Freebies…
Once upon a time I was in academia and R&D, but about the only thing I do well now is write. I’ve never had any pretensions while doing so. I know anything I write won’t be considered the “great American novel” by critics, but I think I’ve spun some good yarns that have entertained a few people. I’m also an avid reader (okay, I do that well too), so I know what good storytelling is, and I have plenty of books and authors to inspire my own storytelling (strange as it might seem to many people, few of the latter are in the Big Five stables of formulaic old mares and stallions). Of course, my reading life doesn’t entertain anyone but myself. In that respect, I’m like that silent majority of people who eschew streaming video and computer games to read a good book. For ROI (return on investment, not Louis XVI, who didn’t lose his head in a good book) on entertainment investments, you can’t beat books.
So…let me help you, readers of this blog, fill your hours of reading entertainment. (You can tell anyone else about this cultural aid too.) I offer free reading material. Not full novels yet (although recently I’ve been sorely tempted—long story), but short fiction. This material is found in the following trio:
Steve’s Shorts. This blog archive contains mostly short stories and a few serialized novellas—sci-fi, mystery, and thriller stories. They’re stories I’m proud of, but they just didn’t make it to novel length. (Although some have led to novels.) I don’t offer up my short fiction to ‘zine editors anymore, online or otherwise—that’s as much work as I do for full novels, and for little gain in audience or royalties (usually pennies per word). These stories are free and good introductions to my writing for readers everywhere.
ABC Shorts. My Irish collaborator writes short fiction too. Perhaps you know him better for the “ABC Sci-Fi Mysteries,” novels written for young adults and those adults who are young at heart. His short stories usually feature a young adult too, one in some kind of trouble. Like his novels, the short fiction isn’t something you want to read to your five-year-old at bed time, but your tween or teen would probably get a kick out of them—and maybe you as well.
Free PDF downloads. There’s a lot of short fiction here—short stories, novellas, sometimes in collections, although the novellas are often free-standing. Both A.B. and I participate (wink, wink). These PDFs are also free and once you download one, you can copy and distribute it to family and friends as long as the copyright is respected. To see the entire list, visit the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. I often update this list. For example, I recently added Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, Volume Three; it’s a collection of short fiction (much of it first appearing in “Steve’s Shorts” or “ABC Shorts”) like its predecessor (Volume One is for sale on Amazon).
Email newsletter. Other than those free PDFs, I don’t offer anything for free. You see, all my ebooks are reasonably priced, as are most of my print versions (books from the two small-press publishers are an exception, but I don’t control either their print or ebook prices). However, to loyal followers who subscribe to my email newsletter, there are monthly ebook sales. You can subscribe to that newsletter using the contact page at this website. If you’re not a Smashwords customer, you should join. It’s free, and you’ll have thousands of ebooks to choose from, not just mine.
To summarize…. If I were a cook, I’d be offering some free recipes; if I were a musician, I’d be offering some free online concerts. I’m not much of anything anymore except for being a fiction writer, so I can only offer you free fiction and limited sales. I hope it helps you fill your entertainment hours. Some ad-man came up with the phrase “Read a Movie!” What he neglected to say is that good stories allow you to create your own mental picture and enter exciting worlds far better than any movie—you’re the creator; the author is just your guide.
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Comments are always welcome.
A Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. In my other life in academia, I had the pleasure of meeting Hartle, Feynman, Mandelbrot, Salam, Wheeler, Dirac, Lederman, Feynman, Mandelbrot, and Enrico Fermi’s last student—some in courses, others in scientific meetings, and all characters, but none like physicist Gail Hoff. Enrico Fermi wasn’t the last physicist who was both an experimental and theoretical genius, but Professor Hoff will never receive the Nobel Prize. She goes time-traveling through several universes of the multiverse on a wacky road trip far beyond any in A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or The Time-Traveler’s Wife, never to return to her little lab in a small college outside Philly. Jeff Langley, her jack-of-all-trades electronics wizard, accompanies her. Their escapades, both amorous and adventurous, make this sci-fi rom-com a far-out sightseeing journey filled with dystopian and post-apocalyptic settings, first encounter, robots and androids—all that and more await the reader who rides along. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
