ZZ Adams's Blog, page 4
July 22, 2021
June 7, 2021
Win an eReader Contest!
If you want another out-of-this-world adventure to add to your TBR pile, you can enter to win my book, SPLICE, on @BookSweeps today ���plus 50 exciting Sci-Fi novels from a great collection of authors… AND a brand new eReader ���� Here���s the link ����bit.ly/SciFi-May21 #books #amreading
June 5, 2021
The Pace of Myke Cole, the style of Maurice Broaddus, the grit of Abercrombie, the darkness of Brent Weeks? Having fun with Booxby: a flattering excursion with machine learning.
The novel of ours that has been most widely read is Wunderkind by a large margin. So it was with some curiosity and great interest that I put the novel through Booxby’s new machine learning tool to see what would happen. Booxby is trialing this as a tool for writers to help us figure out which readers our work will most resonate with. The idea being that highest on every reader’s wish list is that they find books that complement the writing style of their favorite author or authors. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen, but this is the fundamental principle behind Booxby as far as I can understand it. It should not be a surprise that a writer like me finds this idea difficult; we have not had such tools before. We have not needed them until very recently. The art of selling books has always been the role of the book seller. Writers write. Sellers sell. Somewhere along the line, particularly in the brave new world of Indie publishing, everything changed. Or perhaps this was always a falsehood and writers whose work sells were always on top of their genre, their readers, the zeitgeist, knowing what will appeal and which will not. Understanding the market. Booxby uses machine learning to find links between writers based on writing style and therefore (assuming their methodolgy is sound) helping readers and writers connect to each other based on style.
I first put Wunderkind through the machine. Wunderkind was written most recently and as with all writers, our craft improved, our art grew more focused and the end result is, I believe, a better product all around than the works that came before it. We wrote Splice first. It is nearest and dearest to my heart, but not as polished as Wunderkind. So how would the AI fare looking at these two books?
Much like Splice, when we wrote Wunderkind we were aiming for something fast-paced and fun. A story that was full of action but also explored the deeper relationships between the characters, as well as showing their inner story arcs of personal development. We wanted it to be fun and fast and quirky but also meaty enough to be realistic from a character perspective.
Splice started similarly. The two main characters (Elliot Goshawk and Arthur Fortune) would be very different from each other, both possessing that which the other needed but both not fully connected with themselves emotionally in a way that would allow them to see that.
Booxby looked at Wunderkind and then gave us some genre options to look at. These are, according to Booxby, the top books that most closely reflect the style of Wunderkind.
When we look at the Moods that Booxby identifies we get the following:
For Wunderkind, I am pretty happy with that. It is lively and compelling but also dark. Here are the books most similar according to Booxby:
So we get the complexity of Iain Banks with the darkness of Brent Weeks, the action of Goldsmith and the page-turning compulsion of Anita Shreve. Interesting. How does that compare against Splice?
Flattering for sure. And clearly I need to read some Kenneth Bulmer and maybe if you are reading this blog post, you do too! (Which I think is the entire point.)
What about mood?
All of this was exactly what we were going for with Splice. The humor of Hiaasen, the grit of Abercrombie and the darkness of Weeks. Did we achieve that? That is really up to you to judge. It is also interesting to see how the comp novels changed between Splice and Wunderkind given that there were several novels written between them.
For now, this has been a fun excursion down the Booxby rabbit hole. Not to mention a flattering one. We will definitely be looking to see how we can use these insights to make our books easier for readers to find and enjoy.
April 25, 2021
ZZ Adams Free Library, free stories for you!
It is super easy to get hold of these books. Even better, you can get them for free! All you need to do is let us know you want them by signing up for our newsletter (you can unsubscribe any time) and we will send them to you. How easy is that? If you haven’t read any ZZ Adams yet, then these are a great way to find out what the hype is about. http://zzadams.com/zz-adams-free-library/ #sciencefiction #books #amreading #novel
April 23, 2021
Wunderchat
Andrew and Damian discuss their new novel, Wunderkind (prequel to the Zero-Point Awakening series), with award-winning Australian crime writer Rowena Harding-Smith.
