Cosmic Shores

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My Christmas gift to you

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My Christmas gift to you

Just in time for the holiday, I’m thrilled to share that my latest short story, “Extingiushing the Stars,” is now available as a stand-alone story - and is FREE in ebook and audiobook. Merry Christmas!

GET THE EBOOK

GET THE AUDIOBOOK

Here's the blurb:

“The fleet rushed to meet the invaders at the edge of the solar system upon their arrival. Every countermeasure was deployed to stall the enemy’s advance—their forces held nothing back.

No soldier who fought on the battlefield today would ever return home.

With an unstoppable foe advancing on the Elakri homeworld, its leaders face an impossible choice: stand, fight and die, or risk everything on one daring, impossible chance to survive the enemy’s onslaught. But when terrorists kidnap the scientist at the heart of their plan, a retired spy must confront the demons of his past in order to give his people that chance.”

While Extinguishing the Stars works beautifully as its own story, its true power is as a prequel to the upcoming Cosmic Shores novel. If you have any intention of reading THE UNIVERSE WITHIN (and I certainly hope you do), you owe it to yourself to read this first. Alex and Caleb won’t know the story of Extinguishing The Stars when they plunge into the Elakri’s world—but you will.

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So…if you happen to fancy getting me a Christmas present as well, I’ve got just the gift idea. I’m honored to have THE THIEF nominated for “Best Alien Sci-Fi Book of 2024” over at Discover Sci-Fi. If you feel that The Thief deserves such an award, you can head over and cast a vote for our favorite train wreck of a hero. Note: this category is on the second page of the ballot, so make sure to click through. You don't have to vote in any of the categories on the first page to do so - but if you've read and enjoyed any of the nominees, I hope you will!

You have my thanks.

VOTE

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More great news: the cover reveal and release date for THE UNIVERSE WITHIN are coming your way in the next newsletter - expect it in early January. Until then, I hope you all have a beautiful, magical holiday filled with family, friends and good cheer.

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Shiny New Audiobook Store, Plus the Best SciFi Sale of the Year

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Shiny New Audiobook Store, Plus the Best SciFi Sale of the Year

A couple of years ago, I started offering audiobooks directly on my website as a way to offer a lower-cost option to Audible’s often nosebleed prices. And it’s worked, more or less. But to be frank, the whole setup has left a lot to be desired, from the delivery of the audiobook to the listening interface. But it was the best I could do given limited tools at my disposal.

But technology marches ever onward, the options available to indie authors continue to expand, and I’m thrilled to share a massive upgrade to my “direct” audiobook store: AUDIOBOOK STORE.

The store is powered by BookFunnel, just like my ebook store. If you’ve ever downloaded a free ebook when you subscribed to my newsletter, or purchased an ebook directly from me, you already know how BookFunnel works - and you’ve already got a library there!

What hasn’t changed:

  • Lower prices than the retailers

  • The ability to listen on the web

  • The ability to download the MP3 files

What’s better:

  • PRE-ORDERS! You can pre-order the upcoming THE UNIVERSE WITHIN audiobook today, and it will automatically arrive in your BookFunnel library on release (ignore the listed release date - it’s just a placeholder). Pre-order The Universe Within Audiobook

  • A web library where you can view and access all your purchases (audiobook and ebook) in one place whenever you like. No more passwords to remember or pages to bookmark. See it here.

  • A beautiful app to listen to audiobooks (mine and others) on your mobile device and in your car. Get the app here.

Not convinced? That’s cool - which is why you can try it out FOR FREE. Use the code “FREEAUDIO” to get your choice of an audiobook from the new store for free. Just enter the code at checkout.

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Not into audiobooks? I’ve got a treat for ebook lovers, too. Twice a year, I participate in what is possibly the biggest, best giveaway of FREE scifi ebooks around. Over 100 novels and short stories - and they’re ALL SCIFI. No fantasy, horror or other spec-fic-adjacent genres. Now, 100+ books sounds overwhelming, which is why they’re neatly organized by sub-genre: space opera, cyberpunk, dystopian, military, time travel, and many more. Just head for your favorite flavor of scifi and download away.

BUT, BUT, BUT: this giveaway is only available for 2 days, today and tomorrow (Nov. 14th and 15th), so don’t delay.

SCIFI BOOK BLAST

We’re heading into the holiday season, and I’m heading into the home stretch of editing The Universe Within. I’m super stoked about both. I’m so excited for the holidays in the new house, I’ve already started decorating for Christmas. How about you? Are you a “never until after Thanksgiving” person, or did you trade out your Halloween skeletons for snowmen and reindeer?

