Category: Short Stories

Free and 99¢ books for September!

Hey guys, just a quick update to let you know about some book deals I have going on right now.

First, I have a free short story this month!

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Second, Desert Stars is 99¢ for the rest of September! I believe this is one of my best books, and it won’t be on sale again for a while, so be sure to pick it up now!

Desert Stars

Desert Stars

$13.99eBook: $4.99
Author: Joe Vasicek
Series: Hameji Cycle, Book 2
Genres: Science Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Tag: 2011 Release

He is sheikh’s sole heir, a young man raised by desert tribesmen after falling from the stars. She is the sheikh’s most beautiful daughter, promised his hand in marriage—but only if she can convince him to stay.

Together, they must travel to a land where glass covers the sky and men traverse the stars as easily as tribesmen cross the desert. At the ancient temple dedicated to the memory of Earth, they hope to find the answers that will lead them home.

But the call of the stars soon threatens to bring their budding romance to an end. And as the moment of decision draws near, the choices they must make will drive them toward a future that neither can foresee.

More info →
$1 off the ebook with coupon code: BUY DIRECT
FREE ebook when you buy the audiobook direct!
FREE ebook when you buy the paperback direct!
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Apple Books
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from Barnes and Noble Nook
Buy from GoodReads
Buy from Google Play
Buy from Kobo
Buy from Scribd
Buy from Smashwords

Finally, if you’re looking for a good free read, or perhaps you want to try out some new authors, I have books in three InstaFreebie group promos going on right now. Check them out!

SFF Book Bonanza (11 – 17 September)

September Sci-Fi (11 – 17 September)

Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Full Length Novels to Chill and Thrill You! (10 – 30 September)

That does it for now. Thanks for reading!

Joe

End of July update

Holy crap, is it the end of July already? I guess it is.

A Queen in Hiding
Phase:2.0 Draft
100%
MyBookProgress by Author Media

So I’ve been making progress on my current WIP, A Queen in Hiding (Sons of the Starfarers: Book 7). Not quite as much as I would like, but it’s coming along. As usual, of all the stories I could have written, I’ve chosen the hardest one to write, but that’s okay because it’s going to turn out quite well. And if it doesn’t, I’ll put it aside and come back to it later.

I haven’t been writing as many short stories as I would like, but I’ve got a couple in the works that should open up some interesting new universes. Also, my thoughts on short stories are starting to change. There aren’t very many markets for original fiction that are really worth it, once you factor in the wait time and the circulation along with the payout. However, there are a ton of places that pay only token amounts but take reprints and simultaneous submissions.

I still think it’s a bad idea to self-publish first, but I may only submit to three or four markets before publishing my stories myself and moving on to the reprint markets. If I can flood the smaller markets with a bunch of my stories, that might be better than waiting for them to trickle through the submissions pipeline one at a time.

On the publishing side, the next big project is The Sword Keeper. I just got the edits back. Haven’t gone through them yet, but I’ll do that as soon as I’m finished with my WIP. The big holdup is finding a cover artist. This is my first fantasy novel, and I really want it to be awesome. Need to get the ball rolling on that real soon.

Ideally, I would like to get to the point where I’ve got a new short story coming out every two to three weeks, and at least one novel on pre-order all through the year. The idea is to put another novel on pre-order before the latest one is fully released. The short story end shouldn’t be too hard, as long as I can keep writing them. The novel end is a bit tougher, as it requires publishing four novels a year (maximum pre-order length is 90 days).

It’s not impossible, though. I’m scheduling the last four Sons of the Starfarers releases so that the next one is up for pre-order before the latest one comes out. That will hopefully buy some time to line up a few full-length novels in the queue. Just need to keep up a solid writing schedule for the rest of the year.

And on that note, I’m going to get back to writing. Take care!

So it’s the beginning of June already, and it’s starting to feel like summer here in Iowa. Because it’s so flat, the sky stays light F O R E V E R, which is kind of neat. Lots more time to go on walks, which is where I work out plot points and other stuff.

Patriots in Retreat
Phase:2.0 Draft
100%
MyBookProgress by Author Media

In any case, Patriots in Retreat (my current WIP) is coming along well. It’s turning out to be shorter than I’d expected; there’s only three chapters left, and it’s not quite 20k words. Will probably come in between 3ok and 25k, making it one of the shorter Sons of the Starfarers books.

Middles are tough, even for short novels. I have no idea if this draft is going to turn out clean or not. But I am trying to cycle through as I write, to minimize the number of drafts I need to do. If I can master that technique, I can double or triple my production.

The Sword Keeper is just about finished, only a few more touch-ups before I send it out to my editor. Need to get back in touch with him. We’re definitely still on track for a release this fall, and I’m super excited because I think this is one of the best books I’ve written. Look out for a WIP excerpt later on this week.

