The Ingesterie

Parsina Press sale

2011-12-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

Just to remind people, the Parsina Press half-price ebook sale expires at the end of the year, so stroll on over to http://parsina.com/offer.html to take advantage of the special offer. And have a Happy New Year, everyone.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011-12-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

I went to see the new film of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. If you've read the book, it's excellent. VERY true to the novel (as true as it can be in 2-1/2 hours; it would really need at least a 6-hour miniseries to do everything in the depth it needs, since the book is so dense with information). Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are superb, as is everyone in the cast (although the actor playing Nils Fucking Bierman is at least a decade too young, but that's no reflection on his performance).

If you haven't read the book yet, do so before you see the movie--otherwise it'll be nearly impossible to know who's who--particularly in the Vanger family--without a scorecard. There simply isn't time to establish all the details as clearly as they need to be. Many details just appear and vanish again; if you've read the book, you know what they are and appreciate them; if not, they're just confusing.

I guess they figure that, since the book sold 65 million copies worldwide, the people who really care will already know and appreciate all the detail they went to.

The score's wonderful, too; they generate a lot of suspense with the music alone.

Parsina Press web site redesigned

2011-12-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

There's a brand new look to my Parsina Press web site--not just a new color scheme and a more streamlined appearance, but new features as well: a wider choice of buy-links, images of past book covers, reviews, a lot more information.

Plus, to celebrate the redesign, I've got a special limited-time offer for my fans: many of my prime ebook titles are 1/2 off with the coupon codes on this page. There's even a bonbon--a free copy of my story "The World Where Wishes Worked." The coupons expire at the end of the year, so I hope you'll come on over soon and take a look around. Let me know what you think, and pleasant reading!

New ebook covers

2011-12-04T16:33:00.001-08:00

I've got new covers on 2 of my ebooks: Polly! and Alien Murders. The paperback editions of these books will retain the old covers for the time being. The changes are immediately effective on the Smashwords editions, but may take a week or two to filter through the other distributors. I'd be interested in hearing what people think of the new covers.

Rai29BookReadNReview: Author Interview: Stephen Goldin

2011-11-09T17:02:00.000-08:00

Rai29BookReadNReview: Author Interview: Stephen Goldin:

Rachel at the above link, has just published an author interview with me. Please check it out.

Beyond Worlds blog highlights The Parsina Saga

2011-10-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

The Beyond Worlds blog this week has a fantastic article highlighting me and my 4-volume Arabian Nights-style fantasy series, The Parsina Saga. In the article, I discuss how I came to write this epic work and the influences upon its creation. I wish my new Parsina Press editions could have used the breathtaking Richard Bober covers that graced the original Bantam editions that first appeared over 20 years ago, but I hope my prose is adequate to express the exotic adventure that fills these books.

2 New Parsina Press Titles

2011-09-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Two more of my books have now been made available from Parsina Press.


Cover of Ghosts,	Gitls,	& Other Phantasms

First is the short story collection Ghosts, Girls, & Other Phantasms. This contains all my short stories that are neither collaborations nor parts of series. Those of you who are paying extra sharp attention may note its resemblance to my earlier collection The Last Ghost and Other Stories; this new version contains the same stories, except that the "Angel in Black" stories have been broken out into their own collection--named, surprisingly enough, Angel in Black. The stories in the new collection range from humor to pathos, and may give people insight into my evolution as a writer.

Wrap-around paperback cover of A World Called Solitude

Second is A World Called Solitude, the tale of a man who's lived alone on a world of robots for many years, and his attempt to cope when he suddenly acquires some human companionship. It's very emotionally intense, and I consider it on a par with The Eternity Brigade as my best stand-alone sf novel.

At this writing, both books are available in ebook formats; in October they'll become available in paperback as well. I hope you'll check them out.

Great review of Polly!

2011-08-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

Please pardon my bragging, but my fantasy novel Polly!, a satire about religion, just got another great review, this time from Frida Fantastic. She says, in part, "The story is comparable to the Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, but it speaks to non-religious skeptics and has a weirdness that makes it more interesting."

I've also recently published another couple of short stories as $.99 ebooks: "Of Love, Free Will, and Gray Squirrels on a Summer Evening" and "Xenophobe." The latter is dedicated to the Republican Party.

Beyond Worlds interview

2011-08-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

The Beyond Worlds blog site has just done an interview/article about me and my novel The Eternity Brigade, probably my finest stand-alone science fiction novel to date. I hope you'll all check it out, Thanks.

Grim Fairy Tale

2011-07-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

My comic short story, Grim Fairy Tale, is now a $.99 ebook at Smashwords. Check it out.

THE ETERNITY BRIGADE is up for Favorite Independent Novel

2011-07-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

My novel The Eternity Brigade is competing for "Favorite Independent Book" at the Guys Can Read podcast site. I hope you'll stop by http://www.guyscanread.com/vote and give me your support. Vote early and often. (You can vote once a day through July 15; the top 5 vote-getters go to their panel of judges for a final decision.) Thanks for your help.

End of promotional sale

2011-05-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

The special $0.99 promotional ebook price on Tsar Wars (Book 1 of the Agents of ISIS series) ends May 31. Anyone needing further incentive to pick up a copy might check out this recent review on Amazon.

Three great reviews

2011-05-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

In the past week or so I've received three really great reviews on three different ones of my books,

The Eternity Brigade. Reviewer: Frida Fantastic.
Alien Murders. Reviewer: Ficbot.
Tsar Wars. Reviewer: Mark.

