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.

Updates

I have now officially sold 1000 copies of CSS Appomattox. Thank you all.

More importantly, for the short term, I have a cover for Phoenix Rising: A Story of the New Glasgow War. A friend of mine, Phil McClimon made for me. I really like it.

Hopefully, this is going to inspire me to finish my editing quickly.

Milestone Almost Reached

I just checked my book report settings. I am one sale away from having sold 1000 Kindle copies of CSS Appomattox. Now that is not a big deal for many folks as I know of authors who are selling that many per day. But for me, it's pretty cool.

The series has done pretty well. The second book in the series has not done nearly as well. Once I finish the third book in the series, I will be looking at repackaging the series to try to get more exposure for it.

In order to celebrate the milestone, anyone who reaches out to me that has not received a copy of Honor Restored, I will send you a PDF of it right away. It occurs immediately after the events of The Last Airship from Khartoum and resolves Almond's story.

Anyway, I just wanted to celebrate for a moment, even if it is prematurely. Now back to editing.

CSS Appomattox is on sale from 9/18 to 9/25

I have CSS Appomattox on sale for the next week. If you have not had a chance to check it out, it could be yours for $0.99. It is on sale in both the UK and US Amazon stores.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P0A4ACY

CreateSpace hard copy of CSS Appomattox

I just received my proofs of CSS Appomattox from CreateSpace. I am really pleased with how well they came out. I have approved the proof and they should be up on Amazon shortly.

CSS Appomattox

I am working with a book promoter and they did some changes on my cover. Let me know what you think of the cover compared to the original.

Any thoughts?

Antietam Sunrise name change to Sharpsburg Sunrise

Well the more I wrote on the prequel, the less happy I was with the name. Then it struck me, the South referred to the battle as Sharpsburg since that was the town that the battle took place near. Antietam was the creek that ran behind the Union lines to the east of Sharpsburg. If I am writing an alternative history book about the South winning that battle, maybe I should call it by their preferred name. So Sharpsburg Sunrise it is.

I have pinned down the graphics that I want to use down to 2. I currently have permission to use this one:

I like this picture but it is awful small. You can find the original here at: http://memirr.com/Living%20History%20images/AntietamPhotos/cornfield.jpg. Patti Ballard is the owner and she has been very gracious (not to mention rather speedy) in giving me permission.

I have my eyes set on a second picture but I am waiting to hear back from the owner. I like it a little better as it has the sun rising above the cornfield. Honestly, the first one is probably more accurate as the accounts I keep reading has the battlefield near the 40 acre cornfield bathed in smoke.

Anyway, I will see if Patti is able to find a higher resolution image for me. Thanks Patti!

Mucking About with Graphics and Other Things

I started fooling around with some graphics to give a small facelift to the blog. Here is the first pass:

Let me know what you think.

I also have three works in progress at the moment.

#1 The Last Airship from Khartoum - The follow up to CSS Appomattox covers the story of Devareaux and his squadron as they assist in the evacuation of Khartoum during the siege by the Mahdist army. This is complete and is undergoing editing. I have it in the hands of some trusty beta readers who are giving me some great feedback. Thanks guys!

#2 Hunting Season - This is another short story set in the same Zombie Apocalypse as The Home. This one takes place at the start of the troubles in a small town in middle Georgia. It is currently at about 3,000 words long and is about 1/4 of the way done. This is one of my NaNoWriMo projects.

#3 Antietam Sunrise - This is the prequel to CSS Appomattox. Follow the journey of a young Confederate officer through the Maryland Campaign and its climax at the Battle of Antietam. In the Alternate Universe of CSS Appomattox, the Confederacy won the Battle of Antietam to secure support from Great Britain and France. This is Thomas Devareaux's father's experiences during that battle. This is my second NaNoWriMo project. Currently it is sitting at 3500 words. It is probably only 1/4 of the way through.

The Home: A Zombie Survival Short Story Published

Well I went ahead and hit submit on the short story. It went live at 4am this morning. I got some early feedback and ran it through both Hemingway and Ginger editors. I fooled around with a cover and came up with something that I liked.

