Chris McMahon's Blog, page 4

Scytheman ebook free on Kindle!

Hi, everyone. To celebrate the release of Sorcerer as an ebook, I am offering Kindle copies of the second book Scytheman free for three days from Tuesday 4th February to Thursday 4th February (US time). I am also running a coundown deal on the first book The Calvanni, which will be available for $0.99 from Tuesday stepping back up to its usual price of $4.99 on Friday.

The third book in my Jakirian Cycle, Sorcerer, is available as a Kindle version here on Amazon.

Both electronic and print versions of all three books in the Jakirian Cycle – The Calvanni, Scytheman and Sorcerer – should now be up on my Amazon author page.

Here is a run down on Sorcerer. . .

Following on from events in Scytheman, Cedrin travels

north with his small but fiercely loyal court. Ellen, disinherited heir to the

throne of Athria, by his side. Having thwarted renegade Sorcerer Raziin’s plan

to seize the Spear of Carris, they must travel to the Caverns of Ranmyden to

claim it. Ancient forces awaken, intent on possessing the Spear’s ultimate

power. The Behemoth – a malign spirit – seeks to control it through its chosen

wielder Raziin. The hidden temple of Annan-Ac places powerful agents in

Cedrin’s entourage, while the last of the Jakir order, whose power was broken

by the Spear in antiquity, want it destroyed at all costs. If Cedrin can

survive the forces arrayed against him he must make the final choice — destroy

Raziin or use the power of the Spear to save Yos.

Sorcerer available as an ebook!

Hi, everyone. The third book in my Jakirian Cycle, Sorcerer, is now available as a Kindle version here on Amazon!

To celebrate its release, I am offering Kindle copies of the second book Scytheman free for three days from Tuesday 4th February to Thursday 4th February (US time). I am also running a coundown deal on the first book The Calvanni, which will be available for $0.99 from Tuesday stepping back up to its usual price of $4.99 on Friday.

Both electronic and print versions of all three books in the Jakirian Cycle – The Calvanni, Scytheman and Sorcerer – should now be up on my Amazon author page.

Here is a run down on Sorcerer. . .

Following on from events in Scytheman, Cedrin travels

north with his small but fiercely loyal court. Ellen, disinherited heir to the

throne of Athria, by his side. Having thwarted renegade Sorcerer Raziin’s plan

to seize the Spear of Carris, they must travel to the Caverns of Ranmyden to

claim it. Ancient forces awaken, intent on possessing the Spear’s ultimate

power. The Behemoth – a malign spirit – seeks to control it through its chosen

wielder Raziin. The hidden temple of Annan-Ac places powerful agents in

Cedrin’s entourage, while the last of the Jakir order, whose power was broken

by the Spear in antiquity, want it destroyed at all costs. If Cedrin can

survive the forces arrayed against him he must make the final choice — destroy

Raziin or use the power of the Spear to save Yos.

Research Vs Writing

I have always been an avid admirer of writers who manage to keep multiple balls in the air at once. They manage new work on one manuscript with research on the next project running at the same time, perhaps with editing of the last manuscript (or two) on the sidelines.

I’ve never been able to do that. I am a great finisher, but getting started on anything is always the hard part for me. I need to build up a substantial head of steam to break the ice on any new project.

That’s the reason why when I am in the very beginnings of a new project, the story research is just about as much as I can manage to squeeze into my brain. This is really just fuel for the formation of the storyline (which I create in a fair amount of detail) and the broader canvass of the world and characters. Every new research direction (very much driven by intuition) is compared against some intangible sense for what the story will be. Then it is either expanded on or discarded. Once in a while I ‘break through’ and major piece of the story puzzle falls into place, inspired by that leap-frogging from research fragment to fragment.

So – is this research writing? It is part of my process. It is crucial to the formation of the story – which I need to have ‘front-loaded’ into my brain before the words begin to flow – yet it is not actual ‘words on a page’.

I guess I’m trying to make myself feel better for this huge chunk of time when I don’t actually write anything other than story notes – while the compelling voices in the wilderness continue cry ‘you must write, write, write!’

So what do you think about the research-writing spectrum? Does research qualify as writing? Or am I just a slack writer who can’t multi-task?

PS: Thanks to everyone who entered The Calvanni giveaway. The winners have been selected by Goodreads and the books will be on their way in the next couple of weeks. We had two winners from the USA, one from Canada, one from the UK and another for India. Congrats!

Geek Jokes

Hi, everyone. Continuing on in the festive spirit. Here are a few clever Geek Jokes. . .

 

Some things Man was never meant to know. For everything else, there’s Google.

 

Black holes are where God divided by zero

 

An infinite crowd of mathematicians enters a bar. The first one orders a pint, the second one a half pint, the third one a quarter pint… “I understand”, says the bartender – and pours two pints

 

The truth is out there. Anybody got the URL?

 

There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can’t

 

Two scientists walk into a bar. The first says, “I’ll have some H2O.”

The second says, “I’ll have some H2O too.”

The second scientist dies.

 

Entropy isn’t what it used to be.

