I’m please to announce the second book in The Digital Sea trilogy — The Godhead Machine.  This one takes up a couple of years after the first book, when life has seemingly settled down for our favorite heroine Zel Aurora.  Here’s the back cover blurb:

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 novel can be purchased by e-book at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords for $4.99, or as a paperback for $14.95.

I’ve had strong feelings about this story since the moment I conceived it.  Seeing readers enjoy what I so lovingly crafted makes my heart soar.  In the last few days sales of The Cageless Zoo have really taken off.  It’s a science fiction novella for $0.99 that one reader said: “I am not much of a fan of sci-fi but this would make one cool movie.”

There’s a host of other quotes and I really appreciate the readers that stopped by to express their feelings about the story.  It helps remind me why I’m doing this in the first place–the readers.

And readers must be enjoying it because right now it’s #5 (or was this morning) on the sci-fi short story list and climbing on a few others.  It’s only a buck and worth the thirty minutes of your time for an enjoyable read.  And for those fans that hope that it will someday be a full-length novel, I intend to do that after I finish a few of my trilogies.  Stay tuned and pick up one of my novels while you wait.

One major allure of writing near-future science fiction novels is that the technology is right over the horizon.  So near you can almost reach out and grab it with your ape-like hands make magic happen.  Every year the technology that makes up the collective writings about augmented reality I call “The Digital Sea” moves closer and closer to reality.  After watching this video, I felt like the technology had taken another huge step forward.  It’s not commercially available yet, but it’s certainly possible.

And if that video intrigues you, stop by Amazon and pick up a copy of The Digital Sea or Gamers.

I find it hard to believe that the year is halfway over, but I guess I’ve been so busy it’s hard to keep track of the time. I rarely lament having nothing to do. Usually, I’m crying about not having enough time to get everything I want done.

But rather than do that today, I’d like to spend a moment to review what I have accomplished in the first half of the year.  This serves as more than just selfish trumpeting of deeds.  As my wife knows, I beat myself up about my self-imposed tasks too often, adding stress when none is necessary.  It’s time to take stock and, for a brief moment, enjoy what I’ve done.  Plus, it’s my birthday tomorrow.  :)

My word count goal for the year was 250,000 words.  As of today, I stand at 165,003, which is about 65,000 words above goal.  That 165k word count includes one and a half novels and a half-dozen short stories.  I’ve sat down to write on 70% of the days during the year, which usually translates to about five days a week.

I’ve received well over fifty rejections from various magazine markets.  I don’t feel like counting the exact number and it doesn’t mean as much to me as it used to.  Before it was a nice way to know if I was getting myself out there.  Now I’d like to start seeing some sales, primarily with the Writers of the Future contest.  That one sale would be worth ten of the others.

On publishing, my plan has been to get six novels and one anthology online (not including a host of short stories.)  So far I have two with a third coming this week.  I’ve published The Digital Sea and Gamers.  Later this week, I will be publishing my historical fiction novel – Fires of Alexandria.  It’s a book that will cast a wide net when it comes to potential readership and I know it’s my best work to date.

I’m also working on publishing an anthology about augmented reality called Mirror Shards.  I’ve already bought a number great stories from professionals and neo-pros alike.  The deadline is this Friday, July 8th.  Once all the stories are in, I’ll pick the final few that will join the others and decide which will be the Gold Award, getting full pro pay.  It’s going to be a difficult decision.

Writing-wise, I’m finishing up the second book in the Digital Sea trilogy: The Godhead Machine.  When I complete the novel in a few weeks, it’ll be my ninth one.  The first three will never see the light of day, but the others are published or waiting to be published.  After I get that and a few short stories complete, I’ll move onto book two of the Gamers Trilogy: Frags.  My daughter, Zoe, can’t wait for me to complete that one.

So the first half of the year has been hell-bent and chalk-full of writerly work.  The second half will prove to be just as busy and I hope, just as successful.  While I can only control what I write, submit and publish, I do hope to see a few more boons in sales, and hopefully, success in the WOTF contest.  Here’s to a good second half of the year, and may yours be as well.

The blog has been pretty quiet these last few weeks, but for good reason.  I had to work pretty feverishly to get the print-on-demand version of Gamers ready for proofing before we left for vacation.  Since my wife and I have been back, we’ve been fixing the problems that surfaced in the proof.  The bad part is those issues were in the ebook versions of the novel on release.  The good news is fixing them is simple and quick and I’ve already updated the published ebook versions.