It's always nice to get noticed, and even nicer when people say good things about you. Thanks to Frida, Ficbot, and Mark.

New look (and price!) for SCAVENGER HUNT

2011-05-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

My sexy space romp Scavenger Hunt has just had a face lift. The content is still the same fun story, a race across the galaxy to visit exotic worlds and acquire strange objects, but the paperback version now sports a gorgeous new wraparound cover (a breathtaking Hubble photo of an area of new star formation). As someone with a love of astronomy, I think it's terrific.

The new price, I hope, is a little sexier, too: $17.99, two dollars off the previous price.

For those unfamiliar with the book's history: When the story was first published by Laser Books in 1976, they thought it was too long to appear in one volume, so they asked me to break it into 2 parts and make each part look like an independent novel. The results were Scavenger Hunt and Finish Line. While the story was still a lot of fun, it wasn't the story I'd originally envisioned. With today's more flexible publishing options, I was able to take out the artificial break in the narrative, update it a bit, and remove the bowdlerization that had toned it down. The old editions are still around as used books, but the new version is what I always wanted it to be. Visit Parsina Press to pick up a copy, either in paperback or ebook format.

Adieu, Joana Russ

2011-04-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hugo-winning author Joanna Russ died yesterday. I didn't know her well, but she was a crucial character in one of the choice moments of my life.

I first met her when she attended some meetings of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) in 1968. At that time I'd had just one story published and two more sold, so I was definitely just a rank beginner. At that year's WorldCon, held in Berkeley, I attended the Hugo Awards Banquet and ended up sitting at a table that included her, Fritz Leiber, and Poul and Karen Anderson. I was definitely the most junior person there, but everyone treated me politely.

Fritz won the Hugo that year for "Gonna Roll Dem Bones." As he stood up to go onstage and accept his award, Joanna was the first to congratulate him with a kiss. I was the second to congratulate him, with a handshake.

When the banquet was over, Joanna took my hand and said, "Come with me." I had no idea where she wanted to take me. Her room, perhaps? (Yeah, dream on, Steve.) But I certainly wasn't going to argue with her.

We ended up at the suite sponsored by Galaxy Magazine--my first "pro" party. There I was, surrounded by people I'd loved all my life. Roger Zelazny, who'd just won the Hugo for Lord of Light, brushed past me and asked me to excuse him! A bearded man I didn't recognize, who wasn't wearing his name badge, asked me whether I was a fan or a pro; I said that, among fans, I claimed to be a pro on the basis of 3 sales, but in this company I wasn't sure. He said, "Well, what do you consider yourself?" We talked about writing for some time before his wife came by and suggested he put his badge on, and I learned I'd been talking to Alan E. Nourse, whose books I loved...and the current president of SFWA. He'd spent time talking to a nobody like me as though I were an equal.

Joanna went her separate way once we entered the party and I didn't see her again that evening. But she had introduced me to a whole new world, and my life was changed forever.

Thank you, Joanna. Rest well.

3 New Ebook Titles Available

2011-04-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks I've published 3 new ebook titles--2 novels and a fantasy vignette.

The first novel is Assault on the Gods, which some people consider a sort of feminist manifesto. Starship captain Ardeva Korrell is used to fighting prejudice, both because she's a woman in what's normally a man's line of work and because she's from a world with a misunderstood religion. But now, on a trading mission to a backwater planet, she finds herself with another kind of fight on her hands; she and her small crew must battle an army of robots and defeat the tyrannical, god-like beings who have enslaved the primitive native population. The task before them is straightforward: to storm the gates of Heaven itself!

***

The second novel is Mindflight, a science fiction espionage thriller. The government of Earth has one main secret weapon in its cold war against its former colony worlds--telepathic spies. But what even the spies don't know is that once they reach their late thirties, they begin to develop strange symptoms that leave them mentally and physically unstable. The Terran Intelligence Agency routinely terminates these unstable telepaths to keep them from threatening the stability of the project as a whole.

Alain Cheney is one of the best telepathic agents in the TIA's arsenal. For 14 years he's been loyal and dependable. But now that he's showing symptoms of the instability, the Agency decides to eliminate him--and just when a secret development occurs that could change the future of the inhabited galaxy.

To survive, Alain must find safety somewhere. But he can't trust his enemies, and certainly not his friends....

***

The vignette is a fairy tale for adults called The World Where Wishes Worked. It's very short, but don't let its length fool you--it packs a wallop out of all proportion to its size. As one reader said, "if you want a fast, funny read, grab this one immediately." I guarantee you'll remember it.

***

Three entertaining reads for a fine spring day.

ROGO Program offers you free ebooks

2011-03-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

I've started up a new program at Parsina Press. ROGO stands for Review One, Get One; what it means is that you can earn free ebooks just by writing some reviews.

Here are the basics: Write a review of one of my books. Post it on at least 3 book-related sites. Tell me about it. I'll then send you a free coupon for any participating ebook of your choice. Simple, no?

See the ROGO Program page at Parsina Press for complete details on how the plan works. Then get busy reading my books and writing reviews of them. Remember, the more reviews you post, the more free books you'll earn.

Ebook price cuts

2011-03-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

The ebook editions of The Eternity Brigade and the books in the Agents of ISIS series have been reduced in price by $2.00 apiece (except for Agents of ISIS #1, Tsar Wars, which was already at the minimum possible price as an introductory offer).

The new prices are effective immediately on Smashwords, but may take a few days to go into effect on Kindle and other retailers.

