If you want an electronic copy of Walking On The Sea of Clouds, you can now buy it on this Smashwords page.
Amazon and other links for print versions are still pending, but you can get it for your e-reader now!
That really is a fine-looking cover, don’t you think? (Click for larger image.)
Hope you like it!
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I don’t pray for patience, because someone taught me long ago that the answer to a prayer for patience is to be put in situations that require it.
Walking On The Sea of Clouds is almost ready. We are waiting for all of the e-commerce dominoes to fall — they’re lined up, and the first one has been pushed, but the rest of them are behind a curtain and we have to trust that they are falling in order.
Stay tuned — I’ll blast out every link I can, as soon as I get them!
Meanwhile, we are still holding the Debut Novel Giveaway Drawing today at lunchtime. The local event will be at Rally Point Sport Grill starting at 11:30, and if we can get it to work we’ll run a “Facebook Live” event from there.
I know I promised the book would be released today, so if you can’t wait any longer, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send you an electronic Advance Reader Copy.
Otherwise, it’ll just be a little longer …
What happened to the Moon? (Image: “Lunar Eclipse on 10th of December 2011,” by Anton Cross, on Wikimedia Commons.)
Thanks for your patience, and sorry for putting it to the test!
by We’re one week out from releasing Walking On The Sea of Clouds into the world! In case you’re still wondering whether the novel is your kind of read, here are some comments made about it:
Much like The Martian, Walking on the Sea of Clouds puts you on a lifeless rock and makes you think about why we explore new frontiers even as it explains how it can be done.
— Booklist OnlineThis book will be treasured by anyone who has ever dreamt of visiting the Moon, walking on another world, or bathing beneath the light of a distant star.
— David FarlandAnnoyed you haven’t been to the Moon yet? Then pick up Walking on the Sea of Clouds; you’ll feel like you’re there.
— Charles E. GannonIf you’ve ever wanted to be a colonist on the moon, this is as close as you will ever get without going there yourself.
— Wendy S. Delmater, Abyss & Apex
In other words, if you’re not a science fiction fan, and space exploration holds no fascination for you, then my novel is not for you — and that’s okay. Maybe you know someone who likes such things; I’d be honored if you told your friends about it!
Since we’re down to just a few days before the book will be available, it seemed like a good time to review how this all came about, for folks who might wonder just how long the road to publication can be. Unfortunately, that in itself is a long story — since the road to publication was over a decade long — but because I value your time I cut down my original retrospective by more than half. (You’re welcome.)
So, briefly:
That’s the story, in a pretty small nutshell. It seems like a case study in Danish poet and mathematician Piet Hein’s “cryptic admonishment”: TTT — things take time. Like many other pursuits, this is a marathon rather than a sprint, and sticking with it requires either dogged determination or an irrational stubbornness. (In my case it may have been both.) But thankfully we should be able to enjoy the fruits of all these labors in just a few days!
(Click for larger image.)
When the time comes, I will send out links for ordering the book from Amazon or wherever. Ordering from Amazon has certain advantages, but WordFire Press is making the book available in other venues as well. The novel will be available electronically or as a trade paperback, and if you prefer you will even be able to get your local bookstore to order a copy for you.
Meanwhile, you can still register for my giveaway: I’m going to hold a drawing to give away several copies of the novel, and the Grand Prize will consist of the novel, both my CDs, and other goodies totaling over $50! All it takes to get your name in the hat is to sign up for my newsletter. Go ahead, do it now — somebody’s going to win, it may as well be you!
by I’m going to give away several copies of my debut novel, Walking On The Sea of Clouds, which is to be released on Wednesday, July 26th.
As I tell anyone who will listen, two reviewers so far have compared Walking On The Sea of Clouds favorably to The Martian, so if you liked that story you might like mine as well. (In all humility, that comparison is probably unfair to The Martian, since it was amazing and I don’t consider mine to be in the same league … though that clearly doesn’t stop me from referencing those reviews, now does it?)
For the giveaway, we’ll conduct a drawing for multiple prizes and the Grand Prize is a package of books and CDs worth over $50. So be sure to sign up!
You can register to win by signing up on my mailing list at this link or using the form in the sidebar to the right. Good luck!
And, I hope you enjoy Walking On The Sea of Clouds!
by This weekend I’ll be in the bustling metropolis of High Point, North Carolina, for the ConGregate science fiction and fantasy convention — which is also hosting DeepSouthCon this year!
Here’s where you’ll find me:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Of course there are plenty of other things going on as well: ConGregate is a great little con, and since it’s hosting DeepSouthCon 55 this year I expect it to be better than ever. At least, I intend to do my best to help!
