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Weekly Update

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Hey readers! It’s time for the news!

I know. It’s been a quiet week. Mostly because my fingers have been busily clicking away on the finale of that Jacob Rocke book. He’s knee-deep into things now, and it’s all but wrapped up. The draft is sitting at around 115,000 words, which is a bit longer than I expected, and there’s some rewriting and adjustments to make before it’ll go into Alpha, but overall I’m content.

Once that’s done (and it’ll be sometime next week; there really isn’t much left), I’ll start on Axtara 2, which I know a lot of you have been waiting anxiously for. It’s going to be a lot of fun, folks. And after that …

Well, might as well drop some other news. Somehow, in the span of a few mysterious hours, One Drink received today over twenty new ratings on Amazon. No reviews, just ratings. No other book received any attention. Doubly strange is that One Drink hasn’t even had any attention recently. I’ve got the sales numbers, and it’s far below the floor set by Axtara and Colony. Yet somehow, in the span of a few hours … boom.

It’s puzzling, so I guess I’ll keep an eye on it?

Anyway, that really is all there is for news this week. It’s been a quiet week, really. Just working on this still-unnamed Jacob Rocke book, and gearing up for Axtara 2.

Oh, and there was the fairy tale I put up for supporters on Patreon. I do have another short planned between the end of Rocke’s latest mystery and starting work on Axtara – Magic and Mayhem. It’ll go up on Patreon next month. No name, but it’s a fun little idea I had that just begged to be written.

And after Axtara 2 … Well, that’ll be for the Patreon Supporters to decide, I think. There are some fun options coming.

Back to work for me! I’ll see you all Monday!

News Roundup

Max Weekly Updates , , , , ,

A simple and sweet plain-old news roundup for this week, folks. Feels like it’s been a while since one of those.

So, what’s happening? Well, first of all, I have some news that might lead to temporary disruption of the site schedule, or at least a few lighter Being a Better Writer posts: My rental contract is up at the end of this month, and I’m fairly certain my landlords are going to be jacking my rent up an obscene amount on the logic of “because we can and we need more money” because that’s exactly what they did last time. With, of course, no improvements to an already less-than-stellar setup.

In other words, I’m looking to relocate, which means time spent checking out new apartments, basements, condos, etc. Plus the actual move itself, which even if about a third of my belongings are still in boxes, is always a pain. The last week of this month might be a little stressful, basically. Just a heads up.

Now, onto happier news. I’m pleased to report that on Amazon, Axtara has brought her review-race with Colony nearly to a tie. As of posting, Colony holds 61 total rankings (and with an average of 4.3 out of 5 atop that). Axtara? Why, she’s just one rating behind, with a total of 60 rankings (and a higher average of 4.8 out of 5)!

Given her speedier progress, it’s very possible that she’ll overtake Colony any day now, but I wouldn’t count the first book in the UNSEC Space Trilogy out yet. See, while Axtara has nearly brought things to a tie on Amazon, over on Goodreads she’s still almost lapped by Colony, her meager 43 ratings nearly doubled by Colony‘s 83. So Axtara‘s winning one race, but the long-term victory still goes to Colony.

Since I’m speaking of reviews and ratings, it’s worth mentioning that a bunch of new ones have swept in across most of the library in the wake of LTUE, as new readers have found—and from the reviews left, greatly enjoyed—their new adventures and discoveries. Starforge in particular seems to have really hit the mark with a lot of readers, being touted as a fantastic ending to the trilogy and a real thrill-ride besides.

That fills me with joy, because I spent a lot of time working on it. If you’re one of those readers that hasn’t swung over to Amazon to pick up a copy yet, I wholeheartedly recommend that you give the series a shot, especially now that it’s complete. I know there are a lot of readers out there that won’t touch a series or trilogy until its complete with a ten-foot pole, and for good reason, considering how much waiting might be had and the risk that a series may never finish. But hey, that risk is gone now with Colony and its sequels, so you can read to your heart’s content!

And if you’re waiting for an audiobook, well … crud. Anyone know how good Kindle’s “Text to speech” routines are these days? Sorry folks, but that’s still on the back-burner. As for paperbacks … Well, how’s this. I promise I’ll take a look at the formatting sometime after my housing situation gets resolved, and see exactly how the whole trilogy might make it into a paperback format, or if it’s even possible with Starforge‘s titanic size.

In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, consider taking part in the race between Colony and Axtara and leave one or both of them a rating/review!

Last bit of news, about what I’m currently working on, past the jump.

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