Paperback prices remain the same.

Read An Ebook Week

2011-03-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

March 6-12 is Read An Ebook Week, and I'm joining in Smashwords' official promotion by hosting discounts on many of my fiction titles. You'll find a lot of my books have coupons ranging from 25-100% off their normal list price. Just cruise on by the Parsina Press page and peruse the titles available. This is a great time to pick up some books of mine you've really been wanting to try.

Great Books Under $5 blog reviews Polly!

2011-02-25T23:10:00.000-08:00

My birthday is still a couple of days away, but I've already gotten a present--a fantastic review of Polly! from Bill & Davilynn Furlow's blog, Great Books Under $5.

The review's final paragraph went straight to my head: "Polly is the kind of book aspiring writers should read just to study the craft. Goldin’s writing is fastidious. And he seemingly has the gift (Would that be a theological term?) of calling on everything he knows from the silly to the profound to create a story that starts out being entertaining and winds up being interesting, even thought-provoking."

I'm hoping such a complimentary review will tempt more people into meeting Polly for themselves.

Saffina Desforges' Aid an Indie Writer blog

2011-02-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

Saffina Desforges has featured Polly! in her Aid An Indie Writer blog series. She includes a full-size image of the cover and everything. The Mae Powers cover looks gorgeous, as always.

And while we're on the subject, check out Saffina's own book, Sugar & Spice, on Smashwords.

Tsar Wars

2011-02-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

Tsar Wars, Book 1 of my Agents of ISIS space opera decalogy, is currently being featured on Holly Hooks's Bargain eBooks blog. The blog includes a rave review from a Smashwords reader (and no, I didn't write it myself).

Fpr a limited time only, Tsar Wars is available as a free ebook download in multiple ebook formats from Smashwords to introduce readers to the series. Because Kindle Digital Publishing doesn't have the "free" option, you have to pay $.99 if you want to buy the Kindle version from Amazon--but it's still well worth the price. It's an inexpensive way to learn about this exciting new series of science fiction adventure books.

(The books are also available in paperback format from Parsina Press if you don't want to read them electronically. There's a $2.00-off coupon if you buy the books through this site.)

Qyackers & Tease

2011-02-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

The blog Quackers & Tease is featuring Polly! today, and has posted a blurb and an excerpt from the book. The blog's name seems appropriate, since Polly is one of the biggest teases around.

The site is staging a contest--a free ebook copy of Polly! to the best commenter. Check it out.

Bargain eBooks

2011-02-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

Holly Hooks's blog, Bargain eBooks, has featured 5 of my titkes over the past two days: 3 science fiction (Alien Murders, Caravan, and Herds) and 2 fantasy (The Djinn Garden and Angel in Black). She says such nice things about them that I'd be blushing, if I had any modesty to begin with.

The Djinn Garden is a self-contained novelette-length excerpt from my Parsina Saga, and is available for free on Smashwords ($.99 on Amazon) as a sample of the series. The other 4 titles are all priced at $1.99, so they're just the price of a cup of coffee (at least here in California). I hope you'll give them a try.

The Evolution/Revolution in Publishing, part 4

2010-12-30T17:03:00.000-08:00

PRINT-ON-DEMAND

Producing a book used to be an expensive proposition. In order to make the final product affordable to the average reader, you had to manufacture it in mass quantities--and that meant a large publishing house, willing to risk a significant amount of money to print many thousands of copies to keep the per-unit price low. These high production costs were well beyond the range of the typical writer. But technology has changed that with two important innovations.

The first is print-on-demand (POD) technology. No longer do you have to typeset metal plates. Computerized typesetting and high-speed printing and binding techniques now make it possible to produce a single copy of a book--and the typesetting can be stored electronically until the next time a copy of that book is needed. It's still somewhat more expensive to produce a single book this way than tens of thouands at a time at a commercial printing house--but I'm confident that will change in the next few years.

One disadvantage right now is that the books have to be ordered in advance. There isn't the spontaneity of walking into a bookstore, discovering a book, and taking it home that instant to read immediately. There's an inevitable delay between the time you order a book online and when it's delivered. But even that may change. For years I've been hearing tales of POD presses small enough to keep in bookstores, so you can walk in, order your book, and have it ready to go quickly--just like a pizza.

Brick-and-mortar bookstores are dying left and right because of competition with internet outlets like Amazon. This sort of development might save them from extinction. The bookstore woouldn't have to store all those paper copies--just one sample for looking at, and then the sale copy would be printed to order. The stores wouldn't necessarily get smaller; they'd just be able to fit a much vaster selection into the same volume.

Print-on-demand publishing will eventually free the industry from the shackles of one of its greatest inefficiencies--the problem of returns. For decades, bookstore owners have been telling publishers that they must be able to return unsold books for full credit--otherwise, why should they bother stocking books by authors they've never heard of? Just order the known bestsellers, and beginning authors would never have a chance.

Because of returns, publishers must print far more books than they know they're going to sell, and the unsold ones get returned or pulped. A book that sells better than 50% of its print run is considered a marvelous hit. The result is an industry built on inefficiency and incredible waste. POD means that books won't be printed until they're actually bought. With less waste, the price of books may actually go down (or, more likely, just won't go up as fast any more).

Revised edition of Polly! now available

2010-12-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

I’m excited and proud to announce the reissue of my recently expanded satirical novel, Polly!. In one sense, it’s a simple boy-meets-girl story—except, of course, it isn’t.

