Contests, videos, haiku, and a free book alert

Jun 16, 2024 12:32 am

Welcome, new folks!

Hi, there. If you've joined the mailing list recently, I want to make sure you get your free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for this newsletter, which you're already getting) or here from Smashwords. It's also on Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Please, enjoy with my compliments.

Free book alert!

I wanted to let my precious newsletter subscribers know that one of my books will be free in a couple weeks. From June 28 to July 2, you'll be able to get the ebook of What Grows From the Dead free on Amazon as part of a major promotion and giveaway I'm running. So mark your calendars, or snooze this email until the 28th, and enjoy a free book on me.

The book is a mystery with an amateur sleuth, a down-on-his-luck former professor, Morris, who discovers some big problems left behind by his mother following her death, the kind of problems that might leave him in jail or dead. It's wild ride, complete with fun characters and a mystery that gets ever more complex the more Morris digs into it. The book is already free on Kindle Unlimited, so if you're part of that program, you don't have to wait for it to be free - you can check it out now.

SPSFC - The big finish

As readers of this newsletter may remember, my most recent sci-fi book, Kenai, reached the finals of the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, or SPSFC. The judges turned in their final scores at the end of last week, and the winner will be announced next week, so it's an exciting time for all six the finalist authors as we wait to hear who's still standing at the end of the 10-month, 221-book competition. It's like this, y'all:

Each book has judges who love it and judges who are less enthusiastic, and there haven't been enough public score announcements to have any idea who's ahead or behind (which doesn't mean I don't have a spreadsheet on the topic - I have a spreadsheet for everything).

We did one fun thing - five of the six authors and one of the contest judges got together for a chat about our books, about sci fi, and about writing. It was a lot of fun talking with the other authors, who spanned 13 time zones (Minnesota to Perth, Australia). If you're interested, here's a link to the chat.

If you're curious about how Kenai did and how it got this far, here are a few of the judges' posts from the judges who had a good time with Jess' adventure on a distant planet.

The SPFBO, Round 10

Just as the SPSFC is ending, the tenth running of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) is heating up. My new fantasy book, The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar, is entered and has been assigned to the judging team of two bloggers who go by Esme Weatherwax and SuperStarDrifter. My book's been assigned to Esme, and she reports on Twitter already having finished it, so a review is likely incoming soon. Those two have 30 books between them, and they're in the process of narrowing that pool to maybe 6-10 that they'll both read, and beyond that to a single book they'll promote to the finals, although that's probably quite a way off.

There's a bunch of hoopla surrounding SPFBO each year with lots of people following it. Several fans do first-chapter reads of all 300 entries and post their thoughts or even mini-reviews. Because they're nearly all on Amazon, you can use the samples there to see them. Here's one of those mini-reviews for my book from author Steve Westenra.

I was intrigued by this idea, although I didn't want to go to the work of writing a mini-review about only a fraction of the books. I hit upon another, stupider strategy. I've been reading the first chapter or two of each entry, picking the best fantasy name (and fantasy has some wonderful ones) and the best word I find, and composing a haiku about each book. Although this idea is nearly devoid of merit, some folks on the SPFBO Discord server are enjoying them and egging me on, so I've kept up with it. it's been a fun way to see what other fantasy authors are coming up with for their books. I'm nearly halfway through the books, and if you want to read some of my haiku, they're on this page with more coming daily.

Some stories to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. Here are some new books I have to share this month:

First, I have Distant Shadow by James Hockley. This is a 100% free story about a boy done wrong by a conquering empire, and the steps he takes to gain his vengeance.

Next, I have Neurabreak by Eris Goode and Kris Ruhler. This is a young adult/new adult cyberpunk sci-fi novel, full-length, that's currently free. It's part of their five-book Project Juniper series. Have a look - there's no cost to get it now.

Next, I have Divian by Ziza Oman. This is a sci-fi novelette (10-20,000 words, or 1/5 of a regular-length novel) about an alien with a problematic family history who finally finds a friend.

Finally, I have Star-Axe by Edita Petrick, a story of two interstellar powers on the brink of war and two officers captured who must try both to escape and to avert war. Plus, there's impressive scaly metal armor, which is always a plus.

Thank you for reading!

I'm so grateful for you being part of my little writing community. I really appreciate you taking the time to read about what I'm doing, and especially you choosing to spend some time with my characters in my books. Thank you!

May the Bloodmother watch over you -

Dave

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