To celebrate the success the DarkTrench trilogy has had lately, on the 25th and 26th we ran a 99-cent sale on the eBook. What fun that was!

At its peak, ASCS reached the #1 spot in all of Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy, and #4 on the Technothrillers list.

In addition, my author rank found some rarified air, placing me between Douglas Adams and Michael Crichton on one list, and between Kevin Anderson and William Gibson on another.

Not to mention that it got the book into the hands of people who might otherwise never find it. Here's hoping they like what they read.

Fun stuff!

A new review of Freeheads just posted on the Readers' Favorite site, and there is no other way to describe it other than "glowing."

Even though Readers' Favorite also has a book award contest, getting a 5-star review from one of their reviewers is a separate (and sticker-worthy) honor.

I'm pleased that Anne Boling enjoyed Freeheads enough to give it 5-stars, and look forward to the results of the contest later this year.

To read the full review, go here.

Thanks to the hard work of Mary Agius there is now a curriculum guide available for A Star Curiously Singing.

The book features discussion questions for each chapter, along with fun stuff like word searches and a place where readers can draw their favorite bot. I think it is quite insightful and interesting, and I'm really grateful Mary took the time to make it a reality. (Guides for the other books are in the works!)

The guide is available from CreateSpace and Amazon. To purchase a copy, go here.

Thursday morning's mail delivery brought a special surprise. Unfortunately, I had to keep the award under my hat until it was announced at EPICon Saturday night (the 16th of March).

But now it can be told: Freeheads was selected by the judges to receive the EPIC 2013 eBook Award in the Science Fiction category.

I'm so excited and honored. The people of EPIC have been especially kind to the DarkTrench trilogy, as all three books were finalist in their contest. (The earlier two books were both finalists in 2011.)

Freeheads is the first winner, though, and I couldn't be happier. It is a finish that is truly EPIC!

After a month of intense activity, the print version of Mask is now available to order from the Marcher Lord Press site. Amazon and Barnes & Noble soon to follow. (Along with eBook versions!) Keep watching this site for updates!

Last weekend, my wife and I attended the Readers Favorite awards ceremony in Miami, Florida. There were nearly 200 authors and guests there, and I got to meet a good share of them. Everyone was really friendly and interesting to talk to.

One of the authors and speakers was Paul Michael Glazer, best known for his role as Detective David Starksy in Starksy and Hutch. He's the author of an intriguing young adult fantasy now, called Chrystallia...

Another incentive to travel to Miami was the Miami Book Fair. The Readers Favorite folks had a booth in the fair where they were showcasing our books. Here's a picture of ASCS...

The highligt of the event, of course, was the awards ceremony itself. ASCS won a gold medal in 2010 in Christian Sci-fi, and TSS was a finalist in 2011. Here I am with ASCS's gold medal and Readers Favorite founder, Debra Goyner.

And here's a picture of me with my loving and supportive wife. Kudos to her for putting up with a weekend of writers and writer talk. I think she enjoyed it, though.

We rarely have an oppotunity or incentive (with children typically gripping and/or wiping their hands on us) to dress up. So this was a welcome change of pace.

Well done, Readers Favorite!

So what am I up to now? Are there any more books in the works?

Short answer: Absolutely!

This summer I turned in a manuscript that is little less cyber and a little more action than the DarkTrench trilogy. In style, though, it is very similar. It has a cool new hero and an interesting yet familiar setting. And of course there is still lots of neat tech and, I hope, a relevant theme. Marcher Lord Press is now on a monthly release schedule, though, and is a busy place. All that to say, I haven't heard anything yet.

In the meantime, I'm working on another story that caught my fancy. It is a deep space epic and features a crazy fun premise. (At least, I hope.) I'm over 40,000 words in...so probably halfway. I can't wait for people to hear about it. Lots of fun.

Also, around Christmas time I expect to see my name on another cover.

All that to say, hang in there readers! I'm working on it.

Today I received news that, like the preceeding two books in the DarkTrench trilogy, Freeheads is a finalist in the EPIC eBook Awards Competition in the Science Fiction category. It truly is a honor to see all three books recognized this way.

The EPIC Award Competition is the premier contest in the eBook and ePublishing world and was created to recognize excellence in eBooks of all genres. Since Freeheads was published in both paper and electronic form, it was eligible for the contest.

The winners will be announced in March of 2011 at Epicon in Vancouver, Washington. I 've very happy and excited.

Now on its thirteenth week, the Marcher Lord Press collaborative story project is nearing the climax.

