Merry Christmas

Around here, we don't celebrate Christmas as being the birth of a god, or the birth of a son of a god. Instead, we just celebrate it as a time to be with family and friends. So, to all of my family and friends, Merry Christmas.

Here are a few Christmas songs you might like...

Sleep deprivation

I'm having a lot of trouble adjusting to having the baby in the house and working early in the morning. My new job starts at 6 am every day, so I have to be up at 4:30, and of course, anyone who has ever had a baby will tell you that they don't sleep through the night.

At first, Rebecca was doing a lot of the staying up with her because she was still on maternity leave, but she went back to work last night...and Alexis was not too happy about it. We had a very rough night with her basically screaming for hours on end. So, I didn't get to sleep until Rebecca got home at midnight.

Tonight's been a much better night so far. Normally she wants to be held whenever she's sleeping, but I've been splitting time between that and putting her in the car seat next to my desk and gently rocking her. She hasn't had any fits yet, and she seems quite happy...so it seems to be working.

Needless to say, trying to adjust to her and the job has meant that my writing and editing have suffered a lot, but I'll get back into the swing of things in the next week or two, and then everything will be back to normal...or as normal as it ever is in my life...

Great holiday gift idea

If you're looking for a great gift idea for the science fiction or fantasy fan on your holiday list, might I suggest the Sam's Dot Publishing calendars? Not only do these calendars feature the usual holiday dates, they also feature important dates like the birthdays of some of your favorite authors, the dates of major literary and scientific achievements, and much more.

There are two varieties of the calendars, and here is the cover art for each:





You can find them at The Genre Mall. Just scroll down to the Sam's Dot Calendars.

Anthology story

I finished the story I was asked to write for an anthology. The actual deadline was the end of November, but the editor is a nice person, and she gave me extra time since I was quite busy during November, and because I was losing a lot of sleep due to the new addition to our family.

I still feel like my short story skills are a bit rusty, but I'm two for two on the stories I've written so far this year, so maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about.

Hopefully the story will be accepted. It would be a new publisher for me, and a publisher who puts out some good books, so I would certainly be happy to see my name in one of their collections.

Anthology rough draft

As I mentioned previously, I was asked to write a story for an upcoming anthology. I finished the rough draft a couple of days ago, and now I'm getting ready to start on revisions. I think the story still needs a lot of work, so these will probably be some long and tedious revisions...

November recap

A lighter month of blogging with the birth of the baby...

Writing stuff

Alexis

Getting back in the swing of things

Ephemeris holiday bundles

Happy Thanksgiving

Black Friday Specials

R-Complex

Cyber Monday Special

Cyber Monday Special

DriveThruSciFi has a special bundle offer on four e-books from Nomadic Delirium Press. Three of the books are mine. You get Seedlings on the Solar Winds, The Opium of the People, and Marionettes on the Moon from me...and from James Baker, you get The Poet. All four e-books are just $5.

Go to http://scifi.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=65958 and order, because the deal is only good for one day.

R-Complex

My short story "R-Complex" has sold to Aoife's Kiss. This is only the second short story I've written this year, and it's my second sale...pretty good run.

The story will appear in the June issue, which will be a very special anniversary issue. I can't go into details yet, but I do know that there are two VERY BIG authors from the SF field who will also appear in this issue.

Black Friday Specials

Smashwords has three of my e-books on sale for 99 cents for Black Friday.

You can order Seedlings on the Solar Winds by going to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16551 and using coupon code TD26P.

You can order The Opium of the People by going to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16609 and using coupon code TX57H

You can order Marionettes on the Moon by going to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16865. This book is always 99 cents, but if you're ordering the others, you might as well order it too.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S. A lot of Thanksgivings I use this blog to talk about something that's very important to me...Native American rights, but I'm going to forgo that this year and talk about the things I'm actually thankful for.

First, and most obvious, would be my beautiful wife Rebecca. And right along side her would be my three wonderful daughters, including the youngest, who will be celebrating her first Thanksgiving...although she's not actually aware of that.

I'm also thankful for my extended family, as well as my friends, who have been there through good times and bad, and supported me every step of the way.

I'm also thankful for all of my readers...all two or three of you :-). You guys make all the hours I spend away from my family at the keyboard worth it. I'd also like to say that I'm thankful to all of the editors who have supported my writing over the years. Without you guys, I wouldn't be anything.

So, make sure you let everyone in your life know that you're thankful for their being there, and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Ephemeris Holiday Bundles

There are two Ephemeris bundles available at DriveThruRPG at special holiday prices. The two bundles are virtually the same, except that one features the core rulebook and the other does not. This way the bundles are good for the new Ephemeris players, as well as the seasoned Ephemeris players.

You can find them at:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=86038

or

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=86042

Getting back in the swing of things

Life is starting to return to normal here...or at least as normal as it ever gets. Alexis is turning out to be a great little baby. She pretty much only cries when she's hungry. She had her first sponge bath yesterday, and didn't complain once. She really doesn't seem to complain about the things that most babies complain about, and we're happy about that. Her circadian rhythms seem to be off a bit, as she sleeps more during the day than at night, so we've had a couple of rough nights, but hopefully we're getting her rhythms shifted.

I'm finally starting to get caught up on the pile of work that has fallen on me. I've seen early proofs of my next book cover, and I can't wait to share it with everyone once we have a final copy. I'm putting together notes for a story I need to write for an editor who approached me at MileHiCon. I'm hoping to get started on that in the next few days. All the other little annoying things that take up my time are also being taken care of.

I realized that in my last post about Alexis, I didn't post a picture, although most of you have probably already seen her...so, here she is...

Alexis

Alexis Brianna Erwine was born on Monday Nov. 8th at 2:14 pm. She weighed in at 9 lbs. 3 ozs. and was 21 inches long. Although she is my third daughter, she is actually my first biological daughter. I've heard a lot of people talk about how you instantly fall in lover with your child when they're born, and I figured I knew what they were talking about...but believe me, this is one feeling that really does have to be experienced to truly understand it.

We got home from the hospital Wednesday night, and we were prepared for a long night, but she slept pretty well. She woke up a few times to eat, but went right back to sleep. Last night she was a little fussier, but overall she has been a great baby. She doesn't cry a lot, although she does have a little of her mom's attitude when she doesn't get her way.

So far there hasn't been a lot of sibling rivalry, although the cat wants nothing to do with her...but we pretty much expected that.

The hardest part for me has been that I came down with a rather nasty cold from sleeping in the air conditioned hospital room. As a result, I have to limit my contact with her...which I REALLY don't want to do. I told Rebecca today that as soon as I'm over this cold, I'm going to be fighting her to hold Alexis.

Rebecca came through the delivery amazingly, and she's now recovering well. I was so amazed at the birth that I have a whole new level of respect and love for my wife. She is truly an amazing human being...and together it looks like we've created a truly amazing "little" baby.

Writing stuff

Assuming the baby doesn't make an appearance in the next 12 hours, I should be finishing up a new short story. This will only be the 2nd piece of short fiction I've written this year, but I'm hoping to place it in a special edition of one of my favorite zines. After I get that sent off, I'm going to start working on the story I've been asked for for an anthology. I will say it's nice to be writing short fiction again.

On an editorial note, I'm in discussions with a publisher about the possibility of editing a new anthology...more on that as it's available...

October Recap

Here's what I was talking about last month...

The Diplomat's and Explorer's Handbook

My MileHiCon schedule

10/10/10

Book orders

Ready for the con

MileHiCon Day 1

666

MileHiCon Day 2

MileHiCon Day 3

My short fiction muse

E-book sale

E-book sale

Now through the end of November, Smashwords has two of my e-books on sale for 25% off the usual cover price. This deal is being made available only through my blog.

