Doug Dandridge's Blog, page 5

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13 is Out. And Come Check Out My Chat Day at the Lost Signals Anthology Facebook Page.

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After a lot of work, and taking longer than I wanted, Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13: Retaliation is out and available on Amazon.US and Amazon.UK among others. The war is really heating up, with the New Terran Empire and its allies beating back the latest Ca’cadasan offensive and going on the counter attack.  And Sean, the Emperor, has ordered an audacious plan to take off the head of the Ca’cadasan Empire. Currently I am working on Refuge: Book 5, and expect to have it out around Christmas, possible before, more probably right after. Next will probably be the next book in the second Deep Dark Well Trilogy, Theocracy 2.

The first book of the Kinship War series, on contract from Arc Manor, is on track to be turned in prior to the required date.  After that, except for the second book of the Kinship War series, my plans aren’t set for 2018. I will most probably continue the Exodus series, both Empires and War and Machine War, hopefully to completion. When I have wrapped those up, I will write some novels set in the beginning of the Empire and work through the history.

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And, I am involved in the Lost Signals Anthology of three times Nebula Award Nominee Charles (Chuck) Gannon, whose Terran Republic series is the impetus for the anthology. There is a Kickstarter for the project, which has passed the initial and first stretch goals. I will be contributing an action filled short story to the anthology. And tomorrow, Tuesday, December 5, 2017, I will be the chat guest on the Facebook page, and there may be some giveaways. The Kickstarter page is here.

And now, an excerpt from Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13: Retaliation:

“We’ve got the first formation coming through the center,” said Grand Fleet Admiral Gabriel Len Lenkowski, his holographic image looking around the table. The wrinkles on his face were even deeper than usual, indicating his heightened concern. “Twelve thousand ships, by our best estimate. Designated Alpha.”

The huge holo of the front floated over the conference table, the force in question highlighted in red, a vector arrow showing its projected path, straight into one of the major base systems of that region, Saures.

“We have contact with two other forces, designated Bravo and Charlie. Both are approximately the same size as Alpha, and from the projections they appear to be looping around, on a course to come in around Saures and cut it off. My staff think they are trying to force a major engagement in that system. I would like to bring them to battle in normal space before they reach their target. Unfortunately, they don’t have to drop down into any of the systems along the way.”

“Do you think you can take them in hyper?” asked Grand Fleet Admiral the Duke Taelis Mgonda, his own image frowning as he studied the holo.

Sean kicked back in his chair, one of the few corporeal beings actually in the conference room, along with Vice Admiral Mary Innocent, his staff intelligence officer, and Admiral Ekaterina Sergiov, the director of Combined Intelligence. Several of the grand fleet admirals’ staff were also in attendance by holo, along with Grand High Admiral Sondra McCullom, the Chief of Naval Operations, Grand Marshal Mishori Yamakuri, the Imperial Army Chief of Staff, and Field Marshal Betty Parker, the Commandant of the Imperial Marine Corps.

It still amazed him that they were having a real-time conference when some of the attendees were thousands of light years away from each other. Prior to the deployment of so many wormholes, the only way they would have been able to keep in touch would have been through couriers, at least to those places that weren’t connected by hyper-link, which still took over a week to reach from the capital of the Empire to the frontier. The old way worked, after a fashion, in that orders and assessments could be passed. Always far behind the real-time events. Assessments would come in too late for anything to be done about them, orders would go out to commanders no longer facing the situation those orders were meant to deal with. No, they could almost control the action at the front, though Imperial doctrine still called for the man or woman on the spot to make the determination and give the orders.

“Oh, we can take them, alright,” said Len with a tight smile. “Especially if we move our ships around through our mobile gates. It’s just that we have a much better power ratio against them in normal space.”

The Emperor had to agree with that assessment. Many of his ships were still hyper VI, able to move at a pseudospeed of just above ten thousand lights. Unfortunately, all of the Caca vessels were the more advanced hyper VII, able to get up to over forty thousand lights, four times that of VI. The Empire was no longer building hyper VI craft. Everything being laid down or coming out of the building slips was hyper VII standard now, but there had been a lot of hyper VI vessels in the fleet at the beginning of the war. In fact, over ninety-five percent of the warships in the Imperial order of battle had been VI, the VIIs restricted to some battle cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers used for scouting. Many of those older ships had been destroyed, but many had also survived, and were no longer able to keep up with the predominantly VII forces. Those ships were best used for system defense, or taking systems, though the wormholes and multi-purpose missiles still allowed them to strike at ships in the higher dimensions. Also, inertialess and warp fighters couldn’t operate in hyper, and so were more or less useless between systems.