The print-on-demand version still needs another proofing, but I think we’ve got everything fixed.  The lesson learned from this book is to wait until the proof arrives before releasing the ebook versions.  Seeing the words in book format brings out problems that my editor, copy editor or myself didn’t catch.   Plus, I identified a few of the items as errors introduced when fixing problems brought to light by my copy editor.  The POD version of Gamers should be available in a few weeks and I’ll be adding the additional steps to future publications to ensure a better product.

I’m also planning on an educational version of the book for use at book clubs or classrooms with questions and additional material at the end.  While the novel is a good entertaining read for young adults, the underlining theme relates to our current education system and how we learn in general.  I’m not providing the answers, since I don’t know them myself, but since we’ve spent the last few years homeschooling our children and making many adjustments to their teaching, I feel my wife and I have a good idea of what the questions are.  But that won’t be ready until later in the summer.  Hopefully right before school is ready to start.

In other news, I’ve been interviewed by Snell’s Scoops about the Mirror Shards Anthology.  If you haven’t seen on Ralan’s or somewhere else, I’ve increased the bottom rate of pay to $0.02/word.  So far the stories coming in at a decent pace.  If you’re interested in getting your story in the anthology, the deadline is July 8th of this year.

Writers are like mothers.  They claim that they love each of their children the same, except they really have a secret favorite they love slightly more than the rest.  While I love all my stories, this story, The Cageless Zoo, is the one secretly give extra treats to when the others aren’t looking.

You can find this story at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords for $0.99:

Visiting the galaxy’s only Cageless Zoo should be a special treat for Melandre and her children. Except she’s still trying to reckon with her husband’s recent death and how she’s going to raise two highly independent children on her own. As their visit quickly falls to chaos, Melandre learns that family is the only thing left she has to rely on.

Since the publication of The Digital Sea back in January, I’ve been rather busy.  I finished the first draft of my alt-history novel The Fires of Alexandria, gotten my YA speculative fiction novel Gamers ready for publication (hopefully to be released in a week) and started on book two for The Digital Sea trilogy – The Godhead Machine.  The second book in the series was actually half done from last year.  I had switched to a different project to get ready for a workshop.  But getting back to the TDS world reminds me how much I enjoy writing about Zel Aurora.  And I’m sorry to say, as always, I’m putting her through hell.

Being so busy allows little time for promotion.  But that’s okay as I’m a firm believer in the Dean Wesley Smith idea that writing more good books sells books.  I have allowed myself to submit The Digital Sea to few review sites, but beyond that, I’ve been focused on writing the next novel.  So far, the reviews have been quite nice and sales are exactly where I expected them to be, which pleases me greatly.

Here are the reviews I’ve received so far with the essence of the text repeated here for ease:

The New Podler Review of Books

“Besides Zel, there are several other characters that figure prominently in the story. I wondered how well Carpenter was going to tie their individual storylines together, but he pulled it off. Even though he shifts around a lot, at no point did I forget who any of them were. Carpenter deftly shapes and defines all of his characters, providing us with a diverse group. He deserves credit for writing a story where one major character is an amputee and another suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, yet neither falls prey to stereotypes.”

Literary R&R

“From the beginning to the end, The Digital Sea dragged you into its depths and drowned you with a futuristic reality that threatened to overload your senses. With its action-packed storyline, it will keep the reader turning page after page until the end. I would recommend this story to anyone who appreciates future-based story lines mixed with surrealism.”

TicToc Reviews

“In the Digital Sea, Thomas Carpenter has put together an extreme technological futuristic thriller. Fast paced, the action keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is important to follow the action closely because every part has a reason. The interplay is amazingly intricate. Because of the scope of the novel, the characters are numerous. Mr. Carpenter has put together an amazing group of characters, and tied them together with verve.”

If those reviews intrigued you, The Digital Sea is available for purchase at Amazon in ebook ($4.99) or paperback ($14.99).

Bruce Sterling is wrong about Augmented Reality.

First off, I want to express that I have the utmost respect for Bruce Sterling as both a writer and a visionary.  As a longtime fan of cyberpunk and science fiction in general, Bruce has been a part of the pantheon of authors I regularly visit.  And as a writer, I study his stories so I can improve my practice of the craft.  Just last week I was reading his story “Our Neural Chernobyl” in the teaching anthology Paragons and was blown away by his ability to tell a thrilling story devoid of characters and plot and subsisting entirely of theme.  Bruce is a true master of the craft of writing.

