Cody Sisco's Blog, page 3
April 1, 2017
Free NSA Copies of Believe and Live
To celebrate the launch of Tortured Echoes, I’m pleased to provide free, no-strings-attached copies of Believe and Live, the prelude to the Resonant Earth Series, via Instafreebie.
This is my way of saying “THANK YOU!!!” to all the fans of the series and to the new readers who want to check out just what a cyberpunk alternate history saga looks like.
Click here to get your copy.
ENJOY!!!
The Queer Sci-Fi Blog Announces Tortured Echoes
Part of the fun of being an author is meeting and collaborating with other authors. J. Scott Coatsworth and friends run the Queer Sci-Fi group for fans and authors of “Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Paranormal and Horror Fiction with a Bent Twist.”
J. Scott Coatsworth and friends run the Queer Sci-Fi group for fans and authors of “Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Paranormal and Horror Fiction with a Bent Twist.”
They posted an announcement about Tortured Echoes. It’s such a wonderful feeling to feel part of a community.
Head on over to the Queer Sci-Fi blog to check out other great novels, stories, articles, and Q&A’s with a fabulous group of authors.
March 28, 2017
A Successful Launch of Tortured Echoes
It was a fabulous evening, and I was glad to spend it with my friends and writer colleagues. There’s nothing like a fun night to help mark the transition from one project to the next.
As an extra bonus the owner and winemaker at Tercero Wines, Larry Schaffer, was there to pour a delicious flight of California central coast wines, including a powerful rosé and complex and spicy Mourvedre. The Tercero tasting room in Los Olivos is definitely worth the trip!
And what a pleasure to see that my book was already in the hands of a reader!
I’d love to see more pictures of my book “breaking” the Internet. Here’s some inspiration for your poses.
I didn’t get a chance to give any formal remarks because the bar was so crowded. What I would have said is:-
2016 was an odd year to be writing cyberpunk and alternative history. I couldn’t create fiction stranger than the truth. Although Tortured Echoes features cyberhacking, fake news, and legions of believers following a madman, I didn’t write a political allegory; I wrote about people seeking the truth in whatever way they could. Perhaps most importantly, the novel is a reminder of the importance of empathizing with people who are different from us and the potential for goodness to emerge–if we let it.
Finally, a huge thank you to Banah Winn for making sure the event was well-attended, the wine and beer flowed smoothly, and the music was pumping.
March 24, 2017
eBooks Come to Public Libraries
Some of them make an explicit point to include indie authors. This means readers have a way to check out their favorite indie authors’ books easily and for free.
Many libraries use Biblioboard to manage their digital collections. It’s essentially a free portal to a world of books. In addition, the Biblioboard/Library Journal SELF-e program enables local libraries to acquire indie authors’ books and share them with their patrons.
Broken Mirror was recently inducted into the SELF-e Select program, which means it is available globally to any library that partners with Biblioboard. Below is a list of public libraries in California that participate.
Why not sign in and check out Broken Mirror for free?
Note: you’ll need your library login credentials.
Participating Libraries in California
Altadena Library District
Beverly Hills Public Library
Coronado Public Library
County of Los Angeles Public Library
Fresno County Public Library
Los Angeles Public Library
Marin County Free Library
Mariposa County Library
Monterey Public Library
Moreno Valley
San Jose Public Library
Thousand Oaks Library
Upland Public Library
Ventura County Library
March 7, 2017
Don’t Go Undiagnosed
Mirror Resonance Syndrome is a degenerative brain disorder associated with electrochemical imbalances within mirror-neuron networks. These are the structures that enable individuals to understand and interpret others’ intentions and emotions. Symptoms of mirror resonance syndrome (MRS) can be severe, vary widely, and usually include habitual aggression and violence.
Many people with MRS experience extreme emotional transference, which, paradoxically, can lead to black outs.
The syndrome is linked to a genetic variation present in less than 1% of the population.
SYMPTOMS
Emotional hyper-reactivity over an extended period, including these progressively worsening symptoms:
1. Abnormally strong physiological and emotional reactions to physical or mental stimuli, including synesthesia and hallucinations
2. Subjective experience of being controlled, lacking autonomy, following a predetermined course, or reliving events (e.g., episodes of déjà vu lasting hours or days)
3. Persistent, immersive fantasies to the exclusion of reality
4. Depersonalization, loss of emotional vividness, motor-body disorientation, dissociative states, or extreme variability in self-image
5. Episodes of “brain blankness,” i.e. dreamlike fugue states and sleepwalking
6. Addiction to resonant-class narcotics [new criterion]
—Diagnostic Criteria for Mental Disorders,
Semiautonomous California Health Board,
Third (Revised) Edition
February 9, 2017
January 16, 2017
December 19, 2016
In-store print-on-demand!
A fan who lives in Paris was visiting New York last week.
She went to the Union Square Barnes & Noble to see if she could buy my book. Because I’m an indie author and can’t afford thousands of dollars to secure shelf space, bookstores don’t keep my books in stock, though they can order them for customers who ask. The fan was about to leave disappointed (she would already have left the country when the book would be delivered) when the clerk said, “Oh! Wait. We can print one for you.”
This is a real thing: in-store print-on-demand.
It’s only available at three Barnes & Noble locations in the United States (all on the East Coast), though I’ve heard an independent book shop in the Los Angeles area has one as well. I need to investigate.
There are few aspects of daily life that really make me stop and notice that we’re living in someone’s idea of the future. This was one of them.
October 31, 2016
A little horror for Halloween
“At the crest of the ridge, Mía stopped, gasping at the scene below her. The skies were cloudy with smoke and an oddly bright white fog seemed to be moving through the town in clumps, forming almost as fast as the breeze thinned it. What the thinned-out fog revealed left her gaping.Three separate conflagrations were roaring through houses and shops. Another fire was burning elm trees lining the town square, blazing like giant torches. One fire ripped through a block of bars, restaurants, and shops where she and Claudio had walked just last night. Homes on fire on the other side of the low-rise town sent black smoke billowing up, blending with haze from the other fires, rising toward one inky confluence.
Why couldn’t she hear any sirens? Why wasn’t anyone coming to put out the fires?
The answer lay at the foot of the hill. A small blaze engulfed a fire truck, split in two like a broken toy. The main cabin rested on its side fifty meters from the carriage, but there were no other vehicles on the street, no sign of what had caused the accident.
Oh laws, the parade! Today was Repartition Day. The townspeople would have gathered on Main Street. Could a bomb have gone off? But then there would be survivors, people helping the injured. There should be scores of police investigating, helping people, but she saw none. Where was everyone?
The tragedy, she realized, went far beyond her own horribly painful slice of it. It was as if someone had torn the cover off a book, revealing a different image and a tale much darker than the one that had been promised. No one was safe, she realized. After this day, how could anyone in SeCa feel safe again?”
Excerpt From: Cody Sisco. “Believe and Live – Prelude to Broken Mirror.”
Want to read more? Sign up for my newsletter to receive a free copy of Believe and Live. Or buy it for 99 cents on Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo, or Smashwords.
