Stars in Chains and other updates

Just got an email from Midnight Showcase Fiction that my novel 'Stars in Chains' has been accepted and my contract is forthcoming. I sent it in August 31. So this is the longest time I had to wait for a positive answer from MSFiction.
I'm busy with my novel 'Epsilon'. It took me a while to get back into the story, but it is beginning to flow. I left it alone and wrote 'Stars in Chains', which took longer to write than anticipated; it also got longer than I had planned. But once I was fully into the story, I couldn't stop writing and more and more stuff popped into my head.
That's usually the way it happens. I'm over 70,000 words now with 'Epsilon' and no end in sight. I'm beginning to enjoy the story again. I had sort of met a roadblock when I was at 60,000 words. That's why I started with 'Stars in Chains', originally titled 'Mindgod'.
'Epsilon' won't have as much erotica in it than my other books. There'll be some to spice up the story a bit. I have a feeling my readers expect it, but perhaps I can attract a different group of readers. Not everyone likes erotica.
Once I'm done with 'Epsilon', I will continue with Book Four in the Xandra series, of which I've written around 20,000 words so far. I'm excited about that story also, but it will have to wait, even though it keeps calling to me once in a while. I MUST RESIST THE CALL OF THE SIREN. I MUST!
I have no title for it yet. That one, also, will have fewer sex-scenes in it. I want to concentrate more on the story itself, even though all my tales, no matter how much or little erotica they contain, do have a story line. They are not just one mindless sex-scene after another.
But you can find that out for yourself by reading them. Don't just take my word for it. ^_^

Symbiont of Passion is alive

Finally. Symbiont of Passion is live on MSFiction. That is one of the problems with publishing. It takes sometimes forever until a novel or story is published. I sent it to MSFiction in February 2008. That's over a year. That is a long time to wait. A long time of anticipation. But now the wait is finally over. I wrote the story probably over twenty years ago. I decided to bring it out of its drawer and rewrite and edit it. It has quite a bit of erotica in it; there was more when I wrote it. I culled much of it and rewrote other scenes. I believe it's a good story. Science Fiction, what else? This is the second story featuring Orion. The first one was 'Orion, the Hunt', also available from MSFiction.
Orion is an Agent for the Colonial Worlds of Sol Terra. He is human, on the outside, but inside he is much more. Part of his mind is alien, immortal. He possesses certain powers, like telepathy. But read the stories and you'll find out.
Anyone sending me an email at hegro@shaw.ca and mentions that he (she) read my blog and tells me on which site he (she) saw my post will get a free download of 'Orion, the Hunt'. I will also draw one name for a free download of 'Symbiont of Passion'. That will happen Friday, October 23. I will announce the winner on the sites and the winner will also be notified.
Thanks for visiting.
Check out my website Herbert's World for another excerpt.

Merry Christmas...I mean Happy Thanksgiving

What a surprise! Yesterday we had our first Winter storm. It is supposed to be warm around Thanksgiving, but not this year. Then of course what do we expect. It's been a lousy summer. Why not have a lousy Fall. We had a warm September, but my wife and I missed it. We were in Germany for three weeks. The only consolation we have, the weather there was quite descend also.
There is still quite a bit of work to do in the yard. All the plants are still in my garden. They need to be pulled, the soil tilled and prepared for next Spring. We can only hope the snow melts away.
I went duck hunting yesterday morning, but the ducks have started to go South. Smart birds. Not a successful hunt. It was nice though to spend the time outdoors standing among the bulrushes. It was cold, minus 6, but when you're dressed for it, the cold doesn't penetrate. The weather was otherwise not bad. The storm didn't start until about noon, by that time we were already on our way home.
Here is what we saw this morning looking out of our sunroom. Brr...too cold to even sit in it because it is not a 4-season's room.

FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer

Has anyone watched the new TV series FlashForward? The story was originally written by Rober J. Sawyer, a Canadian science fiction writer, and published 1999. He watched the first episode in Winnipeg, Canada, where he was one of the writers attending the Writers Festival, which happens every year in Winnipeg. My son Perry organizes the event and he is responsible for bringing Canadian writers to Winnipeg. Part of his job is to pick them up at the airport and make sure everything runs smoothly. Well, I am very proud to say that Robert J. Sawyer sat in my car, because my son used my car to pick him up. Maybe some of his magic will rub off on me. One can only hope.
The show is different from the book, which is okay, especially for the people who read the book. I liked the first two episodes. The show may turn out to be the next hit series, like Lost. We'll see.

Review of Outpost Epsilon

My book 'Outpost Epsilon' has been reviewed by Coffee Time Romance and received three cups. Please check it out by clicking on Coffee Time Romance
Coffee Time Romance is open again after their site had been attacked by a nasty person and had to be shut down.

I'm back

It’s been awhile since I posted, but I took a little three-week holiday in Germany. It was great but now I’m back and ready to carry on with my chores and my writing. My novel ‘Orion, Symbiont of Passion’ is scheduled to be released next month, but I still have to approve the edits.
When I checked my book sales on Fiction Wise I received a nice surprise. Fourteen of my books (or digests that contain a story of mine) are in the upper thirty list. That means approximately 50% of the sales are from my books. That’s feels good.
Here is the list as of September 27, 2009:
Orion, the Hunt: 5
A little Holiday Romance: 11
Orola: 13
Outpost Epsilon: 14
Xandra 1: 16
Xandra 2: 17
Xandra 3; 19
Seeds of Chaos 1: 20
Cliffs of Time: 24
Beyond the Stars: 25
Seeds of Chaos 2: 26
Midnight Raunch: 27
Stardogs 1: 28
Stardogs 2: 29
Men of Eros: 46
Dual Visions: 51

Some of them have moved on the list today, some up, a couple slipped (Holiday Romance and Orola).

Check it out at Fiction Wise.

My novel Outpost Epsilon has been reviewed by Coffeetime Romance, but they have a major problem with their site right now and it has been shut down until they fix the problem. I will publish the link here when it is safe to do so.

Done

I've changed the title of my new novel from 'The Mindgod' to 'Stars in Chains'. Since it is 122,000 words long, I've made it into a two volume novel. Book One is 'Slave' and Book Two is 'Liberator'.
It is not easy to find a fitting and catchy title. I hope future readers will find this one intriguing enough to want to buy the books.
I sent it yesterday to MSFiction, my publisher, and I hope they want it. It has quite a bit of erotica in it. Kind of ironic, since I said I wouldn't write any more erotica, or at least less of it. But I wrote the first 40,000 words about 30 years ago and I liked the story, so a pulled it out of the dusty drawer and did some rewriting and finished it. I'm happy how it turned out, hopefully everyone else thinks so.
Now I'm ready to get back to 'Epsilon', but I have to read first what I've written.

Finished (sort of)

Wow. I finally finished my novel ‘The Mindgod’. 122,000 + words. Now the real work begins: Editing. I’m already at page 83 with that. There are 214 pages single spaced.
After that comes the spellcheck, but you can’t really trust that program. It doesn’t catch every misspelled word. The word might be spelled correctly, but it is the wrong word for its meaning. The title will definitely change. I’m still playing around with that. It is not easy to find a catchy title, one that fits to the contents of the novel.
I may have to make two volumes out of this novel because of its length. That means two titles.
Checked my sales at Fictionwise. The Xandra series was in number 7, 8 and 9 position for the last 20 days at August 20th. That has already changed. Now it is the digest Men of Eros, which contains my story ‘A taste of Paradise’, that is at number 4 position and number 5 in sales for the last 20 days as of today. That may change tomorrow again.
Once I'm done with Mindgod I will continue with 'Epsilon'. Of course, I'll have to read what I've written (60,000 words) so I get into the story again. I'm looking forward to visiting again the planet where dinosaurs roam and intelligent Spiders and Ants challenge humans for the right to Epsilon.