Seedlings on the Solar Winds use coupon code JM58Q at checkout

The Opium of the People use coupon code BK29K at checkout

My short fiction muse

I'm trying to find my short fiction muse. Over the last year, I've spent most of my writing time finishing up two novels and writing material for the Ephemeris RPG. I've actually only written one short story in that time, but I obviously need to write more.

While I was at MileHiCon, I was approached by an editor who wants me to contribute to an anthology that she's working on. In addition, I had another editor (who was not at the Con) tell me that he's holding a spot open for me in a very special issue of his magazine. This means that I need to write two short stories and soon. Most non-writers don't realize that there's actually a big difference in how you go about writing short fiction as opposed to novels, but there really is, and now I need to get that part of my brain back into shape and get it working.

I would love to make an appearance in this anthology and in this zine, so I'd better get to work. Of course, there's also the matter of the baby who should be making an appearance any time now...

MileHiCon Day 3

Sunday came up on quicker than any of us could have expected. We didn't really have much going on in the early part of the day, so we decided to do some of the kids stuff.

We started out with "Carving with the Pumpkin King." The girls got to do some great relief pumpkins (even thought it was really the adults doing all of the hard work). I've never really been a big Halloween person, but I have to admit that this was kind of fun. After carving, the girls had a "Ranger" meeting. This is kind of like a LARP game just for the kids. They go on missions throughout the con trying to solve problems in the hopes of protecting their kingdoms. I think it's a great little thing for the kids to do, and I'd love to see it expanded, although that could be hard on the parents.

My final panel was "Villains: An Author's Best Friend." We had some great panelists on this one: Hilari Bell, Rachel Caine, Gary Jonas, and Katherine Kurtz. Since there were two of the Guests of Honor on this one, we drew a pretty big crowd, and I think we all had a really good time...and hopefully we imparted a bit of wisdom along the way. We bounced around in the discussion from Hannibal Lecter to Lando Molari, and on to Hitler. We were kind of all over the place, but it was one of the best panels I've ever done.

After this was the closing ceremonies, and it was time to say "So long, and thanks for all the fish!"

Rebecca didn't feel all that well through the whole con, but we still had a great time. I think the ConCom outdid themselves this year, and this was one of the best MileHiCons I've ever been to. And I'm not just saying this because I know that Rose sometimes reads my blogs, but Rose really did a phenomenal job with the scheduling this year and deserves several hearty rounds of applause. Thanks, Rose!

I can't wait for MileHiCon 43, but for now, I'll just be waiting for the birth of our baby...

MileHiCon Day 2

Saturday was to be the crazy day for me, but unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be as crazy as I'd hoped it would be.

I had a 10 am reading with Dan Hoyt. Readings in the morning are always hard to get people to come to. A lot of people party late into the night (or is it early into the morning), and they're not ready for readings at 10 am. Nevertheless, we had about 8-10 people, and I read the first chapter of Red Moon Rising, and the whole time I was wishing that the book had been released so that I would have had copies.

After the reading, I had a signing, which didn't draw much of a crowd. Last year they moved the signings out of the dealer's room and into the atrium. I'm guessing that the logic was that people were more likely to see the writers in the atrium, but I've noticed a definite drop in sales since we've moved to the atrium. I think more people might see the authors, but in the dealers room, more people who want to spend money will see the writers, and I think that works better.

After that I did something called "Speed Date an Author," and no, I was not cheating on Rebecca. The idea behind this was that there was a room full of authors and readers or author-wannabes could come in and talk to us. They had three minutes to talk to us, then a bell went off, and they moved on to the next author. I think it was a great idea, and I had some great (but very short) conversations with a lot of people. I'm hoping that I was able to pass on some good advice to a few of the author wannabes, and I'm hoping I gained a few new readers. I think if they do this next year, they need to lengthen the time to five minutes and have better organization of the movement of the readers.

Later in the day I was on a panel called "DM Bootcamp." This was a panel with Doris Beetem, Laura Givens, and Daniel Peak. As you can probably guess from the title, this was a panel about running RPGs. We had a lot of fun on this panel, and I think we gave out some good information to a rather large crowd. There seems to be one token gaming panel every year, and this is the second year that I've been on it. One thing the large crowd made me realize is that there seems to be a lot of interest in gaming at the Con. I noticed a lot of people playing games throughout the Con, and maybe they need to embrace the gaming aspect a little more...maybe even bring in a gaming guest of honor...if money allows.

After this panel was what I'd really been looking forward to...I was going to run a new adventure of Ephemeris. Unfortunately, a lot of people were grabbing dinner before the masquerade started, and the belly dancers next to the gaming tables seemed to draw a lot of people's attention away from the games, and I couldn't get enough players, so we couldn't debut the new adventure. Since we couldn't play, I was able to watch my oldest in a sword fighting contest. She'd never done anything like this before, but she made it to the third round...where she was knocked out by an adult who teaches sword fighting. Still, we were all very proud of her!

The night ended with us attending the masquerade. There were a few good costumes this year, but not as many as usual.

Rebecca was having a lot of problems during the Con. She wasn't feeling good, and being 38 weeks pregnant, she was very uncomfortable. Still, we did manage to get a few photos taken, which I've posted on my Facebook page. I noticed a lot more cameras flashing around me this year than in years past, so I'm sure more horrible pics of me will show up somewhere in the near future.

I'll post about day 3 tomorrow...

666

This is my 666th blog post...just thought I'd point that out.

MileHiCon Day 1

Friday was the start of MileHiCon. We spent the first few hours getting checked into our room, and then the Con. After that we just hung around for a while talking to old friends we hadn't seen in a year or so.

My first panel was titled "Small Press & Ezines: Finding the new Markets." There's always at least one small press panel at MileHiCon, and I seem to almost always be on it, but that's ok. It's a fun topic. On this panel we had Betsy Dornbusch, Ron Sering, David Lee Summers, and James Van Pelt. It was a good panel, and we talked about a lot of different things, but like many panels, we only had 50 minutes, so we couldn't go into as much detail as we would have wanted. On James Van Pelt's blog http://jimvanpelt.livejournal.com/294443.html, he mentioned that he thought we may have glossed over the e-book versus print book numbers, and I would tend to agree with him. A lot of times for a small press author, a shift of 30 or 40% in either direction is actually only a few books. Looking back, I agree with Jim that I wish we would have gotten into that more.

Immediately after my panel were the opening ceremonies, which were lead by toastmaster Paolo Bacigalupi, and with a theme like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (this was MileHiCon 42, after all) we were in for a great time. The Con was set to be demolished in 48 hours by a Vogon Destructor Fleet.

We closed out the night by going to the Floatilla, which is handmade boats raced in the pool. Not the most exciting part of the weekend, but the kids seemed to enjoy it...at least until they got too tired to keep their eyes open.

I'll report on days two and three later...

Ready for the con

The oldest's fever has broken, and we also went to the Dr. for Rebecca today, and she said that it's not likely that she will go into labor this weekend, so it looks like we're ready for MileHiCon.

This will be the first year that we stay in the hotel, and the girls are really excited about it. I think it will be a good thing for Rebecca too, so she can retreat to the room if she gets too tired...which she usually is.

Hope to see some of you at the things I'm doing. Of course, if you see me Saturday night, I will probably be pretty worn out as I have quite the schedule for Saturday...but I'm happy with it. I think we've figured things out well enough that it shouldn't stress Rebecca too much...at least we're hoping...

Book orders

I've had a few people e-mail me about where to get my books before MileHiCon starts. I will be bringing a few copies of most of my works with me, but if you wanted to order something ahead of time, here are some links for you...