Initially, this week was to be Jill Williamson's week (one of our award-winning fantasy authors), but since she was otherwise occupied getting a new book finalized, I volunteered to move up a week.

When I reached the 1,800 word mark—about where we typically end an episode—I realized there was no way I could easily hand it off to the next guy, Steve Rzasa. So, after a short discussion with him, I kept writing until I found a good stopping point...which was nearly 3,400 words.

Long story short, I'm posting for two weeks in a row. Then Steve will dive in to finish it all up. I think it has shaped up to be a fun little story.

To see what I just wrote, go here.

And check back next week too...and the next week for the finale! 

Over the past couple months the authors at Marcher Lord Press have been involved in a collaborative fiction project over at the Marcher Lord Press site. Steve Rzasa started us off with a great introductory setup in Episode 1, and the plot, along with the characters' quest, has progressed steadily ever since.

It has been interesting to see what each author brings to the story, and to notice the subtle differences in tone and author voice. There have been some surprising twists along the way, as well.

In fact, up until recently there has been little discussion about the plot or characters at all. It truly is an experiment.

Last weekened was my turn to contribute. After reading all that had come before, it was a little daunting trying to figure out how to fit into this already established fantasy puzzle. Plus, I typically write science fiction. It has been awhile since I wrote a character that didn't have access to a laser or a friendly robot companion.

How was this going to play out?

Then I noticed an undeveloped corner of the narrative and the ideas started to flow. This thief guy, he didn't really have a voice yet. And he needed one...

To read what I did with Raibert the thief, go here. And while you're there, read the entire collaborative story. I think it is lots of fun. 

Talk about relief. When I first saw Michelle Audrey Black's personal site, and read that she was working on a review of A Star Curiously Singing, I was a bit...um...apprehensive. I mean, what writer would want to see a picture of their book under this sort of scrutiny?

I write alot of reviews myself (just check out Amazon, Goodreads, or Shelfari to see) but I've never used a notebook, or been as studious or thorough as it appeared Michelle was preparing to be. And when she posted the above picture, her comments made it clear she hadn't yet decided whether she liked the book or not.

A few days later, however, I started to feel a bit better...

Still had to wait for her final thoughts, though. Her review wasn't scheduled to post until the 19th of July...

So what did Michelle have to say? Well, you can read for yourself here. But my favorite lines are these:

"It followed me through the week, and in a fantastic way, the story has become part of me. It’s nestled down between the joint and the marrow of my bones."

Now that's worth waiting for.

The judges of the 2012 Readers Favorite Award Contest have named The Superlative Stream a Finalist in the Christian Fiction category. The winner will be announced September 1st, with an awards banquet to follow in November.

If you remember, A Star Curiously Singing recieved the Gold Medal last year from the Readers Favorite folk, so I was hopeful TSS would at least be a finalist this year—and now it is! So very happy and grateful. I look forward to the results!

You can read more about the Readers Favorite Awards here.

My publisher, Jeff Gerke, asked each of the Marcher Lord authors to do an introductory blog on the newly-revamped Marcher Lord Press site. With Ray Bradbury just having died, though, I really wasn't in the mood to talk about me, unless it was to show how the master storyteller had affected me as a writer.

 So that's what I did. To see what I wrote, go here.

So far, the reader response to Freeheads has been really good. As of this posting there are already eleven 5-star reviews on Amazon. In addition, the bloggers have been filling whitespace with glowing reviews.

:

Here's what author Shawna Williams had to say on her blog:

"I read a lot. I find a lot of books I enjoy, and I’m not stingy with my five star reviews, but books like this make me consider that maybe I need to be, because books such as this really belong in a different category all together."

And Lydia Presley had this to say on her blog, The Lost Entwife:

"I devoured it over spring break. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning reading Freeheads and loved every single moment of it. There was so much character development that happened over the span of the previous books and everything just came together well in this finale. Plus… I love returning home moments, and I think, considering how he wrote this book, Kerry Nietz might just share that love."

Pretty cool, huh? Just click on the links above to read the reviews in their entirety.

My third interview with AM Mayhem host Tommy Briggs is now available to listen to on the YES FM page here or if that no longer works, then just click here.

This time we're talking Freeheads. Check it out!

In a 4-way poll that saw it slugging it out with some truly great speculative novels, Freeheads has won the right to be the March 2012 reading selection for the ACFW book club.

This means that the last half of the month of March the book will be read and discussed on the book club forum. Then, the first Monday of April, there will be an online chat that I'll be a part of.

