Cameron Lowe's Blog, page 7

Paperback pricing in 2020 and beyond

This is going to shock you, but I like money. And I like getting my name out there. Unfortunately, one of the things damming up the works on both those accounts has been my reluctance to go with expanded distribution with my paperbacks.

Well, the time has come to change that, but unfortunately, that’s going to mean some painful changes to my pricing. For all books released in 2020 and beyond, my paperback prices are about to jump significantly – from about $9.99 per book to what I believe wil...

That sweet special sauce

Get your mind out of the gutter. You know who you are.

Every book while it’s being cooked has to have a special sauce moment. Everything we write needs that little extra flavor to it, or otherwise we’d all be making the same staid cheeseburgers. And that’s fine in its own way – cheeseburgers are pretty damn delicious (insert a Randy from Trailer Park Boys reference ehre) – but readers and writers alike would get tired of it awfully fast.

See, most of the great concepts of writing have already...

Journey of the Caged is now available for pre-order!

You – yes, you, you lucky so-and-so – can make sure your digital copy of Journey of the Caged arrives on your Kindle doorstop on day one by pre-ordering today. Just $4.99, this dark fantasy follows Gavrien Kelwind, a knight-magister in the kingdom of Ariama. Tasked with keeping a murderer safe across thousands of miles of territory, Gavrien faces the wrath of a vengeful Sheriff, brother to one of the murderer’s victims. This is a fun, fast-paced tale, perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie or Ri...

Legally Blind – An embarrassment of riches

Today was a bad day.

Losing my sight in general isn’t something I can mark with big occasions. Sure, there was certainly my detached retina back in 2003 or so, but by and large it’s a long, incremental process. The last four years or so, I’ve begun losing my small reading vision. It’s not always possible for me on a day-to-day basis to read cooking instructions, dietary details, or pill bottles. I still have workarounds, thankfully – taking pictures with my phone helps a ton, and my family is...

Team Chug and the editing process

Here’s a funny Team Chug story for you.   I do my edits in two phases. The first is on the computer, where I edit for story content and add in whatever I think the novel needs to round it out. I try to do grammatical edits along the way, but due to my vision, black on white writing isn’t usually the best way for me to go about this.   So when it comes time to focus on grammatical polishing, I run through the book on my iPad, where I’ve got the Kindle app set to a black background wit...

The worst timing for a gut punch

In every book I’ve written, there’s generally a scene that gets to me, hard. Usually the waterworks don’t turn on, but every now and then I might be cutting a few onions in this house when I write certain scenes. When I was writing Journey of the Caged, there were two such moments, and I think it’ll be pretty obvious when you read it which two I’m talking about (no spoilers here).

The first one I got through pretty okay. I had to stop for a while, do some dishes, mop, and get my mind off the...

Here’s the first chapter of Journey of the Caged, coming soon!

Just like the title says. Enjoy!

– – –

Their guide beckoned them to follow him with fingers writhing like worms.

His whole body moved like that, boneless, fluid, the skin hanging off him in sheets. What had been a stiff gait they thought born of injury was instead some sort of illusion. It sickened and terrified both Will and Marion but still they continued on. They knew who they were going to meet, and they expected much worse than this liquid-bodied creature.

The moss clinging to the trees...

The runner’s wall of writing

Creative work doesn’t so much have its ups and downs as it has mountains and Marianas trenches. One minute you’re riding high on a new project, thinking to yourself that every word you’re putting down is taking you up that mountain path, and then hours later, you’re wide awake in bed, sinking like Dexter’s tossing you down in his finest Glad bags.

It’s a vicious cycle. It’s a mean motorscooter of a business because there’s no one there to commiserate with you over a cup of coffee in the break...

Beast no more

Hey all! As the numbers weren’t justifying the expense, I’ve decided to pull the plug on offering Beast as a free novella when you sign up for my newsletter. If you read it, terrific! Thanks very much. If you haven’t, I have some tentative plans to release a collection of short stories and novellas, maybe in time for Halloween. We’ll see! But you’ll get a chance to read it in one form or another soon.

The great mortal sins of my books

My friend and fellow writer Kris Butler and I were online earlier discussing some of the less believable injuries from our novels, and it led me to thinking about the things, in retrospect, I’d change about my writing so far. Warning: this is going to deal heavily in spoilers in certain areas. Be warned, you spoiler-phobes.

The Ghost at His Back – The Butcher Dilemma

I’ve stated elsewhere that the original draft of GAHB was wildly different. with a politician for a villain with a shrine to th...