Seedlings on the Solar Winds

The Ephemeris Science Fiction Role Playing Game

The Opium of the People

Lowering One's Self Before Fate

A Problem in Translation an illustrated short story book

Future Syndicate an anthology that I edited

The Martian Wave Issue 1 a magazine that I edit

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 9 The best of Sam's Dot's webzine anthology that I also edit

10/10/10

Everywhere I look on the internet today people are talking about 10/10/10 and how significant it could be. It seems like over the last few years, I've been seeing a lot more of this, and the answer to 10/10/10 is the same as it was for all of the other significant dates we've seen of late...no, it has no significance. Numerology is just mumbo jumbo like most other mystical ideas.
First of all, not everyone on this little planet of ours uses the same calendar, so the date is actually different in some parts of the world.
Second of all, the calendar we currently use is pretty arbitrary. It was started on a certain day, which actually is not all that important in the orbit of the Earth around the sun.
There seems to be this growing need to believe that our lives are somehow connected to something mystical, and I really don't understand it. The simple fact that humanity evolved is pretty amazing in and of itself, and we don't need to attach mystical meanings to everything that happens. As a society, we should have evolved beyond that need long ago. That sort of need is based in the "reptilian" parts of our brain, and it's these parts of the brain that teach us to fear the "other," and also leads us blindly following leaders, even if they may be bad for us.
It's time for humanity to put mysticism aside, and actually move towards the future instead of tying ourselves to the past, a past that we should really not be taking pride in...

My MileHiCon schedule

Don't Panic! The MileHiCon 42 schedule is now out, and I'm going to be a busy boy. So, make sure you know where your towel is, grab yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, and join me at any or all of the following:

Fri. 6 pm: Small Press & Ezines: Finding & Dealing with New Markets

Sat. 10 am: A reading of the 1st chapter of Red Moon Rising

Sat. 11 am: Book Signing

Sat. 12:30 pm: Speed Date an Author

Sat. 4 pm: DM Bootcamp

Sat. 5 pm: A game of Ephemeris in the gaming area

Sun. 4 pm: Villains: An Author's Best Friend

This looks like it will be a great con, so hope you can all make it!

The Diplomat's and Explorer's Sourcebook

For those of you playing the Ephemeris RPG, the Diplomat's and Explorer's Sourcebook is now available...

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=84383

And remember to stop by our discussion board to talk about the game...we are very interested in hearing from other players...

http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/main.htm

The link for the board is towards the bottom of the page.

September recap

Here's what I was talking about during September...

The first appointment of the month

Share and Share alike

I said short fiction!

The Ephemeris Supplement Bundle

A sale, a sale

Kindle price increases

An Ephemeris Discussion Board

Clarification on The Baby Game

Reviews

Banned books week

Ultrasound at 34 weeks

Ultrasound at 34 weeks

We went for an ultrasound this morning. The tech of course can't give us any info, so we'll find out if everything is ok when we go to the Dr. on Thursday. The baby is currently weighing in at 6lbs. 10 ozs. plus or minus 1 lb., and it looks like it's in the right position.

So, here is the baby...

Banned books week

Banned Books Week starts today, and I think everyone should go out and read a banned book this week. Here's a great list of books to start with:
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

I don't necessarily have a problem with people trying to keep books with excessive sexual content in them away from children. We wouldn't let our kids read those types of books, but it's our decision as parents to keep them away from our children. The biggest problem I see is that most books are banned not because of sexual content, but rather because they portray political or religious ideas that are frowned upon by certain conservative groups. To me, this is misguided. If we are to survive as a nation, then we must have access to books that show us how things could be. 1984 or Brave New World are not advocating the types of societies they portray, but rather they are warning us about the dangers we could face if we continue down the road we're on. These books shouldn't be banned for this...they should be praised!

Do yourselves a favor and read a banned book this week. Meanwhile, I'll continue to write material that could be banned. Let's face it, if The Opium of the People had ever become a bestseller, it sure as hell would have been banned, and when Red Moon Rising comes out, it will probably ruffle a few feathers as well.

And all I have to say to that is..."So What?"

Reviews

This entry is geared more towards readers than writers and editors, but I think most writers and editors would agree with what I have to say.

When a reader finishes a book, the most important thing they can do (especially if they liked it) is go to Amazon, or any other site, and review the book. Reader reviews do more to help a new book than any promotion, especially with small press titles. With large presses, a new book might have a couple of months to gain a following, but in the small press, the time is much shorter, and all small press writers are dependent upon people reviewing our work. Sometimes even a bad review can help, but obviously we prefer the good reviews. If a potential reader can read a well thought out review from an objective reader, they're much more likely to take a chance on a small press book. Most readers assume that if it's small press, the author must not be very good, but this isn't always the case, and a well thought out review can convince them to buy the book.

I think it's also important to actually review the book...not just rate it. Giving a book a star rating without saying anything about it doesn't really help...especially one and five star ratings because that just makes other readers think that someone was either being a prick (one star rating) or is a friend of the author (five star rating).

Those are just my thoughts on book reviews, so if you've read something that you liked recently, please go and review it. One review can do a lot for a small press author and several reviews can make a career...so help the small press writer out, even if it's not me...

Clarification on The Baby Game

As many of you know, we're holding a little contest to guess the date of birth and the weight of our little one, but we've had a few questions about the contest, so I decided to clarify them here. First of all, in order for an entry to be considered, it must be made at:
http://jalanerwine.blogspot.com/2010/06/baby-game.html.

The criteria for winning:
Only guesses that get the date right will be considered. After that, whoever is closest to the baby's weight will win. If things are still tied, whoever guesses the baby's gender correctly will be the winner.

All entries must be received by October 15th...and there is no entry fee.

Hope that clears up some of the questions.

An Ephemeris Discussion Board

We've created a discussion board for players to talk about the Ephemeris RPG, and to see what we're up to. If you're interested, you can find it in the links area at http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/main.htm

I'm not really sure how much interest there's going to be in the board, as we certainly aren't one of the BIG games out there, but there does seem to be a growing interest in the game, so we figured it was worth a shot...

Ephemeris is a bargain book at Amazon

Apparently the core rulebook for the Ephemeris RPG is currently a bargain book at Amazon. This means that you can get the book for $2.96 at the moment. The rulebook is over 400 pages, and it has everything you need to start playing the game.

I'm not sure how long this sale will last, so if you want a cheap copy of the core rules, you need to act soon...

Ephemeris at Amazon

Kindle price increases

Apparently Amazon is reorganizing their royalty structure. As a result of this, the price on two of my Kindle titles, Seedlings on the Solar Winds and The Opium of the People, will be going up tomorrow (9/15). Right now, they're priced at 99 cents, so it's really a great deal, but obviously you need to order soon...

Seedlings on the Solar Winds

The Opium of the People

A sale, a sale

Recently I posted that I'd written a YA SF short story, and it was the first short fiction I'd written in quite a while. Well, I just got news that the story has been picked up for the April 2011 issue of Beyond Centauri. This will be my second appearance in this magazine...and I know people might find it strange that I sometimes dabble in YA SF, given the type of stuff I usually write, but whatever outlet the muse wants, it gets...

The Ephemeris Supplement Bundle

There's now a bundle of e-books available from DriveThruRPG that are a must have for anyone currently playing Ephemeris. You can order The Ephemeris Supplement Bundle at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=84030.

Included in this bundle are:

Ephemeris: Critters and Pests
The Expanded Ephemeris Equipment List
Necessity's Call
The Ephemeris Species Compendium
The Law Enforcer's Sourcebook
The Scientist's Sourcebook
The Soldier's Sourcebook
The Trader's Sourcebook

All of these are available for just $25. If you already own the Ephemeris core rulebook, then this will be a great addition to your game.

School fundraising for the kids

Both of our girls recently got their fund raising kits for their school. They seem to do this a couple of times a year. This year the oldest came up with the idea that I have lots of friends on the Internet, and I should see if they wanted to buy anything. I tried explaining that many of my friends have kids of their own, and I also tried to explain that money is very tight for everyone right now, but neither of them would be dissuaded...and it is very hard to say no to kids when they try so hard...

