Fantasy and Science Fiction

Since my last blog post I've been fully vaccinated, and there are other signs of a slow and intermittent progress towards normality.  Most of my energy has been going toward other projects recently, but I'm still putting some time into writing and publishing.

While I still love writing and I know I'm pretty good at it, I've come to realize that I'm not very good at publishing and I really hate it.  So I'm going to try to find a new publisher.  Wish me luck!

Wayne Edward Clarke.

A lot of my readers have asked if I'm writing new books now. I am, but it will be a while before anything new is completed. Unlike the years when I wrote my previous books I'm now in a relationship, and I have many more demands on my time, so I can't just write constantly like a fanatic like I used to. On the other hand, I'm probably writing my book faster than George R. R. Martin is writing the next sequel to Game of Thrones.

About a year ago I was completely burnt out on the publishing process, and had grown to hate it.  I neglected it completely for almost a year, and my attempts to motivate myself to resume it were futile.  But Things Are Happening Again.

Perhaps most significantly; my books are now available as paperbacks again, on Amazon.  The price of print-on-demand paperbacks is largely dependent on how many pages the book has, but the cover size of the book (height by width) doesn't affect the price much.  Since almost all of my books are huge, I've made them available in Magazine size (8.5 x 11 inches, or 21.5 x 28cm) which keeps the page count, and the price, down to reasonable amounts.  I wanted to announce this a lot sooner, but there were technical challenges and delays.

I've also made my books available as paperbacks (and eBooks) at Lulu.com.

I've updated my website, I'm refreshing my marketing efforts, and soon I'll be making my books available at new retail outlets.

I have a few other irons in the fire as well, to be revealed soon.

Thanks for reading my books!
Wayne Edward Clarke.

I just finished writing Chaos Of A Demon War - Book Three of The Nexus of Kellaran Trilogy. I'm really hoping to have it edited, published, and available (on Smashwords.com at least, if not on Amazon.com as well) by the 23rd, that is, the date that's the 23rd in most places in the world other than here in the Philippines.

Today is my birthday, so it's probably a good day for apologies.

I've been sick most of the month, and half of last month too. For these and other reasons I doubt that I'll be able to finish Chaos Of A Demon War before the end of September as I'd previously announced. I'm very sorry about that. I hope to finish it in October.

On another matter; readers of my Rational Future series will recognize that I did my best to make it true 'Hard Science Fiction', that everything in it was supposed to be as factual or scientifically plausible as possible, and I did a ton of fact checking to make it so. For instance, every asteroid mentioned is real, and is just like it's described in the book. I did my best to make sure all the math was correct too.

My attempts to get my exoskeletal ornithopter (ExOr) built and marketed have bogged down in an endless quicksand of people who don't return my emails and/or phone calls, including; parts and materials suppliers, potential employees, technical universities, a film school, my business adviser/tax preparer, even the investor that paid for the first months of work on the project. If I can write a good enough business plan I might be able to get enough financing to make a go of it, but I can't get the co-operation of people I need information from for the plan, or who I need to commit to working with me if I get financing so i can state in the business plan who'll be working with me and what we'll be doing if I get the financing.

I tell ya, writing fantasy and science fiction can be difficult at times, but not nearly as difficult as trying to make reality out of science fiction on a shoe-string budget. Still, progress moves forward when pushed by stubborn persistence, and I am now a bonafide technologist.

I made great progress on Chaos Of A Demon War over the month I was given, but it still has a long way to go. I'll be going back to writing part time now, but at least I won't have to work a regular job, not yet anyway. I've received some seed money to develop one of my other business plans, and that should keep us going for a couple of months. Then, if things go well, I'll get full financing for it.

I've lowered the prices of Victory Or Extinction and Soul Dead And Green Eyes to $2.99, but it may take a couple of days to take effect due to the holiday. Happy Easter everyone!

