Isabel Pelech's Blog, page 2

Should I Boycott Amazon This Time Around?

I need to figure out if I’m going to publish Rogue Ship on Amazon or just on Smashwords.  Mind you, I am usually mildly upset at Amazon for the way it treats warehouse workers, but Amazon is currently still carrying NRA-TV, last I heard, and that’s an issue that’s finally seeing some action.  The problem is, there’s no point in boycotting Amazon unless a bunch of other people are boycotting Amazon (and telling them so).  So does anyone know if there’s a general action against Amazon going on?...

First HeroKids Game

So I did my first HeroKids game yesterday at around seven.  I used the “Escape from the Ghost Pirates” module that came in the HeroKids bundle.

The reaction was somewhat mixed.  My daughter cried through the whole thing, convinced that she was “losing.”  After it was done (and she hadn’t lost), she perked up, declared it to be fun, and asked to play it again after bath.

My son, afterwards, started pacing rapidly as if he couldn’t contain his energy.  “And next,” he told me, “we’re gonna fight...

Smashwords Promotion and Assorted News

On March the fifth, Smashwords is having a promotion, and I listed my books for fifty percent off.  So if you don’t have a copy of Echoes of the Ancients and The Fire-Moon, wander over and have a look.

I will upload Rogue Ship to Amazon very soon, I promise.  I think I’m going to charge a normal novella price for it.  Soon, I hope to come up with a prequel that will be free, but for now, I’m working on editing the prequel to The Fire-Moon, which will be free, and released on Smashwords and Wa...

I realize I haven’t gotten much done on the writing front lately

But I haven’t been completely uncreative.  I’m going to start running a Hero Kids game for the kiddos, and see how it goes.

Since my one try at running D&D for them led to characters named Gummydrop and Dragonfly Bomb, I think I’ll have no shortage of interesting anecdotes.  And with any luck, the Hero Kids system will not have them drifting off after getting dazed by too many damn numbers, which I think is what happened to the D&D campaign.  I like the system.  (I’m not crazy about how it tr...

About the pricing of “Rogue Ship”

I have been hesitating in posting Rogue Ship on Amazon.  I am not totally sure why I am hesitating, but I am.  I think I am reluctant to charge money for the story.  It is very derivative.  It also doesn’t slot comfortably into “dystopia” or “not dystopia”—the society at large is utopian in some ways, but it does downright horrible things to some individual citizens.  Thirdly, there are some things in the book that don’t go anywhere—they’re basically hooks for making the story into a series. ...

A Possible Blurb For “Rogue Ship”

I’d appreciate it if people could comment on this and tell me how they like it.

The Commonwealth is the a society that humans have dreamed of for centuries—there is no poverty, no exploitation, no scarcity. Less technological aliens are protected by ironclad rules, and the universe is at peace.

Fah Enciso is something rare by the standards of the Commonwealth: she’s a criminal. Accused and convicted of killing nearly thirty defenseless aliens, she was sentenced to intensive therapy on a space...

Well, I finally did write that spooky Americana I was talking about in October

Only it’s not fantasy, exactly.  It involves a ghost train, too—sort of—but I’m not sure it’s a good story for the kiddos, due to being open-ended and leaving a lot of unanswered questions.  It’s on wattpad here.  Go have a look, and if you’re a wattpad member and enjoy it, consider voting on it.

I’m very proud of the cover art for that short story book, by the way.  I think I’m getting better at it.  I managed to do a revamped cover for Echoes of the Ancients—visible here—and I’m going to tr...

About the Prime Directive

I don’t go into it much in Rogue Ship, because I didn’t want to bring the story to a halt with a lecture, but I really do think that the Prime Directive has its roots in colonialism.

I mean, colonialism.  It starts with the idea that non-white civilizations are inferior, “primitive,” and thus the Europeans get to rob them, rule them, and/or wipe them out.  You see the idea of polygenism—the idea that different races of humanity had originated from different sources—in the works of important t...

Working on Revisions for “Rogue Ship”

The most immediate news is, I wrote a creepy little drabble for a contest over on wattpad.  If you’re interested, head on over and look.  If you like it and have a wattpad account, consider voting on it.

But apart from that, I’m currently working on revisions for Rogue Ship, a novella that I hope to have out in February.  I just rewrote the denoument to something that puts the characters more immediately in the action.  The conceit in my head was, “If this was the pilot for a series, the end...

After Christmas maybe-you-got-a-kindle sale

For those of you who got new ebook readers and are dying to try them, I’ve reduced the price of my books by a dollar on Smashwords, and reduced Echoes of the Ancients on Amazon.  (Reducing The Fire-Moon on Amazon would mess with my royalties.)  This sale will last through the thirty-first.

In less happy news, I’m going to abandon the bit about ten cents of every purchase of The Fire-Moon going to the Syrian children’s relief fund.  I’m not earning enough to give them a meaningful contribution...