Herodotus Shapiro has had an unbelievably bad week. His wife left him. The IRS is after him for thousands of dollars. His home/bookstore burned down. On his way to take refuge at his brother's place, he got a speeding ticket. And now his car has broken down in the middle of the desert in front of a large mansion. What more can go wrong?

But now his world takes a turn for the weird. The mansion has a snowman on the front lawn--in the desert, in July. The house, which is bigger on the inside than on the outside, is owned by Polly, the most preternaturally beautiful young woman he's ever met. Polly is an acrobat, a gourmet chef, a psychologist, an international financial consultant, a physicist and a woman of who-knows how many other incredible talents. She has an unbelievable library, an art collection of all the world's great masterpieces, and a print of a previously unknown Marx Brothers film. Her toilet paper is actually silk.

And she seems to have some mysterious plans for him....

One GoodReds member has called the book “blasphemous ... highly offensive.” Several others, have given it 5-star ratings. Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Spider Robinson has said this:

All hands on Decalogue! A protagonist readers will find it easy to identify and empathize with, a classic journey story told with wit, wisdom and deceptive ease, and the most interesting guest star ever--what's not to like, here? Perhaps writers who attempt a book like Polly! wanna crack or two across the face for their audacity (to parrot conventional wisdom)--but not if they can manage to pull it off this entertainingly.

So ... ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice.

The book is available in both paperback and multiple ebook formats. There’s a special holiday weekend deal on the ebook version. Buy the book from the Smashwords page and enter coupon code AV74C (not case-sensitive) and you’ll get it at half price. But hurry; the coupon expires Sunday, Dec. 26. Whichever edition you prefer, I hope you’ll give the book a try.

Happy holidays, and pleasant reading!

The Evolution/Revolution in Publishing, part 3

2010-12-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, so in the early 70s, the publishers held all the power. What changed? I can tell you in one word: Technology.

The publishers' power rested on a tripod whose three legs were:

Production. Books had to be edited, printed, bound. None of these processes was particularly secret. There are printing houses in every major city in the world that could do the job. But printing a book in any quantity takes money that's usually beyond the means of the average writer. Plus, as with many other manufacturing processes, doing things in bulk makes everything cheaper. A writer contracting with a printer to manufacture a one-time order of hundreds of copies of a single title will pay a fairly steep price per copy. A publisher who regularly publishes tens of thousands of copies of dozens of titles every month benefits from an economy of scale the independent writer could never dream of. Yes, a writer could do it for himself, and many did, but he could scarcely be competitive.
Distribution. Once the books are manufactured, they have to be placed where customers can buy them--bookstores, supermarkets and the like. This is a task well beyond the skills of most writers. The major distributor companies who worked with big publishers didn't want to touch self-published writers (often with great justification). There were distribution networks for small press publishers, but they tended to be spotty and, in some cases, just as hard to break into as the major distributors.
Promotion. Even getting the books onto store shelves wasn't enough to guarantee sales. People are leery of buying a product they've never heard of. There's all sorts of competition for the consumer's dollar; readers have to be given a reason to buy one title instead of another. Publishers maintained marketing and advertising departments to get their books noticed. Individual writers would find themselves staring at the face of a steep cliff called apathy

The indie or self-published author simply couldn't compete with the the mammoth companies who held such strong advantages. But recently, thanks to technology, this has begun to change ... and that's what this blog will be looking into when it continues.

The Evolution/Revolution in Publishing, part 2

2010-12-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

When I started selling my writing with some regularity in the late 60s/early 70s, the science fiction scene was much different than it is today. Simpler in some ways, harder in others.

Simpler: For short fiction, there were 6 regular markets, the major genre magazines--Analog, Galaxy, If, F&SF, Amazing, and Fantastic. No original anthologies to speak of; anthologies were the domain of reprint stories. (And don't throw Dangerous Visions in my face; that was a special project, not a regular ongoing market.) The was one major hardcover publisher of sf, Doubleday, and it existed largely to support its other arm, the Science Fiction Book Club; other hardcover houses published sf too, of course, but not on anything approaching a regular, consistent basis. For original paperback novels, the reliable markets were Ballantine, Ace, Berkley, the fledgling DAW, and some lesser lights.

Simpler, because you had fewer choices and they were very well defined. Things went into specific slots, or they didn't go at all.

Harder: for the same reason. Fewer choices, fewer markets. Fewer slots to fill, so only a comparatively limited number of people could fill them. And if you weren't one of them, you were left out in the cold.

The recognized markets controlled what went into the marketplace, so if you were one of the anointed ones, people learned about your work. Otherwise, they didn't.

If you could fill one of the acceptable slots, you could make a name for yourself. You could sell books if you sold short stories, because the editors recognized your name. Agents helped you negotiate better deals, but they weren't essential to making any deal at all. The publishers had first-readers, and were on the lookout for new talent.

Oh, and agents routinely got only 10% commissions for domestic sales; it was higher only if another agent was involved for subsidiary rights, like foreign sales or movie deals.

Self-publishing? You were a pariah if you tried it. Print-on-demand? Way too costly to even consider. It was prohibitively expensive to make one book at a time. Electronic publishing? Well, maybe someday in the far future, like a century from now. Audiobooks? Well, there were recorded books for the blind, but they were few in number and generally only for bestsellers. Certainly blind people weren't interested in that science fiction stuff.

Distribution was tightly controlled, funneled through a small number of sources--and in many cases, mafia controlled. You followed a narrow set of rules, or your work never got out in front of the reading public.

