“WATER and other stories” is a short story anthology that was put together specifically for Smashwords as a free ebook offering. It contains the following stories:

PETITIONS: A short story about a homeless man (contemporary fiction).
ANGEL’S SONG: A companion short story to the novel “The Thorn”, book one of “The Chronicles of Gan” (speculative fiction).
WATER: Based on the account found in the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verses 1-16, and the painting by Carl Bloch, “Healing at the Pool of Bethesda” (historical fiction).

These are the same stories which are present on my website under the menu heading “READ”, but I know that some people prefer to be able to take the book with them rather than sit on a website and read. So, if you are one of those people, you can find several different ebook formats available here. It’s FREE!

Have a great holiday weekend!

For some people, fall is nothing more than a harbinger of frost, cold, winter, and death. I like that word . . . harbinger. The current meaning is “a herald”, or “messenger”. But its history is as follows: Middle English = Shelter, Old French = Lodging. In other words, when the messenger comes, it’s time to secure the shutters, bring in the firewood, store the tools in the barn, and hunker down. It’s going to get cold.

And I love it. Fall is my favorite season. I realize we still have 20 official days of summer, but I am ready for the change. Cool nights and apple cider, red, orange, and yellow trees, and pumpkin pie, cinnamon and nutmeg. OK. So, its really about the food. Nevertheless, the season invigorates me.

I haven’t felt much like blogging this summer. It has been a tough couple of months. But I think things are back on the upswing, so I thought I would spend a moment and let you all know what I am up to.

First of all, I have started writing again. I needed a break this summer. Or, at least that’s what I am telling myself. Truth is, I didn’t feel like writing. But I AM going to get Heaven’s Garden done by the end of the year. My goal is the end of November (NaNoWriMo should help with that). I must do it! I plan to release HG sometime this spring, and I need to get the manuscript in the editor’s hands for a few months before we can get it ready for typesetting. All that takes time.

Second, it’s not like I completely wasted my time over the last few weeks. I worked really hard on the artwork for my covers, and finished the first one, The Thorn, which you have seen.  The second one, Heaven’s Garden, will be posted up soon for your comments. Like the cover I did for The Thorn, it has a similar theme and font usage, etc, but a different background, and the font colors are greens, and it has a glow-stone lantern on the cover. The kind of lantern that Pekah makes. If you have read the first book, you’ll remember that near the end of the story, he takes on a job as an apprentice tin-smith. If you haven’t read the story, that tidbit shouldn’t ruin anything for you.

Third, I am about to get back into a schedule of doing book signings. In fact, the next one is on Saturday, September 11, 2010 at Eborn Books in Provo. The address for that signing is listed in both my sidebar and the main page of my website (click on HOME in the menu). It will be a 4 hour signing with fellow authors and friends Tristi Pinkston and David J. West. We are planning on having some cool drawings every hour, refreshments, and of course, our books. We would love to have you stop by and say hello.

That pretty much wraps things up for the moment. Go get yourself a cup of hot cider!

***

photo courtesy of Edal Anton Lefterov

I am pleased to announce that THE THORN is now available as an ebook on smashwords.com in the following formats:

HTML, Kindle (.mobi), Epub (open standard), PDF, RTF, LRF, PDB (palm doc), and plain text.

Smashwords is the only site at the moment which carries the ebook, but other sites such as Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., will have the iPAD, Kindle, and Nook versions soon. They have been submitted for approval. The Smashwords website indicates that the process takes several weeks. I will post an update here on the blog once I see them start to show up.

In celebration of this milestone, I am offering for a limited time, a coupon for 50% off the listed price of $3.99. In order to qualify for the promotional $1.99 price (and with that single purchase you can download ANY of the formats you wish), all you have to do is join my mail list on the sidebar of my blog. Click on the link next to the mail icon, fill out the fields, and you will be given a $2.00 coupon which is good through the end of the month.

Order your ebook copy of The Thorn here.

Help me spread the word!

One last note… if your favorite ebook version is not available yet, sign up for the mail list anyway before the end of the month, then send me an email to the address listed on my contact page (the link called DARON on the website menu). Indicate the version you are waiting for, and I will email you a new coupon as soon as that version is ready to go.

Here it is folks. This is the version I will be using.

The change is minor, but it fixes a perspective problem on the hilt-guard. I redesigned it. And did a more realistic fill on the surface. Other than that, it is the same. Oh, and the end cap where the second crystal snaps in also got the same fill.

(Interesting… a crystal sword. Glows blue. Has a short, removable crystal on the end. Makes you wonder about the story, doesn’t it? You want to read it… I know you do.)

