Tim C. Taylor's Blog, page 14

10 review copies of Stephen Baxter’s new eBook to give away

Science fiction (and alternate history) author, Stephen Baxter, has a flurry of book releases at the moment: The Science of Avatar, The Long Earth (in collaboration with Terry Pratchet) and the Doctor Who book, The Wheel of Ice (a Patrick Troughton-era book, for all you Whovians)…

… and Last and First Contacts, a new collection of Stephen Baxter’s short stories, which was published April 26th. I have ten review copies of the eBook edition to give away. If you want to enter, you have until Sunday 27th May to leave a comment on this post, saying whether you would like Kindle format, ePub format, or PDF. Winners to be announced on Monday, May 28th. If you win and read a copy, we’d appreciate you telling the world what you thought by posting a few words in a review on Amazon, thanks.

Last and First Contacts on amazon.com  | amazon.co.uk

As I write this, there are no Amazon reviews for Stephen’s book, but there are plenty on Librarything here. So you might want to check them out if you’re wondering whether the book is worth a read. I particularly liked this Librarything review comment, because it sums up why I’ve enjoyed Baxter’s short fiction ever since I picked up his earlier collection: Vacuum Diagrams.

“I thought his novels are very good, so his short fiction should be good too. To my surprise his short fiction is actually BETTER. Somehow he infuses these shorter works with a sense of the hugeness of time and space.”

Last and First Contacts  has been published by NewCon Press, as a signed limited edition hardback in the UK, and worldwide as a Kindle eBook.

NewCon Press is a small publisher specialising in signed limited edition, collections and anthologies, although they publish other books too. A problem with signed anthologies is that for each of the dozen or more authors, you need to get them in the same geographical location as a pen and a few hundred signing sheets. Logistics and cost mean that the NewCon authors tend to be UK-based (though not always, Lauren Beukes is based in S. Africa, for example). The print editions are only available in the UK, unless you like paying postage. So NewCon aren’t well known outside of the UK, and why you might not have heard of this book, even if you are a Stephen Baxter fan.

Find other NewCon Press eBooks on amazon.com  | amazon.co.uk | B&N Nook | Kobo  | Sony  | iTunes  featuring top authors, including:  Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman, Charles Stross, Liz Williams, Ian Watson, and many others.

Why I’m hosting this review copy giveaway

Before I freelanced for NewCon, they published me in this anthology

This came about because last night I told Ian Whates (who runs NewCon Press) that he ought to use social media a bit more to let people know about NewCon books. Ian agreed, but said he hasn’t time to get involved with such things as Twitter. Somehow my suggestion morphed until it became my task to host this review copy giveaway, which I am very happy to do. My connection is that I do some freelance eBook design work for NewCon. In fact, I  built Last and First Contacts. If you’re wondering whether this is some dodgy pirate scam, you could Look Inside the Kindle editions of the book on Amazon; you will see my name credited as the eBook designer.

Last and First Contacts on amazon.com  | amazon.co.uk

Good luck!

My books are up for awards…

The British Fantasy Society recently announced the shortlist for its annual awards, and two of my books are up for awards…

… except you won’t see my name on the list because I didn’t write those books; I didn’t even publish them. My only contribution was to take the manuscripts from the publisher and turn them into eBooks. I’ve formatted scores of eBooks and print books over the past year, so you would probably guess that I’ve forgotten or care little about most of them, unless they are nominated for awards. Not so!

Before I began to offer a freelance book-formatting service, I thought long and hard. In fact, I captured my thoughts in a post: On the Importance of Making Things. My concern was that book formatting takes a lot of time to do properly and doesn’t pay well. I need to earn money to provide for my family, so I can’t do this work as an indulgence, but I went ahead anyway because I have a pent-up need to make things.

Which is why I have this strange sense of benign interest, even ownership of the books I’ve worked on. If it’s not too disturbingly biological a parallel: if the author and publisher are a book’s mother and father, then I’m a distant uncle from a far-off country who likes to keep abreast of the child’s growth. Except it’s even more distant than that … perhaps a secret uncle who dares not reveal his identity, a publishing Jean Valjean … because I sometimes build anthologies for publishers where I have no contact with the authors directly. Neil Gaiman, for example, won’t know who I am, but I have built a book featuring one of his stories.  Jean Valjean… yes, I like that

It’s also why it doesn’t make much difference to my sense of ownership whether I’m working with a debut, self-publishing novelist, or working on the back catalogue of an author who’s been high on the bestseller lists and won international awards. The books I’ve built that give me the greatest satisfaction are the ones where the finished book looks the best, and where I made the most contribution — often the books with a lot of images and interesting fonts that I’ve chosen with the author.