“Report!” Captain Dhiak ordered as the two tired soldiers shed their armor and were given food and water.  “Where are Belgran and Sergeant Lekin?!”
“Sir.” Smid said, then paused a moment, as if to order his thoughts.  “It was the strangest thing.  We were takin’ a shortcut that Belgran knew about, a little two-rut cart path about two miles south of the highway.  We came to this burnt out house.  It must have burned last night because there was still a bit of smoke from the smoldering, and you could smell it was really recent, an’ bad.  It’d been right beside the road, and one of the half-burned main timbers had fallen mostly across the way, and there was this kid sittin’ on the end of the timber with his legs out, blockin’ the rest a’ the road.  He’s all covered in ash an’ soot, his head down, his hands on his thighs, ain’t wearin’ nothin’ but his pants.  Couldn’t of been more than twelve, maybe thirteen years old.  He didn’t move a muscle as we come marchin’ up.
“It was just after noon so we were all hot and sweaty, and you know how Sergeant Lekin was, he hated everything just on general principles anyway, so he was in a pretty snarly mood from marchin’ in the heat in his armor.  He kicks the kid’s legs out of the way as he walks past, not hard to hurt ‘em, just to get ‘em out ‘a the way, but not nice about it neither, an’ he says; ‘Outta the way, peasant!”
Smid paused for a drink of water, his eyes unfocused as he remembered, then continued.  “The kid stands up an’ says ‘Hey’ as he steps up behind Sergeant Lekin.  Not yellin’ or anything, just hey, in a completely normal tone of voice.  Lekin spins around like he’s gonna yell somethin’ nasty, but he’s kinda’ surprised to find the kid so close to him that their bellies are almost touchin, and the kid’s looking him up right in the eye with this strange look on his face, or I should say no look on his face, no expression at all, and that was the strange part.  And as this is happenin’ the kid takes Lekin’s short sword out of its scabbard enough to get the tip clear, and he lowers the handle end enough to get it pointing up as the tip is restin’ on Lekin’s belt, and he shoves it up under Sergeant Lekin’s breast plate and into his heart.  He didn’t do it particularly fast, or slow, he just did it, casual like, like you’d slice a carrot, without lookin’ away from Sergeant Lekin’s eyes.  It was all over in a second.
“Sergeant Lekin’ gets this stunned look on his face as he tries to grab the blade or the wound through his armor, then his legs start to give out an’ shake, an’ the kid casually pushes him backward off the blade, and he falls.
“We were so close as this is goin’ on that I could’ve reached out and touched him.  The kid turns around and looks at the rest of us.  He didn’t threaten us with the sword, he just let it hang by his side, drippin’ blood.  But his face…  It was like havin’ a dead man lookin’ at you.
“We all just stood there for a second, then Belgran says ‘Crap!’ an’ he reaches for the kid, and the kid cuts off two of Belgran’s fingers with no more hurry or emotion than wavin’ away flies.  Then Belgran yells crap again, a lot louder this time as he draws his longsword, and an arrow hits him in the throat.  A small arrow, prob’ly elf made, or… Or from a bow for a kid.
“The boy just stands there as Belgran starts thrashin’ his life out on the ground, then me an’ Krin here, we ran the hell outta there.  Once we were in the trees an’ had some cover, we look back and the kid’s just sittin’ on the end of the burnt beam again, just like how we found ‘im, ‘cept with the bloody sword.”
“Sir, I figured it was an elven trap and the boy was spelled.” Krin stated.  “I thought the best thing to do at that point was to catch up to you here at the camp and report.”
Captain Dhiak looked from one to the other of them for a moment, his jaw clenched.  “You’ll take Lieutenant Fastel’s platoon back there in the morning.” he ordered.  “They have our best trackers.  Tell Fastel that you’re to find the boy and the archer.  Kill them.”
“Yes Sir.”

Apparently, my fantasy novels are much more popular than my science fiction novels. And, I'm having trouble making enough from my last book releases to allow me to live here ($400 US/month) until I finish writing Chaos Of A Demon War - Book Three of The Nexus Of Kellaran Trilogy, which would take at the very least another four months. So, I've had to set that on the back burner for now. Since I have no faith in my marketing and I hate doing that anyway, what I'm going to do is start writing the books I had planned to write after that; fantasy books set on Kellaran that are what most fantasy fans seem to want, of normal length and without the super-epic or sci-fi-style story elements of the Nexus trilogy, or any of the other things that readers have complained about. I can write and release one of these every month, and I'm going to keep doing so until I get ahead of the game enough to be able to finish ChaosOADW. It's a tall order, but I really think I'm that good and that prolific. The first one will be titled Soul Dead And Green Eyes, and it's set in northern Debevin about 5000 years before the events in Blessings Of A Curse.

There will be some offers and announcements that will only be made to my mailing list by email. My mailing list is composed of those who bought books (or downloaded a free book) through my website, and those who have emailed me fan letters about my books. If you want to be on my mailing list and you're not, send me an email to wayne_clarke84@yahoo.ca, thanks!

