I have a blast writing my Captain Arlon Stoddard Adventure novels. Book 9 is now up for ebook ($5.99) preorder (available April 20th), and immediately if you want the paperback ($16.99).

Universal Book Link.

On his last day alive, Gus Caleb sits alone in a bar. Quiet place. No problems. Until problems show up.

Called to the Colston Ring, an alien artifact thousands of years old and inhabited by generations of human colonists, Captain Arlon Stoddard and his crew find the local authorities in disarray. Attempting to decode the background to a rash of strange disappearances makes the job near impossible.

When the crew begin uncovering the mystery, the things they find might just change everything for the millions of inhabitants of the ring.

More than anyone knows.

A Captain Arlon Stoddard novel that pushes the series into new directions. A must for fans and great place to jump in fresh.

In other news, book 10 Tramp Steamers has been written and copy-edited and is now just awaiting final formatting and last-minute tinkering. That will be out in October.

Not Above The Law, book 7 in the Cole Wright Thriller series will be out on June 20th, and available for ebook preorder, again $5.99. It will be in paperback too. More news on that to come. I should have a Cole Wright short story up for the month, free to read here. Check back on that in June.

Speaking of Cole Wright short stories No Lack of Courage, the first collection of stories is out now. Available as an ebook ($6.99), and as a trade paperback ($15.99) and hardback ($19.99).

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your eyes. More news soon.

Sean

Well, this is more chit-chat than anything. A few years back I had a story come out in Asimov’s Science Fiction titled “Chasing ‘Oumuamua”, about a struggling scientist figuring out how to follow a high-speed interstellar visitor through the solar system.

‘Oumuamua was a probable asteroid that visited us in 2017, sprinting through and zipping back to interstellar space. See Wikipedia.

Now, naturally taking the lead from my story, there are plans afoot to, actually, chase ‘Oumuamua. See this article at Earthsky.org. Or this one at NASA, which is actually titled “Chasing ‘Oumuamua”. Holy smokes. NASA!

Whoops, that NASA article is dated June 2018 and my story came out in January 2019. Of course, with the lead times for magazine, the story had been accepted in January 2018. Six months before. Take that NASA!

No. Retract that. I love NASA.

Now, much as my ego would like to suggest that idea was mine alone, all I really did was channel wishful thinking and follow where the science might take us.

“Chasing ‘Oumuamua” is still available, both through the single copy of that issue of Asimov’s on Amazon, but also also in a little collection of my own, together with the stories “Plunge” (a personal favorite), “Abandoned Theme Parks of Ulplotzka”, Life-Span” and “L-Own”. ebook $3.99, print $9.99. Available through this link.

MeasuredAggression

Cole Wright Book 2

The sign at the edge of town announces it as Cooperville, Pop 3516.

Small town. Big problems.

Passing through, Cole Wright just wants a meal and to get back on the road.

Always happy to have a nice meal.

Always happy to avoid problems.

Sometimes, though, problems just demand attention.

Available now – ebook $5.99, paperback $15.99, hardback $19.99

Universal book link

Also available, book 1 The Arrival, and the two short stories Dark Fields and Schedule Interruption – links in the images.

Yesterday, (February 20th, as I write this) I crossed the mark of having written 100,000 words so far for the year. That’s around 2000 words a day, which is higher than I’m used to. I did have some extra time available to me, which gave me some days of over 3000 words, but most days have been in the 1600 to 1700 word range.

Small potatoes compared to some, but more than many other writers. I feel that I don’t often write about my writing process here – mostly this is aimed at readers, rather than writers. For a year or so, I wrote a weekly column for Harvey Stanbrough‘s Pro Writers Writing project – where a group of us discussed the process. I learned a lot, both from the other writers, and from thinking about my own rhythms and patterns. The site has gone now (over the period, we lost contributors – which I get; it was tough work coming up with a new topic every week), but I’ve saved all the posts, which may, or may not, depending on time and inclination, appear as a book here.

Still, how did I get to 100, 000 words? How did I write 2000 words of fiction, on average, each day. It comes back to Heinlein’s rules. Rule One: You must write. So I wrote. I made sure to write every day. I took moments when I could, to write. Before leaving for my day job. During my tea breaks and lunch break. After work. Weekends. Sometimes I get to squeeze out 100 words in a sliver of time, sometimes I would get longer blocks – a couple of hours.

Part of it is about not waiting for the muse. It’s about just writing. Bum in chair. Fingers on keyboard. Writing. Cycling or churning. Getting the words down.

I’ve also published two novels so far – Desert Creepers and Raphael Marooned – with a third coming next month – The Chimneys in Atterton (Morgengeld Book III). I’ll post about that sometime soon. The point is, no sense in writing without putting it out there (Heinlein’s Rule Four: You must put your work in the market).

Desert Creepers is the fourth in my Captain Arlon Stoddard series, kind of trying to be a little like Gregory Kern’s old F.A.T.E. books, but with a modern beat (SF in the 2020s is a very different thing to in the 1970s). The fifth book should be out later this year – Core Runners, with the sixth – Underworld Climbers – either much later this year, or early next. I need to fix the cover of Desert Creepers – not quite happy with that layout and the font size and color. Still, thanks to those who’ve bought it already (and Raphael Marooned) – I do appreciate it.

My story (a novelette as it turns out) “Problem Landing” appears in the March/April issue of Analog Science Ficion & Fact. Another Mars story, this one takes its inspiration from the current activities of companies like SpaceX.

This is the more practical end of my science fiction – all possible and probable extensions of current technologies. Nice to have cover art by Maurizio Manzieri – for Meg Pontecorvo’s novelette “Flash Mob”.  I love Maurizio’s art – he’s always able to capture the essence of a story so evovatively.

Sometime soon there’s a Q&A with me appearing on the Analog blog, with some background on the story. I’ll post a link when that’s up.

Quick post, I hope. I’m not here much, but I got a delivery a few days ago. All of my indie published books from last year.

Why, in January 2021, am I only just receiving those? Well, Covid, a little bit, also, shipping, a lot – the shipping charge getting one book sent over at a time more than doubles the cost of the book, getting thirteen at once is quite a bit less than double (but still pricey). Also, New Zealand’s National Library’s legal deposit rules changed – no longer do I have to supply, in a timely manner, a print copy if the book is also available as an ebook.

This is what was in the box. Some standalone short stories, some short novels, some series novels, and a few collections. (and, yes, Mum, I got extra copies of those two you’d asked for ☺).

If I was being smart and patient, I would list links to all of them here, you know, ‘cos I should be good at marketing. Well, if you look at this link to Amazon, you’ll find my books there, in print and as ebooks too.

Thirteen books. This year I’m taking it easy. Only going for twelve. Some more from the series, some more standalones, and a whole new series coming.

Thanks for reading.