Cameron Cooper's Blog, page 10
May 18, 2023
New Megapacks from Wild Side Press
I remember the first time I noticed the Megapacks popping up on the bookstore pages among the science fiction and fantasy, because the Megapack covers are…cute, at best.
At first I thought it was some fly-by-night shonky operator trying for a quick buck or two, using stories that were now in the public domain, or outright ripping off classic SF authors, bundling a bunch of old stuff together and publishing it with slapped together covers.
So I did a bit of research. It turns out that Black Cat, who publish the Megapacks, is owned and operated by Wildside Press, which is in turn owned by John Gregory Betancourt and his wife. Betancourt is a SF writer himself, but he founded Wildside Press specifically to preserve the old, classic SF stories that were falling out of print, or that had languished in long gone magazine.
Since then he has also negotiated with the estates of deceased SF&F writers, and helped families and heirs re-publish stories and novels so that readers can still access them.
The Megapacks are fantastic bundles of shorts and novels, grouped together by theme, and nearly all the Megapack are a crazy 99c USD.
They’re a great way to catch up with classic and Golden Age SF. Wildside Press also puts out first edition fiction, too, but not usually inside Megapacks or for 99c.
I have been slowly working my way through the SF Classics Short Stories megapack series and the Space Opera series, as well as dipping into author collections like Leigh Brackett’s.
Which reminds me of the reason I’m explaining all this. Wildside/Black Cat Weekly have just put out a bunch of “new” Megpacks, including the Leigh Brackett collection. You can find the new Megapacks here.
The links will take you to the Black Cat/Wildside Press store. You can also buy many of the Megapacks on retail bookstores, but I like to buy direct, because that leaves most of the 99c in Wildside’s account, instead of handing more than 30% of it to bookstores.
Enjoy!
Cam
May 4, 2023
A Canuck in Deep Space — I’m chuffed!
Courtesy of NASA: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (bottom), Victor Glover (top), and Christina Hammock Koch (left), and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen (right) were announced Monday as the crew of Artemis II.
A few weeks ago (but only a couple of days ago when I write this), NASA revealed and introduced a crew of astronauts with the mission to fly to the moon by 2025 at the latest. Although this mission isn’t intended to land on the moon, merely circumnavigate it, the mission will set up a series of similar missions, all of them designed to build up experience in navigating deep space, which will help build expertise for a mission to Mars.
As Ars Technica suggested, this announcement makes deep space missions sound all the more real, as if they really will happen, instead of NASA handing out projected timelines and possibilities as they have been for quite a while now.
I’m also really thrilled that a Canadian is among the crew. Specialist and physicist Jeremy Hanson will be the first non-America to reach deep space.
I’m actually looking forward to monitoring this mission.
If you’d like to keep up with the Artemis II mission, there is an RSS feed here that you can subscribe to, or you can bookmark the mission page on NASA.
Cam
PS: Happy Star Wars day.
May 1, 2023
Hot news: Hammer and Crucible is a Finalist in Hugh Howey’s SPSF Contest!
This just in… 
Literally, the graphic just popped up on the SPSFC site a few minutes ago. Hammer and Crucible is one of seven books out of the original 300 to make it through the finals of the contest.
The grand winner of the contest, one of the 7 finalists, will be announced on July 15th. And the winner gets the coolest trophy I’ve ever seen. It’s a model ray gun straight out of the pulp era of SF, with gorgeous detail.
This is last year’s version:
This year’s trophy has different details on the gun, but it’s the same general idea.
My congratulations goes to all the other six finalists.
You can find details about the contest here.
Cam.
April 29, 2023
This month’s 20% Off Sale is On
It’s two days before the month ends, which means it’s the start of the Stories Rule Press monthly 20% off sale.
The sale runs for 4 days each month — the last two days and the first two days of the next month.
The coupon code will apply to your total SRP basket. You can include boxed sets, anthologies, whole series, even books already on sale. You can also use the code for pre-orders and new releases.
You can reuse the coupon code as many times as you want during the four days. You can also give the coupon to reader friends.
The coupon code won’t work on any other retail site, or for books that aren’t directly available on Stories Rule Press.
Here’s this month’s code: FYMPYXX9
You can start your browsing here: https://storiesrulepress.com/shop/. On that page you can sort by various categories and genres.
Enjoy!
Cam
April 20, 2023
A New Story!
It’s been a while, I know. I’ve had a lot of life-stuff happening lately that prevented me from getting to the writing desk as often as I liked.
But I did get a few short stories written.
Today’s release, A Room of Her Own, is a space opera short that is high on action and with a minimum of introspection. But it still manages to pack a punch at the end.
On a generation ship where space is at a premium…Saulia finds her long-held dreams hardening into rebellious ambitions when the second tragedy in her life strikes far too quickly after the first.
A Room of Her Own is a science fiction short story by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.
