Excerpt From EON (Chronos Ring #1)

Well, Earl's first book has been out about a week now.  I'd like to think that it's performing respectably: got about a dozen sales, 6000 page reads. It's not knocking anybody out of first place at the moment, but - for an indie author that no one's ever heard of - I think it's doing fine. It hasn't gotten any reviews yet, but I have had some people sign up for my mail list (which I assume means that they liked the book).

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share an excerpt from the book, so I've posted a small passage from it below.  Enjoy!

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“How much?” said a gravelly voice next to Lotus. Glancing to where it came from, he saw a tall, thin man with an oversized, bulbous head. The fellow had rough-looking skin that was purple-brown in color, and elongated arms that went down to his knees. Noting suction cups on the man’s hands, Lotus recognized him as an octo hominid — a genetically engineered person made by splicing human DNA with that of an octopus.

“How much?” the octo asked again.

“I’m not interested,” Lotus replied.

“How much for woman?” the octo clarified testily, holding up cash in its suckered fist and nodding towards Monica (who looked horrified at what was being suggested).

“She’s not interested either,” Lotus said flatly, trying to inconspicuously slide into a fighting stance. Octos were notably fast and notoriously strong, but had extremely poor vision — a fact he’d use to his advantage if this situation escalated (as it seemed on the verge of doing).

“This is Maxima’s,” the man declared fervently. “All is for sale.”

“Not tonight, friend,” Lotus stated. “Move along.”

Rather than heed that advice, the octo flung the money it held in Lotus’ face, shouting, “You take cash! I take girl!”

The man moved deliberately towards Monica, apparently considering the issue settled. Lotus, placing a firm hand on the fellow’s shoulder, spun him around and then threw a punch at the man’s face. Faster than seemed possible, the man’s hand came up, catching Lotus’ fist before the blow could land.

EON (Chronos Ring #1) Is Now Available!

My novel Eon (Chronos Ring #1) is now available on Amazon.  It's a scifi novel (as if the cover wasn't a dead giveaway) and hopefully will be construed as entertaining.

This one was a lot of fun to write, and I enjoyed hanging out with these characters.  With any luck, readers will feel the same way.

Needless to say, writing a book is extremely challenging.  People always seem to have this impression that it's fairly easy - you just come up with an idea and write it down - but that's not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to putting a novel together.  

(Plus, that's just accounting for what you, as the writer, have to do. That  doesn't even include proofreading, copyediting, searching for that elusive "perfect" cover, writing a world-class blurb that's going to immediately hook potential readers, and so on.)

Now, of course, I've got the monumental task of finishing work on the sequel (not to mention the other items on my recently-created progress bar).   However, it's a challenge I'm looking forward to, and with any luck there will be readers coming along for the ride.

Cover Reveal For My First Book

Okay, I'm on the verge of publishing my first book, EON (Chronos Ring #1), so I thought I'd mimic what other authors do and have a cover reveal.  Therefore, without further ado:

Needless to say, it's a scifi yarn (and a darn good one, if I do say so myself!).  For those interested, here's the blurb from the back:

In the far future, mankind lives safe and secure behind the Chronos Ring – an automatic defense system that encircles the area of space occupied by human beings. The Ring keeps out all of humanity’s enemies – in particular, a vicious race of reptilians known as the Parsnaak.

On the outer fringe of human-occupied space is the planet Muse, an entire world dedicated and established as a colossal museum – a storehouse of antiquities and relics from the ancient histories of both men and aliens. There, Ian Lotus, a man with his own mysterious past, has chosen to live in deliberate obscurity, harboring secrets that could reshape mankind’s destiny.

Now, the impossible has happened: the Chronos Ring has been breached – rendered inert – and Lotus finds himself no longer able to hide in the shadows as he becomes the object of a massive interplanetary manhunt. However, his problems go well beyond simply being the most wanted man in the galaxy. There’s also the approaching Parsnaak invasion fleet to deal with, as well as an enigmatic, extra-dimensional being of immense power who, for reasons unknown, wants Lotus dead.

At a guess, I'm probably a few days away from releasing the book.  The Kindle version isn't quite ready yet, but I had a real temptation to hit "publish" for the print version as I was loading it today.  (Ideally, I'd like to release them around the same time.) That said, I have a tough time resisting temptation (which explains why I'm on my ninth marriage...)  Seriously though,  I'm going to have to find some way to keep myself occupied - like figuring out the best way to market this book - or I probably will give in to the urge and release the print copy first.  (Must...not...press...button...)

Regardless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the book is well-received.

Blog Post 1

Basically, I'm just trying to figure out how the heck this things works.  Nothing really to report. Carry on.