Yeah this is about publishing again

I don't dare voice this on the "ant" as it might be seen as a public declaration of intent by P'kaboo, by some.  One has to be so careful what one shares, it's unbelievable...

Ran into a printer while waiting for a doctor with my son who had injured a ligament in his ankle.  What a small world.  He gave me a few quotes right off the top of his head (knows his trade well).

They are a bit more than what I was quoted last, but then there have been 2 years that went by.  Time to increase prices?  Surely not, everybody moans at the prices I set for our books.  Does that mean I must reduce the tiny margin I make, or worse, forgo it?

This is nonsense.  People will buy a book if they want to read it.  If they aren't interested they won't even waste R20 on it, second-hand.  So those who want the books, will get them.  Those who want them cheaper, can do with the ebook.  The costs of those are significantly

It sorely reminds me of those people who say, "oh, you wrote a novel?  No thanks - I'll wait for the movie to come out."  Don't they realize that if this is everybody's attitude, there will not be a movie?  For every movie that is made there are possibly thousands of books.  Most books never get a movie.  Only the bestsellers ever do - and bestsellers are bestsellers because people read the actual book, not because they wait for the movie.  Ok, mini-rant over.

But at any rate, perhaps the situation doesn't look as glum as I thought.  Perhaps there is a space for a mini-run here and a mini-run there.

The printer told me about a man who came to him for 5 copies.  He printed them for him.  The next month he was back for another 5.  In a while he came for 10, then for a number of months, 10 every month, until it suddenly jumped to 50, then 100.  The man is now the printer's biggest client with 50,000 copies at a go.  An African, self-publishing author.  I am thoroughly impressed.

I also realized that I don't have an FAQ page at P'kaboo.  That is nasty, I'll have to write one...  I'm so NOT in the mood for web programming.

On suggestion of my trusty co-creator and hubbs Iain I have rewritten the start of Solar Wind 1.  Funny how things get cemented in one's mind.  I added a chapter 0, because the book in chapter 1 starts exactly where I want it to start - with a panoramic zoom in to the ship, in a see flooded with red because of sunset and plankton, and 3 young Donegals trying to play "happy music" while keeping their heartbreaking, sinister secret close (and they're not doing it very well).

Chapter 0 provides a bit of backstory and brings the reader in close contact with Paean Donegal, upfront. I'll be posting it on the site as a preview, at

this link.

Anyone who'd like to give feedback, please feel free to comment here, contact P'kaboo, or post a review (which is also an email link) about the preview.

My head in a weird space

I'm writing and writing, the story's just running at the moment.  We're on "Shooting Star 3", The Search for Home Base.  Federi has finally decided to embrace that mutant as a part of himself after she regenerates his body basically from shrapnel.  Galamer has to fight for his kingship of Valleylon; the experienced politicians have found a way to sway the population against him, denying his birth right as High King. On the contrary, they come after him for his blood.  Earth and New Dome need to strengthen their alliance if both civilizations are to survive the battering from the Vaughhi, those blasted aliens that should have stayed on their own end of the universes.  And we finally learn about Jon Marsden's past... 

Ice Base gets revisited, and another surprise waits in the wings.  But through it all, there's a melancholy, longing theme weaving its way:  Where can the Shooting Star dock in safety?  Where is home?

Guardian of stories

"How do you cope with the arrogance of being an author?"

This question was raised at me from Goodreads.  For a while I didn't know how to answer it and I'm still not sure I do.

Yea, we authors are a pretty arrogant breed, that's true.  Not in the sense of thinking we're "better than others", but always believing we're better than other authors.  We can't understand why our books don't sell as well as Harry Potter.  Really, not.  Especially if we have "fen", a readership that enjoys our stories and boosts our egos.

But even if nobody reads us, we'll still always be writing.  The point is, being a writer is not a calling.  It's not something we hear a little angel voice say that we should do in order to improve humanity.  No.  It's a compulsion, an addiction, an identity.  I'm a writer by birth, and I'm decidedly not alone in this.  The second I knew how to write, I was writing stories.  Before I could write, my brother and I were "living" and playing out stories, stories and more stories.  My earliest memories, from when I was three, revolve around make-believe.  Legos?  We were playing a story.  Cars?  We were playing a story (the cars had "identities", usually us and a few friends).  Mud, sticks and pebbles?  Stories!  Never even mind the dollies and teddies.  My mom used to put on some music for us (usually classical) and we created a story around it.  She also played puppet theatre for us, and my father took us left and right of him in the evenings and read us - guess what, Grimm's fairytales.  Further feeding the stories.

When I desperately wanted to do something and we couldn't afford it, as a child:  My mother encouraged me to write about it.  I had a bad experience or hated a teacher: I wrote them into a story for revenge. 

I dream them.  No, not daydreams.  Actual REM-sleep, moving picture dreams.  "Suzie" is one of them, and "The Nest";  the Solar Wind series is built on a number of dreams and the crew visit me regularly, telling me about the aspects I'm forgetting.  It's a compulsion, I can't ever not write. 

