Mike Shepherd's Blog, page 4

Lost Days is for sale!

Lost Days, the third book of the Lost Millennium trilogy, is up as an e-book at B&N and Amazon.com. At Amazon, it works best if you search under the Kindle store, it doesn’t always show under everything, yet. I’m working on getting it up on Kobo but have hit a snag. I should know better in a day or two there.

For Audible.com followers.

Last year, Audible.com’s Author Services began paying authors a buck for every audio book they sold. That was above and beyond any contract. The chunk of change was small but nice.

They’re ending the program at the end of this month. So, if you’ve been thinking of buying an audio book of your favorite author, the next couple of weeks would be a nice time to spend the money because we’ll get a bit more of it.

Thanks in advance.

My idea of fun.

For Father’s day, I took my 12-year-old grandson to Pokemon Gaming at our local game store. While he played, I figured I’d edit Vicky Peterwald – Survivor. But I was bad.

I just had to see how Kris Longknife – Relentless started. I got 5 pages in before I called it quits. Writing is what I do for fun . . . and Relentless SOOO wants to get onto the pages.

Today, I rediscovered the copy edited manuscript of Lost Days, and I’m entering the changes. We’ll see how soon this ones comes out . . . and how different it is from the original. hehe.

Kris Longknife – Defender.

This book is available for preorder. It comes out October 28, 2013.

This is Kris as you’ve never seen her before. The cover catches her perfectly. This is not the green kid in Mutineer, or the cheerful optimist that led out the Fleet of Discover in Daring. Here is Kris, grown up and come into her own . . . and wondering how it happened and if it’s worth it.

I don’t want to give away too much, but if you like space battles, there’s plenty of them. And if you’ve been wondering if Kris and Jack will ever find a moment for just themselves . . . and how it would go . . ., well, that’s here too.  Oh, and there’s plenty of Granny Rita.  Boy is there plenty of that old gal!

They Also Serve

A couple of million years ago the aliens who built the jump points built an adult study center. They gave the computer that ran the place what it needed to help adults make real change in their lives. Then they went away, and forgot to turn the planet off.

Would you want to be a teacher’s first student in a million years or more?

If sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, is a sufficiently advanced education system distinguishable from torture.

And with the proper amount of C-4 applied in the proper manner, does it matter?

Follow Ray Longknife as he and a misfit crew of vets take a wrong turn and arrive just in time to save a whole lot of lost humans from some really horrible nightmares.

The Price of Peace

Here’s Grampa Trouble, when he never expected to live long enough to be a husband much less a dad. This really catches the guy, and the book went back into print last month.

The victory parades are over and half the fleets back in moth ball. The other half is having a bit of trouble with drug lords and pirates and slaver (oh my) out on the rim of space. And one Marine has had a really bad go of it. He’s been captured not once, but TWICE by the slavers. That’s not the worst of it. Both times he woke up chained to the same attractive young woman . . . and he’s starting to like it!

And what Ruth think of that dumb Marine is something she was taught not to say.

Lots of action, adventure, and a budding romance.

Writing this week.

I’m at the Oregon Coast, at the Anchor Inn, in my usual room, overlooking the parking lot. In the last three days I’ve put 20,000 words into the first Iteeche War book. With a bit of luck, I’ll put 12,000 more words in by Sunday and finish it.

Complicating matters, I kind of twisted my back in the shower Tuesday. It’s not as bad as some back problems I’ve had, but it’s not a lot of fun, either. Wish me luck and good writing. If I finish by Sunday, that will make three books since last September, and 6 since the September before last. Even I have to say Wow.

A good talk with my Editor.

Last week during the Nebs, I sat down with Ginjer, my editor, for a nice breakfast. We talked about the next contract. In September, when I deliver Tenacious early, I’ve fulfilled my contract. Ginjer said she was looking forward to another three book contract that should take Kris through 2015/ 16 and 17. We also talked about putting the three Iteeche War books under contract next year. We even talked a bit about where we go after 17. I will not write Kris Longknife – Social Security Recipient. We’ll come up with something better.

Ginjer did ask me for a novella in Vicky Peterwald’s universe to introduce her. What do you think of telling her side of the story of how she tried to kill Kris in Audacious up through Kris’s critiquing her in Undaunted?

The Price of Peace is Back!

It’s back, and this time Trouble has the cover. Boy is that how I see him! Look for him at your favorite store.

A Fun Nebula weekend

Last weekend, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America got together in San Jose for the annual Nebula awards. I wasn’t on the ballot, but it was a most productive weekend. Friday Audible.com invited several of their authors to breakfast. I found out they intend to have First Casualty, Price of Peace and They Also Serve out in audio when TAS comes out in August.

Breakfast Sunday was with my editor, Ginjer Buchanan, who was given the Solstice Award the night before for her lifetime contributions to SF and F. We pretty much finalized the three books I’ll be offering for the next Kris contract (2015/16 & 17) and talked about putting the three Iteeche War books under contract after To Do or Die comes out and they can see the sales results (Please buy that book, says the humble writer).

We even talked a bit about what happens when Kris gets too old and decrepit for the Action, Adventure stuff. I don’t think you’ll be lacking for fun reads then.

I met some mighty fine people and had a good time. All in all, a very good weekend.