But on the subject of augmented reality being a subject of literary endeavours, I believe, and will attempt to prove in this article, that Bruce Sterling is wrong.

Last week, in an always entertaining interview from Tish Shute and Ori Inbar on UgoTrade, Bruce Sterling stated that: “I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense to write fiction nowadays “about AR,” because it’s no longer a fictional topic. It’s become like writing fiction “about cinema.” You can write good fiction about someone who works in cinema, but not fiction about cinema itself. AR is not sci-fi “Augmented Reality” any more, it’s become a real-world phenomenon, a new industry of real augmentation..”

As I understand it, his basic argument is that because augmented reality is a real technology now and not just a fictional – though probable – idea, that it is not a worthy subject for writing fiction about.  And when we say “about,” we can probably assume that Bruce doesn’t just mean that AR cannot be a part of a story.  More so that the story cannot be an exploration of the idea of augmented reality, because the idea already exists as a tangible product that one purchases and uses and therefore there is nothing to explore when anyone can visit.

Or said another way, science fiction is about exploring the possibilities presented by technology in relation to the human condition.  If that possibility has become an actuality, then what is left to explore?

So there’s where I will begin my counter-argument.  With the assertion that augmented reality has become, excuse the redundancy, a reality.  What we’re seeing currently in the marketplace and even in the research domains are nascent attempts at creating the experience of augmented reality.

Often when we’re speaking of the true potentials of augmented reality, we’re using words like immersive and ubiquitous.  The artifices are data shades and eye-screens in the form of contacts.  The data stream is superfluous and overwhelming.  We have none of these things currently.

What we are seeing in the marketplace and in the research labs are gimmicks and toys and games.  We have many examples of AR that stir the imagination.  I, for one, have been promoting these applications of AR for many years now.  But is AR a technology that has truly changed the way we work and play and live our lives?   Not at all.  The yellow line in an NFL game is the most common way that AR has touched the masses.

And once a technology becomes reality, why should science fiction cease to care about it?  I speak not about technology as a prop or the furniture of the story (to use a term by George RR Martin), but to write about the story as it revolves around the technology, changing people’s lives by their use of it and thus showing the technology through the lens of human behavior.

I also believe that AR is still a relevant focus for science fiction because AR is not a simple tool, it is a whole new medium for the transfer and dissemination of information.

The nearest and probably most obvious comparison is virtual reality.  VR at its best was a destination and a substituite for the real world.  VR has always been a difficult sell to the masses and a narrow niche best populated by the niche groups that could take advantage of its morphology with the best example being the furries in Second Life.

AR differs from VR in the same way that the national highway system differs from a late-night Denny’s.  AR, as a new medium of information transfer, will change our daily lives, while VR was a place to escape from reality.

I’m not suggesting here, that Bruce was arguing that AR and VR are the same.  But I think illustrating the differences helps explain why AR is a new medium rather than just a new technology that will change people’s lives in varied and profound ways, so it cannot be dismissed as a topic for fiction just because I can swat invisible mosquitoes on my iPhone.  We’ve barely scratched the surface (or multi-touched it.)

The magic of humanity’s rise through the evolutionary brackets has been from its superior ability to communicate information.  The greatest of game changing technologies have always been the ones related to medium: spoken language, written language, printing press, radio, television, the Internet and now augmented reality.

The wonder of AR is that we’re taking these high powered computers we carry in our pockets and the gargantuan mountains of information stored on clouds and hard drives and attaching them to the moments and locations we need them.

As a fifteen year employee of Toyota, I can assure you the key ingredient to the Toyota Production System that has changed industries worldwide, is the ability to get the right information to the right people at the right time.  It all comes down to that.

And that’s a major reason why I believe that AR is still ripe as a topic for science fiction.  As a medium for information, it can be used as more than just a travelling on-the-spot wikipedia.  Augmented reality invites both the viewing, but the creation and collecting of new information.

AR is also paradoxically about the efficiency of human action in relation to usable data and the avoidance of reality in the form of pictures and graphics.  AR is more than just data to find the best routes to the local Starbucks.  It’s also seeing your local street corner as a property in a city wide game of Monopoly.

The best mediums, like television and the Internet, both instruct and destroy.  Information can be additive and in the same breath addictive.  If only Philip K. Dick were alive, he would have a lot to say about AR (and in some ways, he already has.)

