So, you know, if you want something awful to read, have at it:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00C9IVXH0
(I wouldn’t recommend it, though)
All Of My Books Are FREE today (May 10, 2014)
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Category Archives: Book Reviews
Writer’s Rant: Judging A Book By Its Cover
So does anyone remember that old sci-fi movie “Ice Pirates”? One of those ‘so bad it’s good’ space comedies?
I’m kinda toying with a ‘pulp’ idea along those lines. Maybe a series of short novellas written in the pulp style but with modern science fiction ideas. Heck, maybe even some horror stuff too. Street gangs.
I can call it “Dollar Fiction” and then give it a subtitle like “Dollar Fiction: Ice Pirates #1” or something. “Dollar Fiction: Some Other Crap Here #3”. Better yet, I’ll deliberately make them all have plain covers that cost me nothing, and in the blurb, it will say something like “Dollar Fiction’s goal is to give you modern pulp at affordable prices. Our secondary goal is to prove that a book should never be judged by its cover.”
Because I’m never going to stop being annoyed that people still judge the contents of a book by what’s on the cover. It’s ridiculous. How the hell did anyone read some boring shit like “A Tale of Two Cities” when the covers were made of stretched leather or whatever DIDN’T have 4-color, hand-drawn, original artwork (or stock photos pasted together with some lettering on them)?
Have you ever seen what a book looked like before some dude (probably a dude in NYC) decided that paperbacks were easy to make and easy to put all kinds of crazy drawings on the cover? Yeah. Books covers were as artistic as a painted wall.
Continue reading
The Evolution of Custom Art #2
Hello again, everyone. I just received another update from Daniel Johnson, the nice gentleman doing custom art for two of my books.
Today’s update is for “Extraction,” a first-contact / alien invasion novel that I’ll be publishing sometime before the summer (hopefully).
Extraction – rough full scene 01
This is a more detailed scene of the final cover, and I’ll throw up some more images in a second to give you some more idea on how the ‘victims’ on the machine evolved.
Q&A With Science Fiction Writers – #1: Richard Tongue
One of my fellow SciFi authors, Edward Lake, interviewed a lot of his colleagues (including me!), and has started posted them on his blog. A lot of us authors are interested enough, and we hope you’ll be interested enough as well, to read some of them.
Who knows, you might find a new author that you’ve never heard of and begin enjoying their work!
First up: #1 – Richard Tongue
EL: What inspired you to be a writer?
RT: Wow, that’s a long story! I’ve been reading fantasy and science fiction since I was a very small child, and I think the two genres have always fascinated me; further, I’ve been a complete spaceflight nut since I was about the same age. That definitely explains the genre, but as for writing itself – I guess I just want to tell stories. I think it’s as simple as that!
EL: How did you become a science fiction writer?
RT: Lots of reading around the genre and a good grounding in actual science were the keys here, as well as an understanding of history and current events. I think those are the keys to success as a science-fiction writer specifically; as for the craft, it was a question of writing the ‘million words of crap’, I think.
(hit the link above to read the rest of the interview and more!)
Hugh Howey: The Conundrum That Baffles The Publishing World
If you’ve never read Wool, then I urge you to get it from Amazon or your favorite e-book store. It is free for the first hit. The rest will cost you, but my oh my, they will addict you like textual smack. Black Tar textual smack.
Now that you’ve read that, or if you’re already a fan, you really need to understand why Hugh Howey is the hero to many self-published authors, including me, and somewhat of an anti-hero to the traditional publishing world, or at best, a conundrum that constantly evolves and cannot be predicted.
What is the beauty of having a physical book? Is it because it is made of paper? Is it the size? The smell of the pages and cover? The way the pages feel under your fingers? The memories of growing up with physical books? I still love physical books, but I’m also a huge Kindle fan (a fan of all e-readers to be honest, since that is the direction the literary world is evolving in).
The one thing e-books don’t have that physical books have, well, one of the things, but sometimes the most important thing, is a physical presence. So in a sense, without a physical presence, it can have no smell, no paper pages, and since it is so new, no real fond memories of sitting under a tree in the summer reading an epic story. Maybe some of you have had this memory with the e-readers, but I’m still working towards that goal.
But what if you could have an e-book AND a physical presence to remind you of it? Friends, this is why Hugh Howey is someone authors like me respect and publishers cannot predict:
What will the man think of next?
Let’s Talk About… (#1)
Hi. My name is Angry (Travis if you don’t like using internet nicknames), and I’m going to start a new discussion called “Let’s Talk About…” and each one will talk about something different that has to do with you, writing, editing, publishing, and possibly even reading.
Today, Let’s Talk About…Story Ideas
Right. So. You want to write a story/book, but you think your ideas are weak, or you cannot come up with good plot. Maybe you just need a little push to get going in one direction, and then as you get writing, it’s like a snowball roll down a mountain. Continue reading
My Novella = Gay Agenda/Propaganda?
I guess I’m proud to announce that my first book published is hereby declared ‘gay propaganda’.
I’m going to say, “Good.”
The book of course is NOT gay propaganda, but it does have an LGBT-friendly…story? I don’t know how to explain it. Some of the characters are gay. Like…so what? Because there are gays in this real world, there shouldn’t be gays in fiction / science fiction?
Here’s how I see the world, and in turn, how I write stories: Continue reading
James Patterson Is A Prolific Author, But Kind Of Dumb
Read the entire post at JA Konrath’s blog. Trust me on this one.
Perhaps you’ve seen the ad James Patterson recently ran in the NYT.
The Ad Should Be Called "Hyperbole" or "Special Interest Marketing"
If you don’t want to squint at the jpg, here’s what Patterson wrote:
“If there are no bookstores, no libraries, no serious publishers with passionate, dedicated, idealistic editors, what will happen to our literature? Who will discover and mentor new writers? Who will publish our important books? What will happen if there are no more books like these?”
Then there’s a list of 38 books, including All the President’s Men, Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, Fahrenheit 451, Catch 22, etc. I agree that many of them are great.
Then he ends with:
“The Federal Government has stepped in to save banks, and the automobile industry, but where are they on the important subject of books? Or if the answer is state and local government, where are they? Is any state doing anything? Why are there no impassioned editorials in influential newspapers or magazines? Who will save our books? Our libraries? Our bookstores?”
I respect Patterson for his marketing genius. I also like many of his books. He makes 94 million dollars a year, so he’s obviously doing quite a bit right.
But I’m not finding much to agree with here.
Another voice chimes in here, and is definitely worth the read!
Test Readers Wanted
If you like to read, and would like to test read some of the nonsense I’m going to publish before it gets published, just drop me a comment here. Some of it is finished and ready for editing stage, some is still in progress.
I should say you probably also need to be okay with adult language and adult situations. I don’t write erotica or porn, but my characters are people from the real world and they don’t talk or act like they live in 1840 England 😉
Free Michael R. Hicks eBooks!
“While this page is entitled “Free Novel,” that’s actually a total lie: by coming here, you can get not one, not two, but three free bestselling novels! And all three are available from your favorite ebook retail sites for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and are available on iTunes and Google Play!”