Save 30% off of Manic Musings of a Maniacal Mind

 

For more than two decades, science fiction editors have been publishing the works of J Alan Erwine, exposing you, the reader, to the dark recesses of the author’s mind. Now, all of those stories have been combined together into one massive tome. Get a glimpse into Erwine’s grim view of the future, and explore the universe from his slightly off-kilter point of view. You can download this massive tome for 30% off, but only for a limited time at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/877392

The Smashwords sale continues

 

Remember, I still have a 30% off sale running at Smashwords. You can pick up my short story collections and my novels all at a great savings. And there are a few free short stories there as well. I just ask that if you read those, please review them. If you're looking for science fiction writing that is somewhat off kilter from what you're used to, then you just might like my fiction. Please check it out at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jaerwine

Fiction Month is half over

From the Nomadic Delirium Press Blog:

The month of September is now half over, and that means that Fiction Month is also half over at Nomadic Delirium Press. Have you saved 30% off of our fiction titles yet? You can save on novels, collections and anthologies at DriveThruFiction by going to https://www.drivethrufiction.com/browse/pub/2805/Nomadic-Delirium-Press or at Smashwords by going to https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nomadicdelirium. We know there are several of our titles that you’ve been wanting to check out, so now’s your chance.

And if magazines are more your style, well, don’t forget that you can download all 60 zines that we have published for just $12 at https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/451677/. Whether it’s The Martian Wave, The Fifth Di…, Spaceports & Spidersilk, Environmental Holocaust, or Mundanities….they’re all there.

 

You're running out of time for your third Taste of the Madness

 

Very soon now, A Taste of the Madness Vol. 3 will be disappearing from Amazon, and you will no longer be able to order it, so you need to do it soon…https://amzn.to/3ZnNKwv And remember, for Kindle Unlimited members, the download is FREE!

The third volume is here!
A collection of six previously published short stories, that are available only for a limited time. Travel to distant planets and travel to different mad visions that prize-winning sf author J Alan Erwine has come up with, but beware, you can never be sure where his weird mind might take you.
Again, this collection is only available for a very limited time.

Does the economy have to be growing?

 I’ve been reading a lot of eco-fiction lately, and I’m even working on a story that somewhat falls into that genre, and it all got me thinking about a conversation I’d had with a friend many years ago. Both of us were quite political, but didn’t always see eye to eye on things. He was a card carrying Democrat, and pretty much bought everything the dems said and did. I, on the other hand, have always been an adamant supporter of the destruction of the two-party system. I see both parties, with the exclusion of other parties, as an evil that the US can’t survive.

Now, on this particular day, we were discussing the economy. He made the observation that the American economy was like a flower. It had to either be growing or dying. I looked at him for what was probably ten seconds, because it just didn’t make any sense to me, and then I finally countered with my point of view.

The American economy is not like a flower, but rather the individuals within that economy are the flowers, growing richer or poorer. The American economy was more like the field of flowers. Some flowers are growing and some are dying, but the overall status of the field is to remain stable. Nature survives best with stability, so it was my point of view that the US economy should remain stable, rather than constantly trying to grow.

To this day, I still say that the American ideal of constantly growing the economy, and the GDP, is one of the biggest problems America faces. We’re so caught up in growth that we’re destroying everything else, and ultimately, our system will fail. And it doesn’t matter what any Democrat or Republican might tell you…their focus is in making the corporations of America richer…and that does not work in favor of “We the People.”

The importance of reviews

 

You will often hear writers asking, yes, maybe even begging for reviews. I can certainly understand this behavior. The most simple reason why we’re always asking for reviews is because the more reviews a book or story has, the more likely it is that the market will show the product to more readers. This is especially true with Amazon. In order to have much hope of being seen on a main page of Amazon, an author will almost always have to have 10 reviews or more.

Another reason for asking for reviews is because not everyone is going to like a piece that you create. It doesn’t matter if you’re JK Rowling, Robert Sawyer, or even little ol’ me, there will be readers that don’t like your work, and if those are the only readers reviewing your work, you have less chance of reaching more readers.

A good example is my short short story (yes, the two shorts are intentional) “Lost in the Dark.” One reader refers to it as “Extremely implausible,” while another reader refers to it as “Good angst, totally identifiable protagonist. Nice (one more time – short) story.”

Who’s right? Well, both of them actually are…at least in their opinions. So, if only the first review was posted, people would be less likely to want to read the story, so reviews are good so that people can see all possible sides of a story.

So, in short, review an author’s work. They’ve put a lot of effort into whatever you’re reading, and they deserve at least a few words of praise. And, oh yeah, definitely make sure you review my work if you’ve liked it! I can genuinely tell you that I will be highly appreciative of your effort on my behalf!