Are things better now? Well, they're certainly different. As we shall see....

A Third Free Ebook

2010-12-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

And the good news just keeps on coming. Hot on the heels of The Djinn Garden and But As A Soldier, For His Country, a third free ebook emerges from my collection.

For a limited time only, Tsar Wars (Book 1 of the Agents of ISIS series) is now free in its ebook edition. If you enjoy space opera adventure, this is the perfect chance to sample the first great space opera dacalogy of the twenty-first century and find out what it's all about.

I've also taken this opportunity to change the covers on the ebook editions. I think the new ones are way cooler than the last set.

More exciting news coming up in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Two Free Ebooks

2010-12-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

I've just made two of my ebooks permanently free:

The Djinn Garden is a self-contained novelette excerpt from my 4-volume Arabian Nights-style Parsina Saga. The excerpt is available in multiple electronic formats, including PDF for anyone who doesn't have an ereader device. The books themselves are available as both paperbacks and ebooks. This should give you a taste of the series, to help you determine whether you might want to invest yourself in the complete story.

But As A Soldier, For His Country is a short story that was the springboard for my classic science fiction novel of future war, The Eternity Brigade.

Enjoy them both with my compliments. All feedback will be welcome.

The Evolution/Revolution in Publishing

2010-12-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

This begins a series of articles about the evolution/revolution in the publishing world, with particular emphasis on the science fiction/fantasy field. I make no claim that these articles are at all authoritative. They'll just be some personal observations, based on my own experience. Take that for what it's worth. All disagreements respectfully welcomed. I'll use the term "science fiction" in the broadest sense, to include fantasy and all forms of speculative fiction.

The science fiction field as a commercial genre started almost exclusively as a short fiction medium. There were a large number of pulp magazines devoted to the new genre, but no lines of books as we know the term today--just a few specialty small presses, and they mostly reprinted novel-length serials from the magazines. Everything else was short stories.

The rise of science fiction books went hand-in-hand with the rise of paperback books in general, and paralleled the decline of the pulp magazines (which declined with the rise of printing costs and postage). A small number of star writers appeared in hardcover, because they'd already built themselves a readership following from the magazines. Science fiction became a staple of cheap paperbacks, just as they'd been a staple of pulp magazines.

As all genres became more successful in the paperback market, the hardcover houses started taking more of an interest--because they knew they could sell reprint rights to paperback houses. Soon the tail was wagging the dog. The hardcover publishers began publishing books, not to make money selling copies, but because they could make money selling the reprint rights in paperback. Paperback publishers developed "lines" of product, with multiple titles in each genre each month. The hardcover houses found themselves more as tributaries to the rushing river of paperback publishing.

Next: The publishing field as I found it when I started selling my own works.

The 10th Reindeer

2010-11-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking about Santa's reindeer. There are the 8 that people know from the Clement Moore poem, of course: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen.

Then, of course, there's Rudolph. He gets all the star treatment, with a song all about him.

And then there's the 10th one, Olive. She's in the song too, of course, but she always gets short shrift. Well, she probably deserves it; she's the cruel and abusive one. You know the lyrics: "Olive, the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names."

Getting set for the big re-issuing

2010-11-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

I just saw a preliminary design by Kristine Sawyer for the new Mindflight cover. Really nice! I can't wait till it's ready and I can show it around generally. It may bring in a few more readers.

Kristine is scheduled to create the covers for 5 of my re-issued titles coming out at the end of the year. In addition to Mindflight and its sequel, Mindsearch, there'll be Assault on the Gods, And Not Make Dreams Your Master, and Crossroads of the Galaxy.

In addition, there'll be the newly revised edition of Polly! with the original cover by Mae Powers.All told, I'm looking forward to getting these half-dozen titles back on the market in readily available editions once more.

Veterans' Day special

2010-11-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

In honor of Veterans' Day, I'm having a special 50% off sale ($4.50) on the ebook version of THE ETERNITY BRIGADE. Just go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/14060?ref=sgoldin and enter coupon code UQ52B when you make your purchase. The coupon is good through Sunday, Nov. 14.

The cover for POLLY!

2010-11-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

Mae Powers (maepowers@yahoo.com), the talented artist/editor at Midnight Showcase Fiction, has agreed to let me use her beautiful (and sexy) original cover for Polly! when Parsina Press takes over its publication at the end of December. While the Polly on the cover doesn't have the short-cut black hair I described in the text, Polly can take many forms, and I adore this cover. (And as a friend told me, a nice set of tits never hurts.) The new edition will have slightly expanded text, as well. It's something to look forward to.

Agents of ISIS decalogyt complete in paperback

2010-10-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

All 10 volumes in the "Agents of ISIS" decalogy are now available as print-on-demand trade paperback editions. I'm actually feeling quite relieved. In all its various versions and editions, this is a project that's taken me many years to complete. I don't know if I'd call it my life's work. I wouldn't even call it great literature. But I think it's fun and entertaining, and people seem to enjoy reading it.

Maybe it's like a builder who finishes a large construction project. No, Frank Lloyd Wright's reputation is in no danger, but this is well constructed, it holds together, and it services people well. I'm proud of what I achieved. To quote Stephen Sondheim's song "Finishing the Hat" in Sunday in the Park with George, "Look, I made a hat/Where there never was a hat."

If you go to my Parsina Press online bookstore, you can get coupon codes for $2.00 off the list price of each title. And of course, the books are available in ebook editions as well.

