stay. You're doing your dream. If you keep doing that, then success will come.

But, what do I know -- it's taken me 30 years just to get three short stories independently published ;)

The eBook Revolution and the New Writer - Part 1

And now an unsolicited Mythik editorial:


Let's dig deep into the ole' Mythik mailbag and see what we can find. Okay, here is a good letter. It's from Bart in Nacogdoches, Texas. Bart writes:

Dear Mr. Mythik,

I'm an Indy Author and I just published my first novel on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and a bunch of other places. It's been over a month, and I am still not on the best-seller lists. What am I doing wrong? Please help!

Bart -- Distressed in Nacogdoches  

First of all, Bart, enough with the "mister" stuff. We're pretty casual around here. Second, how should I know? You've been doing this longer than me. Third, you're in luck, because I do actually have a very simple answer to your question. Ready? Pay attention, because it goes by quick. You want to know what you are doing wrong? Okay, here's the answer:

Nothing. There ya go.

All right, I have to admit there is no Mythik mailbag, and nobody is sending letters (how very 20th century) to Mr. Mythik. But if they did, I would give them the same answer as I did to imaginary Bart.

I know what you're thinking. What do I know about this stuff, right? Why should I be talking about this? The reason I bring this up at all is because I've noticed a lot of things flying around the invisible airwaves of the internet about the eBook Revolution, and what I am terming the "New Writer" (which will soon become like "New Media" i.e. not "new" at all after a while.) There's tons of speculation and advice about ePublishing and even a few facts here and there. One fact you may have noticed is all those people who are suddenly toting around these anorexic Tricorder-like devices called Kindles, Nooks, iPads etc. And, much like cell phones in the late '90s, I don't think they are going away any time soon. As a speculative fiction writer, I love to, um, speculate on the real-life trends of our world of the future. So I give you my (no doubt, unasked for) 2 cents of opinion of ePublishing in two easy parts:

Part-1

I will assume imaginary Bart isn't involved in some sort of eBook Get Rich Quick Scam. It goes without saying that people who use software to automatically self-publish thousands of spam and plagiarized books are bad apples that just irritate readers and add noise to the electronic bookshelves, making it hard to find the good stuff. This is why I prefer the term independent rather than self-published. I know, a label shouldn't matter, but here's why I make the distinction: Any yahoo with a computer can self-publish an eBook. Even if they aren't actually scamming or spamming, there's no guarantee they aren't just uploading random words. I've hit the "send sample" button and received a book with 20 blank pages (well not totally blank - some of them had a few dashes on them. Modern art, perhaps, or maybe a secret code, but it definitely didn't entice me to spend $2.99 to find out how it ended.)

I like the term independent, as used in independent film, because it just means it is produced outside of the Hollywood major studio system. It does not mean unprofessional. It doesn't necessarily always mean low budget either, although it usually is when compared to the average Hollywood movie. In the ePublishing world, I define independent as outside the much maligned big publishing system. It can be a first-time author on a shoe-string budget (or no budget,) or it could be an established writer with dozens of backlist books. I'll get into this a bit more in a future post, but here's my definition of an Indy Author:

"Someone who does all the things a "traditional" publisher would, only on a smaller scale. (And theoretically, faster, cheaper, and hopefully better. Not better because of some magical "Indy Spirit," but potentially better because of an attention to detail that should be possible when the artist has all the control and is willing to shoulder all of the responsibility.) They may do the artwork, editing, formatting, marketing etc. on their own, or hire professionals to do these tasks. The end result is professional and should be as good or better than traditional publishing companies. The reader should be unable to distinguish Indy from traditional based on format and presentation."

Notice, there is nothing in the definition about quality of story content. Hey Bart, your historical comedy-romance about the Black Plague may outsell J.K. Rowling and Stephen King combined, who knows. That's for the reader to decide. But if you get a 1-star review, then just deal with it. As long as what the reviewer complained about was lifeless characters, dull setting, and boring plot, you will be fine. If writing is your passion, you'll either adapt and make the necessary adjustments or decide that Black Plague comedy isn't that particular reviewer's cup of tea. Critics disagree all the time. Art is subjective, especially when people spend their hard earned money on it. But if the critics complain that your book is equivalent to a bad YouTube video shot on a cell phone in a dark room with unintelligible audio, you're in trouble.

So, let's also assume that Bart's book is not plagued (ha, get it?) by wordssmashedtogether  wit-h occ-asion-al hyp-hens in the wrong places or wŦŒird charaĦ■◗cters and all the other things (misspellings, atrocious grammar, etc.) hard working readers rightly complain about. Let's also assume that the book does have a potential audience somewhere out there. That brings us to Part-2.

Which will be continued next time :)

Go to Part-2

Free is a pretty good price for SF&F Ebooks

Don't ask me how I got sucked into an Internet wormhole, but while looking up stuff about press releases and marketing, etc. etc. blah blah blah, I somehow stumbled across the Baen Free Library.

There is some really cool stuff there. I remember reading Inherit The Stars by James P. Hogan when I was a kid. I always thought the cover with the skeleton in a space suit was very creepy and way cool.

Now it's been, um, a reallllly long time since I originally read it, but I do remember that I liked it, and it was the first book of a series. I'll definitely be putting it on my TBR list. I think it's pretty amazing that it is a free Ebook. The Baen Free Library books come in all the usual formats, so you are pretty much good to go with any kind of device you have, or you can just read it on-line. Of course there is also nothing stopping you from making a donation or buying the non-free versions.

A lot of great writers have free books there, including Lois McMaster Bujold, Mercedes Lackey, Keith Laumer, Elizabeth Moon, Harry Turtledove, and a bunch of others -- Yes, I too, would hate to be lumped in to the "bunch of others" category, but this is just a heads up, not a directory. Check them all out for yourself :)

I better get back to "work." Hmm, maybe I should be a copycat and have something free on June 1st...

(That's a hint. And a subliminal plug. June 1st. There, I did it again.)

The Golden Age of eBooks

Way back in the day, I remember reading somewhere about the Golden Age of Science Fiction, when people like Asimov and Bradbury and Clarke and Heinlein would all hang out at the same coffee shop and shoot the breeze as they worked on their stories of wonder and amazement.  I don’t know if that ever really happened, but I thought the idea was very cool:  A small little universe of fans and writers and publishers all together on the same page, so to speak, on a mission to change the world.  Then that universe expanded until everybody seemed so spread out that personal contact was mostly a thing of the past.

But today, we are in a new Golden Age.  Just like back then, the line between reader and writer is blurred.  And instead of a coffee shop, we have Twitter, Facebook and Blogs.  And everything is so instant.  A reader can post a review in no time at all, for all the world to see.  Writers post works in progress and can give day by day accounts of the ups and downs of their creative process.  You can buy a book instantly from anywhere and be reading in seconds.  Ideas flow back and forth.  You can see all sides of this wonderful endeavor, from the artistic angle to the business end of things and a lot more in between.  It is all a huge, transparent interactive world where the audience and the artists merge as genres overlap and create explosive new mixtures.

So, I think that is my hope for this little blog.  To have that kind of connection with the world.  It seems like a cool thing to me, and I look forward to this kind of future.

Thanks, be Mythik and stay tuned!