Dark Matter

Been caught up in the series Dark Matter lately. The premise gripped me from the beginning of a group of space travelers woken from an extended sleep without their memories. I have nearly finished the second season so far. It has not disappointed. The show is getting better and better.

What sci-fi shows are you currently watching? A friend of mine is raving about the Orville. I may need to check that out next.

Out of the Ashes - Give away

Just floating the idea around of a giveaway for my current book, Out of the Ashes. How many people would be interested in a model of the mech that Major Dietler is in when he gets captured? Just trying to see if there is interest for that. Any thoughts or opinions?

Out of the Ashes - Launch day

OUt of the Ashes is now availible on Amazon. It is currently on sale for $0.99 until October 30th. Then it will go back up to its normal price.

I have two reviews on the book already. Take a look and if you are interested, you can pick up the prequel, Free Fall, for Free by subscribing to my mailing list.

Stop on by and take a look.

Thanks

Thoughts on Stories

Growing up, my favorite stories were the ones that my parents told me about when they were my age and the things they did. My Mother grew up in Germany during the Second World War. My Dad lived in Pensacola during that same time. Two very different experiences. Both left me feeling how blessed I was to grow up in a relatively peaceful time. But it also has left me feeling that my own growing up stories are completely LAME by comparison.

My Dad grew up in the South when segregation was a daily reality. There was far more freedom for children to roam around and do things that would get folks arrested now. His friends had BB Gun wars, rubber band gun wars and made rubber band shooting tanks in order to play out the battles that they read about in newspapers and heard on the radio. They were depression kids. He had kids at his school beg him for apple cores to eat. In college, Dad got a summer job on an oil tanker passing through the Suez Canal in 1948 during Israel's War of Independence. He described troops marching across the bridges heading north while he sat on deck and watched. He had a colorful army career in Germany during the Korean War. All things I that I hung on to every word he said even though these things came out in casual conversation.

After Dad's passing, my Uncle filled in a few gaps that Dad had left out. All tales that left me in awe of the man even more. If you are going to be a character, it great to be an interesting one. Dad fit that bill.

Mom was no slouch when it came to backstory either. She described being a teenager on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. She crossed multiple times before leading her family across to the west from Dessau. During the war, she lived in a castle with the Duke Von Anhalt. She came to America with a boyfriend who died after she arrived. Yet she stuck it out and made a life for herself, by herself in New York. She survived bombing attacks during the war and the American and later German occupation of her city.

The two met in New York and then moved to Florida. A perfect setting for two wonderful yet crazy individuals. I was blessed to know them let alone have them as parents.

How do you top colorful lives like that? Well, you can't. But the impact of their stories have stuck with me. Elements of them get woven into the stories that I write, sometimes without me realizing it. They passed on to me a love of reading. I love to learn as much as escape with a good book.

Where do your best stories come from? the ones you tell your kids or write or tell the other guys at the bar?

Counter Strike - Book 2 of the New Glasgow War

I just got in some sample cover art. Would love to get some opinions on them. Which do you like better?

Free Fall

Just finished the work on Free Fall. It is now availible to anyone that signs up for my sci-fi mailing list. Free Fall is the prequel to the upcoming series The New Glasgow War. I am set to publish Book 1 of the series on October 24th. I have everything lined up and am ready to mash the publish button on it.

Free Fall answers some of the questions that are opened up in Out of the Ashes. It talks about what Rachel Duncan has lost along the way and why after five years of service, she hadn't been promoted. Anyway, I hope you like it.

Currently Reading List

One of the reasons that keeps me writing is being inspired by other authors. Lately, I have been on a science fiction kick. My current go to series when I want to have a book I can just jump into and enjoy fast paced action is Jamie McFarlane's Privateer's Tales.

He is up to book twelve in the series but I have only just cracked open book nine myself.

The other author I have just discovered, is Chris Fox. I have been avidly reading Chris Fox's non-fiction for a while now. But I never tried his fiction. Why? I was trying to figure out how to be a better author and he seems to know what he is doing. So while reading his book Launch to Market (great book) he referenced his book Destroyer throughout the process. I picked the book up to see what it was about and how he was doing things.

I found a new series that I like. He has several series out and I will probably end up being sucked into those as well. There is nothing better than a good book, except a good series of books.

Anyway, I hope you check these out. They are personal favorites. Let me know if you like them.

New Release Coming Soon

I have finished the editing on the first book in my sci-fi series - Out of the Ashes. I have a new cover for it for the book from the very talented artist - Aaron Miller of Miller Design and Marketing. I really like it.

The series is the New Glasgow War. The basis is that the Federated Union of Planets controls a number of systems in the galaxy. There are core planets that formed the FUP. They are the full members. Secondary systems that were colonized later are associated systems that have fewer rights within the FUP. Several planets have rebelled against the FUP whose military has brutally suppressed them in each case.

The planet of New Glasgow has been fighting the FUP for years. Duncan of the New Glasgow Militia has been in the fight since the beginning. She is fighting against the elite that the FUP has to offer including their Mechs.