The Mindgod

I'm at 103,000 words with my novel 'Mindgod' and still so much to go. It is becoming too long for one book. An ideal ebook is around 70,000 words maybe even less. So now I may have to make this into two volumes and that may be difficult. Where to make the break? Book one won't have an ending and Book Two won't have its own beginning. Well, I had to do it with the Xandra series. The second book turnd out too long so I made two books out of it, ending up with a three volume series. I had to do the same with Seeds of Chaos and The Stardogs. I find it difficult to write a short novella. It seems I can't get enough into the story if it is short. Once I'm done with 'Mindgod' I will continue with 'Epsilon'. I'm at 60,000 words with that one and no end in sight yet. But right now it is not on my mind.
The other book I started, 'Xandra Four' (no title yet), I've written around 20,000 words with that one. After I finish Epsilon Xandra Four will be my next project. I'm excited about it but it will have to wait. I'm trying not to think about it because I need to concentrate on finishing Mindgod and then Epsilon. With Summer and lots of stuff to do in the yard I don't have as much time to write as I would like. Things are slow and yet, I'm surprised how much I wrote. When I sit down with my laptop and start writing the story flows amazingly well, almost as if someone is dictating it to me. Strange. No writer's block here I'm happy to report.
Sales of my books at Fictionwise seemes to have picked up but I don't know how it translates into figures. The money I get from those sales is pitiful indeed. Nobody can claim I write for the money. If I didn't enjoy writing so much I would have quit a long time ago.

Star Trek, Dinosaurs and more

I’ve been busy and have neglected my blog a bit. There is not much news anyway. I crossed the 90,000 word mark with my novel ‘Mindgod’. The End is in sight, but I’m still throwing around things in my head how exactly I will end the novel. As I’m writing new ideas pop up. Sometimes that means going back into the story and adding or deleting paragraphs etc. At first I had in mind to write between 70,000 and 80,000 words but when I got there I realized I couldn’t end the story yet. There was just so much more to tell. Sometimes I’m amazed how the writing process works. I sit down and don’t know exactly what I’m going to write next, I might write down a word or sentence just to get me going, and then suddenly the story begins to flow again and takes me somewhere I had not foreseen. I enjoy writing my stories much more if I don’t know where I am heading as opposed to writing an outline and following that. Somehow it takes the fun out of writing and the surprises that sometimes appears. It must be boring to do ‘Formula Writing’, where everything is dictated how the story must progress and end and on what page a certain thing has to happen. Not for me. I need to go ‘Where no man has gone before’, in the words of the original Star Trek series. ‘Man’ in this case me.
Speaking of Star Trek, we saw the last movie and were disappointed. They made Kirk such an idiot. The scene where he is running around in the spaceship chased by a young Dr. MacCoy was absolutely stupid. An eight year old Kirk racing in an old Corvette and then bailing out at the last minute? Come on! And the old Mr. Spock appearing on the scene at the exact moment Kirk needs help? A little farfetched. How stupid are we as moviegoers? I’m not commenting on that, but I read other reviews and many people thought it was the best one yet. Wow! There were some good scenes I enjoyed. I’m easily pleased when it comes to Science Fiction movies. I wish there’d be more good ones around. Most of the movies these days are relying on special effects and are much to loud and furious for my taste. For instance I really loved the first ‘Matrix’ movie, but didn’t care for the following two. The second one was so loud I had to stuff Kleenex in my ears. Actually, my wife and I did that in the last Star Trek movie.
We went to see ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’. What a wonderful show. Those dinosaurs are so lifelike they are scary, especially the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Hard to believe that creatures of that size once roamed the Earth. To see the narrator walking between them really demonstrated their immense size. Humans would have had no chance to survive in those days.
I’ve always loved dinosaurs. That’s why I wrote my novella ‘Cliffs of Time’ where humans go back to 100 million BC. Before I wrote that story I didn’t know that T-Rex didn’t appear until 75 million BC. I did some research to make the story authentic and learned quite a bit. Stuff I never learned in School.
In my novella ‘Outpost Epsilon’ I populated a planet with giant mushrooms and dinosaurs. In fact, I liked the story so much that I started a novel titled ‘Epsilon’ where I go into more detail about dinosaurs, intelligent giant ants and spiders, and the geography of the planet Epsilon. I’m at 60,000 words with that novel. I put it aside to write ‘Mindgod’ and I’m anxious to get back to it. My characters are waiting for me to finish telling their story.
By the way, ‘Orola, Warrior Priestess’ never did reach number one position at Fictionwise, only ''Outpost Epsilon' did, but I’m happy anyway.