 

Have you heard the one about the sick chemist? If you can’t helium, and you can’t curium, you’ll probably have to barium.

 

A Buddhist monk approaches a hotdog stand and says, “Make me one with everything.”

 

Heisenberg was speeding down the highway. Cop pulled him over and says, “Son, do you have any idea how fast your were going back there?”

Heisenberg said, “No, but I knew where I was.”

 

Helium walks into a bar and orders a beer, the bartender says, “Sorry, we can’t serve noble gases here.” He doesn’t react.

 

Did you hear about the man who got cooled to absolute zero?

He’s 0K now.

 

What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?

 

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did. The Heisenberg one cracked me up.

BTW – this is the last day for the Calvanni Book Giveaway. Have to be in it to win it!

Moon Rabbit Breaks Dry Spell

When I read the article today, I could not believe I missed this. I could also not believe the lack of media coverage in general. We’re back on the Moon!

On the 14th December China’s Chang’e 3 lander touched down on the surface of the Moon. This is the first soft landing there since the former Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976 – a 37 year dry spell that followed a previously intense period of space exploration. The recent touchdown follows the Chang’e 1 and Chang’e 2 orbiter missions in 2007 and 2010.

The unmanned Chang’s 3  lander hovered 100m above the surface as it analysed the local features searching for a safe landing spot. Once it was satisfied in its choice of landing pad it throttled down its engine and free-fell to land on its springy legs.

The robotic lander was controlled from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

Of course, these days no visit to a celestial neighbour is complete without a robotic rover. A few hours after landing, the Chang’e – named after the Chinese goddess – released its Yutu moon rover. Yutu is named after the pet rabbit the goddess carries with her on her travels. The rover’s wheels were unlocked by the firing of explosive devices, after which the rover unfurled its solar wings and deployed its instrument mast. Twin ramps then inched down to the lunar surface, allowing the rover to roll down them onto the dust.

Yutu is a six-wheeled robot that weighs around 140 kg and has a 10km range. It’s outfitted with navigation and both panoramic cameras and hazard-avoidance cameras fitted to its lower front portion. No reversing cameras though – parking is generally no problem on the Moon.

The solar-powered rover will hibernate through the bitter chill of the Moon’s 14 day night. Once it wakes up it will deploy its nifty Proton X-ray spectrometer, which will be used to examine lunar material, particularly ejecta that will give clues about what lies beneath the lunar surface. The data will also help researchers develop better impact-cratering models.

Yutu is also equipped with ground penetrating radar, which is useful to carrying surveys of the sub-surface up to 100m depth. Variation in the radar wavelength can allow more detailed mapping of the shallower surface areas. Exploration of the deeper areas will be at the trade-off of lower resolution.

I for one am glad the dry spell is over. This is really exciting news.

Was anyone out there following the Chang’e 3 landing?

PS: Don’t forget to enter The Calvanni Book Giveaway.

Need a Laugh? Governmentium has been Discovered!

Here is something I came across a little while ago sure to be enjoyed by all you geeks out there!

The heaviest element yet known to science has been discovered.

The new element is Governmentium (Gv). It has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lefton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons or protons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction normally taking less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons. All of the money is consumed in the exchange, and no other byproducts are produced.

A classic isn’t it?:)

PS: Don’t forget to enter The Calvanni book giveaway!

What’s in a Name?

Plotting a new novel recently I have come across a familiar phenomenon. I’m working away on the plot, then move on to fleshing out a particular character, or describing that particular character’s backstory or role in the plot.

Slam. Dead stop.

I need the name.

If I cannot get a name that works for me for that character I am completely stumped. It is part stubbornness, part determination, part – well I don’t know what. But I have an instinct for what name is right. It’s like the core of the character starts as a seed of emotion, and I know that thing intimately. I know that I need to find the right name to unlock it, as though that unique combination of letters and sounds is itself a key.

Once I have the name, everything starts flowing. I can describe the character, I can move on with the plot. Suddenly I know what happened when they were seven, how they feel about their mother and what colour their hair is.

So what is it about names? Do other people find it the same when they are fleshing out a new book?

The idea of changing character names after the book has been written makes me shiver like a ghost just walked on my grave.

In fact, come to think about it. I can’t even start plotting a book until I get the title of the book.

So what is it? What’s in a name?

By the way, I’m running a book giveaway for my new Jakirian Cycle. To win a copy of the first book, enter below!

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway


The Calvanni
by Chris McMahon

Giveaway ends January 03, 2014.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Red Dwarfs

I’ve always found red dwarf stars fascinating. With all the initial focus on the G class sun-like stars in the search for life, the long-lived and numerous red dwarfs seemed to have an enticing promise.

Most of them are too dim to be seen with the naked eye – adding to their mystery. It is estimated that 20 of the 30 closest stars to Earth are red dwarfs, yet no one of them can be seen without a telescope. The closest star to the sun is Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf 4.22 light-years from Earth. Through a telescope you can find it about four full-moon diameters away from Alpha and Beta Centauri, which appear as a single star in the night sky.