Lastly, I say that AR can be a topic of science fiction as a writer–though I am no where near the stature of Bruce Sterling, nor have even the slightest twinkle of his legacy.  Instead, I offer my own experiences as proof and that I am interested in AR so much that I’ve written three books, have another three in the planning, and am producing an anthology this summer–all about AR.  I’m putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

And Bruce might respond that the ability to do something is not the same as that it should be done.

Which is a valid point.  How can one decide if AR is still worthy to be written about?  Is it based on awards?  Vernor Vinge won the Hugo for Rainbows End, the only book about AR that I’m aware of besides my own.  But that was four years ago in 2007.  Have any other books about AR even been written in that time?

A couple of years ago, I collected with Bruce’s help, the totality of writings about AR at the time.  I’m sure we missed some stories and books, but most of them used AR in only a tangential way–more of a neat toy or a furniture, rather than exploring how AR changed people’s lives.

Then should sales be the deciding factor on if AR should be written about?  If readers aren’t interested in purchasing it, then its time has come and gone.  But once again, we’re presented with too little data.  Even myself, at this time, have only one indie published book about the subject and too little sales data to mean anything.

And maybe that’s why it cannot be said that AR as a topic for science fiction has already played out.  We don’t know yet as there isn’t enough data.  As a logical thinker and a visionary, I think Bruce would respect that.  In fact, Bruce states in this article that: “any good futurist is a historian.”  We have so little history on AR as an impact to human life.

I also suggest that we shouldn’t be in a practice of talking about things that shouldn’t done (minus the obvious ethical and moral cases.)  Who’s to say that every nook and cranny of any science-fiction topic has been thoroughly explored? Even well-known cave systems have uncovered new sections long after the “experts” have marked it off the list.

So I say that augmented reality should be a topic for science fiction writing for years to come, and not just as an about, but also as a backdrop for other stories.  The medium is just too rich and varied to be ignored.

Last Note – I considered whether or not I should post this for a few days, deciding if I had written it for conflict’s sake, or if I truly had a constructive argument.  My conclusion, as you can obviously see, was to post.  Conflict for the sake of conflict is pointless and serves only the look-at-me type of blog poster sometimes found on the Internet today.  Constructive conflict that instructs the arguer and hopefully the reader, and maybe even convinces the counter-arguer to reconsider their point, is worth the conflict.  And since I felt I learned from writing this piece, in the end I should share it.  And besides, writing posts that no one reads, even if they are a constructive argument, is like arguing alone and in the dark.  Sure, you’re arguing, but in the end, you’re still alone and in the dark.

One of the perks of being a writer is being friends with other writers.  I often get to read novels and stories before they’re published and cheer them on when they are.  The writers I regularly chat with about the craft and business of writing are a talented and diverse bunch.

Because I like to share good writing with others, I asked them to share their best stories with me, so I could share them with you.  There are bestsellers and award winners in the bunch, so don’t be shy about picking one and downloading it.  The links are for eReaders, but the novels typically have a paper version on the link if that’s more your speed.

The e-versions are priced friendly, so if you see a description that sounds intriguing, download a sample and try it out.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll find a new favorite author.

Dropouts

Sci-fi short story by Terry Hayman for $0.99

For Howard, it was supposed to be a simple vacation, a long-promised flight to Paris with the family. But then things started to go wrong in ways that made no damned sense at all.

Attack of the Lushites

Novel by Russ Crossley for $2.99

In this thrilling, adventure-laden, grease-stained, booze-soaked comedy spanning the galaxy of tomorrow, two unlikely heroes find each other as they struggle to save addiction for all human and alien kind.

BEYOND JUSTICE

Novel by Joshua Graham for $3.99

THE DESCENT INTO HELL IS NOT ALWAYS VERTICAL…

Sam Hudson, a reputable San Diego attorney, learns this when the authorities wrongfully convict him of the brutal rape and murder of his wife and daughter, and sends him to death row. There he awaits execution by lethal injection.

If he survives that long.

In prison, Sam fights for his life while his attorney works frantically on his appeal. It is then that he embraces the faith of his departed wife and begins to manifest supernatural abilities. Abilities which help him save lives– his own, those of his unlikely allies–and uncover the true killer’s identity, unlocking the door to his exoneration.

Now a free man, Sam’s newfound faith confronts him with the most insurmountable challenge yet. A challenge beyond vengeance, beyond rage, beyond anything Sam believes himself capable of: to forgive the very man who murdered his family, according to his faith. But this endeavor reveals darker secrets than either Sam or the killer could ever have imagined. Secrets that hurtle them into a fateful collision course.