ZPA Reading Order
ZPA is a big series. Eight main episodes and a host of prequels and additional content. So with that in mind, we thought we should put together a list of the stories and a suggested order to read them. This is the chronological order of the stories. You don’t have to read them this way, but ZPA is really one continuous story broken into episodes and this is the order of those events. We figure this is a pretty good way (maybe the best way?) to enjoy the story.
(Prequel) Fire and Sand — A short story available for free to subscribers of our newsletter
(Prequel) Siege — A novelette available for free to subscribers of our newsletter
(Prequel) Wunderkind — A full novel available for free via all reputable online booksellers
(Episode 1) Splice — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
(Episode 2) Shadow War — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
(Episode 3) Ascension — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
(Episode 4) May Day — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
(Episode 5) Counter Punch — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
(Additional Content) Super Time Tokyo Zombie Party — A novella TBA
(Episode 6) Beach Head — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
(Episode 7) Incursion — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
(Episode 8) Tyranny — Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
April 17, 2021
You guys are amazing. Wunderkind is No. 1
We have been totally blown away by how many people have downloaded our new prequel novel, Wunderkind. We cannot thank you all enough for your support. We really hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing it and putting it out there. We never expected this much of a response, so we are not exaggerating when we say that we are pretty much speechless.
These images tell the story. Current feeling: Amazed.
April 15, 2021
An exciting new release, out now!
What’s this release we are so hyped about? Wunderkind! An action-packed sci-fi thriller. This is a full novel that tells the story of Elliot Goshawk (from Splice) and also features other characters we love like Hallelujah Jones and Millicent Cuff.
The events in Wunderkind precede Splice, so this is a prequel and what’s more, we’re releasing it for free. So if you have not yet tried one of our novels, then this may be the one for you. Just like the entire Zero-Point Awakening series, Wunderkind is a darkly humorous take on the sci-fi thriller genre–an irreverent, no-holds-barred jaunt through space and time. If strong language upsets you, then this is probably not for you.
Like we say in our promo blurb: fans of The Avengers, X-Men, The Boys, Watchmen, Guardians of the Galaxy, or Stranger Things, will love the Zero-Point Awakening series. The entire series is an action-packed science fiction superhero thrill ride! So strap in.
Get your copy FREE on Amazon and if you do pick up a copy, we would love it if you would leave us a review.April 1, 2021
Updates and Foolish Things
With everyone getting into the spirit of April Fools we decided to join in. Fans of our Zero-Point Awakening series may recognize the name Hallelujah Jones (Hal) from the books. One day we may actually write a Hal novel. For now this is just a it of a… ahem… time waste. There’s a real album cover vibe going on there which is awesome as well.
So what else is going on?
The good news is that Wunderkind, the new prequel to Zero-Point Awakening (ZPA) is done. Yes, all written. It has even been through two rounds of editing. It is currently in its third round and after that will go in for copy edits (that’s right, there are 4-5 rounds of edits for each of our novels and stories and usually more than that. We want every book to be the best quality we can produce without cutting corners. We do not have a release date for Wunderkind yet because it depends on how quickly we can complete the final rounds of edits but it will be in the next few months. The other good news is that WK will be completely free and our newsletter subscribers will be the first to get their hands on it.
In other news, we have preorders up on Amazon now for Ascension (ZPA book 3), Mayday (ZPA book 4) and Counterpunch (ZPA book 5). All of these are complete but in various stages of final editing. We particularly like how the cover for Counterpunch has turned out.
There’s always time for one last kebabBooks 6, 7 and 8 are on their way but we have a long way to go still on those. The plan is there and we know where the story is going, but as with all writing it will take us time to get there. One word at a time.
Please do reach out to us with comments, questions, thoughts, jokes or whatever comes to mind. We love hearing from you. Your emails keep things interesting and the feedback helps a lot. Also keep in mind that you can add reviews for any of the book in our free library (the ones you can only get by being a subscriber to our mailing list) by navigating to the page on zzadams.com for the book and adding a review. These are very welcome because none of these books are up on Amazon or on other retail platforms so there is no way to review them otherwise.
The post Updates and Foolish Things appeared first on ZZ ADAMS.
March 1, 2021
Fun facts for all!
The plan was to release Splice on Amazon on March 1 and then Shadow War on April 1. Splice has been winning hearts for a while now and Shadow War is on pre-order. Plan? Who needs plans?
The post Fun facts for all! appeared first on ZZ ADAMS.
