Welcome to my blog

Hello visitors. On my blog I'm talking about my books, but also about what I'm currently working on and, maybe, some other stuff. Browse through my posts and don't forget to check out my older posts in the archives. If you are interested in my books, please, visit my website Fictitious Tales for more information and a few excerpts. Also, take a look at my second blog Herbert Grosshans, where I talk about fun-stuff and things that concern me.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Free eBook

Thanks for visiting my blog. Before you leave, stay a while and browse a little.
About the book I’m giving away, as I said, there is a catch. You’ll have to buy a copy of Dual Visions. It contains two novellas: Cliffs of Time and Orion, The Hunt.
As proof of purchase, you must send me the first line of Chapter sixteen from Orion, The Hunt. Send it to my email hegro@shaw.ca
The book I’m giving away will be Book One of ‘The Xandra’, Daughter of the Dark. If you already own that book, you can choose another one. Book Two of Seeds of Chaos will be exempt, since it is a new release.
Go to http://www.midnightshowcase.com to check out my other books. I also have a number of short stories in Sweet Challenge, (newly released), Sweet Revenge, Summer Heat 3, Holiday Voices, and Midnight Raunch.
Dual Visions (as well as my other books) are also available at http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/MidnightShowcaseeBooks.htm It is a new release with fiction wise, so you will find it at the end of the list. Scroll down the list for my other books or do a search by Author.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Dual Visions

Finally! Starting today my book Dual Visions is available from Fiction Wise. Right now it is at number 78 position. I'm anxious to see how fast it rises up in the numbers. It contains two novellas: Cliffs of Time and Orion, the Hunt. One is a time traveling story and the other one a space adventure. Both of them contain sexual situations. Book Two of Seeds of Chaos isn't available yet at Fiction Wise, but can, of course, be purchased at http://www.midnightshowcase.com/ Haven't done too much writing lately. Been busy in the yard, but this week is way too hot to work outside, but there are other things I need to do. Today it is supposed to go up to 36 degrees. Same for the next few days. Time seems to fly. I don't know where it is going. The older I get the less time I seem to have. Maybe I can get another chapter written in my novel 'Tarnished Valor'. I find writing a contemporary novel is much harder to do and more time consuming than SciFi or Fantasy. In that genre I can make up my worlds, the people, the societies, but in contemporary I have to do research. Much information can be found on the internet, but it takes time to sift through all the stuff that is out there. When I wrote Cliffs of Time (a time traveling Science Fiction story), I had to do some research. I never knew that Tyrannosaurus Rex didn't exist 100 million years ago. There were dinosaurs larger than T-Rex and equally ferocious. I never knew that. I know now and it was a lot of fun to study that, but as I said, it takes time. Right now I'm studying up on Iraq, because the background for my current novel is about the war. I find out lots of interesting things. I hope I don't get a visit one day from Homeland Security, the CIA, FBI, or the Canadian Secret Service because I spent so much time checking out Iraq. Wow, look what writing a murder mystery novel can do to a writer! I'm becoming as paranoid as my characters. It would make a good story, though.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Update and short excerpt