This is the same poll that A Star Curiously Singing won two years ago. (And that The Superlative Stream narrowly lost last year to P.A. Baines's Alpha Redemption.) Obviously, it is an honor to have one of my books selected again.

The ACFW book club has around 800 members, so this could mean a great deal of exposure for both the book and Marcher Lord Press. I'm looking forward to catching up with the book club again. They are a fun bunch of dedicated readers!

For more information, check out the ACFW book club page here.

Writer and reviewer Tim George again referenced The DarkTrench Saga in an article he wrote for Off The Grid News. You can view that article here.

And for Tim's reviews of A Star Curiously Singing and The Superlative Stream, go here, and here.

E. Stephen Burnett of Speculative Faith contacted me in August saying that they had "had many guest columns from Marcher Lord authors -- save you." Naturallly, I was shocked and embarassed to know that I was the final hold out.

So then I had to figure out what I was going to write that would interest these Speculative Fiction folks. I'm not one to liberally dispense writing advice, and I'm certainly not going to make the regular readers of that site more creative than they already are. (Many are published novelist already.)

Then  I thought, "Hey, why not use this as an opportunity to discuss the most controversial parts of my books?" With the trilogy being done, it seemed the perfect time to finally talk about how it all came to be.

So, that's what I did. Just laid it all out there. And you can read the final result here.

After a month of furious activity, the print version of Freeheads is now available to order from the Marcher Lord Press site. Amazon and Barnes & Noble soon to follow. (Along with eBook versions!) Keep watching this site for updates!

Earlier this year I discovered that the rights to FoxTales had reverted to me. This meant I could attempt to get the story published again with another publishing house or publish it again myself. After some research and discussion with friends in the business, I decided to do the latter.

So, after months of revisions (I wanted FoxTales to be as good as I could make it with my current skillset, and to expand it some) I hired a graphic artist, set up publishing accounts with Amazon and Barnes & Noble and uploaded the book.

Currently, the new version of FoxTales is only available for Nook and Kindle, but if enough people want it, I will provide a printed version as well.

Aside from the new text I added, this version also has a new forward by my friend and fellow Fox developer, David Heindel. All good stuff.

You can buy it for Nook here, and Kindle here. Let me know what you think!

For the first time in Marcher Lord Press history, our upcoming release is available for pre-order. That's right,  the next adventure of Sandfly, along with Kathy Tyer's Wind and Shadow, Steve Rzasa's Broken Sight, Olsen and Ingermanson's Oxygen, and Sharon Hinck's The Restorer can all be reserved at special discounted prices.

All you have to do, is go here. So go now!

Koorong, which owns eighteen bookstores in seven Australian states and territories, has placed an order for 600 Marcher Lord Press novels. That's about 1,100 pounds of books that will soon be available either in stores down under, or by catalog. This is the largest international order for our little publishing house and we're obviously excited and pleased.

And, if you live in Australian and are dying for some cool speculative fiction, help is on the way!

After a month of deliberation, the judges of the 2011 Readers Favorite Award Contest have awarded A Star Curiously Singing a Gold Medal in the Christian Fiction category. Though the book has been a finalist in numerous contests, this is the first time it has taken the coveted top spot. Obviously, I'm both pleased and excited to have one of my children honored in such a way.

Tis more fuel for what will doubtless prove to be a frenetic month of revising and editing of book three in the DarkTrench trilogy. For the full list of Readers Favorite winners and finalist, go here.

The judges of the 2011 Readers Favorite Award Contest have named A Star Curiously Singing a Finalist in both the Christian Fiction and Science Fiction categories. The winner in each category will be announced September 1st, with an awards banquet to follow.

I'm both honored and happy that my book was recognized in such a way. I look forward to the results!

You can read more about the Readers Favorite Awards here.

A couple months ago, our fearless leader Jeff Gerke approached the Marcher Lord Press authors with the idea of writing stories for a sci-fi anthology he wanted to publish. The title would be Ether Ore, and the only instruction he really gave us was that he wanted a space mining theme. Even that was flexible, though. In actuality what he really wanted was sci-fi stories from us, and to put them all together with a cool cover.

At first, I didn't think I'd participate. I mean, space mining? Nothing but rocks and ice and loneliness, right? Plus, I'd just finished the first draft of my next book, I was busy churning out Nook translations of our novels, updating WhereTheMapEnds, I'd been revising FoxTales...I have three kids...

Then he tried to entice us with the cool cover he designed. And I had to admit, it was pretty cool. He also said the plan was to only release to digital devices, which meant Kindle (where my books tend to do well) and Nook (which I'd end up having to translate anyway :) ).

