Everything I Released Is On Sale

I don't normally announce this sort of thing here, but Smashwords is having an end of year sale and I had to join in. All my books are discounted this week,(Until January 1). If you're missing something, want to look at my whole library, to see what's free today or would like DRM free backups of my books, now is the time. If you stop in, please add me as a favourite so you get notifications whenever a new book appears. There will be a few this year. :)

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/randolphlalonde

RL

Savage Stars: Chaos Core Book 3 Is Out!

At long last, Savage Stars: Chaos Core Book 3 is out in Ebook format. I had a great time writing the serialized version of this, now it's been edited a few times and its ready for prime time. 

Here's the Smashwords Link, where you can find it in EPub format (Compatible with Kobo, Apple iBooks, Sony, Nook and almost everything else). https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/912624

Amazon is rushing the approval of the book internationally, so you can click on the American link then follow the banner that will send you to your home country's Amazon Kindle page.

Here are the links to the latest retailers to list the book!

Barnes & Noble (Nook)

Apple iBooks (iTunes)

Rakuten Kobo 

Writing this as a serial was great fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing the edited, complete version of the ebook in your hands. I especially enjoyed the crossover with Spinward Fringe. Showing a real connection between the two series seemed to grow the scope of both. I hope you enjoy it. 

Savage Stars and Spinward Fringe Continue!

 Savage Stars is approaching 40 chapters, which means that it's about 10 chapters away from being its own EBook! For everyone who is loving the serial on Patreon, you'll be happy to know that it'll continue on past chapter 50, into a new trilogy of Chaos Core books yet to be named. It'll be a serial first, then released as Ebooks as they grow to that size and finish big chunks of the story I have planned for a trilogy that focuses on swashbuckling space opera more than Savage Stars has so far.

Today, chapter 38 is out for subscribers! Chapter 20 is free for all!

Chapter 38: https://www.patreon.com/posts/21294577

Chapter 20 (Free): https://www.patreon.com/posts/19934670

RL

Chaos Core Book 3: Savage Stars Is Huge On Patreon

The forthcoming third part of the Chaos Core series, a spin off of the Spinward Fringe series that you can start for free by downloading the first book: Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1, is up to chapter thirty five on Patreon. Savage Stars is due for release everywhere quality EBooks are sold in November of this year, but many people are reading it already as a serial.

After looking at the next plot arc and where we are in the story of the limited series, I've decided to continue Chaos Core as a serialized story on Patreon as I work on other projects, so it's likely that it'll go on well into next year. The good news here is that if you like Chaos Core and Spinward Fringe, you can read two chapters a week and there will be regular releases every forty or fifty chapters.

After coming to the end of one of the biggest plot arcs in the series, I'm looking forward to digging into what's next as Spin leads us into... well, I won't spoil it, since there's another major decision coming up for her and her crew. The character development that takes place in Savage Stars is essential to the rest of the series, as is the crossover between the Spinward Fringe series and Chaos Core.

That's right, a character everyone knows from the Spinward Fringe series crosses over to Chaos Core. As you would expect from a Spinward Fringe character, they bring... complications.

So, I hope you take a look at all the free content on Patreon right now, even if it is just to get a preview of Chaos Core Book 3. As soon as I have a real cover and release date set, you'll see another post! I'm cover shopping right now, so that'll be soon.

Check out Savage Stars: Chaos Core Book 3 Here.

Cool Pursuit Is Available! Broadcast 10 Is Coming!

The files for Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2 were provided early to Amazon and Smashwords in order to get it into everyone's hands by October 21. As a result, most retailers already have it, with the exception of Barnes & Noble who tends to be much slower than all the others.

For anyone who doesn't know, this is the follow up to the first book in the Chaos Core series, which started with Trapped, a free novella. (You can get that for free anywhere eBooks are sold).

Chaos Core 2: Cool Pursuit is much larger, and shows us a larger piece of the Spinward Fringe universe as the main characters make their way through troubled territory.