Reader's Ratings

I just checked the status of my novella ‘Outpost Epsilon’ and found that it slipped down the ladder in sales. I also noticed that two readers decided to rate it. One thinks the story is ‘okay’ the other one gives it a ‘poor’ (Sigh!!). I enjoyed writing the story and I think it is a great :-) story. I am reminded of a Seinfeld Episode where Jerry's mother says: "How can anyone not like my Jerry?" How can anyone not like my story? (Sigh again). It makes me sad if a reader thinks it is poor.
I went through the list of other books and found the ‘Alien Seduction Digest’ received one ‘great’ and one ‘poor’.
‘Interplanetary Passion’ by Jaden Sinclair was rated by 104 readers (wow!). The majority of them find it good and great, but there is still someone who rates it as ‘poor’. This leaves me wondering about what a reader expects when he/she reads the blurb. It would be helpful if we as writers could find out why one reader thinks a story is great and another one doesn’t like it. Just to say: “This story is poor,” without an explanation leaves me questioning it and wonder. Does this reader expect more intrigue, more adventure, more romance, more erotica? Or was there too much?
Writing, like any art form, is a passion. We write because we need to put our dreams on paper. It is a fortunate and lucky writer who manages to get paid a lot of money; most of us don’t. I’m not saying we would refuse the money, but let’s face it, the lack of compensation does not stop us from writing. We write to still some yearning we have inside us. That’s how we start out, but as we progress we want to share our stories with others. We want the readers to feel what we feel when we put our tales on paper (these days into a hard drive), and the last thing we want is to make readers feel they’ve wasted their time and money. I wish I could say that I don’t care about what a reader thinks, as long as I am happy writing my stuff, but that would be lying. I care. That’s why it would be nice to get some feedback. I know, I am dreaming, that’s what a writer does best, but it still would be nice.

The number one position

It finally happened. Outpost Epsilon is at number one at Fictionwise. Orola moved into number four position. All of my other books also moved ahead a bit.

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b90231/Outpost-Epsilon/Herbert-Grosshans/?si=0

More news from Fictionwise

Good news. Outpost Epsilon made it to number 2 position in sales yesterday and Orola is at number 5. Maybe, just maybe...dare I hope?...one of them will make it to number one position. I haven't had a best seller for a while.
On other notes, I am at 71,000 words right now with 'The Mindgod'. I'm writing every chance I get, which is usually in the evening. We hardly watch TV in the summer. During the day I'm busy with my yard. The garden and other stuff. I've made some progress with my patio. I've put down 12 patio blocks. Only 122 more to go... Preparing the 'bed' is the hardest job. All that gravel I have to remove and distribute on the driveway. With a shovel and a wheelbarrow. And a bad back. In addition, the patio blocks are heavy too. But it will look nice when it's all done.

News from Fictionwise

'Orola, Warrior Priestess' and 'Outpost Epsilon' are available now from Fiction Wise. Just click on the titles and it'll get you there. They are in the last positions for sales (naturally, they've just been added). We'll see how fast they move up in sales. A little Holiday Romance is at position 5, Beyond the Stars at position 6, and Dual Visions at position 11. My other books have slipped. Maybe Orola and Epsilon will bring those sales up also.

More about the President and the Fly

Wow. I posted my article about Obama swatting a fly at ‘Allvoices’. I’ve had already over 880 views and some comments. Amazing how much buzz a tiny incident like that can cause. Check it out here: Allvoices.
It is the same article I have below. I changed a couple of things to make it more presentable.

