The strangeness of some internet reviews

Now that my third SF novel has been published, I've taken the time to go back and read through the couple of hundred comments my books have attracted over time.  I don't even mind the low-star reviews, provided that the reviewer makes his case and supports his points with evidence.  I really benefit from such reviews, as I read and re-read them and take them into account when writing the next book.  I did that with reviews of the first two volumes of the Maxwell Saga, and with beta reader feedback, when I delayed the publication of 'Adapt and Overcome' for two months to allow me to improve my character development and tighten up the plot and storyline.  I hope and trust you, dear readers, have found it an improvement;  and rest assured, I'll try to make Book Four better than Book Three in its turn.

Some reviews, however, are downright strange.  There's the reader who claimed he bought a copy of my first book 'at a discount but it was worth far less'.  If he didn't like it, fair enough - but my book had never been on sale at a discount when he made that comment!  Another reviewer of my first book was outraged at my description of a fork penetrating the hand of one character.  He found it completely unbelievable.  Unfortunately, that's one of the many incidents in all my books that's actually based on fact!  There are multiple eye-witnesses to its reality.  Another comment on my latest book caught my eye this evening.  The reader (?) complained that 'Some editing is still needed in places as there are obvious typos and grammar issues'.  Fair enough, if true:  but I've had a number of reviewers comment that one reason they like my books is that there are so few 'typos and grammar issues'.  In the latest book, to which this reviewer is referring, I've had no complaints whatsoever about its copy-editing - until today, at any rate.

Such problems aren't limited to my books, of course.  Most authors who've been published for a while have similar stories of reviews that appear to miss the point, or beg the question, or leave something else to be desired.  There are even some actively destructive reviewers out there.  Miss D. informs me that on Kindle Boards, where many independent authors hang out in the Writers' Cafe sub-forum, there's a well-known phenomenon.  There are 'lurkers' who watch for authors posting details of their sales figures.  As soon as someone posts a sales success story, within a day or so one or more one-star reviews will appear on their books' Amazon pages.  Someone on Kindle Boards was interested enough to do some research on this, and the pattern is inescapable.  One can only conclude that some lurkers out there are jealous of success, and determined to undermine it in any way possible.  Why, I have no idea . . .

Oh, well.  I can't account for such issues.  All I can say is, if you've read my book(s), I'll be very grateful if you'll please leave reviews on their Amazon pages.  It helps other prospective readers to assess whether or not they'll find them interesting;  and whether you liked it/them or not, your comments will help me to write better in future.  Everybody wins!

Peter

The print edition of 'Adapt and Overcome' is now available

After some unfortunate delays caused by formatting issues, the print edition of my latest book, 'Adapt and Overcome', is now available on Amazon.com.  At present there are two editions listed there, one for print and one for e-book, but they'll be combined during the next few days.  Until that happens, please use these links to find them:

'Adapt and Overcome', PRINT Edition

'Adapt and Overcome', KINDLE (e-book) Edition

Thanks again for all your support - and, if you've read the book, please leave a review on Amazon.com!  That really helps prospective readers to form an opinion of the book, and decide whether or not to invest their hard-earned dollars in a copy.  Thanks!

Peter

An unhappy anniversary, but with compensations

Ten years ago today, on February 13th, 2004, I was a fairly healthy man, working as a prison chaplain.  On that date I suffered an injury to my spine at work that would eventually lead to two surgeries.  The first was a laminectomy that didn't work, resulting in failed back syndrome.  That necessitated a second surgery in 2005, resulting in spinal fusion.  This stabilized my spine, but left me with titanium hardware in my lower back and permanent damage to the nerves in my left leg, and forced my medical retirement.  I've been partly physically handicapped since then.

I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly.  There are those who've suffered similar injuries to mine who can't walk any more, and are confined to wheelchairs.  I need the aid of a walking-stick to cover any sort of distance, and I can't move fast, but at least I'm still able to walk.  Even so, it's sobering to think that the only times I've been free of pain in the past ten years have been when I've been under the influence of total or local anesthesia.  (I can vividly recall the last time I was conscious and pain-free.  It was in 2005, after undergoing epidural anesthesia for the administration of steroids directly into my spine.  For six blissful hours I couldn't feel a thing below my waist.  I couldn't walk properly, couldn't even pee - but I felt no pain.  It was wonderful!  Unfortunately, the anesthetic wore off in due course . . . )

A neurosurgeon told me in 2005 that I'd never be able to work again, and I should resign myself to living on disability income.  I refused to believe him, and set about learning the craft of writing to prove him wrong.  This blog has been a big part of that, and I most sincerely thank all of you for staying with me on the journey.  My latest book has been on the market for only eight days, but it's selling better than any of my first three.  At the time of writing it's well inside the top 1,000 books in Amazon's Kindle store (out of something like 2½ million books for sale there).  That's both astonishing and gratifying to me.  I know I owe a great deal of that success to you, my blog readers and followers.  I'll never have enough words to thank you sufficiently for helping me to find a new way in which to support myself and my wife.  Just goes to show that the old proverb's true - every cloud does have a silver lining, if you're prepared to look for it and work hard to earn it.

My injury and resulting disability were also important elements in my courtship of Miss D., who is now my wife.  She's been the "pedestrian filling in a two-car sandwich", as she likes to put it, and has suffered other serious injuries on previous occasions.  It's a blessing to both of us that when one complains about pain or weakness, the other really does understand exactly what they mean!  We don't have to wonder whether the other 'gets it'.  We know they do.  Our shared pain draws us closer together, and helps us support each other on the bad days.

