The Viridian System Series Box Set is now on sale at Smashwords

The regular price is $11.99, which is a $3 discount on the individual book costs.

It launches everywhere except Amazon on November 10th.

correct box set cover 640 tall

Why a box set?

I was thinking of Christmas presents, and the number of people who pass my stall at the craft fairs saying they only read ebooks. I have ebooks!

So making this in an attractive gift set seemed like a good thing to do.

I ended up working all night on it to get it done for the start of November! I thought I’d formatted them all the same – but no. And irritatingly, applying a style across the file did not change the fonts on the italic parts. And as you probably know, what with spaceship names and telepathic conversations, I had a lot of italic parts!

But it’s safely done, and live on Smashwords as a pre-sale. It is on pre-order at other places, and will launch on November 10th. These are the permanent links:

Smashwords ~~~ Apple ~~~ B&N ~~~ Gardners ~~~ Kobobooks ~~~ Scribd ~~~ Odilo

Gift cards and Bookmarks

I’ve now made Gift Cards to go into the stall kit. They have the Smashwords link and a coupon code inside them. The buyer pays me, and the coupon gives the recipient a free ebook. Or three, in this case.

I’ve had these for the Princelings series for years, but only sold two. Maybe their time has come. And I’ve done one for my Dad’s memoirs, White Water Landings, which is also a popular seller.

Also new for the Christmas rush at my book fairs are new bookmarks featuring the Viridian series. I’ll be in Lyndhurst, Romsey (both Hampshire) and Salisbury (Wiltshire) on several dates before Christmas, so check my blog for details. Salisbury’s Christmas market is especially good, and there’ll probably be carols in the cathedral if you time it right.

Pleasant Valley Christmas

the perihelix cover

Pleasant Valley has one main city – Walton City.  It’s supposed to be a rough, tough, frontier type of town.

I felt I hadn’t emphasised this enough, so when I did the second edition of the Perihelix I had Lars and Pete go out on the town.

It’s Christmas, both there and here, so I thought you might like to be reminded of how that night went. (950 words)

Christmas on Pleasant Valley

The beer was flowing in the Irish Bar. Krismas was a festival celebrated in sufficient systems around the galaxy to make it a common cause for feasting. Different customs clashed on occasions, since anyone from over Lyra way tended to treat it as a formal occasion, whereas the New Donegal, Centauri and Praxis systems tended to use it as an excuse to get drunk, dance, and play games involving tests of strength. Pete and the Swede joined some other miners on a bench seat and played some good-natured games of peanuckle before a red-faced humanoid from the planet Grapple took a swipe at the Swede, connected with Big Pete, and promptly challenged him to a duel.

“Duel! Duel!” The chant was taken up by enthusiastic miners who knew all about Pete’s speciality. 

Pete reluctantly got to his feet. “I choose arm-wrestling.”

The Grappler roared with laughter, rolled up his sleeves, flexing his biceps in Pete’s face, which involved stooping, since he was a good twenty cents taller than Pete. Then he pushed a guy off his chair at a centre table and yelled at Pete to sit opposite.

Pete stopped for another sip of his beer, wiped his moustache, and took his seat opposite.

“Best of three?”

“Nah—is for sissies! One out, all out!” roared the Grappler.

Pete shrugged and put his elbow on the table. The Grappler raised both arms, stretched, roared a war cry akin to a strangled ox, spat on his hands, rubbed them together, and spat on the floor for good measure. Lars passed Pete a handcloth.

“Wha?” The Grappler looked confused.

“More hygienic,” Pete explained.

“Bah!” He grabbed Pete’s hand, accepting the cloth, dropped his elbow to the surface and squeezed.

Pete squeezed back, arm rigid and ready.

The Grappler strained to push his arm over.

Pete pulled some faces for show, but although his shoulder muscles swelled with the additional work, his demeanour remained relaxed.

A circulatory vessel in the approximate location of the Grappler’s temple started to throb. Beads of sweat exuded from his nose pores. He grabbed the edge of the table with his other hand. The onlookers roared their disapproval and he took it away again. He started to move Pete’s hand across, and smiled. “Hah! Not so easy now, eh?”