I’m still waiting to have my book ‘Dual Visions’ and ‘Seeds of Chaos Book 2’ put up for sale at Fictionwise. Strange thing how sales are going there and what spawns them. I haven’t done any advertising on any of the sites, but my books are moving up and down. Take ‘Seeds of Chaos Book 1’. June 18 it was a the number 21 spot, then it moved way down to spot 74 by June 25, then up again to number 17 by July 4. Then it dropped to number 74 by July 9. Today I checked it and it is back up at number 17 again. Just one day later. Strange. And the same thing is happening to my Xandra trilogy.
I’m busy writing my book ‘Tainted Valor’ and have past the 50,000 word mark. Unfortunately, right now I have a lot of work outside in my yard, rejuvenating the flowerbeds and tending my garden, cutting the grass and whatever else pops up. With all the rain we’ve been having things grow. That means little time left for writing. It is rainy today, but I want to bottle some of my wine. Running out of full bottles. I have about 80 bottles of red wine to fill and cork. That should last for a while. I’ve got three more batches of white wine going, which should be ready for bottling in about three weeks.
I am fully retired now, but it seems I have less time than before.
A few years ago, when a friend of mine retired, I asked him what he was doing with all his free time. He just laughed and said, “What free time? I can’t figure out how I had ever time to work for a living with all the stuff I need to do at home.” At that time I couldn’t understand what the heck he was talking about. Now I know. I guess this is one of the ‘Secrets of the Universe’ I’ve stumbled upon. Somebody should try to find the answer to that one. LOL.
My short novella ‘Outpost Epsilon’ has been accepted by Midnight Showcase, for release as a stand alone novel in the Romps series in August 2008, but I haven’t signed the contract yet. Some ideas popped into my head about a story that takes place on ‘Epsilon’, an intriguing planet and world I created. I just wish I had more time to write, but I want to finish ‘Tarnished Valor’ before I start with another short story or novel. I’ve done it before with some of my other works. Seeds of Chaos took a long time to write, because I left it sitting to work on other stuff. It was probably a good thing, because that way I had more stories to publish, but now I’m getting anxious with Tainted Valor. It is hard to stay in a story when you leave it. When I write I pretty well have to live in the world of that story to keep things flowing (obviously, not literally, only in my mind. LOL.), but sometimes it is nice to start something new, just to get a different perspective.
I haven’t mentioned yet that ‘Midnight Raunch’ is available from http://www.midnightshowcase.com/ . My story ‘Orola, The Kiir’ is in that digest. Midnight Raunch pushes the envelope a bit more than the other digests. There is more erotica in those stories. Here is a short excerpt from it, a little edited, though. If you want to read all the juicy stuff you’ll have to buy the digest.

Excerpt:
Warning, sexual situation.

Her body seemed aflame, and staring into Garron’s wide-open eyes, she slipped into an altered state.
Her mind seemed befuddled and clear at the same time.
She was Orola, the girl, gasping for breath beneath Garron’s tirelessly moving body. She felt his hard muscular chest against her soft breasts, felt his flat belly touching hers.
She was Garron.
No…she was not Garron, only a simulacrum. A form It had assumed out of necessity. The real Garron lay nearby, giving life to another.
Life. It would have Life.
Exhilarated, it continued giving pleasure to the life form beneath it, continued feeding her life-giving fluid, which flowed freely from the orifice between her lower extremities, her flower, as she called it. It drank the nectar from her lips when they tasted each other.
But it did not just take. It gave back. It gave of its own fluid, which was laced with elements of healing, elements that gave endurance, vitality and youth.
Through the thoughts of the life form whose body it copied, it knew that coupling with a female was not only used for the continued existence of their species. They coupled also for the experience of pleasure.
And pleasure it gave, while taking pleasure in return.
It had no memories of a life before this. Only fragments of a life as a formless blob suspended in water.
Waiting.
Then it became aware of another life form close by. On the land.
It felt joy and ecstasy.
It would have Life.
It crawled on land.
One entity was close. No…there were two. Two minds, one body.
After the ecstasy came separation. One body became two.
One, the female, she called herself Orola, lay watching another body/two minds.
The other, the male, Garron, lay on his back, eyes closed.
Instinctively it knew what it must do.
It took Garron’s thoughts, his memories. It became Garron. Its gelatin body became solid and warm. It formed the feeding tube between its legs, shaped it into the likeness of a male organ.
Then, as Garron, it moved on top of the female Orola, pushed its feeding tube into her sex-organ from behind. It created strands of pleasure inside its new body and the moment the simulated organ entered Orola’s it experienced extreme pleasure.
So did Orola.
The fluid the creature exuded acted like an aphrodisiac to her. As she absorbed it into her body, she slipped into an immediate trance, totally under the creature’s control.
As it joined with Orola, it became aware of three others of its kind, shaping themselves into the likeness of the other three life forms.
It was jubilant.
It would not be alone.
Joyfully it moved its lower body with a steady rhythm, pushing its feeding tube deep into the female’s clutching orifice. The creature’s source of life.
Coupled with intense pleasure the creature released a spray of fluid into Orola’s womb. The seeds inside searched and found the ova, melded, fertilized. Then it sucked the life-givers back into its own body, where the growing process began.
Another life formed. A superior life form would emerge.
There would be no offspring in Orola’s womb, all she received was pleasure for now and vitality and health for a long time after.
A fair exchange.
Orola didn’t feel appalled by this. Sharing the creature’s thoughts and memories, she understood the need.
Her consciousness shifted back to her own body.