BEYOND JUSTICE, a tale of loss, redemption, and the power of faith.

A Monument More Lasting Than Brass

Short story by Steven Mohan, Jr. for $0.99

It is a fact of history that when Neil Armstrong set Apollo 11 down on the moon he was running dangerously low on fuel. This Pushcart Prize-nominated story recounts an alternate history in which the lunar module crashed and man’s journey to the moon ended not in triumph–but tragedy. A decade later, a pair of astronauts finally return to the moon.

And what they’ll find is something no one expects.

Lightning of Her Own

Novel by Levi Montgomery for $4.99

When the aliens landed seventy-two years ago, the first thing they did was turn off the power.

Then they ran for the hills.

The aliens themselves killed very few people, but riots, looting, disease, natural disasters and the sheer brutality of a harsh life that no one had lived for generations have reduced the population of Earth to a few tiny handfuls, scattered among the abandoned ruins of a lost civilization. Now word has come to Amarylla’s father, the chief civil engineer of the Federal Republic of New York, that an unknown man in the far northern plains may hold the key to turning the lights back on.

But when Amarylla sets out with her father to find this mysterious man, she is a just young girl whose life has been filled with operas and riding lessons and needlework, a young girl schooled only in the history of fashion, classical philosophers, and the proper navigation of knives and forks at a state diner. A young girl totally unprepared for the raw edges of life beyond the walls, totally unprepared for the closeness of a young guard named Marlowe, totally unprepared for danger.

Can she become what she needs to be? Can she learn what she needs to know? Can she grow up in time, or will this alien dystopia kill her?

The Hands of God

Novel by Gerald M. Weinberg for $4.99

How would you live if you lost your hands? Could you feed and clean yourself? Dress yourself, or even tie your shoes?

Orphaned Pamela compensates for her missing hands by developing an extraordinary ability to visualize and predict patterns. When she uses
this ability to pick winning horses, she becomes entangled with bookies and gangs.

When she uses it to save the lives of young leukemia victims, her runaway guardian returns to sell her into virtual slavery to a giant
medical corporation. Now she must choose between new hands for herself or new lives for hundreds of leukemia victims.

Scream Angel

Novelette by Douglas Smith for $1.99

The Angels–a race of aliens, enslaved by the Merged Corporate Entity, milked for the Scream they produce, an addictive drug that turns sorrow to joy, pain to pleasure, horror to ecstacy. A soldier on Scream won’t just kill–they’ll revel in it. Trelayne is such a soldier. MCE thinks they control him because they control his Scream. But they never counted on him falling in love with an Angel.
2004 Aurora Award WINNER
2004 Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror honorable mention

The Traveler: Voices and Echoes

Mindprint

Short Story by Randy Tatano for $0.99

In the future fingerprints have been replaced with “mindprints”…brainwaves that are recorded 24/7 by a master computer that tracks your every move. It creates what should be a foolproof justice system. But when Public Defender Will Beckett finds a flaw and threatens to expose it, he becomes a target and is framed for murder. Will he be able to save his life by outwitting the master computer?

Lightspeed

Novel by Jill Morrison for $2.99

In the early days of a very close future, where everyone is rigged bionically to the Net, Owen Bland is on his way to Vegas, a place inhabited by the obscenely wealthy and the obscenely poor. He has taken a job as a tutor, escaping his savage boarding school life. His employer, Evelyn Sales, is beautiful, rich and brilliant. As Bland comes to love this complicated woman, he finds himself drawn into the terrible secret she cannot leave behind.

Bubba Goes for Broke

Green Grow the Rushes

Weird Wild West Short Story by L. M. May for $0.99

Lachlan is tempted to bargain with a lake demon for the gold he needs in order to marry the woman of his dreams. But a demon’s gold always comes at a terrible price. A Weird Wild West short story set in late 1870s Colorado.

Death by Chocolate

Novella by DeAnna Knippling for $2.99

Ellie can’t see it, but she’s a saint. A good girl who takes care of her Grandie at the nursing home, recycles other people’s trash, and worries about getting her loans out on time so she doesn’t inconvenience her customers.

It’s too much for the Devil to resist: is Ellie good, or is she just boring? He makes her a deal. She can be thin, pretty, and immortal…as long as she doesn’t eat chocolate. Ever. If she does, she’s going straight to Hell.