Now, in addition to new projects, I'm getting ready for the end-of-year transition of 6 more titles from Midnight Shocase Fiction to Parsina Press. Excitement abounds.

Switching Publishers

2010-10-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

Normally, authors dread hearing that their publisher is going out of business. But not always.

I just got word that Midnight Showcase Fiction, the current small-press publisher of 6 of my books (Polly!, Assault On The Gods, Mindflight, Mindsearch, And Not Make Dreams Your Master, and Crossroads Of The Galaxy) will be folding at the end of the year. They've treated me nicely there, and I'm sorry to hear they're not making a go of it. But since I've enjoyed the self-publishing experience thus far, I'll probably be moving these titles over to my own Parsina Press at that time.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments.

More ISIS books in paperback

2010-08-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Stellar Revolution (Agents of ISIS #5) and Purgatory Plot (Agents of ISIS #6) have just been made available in paperback editions as well as multiple format ebook editions. I hope you're among those following the exciting adventures of Eva, Judah, and the other agents as they work to preserve order in the galaxy. The remaining books of the the space opera series will appear in paperback over the next couple of months.

You can learn about the entire series, as well as my other books, at Parsina Press, my online bookstore.

Cover experiment

2010-07-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

I'm trying an experiment by changing the covers on the electronic versions of the Agents of ISIS books. The new ones are brighter, flashier, more eye-catching. Maybe tackier, who knows. You can check them out at http://parsina.com/isis.html. Let me know what you think.

The paperback versions will retain the older, more sedate covers.

Take a journey to the Crossroads of the Galaxy

2010-07-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

My YA novel Crossroads of the Galaxy has just been published by Midnight Showcase Fiction in paperback, HTML and PDF formats--with, I might add, a gorgeous cover. This book is my tribute to the Heinlein juveniles and Andre Norton adventures I so enjoyed reading when I was growing up.

Young Alex Bredakoff always wanted to be a star trader. But it wasn't until his family moved to the Nexus space colony and he met Kasinda Venderling--daughter of a trader, and someone who's been plying the star lanes her entire life--that he realized how truly exciting--and dangerous--his life could become.

But when you're in a runaway starship with a kidnapped alien prince, flying straight into a sun, it's a little late to re-evaluate your options.

(You can read the first couple of chapters free online.)

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I'm also proud to announce that Books 3 and 4 of the Agents of ISIS series, Robot Mountain and Sanctuary Planet, are now out in paperback format. As usual, there are $2.00 off coupons if you buy them through Parsina Press.

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Some more excerpts from The Business of Being a Writer have also been reissued in ebook formats. If you're seriously interested in being a writer, you should look them up. Many people have complimented me on the helpful advice they contain.

Reformatted ebooks

2010-07-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

I just spent the day reformatting some of my ebooks. If you bought any of my books at Smashwords and found the formatting awkward on your erading device, please try downloading it again (you don't have to pay a second time) and let me know if there's been any improvement I want to provide my readers with the best reading experience possible.

Summer Ebook Sale

2010-07-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

During the month of July, I'm participating in Smashwords' Summer Sale. Nearly all my Parsina Press titles there will have coupons attached, giving you savings of from 25-100% off the normal price. This will be a great time to stock up on your summertime ereading!

Some of my works to look for are:

The Eternity Brigade
The Agents of ISIS series (all 10 books)
Alien Murders
Caravan
Herds
Angel in Black
The Star Rooks stories

And Not Make Dreams Your Master reprinted

2010-06-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

My novel And Not Make Dreams Your Master has just been reprinted by Midnight Showcase Fiction. This is a story set in the near future, when it's possible to broadcast Dreams directly into your mind while you're sleeping for the ultimate in personal adventure.

Wayne Corrigan is one of the people with the talent to create these Dreams--but when a mysterious malfunction occurs during another Dreamer's story, Wayne must go in and discover what's gone wrong--and rescue the tens of thousands of peoplein the audience frompossible death or insanity.

This was the book I dedicated explicitly to Robert Heinlein, and he even had nice things to say about it--though he was such a gentleman I'm sure he'd have found something positive to say even if he hated it. The title, BTW, is taken from Rudyard Kipling's If (which Heinlein recognized and appreciated). If you haven't read it yet, do so immediately. There will be a test.

Internet broadcast interview

2010-06-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

Mary and I are being interviewed Tuesday, June 15 on an Internet broadcast beginning at 5 pm Mountain Time by DJ/interviewer Mason Ramsey, who's a BIG fan of my book The Eternity Brigade. The topics will be science fiction and rock'n'roll/blues. If you miss any part of the interview, it's being repeated immediately after its first airing. I hope you'll listen in and enjoy!

Date: Tuesday, June 15
Time: 5 pm Mountain Time
Where: http://rockandrollheaven.net

Agents of ISIS series--1st 2 books now in paperback

2010-06-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

My space opera adventure series, Agents of ISIS--which previously was available only as ebooks--is starting to be released in trade paperback editions. The first two volumes, Tsar Wars and Treacherous Moon, are now available. The plan (and we all know how reliable plans are, don't we?) is to release two titles per month until the entire 10-volume series is in paperback form.

Set against the backdrop of an interstellar empire, the books relate the adventures of top agents for the Imperial Special Investigation Service as they work to preserve order within the galaxy against the forces of chaos. I had fun writing these books, and I hope you'll have even more fun reading them.

The Web site listed above has coupons for $2.00 off the list price for each title. Just a little more incentive.

Sad News

2010-05-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

Jeanne Robinson is gone. My thoughts are now all for Spider.

