Randomnessness…ness.

Just a multi-faceted update this time, so you know I didn’t fall off the planet somehow. Editing work for the glass site is still pretty much the same. Yesterday wasn’t fun, though, as it was a news day so slow, I literally had to search all day to come up with five new articles. Every other news source of our kind resorted to recycling news from last week. I made sure our peeps got new stuff. Cause that’s how I roll.

Hope y’all remember that my duel sci-fi novella, The Life & Death of a Sex Doll, is coming very soon. If you haven’t pre-ordered a print copy or an ebook from Belfire Press yet, please, consider picking one up now or on release day. (Should be any day now, I think.) For $11.99 for print or $2.99 for ebooks, it’s a really good deal. You’re getting Adopting a Sex Doll, my original web serial about an Internet stock broker who modifies a sophisticated sex toy to play house, and the all-new sequel, When a Sex Doll Dies, which continues the story from the perspective of the aforementioned adopted doll. Sometimes whimsical and funny, and sometimes a little sad and nostalgic, this is going to be my first book published by someone else. The editing is even more stringent than my already tough standards, so without boasting, I can tell you that this will be my best book ever in terms of editing quality.

In other writing news, I’ve completed another chapter of Bran of Greenwood and the Scary Fairy Princess. I don’t write every day, or even all day on the days that I choose to indulge the muse, so my progress is much slower. I’m also committing the wicked sin of adding to the earlier scenes before I finish the book. *GASP!* Actually, I’ve done this many times over the last two years. I think that rule really only applies to noobs and people who let the new additions distract them from finishing the story.

New book, new review, and new chords (Yay!)

Yep, I called this one just right: Touched made it through the Smashwords queue this morning. So, for those of you who still haven’t read any of my vampire stories, they’re all out of the archives now. The order of the vampire stories is:

Touched
Redemption Lost (Crossover title)
Blood Relations
A Phone Man Visits the Vampires
Job Interview With a Vampire
Stark Raving Bonkers

Most of the Mystical World Wars series is up now, except for Erick’s Journey and Shadow Walker. They’ll be out soon enough, but I’m getting in some regular daily editing work starting this week and won’t have as much free time for conversions. If this new job works out, I could have regular pay for a few months, enough to pay off our taxes, buy some gadgets, and even have money left over for my growing Chupa Chup addiction. And since you folks are not yet populous enough to support me, I have no choice but to sing a familiar refrain: I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.

In slightly related writing news, last night I got TWO 5-star reviews on My Gay Sparkly Vampire Romance: A Twilight Parody. This also follows a great review of Confessions of a Zombie Lover, which already had two good reviews last week. Now, I just need to convince more of y’all to pick up Sandy Morrison’s book and give her some review love.

Yet another great review, and some update stuff

Don Campbell at the The Future Fire Reviews has turned in a very detailed analysis of Confessions of a Zombie Lover, coming up with a favorable but scoreless review. I ought to give a mild spoiler warning, but I suppose the review really does skirt the spoiler’s edge without quite going all the way. You can read the whole thing here.

In any case, I want to thank Don for reading my book and for the very detailed review. I note that Don, like most reviewers, has come into the series with book 2, and yet they did not feel left out of the story for missing book one. And this is awesome. But, I was kinda hoping someone might buy Zombie Punter first and read it, and THEN read Confessions of a Zombie Lover. But what would be even better is if that person also got around to making a review explaining how they felt about both books. Maybe not as detailed as Don’s review, but still, it would be nice.

And while I’m on the topic of repetitive patterns, I’m finally making some progress with those calluses, and I’m able to form most normal chords. However, I still cannot form any barre chords. The main issue is my middle finger, which cannot rest on a string if the index finger goes into motion. This is a problem because every instruction I’ve seen on barre chords says to set the other fingers first, and then lay the index finger down. And since I’ve tried it the other way, I can tell you, it really doesn’t work the other way.

Preorders, orders, chords, and musical concept novels…

You might get the impression that I had nothing to ramble over the last few days. Not so. I have sat down to write blog posts, but after playing with them through a few revisions, I’d come to the conclusion that they were too random and unfocused to publish. I blame the Vicks sinus medication, but need them to breathe, so there you go. Rather then start over, I figured I’d let that stuff go and concentrate on other stuff until I had a shorter ramble to offer.

I want to talk about the guitar first, but I need to cover something more important above the cut: Belfire Press is taking preorders on my duel sci-fi novellas, The Life and Death of a Sex Doll. The print edition is limited to 100 copies, though there will also be ebooks available. This duel novella release features my sci-fi story Adopting a Sex Doll, but with new material added after the book was pulled from my site at the request of Belfire’s lead editor, Jodi Lee. While they worked on other titles, I was able to write a sequel, When a Sex Doll Dies, and I submitted it as a separate project. It was accepted too, and the editors of Belfire decided to publish both stories together.

If you’ve been reluctant to read my horror or dark fantasy titles, this pair of light-hearted sci-fi titles are probably a better story for you to check out. In this story, the year is 2028, and Kelly Braun is a single Internet stock broker incapable of having children. She’s unable to adopt either, so she opts to relieve her loneliness by getting a Sensu-Doll, a robotic companion intended for erotic adventures. But Kelly modifies her new sex doll with a childlike appearance, and then codes her expensive toy with new personality modules. Kelly wants to use Ashley Braun in a sophisticated game of house, but the doll’s core functions often make playing the game awkward or embarrassing. As Ashley continues to grow, taking on more of her creator’s traits and growing willpower, the game becomes her daily life. A sci-fi coming of age story, Adopting a Sex Doll and When a Sex Doll Dies follow the development of an artificial family and explores what it means to be a parent, even if one’s child isn’t real.