Celebration

Starforge Preview

Max Books! , , ,

Hello readers! I’m out and about away from my desk right now (unless something has really gone wrong), but that doesn’t mean the posts—or the rewards—will stop! Especially when celebrating something like Colony hitting fifty reviews on Amazon.

In celebration of that fact, last weekend Colony was free for all. I hope you got a copy while you could if you hadn’t yet, but if you missed it, well … Better luck next time, I suppose.

In the meantime, those readers that have already blitzed through Colony and Jungle and then didn’t see much reward from Colony going free outside of recommending it to those they know and welcoming them to the universe, so I wanted to do something a little special.

Which is where this post comes in. This is the complete, unedited (as the book is still in editing) prologue chapter for Starforge. Yes, that’s right, the entire opening chapter.

It’s big. It’s action-packed. And it’s right here, right now.

Obviously before we get to the link, I do need to issue some warnings. If you have NOT read Colony and Jungle, be advised that this post will contain massive spoilers. Yes, I’m dragging out bold and italics for that.

Again, huge SPOILER WARNING past the jump. Starforge‘s prologue builds off of several big twists and reveals from the prior books. Once you go past that jump, all bets are off. If you have not read Colony and Jungle, be warned that you’re spoiling some big reveals that you otherwise would have discovered on your own. Again, SPOILER WARNING. If needed, bookmark this and then come back to it after reading the rest of the trilogy.

For the rest of you? Hit that jump, and enjoy your first taste of Starforge.

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Colony is Free Starting Today!

Max Books! , , ,
The first of the UNSEC Space Trilogy, free this weekend! Grab it now!

Yes, you read that correctly! In honor of Colony being the first of my books to crack fifty reviews on Amazon, it is now free for the weekend. From today, Thursday the fifth of May, 2022, through Monday, May 9th, Colony is 100% free to download from Amazon. No strings attached.

That’s it. What more is there to say? You’ve got five days to download Colony at no cost and see why so many people have praised it over the years. Better still, with the third and final installment in the trilogy dropping this year when Starforge arrives, there’s never been a better time to start the series and set yourself up to be ready by the time it drops.

Now, if you’ve already read Colony, first of all thank-you. Second, you might be wondering what this post has for you. Never fear, next week you’ll be getting a look at a once-Patreon exclusive preview of Starforge.

But in addition to that, you can share this post! Colony is free for five whole days, so if there’s anyone in your life who enjoys Sci-Fi and is always on the lookout for a new adventure—maybe someone that was waiting to take the plunge for Colony—fire them this link! Share it on social media! Let the world know!

Those of you looking for the book and bored by all this text, just click that cover above, or this link here.

And enjoy.

Being a Better Writer: Holidays

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , ,

Hey there readers! How were your weekends? Healthy, I hope. I spent all of mine inside working on Starforge, Axtara, or recuperating. My Covid-19 test came back negative, but that just meant whatever I did have likely wasn’t Covid. It was still something, so I skipped church on Sunday (doing the smart thing) and gradually felt better as the weekend moved on.

Either way, due to that, I really don’t have much in the way of news to report or talk about from this weekend, so there’s not much for me to do here but dive into this week’s topic. Which, as you might have noticed, is a little … seasonal.

Yeah, I’ll admit this wasn’t on the list. Rather I thought of it over the weekend and once the bug was in my head, couldn’t shake the idea because it was, I felt, a good one that deserved talking about. Not a game changer, probably, but one of those “little details” that can take a story from a nine to a ten.

Yes, we’re still talking about writing. When I say “Holidays” I do so in the sense of a recognized celebration date, not a vacation from things. Those of you waiting for that kind of post are looking at the wrong job.

I kid. Mostly. A writer is almost never truly on a vacation. Our work tends to be … consuming.

Anyway, with that clarification out of the way, let’s talk about holidays.

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Another Orbit Complete

Max Misc

Hey readers. It’s … my birthday! And, despite some stressful things going on that I alluded to yesterday, I’ve decided to celebrate a little bit.

Especially as my wrist is healed enough that I can mostly go biking without issue now.

So I’m going to celebrate by going on a nice long bike ride. And cooking a ginger-orange pork stir-fry for dinner. And playing some Borderlands 2, I expect.

I’ll resume normal operating hours tomorrow. But right now? I really could use a break for me.

On a side note, if you’re in the gift-giving mood, you could always leave a review or rating for one of my books on Amazon or Goodreads, help me along to that goal of 400 by year’s end! In fact, I woke up to another five-star review on Colony this morning, so that was a nice pick-me-up at the start of my day!

Or just grab one you haven’t read yet for yourself, as a gift to you. Or someone else, even! You can do that!

Anyway, I need to get riding. I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I’ll be back at work tomorrow.

Jungle’s First Draft … is Done!!!

Max Books! , , , , ,

Yes, I used three exclamation marks there! I earned those!

Because the first draft of Jungle is DONE! After a writing day of 5,236 words. Bringing the final wordcount for the first draft too …

457,931 words.

Yes, you’re reading that number correctly. 458k. 2.1 MILLION characters.

That’s insane. Colony was only 334k. Which makes Jungle a third-again as long as Colony. So we’re looking at 2400+ pages, easy.

Editing should trim that down a bit, but still. What a beast.

And now, now, editing can begin on Shadow of an Empire. The work never ends, folks.

But I think I’ve earned a small celebration.

And by the way. This book? Prepare for a ride.

One Year Online?

Max Misc , ,

You guys should just be aware that next week marks the one-year anniversary of Unusual Things, which means—of course—that there’s some special stuff floating in the wings. After all, the first birthday is worth celebrating, is it not? Especially with some of the accomplishments that have happened in that time. I won’t give all the details away just yet, since I’ll save those for next week, but I can at least hint at one of them.

The sale.

That’s right. I italicized that one. What would a celebration be without a sale? As I said, no details yet, but if you’ve been waiting on picking up anything, well, get your wallet ready.

Get some questions ready too, while you’re at it.

Was that more than one hint? Dang. I’d better call this good and run. See you all Monday!