Over the last week I re-read Blessings Of A Curse and The Fire And The Storm in preparation for writing Chaos Of A Demon War (I only got a bit of it done in the months after tF&tS came out before I found myself concentrating on Victory Or Extinction.)

First off, I miss as much sleep when I'm reading them as anyone else, especially since I haven't read them in two years.  I really find myself wondering; Wow!  How did I come up with all that stuff?!  And I worry about whether I'll be able to match their quality in the third book.  I wrote The Fire And The Storm when my life was hell, and I was surprised to find that it didn't really have a dark mood to it.

And secondly, I've proof-read Blessings at least a dozen times and had it proof-read by eight other sharp-eyed nit pickers, and I still found at least 25 typos, dammit!  I think I've found them all now though, lol!  There were a lot less in tF&tS.  I've definitely become a better proof-reader over the last 13 years.  I'll have the re-proofed versions out on the retail sites in the next few days sometime.

The regular release editions of Victory Or Extinction are now available at Smashwords. They should be available at Amazon within 24 hours, and at all other major eBook retailers in 2 to 14 days. It took a couple of days extra because all the eBook retailers are changing their cover picture requirements to higher pixel counts because of the constantly increasing resolution of phones, tablets, and eBook readers.

After extensive research on eBook pricing, I have lowered my prices.
Blessings Of A Curse will still be free as promo. Any Pre-Release or Special Editions (none right now) will be $9.99. My newest book's regular release editions (In this case Victory Or Extinction) will be priced at $5.99. All others will be $2.99.


http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/504788 (USA)
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/504790 (Metric)

If anyone has read Victory Or Extinction - Pre-Release Limited Edition and noticed a typo in it, I'd appreciate it very much if you pointed it out to me! Just send it in an email to wayne_clarke84@yahoo.ca, thanks.

It seems it's almost impossible for any publisher to catch 100% of the typos in books this big, even if they've been edited by up to eight different sharp-eyed proof-readers, each of whom caught things the others missed, and missed things the others caught. I always notice a few in the paperback sci-fi-and fantasy novels from the big publishers too. Only the help of hundreds of readers catches 100%, so your help is very valuable, and appreciated.

And of course, if you liked the book and posted a nice review of it, that would REALLY be appreciated!

After almost two years of work, I'm finally finished Victory Or Extinction - Book Three of The Rational Future Trilogy! For that matter, about twelve or thirteen years after I started it, I'm finally finished The Rational Future Trilogy.

Its been an incredible journey, and an incredible adventure, both in the story and in my life, and it's pretty emotional to finally have it completed.

I've been having trouble with my e-commerce system on my website for some time. Selling eBooks on my own website gave me the most profit per book since it had the lowest costs, and because all the retail sites insist that a book must have the same price in every place it's sold, and I got the money right away.

Other sales outlets take more of the money and don't pay me for one to three months, but they have all the advantages for the reader. If you buy one of my eBooks at Smashwords.com, you can download it as many times as you want, and in any format imaginable, and if I bring out a new edition of a book with better cover art and tighter editing, anyone who bought a previous edition can get the new edition for no extra charge, anytime. For these reasons, when I publish the final edition of Victory Or Extinction my default sales site will become Smashwords.com, not my own site, and direct sales at my site will end but be linked to Smashwords.com. (Though of course my books will still be available at Amazon, Apple, Google Play, and every other major eBook retailer.) After I've completed this transition, I'll be offering coupons for my books at Smashwords.com to anyone who bought them from my own site, so they can download the latest editions if they want.

I'm going to have Victory Or Extinction on sale before Christmas, but I don't have enough time to finish all the publishing tasks before then, like editing and cover art. I'll do a quick first edit and offer a Pre-Release Edition with no cover art exclusively at Smashwords.com. That way those who want the book right away and don't mind waiting for the cover art and final editing can get it now, and when the final version comes out they can get that too, for no extra charge.

And, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank again everyone who has helped me or supported my writing career in any way! Thank you, all of you, I couldn't have done it without you!

Nothing left to do in Canada now except kill a bit of time and go to the airport. On to the next chapter in my life, and the next adventure!