There was a time in my life when I was working in medical genetics, the work was often tedious, demanding and always severely underpaid.  I arrived home knackered, too moeg to do anything - but I lay down on my bed and put pen to paper and worked on some or other story, when I wasn't reading some novel by a favourite author.  I sourced the ideas for my stories from real life and from my observations on (what I perceive as) the psychic relations of things to each other, the astral plane etc.  Not from books I read, though they always influence one, somewhere down the line (everything you do influences you).

Being a writer is more like... being a werewolf.  When the sun goes down, you write.  When the sun comes up again, you're still writing, and if you have a day job, or children to raise, or anything like that, woe betide you, you've got to get through the day somehow.  It doesn't matter whether people eventually judge the stories down (hell, it matters, it hurts us as badly as if someone takes a swing at our kids), but we'll always be writing.  It's not something we can "give up" like people give up drinking, smoking or playing tennis. 

Because our stories depend on us.  They need us to be there, willing channels that won't shoot them down for waking us up at 3am, "go put on your computer, you've got to get this down now!"

"I'm a wree-totaller, haven't written a paragraph in three months now" - no.  It doesn't work like that.

The arrogance of being an author?  Sorry if I came across as a bit smug in other answers, it wasn't meant that way.  I certainly have nothing to be smug about, any more than a werewolf does.

"There's a moon over Bourbon Street tonight..."

Shooting Star - Valleylon - and now onto Caraya.

Apologies to the wallpaper art that I ripped from an internet search. It is only to create an impression of the worlds the Shooting Star visits.

Beautiful Carayan landscape.  With an Earth wolf for all we know.

Sunrise over ... neither.  Valleylon has a binary; but no moons and stars. Caraya has 2 moons, but only one single sun. 

Could be - the 7 worlds of Valleylon? 

Valleylon: An ancient, arrogant civilization of immortals. Their biggest problem is boredom. A nice little rescue mission for Federi and his Donegal Troubles.

 But out of boredom, this old civilization also invades other worlds, enslaves other sentient beings, and has a whole slave culture, the central victims being - guess what. Earth humans, because they are biologically closest to the aliens of Valleylon. It's not for nothing Federi & crew "happened" upon these humanoid creatures. So the teenage (really) High King of Valleylon steps aboard the Shooting Star to learn from "Earth's leadership". Ha, I hear Federi nearly choking with laughter, ha, ha! But you can't possibly pass up such an opportunity to mentor the top man of a potentially deadly race. Our favourite pirate has a field day.

 Unfortunately for Federi and his teen crew, things start getting pretty deadly pretty fast, even though the young High King is loyal.

Caraya: A planet that is in the vertical universe. Not populated with any kind of vicious predator, sentient or otherwise - to our knowledge. The little shifters that move around on it, "prehelions", are certainly sentient, but they are gentle and their life habits unknown (and just about undiscoverable).  A perfect pirate haven, if they can only stop others from discovering it.

 *

On another front, I'm working on 3 excellent novels by 3 good authors, editing "Split Decision" by Carmen Capuano (that is, she's doing most of the actual rewriting where I just give pointers because I want it done in her own voice); the next sequel in Les Noble's "Magic Circle" ... circles, "Darx Circle", where again editing needs to happen mainly in the author's voice; and I just proof-read a new submission, "KWIREBOY vs VAMPIRE" by Marie Marshall.  There is also a fairy tale lined up by an author who doesn't want her identity revealed just yet; it's written for children and I've had my children split their sides laughing when reading parts to them out loud.  But that one will still take some time to prepare, though the author is hard at work on it.

"KWIREBOY vs VAMPIRE" has that appeal, it's gripping, beautiful dystopian Sci-Fi (though I'm thinking the author might disagree and say it's fantasy).  "Darx Circle" is more a genuine fantasy novel, it reminds of (the best parts of) Stephen Donaldson (ultimately condensed), and some of the more sinister parts of "Lord of the Rings".  Whereas "Split Decision" is a teen romance with a twist... a reality too many young teens face today, darkly anchored in the criminal underworld.  

On the horizon beckons another novel, a gypsy story set in Spain...  :-)  I love gypsy stories, and this one, by (sadly deceased) Hector Cortes, via his daughter taking care of the author angle.  I'll have to go very gently on editing, but luckily there is hardly anything.  "Miura" is the story of two boys who grow up to be men - one, a successful surgeon, the other, hampered by his impoverished origins but with an unchained spirit, a matador.  

Thank you Bookseeker Agency for your great subs!

But I might take a while to get to that last one (saw the list up there?  And I'm driving to get the whole Solar Wind series finished now, the Unicate must GO!  Federi is under time pressure now...).

Writing like crazy.

Disclaimer:  This image is a wallpaper downloaded from the net.  It is meant for inspiration only, and will not be the image on the official cover.  But it does convey the sense of flying, doesn't it?  :-)

The Shooting Star:

Federi, the Solar Wind's dogsbody, wants his independence and freedom.  With Paean and a handful of youngsters he escapes the ship to commandeer his own "leaky old crate", a run-down old Unicate vessel he calls the "Shooting Star".  Battling high seas and the ship's structural damage, he seems quite set to meet his prior (and angry) Captain's challenge, with classic Federitic flair.  

