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.