Anyway, I am running a free book promotion on it tomorrow. I don't want to charge the default $0.99 for it since it is a 7k word short story, but I can't figure out how to convince Amazon to lower the price under Kindle Select.

Also, I have finished all of the edits for CSS Appomattox. The 2.0 version is now up on Kindle as of yesterday. Very happy with the edits that Allison did. She did a great job. Hopefully, if you have the previous version(s), the 2.0 update will be pushed out by Amazon.

Anyway, happy reading.

CSS Appomattox Sale

Well since I have now Broken 1000 total sales on Amazon, I have decided to run a Kindle Countdown deal from July 26th to August 2nd. I have not figured out how to do this for the other Amazon stores yet. Sorry about that. The countdown deal will take the price down to $0.99 at first then gradually go up to the regular price.

I have done some updates to the book including having the first 16 chapters edited. Still need to get the rest done but my editor is still working on those. I have cleaned up the scene changes to make them clearer. And fixed numerous spelling errors and some continuity problems that readers have pointed out.

But what about the sequel? Well that is actually coming along quite well. At this point, I am some 41,000 words into the project. I suspect that the final work will weigh in at 80 to 85,000 words when it is all said and done. I am feeling confident that by the end of August I will be looking for some Beta Readers.

Still, what are your thoughts? Is the title 'Last Airship from Khartoum' a workable title?

Need Help with a Title

I am working on the Sequel to the CSS Appomattox. Here is the basic premise of the book.

In this book, Thomas Devareaux is now an airship squadron commander and in direct command of the CSS Greenville. He has been assigned on a goodwill mission to support the British in North Africa.

It just so happens that there is trouble brewing in North Africa among the locals. Devareaux must deal with the British Colonial office who don't want him, crewmen who are rebelling, the Dervish armies of the Mahdi and a mysterious stranger from a hostile European power.

It is set shortly before the fall of Khartoum in 1885 and the subsequent death of General Gordon. I am having difficulty coming up with a working title. What I have so far is "Last Airship from Khartoum: A Thomas Devareaux Alternative History Military Adventure."

The last part is the subtitle which is purely there to contain keywords to drive Amazon search traffic. I think it is cheesy but unfortunately it actually works. So the terrible subtitle will probably stay. But what about "Last Airship from Khartoum?" Does that work?

CSS Appomattox Milestone Reached!

I have just sold copy # 1,000 of CSS Appomattox. This is across all platforms (Google Play, DriveThruFiction, Nook, Kobo and of course - Amazon). Since going back to only Amazon as my distribution, sales have improved. Even though I am doing zero advertising.

I have now received edits for Chapters 1 through 16. All of those edits will be applied by the end of the day. Since I am at the halfway point, do I resubmit the book to Amazon with those edits in place or wait till all are done? I am just not sure what would be best. Any thoughts?

CSS Appomattox is now live on Google Play and Nook

I just managed to get the book uploaded to Google Play this morning and onto the Nook platform this afternoon. Neither are live yet. I opened an account with iTunes to have it there as well. iTunes has a much more complicated process to have your book uploaded to it. They require several validations before they allow you to upload a book. Google, Nook and Amazon were far easier to deal with. I am still trying to figure out if these will be worthwhile or if I should stick with selling only through Amazon and their Kindle Unlimited program. My Kindle Unlimited settings expired yesterday. Yet strangely enough, I still had a KU sale today on the sales dashboard. Anyway, Amazon has been very good to me. I am closing rapidly in on 800 copies sold of the book. Thank you all for reading. Update! CSS Appomattox is now live on Google Play. Update again! It is now live on the Nook store as well.

A Lethargic New Year

This has been a very slow year to start for me. In working on the sequel to CSS Appomattox, from January 1st to the 26th, I had written maybe 100 words to the project. Today was a much better day. I cleared about 1200 words and completely changed how the story begins. Not sure what the motivation problem has been for me. I think I have beaten it though.

I did plan out a few items though. If you are a follower of this blog and have signed up for my e-mail list, you will be receiving a novella that I am writing featuring Thomas Devareaux's father at the battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. This will be a thank you for giving me a chance and for taking the time to read my scribblings.

