Catching up

Apparently I haven't been faithful in updating this. Book 7 was released back in June of 2020. The series has done well. It is wide and selling on Amazon and distributed everywhere else through Draft to Digital. People are still downloading copies of book one and I am very thankful.

I started a new series. I watched a video on the life of Admiral Lee of the US Navy. His role in the Vera Cruz incident in 1914 got me thinking of using that as the basis for the story. Similar to my last series, this will be science fiction. The series would basically be WWI naval operations in space. It will be interesting to see how it goes. I am three chapters in at the moment. I am liking the characters. It is being told as a flashback. The lead character is in a museum and reflects on the events presented in the exhibits. We will see if this goes anywhere.

Book 7 Of the New Glasgow War Series

I have unfortunately stalled out in progress on this. I have the outline ready but the writing has been eluding me. I hope to be back on track next week.

Updates on Upcoming Projects

I have made a start on Book 7 of the Phoenix series. I am in the process of releasing two non-fiction books at the moment. The first is a set of wargames scenarios for the Age of Sail called To Covet Glory. If you are interested, you can check it out here.

The second is a set of World War II scenarios covering a portion of the Second battle of Kharkov in May of 1942. It is getting close to being released. Should be this month. Once these are behind me, I will concentrate on Book 7 and start work again on the third Devareaux book.

After those two are done, I think I will move to a new series entirely. Book 7 should close out the Phoenix series. The third book of the Devareaux series will be the final installment of that trilogy. I may come back and write about some of the other characters such as Henry Stoe.

Anyway, I hope you have had a chance to check out Phoenix Triumphant. If you did, please consider leaving a review. It really does help considerably.

Phoenix Triumphant Is Launched!

It took a while but the button has been pressed and Phoenix Triumphant is live. Well, nearly. It is availible for pre-order on Amazon right now and will be availible on April 25th. I am launching it at $0.99 and will raise the price to $1.99 next month.

You can check out the Universal Book link for Phoenix Triumphant by clicking here. I hope you check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks everyone for sticking with me.

Update on Phoenix Triumphant

I have gotten back on track with the editing. It is going well so far. It will take a bit longer to finish out. But there is progress. I divide out the editing process into a number of steps. I am about half way through. I hope to send out some beta copies next week.

Potential New Series idea....

I am thinking of a new series. Would you be interested if I posted a couple of chapters here to read? Let me know your thoughts.

Happy New Year

I hope 2018 treated everyone well. I am back at work on completing Book 6 of the New Glasgow War series. I am currently in the middle of a scene with Gordo having an unexpected guest.

Hopefully, I will release this by the end of the month and get to work on book 3 of the Thomas Devareaux series.

I have a favor to ask of you. If you have had a chance to read book one of the NGW series - Out of the Ashes, and have not posted a review, please take a moment and put one up on Amazon. I would really appreciate it. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076JNY156.

Happy New Year everyone.

Project Overload

Well, we have passed the midpoint of Nanowrimo and I have very little to show for it. Oops. I do have a number of new story ideas that I would like to pursue. But until I get Phoenix Triumphant finished and the Baltic Gambit done, I will not start other projects. No, really. I promise I won't.

One item that sidetracked me was pulling Hunting Season out of KDP Select. I have tried to clean up the formatting and run it through ProWritingAid again and will be uploading it soon. Maybe even today. However, PWA is crashing on me today. I think it is due to an acute caffeine deficiency and the computer equivalent.

Edit: Yep, Hunting Season is wide now.

Well, back to writing.

The Phoenix Gambit

Well, thanks to Rukia, I had a pretty good launch for book 5. I will leave the book up at .99 until this weekend. Like all good things, that must come to an end and the price will go back up. I am thinking of keeping it in line with the other books and putting it at $1.99.

Book 6 -Phoenix Triumphant is coming along nicely. The book has taken some turns that have surprised me as I am going along. We shall see the return of a pair of characters that have been absent for a few books. I am playing with cover ideas earlier in the process and may have something to show later this month.

Anyway, back to writing.

CSS Appomattox 4th Anniversary

I just checked and it has been 4 years since I first published CSS Appomattox. It doesn't seem to be that long ago. In honor of the anniversary, I did a bit of polishing on the book (minor edits and some layout changes). This is the 3rd real edition of the book since I first released it. The most significant change is moving the world description to the back of the book and letting it start with the story. In several of the reviews, I had received complaints about that. Hopefully, this will help.

I am also doing some work on the third book in that series (Black Sea Peril). I think I will commit to a February 2019 release date. At this point I have 1/4th of it written. The story is progressing nicely but it is fighting for space on the writing desk with the New Glasgow War series which just may turn into a 9 part instead of 6 part series.

Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate the anniversary of the book. October is just one of those months that I seen to release books in. With The Phoenix Gambit being released this month and a year ago, I released Out of the Ashes.

Happy reading everyone.

Stellar Service Recognized - Rukia

I have done a number of book launches with Rukia publishing. I added their logo on the right hand side of the page. Every time I work with them, they tirelessly promote my book, build my mailing list and look for new ways to get the word out. I am terrible at the advertising side of things. But they are really good. Has my book hit in the top 100 rankings of Amazon with their help - no, but I don't think they every will. But they sure do try to make that happen.

I have grown my mailing list by nearly 200% since starting to work with them and it is still growing. The books always get a good bump in sales and I now have all sorts of followers on BookBub that I didn't know I could have. All in all, it is always money well spent. Of all of the services that I have tried, I always have a positive return on investment with Rukia. Give them a try, you will be glad you did.

DriveThruFiction

I have been using one of their sister sites for years. DriveThruFiction is something I tried a few years ago and am giving it another go again. All five books of the New Glasgow War series are live there now. https://www.drivethrufiction.com/browse.php?author=CN%20Stoesen

I am a fan of the site and will be looking into porting a few more items there over time. Swing on by and take a look at their site.

Online Retailers for E-Books

I was just curious as to which online retailers that you use for books. I am conducting my second experiment with putting some books wide. Thus far I am concentrating on my science fiction series - The New Glasgow War.

Besides Amazon, I have also put books up on:
Drive Thru Fiction
Google Play - Which their search engine is not returning anything on the books they claim are live today.... hmmmm.
Barnes & Noble
Apple
Kobo
Scribd
Tolino
24Symbols
Playster
OverDrive
Bibliotheca
Baker & Taylor

Most of the above I am doing through the Draft 2 Digital service. It is pretty handy as I would not be able to upload to Apple without them. Are there other services that you use? Do you use any of the above? I'd love to hear back from you as to your favorites.

Personally, I use Amazon, Google Play and Playster.

Phoenix Gambit is Live

Phoenix Gambit went live on the 22nd of October. It is off and running.

Book 6 of the series is well on its way. I am 1/5th of the way through the first draft and look to have it released by the end of November. The working title is Phoenix Triumphant. That's right, I actually have a title well before the release. Next up is a cover. I have some ideas on that front as well.

For the Thomas Devareaux fans out there, fear not, I haven't forgotten about the series. The next book, Black Sea Peril is in progress. I am making steady progress daily on it and look to have a release by first quarter next year (2019). No cover ideas yet. I am thinking of something involving the Ottoman Navy circa 1890. We will see what I can find.

Anyway, back to the keyboard. Until next time, take care.

Help Wanted - There are Free Books Involved.

I love that iconic image. Uncle Sam pointing his finger out at you asking for help. Well, I could use a bit of help. Most importantly, I really could use some reviews on my books. If you have done a review on one of my books and are interested in doing another, please think about enrolling in my Advanced Review Copy group. I created a sign up form for it here: https://goo.gl/forms/GYp2OjK0NiTpbZbJ2

Please consider it. I would really appreciate it.

CSS Appomattox on Sale

CSS Appomatox is now on sale at Amazon for only $0.99 from now until September 14th.

Check it out today.

Cover for The Phoenix Gambit - Book 5 of the New Glasgow War Series

I finally found an image for the cover that I like. The artist goes by Algolonline on Deposit Photos. This was put together by Phil McClimon for me as a cover. The editing will hopefully be completed by the end of this week for a release date in early September for the book.

I think I may your more of this artists work going forward.

GDPR Frustrations

Well, I am not certain what I need to do to protect myself from the repercussions of this. I am going to suspend the mailing lists until I figure it out. Until further notice, I will not be taking more subscribers to my mailing lists.

Phoenix Rising out on Amazon

The release day was officially yesterday. I am happy to report that it went off almost without a hitch. Of course I found a spelling error in my description on Amazon and it was too late to fix until the book went live. That is now sorted out and looking better.

If you are interested, the book is still just $0.99 in the kindle store until next week.

I have started work on Book 5 which as of yet is untitled. I am still trying to sort out some things but it is starting to come together. If you had a chance to read through Phoenix Rising, I would love to hear from you. Please let me know what you think.

Phoenix Rising is Availible for Pre-Order

Phoenix rising is now out and availible on Amazon. Just taking a moment to breathe a side of relief before jumping into Book 5. Duncan is calling for me to keep her story going.

Please let me know what you think about the new book and cover.