But the hyper VII ships that had wormholes were more than a match for their Caca opponents. The two problems they had were that the Cacas now had wormholes of their own. Not in the numbers the Empire deployed, thank God, but enough to become a worry. And the gates that allowed the Imperial ships to move from place to place as fast as their ships could get through the portals didn’t allow other wormholes through. So, though they could send thousands of ships to reinforce threatened areas, the wormholes that made them so effective couldn’t go with them.

“They obviously aren’t going to give us that advantage until they hit Saures,” said Mgonda, shaking his head, then reaching off the holo for something, his hand disappearing for a moment before returning with a mug of some liquid.

The other grand fleet admiral was in his dress uniform, unlike Len, who liked to wear casual shipboard clothing even when in high level meetings, if he wasn’t really there. The duke had a broad face and nose, dark eyes looking out from under bushy eyebrows. Mgonda liked to say his family was descended from the Zulu tribe of South Africa on Earth. From what Sean had seen in the records, his face did resemble those of the fierce warriors. Which proved nothing, with all the genetic mixing that had gone on in the Empire.

Sean reached for his own cup, only to discover that it was empty. He nodded for his steward to bring him a fresh cup, then looked back at his admirals.

“I think we need to hit them with everything we have on the way in,” said Sean, looking from grand fleet admiral to grand fleet admiral to grand high admiral. “Hit and run, with our fastest wormhole equipped ships. And everything we have that can’t catch them or run from them will be waiting for them in Saures.”

“Sounds good, your Majesty,” said McCullom, looking at the deployments as they appeared on the holo. “But what if that’s not all they have?”

Sean scratched his nose for a moment, thinking. What if they had something else coming forward, and hit him someplace they weren’t ready. Lenkowski had a fleet of over forty thousand ships, Imperial, Crakista and Elysium. Eight thousand capital ships, while the Cacas probably had a similar number in their fleet. Mgonda had thirty thousand ships in his fleet, still in the process of taking back the Fenri systems and ejecting the last of the Caca vessels in that region. He also had Elysium ships in his force, but the majority of his vessels were Imperial. There was a fleet of twenty thousand ships in the Republic, mostly the vessels of that nation, along with Crakista allies.

And far back behind the lines, in five base systems three hundred light years back, were the ships he was hiding from the enemy. Another fifty thousand vessels. They could be committed to action if necessary, but they were there to provide the nucleus of the promised offensive he was going to spring on the Cacas. The offensive he had promised his people and Parliament for over a year. If they were committed to action, the offensive might be delayed by a year or more while ships were repaired and missiles were replenished.

“Might I suggest, your Majesty,” said Mgonda, setting down his mug and reaching for a cigar. “I think we can wrap up this business in Fenri in a week or less. Then I can move my fleet in on a vector that cuts the Cacas off from their logistics.”

“They’ll still have their wormholes,” cautioned McCullom. “We won’t be able to completely cut them off from their support.”

“But the duke has a point,” said Sean, looking into the dark eyes of the admiral as he puffed on his cigar. Sean hated the habit of smoking, but as long as the duke was blowing his smoke two thousand lights years from his nose it didn’t bother him. “They don’t have that many wormholes, and any they have to use as gates are wormholes they won’t be able to use for other things. I think that’s an excellent idea, Duke Taelis. Now, if we could get President Graham to commit the Republic to come in on the other flank.”

“I doubt that she would be willing, your Majesty,” said the CNO, shaking her head. “She’s still terrified that the Cacas will be coming back.”

Filed under: Alien Invasion, Alien Life, Antimatter, eBooks, Far Future, Future Warfare, Intelligent Life, Kindle, Military, science Fiction, self publishing, Titles, Writing Tagged: Charles Gannon, Chuck Gannon, Exodus, Exodus: Empires at War, Exodus:Empires at War: Book 13, Lost Signals, Refuge, Refuge 5, Terran Republic

16th Annual Florida Writer’s Conference

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Dredging Up Your Darkside Panel at the 2017 Florida Writers Conference.

I’m kind of late with this entry, since the conference was over a month ago. But the October 30 Days of Giveaways campaign, followed by the Lost Signals Anthology post, and numerous projects, took all of my time. But I did attend this conference, and as a faculty member, meaning I got free admission and half of my hotel bill paid.  I was planning on this being my last non-genre conference, needing the time next year for promotion, but I had such a good time I might reconsider. It wasn’t a huge conference, probably around two hundred attendees, but was well organized and well run.