It took me five years to write Blessings of a Curse, and four years for People of the Tiger, back when I only wrote for myself, for fun. It took well over a year for The Fire and The Storm, and only four months for Hunters In The Sky. Things haven't been going great lately in general, and it's been about a year and a half so far on Victory or Extinction.

I understand that some of you may lose faith that the two trilogies that I'm writing now will ever be finished, but don't. Both series WILL be finished, soon if I get my mojo back right away, longer if I don't. But they will both be finished, I swear.

Okay, sorry that it's been so long since my last post.

Re-integrating back into my life in Canada was a lot harder than I'd expected. Living in two different countries definitely has its pitfalls and drawbacks. Most of my possessions here are gone, and there's new room-mates. Winter lasted a lot longer here than anyone expected, so I lost a lot of work due to the weather.

I've been back at work for most of May, which is going quite well, and I've lost all my excess fat. My aerobic health still isn't awesome, but for the most part I'm back in shape.

Getting going again on writing and publishing has been really hard. I've been making progress, but it's frustratingly slow. I'm really getting to hate working alone. When I get back to the Philippines I am definitely going to hire a personal assistant whose main duty will be to be fun to work with. Until then I'm just going to have to tough it out.

I was offered a very good-paying permanent full time job lately, but I couldn't take it.  Instead I'll keep living in poverty so I can save every cent from my entry-level seasonal laborer job, so I can move to the Philippines for the winter at least, and probably live in poverty there too, while I try to build my career as a writer and publisher.  And when I read fan letters like this one, I know I'm making the right choice;

Hi!
I just want you to know that I'm a huge fan of yours. Im 17 years old and reading and learning are my favorite pastimes, I have read thousands of science fiction and fantasy books, and the nexus of kellaran and the rational future series are my most favorite books I've ever read! They are so superior to any other book I have read, all ideas are possible realities and what you have wrote is the best future I have ever read about. The world would be a great place If only everyone excepted these obvious rational truths you write about in the rational future series. If only everyone knew about these books! Not only do your books demonstrate many genius ideas that could actually be implemented on our world, and I'm sure their must be other life on other worlds, since the universe is so vast, so their must be, or will be, or has been some world like in the nexus of kellaran, but they also demonstrate the very healthiest, happiest, and smartest badass  characters in any book ever. Ever since I read your books last year I cannot enjoy most other books  because they are so much less superior than yours. The conflicts are completely ridiculous and unrealistic compared to the logical and well thought out plots of your books. And the characters are always sad, feeling sorry for themselves and so dumbly illogical i cant stand it. I have always loved to speculate on much of the things you write about and reading them has reassured me that some people not only realize how foolish we live now, but also have ideas for a brighter future. I am a HUGE fan and I absolutely cannot wait until you come up with the next book!  I check your Facebook page regularly in hopes that you've announced the next one! Keep up the good work and I really hope you get rich from your endeavours  cause you deserve it. :-)
Sincerely,
Jessalyn
Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Android-powered device

The writing on Book 3 of the R.F. series is going good.

I was recently in a point in my storyline where I needed the characters to prove that the light speed barrier is an illusion. I wanted their explanation to sound good, even to professional physicists, so I really did my homework on this one. I determined that I would truly understand Einstein's theories of relativity as they apply to the light speed barrier, so I researched them thoroughly, and I revived my mathematical ability enough to be able to do all the relevant calculations.

To my great surprise, during the course of this process I have proved to my complete satisfaction that the light speed barrier really is an illusion!

If anyone wants to invest in my publishing career, you can now become a Limited Partner in my Limited Partnership and have no liability, for as little as $100.oo. That gives you one Unit of the Partnership, which entitles you to .05% of the money I make as a publisher for the next 25 years.
1 Unit = $100.oo = 0.05%
20 Units = $2000.oo = 1%
All 600 Units = $60,000.oo = 30%

When I get the investment I'll move to the Philippines, which is the cheapest place in the world for an English-speaking entrepreneur to do business online; they have an abundance of educated, unemployed, English-fluent workers who can be hired for as little as $125.oo per month, full time. I'll get more high-quality publishing done for less money than anyone has ever achieved before.

My business adviser is very successful and he's helping me with this for free, 'cause he's a damn good man. He's still pretty confident that he can find one or two big investors to buy the entire issue, so if you want in on this, you should act fast. Once the 600 Units are sold, I won't issue any more.

If you're interested let me know, and I'll send you my business plan and Partnership agreement, which have all the relevant info.