Book Bag

I used to have a book bag, a cloth receptacle for hauling my loot back and forth from the library, either when I walked or when I rode my bike there on a Saturday. Nowadays, we have digital bookbags — Kindles or Nooks or other e-reading devices — that are much lighter and more compact than the paperback-stuffed backpacks of yesteryear.

Here are a few suggested additions to those book bags:

1) The Big Shutdown by John Whalen

The Big Shutdown. An entire planet is about to be made obsolete. Chaos rules as Nomad gangs terrorize what’s left of Tulon’s cities. Jack Brand, ex-Army Ranger, semi-retired Tulon Security Officer, searches for his missing sister, Terry. His journey takes him from desert wastelands to a domed city, and beyond. Along the way he meets the unforgettable Christy Jones, But love will have to wait until Brand finds his sister, and soon the last ship will leave for Earth.

“The Big Shutdown” is a new, revised edition of “Jack Brand,” a space western classic first published in 2010. Out of print for two years, Flying W Press brings it back with an introduction by Johne Cook, Overlord of Ray Gun Revival, the e-zine where the stories that became a novel were first published. Also included is an additional story from Whalen’s “This Raygun for Hire.” series, featuring Frank Carson, a futuristic trouble shooter for hire.

2) The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly by various authors, and compiled by the editors at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly magazine.

Tales gathered from frozen pre-history, sweltering jungles, and smoky mead halls, legends of this world and whispers of other worlds briefly glimpsed — here then are gathered works of adventure and danger, love and fury, seventeen of the best from the early days of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.

Fiction by Richard Marsden, James Lecky, William Gerke, R. Michael Burns, Christopher Wood, Robert Rhodes, Dariel R. A. Quiogue, Jesse Bangs, P. Djeli Clark, and David Pilling.

Poetry by Danny Adams, Joshua Hampton, W. E. Couvillier, John Keller, Megan Arkenberg, Joshua Hampton, and David Sklar.

Introduction by John O’Neill of Black Gate Magazine.

3) The catalogue of books available at Oghma Creative Media, which publishes a wide variety of genres, including this recent offering:

Is Blood Thicker Than Water?

Three years ago Aubrey Fox’s husband, a Pittsburg County Undersheriff, was discovered in a remote pasture, dead from an unknown assailant’s bullet. With few clues and even fewer leads, his case went cold. Aubrey was left to mourn as best she could, a loss made even greater for lack of closure. Who killed Mark and why? Meanwhile, life went on with two teenagers and a herd of cattle to feed.

When the local sheriff pays an unexpected visit and hints that someone higher up has reopened her husband’s case, Aubrey begins her own investigation. What she finds on his computer casts a wide net of involvement, but who pulled the trigger? Who would believe the results would render the face of organized crime in the United States as wearing a Stetson and hand-tooled Lucchese boots.

4) And, although this book has been out since the end of January 2015, it is now available on Kindle Unlimited, and is free for a few days (until Saturday, November 14):

 

Captain Gaerbith is heir to a secret: the location of a lost sword he cannot touch. In a village far from the battlefield, Kieran the blacksmith remembers nothing before the day when, as a young boy, he was found beside a dead man, a dagger in hand. Maggie is a healer’s apprentice, and earns her way as a laundress. Her shadowed past and crippled hand make her an object of suspicion and ridicule.  Far to the north, the king’s daughter—Yanámari—plots to escape the royal city and her father’s iron control.

King Morfran seeks a Kellish blacksmith who can recreate the lost sword, false proof of Morfran’s right to the throne. However, the true sword is made of etherium, the only metal capable of harming Dragons, and it can be wielded only by a descendent of Kel High King.

Forces are aligning, old prophecies are fulfilling, and in the east a fire glows in Dragon’s Rook.

Note: Apologies for the varied sizes of the book covers. No favoritism or slight is intended.

 

The Back Side of a Business Card

Businesses and medical offices are making use of the backs of business cards by posting additional information, such as appointment times, website links, or special offers.

I’ve decided to use mine to market both sides of my writerly personality — one on the front, one on the back:

These were designed using Vistaprint, and the images are the work of Suzan Troutt (dragon eye) and Jennifer Easter (stick-figure dragon).

Is there a fellow writer or artist or other creative person you trust and whose work you want to promote? Ask if they will split the printing costs and share a business card. It’s low-key marketing that immediately broadens your reach.

(all images copyrighted)

 

Revisions

For a few weeks, I’ve been “radio silent” except for a few forays on social media and occasional e-mail messages, keeping my head down and plowing through the final revisions for Dragon’s Rook.

Aside from a fantasy short story written earlier this summer, the revisions have been the most creative writing sessions I’ve experienced all year.

Brutally creative.

It’s as if light punched through the grimy windows of my imagination, and I saw the novel with more clarity than I had since its inception as a piece of flash fiction twenty years ago.

Scenes were removed, replaced, rearranged. The word count shrank by 22,500 words, more than enough to compose a novella or a modern version of A Christmas Carol. The story came alive.

By comparison, the past couple days have been a letdown. Now there’s “real work” — editing for clients, preparing back cover copy, writing acknowledgments.

What keeps me jazzed? The thought of soon seeing a completed cover for Dragon’s Rook.

Below is the artwork, depicting a dragon’s eye and the reflection of a tower — a rook, a prison, a fortress. A crumbling ruin. This painting is like poetry, condensing the essence of a complex story with big ideas and themes into a deceptively simple image.

If you’d like to read about the artist‘s process, visit Suzan Troutt’s post over at Penworthy Press (here and here).

Dragon eye, c2014, Suzan Troutt