It was a first-class event, running from Thursday through Sunday. The faculty had a meeting on Thursday evening, and then they had some bootcamps, mostly for newbie writers, after. I cut loose after the meeting and went to get something to eat. Now the hotel, the Altamonte Springs Hilton, was four to five star facility that was suffering from repairs and renovations going on at the time. I think something to do with the hurricane that had come through the month before. Getting an afternoon nap was hard, since they were banging away on the floor above. But the conference center and the meals were very good. Meals were included in the price of admission, which meant free for faculty members. There were presentations by NYT Bestseller Steve Barry, and author of First Blood (the book the Rambo movies were based on) David Morrell, both during lunches.

My first event was a panel on Friday called ‘Dredging Up Your Darkside.’ I found myself at the front of the room with four other writers, mostly mystery or police procedurals. People whose stories, for the most part, deal with violence and crime. And myself, a military science fiction writer, known for wiping out millions. My time travel response seemed to go over well (I don’t like them on the whole), and fueled a lot of responses from the other panelists.  The idea of the panel was how we got ideas for murder and mayhem. One audience member even made a comment that we seemed to be such well adjusted people. Little did she know.

I had two presentations that weekend. Self Publishing for Fun and Profit was late Friday night, followed by How To Write Science Fiction for the Hardcore Fan on Satruday morning. I believe both went over well, and I had a blast talking with other writers. I also did two interviews that weekend, where writers pay to talk with faculty members for twenty minutes to ask any questions they might have.

I saw my friends M J Carlson, Elle Andrews Patt and Vic Digenti at the conference. I had met MJ at Superstars in Colorado, and Vic had been to several events in Tallahassee. I had seen Elle at Dragon Con in Atlanta several times. They had also been participants of the Prometheus Trilogy I was in some years ago.  I also met Prometheus alums Bria Burton, Charles Connell and Ken Pelham for the first time in the flesh.

For those inclined, there were agents and editors present for them to pitch to. Already having a publisher for one project, self-publishing everything else, and having two agents interested, I didn’t need to do this. But it was there for people who wanted to take a shot at a pitch.

Saturday night was the Royal Palm Literary Awards banquet. I was not entered, so really didn’t expect anything, and I wasn’t disappointed. I have only entered one contest in my life, preferring to focus on sales and reviews, of which I have plenty. We had a Tallahassee Writers’ table, and three of our members won first place in their categories. Sam Staley and Doug Alderson were there to receive their awards, while Rhett Devane was absent. For one medium sized city we seem to have a lot of talented writers.

What I enjoyed the most about the conference were the breakfasts. Friday and Saturday were full breakfasts with eggs, bacon or sausage, and pastries. Sunday was the so called Continental breakfast not my favorite. They were very early for someone who normally sleeps late, but I forced myself up at 6:00 so I could shower and get ready. I sat at the science fiction table one day, the fantasy table the other two. Interesting people, great conversations, and my highlight of the conference.

The Florida Writers Conference was a great event. As said at the beginning, I was planning to cut out all no-genre  conferences and conventions next year, but if the time opens up, I could see myself attending this one again.

Next up: Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13: Retribution. It’s here. Or it will be by the time I do my next blog.

Filed under: Conferences, eBooks, Fantasy, science Fiction, self publishing, Writing Tagged: Bria Burton, Charles Connell, Doug Alderson, Elle Adnrews Patt, Florida Writers Conference, Ken Pelham, MJ Carlson, Rhett Devane, Royal Palm Literary Awards, Sam Staley, Vic Digenti

Lost Signals of the Terran Republic.

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Yesterday, November 14, 2017, a date which will live in infamy. Oh wait, wrong script. Yesterday the Kickstarter for Chuck Gannon’s Lost Signals of the Terran Republic Anthology went live, and had reached over half of its funding level in less than 24 hours. No reason to stop at the stated goal though. More money means a thicker anthology with more stories by more great authors. And the possibility of even more anthologies in the future.

For those not familiar with Chuck, which I would think would be a vanishingly small species, his first book of the Terran Republic and its irrepressible protagonist, Caine Riordan, won the Compton Crook award for best first novel. It went on to capture a Nebula nomination. Not only that, but in an almost unheard of coup, the next two books were also nominated for the Nebula, and the Dragon award as well. None of them won, unfortunately, since I think all three were above the competition in the years they were on the ballot. But I only had one vote. Chuck has one of the books on Amazon for free for another couple of days, the first, Fire with Fire. So, if you haven’t read Chuck, go out and snag the freebie while it’s still available.

