Entering the E-book Universe

Apparantly, I am not all that great at steady blogging. My initial post was nearly four months ago and here we are, almost at the new year, and I'm only now getting around to my second. Most people who do this sort of thing seem to do it with much more regularity. I guess I'm just not very regular. (They have medications for that sort of thing.) In any event, since my first post, the first novel in my Time Wars series, THE IVANHOE GAMBIT, has been republished after a long period of being out of print and is now available on Amazon.com as both a trade paperback and a Kindle edition. Createspace did a rally nice job with it.

I finally got around to getting a Kindle, a Paperwhite, and while a part of me rebels a bit at the idea of e-books, since I do love to hold a physical book in my hand, another part of me sees all the advantages to this technology. For one thing, you don't need a lot of shelf space. I once helped the late Lyn Carter move, and it took four of us and several Rider truckloads just to move his library. Three of us wound up with various injuries. I was spared, thanks to my weightlifting, but I was still sore the next day. I also recall a time when I had to move several times in one year. I finally threw in the towel and called my friend Bobby, who had a used bookstore on Long Island, and told him to bring the truck, I was getting rid of all my damned books before I had to move them yet again. (He came right away, before I could change my mind, and purchased my entire library, among them many first editions, many inscribed to me by the authors. I shudder to think what they'd be worth now.) But e-books liberate you from all that. While you can't have an author autograph your e-book (at least, I don't think you can), you can store your entire library on a flash drive or in the cloud, and that saves a lot of wear and tear on the axles of moving trucks. (Not to mention one's back.) Plus, it has the virtue of saving a few trees, as well. I won't be giving up on books entirely, of course, but I think this e-book thing has a great deal going for it. I will even be able to store my own work, once I have it all digitized, and that is (slowly) progressing.

The second Time Wars novel, THE TIMEKEEPER CONSPIRARY, is now in production with Createspace and should be available on Amazon in about a month or so. Eventually, I hope to have the entire series reissued, and as I am going through the process, I am re-reading the books (strange to go back and read your own stuff after a bunch of years have passed) and realizing there was a lot more I could have done with the idea, so I have a feeling there are going to be some new Time Wars novels in the future. I will also be re-issuing some of my early work, as well.

As for reading, I've been enjoying a number of different books. I have been a fan of James Lee Burke's mysteries, especially his Dave Robicheaux novels, and I finally got caught up with George R.R. Martin's latest, DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Now I have to wait for the current season on HBO (which I do not have) to become available on DVD. I've also become a fan of Michael Connelly's books, and am looking forward to reading more. In my own genre, I'm reading William Gibson's PATTERN RECOGNITION and Norman Sprinrad's GREENHOUSE SUMMER. I know both authors, and while I haven't seen either of them in years (Bill, I think, is still living in Vancouver and Norman has expatriated to Paris), I've always enjoyed their work. I can also recommend John Dunning's Bookman mysteries, every one of which I've throughly enjoyed.

Perhaps it won't be so long before my next post, but I've learned not to make promises that I may not be able to keep. Til next time....