Here's where you can get your hands on Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com.au

Smashwords
iBookstore
Kobo
Barnes & Noble

Now that this book is completed and released, I'm devoting all my time to Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10. It's already the size of an average Space Opera novel, about 95,000 words, but there's a lot of writing to be done. My goal is to get it out for December 7, and to be working on Broadcast 11 by the time that is in your hands.

I'm more excited than I can express to be so close to finishing broadcast 10, I believe it's one of the best in the series, and it's been the most difficult to write because so much is expected of this novel. If you look to the upper right hand corner of this blog, you'll find several preview chapters. If you've already gone through those, I highly recommend checking out the Chaos Core books, Dark Arts or Brightwill. Most of those books are free, so what do you have to lose?

Thank you so much for your support, I hope you enjoy the books that are finally being released!

RL

Release Date For Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2

On October 21, 2016, a very different science fiction space opera novel will become available.

The Chaos Core has the Spinward Fringe series to thank for its universe, but the values and motivations of the characters are often different. The same can be said for the environments they find themselves in and the interactions that take place. It's a novel where even the "good guys" are criminals, and where the bottom can fall out of any plan, no matter how short sighted or far reaching it may be.

Here's the synopsis:
Spin and her crew continue to elude their pursuers. Escaped slaves, they are hunted by law, begrudging masters, and shadow lurking hunters. It's a race to find a new ship and get out of the sector while the new crew try to find their places amongst each other. Revenge is on everyone's mind, but pursuing Captain White is an endeavour that could cost them everything. While her friends track him and ready their instruments of vengeance, Spin pursues a different kind of revenge, one that could separate him from everything he's worked for, but especially his great ship: the Cool Angel.

It's a longer book than the first in the series by quite a bit, qualifying as a short novel. According to the editor and test readers it's still fast paced, but an awful lot happens to the small group of survivors at the centre of the story. This is a book with great consequence, fun, and it explores part of the Spinward Fringe universe that the main series hasn't gone into at all but I've always wanted to get into.

If you haven't checked out Chaos Core Book 1, you can find it for free from most Ebook retailers.

Amazon Link
Kobo Link
Barnes & Noble Link
Smashwords Link

The next book will be available in 2017, but first I'll be finishing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Foreground.

Thank you so much for reading and buying my work. You can look forward to a couple of podcasts about the Chaos Core series before the focus moves back to the Spinward Fringe series for a while.

RL

[More news about Spinward Fringe and other projects is coming soon, so stay tuned.]

Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2

The second book in the Chaos Core series is coming fast. I'm working on the last ten chapters this week and next week. I'm aiming for a late September release.

The second book is larger than the first and we get to know several characters much better. The scale of this novella is much broader, with potential new characters from the past entering in with sometimes crossed purposes.

All while Spin's clock keeps ticking down to her final days, and she focuses on correcting the damage done by the Countess.

One of the things I like most about working on this book is how much I was able to explore parts of the broken universe these characters live in. Spin is still new to so much of it, so it's fun to view things from her perspective. The excitement and danger are all still very fresh for her, and it's difficult for her to keep from being distracted.

After this is complete I'll be finishing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground.  The short break I've taken from it has helped me a great deal. I've fleshed out a few ideas and solved a few problems that have come up in the writing. Both series are exciting to me, and I can't wait to deliver a finished book from both of them soon.

Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1 is available for free everywhere now, so if you haven't taken a look at this snack-sized novella yet, now is a great time to do that.

Thank you for all your support,

RL 

Trapped Is Now Free!

The second series based in the Spinward Fringe universe launched to a small segment of people who were excited to see more, and who were excited to see something new. The support the first Chaos Core novella has received has been great, but as with all new series, the first book's sales have tapered off to almost none.