Now, on to the anthology. I met Chuck at my first LibertyCon back in 2014. In 2015 he asked me if I would like to play in his Universe. When asked that by a NYT bestseller author there is only one answer, and it isn’t yes. It’s Hell Yes. We talked about it a couple of times through the years, and then the idea just seemed to fade away. I know how these things go. You have plans, but something else comes up and you don’t get to it. It happens to me all the time. I had about given up, when out of the blue comes an email that it’s on. The Kickstarter would be coming up in the near future, and he needed some copy from all of those interested. Now this was bad timing for me, I was trying to get two self-pubbed books out and was still working on the first book of the Kinship War series for Arc Manor Publishing. But I really wanted to be in this thing. It was a terrific chance to get more readers, for everyone involved. And I want more readers. Not that I don’t appreciate the thousands I have across the world (Ten thousand or so?), but everyone wants more. Part of the appeal of this project was that numerous writers could cross pollinate their fan bases. Someone who had never heard of one might buy it to read the work of their favorite, then read that unknown, to them, writer, and become a fan. And Chuck has arranged it so during the Kickstarter, we all get to highlight one of our own works to readers. It looked like a win for everyone involved.

I don’t know all of the authors involved, nor have I read most of them. Chuck asked me to be in it. He asked them to be in it. That’s enough of a recommendation for me, and I will be looking them up and reading their work. Those so far in the project include myself, Chuck of course, and Tom Doyle, Walter Hunt, Joelle Presby, Lawrence M. Schoen, Alex Shvartsman, Alan Brown, Robert Waters, Gray Rinehart, Rick Boatright, Robert Chase, Vonnie Crist, Alistair Kimball, and Marc Miller. I think there may be more, but I’m sure the full line up of the first volume isn’t set in stone. Chuck will be contributing stories and editing, and the anthology will be published through Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire Press. The tentative publication date is May of 2018. And there are rewards for the Kickstarter, including of course copies of the book in eBook and paperback format. You can also get your name into a future Caine Riordan book as a red shirt, and die a glorious death. Or as a recurring character who will move from novel to novel (a couple of my local friends did this and have been in the last two or three books with major roles). You can name a ship, a station or a city. At higher levels you can name a planet or a class of ship. All kinds of perks to play with. So get out there and contribute to what promises to be a great collection of stories set in an award winning and best selling universe.

For all who have asked, I have contracted to have the audiobook of Exodus: Empires at War: Book 6 produced. It should be out by the end of January, 2018. Hopefully we can move on to book 7 as soon as that one is completed. I will also have book 13 of the Exodus series out by the end of this month, and book 5 of the Refuge series out by mid December. And I will be revamping the blog site, to include a new book selling page that will allow readers to go to Amazon through my Amazon Associates account. And my new website is up at the same old address,  http://www.dougdandridge.net .  A lot of good stuff coming up.

Filed under: Alien Invasion, Alien Life, eBooks, Future Prediciton, Future Warfare, Intelligent Life, science Fiction, self publishing, Writing Tagged: Alan Brown, Alex Shvartsman, Allistair Kimball, Caine Riordan, Chuck Gannon, Doug Dandridge, Exodus, Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13, Gray Rinehart, Griffin Barber, Joelle Presby, Lawrence M Schoen, Lost Signals of the Terran Republic, Mar Miller, Refuge: Book 5, Rick Boatright, Robert Chase, Robert Waters, Terran Republic, Tom Doyle, Vonnie Crist, Walter H Hunt

30 Days of Giveaways: Part 6: Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2.

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Part five of the Giveaway is done, so now we move on to part six. As stated earlier, because of KDP scheduling, I had to put Exodus: Book 3 out there first. But for those who devoured Book 1 and were eagerly awaiting Book 2, here it is, Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2.  It can be found in the UK here. I was away at a conference through most of part 5 of the giveaway. I really didn’t get to follow it along its way. I did my blog and mass sending out across pages. One site nuked me for the effrontery of posting spam, even though I had never seen any kind of posting against it on that site. I was reinstated, but wondered why I was even bothering with them, and quit.

