I’ve made good progress in the past week towards being able to publish ‘Dead Snow’:
Book Launch Marketing Checklist – complete
Target Audience Profile – complete
Launch Plan – Started
Kindle format file – nearly ready (trialling on Kindle devices)
CreateSpace paperback file – nearly ready
I’m looking forward to seeing this book ‘fly the nest’!
Things are moving quickly now that the writing is finished for my next sci-fi novel called ‘Dead Snow‘.
Over the past week I have been completing all the last minute checks and started formatting the book for the Kindle. Once the e-book version is ready I’ll start working on a paperback copy on CreateSpace. One prerequisite for both versions was to settle on the artwork for the cover. I’m very pleased to say that I licensed my chosen image this morning – here is a preview of the Kindle cover (note, the tag-line is still subject to change):
I finished the first draft of ‘Dead Snow’ on New Year’s Eve 2016 – that’s exactly one year after finishing ‘An End of Beginnings’! I’m now at the embellishing/polishing/formatting stage and am aiming to publish in 2 months’ time.
Although this novel was ‘completed’ 1 year after AEOB, the writing only really got going in Jun ’16. I’m excited to see how quickly I’ve managed to complete ‘Dead Snow’, especially as I’m planning to produce 2 novel next year: the first will be a Brexit-based espionage-thriller, and the second will be a literary novel. I’ve spent years ‘learning the craft’ of writing through the lens of sci-fi, and I’m looking forward to writing in 2 different genres on 2017.
Happy New Year everyone!
I run a small website on the internet to promote my writing and share free stories. In the past 2 weeks I have seen a significant increase in hacking attempts by criminals trying to take control of the site. They are seeking admin passwords, worpdress passwords, passing carefully constructed PHP strings, attempting to download vulnerable Photoshop extensions, and on and on and on. The hack attempts are mostly coming from servers in Ukraine, Russia, Seychelles, Germany and The Netherlands – its’ a good reminder about the need to keep your passwords secure, to avoid sharing them between platforms, and be careful about the sites you visit on the internet… criminals seem to be everywhere now.
It is a coincidence that my first book, ‘An End of Beginnings’ was completed on New Year’s Eve 2015. That one took 5 years to complete – this one will have taken 18 months, although the bulk of the writing has been done in the last few months, once AEOB was out of the way.
51,000 words are down on paper and I’m aiming for around 75k, so that’s a target of around 25k in 5 weeks – 5,000 words per week – “doable”, as they say, but I will definitely have to dig in…!
My latest blog update is about creating well-written characters –
see http://tinyurl.com/obnp33o
Good fiction stories are about people, not places or things. They give relief from our normal lives and enable us to have other experiences through our imaginations. Well-written characters can come to have a special meaning for us at an emotional level – the trick is to create well-written characters!
At Christmas 1975 I was given a copy of “The Sun annual for Boys” – it led with an article called “Vikings in Space” about the 2 Viking spacecraft that were being sent to Mars. That article kick-started my interest in Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science Fiction – here’s a great image and article from NASA on the Viking 2 landing – very cool
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sept-3-1976-viking-2-lands-on-mars
We are living in an age of technological miracles! – Watch this video from ESA of the Philae lander’s descent to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko at
Many people either simply don’t know that they can load other free books onto an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, or they are too worried about trying in case they ‘break something’. That is a shame because the Kindles can read .mobi format e-books very well, presenting them from the reader’s perspective in the same way as books sent via Amazon’s “whispernet”.
To help with this I have a loaded a short video onto YouTube walking through the process of loading an e-book onto an original Kindle reader and one of the newer Kindle Fire tablets – see – I hope you find it helpful.
Disclaimer: No representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, are made about the completeness, accuracy, reliability or suitability of the information provided for any purpose. Any reliance you place on the information is therefore strictly at your own risk. In no event will I be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of the information in this video.
Between 24th April 1955 to 9th January 1958, NBC broadcast a series of half-hour sci-fi radio stories under the title “X-Minus One”. These were small-cast productions, not just a narrator reading out loud, and the quality is often pretty good. The collection includes some classic stories from well known writers and I have 3 particular favourites:
a) “Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov (#28 in the playlist I’m about to mention) – although the reading by Steve Eley episode 100 of Escap…e Pod has more passion, in my opinion
b) “A Gun for Dinosaur” by L.Sprague de Camp (#41 in the playlist) – I love the very uptight English accent of the protagonist
c) “The Roads Must Roll” by Robert Heinlein – a wonderful blend of social rights & politics
There is a collection of 122 shows on YouTube, they’re well worth a listen if you’re interest in Golden Age sci-fi radio drama
Lee J. Russell, Author
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