Tag: ebook

Latest novel: The City Builders – out on April 16th

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

City BuildersMy latest release continues the theme of strange and dangerous environments challenging the characters. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of vast cities so it I had fun taking free rein creating the world of Mackelle. The blurb goes like this:

Desra Parker loves investigating strange planets. But when missiles shoot her ship down over Mackelle, Desra and her crew find themselves in a desperate race for survival. Battling the elements and relentless building-sized robots, Desra needs to unravel the mysteries of Mackelle’s endless city if she’s going to keep anyone alive. And figure out a way to get home.
I was lucky enough to get this wonderful cover illustration by Bertrandb (Dreamstime.com) which perfectly conveys the setting.
Available from your usual retailers, including
ebook – $5.99
Print $17.99
Amazon

Karnish River Navigations series

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

After muddling my way through my website, I’ve managed to finally complete a page dedicated to my Karnish River Navigations science fiction adventure series.

The page is available here: Karnish River Navigations, or from the drop-down menu under Science Fiction at the top of the seanmonaghan.com website. I notice I still need to tinker with the page format a bit to get everything lining up. I’ll get there.

The first three books are out already, and I hope to have the fourth, Guest House Izarra, out soon (it’s written, proofed and copy-edited, just needs formatting and uploading, and I need to finalise the cover).

The story? Flis Kupe makes the mistake of burning out her embedded military arlchip. Discharged and returning home, she fights her way across the Karnth canal land to rescue her brother. Each book stands alone and the books can be read in any order. Arlchip Burnout is kind of the first, though Night Operations is probably my favorite.

The series is fun to write, and I hope it’s as much fun to read. I plan to write more in the series next year. There’s tech I want to explore, and Flis and Grae are fun characters to hang out with.

Arlchip Burnout cover art by © Kuan Leong Yong | Dreamstime.com
Night Operations cover art by © 1971yes | Dreamstime.com
Canal Days cover art by © Elisanth | Dreamstime.com (figure), © Patrik Ružič | Dreamstime.com (background)
Guest House Izarra cover art by © Antaltiberiualexandru | Dreamstime.com (background), © Algol | Dreamstime.com (figure)

The Bubbcat in Cirsova

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

cirsova-4My short story “The Bubbcat” appears in the Fall issue of Cirsova magazine. Cirsova has now reached its fourth issue and goes from strength to strength. I’m pleased to have my story here.

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Dolci D.’s job should be simple. Retrieve and protect the Bubbcat. Easy. It turns out, the device can just about take care of itself. And when people start bombing subway stations, Dolci D. needs every bit of help the Bubbcat can give

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A great collection of stories here, running the whole gamut. I’m pleased to be in such great company. Lots to enjoy.

 

100 Submissions

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Last great time house.png So, as well as tracking my word count this year, I’ve also tracked my number of submissions. Now, I do keep close track of where and when I’m submitting (it would be kind of silly not to), but this is the first time I’ve ever recorded the actual number as well.

So far this year I’ve made 100 submissions. That’s submissions of short-stories/ novelettes/ novellas to various markets. It doesn’t count items I’ve sent to indie/ self-publishing.

To be clear, though, I have completed a total of fourteen new pieces. All of those submitted. There have been some novels that have gone directly to indie, so I’m not counting those.

Getting to one hundred submissions means some of those fourteen, and some of last year’s stories (and a couple from the year before) are finding themselves resubmitted. This is pretty standard practice. One market rejects a story, off it goes to another. Repeat. Heinlein would say ‘repeat until sold’.

Of those fourteen, I’ve so far sold six. Not a huge number for me, but I’ll take it (of course). Pretty low ratio in terms of submissions: six percent, but not too bad in terms of stories completed.

Cover illustration for The Last Great Time House of Muldemar Ridge © Ateliersommerland | Dreamstime.com

Kernel – available from Digital Science Fiction

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Kernel Cover - JPG - August 15 2016My short story ‘Kernel’ has just been published as a standalone by Digital Science Fiction – available from Amazon for a princely 99 cents. I understand it will also be included in one of Digital Science Fiction’s anthologies later in the year.

Originally published in Aurealis, Kernel is one of my quirkier stories. Well, I like to think so.

I love the new cover – gives a perfect hint of the story (my thanks to the artist – though I don’t know who it is).

Story blurb:
Genn’s stuck in a spaceship with more questions than answers. He remembers an accident, but no one on board is giving him a straight answer. And the kernel that’s supposed to be helping him recover seems helpful, but does more deflecting than anything.

