As per usual, I’m writing in a number of different directions this summer. I’ve always got a novel under construction, and I’ve got some automotive work floating about as well. Here’s the late-summer snapshot:

For you Connor Rix fans, the third novel in the series is underway. It’s still in the early going, but I’ll be pushing hard for a fall release. I’ve already acquired an extra-cool cover, which I’ll tease you with at a later date. At the end of Levers of Power, did you wonder what the story was behind the Transcendent Modified humans? You’ll find out in this SF thriller. Plus: The return of Angie 6!

Earlier this summer I started a novel in the contemporary fantasy genre. I got about 9,000 words into it and am really pleased with how it is unfolding. I set it aside to get the third Connor Rix title underway, but I really can’t wait to finish this one. It’s a shadow-world kind of thing, set in the American Southwest.

On the automotive side, I’ve got an article on track-prepping your car in the August Team Shelby newsletter. I’d supply a link, but the newsletter is a benefit for paid members of the club, so it’s behind a firewall. If you’d like to see learn more about Team Shelby and get your hands on the newsletter, go here. I’ve also been given an assignment for the Shelby Annual that will be in print at the end of the year.

I’ve got a drive report on the Lotus Evora IPS coming out soon in Automotivetraveler.com. I’ll update with a link as soon as it goes live. (Update! Here’s the Lotus story.)

Other than that? Staying in the shade, grilling assorted meats, quaffing the occasional ale. But I better get back to the keyboard if I want to have a fall newsletter full of new book releases and fun article links. Some cool stuff is brewing if I can pull it all off!

Fun weekend attending Austin’s ArmadilloCon. I waded deep into the Science-Fiction waters and came home with plenty of books, cards, bookmarks, posters and notes. It was also kind of a test run for future conventions, as my medium-term plan includes renting a table at some of these events to sell my Connor Rix titles and future SF/Fantasy offerings.

Naturally, books were my main focus and I spent a lot of time sitting in on author-oriented panels, and talking with authors selling their wares. And yes, my to-read stack just grew a few inches. I purchased a copy of Revenge from the very friendly Gabrielle Faust, and also bought an Advanced Reading Copy of a Robert Silverberg collaboration. Met John Rountree, another Austin writer, and I look forward to reading some of his short stories.

The panel discussions I selected were more fan-oriented on Saturday, and more business-oriented Sunday. One excellent panel was Book Covers: Today and Tomorrow, moderated by John Picacio, a 2012 Hugo award finalist. Authors are struggling to adapt to the changes in the publishing world, but so are illustrators and designers. If the primary display for most books is an online thumbnail-size image, where does that leave graphic artists? It’s like the whole album cover/CD case/MP3 progression all over again. Which would be a great shame if it turned out that way, especially after viewing Julie Dillon’s beautiful artwork. If I thought for a moment I could afford to commission her for a book cover, I would in an instant. I’ll build up to that.

Also interesting was the cool reception toward book trailers. I’ve seen some good ones, but several panelists made the point that: A) they usually cost too much for a low-margin item like a book, B) Watching a video and reading a book are two different experiences that don’t mix well, C) People like to imagine what the characters look like, and you can spoil that by portraying them in video. Good points. Any thoughts out there on the effectiveness of book trailers?

Another good panel was one on attracting and building your audience, moderated by Chloe Neill. Lots of good tips, and another reminder that I need to get those Connor Rix bookmarks on order. Could have distributed a bunch of them this weekend.

A highlight for me came when I wandered into a panel discussion on Alternate Histories.  One of the authors, Howard Waldrop, casually mentioned one of his old books, The Texas-Israeli War: 1999 from 1974. I almost fell out of my chair. I bought that when it was new off the spinning metal paperback rack at the local convenience store when I was in Jr. High. I can still see the cover in my mind’s eye. My friends and I loved it. I can’t believe I ever got rid of my copy. I had long since forgotten who wrote it, but now I have to catch up on all those Waldrop stories I missed over the years. First up: I MUST find a copy of Night of the Cooters.

Ah, here’s some good news for science-fiction fans. The venerable magazine Amazing Stories is being relaunched as an e-zine, with possible print versions to follow. I was very glad to see that the first issue will have a column about working for the original magazine by Robert Silverberg, one of my favorite authors. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this one.

Hey, thanks to everyone who purchased Levers of Power, the second book in the Connor Rix series, during its debut week. It jumped up into the top 100 in the Amazon Kindle SF Series category on the first day, reaching as high as No. 35. It has remained in the top 100 all week. Levers of Power is also available in ebook format over at Barnes & Noble, and the print version is just days away from release. Thanks!

Reaching deep into the archives in our continuing celebration of the 50th anniversary of the introduction of The Incredible Hulk, I came across issue No. 3 from September 1962. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were still getting a feel for the character, and this battered comic contains three Hulk stories that are kind of all over the map: One where the army gets rid of its Hulk problem by shooting him into outer space (Whoops! Better re-think that), one where they re-tell the Hulk’s origin, and one where he fights the Ringmaster, an actual circus ringmaster with a spinning hypno-wheel on his hat. I kid you not.