Pete watched his hand as it moved into the losing sector. Steadily, slowly, it sank to thirty degrees from the table. Bets were being laid and taken against him. Lars took a few to win several drinks and a couple of hundred credits. He put his head down to Pete’s. “Make sure you win, partner, I’ve got money on you.”

“How long do you need to take some more?”

Lars shrugged. Pete’s hand sank lower. The Grappler’s eyes were bulging. Pete wondered if he had red blood or some other colour.

The barman called over: “Hey, guys, hurry up will you, it’s nearly midnight.”

“Oh right,” said Pete, calmly, his hand less than three inches above the tabletop. He snapped the Grappler’s arm across to his own winning side, with an audible slap on the table, and stood up. “I win, I think.”

Lars grinned and collected his winnings. The Grappler staggered off, strong-armed by his cronies, who made sure he didn’t do anything he would regret.

“Next time pick on someone your own size!” one of the miners called after him. The Grappler lurched back towards him, but the barman stepped in, and let off a shower of sparks.

“It’s Krismas! Happy Krismas, everyone!” The room erupted in cheers and backslapping, hugging and toasts.

“Do you think Zito’s still got some food on? That’s made me hungry.” Pete rubbed his hand and picked up his mug of beer, draining it as the refills came round again.

“Probably. Or we can pick up something at the corner and take it in, he won’t mind. Oh, you won this lot.” Lars handed over the winnings he’d taken from the bets.

Two of the hostesses came over and linked arms with them. “Oh, guys, you’re not going, are you?” The blonde was perky, red-lipped and in a full-bodied costume. Pete happened to know that appearances could be deceiving, and in her case, definitely.

“Fraid so, Sana’a, we only got in today.” Lars said. “Besides, I’m injured—I could never do you justice.”

“That’s not what I hear, Mr Swede,” the other girl put in. 

“New around town, aren’t you? Where did Zito find you?” Lars took in her dark sleek hair and brown eyes, the smattering of freckles across her nose with a practised eye.

“Oh, well, it was a sort of fair exchange. Fair for my ex, unfair for me.”

“Ah. Where’s he now?”

“Poof! Who cares.”

They extricated themselves from the girls and sidled back to Zito’s. 

“I reckon she’s stayed ten gallons high since he sold her.” Lars looked back over his shoulder.

“Probably for the best. I heard her man got killed on this trip.”

“Before or after he sold her?”

“After. Maybe he actually cared about her. He went solo.”

It was a sobering end to the evening. ‘Going solo’ was a euphemism for going out on a trip on your own simply to end it all. Very few miners worked alone.

They resumed their imitation of drunken, hard-bitten miners by rolling into Zito’s, smashing a few (empty) glasses on their way through to the bar and tipping Zito the eye so that he encouraged them to call it a night. You had to keep up appearances if you were an asteroid miner. Hard, tough, and rich. Or hard, tough, and poor, depending on which end of a vacation you were.

The Perihelix Ch 2

© J M Pett 2018

 

Paperback editions available from 31st January

the perihelix cover

The paperback editions of The Perihelix (second edition) and Curved Space to Corsair, are now ready for distribution.

It sometimes takes a while for the distribution system to land the books in the online shops, but they are on their way.

Take a look at the previews for each of them in the links below.

If you want to order from a physical bookstore, you’ll need the ISBNs.  These are listed below.

By coincidence (more or less) each book is the same size, with 378 pages.  The Perihelix has shorter end-matter than Corsair, because Corsair includes the first chapter of Perihelix, in case you missed it.  Corsair also has a longer comments section because I talk about my research on Japanese and Korean things in order to come up with the whole dragonfly element.  That should intrigue you enough to buy it!

The chapters in the Perihelix must be longer, since there are only 24 in that, but 32 in Curved Space to Corsair!

The UK recommended price for each is £8.99

The Perihelix…

ISBN: 978-0-36-821665-7

 

and Curved Space to Corsair…

ISBN: 978-0-36-821704-3

The Perihelix on special offer during Corsair launch

the perihelix cover

The Perihelix, book 1 in the series, will be on special offer of $1.99 or the equivalent at Smashwords, iTunes, B&N & Kobo and some other online stores from now through to the end of March.