The Business of Being a Writer

2010-05-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

Published in 1982, before the widespread use of personal computers, the Internet, and electronic publishing, The Business of Being a Writer concentrated on writing and selling to the print media--books and magazines. Updated excerpts are now being reprinted in electronic formats on various topics--still focused on those primary areas, but still applicable to the current-day writer.

Theodore Sturgeon called The Business of Being a Writer "the second best reference book a writer can have, after the dictionary."

Harlan Ellison said, "It may not make you a better writer, but it will keep you from being a poorer one."

Isaac Asimov said, "Thank goodness! I am constantly being asked an infinity of questions about the writing business and can never answer coherently. Now I will stamp cards with a stamp that says: READ THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WRITER. IT WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING, CLEARLY AND INTERESTINGLY. Why on Earth didn't he write the book forty years ago when it would have done me some good?"

The excerpts currently available for purchase are:

A Career in Writing: This excerpt discusses finances, work habits, pen names, and other points an author should seriously consider before starting a career in writing.

Rights and Copyrights: This excerpt discusses the different kinds of rights an author can license, as well as the basic ins and outs of copyright law in the United States.

Even more excerpts are planned. Please stay tuned.

Parsina Saga now complete in trade paperback

2010-05-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

My Arabian Nights-style fantasy adventure Parsina Saga is now complete. As recounted here, the series has had a complicated publication history--but now, for the first time, all 4 volumes are available at once in a uniform paperback edition.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the saga occurs in a world of djinni in bottles, flying carpets and other exotic elements that I always found fascinating, yet which many contemporary fantasy books have completely ignored. The plot concerns a humble storyteller who, through bizarre circumstance, must pretend to be a mighty wizard and journey across the world to prevent the ultimate triumph of evil and, even more important to him, save his daughter from a tragic fate. Along the way he encounters a city of apes, an army of corpses, evil magicians, an underwater kingdom, a dragon demon, and other adventures that are too much fun to list here. I had fun writing the books, and I hope you;ll have at least as much fun reading them.

The 4 books are:

Shrine of the Desert mage
The Storyteller and the Jann
Crystals of Air and Water
Treachery of the Demon King

If you buy the paperback editions through my Parsina Press web site, you can get coupon codes worth $2.00 off the list price on each title. The books are also available in electronic format from E-Reads.

Fortune cookie wisdom

2010-05-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

I got a fortune cookie with my dinner last night: Your character is your destiny.

That's a frightening concept. I've got over 30 novels--literally hundreds of characters. Looking at it objectively, there are very, very few of them I would like to have as my destiny. Even Jade Darcy, whom I love to death, has had a very troubled and neurotic life. She's great to read about, but I'd hate to live it.

Maybe Herodotus Shapiro. He had a really shitty week just before the book started, but he got to spend a couple of days with Polly and ended up a friend of hers. Yeah, that's something I could definitely live with.

The Eternity Brigade in ebook formats

2010-05-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

I'm excited and proud to announce that the revised and updated version of The Eternity Brigade--which many people have told me is my finest stand-alone science fiction novel--is now available in multiple ebook formats. For my fans (and since you're reading this blog, you qualify), entering coupon code GK48G gives a discount of $2.00 off the list price. (The code is NOT case-sensitive, and it expires 2/28/2015.) You can even read the first half of the book for free just to make sure you like it. I hope you'll give it a try.

Herds Redux

2010-04-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

I've been spending the last few days proofreading an old novel of mine, Herds. In fact, it's my oldest novel, the first one I ever published.

(Not the first one I ever wrote, however. That one will probably never see the light of day. Literally. The manuscript is sitting in a box in a storage unit, and I'm not even sure I could lay hands on it, even if I wanted to. I think it's just to the left of the Lost Ark.)

It was published back in 1975, long before I even thought of having a computer. When I decided to publish some of my backlist as ebooks, I dug out the manuscript for Herds and scanned it in. I ran a spell check on it to make sure there were no embarrassing flaws, and then converted it to proper format.

A little while ago, though, I got a letter from a reader complaining about the state of the book. It seems the scan of the yellowing manuscript had played havoc with the punctuation, and there were some errors a spellchecker wouldn't catch ("feet" instead of "feel", for instance). So this week I actually bit the bullet and read the book.

I was prepared to be totally embarrassed by something I wrote nearly 30 years ago, and on that score I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were some things that I went into way too much detail on, some things I treated way too simplistically, and I overlooked a number of other things out of ignorance. As a big fan of CSI, my forensic details left a lot to be desired--but DNA wasn't part of a forensic toolkit back then, either. And I did tackle some ethical issues I'm rather proud I thought of. So, on the whole, it wasn't as bad an experience as I'd feared.

I'm also trying an experiment. I've lowered the price on some of my self-published ebooks (Herds included) to $1.99 on the recommendation of another author who credits pricing as a key to success. We'll see if that has any effect. The ebooks with reduced pricing include Herds, Caravan, Alien Murders and several others.

"Would You Look At My Novel?", Part Deux

2010-04-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

One of the most awkward instances of this phenomenon occurred a number of years ago. At the time, my congressional district was represented by a very powerful, very corrupt Republican. Because he was so entrenched, and a committee chairman, the Democrats didn't even bother putting up a candidate in the primary election for that position. A very nice guy in the district--with a graduate degree in mathematics and a career in wind power technology--decided this was wrong, and wanted to run against him...but the filing date for the primary had already passed, so he had to conduct a write-in campaign. Our district covers parts of 3 counties, and at the first results he apparently didn't get enough votes to get on the November ballot. He challenged the count in all 3 counties, and ended up making it.

