You can find the ebook on sale at Amazon, B&N, KOBO and Smashwords.

Update 6:30am on Tuesday — Still #1 in Cyberpunk, #5 in Technothrillers and #28 overall in Science Fiction.

I love, love, love the new cover.  Rachel really knocked it out of the park on this one (and for the series rebranding).  While I have some favorite covers, this one might be my favorite right now.

Heirs of Alexandria (Book Two of the Alexandrian Saga)

For 300 years it was believed Alexander the Great had no heir.

The Roman armada descends on Alexandria. Friends flee, allies bicker, and foes multiply in the night. The fragile city-state teeters on the brink of annihilation. As the naval blockade looms and palace intrigue thickens, Heron must find the heir of Alexander the Great or nothing will stop the Romans from overrunning the wondrous city.

The story can be found at Amazon, B&N, KOBO, Smashwords or other online retailers in ebook format for $8.99 or at Amazon in paperback for $19.99.

The Sky Mother’s Gift

When religions spread like computer viruses, even atheists have to take notice.

An old enemy seizes control of the newly expanded Wiki-religion to create a new world order. To stop him, Zel must join forces with a mega-celebrity doing penance and an orphan girl out for revenge. However, mired on a thawing city in Greenland, she cannot just use her considerable powers to bend reality and fix the problem. Instead, she must turn her greatest weakness – understanding people – into a strength or doom the planet to endless religious war.

The audiobook can be purchased on Audible, Amazon, or iTunes for $19.95 (and currently discounted on Amazon for $17.46.)

The Digital Sea was the first book I published, almost two years to the day.  I started writing that book almost two years before that.  So I’ve been writing and thinking about this character for almost four years.  As a flawed and powerful woman, she has a special place in my heart.

Rather than indulge in any more maudlin prose, I’ll move on to the sales pitch.  Neochrome Aurora takes all your favorite characters from book one and book two, and throws them into the maelstrom of a world ecosystem collapsing.  There’s action, there might be quantums humming coldly in the dark, and there most certainly will be love–misguided and tragic as only Zel Aurora can experience.

It’s been a long four years, I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.  Sometime in the future, I might have a few more stories about Zel when I’m done writing about my other worlds, but for now, enjoy the last book of the trilogy: Neochrome Aurora.

A city-destroying sand storm approaches Beijing. A man-made plague of empty realities consumes rich and poor alike. War clouds gather on the plains of Africa. As the climate spirals towards a tipping point, factions position themselves for a radically changed world. 

When Zel Aurora embarks on a journey to help the Quicksilver Spider discover his beginnings, she uses the adventure to teach her girls life lessons. But when a digital sea plague invades the idyllic Louisiana estate, Zel cannot ignore the world’s decent into chaos any longer. Now Zel is faced with a terrible choice: risk her daughters as she goes after an old foe, or leave a friend to die.

The novel can be found at Amazon, B&N, KOBO, and Smashwords in ebook form for $7.99 or paperback for $17.99.

Two points for brushing your teeth. Ten points for keeping your room tidy. Seventy-two points for the Bioeconomic Game Design pop quiz on the ride to school in your personal FunCar. Another thirty for making every hurdle in gym class. 

Life is a game, unless you’re not the one winning.

Gabby DeCorte, top student and reality-hacker extraordinaire, has been doing whatever it takes to keep her best friend, Zaela, from falling behind in LifeGame. Zaela has gifts of artistry that amaze Gabby, but none of those skills translate in LifeGame and with final exams coming up, they can’t afford to waste a single minute. But when a mysterious group called the Frags contacts Gabby claiming to know what really happens to the losers of LifeGame, she must choose between winning and what she believes in.

The free book can be found on Kindle, B&N, Sony, and Smashwords.  Enjoy!

Maybe I’ll hire her to do a Minecraft movie of my books next.

Last year we put out The Cageless Zoo and it had a great run, including a one week stint on the Science Fiction/Adventure best seller list on Amazon and top 25 of all science fiction titles.  Sales were obviously great, but we were never happy with the cover.  Not that it was bad, per se, but it really didn’t do the story justice.

Flash forward to now.  With a couple of years of cover design experience under her belt, my lovely and talented wife, Rachel, updated the cover for The Cageless Zoo.  The results speak for themselves.  I’ll put both covers here for comparison.

I want to point out a particularly lovely aspect of the new cover.  If you look into the eye of the beastie, you can see the reflection of a dome from the zoo.  A suburb little detail that makes the cover work while not being too obvious.

Here’s the link to the story if the new cover so inclines you to purchase it–The Cageless Zoo.  The story can be purchased for $2.99 at most major online retailers and in audiobook for $5.95.

The second cover on today’s docket is The Lorieme Job.

This novelette is set in The Digital Sea universe and is a good prequel story if the The Digital Sea interests you.

Breaking into an impenetrable alpine fortress. Double-crossing a dangerous friend. Stealing the world’s most illegal substance because you’re bored.