But then the challenges to Earth herself begin:  Alien invasions, abductions and outright war, driven by an invisible agenda.  The "Prince of Earth", a title created in a joke, has to be everything he is and a few things he is not, to protect his crew, his ship and his home planet.  But he cannot be everywhere.  And if he fails, humankind can kiss their blue planet goodbye...

Excerpt:

“Federi,” the Captain restarted, “the challenge is off. I can’t have

Perdita on an unseaworthy vessel. You land here and we get your

crate tightened up and the leaks fixed and...”

Federi laughed. “The leaks are fixed. Bless Shawn and duct

tape!”

“This ship is held together with duct tape?” repeated Lascek,

horrified.

... happy new year...

Finally had some time to write!!  So I re-polished the "Shooting Star" and came out the other side with the feeling that it's better now, and almost ready for submission to my editor...  there's just one small hitch...

I'm not 100% happy yet with "The Morrigan", the sequel to "Raider".  But more, I'm not at all sure that the prequel to "Shooting Star" is ready to submit to my editor.  That one is the one I refer to as "the Romanian sequel", but it's original name was "Nix Romipen".  I'm just not certain that the title fits the story anymore.

Unwilling to turn back before I've gone forward, I'm now working on the sequel to "Shooting Star", called "Valleylon".  I'm by now wondering if I shouldn't call that whole series "Valleylon", because that is the main theme carrying through them all.

I first-time edited the "Shooting Star" before, on the contrary, I've smoothed it down a number of times and editing it was fun.  Editing "Valleylon" is a completely different deal as I'm sitting with the first draft as written in 2007, and I can barely remember what went down.  I can't believe what nonsense I wrote!  If it were standalone I'd drop it; but it isn't, it's a linking sequel (or perhaps just a few linking themes) that propels the story forward, into Earth's, or rather Federi's, dealings with the alien world of Valleylon, where an elder race ... well, let me not spoil it all.

So this is the main reason you're unlikely to see "The Morrigan" out all that soon, or a review of it either.  "The Morrigan" is complete and edited but I'm not completely content with it.  Hoping "Raider" will see a print run this year though, so far it's available on Amazon (in paperback and Kindle) and as an ebook from P'kaboo.

I want to do a background pic for this post, let me see if I can get it done...  (btw the "Shooting Star" is super fun!)

Review: Raider!! (Solar Wind 4)

Thank you for a lovely Christmas present, Nikki Mason:  A sweet, sweet review for "Raider".

Being the only self-published author in the whole of P'kaboo, sometimes I lose hope for my own novels.  I have my set fan base which is (as yet) not all that big; and I try to make sure that each gets a paperback copy of my books.  But there are many, many places that sneeze at self-published authors, no matter how well-edited, how well-polished, and in fact, regardless the actual book.

I'm a bit of an idealist, I had always hoped my stories could speak for themselves, they are the actual thing for sale here, not the name of a brand or the ... you get where I fell short in my logic.  It's not enough to have written a great read; you need Coca-Cola's name on it to sell it.  

Well, the point is, Federi and crew came through for me again, Nikki Mason, thanks for this gorgeous review.  

The Solar Wind IV: Raider! – Lyz Russo

 December 5, 2014  Charlotte Foreman  Book Reviews  0

What they say:

Alien Touchdown! If the crew of the Solar Wind thought the Unicate and the Rebellion were tough cookies, they haven’t yet met the Danaan – from Planet New Dome. Coming to take over Earth – or destroy the planet. Or alternatively, for a mango daiquiri in the subtropical paradise of Southern Free. And then destroy the planet.

And why is Captain Lascek acting so strangely?

Raider is the fourth in the series of Solar Wind novels.

What we say – review by Nikki Mason:

Things are getting even darker aboard the Solar Wind in this fourth novel in the series.

When the beautiful but psychopathic alien, Dana, arrives for a visit, all hell breaks loose. Captain and the stunning, ass-kicking Perdita break up as Captain is once more captivated by his previous flame – Rushka’s mother, horrific mutants are threatening the crew and, indeed, the world and it looks as though the ship is going to have to be taken into space to escape. Everyone has their secrets, and it is only by pulling together and trusting each other that the whole crew can survive. At least Paean and Federi are back together…surely nothing more can touch them, right?

Russo once again surprises and delights with her depth of imagination and conviction for this surreal, piratical world. The characters continue on exceedingly realistic journeys as they blunder through very choppy waters indeed. As ever, it is the excruciatingly complex relationship between the ever developing Paean and her near schizophrenic soul mate Federi that had me hooked. And, whereas sometimes small plot details evaded my understanding from time to time, the adventure and the fascinating characters guaranteed a scintillating addition to the series.

What more can this crew of beautiful pirates cope with? I can’t wait to find out.

Click Here To Buy This Book – UK

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... and of course you can

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