Hopefully I can get some more writing in tonight and get the first part of the book completed. Until next time...

CSS Appomattox Kindle Countdown Deal in the UK Store

I will be running a Kindle Countdown deal on my first novel, CSS Appomattox. It starts on January 19th and runs through the week. If you have not picked up a copy and were thinking about it. Now would be a great time to check it out. See the link below.

600th Sale of CSS Appomattox

Yesterday marked the 600th copy of CSS Appomattox sold. I am quite pleased with this. Thank you everyone who has bought my book and a Big thank you to the ten folks who have submitted reviews on Amazon.

What's coming up? Well, my KDP Select status ends in February. I will be experimenting by placing it up on Nook and the iTunes store to see how that goes. I also have an announcement coming for the Amazon UK Kindle store late this evening. Stay tuned for that.

The sequel is coming along nicely. I have not had as much writing time as I would have liked but it is still coming along. I am trying out a new writing tool - Scrivner. Thus far, I really like it. It is much easier to deal with than a single word document.

I have two other projects that are coming up as well. My Mom has asked me to convert her book from a physical format to Kindle. She wrote the book Crossroads to Freedom back in 1998. It is her story as a little girl growing up in Germany during WWII. It covers how she was living in Dessau when the Americans seized the city and when they gave the city over to the Soviets. It also talks about her teen years when she crossed over with her family from East to West Germany and finally made it to New York. It is a fascinating read, well for me at least. The publisher that she used is now defunct. Before they closed, they gave my 85 year old mother boxes of the books and told her that she can deal with it. So now we are going digital.

The other project I am working on is another alternative history piece that I am co-writing with a friend of mine. We have a high level outline at this point. There is not even a name for the project yet but I'll let you know what comes up.

CSS Appomattox: 500th Book Sold

I had not been paying enough attention to the Amazon Dashboard. On January 4th, I sold the 500th copy of CSS Appomattox. I am very excited about this. Thank you everyone who gave the book a chance.

Today was a milestone day as well as I received my 10th review on Amazon. Again, thank you to everyone who posted up a review.

Today I began work on Chapter 6 of the sequel to the CSS Appomattox. Some of the loose ends from book one get addressed as Thomas Devareaux and his men deal with Northern spies.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I hope that everyone has a fantastic Christmas season and a wonderful new year. As we approach 2015, I am busy at work on the sequel to the CSS Appomattox.

After just a few short days since publication, things are looking pretty good. The book went live on Kindle on October 30. In the fifty-four days since it has been up, I have over 300 purchases which I am actually very happy with. I now have six reviews on the book of which five are very positive. Apparently reviewer number six did not enjoy the book. But still, my other book on Kindle has been up since March of this year and only have 4 reviews and less than a quarter of the downloads. Fiction is far more popular than wargaming scenarios.

So to you who have given the CSS Appomattox a chance, THANK YOU! Thank you very much. I hope to hear from more of you.

The new year should hold some changes. I hope to have a few free items for the readers here as a thank you gift. I will probably put up a few short stories and the like here as I work on them. Also, if anyone is interested, an experiment in collaborative storytelling.

Hello World

Yes, its one of those useless first posts on a new blog. Just like in an introduction to programing class, where they teach you to write your first program that spits out Hello World, most first blog posts are similar.

The purpose that I had in mind for this blog was to throw around ideas that I have for books that I am working on that are fiction. I have another blog that has my wargaming related topics. Stop by cstoesen.blogspot.com if you have any interest in that sort of thing.

I have published my first novel, CSS Appomattox , back on October 30th through Kindle Direct Publishing. I am currently working on three other fiction projects. The first is the sequel to the Appomattox. The second is a short story about an attempted terrorist attack. The third is a novel about an archeologist in Israel that makes a discovery about a man not mentioned by name in the Bible. It is a servant of Abraham who chronicled his life with the patriarch.

I am easily distracted so other things will pop up from time to time.

I do have a mailing list and if anyone is interested, I will put up a page to join my mailing list soon. The plan is to only use the list to notify folks when I have actually published something.

Thanks for stopping by.