In other news, the Florida Writer’s Conference went well. I had interested audiences at both of my presentations, Self-Publishing and Writing Science Fiction. Also sat on the Dredging Up You Darkside Panel with some mystery and thriller writers. One audience member said we seemed like such happy and well adjusted people. If only she knew. Met a lot of people at the daily meals. Our Tallahassee Writers won three first place awards. I didn’t win anything, but then I didn’t enter anything. It’s not really my thing. And I was telling people the whole weekend that I had almost four thousand ratings on Goodreads with a 4.1 star average. Checked it out the other day, and it was actually 5,156 ratings with a 4.12 star average. Woohoo.

And now for the blurb.

They are our worst Nightmare. Unfortunately, they do not go away when we open our eyes.

The Battle continues as two immense Empires fo Toe to Toe, the fate of both species on the line.

The Saga Continues as the Ca’cadasan menace prepares to assault the New Terran Empire. A menace humankind fled across the Galaxy two thousand years before.

Humankind has grown complacent, confident in the victories their fleet has won for them through the last thousand years over numerous alien races. But the Ca’cadasan Empire has continued to grow, and now the massive Imperialistic power has found the hated humans. The Emperor knew this was going to happen, but most of Parliament ignored his strident call. And the Prince Sean Lee Ogden Romanov, third in line for the throne, finds himself placed into a position he had never thought would come his way. The fate of the Empire may rest on the abilities of one young man, and his skills at navigating the maze of Imperial politics amidst a war of extermination. Book two of the popular Exodus Series.

Next up: The Florida Writer’s Conference, or My Time Among the Normies.

Filed under: Alien Invasion, Alien Life, eBooks, Far Future, Future Prediciton, Future Warfare, Genetic Engineering, Intelligent Life, Military, Nanotechnology, science Fiction, self publishing, Writing Tagged: Exodus: Empires at War, Giveaway, Kindle, Kindle Promotion

30 Days of Giveaways: Part 5: Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3.

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Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3:  The Rising Storm, is available for free for the next five days. I can be found at Amazon UK here. The book is over 200K words long. I decided to do it that way after a fan stated that it was going to take me fifty books to tell the story at 120K a book. After writing it I decided 120K was just fine, but it still stands out as the only Exodus book over 200,000 words.

Part four of the Giveaway is done, so now we move on to part five. When I had originally envisioned this series of giveaways, I had planned to do the first three Exodus: Empires at War books before the first two Refuge books. Unfortunately, all of my books had been entered into KDP Select at different times. KDP select, exclusivity with Amazon, is what allows you to promote a book five days out of a ninety day period. It renews every 90 days, but the giveaways can only be scheduled for the current period. I couldn’t schedule Exodus 1 earlier because the renewal date was right in the middle of those five days. So I shifted it, and then found that I could only do four days of Exodus 3, because it renewed right on the 30th. The only solution was to move it up to the fifth slot. Exodus 2 will still be given away, but not until the 6th slot. I apologize to anyone this might confuse. So, just go ahead and get book 3 if you’ve already gotten book 1, and book 2 will be along shortly.

And now for the blurb:

They’re Back, and They want to End us.

The Ca’cadasan Empire is at the gates, and they mean to destroy the human race. But we will not go quietly into the night.

The saga continues, as Sean Ogden Lee Romanov finds himself the uncrowned leader of the New Terran Empire. After two thousand years the old enemy has found them, but the humans are no longer the technologically inferior species they once were. A thousand years of Empire has forged a mighty military that has never lost a war. The Ca’cadasans are still slightly ahead in tech, are much larger, and have never failed in a conquest. There is dissension within as Parliament wants to put their own man in charge, and Sean is woefully unprepared for the task that awaits him. Time is running out, and if the Empire and the species are to survive the new man must be installed and humanity must rally behind him. New technologies are on the horizon, technologies on which the course of the war could turn, for better or worse. War rages across the stars on a Galactic scale. The third book of a series that will span over a century of time and tens of thousands of light years of space.

Grand Science Fiction in the legacy of Weber and Ringo.

Action packed science fiction on a grand scale.

Filed under: Alien Invasion, Alien Life, eBooks, Far Future, Future Warfare, Genetic Engineering, Interdimensional Travel, Military, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Weapons, Plotting, Space Navy, Writing Tagged: Doug Dandridge, Exodus: Empires at War

30 Days of Giveways: Fourth: Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1

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The giveaway of Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2 is over, and today starts the five days of the book that made it possible for me to quit my day job. Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1 started the whole thing off. It can be obtained in the UK here. As mentioned earlier, the next book will be Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3, since the way the KDP days worked out didn’t give me five days for promotion at the end of the month (the current period for that book ends on October 29th).