So, if anyone is interested in buying items to help my kids' school, here are the links to do so...

http://www.eZfundraising.com/customer/customer.asp?evtId=81064&parId=140630

http://www.eZfundraising.com/customer/customer.asp?evtId=81064&parId=140708

We do ask that if you're going to buy more than one item, to please split them between the kids because if you have kids, you know what's it's like if one gets more of something than the other does.

Also, all orders have to be in by September 20th. I don't know why they don't give us more time on this.

Thanks for reading this...

I said short fiction!

Since finishing my last two novels, I had decided that I wanted to spend some time working on short fiction...so why is it that I find myself plotting out a new novel today?

Stupid brain!

Share and share alike

I've now made it possible for readers of this blog to share my entries on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever else they might want to. So, if you think I've actually managed to say something that others might be interested in, or if you think some of my work looks interesting, please feel free to use those share buttons...

The first appointment of the month

We had another Dr's appointment yesterday. Things are still looking good. Rebecca isn't suffering from anemia or gestational diabetes. She did lose a pound which has prompted the Dr. to put her on a prescription for her heartburn. Hopefully that will help clear it up and she'll be able to eat better. She's been so exhausted. Everything is so hard for her, and I feel very bad for her.

Here's a pic of the belly that I took two weeks ago...



There's still a little bit of time left to get in The Baby Game if you're interested. Simply go to http://jalanerwine.blogspot.com/2010/06/baby-game.html and make your guesses. The entries close on October 15th...and that's not too far away.

In other news, I had a job interview yesterday and things look really good for me to be going back to work in the next couple of weeks. It would only be part time, but we need the extra cash, and if we decide to switch things up with our work roles next summer, I need to be in a job soon so we can make that happen.

August Recap

Here's what I was talking about during August...

A busy few weeks ahead of us

The Genre Mall

Respect your editors and publishers

Time flies, or does it?

Just Because

Diesel e-books

Another Dr.'s appointment and a baby shower

Red Moon Rising release date

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 4 on sale

Wondorus Web Worlds Vol. 4 on sale

Sam's Dot Publishing has placed Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 4 on sale through The Genre Mall. You can order it for $10 with no shipping & handling, but the sale only lasts through the end of September.

For those of you that are new readers of this blog, the Wondrous Web Worlds anthologies are the best of the web collections that Sam's Dot puts out each year. They feature the best poems and stories from Sam's Dot's on-line zines, as voted on by the readers. This is an anthology that I edit, but in this particular issue, there is also a story from me..."Lost in the Dark."

You can read a complete write-up of the anthology, and of course order copies by going to http://www.genremall.com/anthologiesr.htm#www4.

Red Moon Rising release date

The original plan had been to try to get this book out by MileHiCon, which is in less than eight weeks, but with last minute edits, and changes to the Sam's Dot Publishing schedule, that's just not doable, and I'm ok with that. I'd rather they put out the best version of the book that they can, as opposed to rushing the book.

So, the official release date for Red Moon Rising will be February 1st, 2011. I'll be bringing you more details about the book as we get closer to the release date.

Another Dr.'s appointment and a baby shower

We went to another Dr.'s appointment yesterday. Rebecca had to do the glucose test for gestational diabetes, and I know any woman who is reading this and has had to go through this just gagged. Everything is still looking good, although when the Dr. went to do the Doppler test so we could hear the heartbeat, our overly active little spaz of a child kicked the Doppler. It had us all laughing.

Today is the baby shower. Luckily it's not going to be a typical baby shower. It's just going to be a bunch of people sitting down and eating together. I don't think either of us could have put up with all of the ridiculous shower games...

Diesel e-books

Three of my books are now available from Diesel e-books. You can find them here:

Seedlings on the Solar Winds

Marionettes on the Moon

The Opium of the People

Just Because

A few years ago, Sam's Dot Publishing released a trade paperback that I edited called Just Because. This book was a collection of poems, essays, and stories by ProMart founder James Baker. For those of you that don't recognize the name, Jim, and his little publishing house ProMart, were responsible for helping a lot of writers get their careers started...including me. ProMart even published the works of a future Hugo nominee...so Jim obviously had an eye for talent.

I'd been editing for a while for Jim when he sent me a story by an unpublished author by the name of Tyree Campbell. This would be the first of many stories we would publish by Tyree, and when Jim was stricken with cancer, and we knew he wouldn't make it, it was Tyree who stepped up and took over the company...creating Sam's Dot Publishing.

After Jim's untimely death, I put together this anthology, and we released it as a trade paperback. Now Nomadic Delirium Press (the publisher I now run) has released the book as an e-book. You can get a chance to read some of Jim's works, and maybe get a sense of who he was. The book is also peppered with commentary from the people who knew him best...his ProMartians, as he called us...

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/21599

Time flies...or does it?

I'm still having trouble believing that the oldest started the fourth grade last week. Even harder to believe is that the youngest (soon to be middle) started kindergarten. It seems like they didn't even have a summer vacation.

Next Saturday (the 21st) will be our baby shower. This also will mark our three month anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married for three months. It seems like we just said, "I do."

At the same time, however, tomorrow marks the start of the third trimester for our next little nerd, which means we still have 12 weeks until the due date. It seems like Rebecca has been pregnant for almost a year, and I'm sure it seems even more so to her...given how sick she has been through this whole pregnancy.

So, is time flying, or is it dragging? I really have no idea...

Respect your editors and publishers

I've been working as an editor for more than a decade now, and there are some behaviors I've seen from writers that I consider disgusting. I'm not talking about not following guidelines, although that happens a lot. I've never edited anything that accepts horror, and yet I'm constantly inundated by it. I'm talking about things like sending nasty letters to an editor after they've rejected your work, trying to sell reprints as originals, slandering editors or publishers because they didn't want to accept your work, and anything else that might be similar.

It might seem hard to believe that writers can act this way, but they can, and believe me, they do! I used to comment on every piece I rejected, but at least once or twice a month I'd get a nasty e-mail back from a disgruntled author, and because of that, I rarely comment on author's work anymore, and that's a bad thing for authors. Feedback from an editor can be a real help to an aspiring writer, but because of a few childish people, fewer and fewer editors are giving feedback anymore.

In a sense, editors and publishers are something like a writer's employers and they should be treated as such. Most people aren't going to call their boss a jerk because their boss wasn't happy with their performance, but since the internet isn't face to face, people seem to have a lot more courage to act like fools.

One thing that writers don't seem to realize is that editors talk to one another, and if someone is misbehaving, there's a good chance that other editors will find out. If your work is rejected, and you're not happy with the rejection, then feel free to write a nasty rant to the publisher...but DON'T SEND IT!!!

Never try to sell first rights to a story that has already been published. It's simply a form of dishonesty, and no one likes dishonest people, plus when you get caught, a lot of other editors will find out, and it could end your career.

And whatever you do, don't go around posting nasty things about editors or publishers because they've rejected your work. You look foolish when you do it, and there's a good chance that other publishers and editors will read your rants, and they'll be much less likely to want to work with you...

The Genre Mall

As many of you may know, I run an on-line "store" for small press genre titles. The site is called The Genre Mall and it has been around for quite a few years.

Traffic and sales have been increasing at the site, and I'm working on ways to try to maximize this. The most obvious reason for doing this is that I've been looking for a "real" job for a while, and haven't had any luck, so we need any extra income we can get.

We're using three different approaches to try to increase income from The Genre Mall. The first, and most obvious, is that we've added donation buttons to a number of the pages. I've heard mixed reviews on taking donations from a wide variety of genre sites, so we'll see how this goes.

The second thing we're doing is contacting the publishers that have been with us for a while that we haven't had any recent updates from. We're hoping that they'll decide to stay with The Genre Mall, and that they'll have a lot of new titles to add.