The Fly

US President Obama killed a fly. Nothing unusual. We’ve all done that at one time or another. Except for the Peta people. They practice a catch-and-release program with insects. Give me a break! According to them ‘Flies have feelings too’. Maybe they do, but they are a damn nuisance, and there are way too many of them.
I sometimes wonder about people like that. Where do they live? Under some protective dome on a planet called “Moron’?
Do they know that flies carry all kinds of diseases? Do they have any idea where the fly that manages to land on your sandwich has been before? How about mosquitoes or ticks? Anyone who lives in the real world and has experienced them will gladly help them into insect heaven or wherever they end up if there is an afterlife.
Mosquitoes carry the West Nile Virus and ticks can give you Lyme disease. My cousin was bitten by one of those mosquitoes. He spent time in the hospital, couldn’t remember his own name and spent months trying to walk again. My son was luckier, he only had the lesser symptoms. Let those Peta people get bitten by one of these critters and they may change their tune.
I love animals and I don’t believe in senseless killing of animals, but there are limits. I feed birds all year round. I have birdhouses in the yard for them to live in. If I catch a spider in the house I carry it outside and let it go, but most of the time if an insect enters my home it is considered an intruder into my sanctuary and it will be dealt with harshly. The sentence for break and enter is DEATH. Last year I caught and eliminated 17 mice in my garage. I’ll be on the lookout again this year. The traps and the cheese are waiting.
Live and let live is a wonderful concept, but we are living on a hostile planet. We’ve been at war with the sauna and fauna, with the viruses and bacteria ever since Homo Sapiens appeared, and before. There are carnivores, omnivores, herbivores and who knows what else on this planet. One eats the other. That’s how it was designed.
The majority of animal rights activists are living in a dream world. They are fanatics causing trouble, just like most of the minority groups who will do anything to call attention to their cause. Maybe their ideas are noble but as usual they carry it to the extremes, like the terrorist who blow up themselves and others for what they believe in. Or like antiabortionists who find nothing wrong murdering a doctor who performs abortions. (I’m not saying I am for abortion, but that is another topic).
Let’s get real here, peoples. Catching and releasing a fly borders on insanity. A person who does that should have his/her head examined and brought back to reality. All I can say is: Get a life.

Hello Visitors

As promised in my posting, I will send you a free story if you send me an email to hegro@shaw.ca

Another month gone

I’m finally finished with my garden. This year I am at least a week behind because of the cold weather. We had frost on Friday 29th of May and had to cover up the tomato and pepper plants. They survived. Today I spread fertilizer on the grass and as luck wants it, it started raining after I finished. Tomorrow, if it doesn’t rain, I’m going to spread some pesticides. The dandelions, as beautiful as the yellow flowers are, they are not a welcome sight on the lawn. And I have plenty of them. That means drastic measures need to be taken. In addition to dandelions there are other weeds growing.
My publisher MSFiction re-released my ‘Seeds of Chaos’ series with new covers. Check them out on my Website ‘Herbert’s World’.
I also did a minor change on the welcome page of my website. I added a picture that I drew a long time ago. I think it adds a bit of a fantasy setting to my site. I felt the welcome page needed something to make it less boring and more personal.
Some of my books are now available on Amazon.

Where is Spring?