There’s a couple of short stories I really want to write, but I’m so swamped with the other stuff that I don’t know when I’ll be able to get to it. I’m not behind (yet) on my current WIP, but I need to keep a steady pace of just under 3k words to meet my deadline, which is going to take some effort.

I haven’t started writing Gunslinger to the Galaxy yet (the sequel to Gunslinger to the Stars)… well, that’s not quite true, because I have written the first line:

My name is Jane Kletchka, and I’m here to set the record straight.

…but in any case, I’m starting to get a bunch of great ideas for that one. Will probably start working on it sometime this fall.

Publishing-wise, I’ve got a ton of stuff to work on but not enough time to juggle it. Most of the stuff falling by the wayside is marketing stuff, which isn’t good, but sales seem to have picked up in the last month so hopefully that isn’t too much of a problem. Still waiting for some reviews to roll in for Gunslinger.

Major items on my publishing to do list include:

  • Write the author’s notes for “The Open Source Time Machine” single and short story bundle.
  • Compile the metadata for “The Open Source Time Machine” single and short story bundle.
  • Format and publish “The Open Source Time Machine” single and bundle.
  • Send The Sword Keeper to Josh Leavitt for editing.
  • Write the book description for The Sword Keeper.
  • Find a cover artist for The Sword Keeper.
  • Rewrite all short story descriptions.
  • Make a new cover for A Hill On Which To Die.
  • Upload all books to DriveThruFiction.

Not a small list—and that doesn’t include all the maintenance-type stuff!

So that’s the big challenge: making time for all of this while working the day job. It’s only 5-6 hours a day, but it adds up. I am saving money, though. My goal is to turn around at least $100 from my writing profits each month into investments. It would be really cool to start investing in space technologies, and the research for that could tie into my writing projects very well. Virtuous cycle and all that good stuff.

That’s what I’m up to these days. Peace, love, and penguins y’all. Thanks for reading!

New short story!

Hey guys! Just a quick post today to let you know that I have a new short story out! It’s a fantasy short this time, set in the same universe as The Sword Keeper. With this latest one, I’m still on track to publish something new every month. Check it out!

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An Answer…

Over the weekend, I read a really interesting post on The Passive Voice blog. It was an excerpt from a post by Dean Wesley Smith, looking at the tools and opportunities we have today and asking why we, as writers, still think that it’s difficult to write like the old pulp writers:

Yesterday, in the last chapter of the book I did about writing a novel in five days while traveling, I made a comment near the end that I found the exercise fun to be able to (just for a few days) feel like I belonged in the world of the pulp writers.

And I made a comment that I was born too late.

A reader wrote me privately with a good comment. Basically the reader reminded me that I should feel lucky to have the modern things we writers use such as computers, control of our own work instead of selling it to gatekeepers and so on.

The reader made a very good point. We do have it so easy, so much easier than the pulp writers did. I know that, I study the pulp writers and their lives.

Yet even with things being easier, it is unusual for a writer in 2017 to write a novel in five days.

…

So why do writers in this modern world not just write novels every week, week-after-week?

That even “Why?” question…

I knew the answer. Writer’s belief systems. Modern writers don’t believe they can.

That belief has been trained out.

Writers of the modern world have been taught to think that writing at pulp speed is different, unusual, a fantastic feat, massive work, and on and on and on…

I then realized I had done it too. And until tonight I hadn’t caught myself on it.

Look back at the last chapter I wrote. I called the entire idea of a novel in five days, “Crazy.”

Why? Writing a 40 thousand word novel should take me between 35 and 40 hours.

Sitting alone in a room and making stuff up for 40 hours in five days. What is so crazy about that????

And more importantly, what is so difficult about that?????

It’s a fair question. And it got me thinking: what are the false writing beliefs that are crippling me right now?

I can think of a few:

  • First drafts are never publishable.
  • Prewriting is not as important as butt in chair, hands on keyboard.
  • You can’t have more than one active WIP at the same time.
  • You can’t write short stories while working on a WIP.
  • Writing a short story per week is hard.

Well, it’s time to break free from these crippling beliefs, starting with the last one.

I’ve had a bunch of short story ideas recently, and I’m going to start running with them. I’ve neglected my short story writing for the past six months, so my active submissions have dried up somewhat (at least to the pro markets). But a lot of magazines have been giving me personalized rejections, which tells me that I’m not too far from a breakthrough. Trouble is, I just haven’t had anything to send them lately.

If I could write a novel per week, that would be absolutely fantastic. I’d probably write in a crazy obscure genre like Sword & Planet, except it’s not that obscure because Princess of Mars influenced everyone from Clarke, Bradbury, and Heinlein to George Lucas and the US Space Program.

But I’ll start with the short stories. And from there, who knows?