The third thing we'll be doing is making a big push to sign up some more publishers.

All of this is a lot of work, and it really needs to pay off, or we may be forced to pull the plug because I can't invest a lot of time in something that doesn't pay off if I should happen to find a real job.

If all of this does pay off, then I'm hoping to make some changes to the site...mostly cleaning it up, and if it pays off big enough than I'm planning on setting up some kind of store front, because the current site is just too clunky right now, and I haven't been happy with it for quite some time...

A busy few weeks ahead of us

The next few weeks are going to be quite crazy around here. In addition to Rebecca working her usual hours, and me trying to find a job at the same time that I'm writing, editing, and doing game design, we have a lot of other things on our calendar.

Tuesday we're taking a tour of the hospital where the baby is going to be born. Immediately after that, we're going to back to school night at the girls' school. On Wednesday the oldest starts the 4th grade, and then the next Wednesday, the youngest starts Kindergarten (Where does the time go?)

At Rebecca's work, they're getting ready to do inventory, which means there's a lot for her to do, and she may even pick up a few extra hours if she can handle it. We certainly need the money, but I'm worried about her pushing herself to hard. Their official inventory date is the 19th. The day after that, we have a doctor's appointment, and this is for the glucose test, which I know any woman who has ever had a baby knows exactly what I'm talking about. Then on the 21st, we have a baby shower that one of Rebecca's friends has put together for her.

So, it will be a crazy few weeks...let's hope we make it through with whatever is left of our sanity...

A July recap

Since I seem to be blogging so much more than I used to, I figured I'd start doing recaps...just in case someone might have missed something important............

Seedlings Makes a Bestsellers List

It's About Time

Independence Day

Our Plans for the Day

An e-book Sale

Do you have a Sony e-reader?

Exhaustion creeps in

Writing short fiction again

Christmas in July

Got Nook?

Another Dr.'s appointment

A question for writers

Wedding pictures

The story is done

The story is done

I finished the YA SF story I've been working on and sent it off to a potential market. This is the first story I've finished in a couple of years, since most of my focus has been on finishing two novels, and writing material for the Ephemeris RPG, and I think it shows a little of the rust...but what do I know? I've always been my harshest critic. I guess we'll know what the publisher thinks in a couple of months.

Wedding Pictures

I've posted quite a few pictures from our wedding on my Facebook page. If you're interested, you can check them out at http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=188377&id=684032160

A question for writers

I know there are quite a few writers that read this blog, so I wanted to ask you what your opinion on e-book publishers are. I'm not asking for recommendations, but rather I want to know what people think about having their books released solely as e-books.

I know that I like the idea of having an actual print book, but then I'm a little old fashioned. I still do all of my revisions on paper. As a writer, how many of you would be willing to sell your work to a publisher that only does e-books?

Another Dr.'s appointment

We had another Dr.'s appointment today. Everything is progressing well with the baby so far. Rebecca grew more than expected, but actually lost a couple of pounds, so they're going to give her something stronger to fight the heartburn she's been having. Overall, things still look really good, and we're heading for that Nov. 6th due date.

Speaking of due dates, don't forget about our baby game that we're hosting...

http://jalanerwine.blogspot.com/2010/06/baby-game.html

Got nook?

If you're fortunate enough to have one of Barnes & Noble's Nooks, you can now purchase two of my titles for it...and the third, Seedlings on the Solar Winds should be available soon.

For now, you can order:

The Opium of the People: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/e/2940011061851

Marionettes on the Moon, and other stories: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/e/2940011056727

Christmas in July

A couple of sales involving some of my stuff that you might be interested in checking out, but these sales only last through Monday...

You can get 25% off any of the Ephemeris products by going to http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/dt_xmas_in_july.php?manufacturers_id=2805#selectpub

Or, you can get the top 20 selling Seedlings on the Solar Winds for 25% off by going to http://scifi.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=65440

Writing short fiction again

Over the last couple of years I haven't written any short fiction. My focus instead has been on the two novels that I recently finished and writing material for the Ephemeris RPG. As all of that is very time consuming, I haven't had the time to write short fiction.

Tonight, however, I finished the rough draft of a new short story, and surprisingly, it's a YA science fiction piece (kind of a departure for me). I still have a lot of revisions to do on the story, as my short story skills are a bit rusty, but it feels good to be writing in the short form again, and hopefully I'll have something ready to submit in the next week or two.

Exhaustion creeps in

I haven't been sleeping much of late. There's just so much going on, and I seem to be having trouble keeping up with it. Rebecca is still not feeling good, so I basically don't let her help around the house anymore...and since she feels so bad, she let's me get my way (this time). That leaves just about everything to me, although the kids do help some, but unfortunately it can be more work getting them to do what needs to be done than it would be if I just did it myself.

In addition, the oldest starts 4th grade in two and a half weeks, and the youngest (soon to be middle) starts kindergarten in three and a half weeks, so we've had to get them new clothes and get all of their school supplies. Add to all of this the fact that I'm STILL trying to find a "real" job, while still trying to write, edit, and work on new products for Ephemeris, and it all starts to wear on me.

I'm not complaining, not in the least. I wouldn't trade my family for anything, but I wouldn't mind a day where all I had to do was lay around and read...that would be SO nice...and I can't remember the last time it happened.

With all of this stress, plus the severe financial stress we find ourselves in, things are just weighing on me, and it's cutting into my sleep...plus it's been pretty damn hot, and I don't like the heat!

Just so you don't think I'm doing nothing but bitching, a lot of good things have been happening. All of our baby check-ups have gone really well, which is the best news in the world. I've also started writing short fiction again, which I'm very excited about.

E-book versions of my works have also been doing pretty well. Seedlings on the Solar Winds is still in the top 20 at DriveThruSciFi, and several of my titles are now available at Smashwords...with a couple of them on sale for the rest of July.

So, think of this not as a vent, but an update...yeah, that's what it was...

Do you have a Sony e-reader?

If you do, two of my titles are now available through the Sony store. You can pick up Marionettes on the Moon or Seedlings on the Solar Winds at http://ebookstore.sony.com/search?keyword=Erwine. At some point in the future, The Opium of the People should also be available from Sony.

An e-book sale

Smashwords currently has my novel, The Opium of the People, and my short story collection, Seedlings on the Solar Winds on sale for 25% off. Simply go to http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nomadicdelirium and click on the title for ordering information.

Jim Baker's novel The Poet is also available at 25% off.

Our plans for the day

I spent the morning watching the Tour de France, and now I'm trying to get some work done, but the kids are pretty wound up because they get to see fireworks tonight, so it's a bit difficult at this point.

Rebecca is going to get off early tonight. She hasn't seen fireworks with the kids because she always seems to be working on the night of the 4th, and the last two years the kids were in Texas visiting Grandma, so I haven't gotten to watch them with the kids either. When she gets home from work I'm going to fix the traditional American dish of hamburgers and french fries. After dinner, we'll pop up some popcorn and then head out to our balcony. We have a great view of the Aurora fireworks, so we don't have to leave the house and deal with the crowds.

So, Happy Independence Day everyone. Please be safe!

Independence Day

I've spent part of the morning trying to explain Independence Day to the kids. I want them to understand that it means a lot more than just blowing shit up. The nine year old seems to be getting it a little, but the five year old is just kind of shrugging her shoulders...which is what five year olds do when you tell them just about anything.

I really want them to understand that this holiday really means more than getting drunk and lighting off fireworks (which is what most Americans seem to think it means.) I've never been what you would consider a hardcore patriot. Even though I think the US is great, and I'm happy to be living here, I also think that we have a lot of problems that needed to be fixed a while ago. I also think that the longer we go with politics as usual, the worse those problems are going to get. I do not, however, think that the exploits of the Tea Party are a way of solving our problems. Even though I do think the US is a great place, I think that in the last decade we've seen a definite rise in racism and classism, and I think these could be the ultimate downfall of our country. We've also seen a huge turn back towards fundamental religions, which is the opposite direction of where we need to be headed.