I’ve met Kim Lakin-Smith and Liz Williams, the authors of the books short-listed for BFS awards, though I doubt either of them remember me or are particularly interested in who made the eBook editions. Which is absolutely fine. I do remember meeting Liz Williams briefly because I was at the launch party in London for A Glass of Shadow. I remember the event well because I took my family along. Eric Brown was there and he bought me a lovely pint of Sam Smith’s stout while my son tried to impress Eric’s daughter by showing off his Transformers skills.

So fingers-crossed for Kim and Liz. I’m lurking here in my far-off country and wishing your books luck at the awards.

How to find tips on writing

I’ve added an icon on the right-hand panel to make it easier to find the posts I’ve written about writing, including my series on formatting books for Createspace and Lulu.

Now that it’s a little easier to find my posts, I’ll be sure to write some more.

Here’s the image to look for. Clicking on it brings up a list of posts tagged as writing tips.

Paper airplanes, Blake’s 7, and update on The Reality War

When I was a boy at infant school, paper airplanes meant pages ripped from an exercise book and folded into a crude dart. Often we’d write some words on the paper before folding, hoping anyone we hit with the plane would read them. Usually these would be phrases using the rudest words we knew (‘bogey’ was popular). The plane would be aimed at other boys: our greatest enemy or best friend. The distinction between enemy and friend was often blurred in those days — your worst enemy would often be your best friend by the following morning — and in any case the navigation on these paper darts wasn’t exactly predictable… and that could prove embarrassing on those occasions where the message in the dart was aimed at a girl you liked.

P51 Mustang … sort of

At breakfast time this week I’ve been helping my son make paper airplanes, which are a craze at his school right now. I’m glad to hear that writing messages inside is still popular, but kids these days expect something more than darts. I blame special effects on the telly.

When I was my son’s age, Doctor Who faced off against actors in rubber suits. The teleport special effect for the excellent Blake’s 7 involved hitting a cymbal and drawing an outline around the teleportees. Now special effects have to look convincing, apparently, and that applies to planes too.

Here are the paper planes we made this morning a DC-9, P-51 Mustang, and an A4 Skyhawk done up in RAAF colours. I had a quick nerdy look on the net and I think A4s were only used by the Royal Australian Navy, not the RAAF. Does anyone into their Australian military want to tell me my plane’s wrong?

DC-9 and A4 Skyhawk

In more writerly news, the editor for The Reality War Book2 (his name’s James Kelker… Hi, James!) is writing up his notes, so not long now before that will be published.

And finally, here’s a gratuitous shot of some Lego we made last weekend. If there appears to be cracks between the bricks, that’s because the castle was besieged and its walls breached many times

 

‘Format your print book with Createspace’ is now a print book with Createspace

If you’re a self-publishing author of eBooks, and want to have a go at moving into printed books too, I’ve written a book with you in mind, especially if you use Microsoft Word (to take advantage of over 40 screenshots). It’s been out as a Kindle eBook for a couple of months and is now available in a paperback edition, priced $5.99

eBook: $2.99 at amazon.com | £2.00 at amazon.co.uk

Paperback (US only) $5.99 at Createspace.com | $5.99 at amazon.com

For more details, see the book’s dedicated webpage.

 

The Reality War#2: manuscript delivered

My cool editor, with his case of manuscripts

I delivered my manuscript for The Reality War Book2 today. It’s gone off to my editor. Look, here he is now.

Actually, my editor isn’t Steve McQueen, he’s James Kelker, but he does like cars, so I’m hoping he’ll appreciate this image.

It’s 110,000 words, which would probably weigh in at about 450 pages in a mass market paperback.

If you by the eBook edition of Book1 before Book2 is released, you get secret codes that unlock a free download of book2. Since Book 1 in eBook form is 77p or 99c, I reckon that’s good value.

Click this link to  read more about this time travel series set in Bedford.

Future Speculation: some more tidying

I’ve taken a breather from editing to tidy up the cover for Future Speculation. This was a short story published in Aphelion Webzine some years ago that I revised and published last year. My first eBook, in fact. Well, the first one I’d published myself. The Shoes Ships & Cadavers anthology had an eBook version put out by NewCon Press.

I’ve also tidied my bibliography. I haven’t put all the short stories in there yet, but most are.

Hope you like the new cover.