So, let’s have some fun!
by Bad puns aside, Walking On The Sea of Clouds is scheduled for release on Wednesday, 26 July!
Next week I’ll have more information about the best way to order a copy if you want one, and then as the actual date gets closer you may get tired of hearing from me about it. But, as I wrote to some friends last night, I’m only ever going to have one debut novel — and this is it! So I’m going to make the most of it.
Many thanks to the WordFire Press team for their hard work — and for putting up with my trouble-making!
(Image: “Lunar Landscape,” by RDPixelShop, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)
It’s going to be a real thing, real soon!
by … some aspects of my novel, according to another pre-publication review.
Before we get to that, some news: I’m in the midst of examining the galley proof of Walking On The Sea of Clouds and owe all my comments to the good folks at WordFire Press by the end of the week. I have more news — as in, an actual release date — but I’m going to share it first with everyone on my mailing list, which you can sign up for here (and even get a free [nonfiction] e-book).
Now, back to the latest review of Walking On The Sea of Clouds. Wendy S. Delmater, editor of the electronic magazine Abyss & Apex, reviewed the novel for their 3rd quarter 2017 issue. Here’s an excerpt:
If you’ve ever wanted to be a colonist on the moon, this is as close as you will ever get without going there yourself.
Fans of THE MARTIAN will appreciate the technical struggles of Frank and Stormie, Van and Barbara, and the other couples sent up to a moon colony started as a private venture. What’s especially interesting is not just the bang-on accuracy of the engineering challenges involved, it’s the behind-the-scenes wrangling of the company sending them, the independent contractors, and the very human situations these forces create for the colonists….
You can read the whole review, and make a donation to support the magazine, at http://www.abyssapexzine.com/2017/06/walking-on-the-sea-of-clouds/.
I love this image of the moon with the maria — the “seas” — appearing to be covered with water. (Image: “Librazione 16 03 14,” by Giuseppe Donatiello, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)
I hope you think as highly of the novel, should you decide to read it!
by Most science fiction and fantasy fans know the name Baen Books — or at least know the names of some of our authors! Here’s a tribute song to Baen Books* and its founder, Jim Baen, from my album, Distorted Vision.
Hope you like it!
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*Full Disclosure: I’m a Contributing Editor for Baen. But I figure that’s all the more reason to do a tribute song!
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Other music videos:
Tauntauns to Glory
Help My Unbelief
by I don’t have any updates on my novel, so today I thought I’d share my schedule for LibertyCon, which takes place this weekend in Chattanooga. We’ll be celebrating science fiction and fantasy, and the freedom we have to enjoy them!
My convention schedule is heavily weighted toward Friday events, which will leave me time later in the con to relax:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
It should be fun — hope to see you there!
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Related Items of Interest:
– If you can’t make it to my concert on Friday, you can at least enjoy the “Tauntauns to Glory” music video
– You can also listen free to both of my albums, Distorted Vision and Truths and Lies and Make-Believe
by Happy Summer Solstice!
It’s officially Summer, astronomically speaking, and as I said last week it turns out my novel was not a “Spring release” after all. C’est la vie. I wish I could tell you when it will be available, but alas I cannot. The good folks at WordFire Press last told me “end of June,” but that’s not looking too good from this vantage point — so I expect it to be a few more weeks yet.
By way of apology for not being able to give you more definite information, I present to you another excerpt from Walking On The Sea of Clouds. This excerpt introduces Van Richards, an irreverent but passionate “grunt” on the Asteroid Consortium team, during his mission to set up part of the infrastructure to support the lunar colony.
Bright sunlight bathed the lunar highlands: along rills and near rocks, it cast short but ever-lengthening abyss-dark shadows.
It was a lot better to get this job done in the daylight than the darkness, as far as Van was concerned. As sunset approached, there would be precious few sunlit swathes left. And the big lights on the front of the rig would barely penetrate the darkness.
A chime sounded from the control panel in front of him; if Oskar had taken off on time, he should be in the area soon. Van checked the frequency and keyed his microphone. “Oskar, this is Van,” he said, dispensing with all radio protocol. “You out there, Oskar?”
The radio crackled a little. In keeping with the Consortium’s low-ball approach, its electronics were nothing fancy but easy to repair. Van waited a few more minutes, then repeated the call. He was about to transmit a third time when Oskar’s voice blared from the speaker.
“Lima Victor November, this is Lima Sierra Oscar Victor, over.”
“Hey, Oskar! Been waitin’ for you to call. Where are you?”
Oskar sounded annoyed. “Roger, LVN. We’re coming up on your left, Van, about a thousand meters high. I can see you clearly. Looks like you’re right on time, over.”
