#385: Hanging up Steve’s shorts. I hope you’ve enjoyed the free short stories found in the series “What Happened to Those Characters?”  I’d been planning this for a while, but believe me when I say it’s not easy to come up with a new story every week.  I’d venture to say it’s more difficult than NaNoWriMo, but I’ve never done that—of course, people who have probably haven’t written that many short stories in that amount of time either.  I’m crazy and they’re crazy, but sometimes you have to challenge yourself.

If you missed any of the stories, they’re archived in “Steve’s Shorts” (where else?).  I won’t say I won’t return to the series in the fall, but right now I need to catch my breath from the marathon I just ran, creatively speaking.  I hope the stories will stimulate you to check out some of the associated novels.  Guess what?  That’s another reason I wrote them!

#386: Lurking is fun.  I’m talking about hangin’ ‘round discussion groups, not peeking through your neighbor’s window with that telescope you bought your kid last Christmas (remember Hitchcock’s Rear Window?—there was a hilarious take-off on that in the ABC show Castle).  Readers and writers alike can find many groups on the internet that deal with reading and writing and the book business (LinkedIn has some of the best, while GoodReads and FaceBook are OK).  Join up and lurk.  I’m probably a 95% lurker, 5% participant.  That lurking percentage is explained by two internet laws of discourse: (1) the more you participate, the more time it takes; and (2) the more you participate, the more chance there is that someone attacks what you have to say.  But it’s cool just to follow the passionate debates (see below, for example)—that’s lurking.

#387: Amazon vs. Hachette.  If you’re following this debate via newspapers, you’re probably receiving a very biased slant—newspapers (another biased article in the Times yesterday), like big book barns and most other bookstores, are tools of the Big Five publishers, and guess which side they root for?!  Balance out your reading at least with Lorraine Devon Wilke’s “What the Amazon vs. Hachette Debate Ignores: Independent Authors” at the Huffington Post site.  Of course, she just echoes what Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath have been saying for years.

Playing on Lorraine’s title, though, what both sides ignore, of course, are the really important people in this debate.  I mentioned them in a recent post—the readers!  I can only see benefit to readers if Amazon wins, or at least obtains better terms from Hachette, because Big Five books are over-priced—they scam the readers into paying exorbitant prices so they have a bigger cut in order to finance their bloated bureaucracies (they also give less percentage royalties to authors).

Moreover, when the price of an ebook is only a few dollars less than the hardbound and both are in the $15-$20 range, I have another name for it—gouging the reader!  I absolutely will NOT buy a book that costs more than $10, whether pbook or ebook, indie or not.  You shouldn’t either!  (I’m talking about genre fiction, of course.  That chem book for your daughter who’s a college freshman is another issue—but it’s over-priced too, so more gouging!)

#388: More summer reading.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t add some of my favorites from “Steve’s Bookshelf,” genre fiction with heavy doses of literary prose.  In alphabetical order, let me recommend Donna Carrick’s The First Excellence at $3.99; P. D. LaFleur’s Mill Town, a bit pricey at $7.99 (LaFleur probably doesn’t have control of the price just like I don’t with my Infinity titles); and Carolyn J. Rose’s Hemlock Lake and Through a Yellow Wood, both $2.99.  These are mysteries/suspense books that are so good they made it onto “Steve’s Bookshelf.”

Along these same lines, I recently discovered the three-novel package from Joan Hall Hovey containing Nowhere to Hide, Night Corridor, and Listen to the Shadows, all creepy mystery/suspense stories that will keep you on the edge of your chair—a bargain at $4.99.  (Will packaging of novels become a new trend?  I’ve seen quite a few lately.)  I’ve reviewed another book by P.D. and read Mill Town, which I think is better; I also reviewed Joan’s latest release.  I reviewed Carolyn’s books and read Donna’s, a taut mystery where you’ll learn a lot about China.  All great reading for your summer vacation!

#389: Just released!  I’ve now gone completely ebook with the second edition of Soldiers of God.  This is the bridge between “The Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.”  It’s been completely rewritten for this ebook second edition and also offers an entertaining, mind-bending, thrill ride for your summer reading.  Like Survivors of the Chaos, it trends to the more normal sci-fi book length, so it’s a bargain at $4.99 compared to that original pback first edition still available from Infinity.  It has a new spiffy cover from creative cover artist Sara Carrick.  Remember: you can read it for free, because I’ll send you a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.  (The pbook first edition has been reviewed, but not enough.)

#390: …and about covers….  Readers might have noted that the ebook second edition of Full Medical sports the first edition’s cover while the ebook second edition of Soldiers of God has a new one.  What’s the difference?  This happened because I didn’t want to become embroiled in any possible legal issues.  The first book’s cover was designed by me and some good friends who go way back, and deftly portrays the idea of cloning (where the series gets half its title).  The second book’s cover was designed by Infinity artists using written ideas from me—a great job, to be sure, but it’s not clear who has the copyright on that cover, and now I don’t have to care.  FYI for any author thinking of second editions.  (BTW, I like the new cover better.  It probably works better because I didn’t butt in on Sara’s creative process!)

#391: …and using real people in fiction…. Readers might have also noticed that some of my main characters in Aristocrats and Assassins are real people, notably the royals (fortunately I didn’t include the King of Spain in that group).  It turns out that you can only be sued if you defame a real person.  Because the royals in the book came off rather well, I’m not expecting any comments, except maybe from the Mayor of Andorra, who’s killed in the book—but not defamed!  I was pretty sure using the royals in A&A was OK because Clancy did it in Patriot Games.  I did spend more time researching this legal issue, though, so FYI for authors: you can use real people but don’t defame them!  (Note: I’m not a lawyer.  When you have a question like this, it’s always best to consult a professional.)

#392: The essential Vladimir.  I’m talking about my fictional villain, Vladimir Kalinin, not the real-world villain, Vladimir Putin.  “The essential Vladimir” can be found in my following ebooks: The Midas Bomb, The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan, Full Medical, Evil Agenda, No Amber Waves of Grain, and Soldiers of God.  (He appears in a few other books too as a minor character.)  Maybe I should call those books the “Series of Evil”?  Volodya, as his friends affectionately call him (does he have friends?—read those books and see), is a very complex fiend, a sociopath in general and a bit of a psychopath. but with a predilection for romance and la bonne vie.

He isn’t a serial killer and, at least in later life (and he had a long life for reasons you can only discover by reading the books), he only hired murderers because he was beyond DIY.  He also seems to always be on the search for love too, something you can understand by knowing his background.  He’s like an SF version of Conan Doyle’s Moriarty, always looking for the scheme that will bring him more money and power through a masterly manipulation of human beings.  Why am I telling you this?  Some readers are fascinated more by villains than protagonists!  If so, these books will entertain you with a “good” one.  (If it’s true that an author puts a wee bit of himself in every character, then I must be one scary dude!)

[Note: you can reference all my books on my webpage “Books and Short Stories,” or visit my Amazon author’s page.]

In libris libertas….

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