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1 was, obviously, the first book in the Exodus series, which now stands at eighteen books, twelve in the main series, four in the Machine War series, and two in the Tales of the Empire short story collections. The series had been bestseller on Amazon lists in the US and UK in Space Opera and Military Science Fiction. The series has sold about one hundred and eighty thousand copies, and was the driving force in my being able to become a full-time author. Book 13 of the main series will be coming out by mid-November, the fifth book of Machine War in about January in 2018. Empires at War will probably reach fifteen books, while Machine War is planned for six. I will also do at least one more short story collection, and in 2019 I will start on a new Exodus series, telling the stories of humankind’s journey to the stars and the establishment of the Empire. I will be moving on to other series, including the Kinship War series I will be doing for Arc Manor, but Exodus will always be in mind, and I will try to revisit it when I can. And now for the blurb.

Humanity’s worst nightmare has again come out of the Dark. Can a human race in turmoil survive?

It’s a Fight to the Finish as Two Interstellar Empires go Toe to Toe.

When the human race faces extermination at the hands of an expanding species, the last survivors travel a thousand years to reestablish the race ten thousand light years away. It is now a thousand years after the birth of the New Terran Empire. The race has aggressively expanded during that time, with a fleet that has never lost a war against an alien species. But the signs are there, the old enemy is back, and the Fleet will face its greatest challenge in a foe fifty times their size.

Science fiction in the tradition of Anderson and Weber, where the physics of normal and hyperspace dictate the strategy and tactics. Enormous fleets battle across the immensity of space with advanced technologies. Can the proud human Fleet hold off the tide of an advancing enemy, rallying allies and deploying new tech? Or will the conquerors achieve what they could not two thousand years before, and end the existence of the upstarts?

Filed under: Alien Invasion, Alien Life, Armor, eBooks, Far Future, Fusion, Future Warfare, Intelligent Life, Kindle, Military, Nanotechnology, Space Industry, Space Navy, Writing Tagged: Doug Dandridge, Exodus, Exodus: Empires at War

30 Days of Giveways: Third: Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2

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Part two of the giveway is over, and we move on to part 3, the second book of the Refuge series. Part 2 went fairly well, books got out into peoples’ hands, hopefully many of whom had never heard of the Refuge series. Now we move on to book 2 of the series, Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2. Those in the UK can find it here.

Book blurb:  The adventure continues. Millions of Earth humans are transported to a world of magic and are in the fight for their lives against an evil Ellala Elf Emperor who sees them as soul energy to extend his life as a litch. But the forces of NATO have brought their weapons along, and it’s tanks against wizards, attack helicopters against dragons, nuclear weapons against elder Gods. The technology of Earth will only work for a short period of time on the new world, due to the laws of Refuge finally overwhelming the beliefs of the newcomers. So, it’s use it or lose it, and the humans, under the command of United States Major General Zachary Taylor, use it with a vengeance. And the humans have brought along allies unlike any seen on Refuge in recent memory. Immortals of great physical power and an immunity to magic. Centenarian Kurt von Mannerheim, a veteran of the slaughter on the Eastern Front of World War Two. Ismael Levine, the Wandering Jew of legend, born prior to Christ. And newcomers, the American Jackie Smith, and the giant Brit Paul Mason-Smythe. Will they be enough to tilt the balance? Or will the humans have traded the nightmare of a nuclear ravaged world for one in which dark Gods prey on their souls? Allies will be gathered, and new enemies made, as technology fights magic in an effort to gain time and space for the forging of a new kingdom.

Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2 will be available for free through October 15th.  Then I will be moving back to science fiction, with Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1, my bestselling novel of all time with over 26,000 sales. I will be giving away the first three books of the series. Due to a problem with scheduling (book 3 was switching from one period on KDP select to another), book 3 will be given away in between books 1 and 2. Sorry, but that was the only way I could give away book 3 for 5 days. Otherwise, the most I could have done was four days. Hope that isn’t too confusing.

Filed under: Armor, Dragons, eBooks, Fantasy, Future Warfare, Multiverse, Nuclear Weapons, Sword and Sorcery, Writing Tagged: Doug Dandridge, Refuge:The Arrival, Undead

30 Days of Giveways: Second: Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1

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Well, the first part of the giveaway is done. Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova, was given away to the tune of just over a thousand books. Not as good as most of my giveaways in the past, but still seemingly worth it if it got the book into the hands of a thousand people who hadn’t heard of it. Hopefully, people who had not heard of me. I spent just under a hundred dollars on promotion. I won’t know the effect, except by guesswork. Some people might buy my other books, both in the series and others. Some who got it for free might also buy it. It does happen. So, on to the next book.

Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1 is a genre bender of technothriller and high fantasy. It can be found in the UK here.  It was the series I thought would take off, but Exodus: Empires at War, released after Refuge, was the one that took that honor. Still, Refuge, both books 1 and 2, sold about 5,000 copies each, a little more for 1, a little less for 2. I really enjoyed writing the series, which is now up to four books plus a sort of spinoff (sort of, because it was written before any of the Arrival books).  I am currently working on book 5 of the main series, and plan to do at least one more after that, just so my readers will get closure for the series. I may pick it up again in the future.

I have talked about this series to science fiction and fantasy fans at conventions, and people thought it a cool idea. I still think it is. And now for the blurb.

In the year 2025 a nuclear war breaks out in Central Europe, the Russians trying to secure their old empire. The dimensional gates open to another world, a world of magic, where our dreams of fantasy are real. The evil Emperor of the Ellala sees the millions of transplanted humans as soul energy to forward his scheme for immortality. He orders his armies to capture the newcomers, to place them in concentration camps where they can be harvested. But the Germans, French, Polish and other peoples or Earth have other ideas. With the help of their American allies and the modern weapons of war they will fight back against the magic of the evil elves, while gathering their own allies in the fight for survival. For they are seen by the native peoples as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. And they have brought immortals with them to this world, men and women of great power on Earth, who become true demigods on the new world. So it is tank against mage, attack helicopter against dragon, and nuclear warheads against impregnable fortress, as the humans must use their technology while they still have it, and gain a foothold on a world beyond their understanding.

The first book of a series about the establishment of a human Empire on a world of magic, led by their immortal king, Book 2 should be out by the first half of June, book 3 in the winter of 2012.

Next up: Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2.

Filed under: Dragons, eBooks, Fantasy, Fusion, Interdimensional Travel, Kindle, Magic, Military, Near Future, science Fiction, self publishing, Writing Tagged: Refuge Series, Refuge: The Arrival

30 Days of Giveaways. First Up: Exodus: Machine War: Book 1.

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Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova.

I’ve decided to try something different here to see if it gains some traction. I have done Amazon giveaways several times in the past. I did five of them before I started selling enough to think about leaving my day job. The Deep Dark Well was extremely successful. I gave away 4,100+ copies, and to this day I believe this promotion kick-started my career. I’ve sold almost 7,000 of that book since, and the book I put out after the promotion, Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1, jumped off the digital bookshelves. Several of the other giveaways did well, but didn’t result in greater sales. Prior to releasing book 5 of the Exodus series I did a giveaway of Book 1. 4,900 free eBooks went out, and I sold five hundred of books 1 through 4 when Book 5 came out. Even the book I had just given away.

So giveaways can work. And even if they don’t result in greater sales, they get eBooks out in the hands of readers. I don’t do them often because they actually take a lot of time. Posting on the sites that publicize the giveaway, blogging, tweeting. But they work, and I thought it was about time I tried another. But which book? I have three series that do well, and those are the ones I thought it would be best to promote. Across the entire month of October. Amazon allows the free promotion of any book exclusive to them for five days every ninety. So I decided which books to do, and went ahead and set up the first three on a number of promotion sites.

I start out with Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova, which can be found in the UK here. It will run from October 1-5. The series currently stands at 4 books, with more to come.

Blurb: Exodus: Machine Wars: Book 1: Supernova is the launch of a new chapter in the Saga. Not all the action occurs on the main front. Space is too big for that kind of restriction.

The Klassekians are a gifted race, with an ability which could help the Empire in its war against the Ca’cadasans. Just entering space, the species is still torn apart by religious and nationalistic schisms. They are on the verge of a nuclear war. And that is the least of their problems. For six light months from their star system is a blue giant, and the timer on its life is just about to hit zero.

Exploration Command ships discover the civilization, and it is soon apparent that this is one that needs saving. But saving the six billion people on the planet is a daunting task, especially with a killing wave of radiation a year and a half away, six months after the blue giant explodes. And one of the main religious factions of the planet sees their destruction as a cause for celebration, the return of their God. Now the humans must not only battle time, but the politics and religious fanaticism of a fatalistic people who do not desire rescue, and are determined to stop those who do. Add to this the mysterious alien artifacts that rise from surface to above the atmosphere, and the mission becomes interesting in the most hazardous manner.

And in the darkness, wait things that humanity thought they were well rid of, probing the human fleet, and threatening the great Empire base at Bolthole.