I still didn't have a story idea, though. I like to be original and deep and use lots of astronomy when I can. But I didn't really want to write another Sandfly story. (He's got a great one coming already.) Still, it would be nice to showcase my writing in a short story venue.

Then I thought, "You know, there are places mentioned in the Sandfly stories that might be fun to explore. And what if I wrote this one in third-person present...so almost like Sandfly, but not quite."

That was the start of the story Graxin. And I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I'm also happy to be included in a book with some of the most talented and nicest people I know--my Marcher Lord family. So if you have a Nook or Kindle or aren't averse to reading on your computer (because their are free Nook for PC and Kindle for PC apps available) then get yourself a copy of Ether Ore, either here (Nook) or here (Kindle).

Finalist for the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards have been announced, and this year The Superlative Stream has the honor of being one of them. In the Religious Fiction category, it took the podium along with the great book by P.A. Baines, Alpha Redemption. The category was won by An Uncommon Crusade by Caron Guillo.

In addition, fellow Marcher Lord Press authors Jill Williamson and Marc Schooley were both recently named as Finalist for this year's Christy Award. Year of the Marcher Lord, round two? I think so!

You can read more about the Indie Book Awards here.

A few months back Paeter of Spirit Blade Productions posted on the Lost Genre Guild asking for speculative authors to interview for his internet show. So, of course I took him up on it! You can hear the results of that interview here. And if that link doesn't work, try here.

I think I did okay. Give it a listen.

I was surprised recently to find a reference from one of my books used in an article discussing the growth of sharia law worldwide. The article is written by writer Tim George, who is also an avid book reviewer. (You can find his review of A Star Curiously Singing here, and The Superlative Stream here.)

For the article itself, go here.

Just sixteen more days until the next round of Marcher Lord Press titles release, and I gotta say I'm excited. First there's the reissue of Kathy Tyers's Firebird Trilogy, complete with annotations.

Then there's the final book in Jill Williamson's award-winning Blood of Kings trilogy, From Darkness Won, and the long awaited second book by Mitchell Bonds, Hero in Hiding.

Exciting, exciting stuff for the speculative fiction fan. You can find out more about the books and even read samples here! Check 'em out!

Last summer writer Sam Batterman asked me if I'd read his book and write a cover recommendation.  I was greatly honored that he'd think of me, so of course I said "send it!"

(Plus, his pedigree was very similar to my own: Computer Science degree, lives in the midwest, works at Microsoft. How could I refuse?)

The draft I recieved was still a very early draft, but I could see the sparks of a cool Michael Crichton-like story in it. I then purchased and read Sam's previous book Wayback (a time-travel novel), and loved it.

I knew Sam had what it takes to churn out the great book I thought Maximal Reserve could be. And now he's done it...

And if you look on that shiny back cover, you'll see my recommendation...

You can find Sam's new book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Christianbook.com. Check it out!

After ten months of writing, I finally have the first draft of Book Three of the DarkTrench Saga done. For many reasons, this book seemed like a long haul to me. Part of that is due to the fact that the other two had a fair share of breaks in the middle.

Book One only took five months intially, but it was much shorter (48,000 words) and by the time it became a published novel (and reached 78,000 words), there had been lots of stops and starts, lots of pauses while I waited for input.

Book Two was started during one of those pauses. In fact, from April of 2009 to July, I worked on The Superlative Stream, while waiting on Jeff's approval of Book One and a signed contract. I then picked up TSS again after ASCS went into print. So I had a four or five month stint, put it down, and then went back to it in October of 2009. Finished the first draft in December of that year. It was over 82,000 words long.

There were no real pauses from the time the first revision of TSS was complete and the time it became available. From January of 2010 to April of 2010 it was a full-out writing sprint to the finish line. So, no time to start on Book Three. (TSS ended up being around 92,000 words.)

I started writing Book Three in April of 2010, but there were a few short interruptions--chiefly the birth of my third child and the death of my wife's grandmother. Life stuff. I'm also in training for a Pump and Run event being held this Spring. More going on in an already full life.

Still, I kept my usual writing pace as much as possible. Getting a few hours in every weekday. But it was more like a marathon this time than a sprint.

The final product is checking in at almost 102,000 words. It could get smaller, but I doubt it. I tend to write lean. Putting in just those things I know need to be there. I rely on Jeff and other readers to drag out of me the things they need to fully understand what I'm creating.

Here's hoping what I have is a good thing. A worthy thing. Sandfly and his gang deserve that.

For the news posts of 2009 and 2010, just click here!