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The Expanding Universe, plus a new way to read SFF books

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The Expanding Universe, plus a new way to read SFF books

THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE: VOLUME 10 is out in the world! Have you picked up yet? If not, you can grab it from Amazon (or in Kindle Unlimited) today: GET THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE

The Expanding Universe Vol. 10 is curated by Craig Martelle, sci-fi superstar and tireless indie author advocate. My story in the anthology, “Extinguishing the Stars,” is a prequel to my upcoming novel, The Universe Within. Read it now and get a sneak peek at the world Alex and Caleb will discover early next year.

In addition to my story, it features a tale by Martelle plus 18 more stellar stories from well-known authors to rising stars. You don’t want to miss it.

…and IF you have picked it up, and have read a couple of the stories, I and the other authors would so greatly appreciate it if you shared a quick little review. No need to have read the whole (hefty) book - you can just call out any stories you (hopefully) enjoyed. You have my thanks!

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Now I want to share with you an awesome selection of scifi and fantasy books that Kobo has curated to help spotlight its awesome subscription program, Kobo Plus.

What’s Kobo Plus, you ask? Well, it’s a sort of “Netflix for books.” Much like Kindle Unlimited (KU), except it’s cheaper for readers ($7.99 vs $11.99 in the US), it includes audiobooks as well as ebooks, it’s available in a bunch of countries, and it’s fairer to authors. How? Well, in order for a book to be in KU, Amazon requires it to be published exclusively on Amazon (this is why The Expanding Universe isn’t available on other retailers; I’m not the publisher, so it wasn’t my call). Kobo Plus, however, has no such requirement. This means all my books and audiobooks are available in Kobo Plus - and so are offerings from a ton of talented authors.

Best of all? The first month’s free, so you can try it out and see if you like it. Kobo has a great free reading app you can install on your phone, tablet or computer, just like Kindle. So check out these featured ebooks and audiobooks on Kobo Plus today (just a small samplling of the many titles available). Click on a book that catches your fancy, and you’ll be prompted to start your free trial. Enjoy!

SFF BOOKS ON KOBO PLUS

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Who Wants a New Short Story?

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Who Wants a New Short Story?

When I created the setting for the next book, The Universe Within, I pretty quickly realized it was so much bigger than I was going to be able to cover in the fast-paced, focused format of the Cosmic Shores novels. So I promptly scribbled out a short story that deep-dives into the Elakri’s world. “Extinguishing the Stars” is a prequel to The Universe Within, and it is the lead-off story in the new anthology THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE Vol. 10!

The anthology will be released September 9, but you can pre-order it today from Amazon. The Expanding Universe Vol. 10 is curated by Craig Martelle, sci-fi superstar and tireless indie author advocate. In addition to my story, it features a tale by Martell plus 18 more stellar stories from well-known authors to rising stars. You don’t want to miss it.

PRE-ORDER THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE 10

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Dragon Con was amazing this year! The panels were so much fun (I got to meet Hugh Howey in person on the “Books That Inspire Us” panel, which was quite the treat - he was gracious, humble and kind). I was honored to meet several of you, and to talk with so many enthusiastic sci-fi fans. Here’s a couple of pictures, but images cannot convey what an insane, overwhelming, incredible experience Dragon Con is. If you’re curious, visit the Dragon Con Facebook Page and check out some of the wild videos they posted. There are few if any SFF fan conventions like it in the world.

See the Dragon Con pics here.

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Will I See You At Dragon Con?

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Will I See You At Dragon Con?

Dragon Con is next week, and I will be there! It runs Aug. 29-Sept. 2 in Atlanta, and is one of the world’s largest celebrations of all thing sci-fi and fantasy: movies and TV, comics, games, art, of course books, and so much more. Get your tickets here.

This year, I will have my own vendor booth in the main vendor hall (3rd floor) for the entire convention. If you're going to be there, come see me! You don't need to buy a paperback, promise - just stop by and say hello. I’d love to meet you.

See my schedule and location.

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THE THIEF Audiobook Is Here, Plus a Thank You

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THE THIEF Audiobook Is Here, Plus a Thank You

I’m thrilled to announce that the THE THIEF audiobook is now available at all major online retailers! I can’t wait for you to listen to Eren being his most Eren as he wanders outside of Concord space and stumbles into far more than he bargained for (and that’s before Nyx crashes the party and complicates everything).

GET THE THIEF AUDIOBOOK

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And now, a huge “Thanks!” to all of you. Without any prompting or nudging on my part, you voted The Thief the 2nd Best Sci-Fi Book of 2024 (So Far) over at Discover Sci-Fi! It makes me so happy to know you’ve enjoyed this book so much. It is, at its heart, a love letter to one of the greatest characters in Amaranthe; I had so much fun writing it, and I hope you’ve had as much fun reading it.

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Just a quick note to say that I’m almost finished with the first draft of THE UNIVERSE WITHIN, and I am so excited about this book. It’s amazing to return to Alex and Caleb, but I’m also stoked about the fascinating world and character at the center of the story. Stay tuned for more details soon.