Opening paragraphs:
They had given Genn the kernel right after the operation, when he was still feeling somewhat woozy and disoriented. This was in April, a month and a half before departure. The kernel was the shape and colour of a single corn seed: deep yellow at the broad end, tapering to a white tip. It was the size of grapefruit, occupying, when he held it—as he often did—the whole of the palm of his hand.

‘It will help you through the transition,’ the medical team had told him.

‘Transition to what?’ he’d asked, but they had just smiled and left him in the post-op room with the sounds of the rattling hospital for company. There might have been an accident. He remembered Janice yelling at him on the freeway. Was it a transition to a life without a family?

‘Transition,’ the kernel said, ‘through the light barrier.’

The Cly – now available

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

The Cly front cover thumbI seem to be lax in yelling out when I have a new book available, so I’m going to see if I can stop and just go ahead and post. Last week I mentioned my forthcoming publishing plans, including for my new novel The Cly.

I am writing and publishing a lot this year, so I guess it’s easy for me to forget to mention things in a practical, right-brained way (practical is right-brain, right?). While I’m fairly good and writing (as in, I spend a lot of time on it), I still need to learn an awful lot about marketing and business (writing is way more fun, so I spend a whole lot less time on marketing and business).

So The Cly is my longest novel in awhile – a shade under ninety thousand words. Mostly I’m clocking somewhere just north of sixty thousand. Initially I thought it would hit that shorter length, but the plot demanded more action and more resolution.

Here’s the blurb:
Tony Brock saved humanity once. But in the mess, he lost his relationship with his daughter.

Now the Cly pose a new threat. A threat that might destroy the Earth itself.
And the aliens won’t negotiate.

So Brock’s back in the thick of it. Chasing them down, and chasing the faint hope of seeing Bex one more time.

An alien invasion novel with a difference.

I should mention the wonderful cover illustrator – Luca Oleastri. Thanks for another great image.

Available from most ebook and print book retailers (ask at your local bookstore for the print version – all 500 odd pages of it).

ebook $5.99
Nook
Kobo
Smashwords
Kindle

Paperback $22.99
Amazon

The Writer as busker

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Stone Goddess UpdatedI’ve been self-publishing/indie publishing for about four years now. Learning as I go. Kind of like a busker or a street performer. Out in public practising. Getting better as I go, I hope. Taking courses and reading books and learning all the time, too.

On occasion, some kind reader buys one or other of my stories, like tossing money into a buskers cap. It’s encouraging. I hope they enjoy the stories they purchase as I practise in public.

With the learning, as soon as I feel I’ve got a handle on the writing, I seem to discover some new technique or approach. Often things that seem obvious. Right away I incorporate that into my writing, with various degrees of success. When I look back over my stories, some I’m very proud of, others seem to have been written by a different person.

The other key thing I’m learning is business. That’s a much tougher road for me. I don’t think I’m a natural entrepreneur, so I have to concentrate. I have to make an effort to take those risks, invest some cash, and push into those realms that are a whole lot more uncomfortable.

One of the things I’m beginning to look at are some of those older stories, with bad covers and terrible blurbs. Case in point: Stone Goddess. It was a fun little story I wrote some years back. It got published in an anthology titled Horror Through the Ages from Lame Goat Press. No monetary payment (at the time I was fine with that: I was happy to be in print). It also got a podcast at Cast Macabre (and seems to be still available, for free). Again no monetary payment.

At some point along the way I realized that giving stories away was not a path to making a livelihood (slow to catch on, I know).

I started putting my stories up on Smashwords, Kindle, iTunes, Kobo, Nook and so on. Even putting some of the longer ones in print. I did my own covers. I wrote my own blurbs. Learning all the time.

Now, I’m going back and gradually updating some of those older works with some of the things I’ve learned more recently. So “Stone Goddess” has a new cover. To my embarassment, I’m putting the old cover next to the new. I like the new one better.

Original cover image by me. New cover image by © 1971yes | Dreamstime.com

I’ve redone the interior too, and added a couple of other stories to fill it up a bit (“Stone Goddess” is kind of short) for some value for money. A new blurb too:

Top Mars researcher Ben James loves getting out into the field. Under the stars. Into the dust and stone.
But today something’s amiss. Something’s out there. Calling to him.
Something he’s got to find.
Even if it means breaking every protocol.
A short story from the author of The Molenstraat Music Festival. Includes three bonus Mars stories.

I think it could still use some work, but I dare not show the old blurb (omigosh amateur ramblings).

