Somacow: Good Cow, Good Cow.

Last Saturday's show was fantastic. I really enjoyed the focus on Mickey and J. Learning a little more about these entertaining folks through a bit of story telling is always a lot of fun. There were many tangents and a short lived rant or two. The replays of episodes 205 and 206 are available at http://somacow.com with 207 not far behind (that's the one where they focus on J, an enigma wrapped in cheese, er, I mean a mystery).

Something else worth mentioning to my readers here is the book review of First Light Chronicles Freeground. They sic'ed Ron? Ray? Robert? Dave? I can never remember his name, but they had the producer review the first book in the series. I'm happy they chose him since he liked it the least out of the four guys on the show. His review is very much worth listening to since it's honest, pretty inclusive and he lets the other fellows; Geoff, Mickey and J jump in with a few addendums. He gave it a good rating in the end, listen to episode 207 when it's available to hear what it was.

They're going to review the second book in the series: First Light Chronicles Limbo this Saturday afternoon and I highly recommend that you listen live between 1pm and 4pm EST. If you can't catch the live show they'll be splitting it up into one hour segments and releasing them throughout the following week. While you're listening in, take a look around their site (www.somacow.net), since they have several other great shows including Say...Anything and The Sports Buzz.

Hope to see you in the live chat, and while you're there listening in don't be afraid to check here for news on the new series: Spinward Fringe. The release of the first of that series is coming up on Sunday.

I wonder if they'll be calling me for an interview at any point?

RL

SomaCow: The Book Review Has Been Foretold

I know, I said it might happen last week, but this week Geoff will be reviewing the First Light Chronicles series on their live radio show. There may even be some commentary from Mickey and J since I sent them three copies (one for each of the guys with the exception of Ross, sorry mate, I wasn't aware Podcast Producers could read).

I'm looking forward to it because I am certain the guys at SomaCow will give these books a real honest review. They won't be pulling punches, using dainty language or gilding the lily. So if it's bad or irritating, Geoff and the guys will attack me for wasting their time. If they like it, they'll tell everyone why.

The great news so far is that they had gotten through the first act of the First Light series: Freeground last week. Like I said in an earlier post here, they liked it enough to keep reading. So everyone who was listening to SomaCow got to hear their basic opinion, a comment about a certain homage I paid to other fiction in the book and the rest of their great edge of chaos show.

Long after they're finished with my stuff I'll still be listening to SomaCow, glad that I had the opportunity to entertain them for a change. Role reversals rock, almost all the time. Go listen to SomaCow tomorrow (Saturday) live between 1pm and 4pm and if you miss it you can check back for it during the week since they split up the live broadcasts into three parts and post them on the website. It's a great show, even my mother enjoyed it last week.

RL

Somacow: The First To Read First Light Chronicles: Omnibus

Some time last week (or the week before, I can't be certain), Geoff, Mickey and J received a package from me with three copies of The First Light Chronicles Omnibus. The Omnibus is a collection of all three parts of The First Light Chronicles series (Freeground, Limbo and Starfree Port).

Geoff is the book reviewer for SomaCow, and he'll be reviewing the books on air either today (Saturday 1pm-4pm) or some time later. As a new dad with a brand new bundle of joy in his life (as opposed to the old, crusty kind), it takes him a little while longer than it used to. I certainly hope he enjoys the read. It'll be nice to entertain the guys over there for a change since they do such a good job entertaining their listeners, myself included.

So go on over the www.somacow.com today and listen in. Not just for a possible book review, but because SomaCow is the greatest internet radio talk show ever. While you're there, check out the other shows on their network. I honestly wish I had the time to listen to it all.

More news to come!

RL

Update:
The fellas at SomaCow have finished reading the first book, First Light Chronicles: Freeground and were pleased enough with it to keep going. I'm looking forward to hearing their review, but more I hope they enjoy the experience of reading the rest of the series half as much or more than I enjoyed writing them.

First Light Chronicles: Starfree Port

The first draft is finished.

I'm starting on the second draft and as I do so it's pretty plain that this book has gone from novella to novel. The only other thing I can tell you about the story is that there's an ending.

Does that mean that it's the end of the First Light Chronicles? No.

From the beginning I wrote this series just like I would a television show. The first book, Freeground, was written like a television pilot. The second, Limbo, was written like a pair of episodes and if you read the book with that in mind you can even pick out where one episode ends and the second begins. The third book, Starfree Port, is written like three episodes. Put all three books together and you get a six part mini-series. Will I redraft all three into teleplays some day? Almost certainly, but only after I finish all the other books in the hopper (looks to the right of this post at the list of books to come...).

My point is that the third installment of the series; Starfree Port, certainly has an ending, an ending I love, an ending I wrote a dozen times in my head before I started typing the first book. This could have come at the end of this book, or it could have come at the end of the tenth book. As it turns out this ending fits right where it is, in the third book. I'm not going to tell you anything else about the plot, I just hope you all enjoy it as much as you have the first two.

Back to work I go!

RL

First published book of the year

As a leap of faith and a trial for my new publisher, I've given them the go ahead to make my first Science Fiction novel in over fourteen years available for purchase. This is the advance edition of the book and will only be available for a few weeks, after that the final edit might go into print. I expect that there may be some changes in the final edit, how many? I'm not really sure at this point to be honest.

What is perfectly clear to me is how much fun I had writing this book. I've written nine full sized novels and a trunk full of novellas that will never see the light of day, a hand full will be published, and never have I enjoyed writing anything as much as I did this most recent work. I enjoyed it so much that keeping it out of print feels like I'm holding in this really juicy secret and my foolishly grinning head is about to explode!

I could write at least nine more. Seriously, I could write this story for the next five to ten years and most likely put out eight books this size per year. Hopefully someone out there has half as much fun reading it as I had writing it so I can have an audience for any future acts in this space opera.

It's an action adventure space opera with some romance, camaraderie, big fricken guns and people yelling "FIRE!!" and "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!".

Just what I always wanted.

Anyway, please order soon since this version of the book will probably be a short run and I'm trying to gauge interest. I hope this will be the beginning of a series that keeps me busy for years to come and I'm working on the next book right now.

Here is the link to buying the book online in print or as a download:

http://www.lulu.com/content/1993570

Thank you for reading the blog!

RL