Hope everyone had a good Christmas. I had. Spent time with family and friends. Ate too much food, too many cookies. There are only a few days left in the old year and then it is 2008. Hard to believe. Where has time gone? I can still remember waiting for the year 2000, a new century, and here we are, way into this new century. Will it be better than the last? So far not much has changed. We still argue which religion is the right one, people still get killed over it. You'd think religious people would love each other, because that's what religion is supposed to be. To worship a supreme being who loves everyone. That means Everyone, not matter what they believe. Any supreme being or God who condemns human beings who worship a god by a different name is in my mind not a true god but an impostor. A nobody. Not a supreme being. Period. A god who rewards his (her) worshipers for murdering innocent beings in his name is not a god. If you call yourself a Christian, Jew, Muslim, or belong to any other of the many religions on this planet and you are so narrow-minded that you can't love or at least tolerate others no matter what they believe or look like, you are not a true believer. I'm sure everyone heard this one: No Atheist has ever murdered anyone over what they believe. What does that say for religion? Not much. I'm not a atheist, but I'm not a religious fanatic either. I try to be open-minded about everything and I feel comfortable with what I believe. Live and let live. Find the positive side of a person, not the negative. Nobody is perfect. Of course, there are a lot of jerks and evil people out there. One only has to watch the news every night. Murders, break-ins, robberies. Like I said: Nothing has changed. I don't think much will change in the future. We might discover new things, new toys, new inventions, maybe even manage to go into space, but unless humanity evolves, we will go our merry old way. Maybe even destroy this planet in the process. We're killing off who knows how many plants and animal species every day by polluting the air, the water and the land, by cutting down the trees that give us clean air, by destroying the marshes that filter the water we need to survive. Our governments talk about the clean environment, but don't do more than talk about it. What we need are changes now, not in ten or twenty years. We need cars that don't pollute the air now. It will take at least ten years until the majority of people drive cars that don't spew poisonous gases into the air. But I'm afraid the big oil companies won't allow that. Money is more important than the survival of the human race (or the other living beings we share this world with). The attitude of big business is: Who cares what happens after we're gone. Who cares about the next generations! Let them clean up the mess we leave behind. Pretty sad.
Ah, I got carried away. I should stick to writing my stories, at least there I have some control of what happens.
Stardogs has slipped to number 7, but my other books are still hovering at their positions in sales at Fiction Wise. Book 3 of 'The Xandra', 'Goddess of Light', had slipped to number 85, but is back up now to 65. Not good, but promising. Book 1 and 2 are at 24 and 22. So I hope the people who bought the first two will buy the third one and move it up in sales.
Should this be my last entry this year I wish everyone who comes to visit my blog a Great New Year and may you find peace and happiness in everything you do. Don't forget to come back next year and check out how I'm doing. I have a number of books coming out from Midnight Showcase and hope to sell a lot of books, but without readers no book sales. So keep on reading.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas
Well, it is Christmas today. I have a few minutes before our children come. We celebrate Christmas Eve the way it is celebrated in Germany. We'll be eating Ham and other goodies. And, of course, we open presents.
I managed to finish 'Orola, Warrior Priestess' and sent it in to Midnight Showcase. I probably won't get a response until after the New Year. I wanted to finish all the old stuff, so I can begin the year 2008 with something new. I went back to my novel 'Tarnished Valor' and I started the outlines for the next chapters. I'm up to Chapter 30 now and about 90,000 words. Still a long way to go until it is finished, but I've been getting some good ideas. I needed this break and do some other stuff before I continued with this novel. To get all of the stories featuring Orola re-written and edited has been on my mind for a long time. Now it is finally done and won't bug me anymore. There are actually 7 stories in that volume. 82,000 words in total. All of them are connected, but can be read alone.
Anyone reading this blog have a Merry Christmas or Season's Greetings to you, in case you don't celebrate Christmas.
