Will you ride the great white bird into heaven?

First, the advert: Looking for something excellent to read? Of course you are! Like to sample an intriguing title before committing to a purchase? Have I — and SFNovelists — got a deal for you.

The First! Ever! SFNovelists sample chapter eBook, Opening Acts, 25 Science Fiction & Fantasy First Chapters. Totally free, totally cool. Here’s the Table of Contents:

7th Sigma by Steven Gould
Bone Shop by T.A. Pratt
Bones of Faerie by Jenni Lee Simner
The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley
Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee
The Cloud Road by Martha Wells
Dangerous Water by Juliet E. McKenna
The Dread Hammer by Trey Shiels
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
Fright Court by Mindy Klasky
The Heretic by Joseph Nassise
House of the Star by Caitlin Brennan
Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese
Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
Medium Dead by Chris Dolley
Midnight at Spanish Gardens by Alma Alexander
Play Dead by John Levitt
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C. Hines
Spellcast by Barbara Ashford
The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg
TruthSeeker by C.E. Murphy
Up Against It by M.J. Locke
With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan

You can’t resist this. Really. And did I mention that it’s free? Right now, SFNovelists member Simon Haynes is graciously allowing interested readers to download the sampler in the format of their choice from his site. Eventually, Opening Acts will also be available through Smashwords.
Here ends the advert.

* * *

LiveJournal is still down, alack and alas. I suppose it will eventually rise again from its own ashes. In the meantime, I’ve been keeping busy outlining the next (after “Kin Ties”) story to be uploaded to Splinter Universe, which is entitled “Guaranteed Delivery.” The plan is to write that on the train to Reno. We’ll see how well that plan works out.

I’m re-reading the first 45,000+/- words of George in order to get back with those characters and plotlines. I also have some workshop submissions to read over and comment on.

You’d think that’d be enough to keep me out of trouble for awhile,and so it ought, which is why the back-brain helpfully came up with the three (relatively) tiny changes that need to be made in The Cards of Fortunate Design in order to allow the narrative to move forth. While it’s lovely that the back-brain is being so diligent, this really does sorta fall under the heading of Useless Information, since pay copy comes first.

Sigh. Writer’s brains are scary, scary things.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I’m for the day-job.

Only two more days of school.

And! Cowboys and Aliens opens on Friday.

Life? Is sweet.

 

 

6 thoughts on “Will you ride the great white bird into heaven?”

  1. Excellent information, I love the advert! Thank you, for information on two days to freedom!

  2. Burton from Montreal

    Don’t think the LJ site is down. Just very hard to get connected to the site. Maybe the site is getting attacked. The LJ site was accessible notmally last night. Now got to reload repeatedly to load any LJ pages. Hopefully this issue get resolve ASAP.

  3. Speaking of “pay copy,” I am very intrigued by the Cards story so far. I was a contributor to the serial bowl, and if you have some interest in fleshing out Cards, I could definitely be persuaded to make it pay copy.

    Now, my “pay” might get you a couple of large lattes at Starbucks, but I’m sure there are others who like it too. I didn’t say anything before, because I thought there was no chance you’d ever want to go back and finish the splinters you post to keep us busy and out of trouble :o)

  4. I got on to LJ late last night, but can’t connect again this morning so I don’t know what’s going on.

    The collection of free samples is a great idea for publicising authors’ work. I skimmed through the chapters last night and found 5 or 6 that I’ll be buying (if I can buy them as ebooks in the UK that is). I already have Carousel Tides of course.

    Melvyn
    Darlington UK

  5. Burton from Montreal

    Apparently there is an ongoing denial of service attack on the Livejournal site from the last two days onward according to the LJ status message from 2:29 pm GMT (Wednesday, July 27)

  6. Yeah, LJ is being attacked because of politics in Russia. Who knew being sold to a Russian company would include frequent attacks like that.

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