The story is pretty much available at your favorite ebook retailer. I’m thinking about making a print version (though it’ll be slim). If you’ve read this far (thanks) here’s a coupon for a free copy from Smashwords. Click here and enter the following code:

Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: XH22Q
Expires: April 26, 2021

Five years was the longest I could set the coupon for. I think you have to create a Smashwords login – if you’d like a copy without all that palaver, just let me know here.

All that said about going back, I am continuing to go forward. Trying to write better stories. Working on having consistent covers. And writing sensible, engaging blurbs.

Busking.

On writing Athena Setting

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 4 Comments

Athena Setting (1)Back in mid-April I commented on Dean Wesley Smith’s blog post about choices. I realized that actually my comment fitted with my own blog and, in fact, could stand expanding.

When I was a teenager and wanting to be a writer and writing lots, I also drew covers for novels I would write someday.

It was kind of self-encouragement: in those days I had no idea how to write a novel. But it was cool to have a pretend cover with my name on it. In the intervening years I might have learned a couple of things about how to write a novel and I’ve practised plenty by writing a fair number of them.

So in January of this year, wondering what to write next, I remembered about that teenage dream. You know what? I sat down and wrote one of those novels. Now I have a book for my cover. Athena Setting. About a space mission gone wrong, a trapped crew about to plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere while the would-be rescuers struggle to come up with a workable plan.

I will, of course, write a more attractive blurb for the release.

Naturally, I also have a new cover for my book (that pencil scratching would look out of place, and it seems is in fact long gone). A wonderful image by Mik3812345 sourced from Dreamstime.com. I’ve tinkered with that a little. I think it helps tell the story. I do think I’ll update that tagline too – maybe “One hundred hours till rescue, ninety hours till impact” which kind of sums it up a little better.

The novel should be out around the end of May (maybe early June) as both an ebook and in print.

But after saying all that, let me tell you, I had such a fun time with the writing of the story. I got to be that kid again. It might not be my best novel, but I hope my sense of fun and adventure comes through. The kid in me can’t wait to hold the book in his hand. And try out writing another one.

 

The Root Bridges of Haemae in Aurealis

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

aurealis87My story “The Root Bridges of Haemae” is out now in Issue 87 of Australia’s Aurealis Magazine, edited by the renowned Dirk Strasser.

Described as “a resonant off-world story featuring a truly alien culture”, young alien Ribolee struggles with human and alien relationships.

This story made last semi-finalist in the Writers of the Future contest. I’m pleased that it’s found a home, especially with Aurealis.

The full issue includes stories by Ian Bell and Deborah Sheldon, as well as interviews and reviews. Available from Smashwords for $US2.99.

Aurealis is expanding. For a long time the publication had been restricted to submissions from Australian and New Zealand contributors, but now it’s going global.

Here’s the story’s opening:

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Human females survive the birth of their children.

Astonishing.

Ribolee ran this revelation around in her head again and again as she walked home from their camp.

Human females survive the birth.

And not only that, they sometimes have just one child. Imagine. A single child. How could that be? How could a species come to be with such a clear hindrance to its own survival?

Around her, the jungle dripped. The midday rains had been shorter today. She liked this time of year: summer almost here, but still cooler and the rains diminishing. The full seasons were far wilder: the dry of summer when the ground became bristlrboh dion hamilling and crackly, the leaves darkened and swelled, animals howled and rushed; the wet chill of winter when the rivers burgeoned, the ground became a swamp and the rain could last for suns on end.

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I’m lucky enough to have my story complemented by a wonderful illustration by Dion Hamill. Thanks Dion.

The Harpsichord Elf in Capricious

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

CapriciousCover1 - mediumMy story “The Harpsichord Elf” appears in the September issue of Capricious, a new magazine of literary speculative fiction and criticism, edited by A.C. Buchanan. The wonderful cover art is by Anastasia (Mircha) Astasheva. The magazine is available for download free download. Subscriptions are available.

The story is perhaps slipstream (a little bit fantasy, a little bit sci-fi), and perhaps dovetails into “The Molenstraat Music Festival” in a way… well, with some musical themes there at least.
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The opening paragraphs go something like this:

As Shev clawed his way through the ruined floorboards into the music room, he got a splinter in his thumb. Still waist-deep in the hole he pulled the splinter with his teeth. He sucked on the sore thumb for a moment.
Somewhere deeper in the structure someone shouted.
“You can’t be in here,” a cello said. Rosewood and yew, it leant back in a stand. Out of tune.
“Quiet you,” Shev forced his way out onto the floor.