Compared to 10-billion-year expiry date suns like our own yellow G-class sun, red dwarfs can have lifetimes up to a trillion years. Am I the only one who is immediately imagining ancient civilisations glistening in the light of their red suns?

One way or another we will end up there anyway. Red dwarfs will outlive every other stellar cousin. If humanity survives that long, our star-faring descendants will have to migrate to nearby red dwarfs to stay in business as our sun fades to a white dwarf and then finally a black dwarf in a few billion years.

Any they do indeed have planets. In 2010 Gliese 581g was discovered around red dwarf Gliese 581 and dubbed the “first potentially habitable planet”. The fifth planet discovered in this system, it is thought to have a period of between 26-39 days and have a mass 2-3 times that of Earth. It’s orbit puts it somewhere similar to where Mercury orbits our sun, but with the lower intensity of the red dwarf, this should still allow liquid water. The Gliese 581 system is also tantalisingly close to Earth – around 20 lightyears away. So the Gliesians might be tuning in to watch 1993 TV on their satellite dishes as we speak.

One potential wrinkle for habitable planets around red dwarfs is the potential for tidally locked planets in close orbits to their suns. In this case, it is theorised that almost all the water would end up frozen on the cooler “dark side” on the planet. If you have enough water, then you would end up with a liquid water ‘ring’ along the temperate zone between the hot and cold sides. Because of the massive pressure of the ice sheets piling up on the cold side, you would get melting underneath, perhaps creating an ocean under the ice that would connect with the vast lakes around the terminator. How it all looks would depend on topography, the temperatures and exactly how much water you had. But somewhere in there would be zones suitable for life.

Anyone else got any fascinating red dwarf facts? Anyone set a story on a world orbiting a red dwarf?

I hope everyone is enjoying their free Calvanni ebook. Stay tuned for a free Scytheman (book 2):)

Free Calvanni eBook!

Hi, everyone. This Friday 22nd November and Saturday 23rd November the Kindle ebook version of The Calvanni will be free on Amazon!

Click on the Calvanni thumbnail to link to Amazon.

Like David Gemmell?

The Calvanni is Heroic Fantasy in world of ceramic weapons where all metal is magical . . .

In The Calvanni, first of the epic Jakirian Cycle, the cavern-dwelling Eathal have emerged to wreak their vengeance on mankind. The fate of innocent thousands rests on finding the Scion – lost heir to the fallen Empire. The Temple has outlawed the ancient practice of Sorcery. Its Druids dominate religious and secular power, but are ill-equipped to resist an unknown evil once contained by the Emperors.

The Jakirian series is Heroic Fantasy set on the world of Yos, with unique ecology and twin suns, where all metal is magical and control of magic is the basis for power.

Hard-edged. Inspiring. The Jakirian features gritty, fast-paced action. The setting includes fantastical magical artefacts such as glowmetals; ceramic weapons and an array of new creatures. The characters travel through both urban and rural landscapes, where a depth of history and a layering of cultures gives texture.

During Storm Season on the world of Yos, the twin suns eclipse and the planet is plunged into bitter cold. It is usually a time of quiet, when the wise lock their doors, praying for the demons of the red sun-Goddess Uros to pass them by. Yet deep in the Caverns of Maht, Hukum, the Sorcerer-Lord of cavern-dwelling Eathal, plots his vengeance.

Cedrin, a street-wise calvanni (knife-fighter), is summoned to the secret underground tunnels of the Brotherhood of the Night. There, Cedrin is forced to join in a rebellion against the rulers of his native Athria. Caught between the threat of death and his suspicions that all is not what it seems, he must try to keep his friends alive and escape.

Ellen, daughter of the assassinated Athrian Sarlord, is named as heir before his death. She struggles to assert herself as the new ruler, little suspecting the civil war that will be unleashed on Athria within days.

Ellen’s father warned her never to reveal her hidden powers of Sorcery, but as Hukum’s minions close in, it seems she has little choice.

The Jakirian series comprises three books – The Calvanni, Scytheman and Sorcerer. They follow Cedrin and Ellen as they face deeper and more hidden threats.  Pursuing them is Raziin, a vicious renegade who seeks to claim the ultimate power of the Spear of Carris for himself. Eventually they must face a final challenge as the most ancient secrets that bind their three bloodlines are revealed.

The Calvanni has attracted readers of all kinds, including readers who, up until now, had never read books from the fantasy genre.

The Jakirian series has given me the room to explore my own unique world and to convey to readers the richness of my flavour of heroic Fantasy.

Enjoy!

Supanova Photos

Last weekend Rowena Cory Daniells, Cheryse Durrant and myself had a table at Supanova in Brisbane. We had a hoot and managed to sell plenty of novels at the same time. Here we are:

There were some great costumes. I took a heap of photos. Here are some of the highlights.

Me and friend Sauron

Great costumes. . .

Dr Who family – complete with Tardis and Dalek dresses. . .

Gandalf’s sneak attack on Sauron. . .

And lastly a pic of Liam McIntyre, Todd Lasance and another Sparticus series actor during a panel. They provided an interesting insight in the acting craft & the crazy on-set hi-jinks.