Except Ellie doesn’t like chocolate, so he better find something—or someone—better to tempt her with. Then the bad boy at the top of Ellie’s sexual bucket list appears. Coincidence? Probably not.

Dark Matters

Novel by Ryan M. Williams for $4.99

Brock Marsden. A genetically-modified private detective who solves the toughest cases on a world populated by a mix of humans and aliens.
Like this one. A young woman, Chrissy Winston, murdered in a bizarre fashion that leaves police chasing false leads. A case that needs all
of Brock’s unique abilities and maybe new ones if he hopes to catch the killer.

Conflict of Interest

A Crime Novel by Lauryn Christopher for $3.99

It’s a bad idea to piss off a professional assassin, and Meg Harrison – corporate spy and sometimes assassin – is definitely pissed off. Not only has a new, and very irritating, client hired her to kill her own sister, but to top it all off, Meg didn’t even know she *had* a sister. For Meg, this is a contract that hits a little too close to home.

Azure Dragon

Novel by Rigel Ailur for $5.99

Fleeing from a death-filled past and hiding from her family, Alex settles in to a low-key anonymous life as a novelist.  She even agrees to teach for one semester at a local university.  When a particularly tenacious reporter starts to investigate her for a personality piece, the dearth of background information available just makes him dig even deeper.  Alex’s best option is to vanish as she’s always done before.  But she’s fallen in love with a professor, so running means either leaving him behind or dragging him with her.  If he doesn’t run first once he learns her history.

Fatal Tryst

A Grace deHaviland Short Story by David DeLee for $0.99

Bounty hunter, Grace deHaviland and her best friend, sheriff’s deputy, Suzie Jensen have often worked together, but when the bail jumper they’re after is a school teacher charged with sex crimes, the issues they struggle with and the secrets they uncover are both startling, and disturbing; and strike too close to home.

Glorieta Pass

Far West Civil War Novel by Pati Nagle

In 1861, New Mexico Territory is swept by change as the United States erupts in civil war. Federal troops are recalled to the east, leaving the way open for Confederates to invade New Mexico and capture its resources on the way to the ultimate prize: Colorado gold!

Three young people are caught up in the conflict: Alastar O’Brien, a Colorado miner turned soldier; Laura Howland, a young lady from Boston, recently orphaned; and Jamie Russell, a shop clerk from Texas serving as a quartermaster. The maelstrom of war brings them together in a clash of ambition, patriotism, and the simple need to survive.

Beyond Reach

Novella by Rebecca M. Senese for $1.99

Nadia is an Assassin, designed, built and trained to kill. Running from her owners, the Gemini Corporation, stranded on a space station, she is hunted by a tracker named Devon. The easiest thing would be to kill him. But Nadia is desperate to resist her nature and as Devon closes in, she fights against her overwhelming urge to kill.

A Heart in Sun and Shadow

Novel by Annie Bellet for $4.95

In an ancient Wales that never was…

Twin brothers Emyr and Idrys are cursed to live as hounds; Emyr by night, and Idrys by day. The twins believe they will be trapped this way forever until they meet the fierce and curious Áine, a changeling woman born with Fey blood and gifts struggling to fit into a suspicious human world.

Áine unravels the fate of Emyr and his twin as all three of them fall in love. To free her lovers from the curse, she embarks on a journey to the realm of the fey where she confronts her own unique gifts and heritage. Ultimately, she must decide where her heart truly lies and what she’s willing to risk to get what she desires most.

The Shoeless Kid

The day is too nice to be inside and I’ve got a hundred and twenty pound labrador retriever following me around, wanting to go on a run, so I’m going to keep this one short.

The first quarter of this year has gone by frighteningly fast.  But I guess that’s what happens with sporting age kids and a serious writing habit.  I’m well ahead of my goals and steaming through my current novel project.

The novel is called the Fires of Alexandria and it’s a *gasp* non-augmented reality novel.  I’m in the last third of the novel and the writing has really sped up, though that’s typical for me, because I know the characters and mostly where the plot is going.  One way or another, I’ll be putting it out next year, though it’ll be hard to wait that long because I’m really happy with how it’s turning out.  I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

Also this week, I’ll be announcing an anthology that I’ll be editing for Black Moon Books.  I’ll let you take one big guess on what the anthology is about.  Requests for submissions will be going up at Black Moon Books sometime this week.  Stay tuned.