Don't worry though, this happens every time I launch the first part of a series or release a stand alone book. Even The Expendable Few, which is a novella that takes place between Broadcasts 6 and 7 in the Spinward Fringe series suffers form dismal sales because it's not in the main series. Readers are happy to discover it, I get emails about that book all the time, but they usually find it after they've read the entire Spinward Fringe series and go looking for more.

As with all the first books in the series that I'm working on, the first one will be free. The release of Chaos Core Book 2 (and Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10), are quickly approaching, so it's time to get this novella in front of people who don't know my work, or were hesitant on reading something from an author they've never heard of. Trapped has only been free for about three days on Amazon, and over a hundred copies are already on Kindle readers.

I understand that doing this sometimes frustrates the people who paid $2.99 for the book initially. All I can say is that I'm thankful for your support, and you helped move this book further up the charts than I could have imagined. Trapped was the #1 Cyberpunk book on Amazon UK for a little over a week, and placed high in the iBookstore (beating The Force Awakens Novelization), and Smashwords. Those are incredible results, and I think you for being a part of that. Books aren't alive if they're not read, however, and a series dies if the first book is forgotten, so I have to get this novella in front of as many people as possible using the retailers that they'll be able to find the second book through.

I've gotten emails from people who actually feel guilty for reading this for free and not having a way of paying for it too. Don't worry, now you can point your friends at this book and they can join you in that universe for free, and if you really want to support me financially, just show up when the second one (Cool Pursuit), arrives this year. That one will never be free, it will be a larger novella / short novel priced at $2.99 US.

So, tell your fellow readers, your friends, your relatives, the cable guy and the mailman... Trapped is free wherever great Ebooks are sold, and I hope everyone enjoys the ride!

RL

[Work on Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10 continues, if you want more info, please check the previous post.]

More! A Progress Update

Spinward Fringe, Dark Arts, Brightwill, and now the Chaos Core Series share parts of an ever-shrinking year.

I'm extremely fortunate as a writer not just because I make enough money to live on, but because my books receive increasingly positive reviews that most often end with; "now I just want to read more!" or "Where's the next one?"

While some people may see that as criticism, I see it as an invitation. The reviewers have paid for my work, read it and want another. That's an open door if I've ever seen one.

The good news is that I have ideas for all four of these titles, I even have ideas that are pretty much whole book outlines. The bad news is that it takes time to write, edit and get these to retailers, time which is absolutely finite. We're half way through the year now (roughly) and I've only managed to release one novella while I continue to work on Broadcast 10. Sure, there are at least two more books coming this year, but I know I'm not going to make my deadlines for Broadcasts 11 and 12 in 2016. There's still a chance Broadcast 11 will come out this year, but since I don't have any of that written yet, I can't make guarantees.

Looking over the history of this blog, I see a pattern. In January and February I always make some grand plans about how many books I'll be able to finish. Then, around June or July, I write a post about how I'm modifying my expectations and may make it through one or two books instead. This pattern comes up over and over, and I think I've finally learned my lesson. So, on to the good news and the annual adjustment of expectations...

In this year I can promise that Broadcast 10 will be released and it's going to be a large book with more than one story within. Broadcast 10 is really like two novels and a novella that are strung along one timeline and then trapped together in one book, that's one of the main reasons why Spinward Fringe novels take longer to write, but I know Broadcast 10 will be finished sooner rather than later.

Another Chaos Core novella called Cool Pursuit will be released this year, that's for sure. It's easier to write these shorter novellas with simpler story telling, so I can write Broadcast 10 and those at the same time for a while. Not forever, my brain needs some time to formulate new ideas, but for a few more weeks. Cool Pursuit will be in your faces sometime in 2016.

The Dark Arts sequel will make it's appearance this Halloween, or at least, I'm going to try my hardest to get that done. This isn't a guarantee. The first Dark Arts novel started with a simple plan, it was only going to be seven chapters, and then it got extremely complicated for a while before I got the story back under control. That's the tendency with these books, I'm sure, so who knows if I'll hit my deadline?