But! The issue is noteworthy for another reason, a true milestone in comic geek history. In the Let’s Talk About The Hulk letters section, Bob Barron from Schenectady, New York, wrote:

The Hulk is just as great or even greater than the Fantastic Four! (Both are my favorites!) The Hulk reminds me of the now-deceased Heap from an old series, as well as an old Frankenstein feature. He also reminds me of the Thing from your own FF mag. In the future, why not have a book-length issue titled The Hulk vs. The Thing?

Before the ink was even dry on the first issue, 10,000 young boys thought: “Wouldn’t it be cool if the Hulk fought the Thing?” But, so far as I can tell, it was Bob Barron, geek hero, who first got the idea into print. Bob, we humbly offer a Hulk 50th Anniversary salute!

I’ve been a science-fiction fan for as long as I’ve been able to read, but didn’t start writing in that direction until I was well in my 20s. I started by scribbling short stories — very short stories, usually about four panels or less. While in college I still had aspirations to be a cartoonist, and one day walked into the editor’s office at The University Star, the student newspaper for Southwest Texas State University, and convinced him to carry my comic strip Space Tales. I think I was paid $5 or $10 apiece for the strips, so these comics from 1988 and 1989 were technically my first professional fiction sales. (The pay rate has remained constant). The one reproduced below was probably the high point, or at least the one that people most mentioned if they knew about the strip. Hey, it was college, cut me some slack, ok?

The corn. Tall it grows. Sometimes it reaches so high it can get disorienting. In those years, it’s been known to drive the residents of Iowa mad, or dumb, or sometimes both.  A man can’t think straight when corn madness is whispering in his ear.

Once, a man with a corn-shattered brain tried to build a campfire between the ethanol and diesel pumps at a Shell station. “I just want to make some popcorn,” he was heard to say, seconds before his death. “Can you help move that field over yonder a little closer to my fire?”

Another time, the Athletic Director at the University of Iowa hired Greg Davis to be offensive coordinator of the football team. “The magnetic field of the Earth is going to reverse its polarity any day now,” he said. “A forward-looking university must be able to switch directions on a moment’s notice. North-south is dead. All bow down to east-west.”

The corn is high this year. The corn is high.

The perfect Valentine’s Day gift for someone you don’t love. Unless, of course, she’s as big a sci-fi geek as you.

My non-fiction books that I wrote in the 1990s were conventionally published, but for my new novel Rules of Force I paddled out into the largely uncharted waters of self-publishing. Along the way I devoured the advice posted by some of the champions of e-book self-publishing, such as Joe Konrath, Dean Wesley Smith, Michael Stackpole and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Their insights  proved to be extremely valuable. They are truly providing a service to writers trying to make sense of the rapidly-changing business of publishing.

So now, instead of just being a taker, I hope to add some small bit of knowledge to the self-pubbing database. Specifically, I thought I’d share my experience with a recent promotional push. It’s no secret that getting your work in front of potential readers is the toughest part of self-publishing. Many online book reviewers are overwhelmed by the sheer number of submissions, and most of them flat-out state that they do not accept self-published books for review. Because, you know, you’re aren’t a legitimate writer unless a New York publishing house is taking 85 percent of the revenue….

Whether a book is selected for review is something that is out of your control. But there are a handful of avenues for promotion that are completely in your control. One of those is the Goodreads book giveaway. Most writers are probably familiar with Goodreads, but for those of you who aren’t, Goodreads.com is a social networking site for avid readers, and it has millions of users. One of their most popular programs is the book giveaway. For now, it is only open to print books (they are testing e-book giveaways) but, like many of you, I made my novel available as a print-on-demand trade paperback as well as an e-book.

If you haven’t signed up with Goodreads, it’s pretty simple. You have to register and set up an author page, which takes a couple days for approval. (You can review books, link to your blog, post book trailers, etc.) Then you (or your publisher) can enter a newly-published book in the giveaway program. You can give away as many copies as you like; I decided to offer two signed copies. You can also set the time parameters for the giveaway. They recommend two to four weeks; I set mine for three. Goodreads runs the contest and selects the winners. You just have to mail the books to the lucky recipients.

So how did it work? Over the three weeks of the promotion I had 623 people enter to win, and 65 people put Rules of Force on their digital “to read” shelves. I even picked up a couple of followers of my reviews. Better still, Goodreads provides a list of who entered the giveaway to the author or publisher, so you have a nice demographic snapshot of who is interested in your book.

You have two periods of maximum visibility: When it is newly listed, and during the last few days of the promotion when it shows up on the “ending soon” page. When my book popped up on the “ending soon” front page, I was getting 100 people a day sign up for a chance to win. Granted, some of these people probably enter to win every book in the giveaway program, but still, I had over 600 people look at the cover of my book, read what it is about, and decide “Interesting, I think I’ll enter.”

Not bad for the cost of two POD books and postage. The jury is still out on how much of a sales bump I’ll get out of this, but I definitely consider the promotion successful in attracting the attention of potential readers.

My Presidential Muscle Cars e-book received a very nice review by Sam Fiorani over at AutomotiveTraveler.com. Follow the link to read it, and then spend some time on the Automotive Traveler website and magazine. It’s a consistently good read with some very entertaining travel stories and road tests.