So, while you're enjoying your fireworks tonight, please take a few moments to remember what it was that made this country great...and hopefully we can rediscover that in our country and in ourselves very soon...

It's about time

The Law Enforcer's Sourcebook for the Ephemeris RPG was finally released today. This supplement took me a long time to write. It wasn't that it was long, or that the subject matter was difficult to write about, but rather, life has just been so damn crazy. With the wedding, the approaching baby, the kids being out of school, looking for a real job, finishing a novel, and all of the other things that have been going on, this one just kind of got pushed to the back burner, but it's out now.

The Law Enforcer's Sourcebook

Next on the agenda for Ephemeris will be The Diplomat and Explorer's Sourcebook. It hasn't been decided for sure, but it looks like we'll put the two character classes into one supplement...but we'll have to see how things develop.

We'd still like feedback on what materials people would like us to release once the character sourcebooks are done, so please feel free to let me know.

Seedlings makes a bestsellers list

My short story collection, Seedlings on the Solar Winds has reached the top 25 at DriveThruSciFi. This is an e-book market, and I'm very excited to see this book reach such heights...although I wouldn't mind seeing it rise even higher (hint, hint).

To see the complete Top 100, go to http://scifi.drivethrustuff.com/top_100.php. You'll also find Marionettes on the Moon on this list as well.

A busy month of blogging

I tend to not be a very active blogger. I usually post 5-10 entries a month, but June was different. In June, I posted 16 entries. Apparently there was a lot I had to talk about. In case you missed anything, here are links to all of my June entries...

I'm no longer an Amazon Associate

Working, working, working

Seedlings on the Solar Winds is an e-book

Opium of the People as an e-book

A menagerie of links

Red Moon Rising has been delivered

A reminder about The Martian Wave

Marionettes on the Moon is now an e-book

A discount on the e-book version of The Opium of the People

An Ephemeris update

Catching up on life

Revamping the blog

An end of June wrap-up

Second Ultrasound

The Baby Game

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 9

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 9

For those of you that have been following my blog for a while, you're probably aware that I do editing work for Sam's Dot Publishing. With each on-line issue, we let the readers vote for the best stories and poems, and then those stories and poems are put together in an Anthology which we call Wondrous Web Worlds...WWW, get it?
This year we're releasing number 9, and I'm proud to say that I've edited every single one of these books.

If you're interested in ordering a copy, you can find it at http://www.genremall.com/anthologiesr.htm#www9.

And here's what's in the latest edition:

Welcome once more to the worlds of science fiction, fantasy, and a bit of the dark side. In this edition you will find Mormon Bohemians, Pleiades, androids that smoke, the astronomy of Van Gogh, the value of love when it is irretrievably lost, and so very much more. You'll find in here people very much like yourselves, in strange worlds that you have yet to discover.
Come meet them.
Contents
Helen B. Henderson: Pirate Reprise
Marsheila Rockwell: Seven Sisters
Timothy Mudie: Machines, Post-Humans, and the Rest of Us
Terrie Leigh Relf: Protocols Are For Dummies
Donaya Haymond: Attempts to be a Mormon Bohemian
Andrea Fakete: Water
Rick Novy: Thrice Around The Earth And Then Home, James
Fariel Shafee: Martian Flower
Richard S. Levine: Light Echo
Karen A. Romanko: When Robots Found Religion
Richard Windle: The Summoner
Tracy Meleca: What is the Answer . . . What is the Question?
Tyree Campbell: Suttee
John Nichols: How We Fell
Lee Gimenez: Android #6
Jaime Lee Moyer: Blood Is Not Red On The Moon
Jennifer Brinn: The Unicorn Hunter
Kendall Evans: Death Spin
Anne Stringer: In Jupiter's Shadow
Aurelio Rico Lopez III: Colonization
Ian Brazee-Cannon: Naked Diplomacy
Bruce Boston: Terminal Velocity
Richard E. D. Jones: Countdown
Meet the Contributors

The Baby Game

Everyone always wants to guess when a baby is going to be born, and some people even put together pools for their friends. Well, Rebecca and I have decided that all of our internet friends need to be involved in a game like this, so we're going to set up a pool on my blog. We want you guys to guess the date that the baby is going to be born, and how much it's going to weigh. Whoever gets the date right, and comes the closest to getting the weight right will win their choice of either two of my books (winner's choice), or a $25 gift card from Barnes & Noble. If the weight splits between two entries, then whoever picks the right gender will be the winner.

VERY IMPORTANT RULE: My blog feeds all across the internet, so only entries made at http://jalanerwine.blogspot.com will be considered.

So, if you'd like to play, go to my main blog address and post your answer in the comments section. We need the date the baby will be born, how much it will weigh, and whether or not it will be a boy or a girl.

And for the record, the due date is Nov. 6th.

Second ultrasound

We went for our second ultrasound, and it looks like everything is going as planned with the baby. We also got the blood work back that tests for things like Downs Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and such. All of those came back negative, so things are definitely looking good.

Unfortunately, they couldn't get any really good pictures, which is odd since we were watching it suck its thumb and had lots of good views of other odd things it was doing. We've decided that we don't want to learn the gender. This way we can get a nice surprise when the baby is actually born.

An end of June wrap-up

June has been a crazy busy month, but on the surface, it doesn't look like I have much to show for it. In the next few days, The Law Enforcers' Sourcebook for the Ephemeris RPG will be out, and I did finish the final revisions on Red Moon Rising, and I'll hopefully have a release date for that soon.

Other than that, I got a lot done, but not much of it really shows...interesting.

On a more personal note, we go for an ultrasound tomorrow, and as far as I know, we will not be finding out what the baby's gender is. And still the job hunt goes on...

Revamping the blog

I'm usually several years behind on what's going on on the Internet, and this blog has been showing it. I've gone through and revamped it a bit, adding in options to allow people to post what I'm saying elsewhere, although I'm not sure why they'd want to...and adding a few other new features.

Not really sure what I think of it yet, but we'll see...

Catching up on life

Today is our one month anniversary, so I celebrated it by starting the job hunt once again. I'm not very optimistic about finding anything given that very few places are hiring, but we do need the extra income, especially with the baby on the way, so I shall look.

Speaking of the baby, one of Rebecca's friends is going to be putting together a baby shower, so we put together our baby registry through Target last night. It was very hard to do because Target seems to charge a lot for things that shouldn't cost so much. Therefore we'll be telling people that we need clothes and receiving blankets from anywhere, because Target just charges way too much! Of course, we'll also tell people that they can get us stuff from this site because they actually have some really cool baby stuff. I especially like the Star Trek onesies.

We're still trying to get the youngest (soon to be middle) child ready for Kindergarten, but she's bound and determined to not learn how to write her letters. She just doesn't seem to care...

An Ephemeris update

The one thing that's fallen through the cracks the most lately has been the Ephemeris RPG. With everything that's been going on, I've just had trouble finding the time to work on stuff for the game, but I am still working. The Law Enforcer's Sourcebook will be out in early July, and then there will just be a few more character class sourcebooks to finish.

For now, however, there are a couple of Ephemeris sales that you should know about. The publisher, Nomadic Delirium Press, is having a sale on all of the products, with savings up to 50%. You can find that sale at http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/store.htm.

There has also been a bundle put together at DriveThruRpg that features all of the Ephemeris titles for just $23...a great deal. You can find that one at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=81841&filters=0_0_0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2805.

Both of these sales end on June 30th, so there's not a lot of time to take advantage of them...

A discount on the e-book version of The Opium of the People

If you're interested in reading the e-book version of my first novel, The Opium of the People, you can pick it up for $3.95 by entering the discount code QJ52F when you check out at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16609. That's $1.00 off the list price.