But now I am tired of tweaking it. I think this one is going to be it.

Thanks for all of your previous comments! Stay tuned for more exciting announcements soon.  Hint: Do you own an e-reader?

Perhaps this is it… thank you all for your numerous comments and for your encouragement. I really appreciate it.

This is the latest version of the cover:

I realize there is no way that I am going to please everybody. But this is probably as close as I can get to considering all of the best suggestions I received. Let me know if this is yet another step above the last version of this cover. Did the tweaks work? (Items changed: Font, coloring on font, edges of font, leading characters emphasized, sword position adjusted slightly, drop shadows added to top of page items (shadow to left and up), drop shadow added to author name (shadow to right and down), drop shadow added to sword for depth (I love the fact that the drop shadow on the sword is solid for the hilt, and then somewhat clear for the blade and pommel crystal).

Let me know what you think.

This is the result of consulting with some artists.  Yes, I did the entire thing on my own. I think this one is getting very close to being a usable cover! But that is just my opinion… what do YOU think? Please let me know in the comments. You may compare it to the previous two blog posts if you wish.

Thanks for taking the time to look.  Let me know what you think!

I had fairly mixed reviews on the last set of book covers. I think I know why.

Therefore, I have attempted again…

Does THIS one change your opinion any? Is it better? FAR better? Or does it still stink?  Let me know in the comments….

And for those of you who are wondering where I got a picture of a crystal sword… have you seen the movie Inception yet? I am learning to be an architect.

Thank you for your comments!

I have heard it said many times that readers DO judge a book by its cover. The artwork needs to catch their eye, the text needs to be sharp and clean, and small versions of the cover need to be more than an incoherent blob.

I am looking for your input here. There is a poll in the sidebar of my blog. Please take a look at the candidate pictures below, and vote!

One quick note… the artwork and pictures are all mine, with the exception of the wheat field in the third cover. I really like the picture, but would have to purchase it if I choose to use it. So ignore the watermark and funny black border, if you don’t mind. Those will be gone when and if I use the picture. I look forward to your thoughts! If you wish to leave a comment in addition to voting, please do.

(note: These are also looking like the titles of the books, so I hope you like them!)

Don’t forget to vote…

Kerry Blair, a friend and fellow author reviewed my book. She claims it’s not a review, but I’ll still take it as such. I had not expected her to do any kind of review, short or long . . . I had simply sent her a copy of the book as a gift for her wonderful kindness to me when I was first starting out on this journey of being a published author.

Her words today left me both speechless and immensely grateful for the person that she is. Her blog post lifted my spirits . . . and after the last couple of months, which have been difficult for me, I really needed it.

In fact, THIS IS WHY I WRITE.

My sincere thanks to you, Kerry! Here is a link to the review:

http://sixldswriters.blogspot.com/2010/07/so-have-you-been-to-gan.html

I hope you like it as much as I did. Also, as you can see, I have recovered from my speechlessness.

I have two different publishing related websites I want to highlight today.

1. If you care about the future of publishing, this is a blog you need to follow. Marion Jensen is a published author (a.k.a. Matthew Buckley, “Chickens in the Headlights” / “Bullies in the Headlights”) who also spent several years as the director of Utah State University’s OpenCourseWare project. He knows what he is talking about in relation to open source, open content, and open models. Marion’s experience in these areas makes for some incredibly enlightening blog reads which cover publishing trends, e-books and readers, marketing, using social networks, and much more. Go visit The Open Author today. You’ll be glad you did.

2. There is a very interesting writing contest ramping up that I thought you should know about. Sponsored by the Poole Literary Festival which will occur this fall (October 29-31, Poole, U.K.), the New Media Prize will honor storytelling that is designed explicitly for delivery/reading/viewing on a PC or Mac, on the web, or via mobile phone. In other words, they are looking for stories that are told through text, images, sound, video, websites, animation, interactivity, etc., that are purely electronic. Nothing printed! I expect that the winner of this prize will probably deliver some interactive multi-media book or story that can be viewed by multiple methods (e-book reader, laptop, cell phone).

The judging criteria for the New Media Prize according to their website:

1. Innovative use of new media to create an engaging, satisfying narrative, or poetry
2. Ease of accessibility for the reader/viewer
3. Effective use of interactive elements
4. Show us that new media can do things ‘old’ media can’t!

If you would like to get more information, go to the Poole Literary website, or to the New Media Prize blog.

Let me know what you think about the contest. With the popularity of mobile media gadgets (e-book readers like iPad, Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, and also laptops and powerful cell phones), do you think this contest is exciting? Why or why not?

Do you think that publishing is going to be primarily electronic in the future?