http://residualhauntings.podomatic.com/entry/2010-12-03T19_58_43-08_00 I had a great time on this show. We talked books, b-movies, and ghost hunting.
I’m doing a signing at the Layton Utah B&N at 2:00-4:00 today. Come by and say hi. This is my last signing of the year.
A couple of months ago I posted here when John Brown’s excellent Servant of a Dark God came out in paperback. I suggested that if any members of the Monster Hunter Nation were looking for a really awesome book to read, they should go over to Amazon and buy it immediately, that way we could boost his sales stats on Amazon.
Mission accomplished. You guys took SoaDG from the mid 200,000 range to the 3,000 range and got it into the top 100 on fantasy. That’s really impressive.
So I got to thinking, I really need to do this every so often. So I’m going to post every once in awhile when I find a book I really like. Then we can see how far we can boost it on Amazon. (mostly because it is the place with the hourly updated sales rankings, but if you don’t like Amazon, this is still a good book to pick up someplace else).
This month’s book is Darkship Thieves by Sarah Hoyt. http://www.amazon.com/Darkship-Thieves-Sarah-Hoyt/dp/1439133980/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291303703&sr=8-1 The paperback just came out and it is only $7.99.
Darkship Thieves is classic sci-fi and it is very good. Honestly, reading it took me back to when I was a teenager and first discovered Heinlein. It is kind of a libertarian space-opera adventure. Sarah’s got big ideas, visualizes an interesting future, and writes a really fun main character. Athena Hera Sinestra is a troubled, snarky, pain in the ass, stubborn, rich kid, with an attitude. Basically she’s a badass, she’s funny, and you can’t help but root for her.
The book opens with Thena escaping what she thinks is a mutiny on her father’s ship. She ends up escaping (naked) in an escape pod before she gets picked up by the a Darkship. The Darkship Thieves are mysterious pirates that raid Earth’s solar collectors. And then the book really gets going. The best part is you get to see Thena grow up during her adventure, and even though she starts out as kind of a brat, (this is a girl that uses flashing as a distractionary weapon) she’s so spunky and believable you like her the whole time. That’s a hard trick for a writer to pull off, but Sarah does character growth a whole lot better than I do.
So if you’re looking for some good classic style sci-fi for yourself or to give as Christmas gifts (pick up some more copies of MHI & MHV while you’re at it) head over to Amazon and order Darkship Thieves.
And I met Sarah at LibertyCon. She’s originally from Portugal and talks exactly like my grandma. (but much younger obviously!) Sarah’s a great person. That’s two Portuguese authors at Baen. Sarah says that means we have the other writers outnumbered. If we get one more we’ll have them surrounded.
Right now at 8:00 MST Sarah is: Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #212,479 in Books
Let’s see what we can get her up to today. If we can get her into a top 100 list then more people will see it.
Next up, I’m not sure. I’ve been writing so much that I’ve not had a chance to read anything. (I read DST like 3 months ago). I’ve just got a copy of Jim Gavin’s Hardboiled Vampire Killers (not out yet) to blurb. (fighting evil on two 99 cent tacos a day!) It’s next in line.
Plus, I just got a copy of Corruptor by Jason Cordova. http://www.amazon.com/Corruptor-Jason-Cordova/dp/1606192337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291305120&sr=1-1-spell But I’ve not been able to look at it yet. Jason is a frequent poster here and reviews books over on Shiny Book. I know Dr. Travis Taylor helped with the science in it. So I’m looking forward to it.
EDIT 1: The Monster Hunter Nation strikes again!
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #18,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
EDIT 2: BOOOOOM!
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #11,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
EDIT 3: Still hanging in there
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #11,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
EDIT 4: MHN does it again!
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #8,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I’ll be doing a book signing this Saturday at the Layton B&N along with super author John Brown. If you want to pick up some autographed Christmas copies this is your chance. This will be my last signing of the year.
EDIT: It officially starts at 2:00 http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/3072955
Just one quick comment on the news. Obama has frozen federal salaries because of the defecit! And the news portrays that as being this totally awesome sacrifice… So let me get this right… You hired more federal employees than ever before, gave them all the highest salaries ever so that they now make way more than the private sector, and then you FROZE the wages there?
Oh, but wait. They can still move up steps on the GS system and get raises, so it isn’t even actually frozen at all… Oh wow. Yeah, color me impressed. That blow to the head during basketball must have damaged more than his lip.
I just found out that www.audible.com will be releasing audio book versions of Monster Hunter International, Monster Hunter Vendetta, and Monster Hunter Alpha.
The books will be read by Oliver Wyman, who has performed something like 100 audio books. I spoke with him yesterday, and he loves sci-fi, fantasy, all things comic-book and is really into the idea of the MH universe. If you want to check out his work on Audible, try Frederick Pohl’s Gateway, James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, or The Science of Supervillians.
This is pretty exciting stuff. I’ll let you guys know as soon as I find out when the release dates are going to be.
EDIT: And if you do want to try Audible, they do offer a free trail. Do me a favor and use the promo code from the Writing Excuses Podcast. http://www.writingexcuses.com/ They are friends of mine, and Audible is their sponsor. http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse
As many of you know, I decided that I wasn’t nearly geeky enough. So I decided to try my hand at making custom MHI action figures. Frankensteining together GI-Joes, sculpting new bits, and painting them to look like various MHI characters is actually kind of fun and relaxing. All of these need some touch up and work still.
Earl Harbinger’s head comes off of a GI Joe Dusty, body off of Recondo, and I made his leather jacket out of something off of Zartan. I sculpted a drop leg to hold the Smith & Wesson. The Thompson and revolver come from Marauder.
Holly Newcastle is a repainted Agent Helix from the GI Joe movie. This was my first attempt at painting and it shows. I need to do a ton of touch up. The MHI patch came out pretty good considering that it is tiny. The holster was my first sculpting attempt also, and it came out kind of ugly. Think I might try to polish it into better shape and repaint.
Julie came out pretty good. Same body as Holly (there aren’t a lot of good GI Joe sized female bodies I’ve discovered). Head is off the Baroness, which is appropriate, since Julie looks like the Barnoness. (also, just like my wife, which means that it is awesome to be me). The M-14 came from Marauder. The dropleg works with a 1911.
Edward the orc started out as Snake Eyes. The coat is from Snow Job. I sawed off Snake Eye’s visor and painted a proper orc face. Ed’s expression came out perfect. It’s that sorta bored, I’m about to mulch these guys… wonder who’s on O’Reilly tonight face.
Skippy came out really good, considering that I started with a really crappy blue GI-Joe The Movie generic soldier body. I gave him the flight suit. Head is from Beachhead, repainted to proper orcish colors. Vest is from the Snake Eyes I cannabalized for Edward.
Albert Lee came out pretty good. He started as a Storm Shadow. Vest is from Beachhead. I wanted to try some Tiger stripes out on somebody, and then for kicks I decided to construct a 3gun shell caddy. At this point I’m getting a little more confident on the sculpting. That caddy came out good.
Trip Jones also came out pretty good. The head is from Heavy Duty and the body is mostly Snow Job. The vest is Recondo. Everything is repainted. I sculpted the dreadlocks. Before painting it looked like he had an octopus growing out the back of his head. You can’t see from this side, but there is a working tomahawk holder on the other side. You can see the handle at the bottom.
Milo still needs lots of work. Snowjob head on Dusty body. The red beard was just too perfect to pass up.
I’m still working on Owen (lots of sculpting), Sam, Gretchen, and Agent Franks.