This discount is only available to readers of this blog (and the half dozen feeds of this blog elsewhere on the net), and it only lasts until the end of the month, so take advantage of this sale while you have the chance.

And also remember that you don't need an e-reader to download a copy of the book. You can read it right on your computer if you'd like.

Marionettes on the Moon is now an e-book

My second short story collection, Marionettes on the Moon, is now available as an e-book, and it's just 99 cents. This was the collection that looked at whether or not mankind has control over their destiny with 13 stories about characters trying to take control of their lives.

Like The Opium of the People and Seedlings on the Solar Winds, this book is available for a wide variety of e-books. They're even available in PDF, rtf, or text for people to read on their computers.

You can find it at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16865.

A reminder about The Martian Wave

I just wanted to remind everyone that the premier issue of The Martian Wave is still available at The Genre Mall. For years The Martian Wave had been a webzine first produced by ProMart Publishing and then later by Sam's Dot Publishing. For most of those years, I was the editor, and I moved right along with the zine when it went to print.

There's a great list of names in this issue, so you really should order a copy...

stories
Steve De Beer: Adaptor
Tyree Campbell: Somewhere With Mornings
Dan Thompson: Prize Crew
Keith P. Graham: The Reefs of Jove
Patty Jansen: Luminescence
Bret Tallman: Into the Silence Flies a Moth
Rick Novy: The Pillars of Europa
Lawrence Dagstine: The Great Martian Depression
poems
Shelly Bryant: Bypassed
Justin Bohardt: The Barren Wastes
s.c. virtes: another pit for sale
Marge Simon: A Hollander's Secret Weapon: 1609
Marge Simon: Hindsight

Red Moon Rising has been delivered

I've just finished the final revisions on Red Moon Rising, and I've sent it off to Sam's Dot Publishing. This book has been more than 15 years in the making. I first started working on it before I'd ever even sold a story, but now it is done, and I can move on with my life.

I will be sure to let everyone know when I have a release date...I'm expecting it to be this fall, but I don't have anything specific yet.

A menagerie of links

Rather than post several blog entries, I'm just condensing everything into this one.

For readers of Aoife's Kiss, The Genre Mall is having a sale on the first 24 issues of this great magazine from Sam's Dot Publishing. You can order them for just $3 + shipping & handling. Several of the issues feature stories from me. http://www.genremall.com/zines.htm

Speaking of sales, Nomadic Delirium Press is having a sale on Ephemeris products, with discounts on all of the titles. The sale only lasts through the end of June, so if you play the game, or if you'd like to play the game, now's your chance to pick up everything you need. http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/store.htm

Two of my books are now available as e-books, and they can be read on most readers, or on your computer...

Seedlings on the Solar Winds: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16551

The Opium of the People: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16609

Also available is James Baker's novel, The Poet. Jim's the editor who first published my work, and he's also the one who got me into editing. His novel can be found at: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16552

Opium of the People as an e-book as well

My first novel, The Opium of the People, which was first published by ProMart Publishing and then later re-released by Nomadic Delirium Press has been turned into an e-book that should be readable by most readers...this includes people on computers that want an rtf or PDF file...so you don't necessarily have to have an e-reader.

You can find Opium at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16609.

Seedlings on the Solar Winds is an e-book

My short story collection, Seedlings on the Solar Winds, and other stories is now available as an e-book for a wide variety of e-readers. You can find it at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16551.

It's currently listed as being by Nomadic Delirium, the publisher, but I think it should be changing over to being by me at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, revisions continue on Red Moon Rising.

Working, working, working

Rebecca went back to work on Thursday, so my lazy couple of weeks of work came to an end. I've posted several new titles to The Genre Mall, I've updated the Sam's Dot website, and I've gotten back to work on the revisions of Red Moon Rising.

Tyree suggested a few more changes to the book, which I'm working on, and I'm also adding a few details, thanks to the morons at BP. In the book, I've mentioned several times about oil leaks into the Gulf of Mexico, and a few early readers had mentioned that didn't seem all that plausible...but I kept them in any way. And now I get to add details from an actual spill. It's a nice little piece of synchronicity, but in truth, I'd rather it never happened. I feel so bad for the people and the animals along the Gulf. This will be an accident of epic proportions, and I think it will take a long time for the Gulf to recover...if it ever does. And I also don't think this will be the last time this happens. Government regulations on off-shore drilling have never been tight enough, and I doubt that they can really tighten them now. Big Oil owns too many politicians in Washington...sort of a theme of the novel...

I'm hoping to get the revisions back to Tyree in the next couple of weeks. Then I'm hoping we'll be going for a September release, although I think October might be more practical. If we get a September release, I'm going to try to set up one signing here in Denver before MileHiCon. After the Con, there just won't be enough time for me to do signings, since the baby is due just a couple of weeks after the Con.

I'm no longer an Amazon Associate

It came as quite a surprise to me when I got a payment from Amazon for my Associates account that was smaller than their minimum payment. But it came as an even greater surprise a couple of days later when I got a letter from them telling me that they'd completed closing my account.

I never asked them to close my account, so I was quite confused. An e-mail to them got the response that my account had been closed because I live in Colorado, and the Colorado government had recently enacted a law taxing on-line merchants.

This was all understandable, and I can actually agree with Amazon's decision to close the Colorado Associates accounts, but I don't agree with their decision to do it without contacting the associates themselves. What if I hadn't e-mailed them? Would I have ever found out? Still, I can't say that I'm actually unhappy with Amazon, because this is pretty much business as usual for them.

Look for all of the associate links to disappear from my site over the next few days.

The wedding

The wedding has now come and gone, and what a great day it was. We had to give up a lot of the things we'd wanted when we first decided to get married, and we weren't very happy about that. Of course, people kept telling us that when the day came, it wouldn't matter what we'd given up...all that would matter is that we were married. It seemed kind of crazy to us, but in the end, they were right. Not much of what we did was traditional, but it was a great day, with just one minor problem...

We got to the park a little late for pictures, but those all went well, and we had a lot of fun with it. We took the pics with the fathers first because we needed them to go pick up the cake and deliver it to the restaurant. When we'd first talked to King Soopers about doing the cake, they'd said they would deliver it, but when we ordered it, they said they wouldn't...should have been a warning sign. Shortly after the fathers left to get the cake, her dad called me to let me know that King Soopers hadn't made the cake. Even though the order form clearly said 5/21, they thought it was for Saturday. I don't know how much hell her dad raised, but we ended up getting half the price of the cake back, and they did a rush on it, so we could pick it up after the ceremony. Of course, when we picked it up, it was a little lopsided. I'd said all along that if anything went wrong, it would be the cake, and thanks to King Soopers, I was right.

After the pics, we went to the courthouse to do the ceremony, and we had a great judge who performed a very nice ceremony. Neither of us collapsed during the ceremony, and Rebecca only cried a little...or so she says.

We had our reception at the Macaroni Grille, and they did a great job. The food was good, the service was awesome, and they did everything they could to make sure that Rebecca and I didn't have to worry about anything.

We had a great time talking with family and old friends. A lot of people we wanted there couldn't make it, but we still had a good time. Cowardly me even got up and did three toasts. The first was to my "new" family. The second was to all of our guests, and the third was to the "people" who couldn't be with us. Those "people" were Jim Baker, Joe Mackey, KJ, and Rebecca's brother Danny. That toast brought a few tears to some eyes.

After that, we left for our brief honeymoon in downtown Denver...not the honeymoon we really wanted, but still a good time.

Prairie Dog Massacre

Many long time readers of this blog will know that I'm a nature lover. Even though we live in the city, there is a large field and a wooded area near us. Over the years, we've seen all kinds of animals around here. For birds we see all of the normal birds plus a lot of hawks. We even see an occasional egret or bald eagle. For furry critters, we have squirrels and rabbits, and even an occasional deer or coyote. But more than anything, we have lots and lots of prairie dogs...hundreds or even thousands, or at least we did.

