Vincent Trigili's Blog, page 3

Big Changes Coming…

Hey, everyone!

I just wanted to take a minute to let everyone know of a big change I am planning. It is a huge change. It is the best change. It will make everything great again.

Okay actually it is not that big, but it is a change. Essentially I am going to pull all the episodes of The Dragon Masters from publication and only offer the complete novels. The experiment with serializing novels was fun, but ultimately I learned yet another thing I do not wish to do.  So the individual 99 cent episodes will be gone soon.

The Season One box set will loose the “box set” nomenclature and just be book one. I will keep the “Season” branding and designating the parts of each book “Episodes.”

Also, I will be releasing “The Storymaster” as a standalone free prequel to the series. It will still be referred to as Episode 0. That should appear on Amazon in the next few days if is it not there already.

Work on Lost Tales of Power Volume XIII: Mage Hunter is going well. I am currently writing the final act. I hope to have an update soon that says “first draft complete!” so watch for that.

Finally, I wanted to remind you that my YouTube Channel is going strong. I post a new video roughly weekly and I talk about any breaking book news, offer free stuff, and talk about current science and technology news. Sometimes humorous, sometimes series, but always family friendly.

This week we looked out how our Canadian “friends” have been holding out on us. I am very disappointed in them, but do offer a special giveaway to Canadians as a good will offering:

Thanks for being such a great group of readers, and please keep spreading the word about both series!

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! I wanted to wish everyone a happy New Year and give away another free signed hardcover book! Just follow the link below and enter to win! Feel free to share the contest far and wide, as the more you share it the more chances you get to win!

Click this link for a chance to win!

In other news, my YouTube channel is going well and very slowly growing. I have finally honed in on a format and content, so that should help. Each week I look through science, tech, and other news and pull a few stories to comment on. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes educational, but always family friendly.

Work on Mage Hunter is going well, and yes there will be a third Dragon Masters book following the release of Mage Hunter. Watch for news about that as we near the release of Mage Hunter.

The next big release will be Lost Tales of Power Volume 5: The Sac’a’rith, in audio! Watch for an announcement about that, probably in February. I will be giving away a few free copies as always.

I also wanted to invite everyone to check out a book club that is just getting started on Facebook. The Fellowship of Fantasy group is sponsoring it and the first book the club will be reading is the Fantastic Creatures anthology that features my story, “The Adventures of Zero.” Check out the club at this link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1002886446522175/

I will be dropping in that club from time to time as my schedule allows. I hope to see you all there!

That is all I have for now. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year, and hope to hear from you all on the flip side! Thanks for being such great readers, and continuing to spread the word about both series!

Video Blog 009 – Under Water Bees!

In this week’s blog, we talk about Underwater Bees, Space-X, killer AI and I get a laser in my eye!  Check it out and do not forget to like and subscribe to my channel:

 

Video Blogging for Laughs!

Hey, everyone!

I wanted to take a moment to tell you about a new thing I am trying out. If it seems like people like it, I will continue. So here is the deal I was messing around with my cellphone and turned on an app called Periscope. Periscope allows you to broadcast live video streams. So I did a live stream of me jogging through a construction site. You can see that here:

Well, I was surprised that people actually watched and enjoyed it, so I did another one. This time, I talked about Lost Tales of Power and gave some hints about the upcoming book. You can see that here:

Well, that one showed me how poor of a tool Periscope really is for doing this. So I did a third test, this time, using the video camera on the iPhone and its native software. This is a much better video, but still basically a test so the content is pretty random. You can see it here:

So my plan right now is that I might do a sort of video blog with book reviews, commentary on science and tech news, updates about my books, and other random topics.

I want to hear from everyone. What would you like to see on the channel? Sound off in comments here, or in the Facebook group where others are already chatting about this. Definitely, subscribe to my YouTube Channel while you are at it!

Thanks!

October 2016 News and Updates

Hey everyone!

