Getting back to speed. ..

Yes, I have been away even longer thanks to further health issues. The smart thing to do may have been to document some of that, but there was a period there when I didn't really think I would be around much longer. After recovering quite well from a ruptured aneurysm,  the aortic dissection caught me a little by surprise. One tip is that open heart surgery tends to leave a chest wound that hurts about as bad as it gets, so I'm not going to recommend it. But I did get to keep my own aortic valve, so that was good news. It's the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.

He's Back...

Yes, I have been away from the netiverse due to illness. This ended up with an artery somewhere in the depths of my brain deciding to leak blood into places it should not be. As a note, this hurts quite a lot and does nasty things to brains apparently. But I have survived so far and some very nice doctors cut open my skull and repaired the aneurysm and put everything back together quite well. At least as far as I can tell, but maybe I am not the person to ask. I do know I have some nice pieces of titanium holding everything together...

Recovery has been amazing, apparently, and aside from some weakness and annoying vision issues I am feeling quite well. Even the eyes are starting to behave themselves and work well as a pair. Unfortunately, however, it has delayed the release of the Haven Earth series that I would dearly love to get into print. I can only hope to get back onto that real soon now.

In the meantime, the Shards of Heaven series has been doing very well. Long Days in Paradise is free to download and read, and the sequels (and the rest of my titles) are currently half price during the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale!

Happy Solstice!

How's that for politically correct? Any Romans here?

Okay, now for the Christmas news. We have some freebies available, of course, and these are:

Long Days in Paradise - A complete self contained novel and part one of the shard series. If you don't have it, then get it :)

Mirrim Dawn - A full length novel of Dawn's coming of age and the search for her father and her brother. Her story then concludes in dramatic Mirrim Vale.

And there are always a few free shorts on my Smashwords page.

Vampire Planet has been through a 2 week free preview period and will now go on holiday for the final edit and be back for release in the new year. Watch out for that one.

Haven Earth, although delayed slightly, will also be available in the new year as a trilogy set. The first novel will be offered free of charge. Oh yes. This first novel will cover the original concept of the short story, Rings of Earth, which was never completed. It was just way to much for a short story after all. When Melissa wakes into the reality of an unexpected future, the reality of her existence will take some time to come to terms with. She must then find her place in that... not very brave new world.

Vampire Planet

Vampire Planet was on Smashwords for a free preview download for a while there, and that has finished. It will be back after the next edits in it's final form. Check the blog for the final release date!

An alien invasion with a difference... Those of the Blood have lived in a world of peace for almost three centuries, the curse of humanity almost forgotten, the territories of earth now controlled by the the great houses that remain. And yet the terror returns, Sylvia's love slaughtered before her very eyes. Humans, a race thought long conquered. Now Silvia must face a world of such creatures...

Nano Win and Christmas Celebration!

So I decided I needed something to celebrate the completion of #nanowrimo, and with Christmas coming up, I thought this was a nice opportunity for another give-away.

That's right. FREE for Christmas - a sale right up to and including Christmas day. This is so that when you get the kindle or nook under the tree from Santa, you will be able to grab a novel to put straight on it.

And for the magic FREE code... drum roll... It is WE28F

Just head to Smashwords now and grab your FREE copy of Long Days in Paradise!

And so it is complete...

Well, November is drawing to a close and so is #nanowrimo for another year. And this was a good one. I started with an odd premise and an opening death scene, some basic ideas about current society, and came up with a somewhat lurid cover. I wrote notes and plans. I researched vampires a little and the 18th century a lot, more ancient myth even more. I created a world, a parallel earth that was somewhat unlike our own.... All in October, of course.

Then it was a matter of hitting the ground running for November, which worked very well, and the 50,000 words were typed by the 8th. That was easier than I thought, but by that stage the main supporting character, and perhaps the best in the entire novel which was essentially based around her, had not long appeared on the stage. Sure, she had met the main character, picked her up as a very wet hitch-hiker, taken her to New York... Only to walk in on an armed robbery and have this unknown woman take a bullet for her. And it goes downhill from there to the line:

“What would make me most comfortable would be to not have a vampire in my apartment.”

It was clear there was more novel to come. Another 43k in fact, which took until the 14th to complete, with a little epilogue work on the 15th. This has meant that there was plenty of time to do a quick first edit to make the story more consistent - there are always new ideas as you go and you might as well do those while they are fresh. It's a time for filling in the blanks. This is what they call a frangle in this universe. Silvia really did have three pairs of spare underwear. It also means that the release time-line looks a lot better than last year's rebel nano which took until March for the first draft and is still not finished editing.

Hopefully this means Vampire Planet will see an early release in 2012 as one of the more unusual alien invasion stories of the hour. I will leave with the last line of the novel...

“Welcome to Vampire Planet, my friends,” he then said with a smile.

Vampire Planet

Yes. It's true. November will be NaNoWriMo and it will be the beginning of the end for vampire legends everywhere. It's time to end the human propaganda once and for all.

The great cleansing of the 18th century saw the annihilation of a race in more than one universe. Now two vastly different cultures are set to clash between realities previously unknown.

The People of the Blood have lived in a world of peace for almost three centuries, the curse of humanity almost forgotten, the territories of earth now controlled by the the great houses that remain. And yet the terror returns, Sylvia's love slaughtered before her very eyes. Humans. They are a race thought long to have been conquered and absorbed into the blood, a people who had forever been at war with both the blood and themselves. Now a threat comes from a place never expected, and Silvia must face a world where such humans number in the billions in the hope she might save the earth from invasion and ultimate destruction.

And all Emily wants to do is get home, have a good nights sleep, and get to work in the morning. Having to deal with a vampire in her apartment was just never part of the plan.

Be afraid, be very afraid. The fabric of the universe has a hole in it, and you don't want to know what is on the other side...