Today, Denver Water came through and killed most of them. They dropped poison down the holes, and then collapsed the holes. I have no idea of why they would do this. We know that they're going to be putting in some new sewer lines at the farm on the other side of the field, but considering that there's a creek between these prairie dogs and the farm, it's kind of hard to believe that these lines will be in the area with these dogs. The fact that there are apartments on the side of the field with the dogs means that they can't run the lines to the street, so there doesn't seem to be a logical reason for the massacre.

I know a lot of people hate prairie dogs, thinking that they're just disease carrying rodents, but it's really not true. They actually serve an important role in the ecosystem around here, and even though a colony will occasionally be infected with the plague or some other nasty disease, how many diseases are humans passing around amongst themselves?

The simple fact is that we love our prairie dogs around here. They're fairly intelligent creatures, and we love to watch them, especially since we've learned a little about them. We're also questioning the timing of this slaughter. The young have only been out for a couple of weeks, so it seems very inhumane to kill all of them. If there really was a logical reason for this massacre, why not do it in the fall before the adults breed?

Plus, they did leave some of them alive, and they left some of the hole untouched, so if there was a logical reason for doing this, why would they leave some of them alive. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Overall, we are quite pissed with Denver Water. We're trying to get an answer for why this massacre has happened, but so far, we haven't heard anything.

FlashForward

It looks like ABC has decided to cancel FlashForward. I'm not much of a TV watcher, but this is the one show every week that I actually looked forward to. I also watched Caprica and V, but neither of those story lines come close to comparing to FlashForward.

I worry about Caprica because of the way BSG ended. The last thing we need is another deus ex machina ending. Any writer will tell you that's the worst way to end a story, and as for V, I mostly watch it because it's SF, although I don't think it's anywhere near as good as the cheesy 80's TV show.

FlashForward was different from most SF TV, however. The show had an intellectual edge, but at the same time, you didn't have to understand the physics they were talking about to enjoy it. I think the biggest thing that made the show different from other TV shows on today is that the drama between the characters was more realistic, which is probably why it didn't succeed. People want to watch shows like Grey's Anatomy, where the drama between characters doesn't really resemble anything in the real world. In that show, as well as a lot of other shows, people are sleeping around like crazy, which I think is what some people dream their lives could be like. In FF, when Olivia starts to feel an attraction towards Lloyd, she doesn't just jump into bed with him. That resembles reality a lot more. Most people don't have an affair just to have sex with someone else, they have an affair because they're having troubles with their significant other, and they feel an attraction towards someone else, and then over time, that leads to the affair. This is how FF dealt with the issue.

Most of the drama between characters was like this. It resembled what we see in the real world, and that is what drew me to it, and like I said, probably what turned others off.

Was the acting sometimes a bit stiff? Yes. Was some of the writing not the best? Yes, but these are true of most shows when they start out...especially SF. Look at the first two seasons of ST:TNG or the first season of Babylon 5. They had some horrible acting, and some really bad story telling, but the series grew into their own, and turned out great. I really think this is what would have happened with FF.

There are people trying to save the show on ABC, and others trying to get another network to pick it up, and I'm certainly hopeful that something will happen. There is a petition making the rounds to try to get ABC to save the show, if you want to sign it, go to http://www.petitiononline.com/47110815/petition-sign.html.

Honeymoon, wedding, and such

I have to admit that when Sam's Dot started the drive to raise money for us to go on a honeymoon, I really didn't expect much out of it, but people have been great, and we really appreciate it!!!

We aren't going to be able to take our dream honeymoon of going to Taos, but we will be able to get away for a couple of days. We're just getting a hotel in downtown Denver, and we're going to see some of the sites of our hometown that she's certainly never seen, and that I might not have seen. Certainly not what we were hoping for, but still a nice chance to spend some time together, and we have a lot of generous people to thank for that, and we are truly grateful. Not going to Taos might also be a good thing because Rebecca still isn't feeling very good, and who wants to drive six hours when you feel like you're going to throw up all the time?

We are pretty much done with all of our wedding planning. We got our license yesterday, and now we just need for next Friday to get here. Family starts to arrive on Tuesday, so that means I will spend most of the weekend cleaning...and you thought a writer's life was glamorous? Silly readers...

A Mother's Day update

As the BIG DAY approaches, things keep getting more and more hectic around here, but we still took some time out for a nice little Mother's Day. The oldest got her a bath set and made her a bird house in school. The youngest got her a lavender scented candle. I got her a very large picture frame. It holds seven pictures, so I put one of each of the girls, one of the girls together, one of me, one of the ultrasound picture, a picture of Mikey (the turtle), and a picture of our beloved K.J. (our wonderful cat who passed away earlier this year). She loved all of the gifts, and then she had to go to work. Mothers should not have to work on Mother's Day. If she's feeling good enough when she gets off, we're going to take her out to dinner.

We have most everything done for the wedding now. There are a few more odds and ends that we need to take care of, and we need to get our license...and then I need to clean, clean, clean our place.

Writing and such has taken a bit of a hit. I'd hoped to get the Law Enforcer's Sourcebook for the Ephemeris RPG done before the wedding, but now it looks like that will be June. I also got Tyree's editorial notes for Red Moon Rising, and there's quite a bit of work that needs to be done to get that into shape before it comes out this fall. I'd hoped to get through most of that before the wedding as well, but it looks like that too will fall by the wayside.

For now, we're just all trying to keep our sanity here. Simple weddings should not be this stressful...

Sam's Dot tries to save our honeymoon

As mentioned in a previous post, Rebecca and I have been having financial difficulties, and those problems were leading us to the logical conclusion that we were going to have to cancel our honeymoon. Well, Tyree at Sam's Dot Publishing has stepped forward in an effort to save our honeymoon.

Sam's Dot now has a donation page set up on their website for anyone that wants to help us out. Tyree's always been a classy guy, and this is just further evidence of that.

http://samsdotpublishing.com/honeymoon.htm

Many thanks to Tyree, everyone at Sam's Dot, and all of our friends...the ones we know, and the ones we don't...

Five new stories at Anthology Builder

I've mentioned Anthology Builder in previous blog posts. It's a great site where you can build your own anthology from a wide variety of stories. I now have five new stories up on their site. Those stories are:

Hunted
The Magenta Equations
Forgive Men their Trespasses
Tranquility
When Living is a Crime

It's really a great site, and I would recommend that you check it out...

http://www.anthologybuilder.com/authordetails.php?byline=J%20Alan%20Erwine

Bye bye honeymoon?

It looks like due to financial reasons, we're going to have to cancel our honeymoon. Like a lot of people in America, we've had a tough year financially. I'm still underemployed, with just writing, editing, and game design monies coming in...and there's not a lot of that. My unemployment ran out months ago, and I still haven't found work. On top of that, we've had a lot of unexpected expenses come up. Both of the girls have been to the doctor more this year than in previous years. It's never been anything serious, but the bills do add up...even with insurance, plus Rebecca's health has been far from great. On top of that, last week we had to get glasses for the oldest, and our insurance saved us a whopping $30...which means they were pretty expensive. And of course, earlier in the year we had all of the cat drama. Poor K.J. passed away, and we had to get his remains back, and at the same time, we had all the vet expenses of saving Mosi. All of these things added up to well over $1,000, and that pretty much tapped out our reserves.

A few people on Facebook have suggested setting up registries or asking for donations. Unfortunately, we only have three weeks left, and I don't think there would be enough time for us to get the money we need. Plus, I've always been the type of person who is very uncomfortable with the idea of asking for help. If it was something serious, then maybe, but this is just a honeymoon, so we may just have to say goodbye to our trip to Taos...