Progress Update on The Reality War Book2.. and teaser

Book2: The City of Destruction

I know some people have enjoyed the first Reality War book. If that’s you, you might be interested to hear that today I’m busy working on tidying my conclusion to The Reality War. The second book will be about 110,000 words, and the paperback edition will be 370 pages. I’ve finished revising the first 220 pages, which my trusty calculator tells me is 60% through. I expect to send it off to my copy-editor, James D. Kelker, around the middle of next week.

Here’s a little teaser from the book.

“We’re late,” said Radlan. “It’s 23:16”

“Damn. Our pickup is tracking the beacon I placed in the toilet near our cabin. They’ve no way of tracking us directly, they’ll have to—”

Radlan punched him in the shoulder to shut him up, and then gestured toward the stern. Radlan peered around the plastic chair. Seconds later, the girl Radlan had first seen at Nelly’s came into view. She slowed to a jog, briefly scanning the seating but didn’t appear to spot them because she accelerated into a run. Seconds later and she had passed their hiding place.

Radlan let his shoulders slump and tried to bring his short, gasping breath under control.

Saravanan stood up, and shot the girl in the back.

She gave a piercing cry, and collapsed to the deck. Radlan watched as she twitched a while, then lay still.

“Is she…? Did you kill her?” he asked.

“We can’t afford to be squeamish.” Shouts from the other side of the ship were growing steadily closer. “She might be the distraction we need.” He pocketed the weapon, and then set off, retracing their steps around the side of the ship. “We’ve got to leave this ship now, or we’ll never be found. It’s a cold night to drown.”

“Agreed,” said Radlan, grateful that Saravanan had stopped as soon as they were safely out of sight of the stern. He bent over, hands on knees, gasping for breath. The night wasn’t over yet and he was already exhausted. “How — how do we get off?”

“Follow me,” said Saravanan. He climbed to the top of the deck rail. For a moment he tottered there, his feet sliding on the top of the rail, arms windmilling. Then he jumped off into the night and was swallowed by the North Sea.

Radlan heard voices at the stern. His pursuers were moments away.

The ship was travelling at 30 knots. He would be sucked under the hull, ripped to shreds by barnacles, and then diced into fish food by the propellers. Except… Saravanan had deliberately selected a ship that used an implosion engine. There were no propellers.

He stepped onto the first horizontal bar of the railing, and then crouched on the top rail. The smooth tube of metal was covered in sea spray. It was impossible to keep his balance. He slipped… and fell!

As he tumbled down the side of the ship, he managed to push off with his legs. He curled into a ball, gripping the snorkel tightly, and prayed for Jill’s sake that he would survive.

This story concludes in the second book, but the Universe (or, perhaps, universes) that the story is set in contain many more stories. In fact, I’ve already had several short stories and a novella published that share the setting. One that grew from a scene in Book2 is called Welcome Home, Janissary and was published by NewCon Press in their anthology Further Conflicts. They produced it as a separate eBook, which is available for free from some retailers.

This is an animated advert I produced for the Further Conflicts anthology. If it doesn’t animate, click on it. I remember being very pleased with this at the time.

Last chance to get my #1 best-not-really-selling book for free

Book1: The Slough of Despond

My time travel adventure novel set in Bedford is on a special free promotion at the Kindle Store until midnight tonight Pacific Standard Time. I think the cover art must be proving popular because the book is #1 in the amazon.com charts for High Tech science fiction.

Of course, it’s on the wrong side of the charts, because I’d be a lot happier if it was the #1 paid book. But if I squint and look from the right angle, I can almost fool myself.

If you’ve got a Kindle, head on over to this page on amazon.com or this page on amazon.co.uk  to download. It’s also avaiable and being downloaded in France, Italy and Spain. It’s available too in Spain, but alas is not so popular there. If you miss the deadline, download it anyway from tomorrow for the full paltry price of 99c or 77p.

Kindle Free Bonanza: Friday 13th only

Head on over to to the free book bonanza, where you can get free Kindle books from the Amazon Kindle Store. Choose from any or all of over 70 titles, including one from me in the science fiction section.

Today only.

Have fun!

Please note that the promotion is running across all Kindle Stores, but the links in the Book Bonanza page only point to the US Kindle Store. If you live somewhere else, you can search for the title in your local Kindle Store, or alter the address in your browser, so instead of amazon.com it reads amazon.co.uk

For example

The address on the US Kindle Store for The Reality War is

http://www.amazon.com/The-Reality-War-Book1-ebook/dp/B0076YJZX6

and for the UK Kindle Store, it’s

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Reality-War-Book1-ebook/dp/B0076YJZX6