A new Smashwords Sale

 

For the rest of this month, I’ve listed all of my novels and short story collections at 30% off through Smashwords. So, if you like science fiction, especially science fiction that doesn’t give you what you might expect, then I think you should check this sale out. You can find it at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jaerwine

In addition to the novels and collections, I’ve also listed some of my individual short stories for free. All I ask in payment is that if you like one of the stories that you read for free, please review it. Reviews are what really makes a writer’s career, so I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve tried to list a variety of stories for free, so you can get a taste for my wide array of writing styles…and bizarre interests…

The Rocks on the Other Side Book of Characters

 

From the Nomadic Delirium Press Blog:

Whether you’re looking for characters to use in an adventure, or non-player characters to help or challenge your characters, this book gives you 50 characters that you can quickly insert into any Rocks on the Other Side adventure. This book focuses more on lower level characters, as the game is still young, but there are still plenty of higher level characters featured towards the end of the book.

Due to the format of this book, it is only available as a paperback from Amazon or a PDF from DriveThruRPG.

Order from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH2B7B6D

Order from DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/451636/

Would you like to download all of our zines?

 

From the Nomadic Delirium Press Blog:

As part of NDP Fiction month, we’ve made a very special bundle available through DriveThruFiction. You can download every zine that we’ve ever published for just $12. That’s every copy of The Martian Wave, The Fifth Di…, Spaceports & Spidersilk, Mundanities, and Ecotastrophe that Nomadic Delirium Published. All totaled, that’s 60 individual magazines for 20 cents a piece. Surely you have $12 laying around that will give you enough material to read on these very hot days.

Order today at https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/451677/

 

August's Bestseller

 

It looks like people wanted to game last month. My bestseller for August was The Ephemeris Encyclopedia Galactica. A very nice addition to any Ephemeris game that you might be playing.

Order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3sEpslJ

Order from DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/354466/

Order from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1080614

Fiction Month at NDP

 

From the Nomadic Delirium Press Blog:
September is fiction month here at Nomadic Delirium Press, and for you, our beloved readers, this means that you can save 30% all month on novels, short story collections, and anthologies...and believe us, we have a lot of these for you to browse.

Start shopping today at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nomadicdelirium or at DriveThruFiction: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/browse/pub/2805/

Grumbles from the Grave

 

Last month, I posted about Yours, Isaac Asimov, a collection of letters from one of my biggest influences. I loved to read correspondence from people I admired, even though I am definitely not a letter writer myself, although it makes me kind of wish I was...

Today, I'm posting about another letter collection. This one from another huge influence, Robert A. Heinlein. I loved reading Heinlein as a kid, and even if I thought some of his later stuff got a little strange, when I found out there was a collection of his letters, I had to get it. And that was how I found Grumbles from the Grave. Although the organization of the book can be a bit jarring, you get a look at what he thought being a writer meant, as well as many of his personal views (not all of which I agree with, but then we shouldn't all agree anyway.) He also gives a look at his relationship with his agent...those you'll just have to read for yourself to see exactly how he felt.

If you're a Heinlein fan, and you enjoy reading letter collections, this one is a must have. Order today from Amazon at https://amzn.to/3KYoWWa.

A project I haven't mentioned

As always, I have numerous projects going on...short stories, a novel, RPG supplements, yeah, just my typical workload, but one project that I haven't mentioned is that I'm currently working on rewriting James Baker's novel Goatherds and Gods.

For those of you unfamiliar with the name James Baker, let me give you the backstory. Jim, as I knew him, was one of the pioneers of the science fiction and fantasy small presses. He helped to launch the careers of many small press writers, myself included, and a few of his early authors have also gone on to bigger things in the large press. Jim ran a small press publishing company, ProMart Publishing, out of his apartment in California. His early publications were, about what you'd expect from an older gentleman working at Taco Bell, they were photocopied and comb bound magazines. And, yes, sometimes you'd even find a page that the copier hadn't fed properly. Although the magazines weren't the glossy zines you saw from the major publishers at the time, or even that you see from the small press publishers now, there was a high quality of work in those magazines.

Some of the names of those magazines...Star*Anthology, Just Because, The Fifth Di..., and The Martian Wave. Yes, anyone that has followed my career probably knows that I continued to edit those last two magazines up until a few years ago. And even now, those magazines are still alive at Hiraeth Publishing. I can't think of any other zines from that time that are still around today. And why are they still alive? Because of Jim.

He kept a stable of authors, poets, and artists around to him that in many ways he took care of and nurtured, and even though Jim could be cantankerous (his word for himself), he took care of those that worked for him. Through emails and phone calls, Jim would help authors nurture their stories. I always thought of it as a small press version of what John Campbell created during the Gold Era of science fiction. Jim referred to us as his ProMartins.