This weather is just not getting any better. Where the heck is Spring? Summer is just around the corner and we still have frost at night. I’ve bought all of my plants and seeds and I’m ready to seed and plant my garden. My plants are standing in the garage, waiting and wondering what is going on.
I saw a hummingbird yesterday feeding from our feeder and today I watched an Oriole clinging to the feeder and dipping its beak into the yellow plastic flowers for some sugar water. Poor thing. It tired itself out by hanging on and pretending to be a hummingbird. Once in a while, it nearly fell to the floor from exhaustion and rested on the ground to try again a few minutes later. I’ve never seen that before. I wonder if it is common that Orioles feed from hummingbird feeders. They sure are beautiful birds.
The Juncos are gone now. They hang around only for a short time. We have plenty of sparrows, all different kind. I see a lot of Harris Sparrows; they have black heads and throats, with yellowish bills, and are fairly large. Then there are the White-Crowned Sparrows with their white strips running from the back of their head to the front. Some have three stripes, some only one. Some of them are probably White-throated Sparrows. There are also the Chipping Sparrows with their red heads. Of course, there are others that I can’t identify. I’m not really a bird specialist.
We’ve had a few American Finches on our Finch Feeder. Once they are here, they stay, but they do most of their feeding in the fall before they go back south. That’s when we get large numbers of them. Most of them are the young ones, they are quite small and need to fatten up before they leave.
A few Black Birds and Blue Jays also show up to scare the smaller birds away. They are a bit messy but they are beautiful birds. I don’t chase them away. We’ve also had a few Common Redpolls passing through on their way up north where they breed in the summer. I believe I saw a straggler yesterday, unless it was a Red Finch.
I started planting an apple tree but had to give up because it began to rain. And that after the weather people said this morning no precipitation today. Well, we all know how dependable those forecasts are. Luckily, it didn’t rain too much and I shall carry on tomorrow. Actually, I have two apple trees to plant. I did manage to plant a Pyramidical Cedar though. The one we had in front of our fireplace didn’t make it through the winter. I’ll never buy another Cedar from Home Depot again. Or Walmart. Those Cedars are grown south of the border, in the USA, and not hardy enough for our climate. This was the second one that didn’t make it. That means I lost two years of growth. The one I bought cost me $50.00 instead of $20.00, but it was grown in Manitoba and I have a five-year warranty on it. We’ll see. Cedars are finicky. Many of my neighbors planted large numbers of them around their properties and most of them turned brown and died. I never asked where they bought them, but I’d bet not at the local garden center. I’m not trying to run down Home Depot and Walmart. They are good stores and I buy there. In fact, when I was in business, I bought most of my materials at Home Depot, but there are just some things you have to buy at the right places.
The only good thing about rain is that I get a bit of time to do some writing. I’m over 51,000 words now with my ‘Mindgod’ novel. There is more to come.

Surprise, Surprise

Somebody screwed up. When I woke up this morning and looked out of the window I saw something that shouldn’t be there. Snow. Not on May 9. As a writer with a fertile imagination I immediately thought that I might have slipped into another dimension or possibly traveled back in time. Whoopee, I am young again. Then I looked in the mirror and still thought ‘time travel’. Only I traveled in the wrong direction: into the future. The image I saw in the mirror was that of an old guy in need of a haircut and a shave. Then reality set in. That old guy was me and I was still in the present. Damn!
Well, I guess I’ll have to beg my wife to give me a haircut. That always shaves ten years off my looks. Unfortunately not my age. Yes, that’s right, my wife cuts my hair. No, she is not a barber or hairdresser, but she has a talent for it. She used to cut our kids’ hair and one day she cut mine. I liked it and after that she did it all the time. There are advantages to that. I don’t have to take time off to go to the barber and sit and wait for my turn. I don’t have to pay and best of all, no tips. Well, that’s not true either. I help her with the dishes and with making the bed. And I go shopping with her. Although, she complains that we always buy too much when I’m with her and it takes too long, but she doesn’t mind when I carry the grocery bags.
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and the weather people promised warmer weather. Let’s hope they are right for a change. Yesterday, I bought some seeds for my garden. I’ve already tilled it under and I’m ready for seeding and planting. Usually, I plant my garden in the last week of May or right after the long weekend. The way things are progressing it may not happen this year. There is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your plants die because they were hit by frost. Even the seeds won’t sprout if the soil doesn’t warm up.
I put out the Finch feeder and the Hummingbird feeder because somebody told me they saw their first Hummingbird in their yard. Poor bird. There are no flowers blooming yet.
The birds are slowly coming back from the South. On Thursday I saw seven Pelicans circling over our property. I talked to a friend this morning and he said that he has a pair of Mallards nesting on his pond and also a pair of Wood ducks in the nesting box near his house. Maybe Summer is just around the corner.
Happy Mother’s Day.