David Lee Summers's Blog, page 54

Rhythms and Transitions in Writing

As I mentioned during Saturday’s blog post, I spent the summer in a particular daily rhythm, but now that we’re transitioning into autumn, I’m making some changes to my routine both because of external factors like the weather and also because of the projects I’m working on. One of the projects I’m working on is a new piece of writing. Another is revising a novel I first wrote twenty years ago.

Rhythm is something we associate primarily with song or music. However, it’s easy to see how it rel...

Rhythms and Transitions in Life

This pandemic year of 2020 brought us a long, hot, dry summer in Southern New Mexico. Usually we get some relief when the monsoon rains come in July and August, but this year, the monsoon only made a few fleeting attempts at getting started. During the long, hot summer, I fell into a regular daily rhythm. I woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and checked my email, then took a three-mile walk through the neighborhood where I plotted out my goals for the day before the temperatures climbed back ...

Children of the Old Stars Revisited

This has been a busy year releasing new editions of my novels. Just as I was wrapping up work on the rewrite of The Pirates of Sufiro, which I started in late 2018, the contracts for three other novels came to term and the publishing rights to those novels reverted to me. As summer 2020 approaches its end, I’m pleased that new editions of all four novels are now available and it’s now time to look ahead and see what new projects I will tackle. I’ve been giving particular thought to what I would ...

Updating the Hadrosaur Bookstore

While Kitt Peak National Observatory is shutdown for the COVID-19 pandemic, one of my jobs has been to review, edit, and update documentation on the observatory’s websites. I can’t really show off much of what I’ve been working on there since those are internal sites behind firewalls, and, unless you’re versed in astronomical observation, these documents probably wouldn’t hold much general interest. Part of the reason I edit these documents is that the observatory values my skills as a writer an...

Updating Book Trailers

Over the last few months, I’ve been releasing new editions of several of my novels. Some of these had video trailers associated with them. Last month, I discussed updating the trailer for The Astronomer’s Crypt. That was a really premium cinematic trailer and the only things that went out of date were the cover and information about where the book was available. I did need expert help to fix those elements because they were so well done, but most of the trailer is just the same as it was back wh...

Buboni-Virtual Con 2020

This weekend, I had originally been scheduled to attend Bubonicon 52 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The convention has been postponed to 2021, but it presents a unique opportunity for people who couldn’t normally afford to travel to Albuquerque for a convention. You can attend Buboni-Virtual Con 2020 absolutely free just by visiting the Bubonicon Facebook Page or the Bubonicon YouTube Channel.

If you go to the links above between 10am and 7:30pm Mountain Daylight Time, you will find panel di...

Vampires in Space!

Vampires of the Scarlet Order was, in effect, a fix-up novel. The first half was composed of short stories that had been previously published and the second half was new material written specifically for the novel. However, the first time I put the stories together and composed the second half, I came up with something very different than the novel that was published in 2005 and it was all because of one story.

In 2001, my wife, daughter, and I made a trip to Carlsbad Caverns followed by ...

Vampires of the Scarlet Order Revisited

I’m excited to announce the release of the second edition of Vampires of the Scarlet Order. This edition features new cover art by Chaz Kemp:

Vampires of the Scarlet Order Cover by Chaz Kemp

The second edition has also been reedited. As I mentioned in Tuesday’s blog post, I went through the novel and corrected as many spelling, grammar, and continuity errors as I could catch. However, my edit also went a little deeper. This year, I’ve had some good conversations with some talented people a...

Vampires of the Scarlet Order’s Fifteenth Anniversary

Vampires of the Scarlet Order

Over the past year, I’ve been so focused on the silver anniversary of my first novel, The Pirates of Sufiro, that I almost forgot that another novel of mine also celebrates a milestone this year. With fifteen years in print, Vampires of the Scarlet Order celebrates its crystal anniversary, which seems appropriate given a scene in the novel where the vampire Rudolfo is transported to a parallel universe and encounters a world of crystal palaces.

Vampires of the...

Building the Queen Emeraldas

When I finish a major writing project, I like to take a break and find something fun to do, like working on a hobby project. For the last year and a half, I’ve been engaged in a major rewrite of my novel The Pirates of Sufiro. The goal of the rewrite was to strengthen the novel as a whole and better position it as “book two” in my “Space Pirates’ Legacy Series.” Book one, Firebrandt’s Legacy, introduces readers to space pirate Ellison Firebrandt and develops his relationship with Suki Mori. Book...