Marko Kloos's Blog, page 7

Bookplates for the ODDMENTS paperbacks without a Table of Contents

I submitted the change files for the corrected paperback version of ODDMENTS that includes a proper table of contents. It should be live within a day or two, and all the print copies ordered from Monday on should have a ToC in them.

As a solution for those of you who bought the print version that has no Table of Contents, I will print the ToC on a large sticker (for use as a bookplate) and send it to the people who want one for their book, free of charge. I’ll even sign the bookplates for some ADDED COLLECTOR VALUE.

If you purchased a paperback copy of ODDMENTS that doesn’t have a Table of Contents in it and you would like one, email me at marko.kloos@gmail.com with your address, and I’ll send you a signed bookplate with the ToC printed on it.

A possible solution for the ODDMENT paperbacks

I submitted the change files for the corrected paperback version of ODDMENTS that includes a proper table of contents. It should be live within a day or two, and all the print copies ordered from Monday on should have a ToC in them.

As a solution for those of you who bought the print version that has no Table of Contents, I can print the ToC on either paper (for use as a tip-in sheet) or a large sticker (for use as a bookplate) and send it to the people who want one for their book, free of charge. I’ll even sign the tip-in sheets or bookplates for some ADDED COLLECTOR VALUE.

Does that sound fair?

A note on the paperback version of ODDMENTS

If you’re looking to buy the paperpack version of ODDMENTS on Amazon, please hold off on the purchase at the moment. The version that is live right now lacks a table of contents, and I am working to have that fixed.

I’ll post an update in this spot when the new version is available. (That’s the paperback only….the Kindle version has a proper ToC.)

 

ODDMENTS update

The paperback version of ODDMENTS is now live on the Amazon page.

 

Fun fact: at 121,000 words and 521 print pages, it’s bigger than any of my novels. (The one that comes closest is CHAINS OF COMMAND at 114,000 words.)

Release day: ODDMENTS

Today sees the release of my short fiction compendium, titled ODDMENTS.

A while ago, I took stock of all the short fiction I’ve ever written. It’s a sizable pile of stories, but it’s distributed across a whole lot of online ‘zines, mosaic novels, or individual Kindle editions. If someone wanted to have all my short fiction, they’d have to go to a bunch of websites, purchase several different separate Kindle copies, and buy two mosaic novels. That’s a lot of footwork even if you know where to look, and too much of a hassle if you don’t.

I decided to put them all in one book, with a new introduction and forewords for each story.

The product description on Amazon reads thusly:

ODDMENTS is a compendium of short fiction written by Marko Kloos.It contains all the short stories and novellas previously published in other story collections, mosaic novels, or online zines, combined into a single volume, with new introductions for each story added by the author.ODDMENTS contains the following novellas and short stories:On The Use Of Shape-Shifters In WarfareCake From MarsBerlin Is Never BerlinLucky ThirteenMeasures of AbsolutionInk and BloodStripesProbationaryHow to Move Spheres and Influence PeopleIt also includes three previously unpublished all-new stories:SeedsSteel and PaperRottertownODDMENTS: 120,000 words of fantasy, alternate history, and military science fiction by Marko Kloos, available in one comprehensive collection for the first time.ODDMENTS is available via Amazon right now, in either Kindle or paperback formats. (The paperback isn’t live yet as I write this but should show up at some point today.)If you were looking for a handy way to put all my short fiction on your shelf and get a few new stories as a bonus, it’s now super easy and highly convenient!

SCORPIO release date and cover reveal

 

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I updated the “The Next Book” countdown widget in the sidebar a little while ago.

Today I can announce that SCORPIO, the first novel in a new series called Frontlines: Evolution, has an official release date: November 14, 2023.

You can pre-order the Kindle version here. I don’t know when they’ll add the paperback and audio versions to the pre-order page, but the release date ought to be the same for those once they appear as pre-order options on the product page.

Frontlines: Evolution will take the series to new places and introduce new characters…but that doesn’t mean you won’t meet some of the ones you already know along the way.

 

Terms of Enlistment is 10

 

Put on your party hats, because we have a birthday to celebrate. TERMS OF ENLISTMENT is ten years old this month. I brought it out in March 2013, and 47North bought it (and the second Frontlines novel, LINES OF DEPARTURE) in May of that year. Thanks to everyone who has ever bought this book and its sequels, but special thanks go out to those of you who took a chance on a self-published work from an unknown name when I put this novel out on Kindle Direct with the hopes of maybe selling a few hundred copies. It sold rather a lot more than that, which is why I had an agent and a publishing contract less than two months later.

Whenever I read through it these days, I can very much tell that it’s a first novel, but I am also positively surprised by how well it has managed to hold up, so I must have gotten that one mostly right. It certainly changed everything for me–I became a full-time writer that year, and the royalties for my books have been paying the bills since then.

Ten years…. don’t they go by in the blink of an eye. Now let’s see what the next ten years will bring.

 

 

30 years ago

German Erkennungsmarke (dog tag), issued January 1989. The new ones have the country code of DEU instead of GE.

[image error]

When I checked the calendar for something unrelated earlier this week, I realized that I turned in my gear and became a civilian again exactly 30 years ago this month, after serving 4 years and 2 months in the German Army. I was only 21 when I got out because I was barely 17 when I enlisted almost straight out of high school.

The Erkennungsmarke isn’t something you usually get to keep. At the end of active service, it gets turned in with most of the other issued gear, to be put into the personnel file for reissue if there’s a reservist call-up or general mobilization. I have this one because I reported mine lost and they struck a replacement, only for me to find the original later, so I kept the duplicate.

I picked a wild time to serve in the military. When I joined up, the Cold War was still going on, although nobody in January of 1989 anticipated that eleven months later, the Berlin Wall would come down, and that all the communist satellite states of the Soviet Union would fall like dominoes within a few months, choosing democracy, Levi’s jeans and McDonald’s over socialism, Bulgarian shoes, and khlav kalash. By the time I got out, the Cold War was won, the Soviet Union didn’t exist anymore, the Baltic countries were independent, and Germany was reunited.

It doesn’t really feel like it was three decades ago. But I guess it’s correct because I got an email from my high school class reunion committee a few weeks ago, inviting me to our 35th anniversary high school reunion. Unfortunately, the math seems to check out…

 

 

Boneless Andy

Dog broke. Please advise.

My two favorite words to write

This is the part of the novel that the reader hates to read and the writer loves to write. Whenever I type those two words, it’s like a permission slip for my brain to let go of something that has occupied it every day for the better part of a year.

I just turned in the completed draft for SCORPIO, the first novel in a new Frontlines spin-off series. I don’t have an exact release date yet, but it will most likely be toward the end of this year.

Now I’m going to engage in my usual post-draft brain rinse where I work through a backlog of shows and play games for a week or two, and then I’ll reset the office for the new project and get back to work. Next on the docket is Palladium Wars #4, which will be called DESCENT.

2022 wasn’t a great year for me as far as output goes. Starting a new series always takes more time and energy than continuing in an existing world with established characters, and I underestimated how long it would take my brain to turn the idea I had into a cohesive whole. But I think I managed it, and you’ll be able to judge for yourselves when the book comes out later this year.