R.A. McCandless's Blog, page 11

Five Honest Stars

But if my author is a hot mess, why aren't I?
This review of THE CLOCKWORK DETECTIVE made me laugh and made my morning.  I love the honesty of it all, and she gave me five stars. So I’ve got that going for me.  Which is nice.
The usual caveat applies - Netgalley, free copy, blah blah.
I must admit I was a little surprised by this book. It really sounds like the author has chucked everything but the kitchen sink in, given it a stir, and hoped for the best. There's obvious steampunk (cl...

My First Fan Art

It doesn't get better than this!Fan art is totally a thing. The documentary The People vs. George Lucas is about 80% art by the fans who love, hate, or love-to-hate Star Wars. Authors also get fan art from time to time, and I’ve always been stunned/jealous of any writer whose readers who were so moved by their experience that they had to express it and share it.

Until today.
Abby, age 11, drew this image of Aubrey Hartmann from THE CLOCKWORK DETECTIVE, and I haven’t touched the floor since I sa...

Author Reading and Book Signing Event - Riverside Library

Mark Your Calendars!
So, here’s the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:
On Saturday, June 29that 1pm, I’ll be doing a reading and book signing at the Riverside Main Library. The even will include a ten-minute reading from THE CLOCKWORK DETECTIVE followed by a 50-minute question and answer period, and then a book signing for all attendees.
If you buy the book at the library, you’ll get $5 off THE CLOCKWORK DETECTIVE (regular price $20) plus you can get an additional $5 off any of my other books: TEARS OF HEAVEN&nb...

Sick Today - Big News Tomorrow

Dying, but not dead.
Either I can’t shake this cold that I’ve had for three weeks, or I’m rocking back-to-back colds. Either way, I’m not up to properly making the “BIG ANNOUNCEMENT” today. It will keep until tomorrow.
Stay tuned, and give me your home cold remedy in the comments!

Nancy Christie Interviewed Me

Is that your final answer, Mr. McCandless?Maybe this will remove some of the mystique from being a published author, but here we go.
Interviews are interesting things. Most interviews you read aren’t conducted face-to-face, but rather email-to-email. A series of questions are sent by the interviewer, and then the interviewee has a certain deadline to send their responses. The closest I’ve come to the interviews shown on TV and movies are online podcasts, like this excellent one with Hank Garne...

Old Blue Eyes

Brownest eyes I ever did see!
My youngest is now seven. He’s a solid seven, although he’s known he knows everything since he was about four or five.  He’s not afraid to tell you either, and, like certain politicians, he doesn’t back down when he’s wrong.
A few days ago, when I was feeling less ill, he was telling me how he was born with brown eyes and they changed to blue.  This isn’t true.  He’s always had blue eyes.
He was adamant on this point.
Even offering my eye-witness accou...

Five Star Review from Eric Lahti

This book. So much awesome!
I really can’t say enough good things about Eric Lahti’s work. His HENCHMEN series is so fun! GREETINGS FROM SUNNY ALUNA is such a brilliant mix of hard-boiled detective noir and urban fantasy and Chinese wuxia that I want to steal it and try to pass it off as my own.
Plagiarism is wrong, kids, and I would never do that. Still, this book . . . so awesome!
It’s even better when you manage to impress someone like Lahti with your own writing. Even though I was...

Forging the Blade of Black Vengeance

Oh Ethan.
This isn’t something I’ve ever considered, and usually the phrase is “quenched in the blood of my enemies” but I enjoy a good jaunt down the theoretical forging of blades, so let’s do some math.
There is about 5 grams of iron in an average male body. The average sword is between 1-2kg of iron (average being very loosely defined here) and so we can use 1.5kg as our mean for discussion. Thus, we need 1500 grams of iron.  So, the numbers would totally work if that were the only figu...

Company of the Damned Cover is Finished!

My ax-sword should convince you!
Eleven out of Ten Stars! Professional, Fast, and Easy to Work with.
I’ve worked with a number of cover artists over the past couple of years—some were good, some were mediocre, one or two were horrible. Julie Nicholls of JMN ART is one of the best. I had been looking for a competent fantasy cover artist for COMPANY OF THE DAMNED when someone shared one of their covers by Julie, and when I did my research, I was impressed. She captured the tone and feel so well,...

More Chances to Win!

Enter early, enter often!
Don’t forget the May Giveawaynewsletter sign up! 100% NO SPAM GUARANTEE! 
You can win a $25 gift card from Amazon, plus a five pack of ebooks, including THE CLOCKWORK DETECTIVE:
Books participating include:
The Clockwork Detective—R.A. McCandlessThe Lucky Collection—Jenn NixonBeing Mrs. Dracula—Faith MarlowBad Religion—Jim WinterStarblood—Carmilla Voiez
You get extra points for following us online, and more for referring other readers to the giveaway!
Click the Link a...