I managed to finish 'Orola, Warrior Priestess' and sent it in to Midnight Showcase. I probably won't get a response until after the New Year. I wanted to finish all the old stuff, so I can begin the year 2008 with something new. I went back to my novel 'Tarnished Valor' and I started the outlines for the next chapters. I'm up to Chapter 30 now and about 90,000 words. Still a long way to go until it is finished, but I've been getting some good ideas. I needed this break and do some other stuff before I continued with this novel. To get all of the stories featuring Orola re-written and edited has been on my mind for a long time. Now it is finally done and won't bug me anymore. There are actually 7 stories in that volume. 82,000 words in total. All of them are connected, but can be read alone.
Anyone reading this blog have a Merry Christmas or Season's Greetings to you, in case you don't celebrate Christmas.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Musings
There is always something that dampens your happiness. Stardogs received ratings from 4 readers. One finds it good, one okay but two readers think it is POOR. That hurts, but it is one of the facts we as writers have to deal with. Sadly, negative comments always seem to be dominant and made public. It is evident when you see people demonstrating. Those are all the people who are not happy with a certain situation (I’ve always wondered if those people do have a job. How do they find the time to walk around for days on end sometimes? Do they take holidays for those events? I’d rather spend my time lying on a beach or just sitting home and enjoying life by reading or, in my case, writing). People, who are happy and satisfied with things, don’t walk around shouting it to the world. I guess, that is the same with books, not many people will take the time and let others know that they liked the book. It is too bad in a way. It would be nice to hear from satisfied readers.
Here is something I didn’t know, but apparently, there are some people out there who make it a point to buy a book so they can give it a ‘poor’ rating. They are called ‘trolls’. Who knows, they may not even read the book to find out. Who knows why they do it? Some people find only happiness if they can inflict pain on others. And believe me, getting a bad rating is painful. (Am I venting? Is this possibly sour grapes?)
I’m not saying a reader shouldn’t make his feelings known. Unfortunately, we’ll never know why they didn’t like the book. They never say. Maybe they didn’t like the story. Perhaps there wasn’t enough sex in it. These days, a lot of readers love those explicit words and they find it boring if the story doesn’t contain them. I don’t like using explicit words and if I do, very sparingly. The words have to fit the character. I don’t write a story for the sake of the sexual content, as I said before, the erotica is part of the story, but it is the story that is important to me. I won’t use explicit words just because it is the thing to do. I write erotica, not pornography. There is a difference, even if some people don’t acknowledge that.
My novel ‘Tainted Valor’ has only a few erotic scenes in it and they are kept short and not as detailed as the ones in my other stories. I might just have come to the end of wanting to write erotica. Maybe I’m getting too old for that. That sense of excitement and wickedness isn’t there anymore. Maybe I just wrote too many sexual scenes and it is becoming harder to write them without repeating myself over and over. Who knows.
I just sent my finished novel ‘Orion -- Symbiont of Passion’ to Midnight Showcase for possible publication. It is 56,000+ words long and just a perfect length for an ebook. It has, of course, a lot of erotica in it. That is because I wrote the original story years ago. I rewrote parts of it and edited it for publication. When you write just for the fun of it, you don’t really worry about consistencies in the story or grammar, spelling and punctuation, or even using the correct words sometimes. That changes when you’d like to have the story published. There are many readers who, instead of just enjoying the story, will tear it apart. If they find errors in it they will happily give it, dare I say it? A POOR rating! Ah, just writing it hurts.
I admit I do sometimes have problems with punctuation. I think every writer struggles with that. Spelling is not a problem anymore because of the spell check every writing program has built into the computer, but grammar is. You can’t rely on your spell checker for grammar. In addition, I get red-flagged every time I use for instance the word ‘stewardess’. I’ll get a message telling me I am ‘gender-specific’, suggesting I use ‘flight attendant’. Sorry, I don’t want to use flight attendant; I want to use ‘stewardess’. Damn it. I don’t believe in all this ‘politically correct’ thing. I don’t want to be forced to write in a style or way that is false in the first place. That is why we have all of these words in our language. Use them or loose them, for heaven’s sake! I’m not going to write: He flirted with the ‘server’, instead of ’barmaid’. My character is not gay, not in my stories. I need to make it clear that he is flirting with a girl.