Dark Science Fiction Short Story
Standalone Fiction by Cameron Cooper
A Room of Her Own is only available on Stories Rule Press for now. It will be released to all the bookstores in July.
Tip: If you’ve never bought a book from SRP (which is basically buying direct from me), then look for the 10% off discount coupon code on the front page of SRP for first time customers.
And if you’re a regular customer on SRP, then feel free to use your reward points to get a discount.
Enjoy,
Cam.
April 15, 2023
It’s Time To Return The Imperial Hammer Back to Normal Prices
Very early during the COVID lock-downs, I reduced the price of the entire The Imperial Hammer series, so that everyone stuck at home without income could still read a decent space opera novel or two.
But the pandemic is officially over in nearly every country in the world, plus the economy is now kicking everyone’s butt with inflation and supply chain issues. The global meltdown doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon.
Unfortunately all that economic downturn has also hit my budget rather hard. That forces me to bring the pricing on The Imperial Hammer series back to the normal retail prices.
But I’m not doing it straight away. The prices have been scheduled to flip back next Saturday, April 22nd, on all retail stores everywhere, including mine at Stories Rule Press.
That gives you a week to scoop up the series at the old prices.
Check them out here:
1.0: Hammer and Crucible
2.0: Star Forge
3.0: Long Live the Emperor
4.0: Severed
5.0: Destroyer of Worlds
Cam
April 13, 2023
Did You Know There is a Mothership Lurking In Our Solar System?
LiveScience.com reported recently (and with a straight face) that a US government official has suggested that an alien mothership is hiding out in our solar system, monitoring Earth with microscopic probes.
The headline sound like something straight out of a conspiracy nut’s favourite journals, except it is coming from LiveScience.com, and a Pentagon official is the source.
Make of it what you will, but I thought it was worth passing along, even if it was just to see your jaw drop and your eyes widen.
Enjoy.
Cam
April 6, 2023
More new, short SF
It’s been a bit of a dry spell, but I’ve got a short SF story I’m releasing in a couple of weeks to tide you over.
There’s a tiny catch, though. I’ll explain after the description….
On a generation ship where space is at a premium…Saulia finds her long-held dreams hardening into rebellious ambitions when the second tragedy in her life strikes far too quickly after the first.
A Room of Her Own is a science fiction short story by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.
Dark Science Fiction Short Story
Standalone Fiction by Cameron Cooper
The little catch is that A Room of Her Own will be released on Stories Rule Press on April 20th, but won’t be generally released to the other retail stores until July 20th.
It’s available for pre-order at SRP now.
Enjoy,
Cam.
March 30, 2023
The Monthly SRP 20% Off Everything Sale has Started
The subject line says just about everything.
The monthly 20% off everything sale started this morning and runs until midnight MDT on April 2nd.
To start browsing the catalogue of books, click here. This will take you to the bookstore page, where you can browse, sort and filter to narrow down your selection.
You can use the coupon code for any book available on Stories Rule Press.This includes pre-orders, boxed sets, series sets and books already discounted.You can use the coupon code as many times as you like until it expires.You can share the coupon code with other book lovers.You will also add to your reward points anything you buy with the coupon.The coupon is only valid until midnight MDT April 2.The coupon is only valid for purchases made at Stories Rule Press.To use the code, add all the books you want to your shopping basket, then checkout. As you check out, there is a box where you can paste the coupon code. Once you’ve pasted the code, the basket total will be updated to show the 20% discount.
The coupon code is:
AJYQ7V6H
Head to https://storiesrulepress.com/shop/ to start shopping.
Cam
March 23, 2023
Watch out for Rip-off Books, and last chance for a bundle of SF
A couple of quick items for today.
First, a scam that you might find yourself falling smack into. There are scammers picking up commercially released fiction and pushing it through Chat GPT with instructions to change the details enough to make the book “original”. Then they’re slapping unchanged AI art on the front and putting it up for sale.
The problem is that Chat GPT does not know how to write well (yet?), and untouched AI Art looks like nothing but untouched AI Art. So these books are terrible.
If you find yourself reading a book that sounds a lot like a different one you’ve read in the past, with just a few superficial changes, don’t dismiss the notion as silly. Contact the author of the original book and let them know it’s possible someone has ripped off their book.
Only the author can contact the booksellers and demand a takedown. But by alerting them, you’ll be doing the author and all readers who prefer decently written fiction a huge favour.
There is a Twitter video here (that everyone can watch, Twitter account or not), that goes through the scam.
It is March 23rd, which means this is the last day you can buy the Space is Big story bunle. After today, the bundle will be removed and you will not be able to buy these books at such a discount again.
There are some fabulous authors in the bundle, including Catherine Asaro, Brian Trent and D.M. Pruden.
You can pay whatever price you want for the bundle, too.
Check it out here — it closes tonight at midnight.
Cam