I hadn't heard of him before, but I read about this in the paper and admired him enough to want to help. I met him and found him to be an intelligent, earnest and dedicated man. When he learned I was a writer, he hesitantly asked me to look at his novel and...well, wanting to do something for this nice guy, I agreed.

I only got about 1 chapter into it. It as not well written, it scattered all over the place, it lacked focus. Fortunately for me, I never had to tell him this. He got caught up in the election, and he never had the time to get back to me.

He lost the general election--but with no real party backing, no funds, no strong organization, running in a conservative district, he still polled 39% The Democratic Party sat up and took notice.

I fell out of touch with him and moved. My new residence is now just over the line in another district.

Two years later, the guy ran again. This time, with better funding, better organization, full Democratic support, and the endorsement of a former Republican congressman who was disgusted by the incumbent's blatant corruption, he actually won by a comfortable margin. The incumbent was the only committee chairman to get knocked off. My man is now in his 3rd term despite being #3 on Karl Rove's hit list and the target of some vicious Republican smear tactics and name-calling. He's the only mathematician in Congress, and someone with actual hands-on experience in the recyclable energy field.

I'm very glad he's there...and just as glad that the time-consuming duties of a diligent Congressman keep him away from writing any more novels.

"Would You Look At My Novel?"

2010-04-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Six words calculated to strike terror in a writer's heart.

This was brought to mind last night as I watched an episode of Medium, one of my guilty pleasures. The boss of the heroine's husband asked the husband to look over his 900+ page manuscript and let him know his honest opinion, holding nothing back. Even though the husband wasn't a writer, metaphorical alarm bells went off in his head--as well they should.

Every writer gets asked for this "favor" now and then, and there are few gracious ways out of it. With a total stranger, you can always try the excuse that you're too busy--but the closer the person is to you, the harder it is to turn them down. And you know going in that this is a losing proposition, because the odds are vastly in favor of the book being terrible. And the louder the person insists you should be candid and brutal, the more they're expecting you to shower them with praise.

There's no good answer. They'll either get their feelings hurt or, if you're really unlucky, they'll play the game I call Yes-But. "Your hero is unlikable," I say. "Yes, but I'm trying to make him an anti-hero."..."I don't believe these relationships." "Yes, but I'm trying to show how dysfunctional they are."..."You can't write a coherent English sentence." "Yes, but I'm experimenting with a new prose style."

I've opted to give people what they say they want--brutal honesty. The writing biz is tough, and they'd better learn it as quickly as possible. Famed writer/director Joshua Logan once said, "It anything can dissuade you from a career in the theater, let it." The same applies to writing.

Better Late Than Never

2010-04-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

Because my eyesight is deteriorating, I don't actually read books much any more. Instead, I'm learning the joys of audiobooks--and fortunately my county library system has a good collection.

As a result, I just finished The daVinci Code. I'd seen the movie, so the surprise twist wasn't a surprise to me. The movie wasn't as comprehensible as it should have been, either, because my eyesight doesn't do well with subtitles--but so much of the book was told in exposition and flashback that no movie could have done it justice.

I found the book well-told and thoroughly enjoyable. As an atheist, I couldn't help liking the mocking of religion, too. I'm often leery of best-sellers, but this one truly deserved all the success it got. I never get mad when a good writer succeeds.

(One interesting thing on the audiobook version. The actor doing the narration did the voice of the British Grail scholar as a perfect rendition of Peter O'Toole--although the way the character is described physically is a lot more like Robert Morley.)

Name Change

2010-04-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

It’s oft been said it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. Since I’m a firm believer in equality of the sexes, that makes it a man’s prerogative, too.

So…I’m changing the name of my new blog to The Ingesterie, after the restaurant/bar where Jade Darcy works as a bouncer (although I hope I won’t need her special skills to maintain order here). I hope it becomes as popular a meeting place as the Ingesterie on Cablans is.

A Renaissance Spring

2010-04-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

I feel almost like things are exploding, and new possibilities can be found under every bush. Some of the things that have been happening so far::

I published all 10 books in my "Agents of ISIS" space opera decalogy as ebooks. I'm even getting some good feedback on them.
I finished the major update/revision of my most important stand-alone sf book, The Eternity Brigade. The new edition is now available in trade paperback format.
18 of my ebook titles were available in Apple's iBookstore by April 3, in time for the premiere of the new iPad. I've since added a 19th title. All those proud new iPad owners now have access to my books.
I published Angel in Black as an ebook, a collection of 5 of my hard-to-find fantasy short stories.
The first 2 books of my Arabian Nights-style fantasy Parsina Saga--Shrine of the Desert Mage and The Storyteller and the Jann--have just been issued as trade paperbacks.

And that's not all. Coming up in the next few months:

The new version of The Eternity Brigade will shortly be released in ebook formats as well.
The remaining 2 volumes of the Parsina Saga--Crystals of Air and Water and Treachery of the Demon King--will also be released in trade paperback in May. This will be the first time all 4 volumes will be available in uniform paper editions at the same time.
Two of my earlier novels--And Not Make Dreams Your Master and Crossroads of the Galaxy--will be reissued this spring by Midnight Showcase Fiction.
Parsina Press will start issuing the Agents of ISIS books in trade paperback editions, probably 2 per month until they're all available

And who know what other surprises may wait in store. Please stay tuned.