Not every word is in the spell check program. In my story ‘Remember me next Christmas’ I wrote ‘He nocked an arrow’. ‘Nock’ is word that is perfectly correct to use. It means he set an arrow on a string (on his bow). Well, it isn’t in my program.
Writing is a craft that needs to be learned and constantly improved, like anything else. It becomes easier with practice, but the more I write, the more I discover rules I’m not aware of. For me writing in the English language had to be learned, because it is not my first language. German is. I’ve read a lot of books over the years. I’ve studied many books on writing, style and grammar, but in the end, it always comes down to one thing: Do you have the gift? Like music, some people learn how to play the piano, the saxophone or any other instrument, but some are musically gifted and some aren’t, no matter how much they practice and study. The sounds are there but the soul is missing.
I like to think I have the gift of putting words and sentences on paper and creating a story that makes my readers forget about their everyday life for a while and accompany me on a journey into the world of the imagination, where anything is possible. A place where they can put their fears to rest and enjoy a few hours of contentment and happiness. If I can achieve that, I have reached my dreams and goals.
By the way, Stardogs is still in the number 2 spot at Fiction Wise, so it can’t be that bad of a story. Let’s hear from the people who liked it!
Here is something I didn’t know, but apparently, there are some people out there who make it a point to buy a book so they can give it a ‘poor’ rating. They are called ‘trolls’. Who knows, they may not even read the book to find out. Who knows why they do it? Some people find only happiness if they can inflict pain on others. And believe me, getting a bad rating is painful. (Am I venting? Is this possibly sour grapes?)
I’m not saying a reader shouldn’t make his feelings known. Unfortunately, we’ll never know why they didn’t like the book. They never say. Maybe they didn’t like the story. Perhaps there wasn’t enough sex in it. These days, a lot of readers love those explicit words and they find it boring if the story doesn’t contain them. I don’t like using explicit words and if I do, very sparingly. The words have to fit the character. I don’t write a story for the sake of the sexual content, as I said before, the erotica is part of the story, but it is the story that is important to me. I won’t use explicit words just because it is the thing to do. I write erotica, not pornography. There is a difference, even if some people don’t acknowledge that.
My novel ‘Tainted Valor’ has only a few erotic scenes in it and they are kept short and not as detailed as the ones in my other stories. I might just have come to the end of wanting to write erotica. Maybe I’m getting too old for that. That sense of excitement and wickedness isn’t there anymore. Maybe I just wrote too many sexual scenes and it is becoming harder to write them without repeating myself over and over. Who knows.
I just sent my finished novel ‘Orion -- Symbiont of Passion’ to Midnight Showcase for possible publication. It is 56,000+ words long and just a perfect length for an ebook. It has, of course, a lot of erotica in it. That is because I wrote the original story years ago. I rewrote parts of it and edited it for publication. When you write just for the fun of it, you don’t really worry about consistencies in the story or grammar, spelling and punctuation, or even using the correct words sometimes. That changes when you’d like to have the story published. There are many readers who, instead of just enjoying the story, will tear it apart. If they find errors in it they will happily give it, dare I say it? A POOR rating! Ah, just writing it hurts.