When Jim passed away in 2002, I became the steward of his work. His novel The Poet, was released by Nomadic Delirium Press, and I put together a collection of his short stories, poems and essays that I titled Just Because, in honor of one of those old magazines. His second novel, Goatherds and Gods was never re-released however. I always loved this book, but I didn't want to release it in the format that it was in. As Jim liked to say, he loved to write, but he hated to rewrite, and the book clearly showed that. It also showed that I had a lot to learn about editing...

So, the book has sat waiting, and now, I've finally decided that it's time to rework the book. Jim was good about having talking heads in his stories...lots of dialogue with no attribution, and he also had a tendency to drop large amounts of information...telling, rather than showing. The story is amazing, and I really want to share it with people, so, this is my task now. I'm rewriting the book, and hopefully making it relevant to readers 20 years later. It will still be very much Jim's voice, but hopefully it will be easier to follow and understand. I owe it to the man to make it the best book that I possibly can.

If you'd like to get a taste of Jim's work, please check out Just Because. It gives a great taste of who he was, and it also features some notes from those of us that knew him. I will warn you that much of the work is raw, as some of it was just drafts that I had on file.

And if you read the last story, "Doppleganger," which could have been a third novel for him, you might get an idea of what I might be rewriting in the future...

Order Just Because from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGMBYVYQ

 

Last week of our RPG sale

 

From the Nomadic Delirium Press Blog:

This is the last week of our RPG sale at DriveThruRPG and Smashwords. So, this is your last chance to save 50% off of all of our RPG titles. This includes core rulebooks, adventures, and supplements...so it's now time for you to stock up on everything you need for those gaming nights!

Shop DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2805

Shop Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nomadicdelirium

 

Marionettes on the Moon is the Deal of the Day

 

For the next 24 hours, you can pick up the re-release of my collection Marionettes on the Moon for just $2.

Do Humans control their destiny, or are they merely victims of the circumstances that surround them?

A collection of short stories from prize winning SF author J Alan Erwine examines whether we have freedom of choice, or are merely puppets on strings subject to the whims of the universe.

This newly reworked version of Marionettes on the Moon features the original 13 short stories, plus two recent releases.

Order from DriveThruFiction: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/447457

Marionettes on the Moon revisited

 

Do Humans control their destiny, or are they merely victims of the circumstances that surround them?

A collection of short stories from prize winning SF author J Alan Erwine examines whether we have freedom of choice, or are merely puppets on strings subject to the whims of the universe.

This newly reworked version of Marionettes on the Moon features the original 13 short stories, plus two recent releases.

Order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/44HMHJG

Order from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1430178

Order from DriveThruFiction: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/447457

Danger on the Spectrum

 

So, people think all I do now is write stories for the Solar Federation collection and Divided States of America series? Oh, so not true. Now you can check out my latest stand-alone story "Danger on the Spectrum."

Richard doesn’t see the world like most people, and for the most part, he’d like to avoid people as much as he can, but once he reaches Foster’s Planet, he finds that even with a small population, he has to interact with people more than he’d like…and he also finds that the thing that makes him so different from everyone else might be the only thing that can save everyone on the planet…

Order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/47yX0BN

Order from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1438632

Order from DriveThruFiction: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/449839

Tales of Space Exploration and Discovery revisited

 

For decades, J Alan Erwine has been writing stories about space exploration and discovery...now all of those stories are gathered into one massive tome. Travel the far reaches of space, or explore the solar system with him. Some of the stories are dark, some are optimistic, but all of them are uniquely his.
This collection also features the first four stories in Erwine's Solar Federation Series.

Order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KuYnr0

Order from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1134741

Order from DriveThruFiction: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/388306

A Problem in Translation revisited

 

Humanity's first contact with an alien species, the Lemec, is complicated by the fact that the aliens don't use an entirely verbal language...not only that, but the other aliens in their "domain" seem to worship the Lemec as some type of gods, and as they seem to anticipate every move that Captain Shiro Takahashi and his crew make, humanity begins to think that maybe the other aliens know something that they don't.

Order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3s4IZv7

Order from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1010399

Order from DriveThruFiction: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/306999

 

Red Moon Rising revisited

 

Erik Singer is an environmental warrior overwhelmed by the battle before him. When he loses his brother, his vision starts to become focused, but he can’t overcome the overwhelming grief of the loss. But then a Native America activist named Charlie Chases Crows comes into his life, and Erik has no idea what that single event will do to his life.Troubled by wild dreams of his brother and bizarre Native American imagery, Erik suddenly finds himself on a quest to take down the corporation that he feels killed his brother, and ultimately change the world for the better…but can he fight the powers of corporate America?

Order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3rmZNxq

Order from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1010397

Order from DriveThruFiction: https://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/306996