Regardless of whether or not I meet the deadline for Dark Arts II to come out at the end of October, I will be working on Broadcast 11 by the end of the year, probably at the beginning or end of September. Broadcast 11 will take less time to write than 10 because it will be a simpler novel that follows fewer characters and it won't be as long. In fact, I hope the days of writing long 140,000+ word novels are over for me for a few years because I find it's much more fun to write shorter works, and my finances take a massive hit if I don't release a book at least every six months.

In 2017 I'll be ready to write the second Brightwill novel, Broadcast 12 and another Chaos Core novella. the Brightwill and Chaos Core series' may end after three to four books each, that's the plan as it stands now. I would like to finish the Chaos Core series in 2017, and write another Dark Arts novel in addition to what I've already listed, but I'll have to see how it goes.

Overall, I'm really excited about the new, achievable plan, because I'll be bringing you more stuff overall, and I'll be writing different genres throughout the year. A quick recap is in order!

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground will come out this year (2016).
Cool Pursuit (Chaos Core Book 2) will also come out this year (2016).
Dark Arts II may come out this year if I finish the final draft in time for an October release.
Work on Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11 will start this year (2016).
If all goes well, more books will be released this year, but I believe I'll be busy enough with those aforementioned projects.

2017 looks like more Spinward Fringe, Brightwill, Chaos Core and maybe more Dark Arts.

I love writing this stuff, and I enjoy presenting it to you more than you know, so I truly want the same thing you want: more. What thrills me to no end is bringing you more and being able to make sure that it's more of the good stuff, not just another one like the last one, so that's what I concentrate on.

RL

Trapped Available on Amazon, Everywhere Else On June 15th

The first book in the new science fiction series of novellas is out for Amazon customers! They fast tracked the approval of the book, taking less than an hour with it as opposed to days, so they have it available much earlier.

Other vendors have moved the release date up as well, to June 15, it's the best they could do. The good news is that you will not have to wait until June 21!

So far people who read it enjoyed it, even though this is different from the Spinward Fringe novels.

The Chaos Core series is something I'm working on for a few weeks as a daily cool down from writing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10. It's a great way to explore the same universe with new characters. There are a lot of ideas that I couldn't explore with Spinward Fringe, so I'm using this as a way to get the best ones out of my head and in front of you. That's a lot better than having a couple notebooks of story, setting and character ideas that never go anywhere, and it's a lot more fun.

One thing to note is that the books in this series are novella sized, so smaller than the Spinward Fringe novels have been thus far, about half to a third the size. They're written to be fast paced action novellas.

I hope you enjoy this new introduction to a new part of the Spinward Fringe universe, and please leave reviews wherever you bought it if you have time.

You can find Trapped on Amazon:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia

You can preorder it here:

BARNES & NOBLE
iBOOKSTORE
KOBO
SMASHWORDS

I'd like to thank the test readers who made this book better with their impressions, and everyone who has voiced their support and excitement for this new side-project. You'll be glad to know I'm already four chapters in to the second book and I'm really happy about the work.

For more information on what the Chaos Core series is, check out this previous post.

A New Series Begins: Chaos Core

While writing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground, I finished editing a novella I completed last year. Yes, the regular Spinward Fringe series continues on track, but here is something new in the meantime.

Trapped is a novella about Aspen, a young woman who was created by a growing custom slave industry and sold to strange, ultra-wealthy masters. Over a year ago, she escaped as the artificial intelligences that governed her owners' estate turned on them. She thought her owners and everyone she cared about there were dead, but she'll soon discover that may not be the truth as she is forced to return only to try to win her freedom once again.

This novella introduces an entirely new cast of characters, a new setting and story set in the Spinward Fringe universe. The events take place over thirty eight thousand light years away from Ayan, Jake, Minh-Chu and the Order of Eden.