Thank you for your contest entries last month! I really enjoyed the notes you left on the survey! I love how some of you are “loyal to Silverleaf” and others see Spectra as a “true warrior with heart.” Of course one of you said your favorite character was “Vincent.”  Now I am tempted to name a character Vincent and kill him off. *wink*

The primary complaint from you all was either “the books are too short” or “he does not write fast enough.” Fair enough. I assume the “too short” comments are coming from the serialized Season One of the Dragon Masters. I have abandoned that format going forward, as I agree. I did not much like the shorter format. Season Two: The Elwyn Chronicles is almost 600 pages in print. You can expect future books in both series to be full novels for the foreseeable future. As for writing faster… I am trying!

I was surprised at how many of you were able to figure out that Timebound by Rsya Walker was the book I left clues for. If you have not read that series yet, I suggest you check it out. It deals with some adult topics, but I think any mature teenager and up would enjoy it.

I stuffed all the entries into a virtual hat and used Random.org to pick the winner. So if you know anyone named KAREN and see her in a coffee shop someplace reading a brand new signed copy of the hardcover of Enemy of an Enemy be sure to congratulate her.

In other news, the audio edition of Lost Tales of Power Volume IV is well under way. It is on schedule to be released before Christmas! Volume V will not be too far behind it, but we probably will not start work on it until after the holidays. Either way, we are still on track to have all the Lost Tales books out in audio in a year’s time!

Also, this month I was invited to take part in a massive giveaway! The details can be found at the link below, but the short version is THIRTY-FIVE books and a KINDLE FIRE are being given away! Click the graphic for all the details, and feel free to share this contest with everyone you know:

SciFi Book Giveaway! https://www.booksweeps.com/enter-win-35-science-fiction-novels/

If you are one of the many readers that entered the contest for the hardcover copy of Enemy and did not win, do not worry, I have more books to give away! Watch for announcements related to them soon.

Thanks again for being such a great group of readers! Please continue to spread the word about both of my series! Thanks!

 

Review: Urban Armor Monarch case

As those that follow me on Twitter know I recently acquired a Black iPhone 7 Plus. I must say, I am liking the phone, but the problem with getting the newest phone on the market is the distinct lack of accessories. The iPhone is IP67 certified water resistant, but in drop tests, it showed its lack of sapphire glass pretty quickly. Based on what I have seen I am positive that in one or two drops it would need a new screen. That means I needed a good case for it, and fast.

Poking around I saw that Urban Armor Gear had a case ready, and stated it was tested to twice the mil spec standard. Normally I would ignore such a claim, but my son’s iPad has been in an Urban Armor Gear case for over a year now and despite the many drops it has experienced the case and iPad are fine.

Over on YouTube, there is a channel called “EverythingApplePro” and he has been testing cases for a while now with a fifty-foot drop test. Keep in mind that these cases are rated to survive the much more realistic drop of less than a dozen feet, depending on the case. So his fifty-foot drop is well beyond reasonable and some of the cases fail spectacularly. The Urban Armor Gear Monarch case on the iPhone 6s did remarkably well in that test which gave me the confidence to put my own phone in the case.

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Click to see on Amazon.com

I was worried it would be bulky and awkward like the older big box Otter Box cases used to be. I could not have been more wrong. It is remarkably thin and light. It does not at all feel like it could protect the phone, but it does. In the case, under normal use, the only way you would break your iPhone is if the glass fell face first onto a rock that was tall enough to reach the screen despite the lip around the screen. If the case just falls on the sidewalk or street, your phone is safe.

I added to the case a Tech Armor Ballistic Glass screen protector, as the Urban Armor version is not yet available. The phone is still light and slim enough to fit in my pocket. The ports are all easy to get to, and the speakers ring clear.

I have not taken the phone to a 50-foot tower and dropped it, nor taken it down 35 feet underwater like they are doing on YouTube, but it has held up flawlessly under normal drops and spills. I am klutzy enough, that the case has already proved itself several times over.

I would happily recommend this case to anyone that wants a lightweight case to protect the phone against the normal trials and tribulations of life.