Following will be the two books of the Refuge series, Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1 from October 6-10, and Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2 from October 11-15. This series currently stands at 5 books, with more to come.

After that I will be doing the first three books of the Exodus: Empires at War series, which stands at 12 books, with more to come. I will be blogging about the other books on their day of release. So, if you haven’t read these books yet, or know someone who might like them, go ahead and grab them while they’re free.

Filed under: Alien Invasion, eBooks, Far Future, Future Warfare, Kindle, science Fiction, self publishing, Writing Tagged: Doug Dandridge, Exodus: Machine War, Kindle Giveaway, Refuge: The Arrival, Supernova

Science Fiction Author Robert J. Sawyer.

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First off, this is not an interview blog. I would love to do one, and I think I could get enough people on here to interest readers, but basically I don’t have the time for it. No, this is just a blog about a writer I’ve known for some years, who is now selling some of his own work. I’m boosting his signal, so to speak. Now, I’m sure there are a lot more fans of Robert J. Sawyer than there are for Doug Dandridge. But I’ve learned over the years that among the casual reader, probably the majority of fans, great knowledge of the field is not a given. I have mentioned famous authors to many of my more nerdy friends, and even some fans and conventions, and all I get back is a blank look.  So this is my shout out for Rob. And I may be doing this kind of blog more often in the future.

I met Rob Sawyer about six years ago on the internet. I was browsing for science fiction author sites, and came across his, aptly named www.sfwriter.com. It looked familiar, and I realized I had found it several years before. I had a question about something, publishing, websites or some such. I sent him an email, not really expecting an answer. And received an answer that very same day. I followed him on Facebook, and I think he was over the limit for friends at that time. The first time I met him in person was at DragonCon in 2012, just after I had started to make enough money to become a full-time writer. I was sitting there waiting for a panel on which he was featured. I called out to him, told him my name, and he came and sat down next to me to talk for about five minutes. I was amazed. This was a Hugo and Nebula award winning author, and he spent time before his panel to talk with me. I’ve seen him over the years at every DragonCon, and we were always able to talk for some minutes, sometimes longer. Some years later I proof read a speech he was to give in Great Britain, and finally was able to get friend status on Facebook. And this year he congratulated me on my book deal with Arc Manor, and we talked for some time about things in general.

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Rob is a true scholar of science fiction. He’s a great fan of the original Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, as anyone who follows him on Facebook would know.  As said above, he’s won the two major science fiction award, Hugo and Nebula. Also the Aurora, the Seiun, the Campbell Memorial Award, the Hal Clement and others. He is considered Canada’s gift to science fiction. So, he’s as well known as they get, but still not universally known. I doubt anyone is in this field unless your name was Heinlein. I was only able to put in the links for his work at Amazon.US, but he can be found on just about every platform in existence, in eBook, paperback and audio.

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I’ve always enjoyed Rob’s work. Now I’m a military science fiction writer, with lots of explosions and death and all the exciting things my fan base likes. Rob’s works are different. He puts a positive spin on things. Not to say there are some horrific moments in his stories. Assassinations, murders on the surface of Mars, the government overstepping its bounds and terrorizing citizens. But who else would write a story about an emerging AI (Awake), and make it benevolent. Great three book series by the way, and if you haven’t read it, you need to. Or his tale about an alternate dimension where Neanderthals became the dominant species, a three novel series (Hominids). His series about intelligent dinosaurs living on a doomed moon that is destined to fall apart as it passes the Roche limit of the gas giant it is in orbit around (Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy). Or an avowed atheist writing about an alien race that has discovered God through mathematics (Calculating God). One of my favorites was Red Planet Blues, about a detective in the one domed city on Mars, and the murder he tries to solve. And Flashforward, a novel about the world jumping ahead temporarily twenty-one years in to the future for two minutes, and seeing what their lives had been like. That one was the basis of a TV series.

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Rob has recently gained the rights to some of his works and is selling them under his own name, something quite a few of the scifi and fantasy writers I know have done. They had a chance to get their work out with some more publicity, and make a fair wage on their writing. Again, I recommend his work. His grasp of science is fantastic, his grasp of human behavior is terrific, and most of all, his grasp of story is out of this world. So, if you haven’t read this artist of an author, might I recommend that you pick up one of his books today. You’re in for a treat.

Filed under: eBooks, Far Future, Plotting, Quantum Physics, Robots, Writing Tagged: Flashforward, Hominids, Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy, Red Planet Blues, Robert J Sawyer, www.Awake