I admit I do sometimes have problems with punctuation. I think every writer struggles with that. Spelling is not a problem anymore because of the spell check every writing program has built into the computer, but grammar is. You can’t rely on your spell checker for grammar. In addition, I get red-flagged every time I use for instance the word ‘stewardess’. I’ll get a message telling me I am ‘gender-specific’, suggesting I use ‘flight attendant’. Sorry, I don’t want to use flight attendant; I want to use ‘stewardess’. Damn it. I don’t believe in all this ‘politically correct’ thing. I don’t want to be forced to write in a style or way that is false in the first place. That is why we have all of these words in our language. Use them or loose them, for heaven’s sake! I’m not going to write: He flirted with the ‘server’, instead of ’barmaid’. My character is not gay, not in my stories. I need to make it clear that he is flirting with a girl.
Not every word is in the spell check program. In my story ‘Remember me next Christmas’ I wrote ‘He nocked an arrow’. ‘Nock’ is word that is perfectly correct to use. It means he set an arrow on a string (on his bow). Well, it isn’t in my program.
Writing is a craft that needs to be learned and constantly improved, like anything else. It becomes easier with practice, but the more I write, the more I discover rules I’m not aware of. For me writing in the English language had to be learned, because it is not my first language. German is. I’ve read a lot of books over the years. I’ve studied many books on writing, style and grammar, but in the end, it always comes down to one thing: Do you have the gift? Like music, some people learn how to play the piano, the saxophone or any other instrument, but some are musically gifted and some aren’t, no matter how much they practice and study. The sounds are there but the soul is missing.
I like to think I have the gift of putting words and sentences on paper and creating a story that makes my readers forget about their everyday life for a while and accompany me on a journey into the world of the imagination, where anything is possible. A place where they can put their fears to rest and enjoy a few hours of contentment and happiness. If I can achieve that, I have reached my dreams and goals.
By the way, Stardogs is still in the number 2 spot at Fiction Wise, so it can’t be that bad of a story. Let’s hear from the people who liked it!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Distractions
Always these distractions from my writing! I just came in from blowing the snow from my driveway. I have a 12 horsepower John Deere Snowblower, but it still is hard work. The wind is blowing quite strongly from the north, that means I can throw the snow only one way: South, unless I want it blowing back into my face. It is damn cold out there. Minus 17, but the windshield is like minus 31. I got that from the weather channel. Tonight it will go down to Minus 34 and tomorrow will be another cold day. But, hey, it is winter in Winnipeg. We are used to the cold. When I was working as an Electrician I used to work a lot outside in this cold weather. Secret to keeping warm is to dress warm. I wore a snowmobile suit and boots with liners that are good for minus 80, if you keep moving. There is one drawback to dressing warm and bulky like that. It makes you tired.
It is nice though to get some fresh air, even if it is cold. Sometimes it is good to get away from the computer and the writing for a while.
We are still lucky in Manitoba. Other provinces, especially the ones by the oceans, have ice storms with power outages, and after that comes the flooding. It is not much better with some of our neighbors to the south. I’ll take Manitoba anytime.
I’m in the process of finishing up the last story in my collection featuring Orola, the Warrior Priestess, but then I’ll still have to edit all of them one last time and put them in order.
‘Orion, Symbiont of Desire’, is finished except for the last edit. Then I’ll send it in. With Christmas close, it probably won’t happen until next year. There is no hurry. I have plenty of books coming out.
I am very surprised. I posted the release of Stardogs on the groups I belong to and offered a free copy. I didn’t get one email in response. Strange, but Stardogs is still number one in sales at Fiction Wise, making me a very happy man.
Anyone reading this, the offer still stands. Just send me an email. You’ll find my address below in one of the other posts.
It is nice though to get some fresh air, even if it is cold. Sometimes it is good to get away from the computer and the writing for a while.
We are still lucky in Manitoba. Other provinces, especially the ones by the oceans, have ice storms with power outages, and after that comes the flooding. It is not much better with some of our neighbors to the south. I’ll take Manitoba anytime.
I’m in the process of finishing up the last story in my collection featuring Orola, the Warrior Priestess, but then I’ll still have to edit all of them one last time and put them in order.