Why not buy Curved Space to Corsair at the same time – two ebooks for under $5!

Whether Amazon chooses to price match will be up to them.

Don’t forget to visit my blog on Tuesday 22nd January onwards to take part in the book launch and giveaway – first prize a $20 gift voucher.

The Perihelix, edition 2, is now LIVE!

the perihelix cover

the perihelix coverThe Perihelix (second edition) has been live on Amazon.com and Smashwords for a few hours now.  It will filter through the systems to other Amazon stores and to iTunes, B&N and Kobo (and others) over the next few days.

In the two years since I took it off sales after lukewarm reviews, I have revised the beginning several times, taken it to a new editor, lost that editor in tragic circumstances, and done my best to deliver the changes she suggested.

As you know, I’ve nearly given up on it several times.  I think if I hadn’t already written the second book Curved Space to Corsair, I might have done.  But now I’ve published the revised book, and I’m very happy that I’ve done so.

If you downloaded the old version, you should be able to download the second edition from your buying site free of charge.  Otherwise it’s now on sale for $2.99.

If you haven’t read it yet, it would be really kind of you to push it to the top of your list and review the new edition on your blog, Goodreads, Amazon or your buying site!  Thanks!

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The Perihelix is now in beta

The Perihelix has been overhauled and various parts of it rewritten over the last six months, with a big push during Camp NaNoWriMo this month.

The main changes have been

  • a revision of the plotline that gets them off on their quest
  • consequent amendments to text and dialogue (and I need to update the blurbs around the websites and buying sites, too)
  • focus on points of view, i.e. considering exactly who is narrating a scene, and ensuring it is shown from only their perspective.  This has been hard, especially when dealing with Pete & the Swede doing something together, or wanting to show what each person present is feeling or thinking.
  • consider Voice – how does each character speak, and how does their perspective reflect their unique personality.  That sometimes leads into
  • show don’t tell.  I tend to tell, but need to do more show – I find I tend to use dialogue to avoid telling. I have been working on showing in descriptive parts, too.

So I hope it’s now much better.

It’s ready for my beta readers, so if you’d like a copy in Word, let me know.

Perihelix Progress

perihelix_ed2I’ve completed the edit of my revisions to the Perihelix and sent it to my editor.

I’ve rewritten the first chapter, changing the start substantially (and will mean a lot of edits  to book 2 to take out reference/consequences of that), and introducing Dolores, Maggie and Aramintha more thoroughly, although I always intend them to have somewhat mysterious pasts. I’ve also made it slightly clearer (I hope) which direction the travels take them, but working in 3D space means that the reader either needs to imagine it more, or just accept that there’s a long way between places.  I must admit, I’ve never been concerned about the relationship of different planetary systems to each other in Star Trek or Star Wars.

Now to see what my new editor makes of it.

The Perihelix is withdrawn

Perihelix_final_webI received further independent reviews with good feedback over the Perihelix’s dodgy start, and some other comments about characters and plot jumps. So, I consulted my publisher, and we’ve suspended it from sale as of today. I don’t want it to carry on getting 2 and 3 star reviews. Obviously I want to make it the best book I can. And as the start of a series, it ought to be a real ‘read me’ book, getting only 4s and 5s.  I’ll be revising it and putting it through the editing process once more to bring out a second edition in due course.

If you have an ecopy of the Perihelix, you will be able to update to the second edition free. If you have a paperback, make sure you’re on the mailing list of news of coupons and vouchers.

Read 2 Review on Goodreads

We currently have The Perihelix on offer in the Read 2 Review programme on Goodreads’ Space Opera Fans group.

This programme aims to find new readers by posting reviews from interested parties.  Despite the enthusiasm of my beta readers, the other two reviews so far have been disappointing.  I’d like to get more reviews, and if there is something about the book I need to fix, then I’m prepared to fix it!

If you’re a Goodreads member, you may need to become a Space Opera Fans Group member to access the programme – but if you read this site, you can contact me by Goodreads Message and I’ll add you to the list.