“Sure we are, Oskar. Where else would we be?” Van snuck looks out the left-hand window for the suborbital vehicle. “Hey, why don’t you drop down and scout out ahead for us?”
“Negative, LVN. That’s not in the flight plan. That route hasn’t changed since the last time anyone drove it, over.”
Van chuckled. Oskar loved flying almost as much as Henry, but he was so by-the-book that he wouldn’t take a risk unless it really needed taking. If even then.
“You never know,” Van said. “Some transie could’ve burst out, right on our path. You’ll regret it if we drive right into a sinkhole.”
“Negative, LVN,” Oskar said.
Van chuckled again. No, I don’t suppose you would, Herr Hintener.
“I see you now, LSOV,” Van said, slurring the acronym into “ellessovee.” The suborbital vehicle was about sixty degrees up and not quite abeam—call it about 8:30, moving to 9:00, on an analog clock. He was surprised he could see the vehicle at all: the bright sunlight and the lights in the cab washed out just about every outside light source. The flyer was visible only because it caught a good bounce from the Sun. The hydrogen-oxygen flame propelling the flyer burned clear, and even if he was at the right angle the glowing hot exhaust bell would be practically invisible to him. As it was, the reflected light would change and he’d probably lose sight of it before long.
Van noted the suborbital vehicle’s forward progress, and frowned a little. Oskar wasn’t trying very hard at all. He had enough fuel to fly nap-of-the-moon, but he’d programmed a semi-ballistic trajectory that let him coast after the initial boost. Knowing him, he’d probably programmed it close enough that he’d barely have to light the engines to touch down right at the rendezvous point. You’re sharp, Oskar, but you’re not much fun.
“Looking good, Oskar. See you at the implant point.”
“Affirmative, LVN. Watch out for the transies, over.”
Van switched off the microphone. “Good one, Oskar.” Even if a transient lunar phenomenon had lit off recently right in the middle of their path—which he supposed they would know, since so many people back on Earth were watching the Moon these days—it wouldn’t affect them that much. Whether it was outgassing or a minor impact, all it might do is raise a brief spray of dust; the big truck would just roll along pretty as it pleased.
Van switched to intercom. “Grace, you up? We’re coming up on the setup site.”
She answered right away, but she sounded sleepy. “Yeah, I’m up. Oskar’s nearby?”
Van looked back into the sky, but as expected the LSOV was out of sight. “I had eyes-on a second ago, but not anymore. He’ll be down and cooling when we get there.”
“Roger. Do I have time to grab something to eat?”
“Oh, yeah, plenty. We’re still about twenty-five klicks out, so it’ll be over an hour.”
“Okay. I’ll start running the arrival checklist in about thirty minutes.”
“Suit yourself, Telly.”
“I will,” Grace said.
“Ha-ha. Hey, leave me a little something, okay?”
“Why? You never leave me anything.”
Van smiled. “I’m still a growing boy, don’t you know?”
Grace didn’t answer, but that was okay. And Van didn’t care too much if she left him anything or not; Grace Teliopolous lived up to her Georgia Tech reputation as a “helluvan engineer,” but she was not a cook.
An hour later, the LVN-1 crested a rise and Van looked down into a wide valley. In the distance a few large rock formations cast reaching fingers of shadow, but most of the low valley seemed almost to glow.
And in the middle of the glowing field stood a manmade rock that cast its own shadow in Van’s direction.
Van had already set the vehicle’s radio to broadcast. “I see you, Oskar.”
“Roger, LVN, we have a visual on you also. Come on down and join us.” Oskar sounded as if he was sitting in the cab next to Van. “Henry and I are getting ready to exit the LSOV, over.”
An “X” appeared in the box on the checklist screen to Van’s left, in front of the “Establish close proximity line-of-sight communications” step.
Van smiled at his reflection in the head-up display. He puffed his chest and said, “Roger that, Lima Sierra Oscar Victor. We read your last transmission five by five, and copy your checklist telemetry. Copy your intention to commence Echo Victor Alpha and begin stabilizing Lima Papa Papa November Three and the Romeo Oscar Papa Sierra.”
Van wasn’t sure if it was Oskar or Henry Crafts who laughed over the radio, but it was certainly Oskar who spoke. “Alright, Van, just get your ass down here and get to work.”
Thanks for reading along! I’ll post more details about the book’s release as I have them.
(Image: ” Moon Waxing Gibbous,” by John Spade, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)
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P.S. If you’re not already getting it, I’d be pleased if you would sign up for my newsletter. I try to make it more personal, and more conversational, than the blog — and it’s usually more timely, too. Plus, you get a free nonfiction e-book for signing up!
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