Just another day in the life of the world’s most talented – and dysfunctional – reality thief. But this time Zel Aurora may learn her abilities have limits.

The story can also be found at most major retailers, including Amazon, for $2.99.

And if you like the new covers, please leave a comment and I’ll pass it along to my lovely wife.  We egotistical writers always hog the spotlight, so it’s nice to showcase the cover designer from time to time (especially when it’s my wife!)

None of those can quite capture how I felt after the four wonderful days at the 2012 Worldcon, or Chicon 7, in Chicago.  Surrounded by other fans and writers, passing gorgeous handmade costumes in the hallways, sitting in interesting panels led by bestsellers and Grand Masters, staying up late at the various parties–it was almost too much at times.  I’m serious about that last point.  Every moment was so jam packed with awesomeness, I had to go up to my room on occasion just to get a breather before jumping back in with both feet.

The best part of Worldcon was meeting people, either by plan or by accident.  Some I’d been chatting with on various writer forums for years, or I’d published in Mirror Shards.  Others I met by chance while waiting in line, or through introductions.

I had the pleasure of meeting Hugh Howey, author of the fantastic Wool series.  Not only was he a super all-around nice guy, but he had interesting insights about the current state of the publishing industry that made me stop and think on more than one occasion.  I even found his omnibus version of Wool in the dealer room and after reading the first few pages, I knew I had to read the rest of the story!  It was obvious to me even from those couple of pages why he’s a bestseller and why Ridley Scott has optioned his movie.

It was also a chance to see old friends like Annie Bellet, who was kind enough to introduce me to her Clarionaut and SWFA friends.  She’s got a new collection of stories out with a gorgeous cover on the front.  It’s also chalk full of stories you can’t put down.

As much as this was a working trip, it was also a chance to be a fan.  I got books signed by George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss, and almost got to meet Neil Gaiman (a story for another time).  I wandered the dealer room on more than one occasion and found books to add to my teetering TBR pile.

On Sunday night, I attended the Hugo ceremony, which was expertly hosted by John Scalzi.  I think he could do really well as a YouTube talk show host.  It was great seeing friends and people I’d met during the Con up for awards.  Congratulations to Ken Liu for winning the short story Hugo for The Paper Menagerie and condolences to Brad Torgersen and Nancy Fulda and the other nominees from all categories.  I loved all of your stories, but unfortunately, they all can’t win.

Throughout the con, I attended many panels, and enjoyed each one for different reasons.  I took away many learning points and here are a few:

• Indie publishing has reached a higher level of acceptance.  Many panelists talked about it and I didn’t hear one instance of disagreement about its importance and promenance.
• If you’re sitting on a panel, do NOT spend your time talking about your novels.  It just looks bad and doesn’t garner any new fans.  Honestly, it strikes me as desperate and similar to spamming Facebook or Twitter about your books every two hours.  Acceptable practice is to mention your books once during your introduction and maybe again at the end.  Any more than that is spam.
• No one can agree on the best length for science fiction and fantasy though everyone has an opinion.
• Most legacy publishers still don’t understand the tools available to indie writers, or available to themselves to make their businesses thrive in this new enviroment.  The ignorance, in a few cases, is sadly stunning.
• Having any kind of success in this profession doesn’t guarantee anything or make you feel better.  Each new level comes with its own set of problems, so your best bet is to focus on your process and keep writing.

So that’s a brief report of Chicon 7.  I can’t say that report was even half of what happened during the con, because honestly, the week was so jam packed, I keep remembering little things that happened along the way (like the two hour conversation I had with a couple of fans in the Tor party room, or seeing Darth Vader and his stormtroopers walk through our impromptu writer’s workshop and having Hugh Howey yell “Force choke me!”, or hearing about my fellow WOTF forum regular Martin Shoemaker’s sale to Analog).

So friends, fans, fellow writers—it was great to see you, meet you, admire your costume, or even just attend the same con together.  Hopefully we’ll do it again sooner rather than later.  And here’s to hoping that next time I’m not dropping my stuff off in my room when introductions to Neil Gaiman are being made.

So if you’re up for a technothriller based in the near-future, look no further than The Digital Sea.

It’s 2052. A new reality is just a download away.

Decay is ubiquitious as the world’s population shrinks under Sagan’s Law. But no one cares, as their lives are consumed by the Digital Sea: an immersive augmented reality that’s always on, seen through eye-screens and controlled by the mind. Zel Aurora, a skilled reality-hacker, can change the Digital Sea with a thought, but all that power can’t save her daughter from a deadly disease. So Zel makes a deal with the Djed, a powerful crime lord that she’s betrayed once before, to stop the new realities threatening his global empire. When the Djed sends along his murderous bodyguard that’s immune to her powers to make sure she completes the job, she’s forced to make a choice that may cost her daughter’s life.

The Audible audiobook can be purchased for $19.95.  Will be available on iTunes and Amazon by the end of August.

And here’s a little flavor of my favorite heroine, Zel Aurora:

“…she’s in your head and you don’t notice…”