‘Orion, Symbiont of Desire’, is finished except for the last edit. Then I’ll send it in. With Christmas close, it probably won’t happen until next year. There is no hurry. I have plenty of books coming out.
I am very surprised. I posted the release of Stardogs on the groups I belong to and offered a free copy. I didn’t get one email in response. Strange, but Stardogs is still number one in sales at Fiction Wise, making me a very happy man.
Anyone reading this, the offer still stands. Just send me an email. You’ll find my address below in one of the other posts.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Stardogs
Well, I made it. Stardogs has reached the number ONE position at Fiction Wise. Apparently, yesterday it reached number fifty in overall sales of Science Fiction books at Fiction Wise. That is very good, considering the number of books they are selling.
I am elated. And this just in one day.
The Seeds of Chaos books are at number 9 and 10. Dual Visions has moved into the number 20 spot, from 61 last night.
The last time I reached number one, was with my very first book ‘The Xandra, Daughter of the Dark’. None of the others went past number 2. I hope my readers like the book and when Book 2 comes out in January 2008, it will match the sales of Book 1. That would be nice.
I am elated. And this just in one day.
The Seeds of Chaos books are at number 9 and 10. Dual Visions has moved into the number 20 spot, from 61 last night.
The last time I reached number one, was with my very first book ‘The Xandra, Daughter of the Dark’. None of the others went past number 2. I hope my readers like the book and when Book 2 comes out in January 2008, it will match the sales of Book 1. That would be nice.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Welcome to my blog
Stardogs is finally available from Fiction Wise. I just checked it out and it is, of course, now on last place (Men of Eros, which includes my story ‘A Taste of Paradis’, has also been released today). I am really anxious to see how fast Stardogs climbs up the charts. It has a great intro from Fiction Wise, they call me ‘One of the hottest erotic Science Fiction authors around’. Almost makes my head swell.
Check it out here: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook53589.htm?cache
Or go to: http://www.midnightshowcase.com/RedskySD.htm
On my posts I promised a free copy of Stardogs. I’m only giving free copies to the first two visitors who send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and ask for it. Once they are gone, I will give away a copy of any of my other books to the next three who respond. So if you’re sending me an email, give me an alternative, in case you are not among the first two.
Here is a list: of my books: Seeds of Chaos, Book One and Book Two. The Xandra Series: Book 1: Daughter of the Dark. Book 2: Mother of Light. Book 3: Goddess of Life. Or you can choose: Dual Visions. You can find out what the books are all about by visiting Fiction Wise or http://www.midnightshowcase.com/
Check it out here: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook53589.htm?cache
Or go to: http://www.midnightshowcase.com/RedskySD.htm
On my posts I promised a free copy of Stardogs. I’m only giving free copies to the first two visitors who send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and ask for it. Once they are gone, I will give away a copy of any of my other books to the next three who respond. So if you’re sending me an email, give me an alternative, in case you are not among the first two.
Here is a list: of my books: Seeds of Chaos, Book One and Book Two. The Xandra Series: Book 1: Daughter of the Dark. Book 2: Mother of Light. Book 3: Goddess of Life. Or you can choose: Dual Visions. You can find out what the books are all about by visiting Fiction Wise or http://www.midnightshowcase.com/
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
A bit of an update
Just checked sales at Fictionwise. Stardogs 1 is still not available there. My publisher wants to keep new releases at http://www.midnightshowcase.com/ for a while for sale before they go to Fictionwise, because we hardly make any money from the sales there. The only reason the books are sold at Fictionwise is the fact that readers get to know our books and hopefully, they will visit our site and buy books there in the future. Next year should be better for profits when Midnight Showcase has its own store.
Even though I don’t have a new release with Fictionwise, my books keep on selling. They are moving up and down on the chart. Book 2 of Seeds of Chaos (Hell’s Gate) is at number 8 spot in overall sales in the last 20 days. Not bad. Today it is at number 9. Tomorrow…who knows? Book 1 (Eden’s Gate) is at spot number 23, up from number 50 two days ago. The Xandra series is also in the running with 35, 41, and 50. Last week Book 2 was at number 14.