Urban Armor Gear provided a case for this unbiased review.

 

Rise of Shadows Release!

Big News! My first audio book in ages, Lost Tales of Power: Volume III: Rise of Shadows has been released!

Get it here: http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Rise-of-Shadows-Audiobook/B01LW3SSG7/

Also, I have signed Jack De Golia to produce Volume IV: Resurgence of Ancient Darkness in audio, and that should, God willing and the creek don’t rise, be out by Thanksgiving! We are well on our way to having the entire Lost Tales series out in audio, a goal I hope to have completed within the next year.

Work on Volume VIII of the Lost Tales is going well, and I am hoping for an early 2017 release of it. Those of you that always ask about him will be happy to know that Phoenix does have a cameo or three in it.

I promised a chance to win a signed hardcover copy of The Enemy of an Enemy. Well, I am going to one up that and give you TWO chances. For your first chance, head over to:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V92MLV5

And complete the simple ten question survey. Make sure you drop a valid email address for you in the last question, or there will be no way for you to win.

For a second chance at winning, send an email to books@vincenttrigili.com with the subject “I KNOW THE ANSWER” and tell me which book:

Is by a female author
Won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award: Grand Prize and Young Adult Fiction Winner (both in same year)
Starts its first chapter with the line “I do not require life to be neat and orderly.”
Has a female protagonist who was born hundreds of years before her grandmother

Ah, heck, how about a third chance? Many of you have read books by Susan Quinn. Well, she is a friend of mine and has been a big help to me in getting my writing career out of the mud it was stuck in for years. Well her son, Adam Quin, recently released his first book. I have not read it yet, but I am fully expecting it to be excellent based on all I know about it.

So, for your third entry, find his book on Amazon and send an email to books@vincenttrigili.com with the subject “ADAM QUINN FOR THE WIN,” and include the first line of the book.

So, see? Easy stuff. Three easy chances to win a signed hardcover of The Enemy of an Enemy and you do not even have to sit through any political speeches!

NOTE: The cut-off for entries to win is STEPMBER 30th, 11:59 P.M. EDT.

Thanks for being such great readers, and please continue to spread the word about the books. Personal recommendations are still the best form of advertising out there!

Review: Celestron Advance VX 8″ Newtonian

Celestron 94009 Lens Shade for C6 and C8 Tubes (Black))

Season One of The Dragon Masters is FREE!

Hey, everyone!

I have decided to make The box set of the complete first season of The Silverleaf Chronicles, including Episode 0: The Storymaster (not presently available separately), FREE for a limited time. That is right, from August 9th, through August 13th you can get the complete first season for free! Tell everyone you know that might be interested in this deal.

Why am I doing this you may ask? Well obviously because I hit my head to many times chasing Pokémon! (BTW – GO TEAM MYSTIC!)

So click this link to go to Amazon and get the book free from August 9th through the 13th:  http://amzn.to/2aZ6zAB

Also… BIG NEWS! I have restarted the audiobook project for Lost Tales of Power. More on that next month, but know this, Volume Three of Lost Tales of Power audio edition is currently in production!

Do not forget, if you have Kindle Unlimited you can read the entire Dragon Masters series free, at any time! If you are not a member of Kindle Unlimited, click the image below to find out more:

 

Finally, you will want to make sure you are watching your email… because sometime in the next month or so I will be giving away another signed hardcover of The Enemy of an Enemy.

Kindle Unlimited

Hey everyone!

So just a note that if you are a dragon lover, it is possible to read the entire Dragon Masters series, for free through Click to learn more about Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program program. If you do not know about the program, and you are like many of my readers burning through books like they are going out of style, then you might want to look into it.

The short version is this, you pay Amazon a monthly fee ($10) and for that fee, you get to read all of the books in the program, for free. And get this! Authors, like myself, still get paid! It is a win-win really. I get to give you free books, and I still get money to buy food with.

Click the banner below for more information and an option to get 30 days free to try out the service.