Mike Shepherd's Blog, page 10

More of Valiant done

I just finished a very productive week at the Oregon Coast writing on Valiant. I beat the last best, 35,000 words, by 10,000. for a total of 80,000 words in on the book. No question I'll finish the book, due 11/12 by the end of November. Wow!

Kris Longknife — Furious Delivered

I'm happy, (and relieved) to report that KL-Furious went in almost a month early. This is the book for '12. Once folks have a chance to read Daring, I'll offer a few hints about where Furious is going. (as if the name wasn't enough)

Training Daze is out there now

Kris Longknife — Training Daze, a romance NOT, is now up for sale as a $2.99 e-novella at all the usual suspects. I sold Ace Worldwide e-rights, so if any of my foreign fans are having trouble getting their e-hands on the story, let me know. I don't know how much pull us authors have, but I'll use all I got to settle that.

For anyone who wants to comment on this fine mess Kris and Jack get themselves into, feel free to use this for comments. I really don't think it's possible to give a spoiler to this story.

Kris Longknife — Valiant is coming along.

I sent the last week at the Oregon Coast. In 5 1/2 days I wrote 35,000 words on Valient. I can't say too much, since Daring changes everything and this is Kris trying to survive in that world. After folks read Daring, I may be able to talk a bit more about Furious and Valient.

A fan gives me some good input.

I got this e-mail earlier this week. The fan agreed to let me post our exchange. I think you all will enjoy it.

Let me first say I really enjoy you Kris Longnife series of books. I bought book one about 2 weeks ago at a borders store closing and read it all that day. I have just finished book 8 today and I wanted to let you know that I enjoyed the series very much so far. I do have just one tiny issue, throughout the series you keep referring to the shipwide announcement system as "MC1″(except book 8 you called in "M1C". Actually both are incorrect. The shipwide announcement system is the "1MC". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1MC

Also, wouldn't the engineering crew be called "nukes" and not "snipes" since the are running reactors and not diesel or gas engines. I was a nuke for 6 years and was never called a snipe, that was what we called the non-nuke boats engineering crews.

Again let me say I am really enjoying this series and can't wait for book 9 and already have it pre-ordered for my kindle app.

Here's my reply.

Thanks for the correction on 1MC. I'll try to not make that mistake again, but, sadly, I don't get to correct the errors of my youth. Author have to put up with real life stuff, too.

As for the nukes vs snipes, I wasn't aware of the dividing line between them. Yes, I knew that the sub drivers were called nukes, but I'd heard the nuke operators on the carriers occasionally referred to snipes as well as nukes.

And beside, the power plants on my ships are thermonuclear, and would you want to be called a thermonuke?

But there's a stronger reason I'm avoiding nukes. As I've referred to, nuclear technology and information is banned, hidden away and under the strongest of interdicts. When Kris makes an occasional reference to the old nastiness of the bloody twentieth, she says atomics, a phrase Bob Heinlein used from the '40s.

Daring, the next book coming out in October 25, will introduce Kris and Humanity to a whole new level of nastiness and what happens from here on in is anyone's guess (even mine), so who knows nukes may come back in fashion.

Training Daze now scheduled

The novella about how Jack ended up as a Marine and Kris ended up in her usual trouble will be available as an e-book October 4 from all the usual suspects. You can order it now. Daring will also be out in October, the 25th. I'll be signing at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego on the 26th just before World Fantasy Con

The books section of this site has also been updated so you can read the first three chapters of Daring and the first 3500 words of Training Daze.

Enjoy the reading.  I certainly enjoyed the writing.

 

[image error]

Delivering Pizza on the moon!

One of my first stories, A Day's work on the Moon, see collection available in e-format, involved my granddaughter delivering pizza when she turned 16. But I figured Nikki would be delivering it on the Moon!

Turns out, Donino's Japan is looking into the idea. They figure it would cost 21 billion! They ought to read my story. Nikki was doing it a lot cheaper.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09...

 

A "Short Story" for Kris

Ace asked me if I'd like to do a "short" story for September as a lead in to Daring coming out in late October. I said sure, then they told me they wanted it by July 29, say in a month.

I've always wanted to fill in that space between Defiant and Resolute where Kris drafted Jack, then Jack discovered he had veto power over Kris's orders. Fun, huh.

The "Short" story finished in rough draft at 17,000 + words. That would make it a Novella, not a short. It will be out as an e-book for $2.99 I'm told, and well worth the price.

Oh and when I'm half way through the story, what should show up in my in-box, but Daring's galley proofs in PDF format. Due date?

You guessed it, July 29th.

I got the galleys back yesterday, and my first readers are taking a go at Kris Longknife — Training Daze: a romance NOT.

Kris's look in Japan

Kris Longknife Mutineer is out in Japan. Kris has a definitely different look, more Monga and, well, quite different. I've tried to capture the cover and load it but failed.

To see it, go to www.amazon.co.jp, and search on Mike Shepherd. The English books are their but the Japanese one is second on the page.

Have fun, it's worth the work to see how Kris translated. I like her big eyes.

What's Happening

Sorry for being gone so long. It's been busy around here.

First off, I finished the first draft of KL-Furious. That's the book for Oct '12. I'll spend the summer doing my best to spot the nits, and having several first readers do the same. Hard as it may seem to some of you eagle eyed readers, we do do our best to clean up the manuscript.

Daring will be out Oct '11 and I should be seeing the galley proofs any time now. I'll publish the first couple of chapters here in September.

Before the 4th of July I will do my best to publish three more e-books, and clear up the mobi option at smashword. More on that later.

I got my first sales statement from Japan. They assumed sales of 4,000, printed 16,000 and sold 9,000 by the first quarter of this year. Nice.

I'll be on programming at the WesterCon in San Jose, CA for 4th of July.

I'll be at the WorldCon in Reno, but not on programming. Look for to attend panels with John Campbell (Henry) Kris Ruschor Ginjer Buchanan on them. Or at the bar the pros are hanging out at.