Dual Visions has slipped to number 62 from number 7 a month ago, but it is still selling. Incidentally, last month Book 1 of the Xandra (Daughter of the Dark), reached position 6 in overall sales. It was at spot 4 exactly a month ago. That’s how the sales weave through the cycles. Quite interesting. It is important to have many books out there to keep all of the books in the reader’s minds. They read one and if they like it, they’ll buy more.
I only wish these sales would be huge numbers, but maybe it will happen some day.
I’m busy re-writing and editing a number of short stories I wrote over the years, featuring Orola, the Warrior Priestess. The first story in the series, The Kiir, has been published in Midnight Raunch it has received a nice review. All of the stories are connected, but they do stand alone. I am planning to have them all published in one volume, which should reach about 60,000 words. They are not sweet romance. I would consider them dark stories, but they always have a happy ending. They contain a lot of erotica and violence but they always have a story to tell. I don’t write erotica or violence for the sake of writing it. They do play a part in the story, sometimes a very important part, but they are not the story.
My book ’Tarnished Valor’ has been put aside for a while until I can get it going again inside my head. Sometimes I do have to take a break from what I’m writing and start something else.
I finished re-writing ’Orion, Symbiont of Passion’, a 56,000 words SciFi novel. I still have to do some editing, and then I’ll send it in to Midnight Showcase. Hektor Orion, the main character, has already been featured in my story ’Orion, the Hunt’, one of the stories in Dual Visions. It will soon be available by itself from Midnight Showcase. The other story ’Cliffs of Time’ will also be sold as a standalone novella. I’ve already seen the covers for both novellas. They look good.
Well, back to writing.
Even though I don’t have a new release with Fictionwise, my books keep on selling. They are moving up and down on the chart. Book 2 of Seeds of Chaos (Hell’s Gate) is at number 8 spot in overall sales in the last 20 days. Not bad. Today it is at number 9. Tomorrow…who knows? Book 1 (Eden’s Gate) is at spot number 23, up from number 50 two days ago. The Xandra series is also in the running with 35, 41, and 50. Last week Book 2 was at number 14.
Dual Visions has slipped to number 62 from number 7 a month ago, but it is still selling. Incidentally, last month Book 1 of the Xandra (Daughter of the Dark), reached position 6 in overall sales. It was at spot 4 exactly a month ago. That’s how the sales weave through the cycles. Quite interesting. It is important to have many books out there to keep all of the books in the reader’s minds. They read one and if they like it, they’ll buy more.
I only wish these sales would be huge numbers, but maybe it will happen some day.
I’m busy re-writing and editing a number of short stories I wrote over the years, featuring Orola, the Warrior Priestess. The first story in the series, The Kiir, has been published in Midnight Raunch it has received a nice review. All of the stories are connected, but they do stand alone. I am planning to have them all published in one volume, which should reach about 60,000 words. They are not sweet romance. I would consider them dark stories, but they always have a happy ending. They contain a lot of erotica and violence but they always have a story to tell. I don’t write erotica or violence for the sake of writing it. They do play a part in the story, sometimes a very important part, but they are not the story.
My book ’Tarnished Valor’ has been put aside for a while until I can get it going again inside my head. Sometimes I do have to take a break from what I’m writing and start something else.
I finished re-writing ’Orion, Symbiont of Passion’, a 56,000 words SciFi novel. I still have to do some editing, and then I’ll send it in to Midnight Showcase. Hektor Orion, the main character, has already been featured in my story ’Orion, the Hunt’, one of the stories in Dual Visions. It will soon be available by itself from Midnight Showcase. The other story ’Cliffs of Time’ will also be sold as a standalone novella. I’ve already seen the covers for both novellas. They look good.
Well, back to writing.
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