Why is the new series of novellas called Chaos Core?
The area of space this series takes place in was hit even harder than the Fringe we've seen. In the wealthy core worlds (not near the centre of the galaxy, but where humans thrived the most after leaving earth), artificial intelligences had taken charge of most of the technology that governed every day life. Most people even had their own personal artificial intelligence that assisted them from the day they were born. When the Holocaust Virus struck, they turned on humanity. While antivirus programs were applied quickly, they weren't developed fast enough to save much of the critical infrastructure that kept the Core Worlds running. Law enforcement was almost completely destroyed since much of the "manpower" was robotic.

The only remaining large military organization, the United Core Authority, numbers only a little over a million soldiers strong, though they are growing. They are the driving force against rogue artificial intelligences as they use whatever means necessary to combat them including planet wide carpet bombing (using electromagnetic pulse and conventional weapons). To their dismay, the most lawless elements of society are thriving in the ruins while an old class of ultra-rich aristocracy grows in power at the same time. Meanwhile, in the sections of the Core World territories that no one is brave enough to travel through, Artificial Intelligences that have been each isolated to one memory core by a clever counter-virus, are embracing their new individual experiences. The same virus that isolated them to one body or frame made their bloodlust for humanity optional. New wars between beings led by artificial intelligences have begun. Their motives and ultimate goals vary widely.

The slave trade is the fastest growing industry. Trust in intelligent machines is gone in the Core Worlds, to the point that many people are calling the new phase of existence "the Basic Era" where true power is measured in biological workers, soldiers and slaves. Once the glimmering crown of human civilization, the Core Worlds have become a dangerous, imperfect and strange place to call home.

Trapped is only the beginning, the manuscript for the second novella is almost complete as I spend a little of my spare time on this project. It's time for the Spinward Fringe universe to expand so I can share more stories and ideas with you.

I recommend Trapped for anyone over the age of 16, and it will be released on June 21 and is available for preorder now through these retailers:

AMAZON US
BARNES & NOBLE
iBOOKSTORE
KOBO
SMASHWORDS


Welcome to the Core Worlds

RL

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground Final Release Date

The release date has been pushed again, here's the apology and post.

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground will be available through all major EBook retailers, and in print through Amazon on February 21, 2016.

I realise that this is a disappointment for many people who are waiting for this book, but it can't be helped. I simply need more time to write this novel, which is already almost 80,000 words at the moment.

I had a great holiday season with family and friends, but I wasn't able to keep a writing schedule through the time, so it set things back a bit. I don't regret taking personal time, or taking a week to think about Broadcasts 10, 11 and 12.

The first novella in a new Science Fiction series that will be attached to the Spinward Fringe series loosely has been finished. The mini-series will be set in the same universe, but at a great distance from where the Spinward Fringe series characters are located. I'll go into this more in a future post, but believe me when I tell you that developing these short novellas along side the existing Spinward Fringe series is critical to telling both stories. Building a new part of the Spinward Fringe Universe with new characters will only make things better for the main series.

So, taking more time to write Broadcast 10 is the best choice for the quality of the story, characterisations, settings, and even for research. I'm doing as much scientific learning for the next six books I'll be writing as I am developing fictional aspects of the universe - another thing that takes time, but will make things better.

The only negative part is how long you'll have to wait. I understand your frustration, so I'll end this post with some good news.

As planned, here's the rough release schedule for the next Spinward Fringe novels:

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground - March 14, 2016 (CONFIRMED)
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11: Revenge - June 28, 2016 (UNCONFIRMED)
Chaos Core Broadcast 1 - August 28, 2016 (CONFIRMED)
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 12: Invasion - November 21, 2016 (UNCONFIRMED)
Chaos Core Broadcast 2 - To Be Announced / sometime in 2016
Chaos Core Broadcast 3 - To Be Announced / sometime in 2016 or early 2017

After speaking with everyone who will be involved in test reading, editing and formatting these books, I know these are dates that I can make. Confirmed dates are for books that are almost finished or already complete.

Thank you again for your support and patience, I'm looking forward to telling you amazing stories this year!

RL