Thanks for being part of this journey with me for the past six-plus years on this blog.  Here's looking forward to many more years of writing, many more years with Miss D., and many more years of hobbling around!  As for the pain . . . it reminds me that I'm alive.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Peter

You folks are the greatest!

I have an awesome group of readers and fans!  I owe you all a big hug.

At the time of writing, less than 24 hours after publication on Amazon.com, 'Adapt and Overcome' has scorched out of nowhere to take these positions:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011 Paid in Kindle Store (out of 2,415,245 books currently listed there)

#6 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military
#10 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera

#48 in Best Sellers - Science Fiction (all genres)
#9 in Best Sellers - Military Science Fiction
#10 in Best Sellers - Space Opera Science Fiction

#21 in Hot New Releases - Science Fiction (all genres)
#6 in Hot New Releases - Military Science Fiction
#7 in Hot New Releases - Space Opera Science Fiction

Those are absolutely fantastic results for the first day of publication, much better than the previous novel in the series - which did pretty well in its own right, as you'll recall.  This is all down to you and your support.  Thanks a million!

I hope the days to come will bring even greater success, to lay a firm foundation for the continuation of the series.  Maxwell Volume 4 is in progress!

(If you've read 'Adapt and Overcome' and like it, please leave a review on its page at Amazon.com.  That will help those who don't know it, or my earlier books, to decide whether to give it a try.)

Peter

'Adapt and Overcome' is published at last!

Thank you all very much for your patience while I worked hard to improve the book.  'Adapt and Overcome' is now available as an e-book on Amazon.com.  A print edition will follow through CreateSpace within a week to ten days - watch this space for a link to it when it becomes available.

Assigned to investigate a deadly accident, Lieutenant Steve Maxwell uncovers corruption and criminal collusion reaching far above his pay grade. To save his career he's dispatched to a distant planet to help upgrade its defense forces, in the company of an old friend and some of the most experienced Marines Steve's ever met – plus one of the most distracting.

Trouble is, the planet's antiquated defenses make its new-found wealth a very tempting target – and there are those planning to take full advantage. As Steve and his colleagues strive to whip a rusty, run-down defense establishment into shape, the clock's running out...

The hard work put in by my beta readers - whom I thank very much - has helped to lift this book to a new level for me.  I'm not saying there's nothing left to improve;  I hope every book I write will be better than the one before, because I want to be the best writer I can be!  It's feedback from beta readers - and from regular readers, too, through your comments at Amazon.com, plus your feedback here and via e-mail - that helps me to improve.

I'm also starting a monthly author e-mail newsletter, which will keep readers of my books updated about the progress of my latest work, provide an article about some aspect of writing, and host give-aways from time to time.  If you'd like to subscribe, there's a link in the sidebar beneath my book listings, and I'll be adding a hot-link to the 'About The Author' page of each e-book.  The first newsletter will come out in early March.

I have two requests, please:

1. If you have your own blog, or are active on social media, please pass the word to your readers that the book is published and available, and (if you see fit) provide a link to its page on Amazon.com.  You can copy this link, or construct your own.  I depend almost entirely on word-of-mouth to help sell my books.  Your help is VERY gratefully appreciated.
2. If you like the book, please leave a review at Amazon.com.  That helps my author rankings there and tells other prospective readers more about it.  Thanks very much!

Maxwell Volume 4 will take Steve into a situation he's never foreseen in his wildest dreams . . . one he's going to have a lot of trouble surviving.  Look for it in July.

Peter

Tired thoughts on the new book

It's been a hectic weekend of formatting and last-minute checking before my new book is published on Amazon.com later this week.  It'll mark the end of a long, challenging and sometimes frustrating learning curve - which will immediately begin all over again, at a higher level, for the next book!

When I sent 'Adapt And Overcome' to beta readers three months ago, I was fairly certain that I had a good story, but I wasn't entirely sure whether my character development was all it could be.  I'd noted comments on Amazon by readers of the first two books in the Maxwell series (I mentioned some of them last weekend in a guest post on Sarah Hoyt's blog), and I'd tried to address issues they raised in the new book, but I was too close to it to be able to look at it objectively.  My beta readers did that for me.  Some liked it pretty much as it was, but others found a great deal that needed improvement.  One in particular sent a very long critique that was invaluable in its level of detail and depth of analysis.

I accordingly decided to postpone publication (which I'd initially intended for the first half of December) until I'd been able to address these issues, and 'raise my game' to a new level.  Early in December I sat down and made detailed notes drawn from Amazon.com reviews, beta reader analysis, and every other source I could think of.  They totaled about 20 pages of things that needed to be addressed.  (A lot of them were single issues that recurred in numerous parts of the book, so that one problem might take two pages of notes to address as I listed every page that needed attention.)

That exercise produced a short list of issues and problems where I needed to do better.  I spent several weeks studying those subjects (I mentioned a couple of useful books in my guest post).  I didn't necessarily agree with all I read, but they gave me good ideas on how to improve in areas where my work appeared to be lacking.  I also used them as a frame of reference to reverse-analyze the critiques from beta readers.  Some criticisms were voiced by only a few;  others by most of the group.  I had to decide which were matters of individual taste, and which reflected real issues I needed to address.  This helped to further refine and whittle down my 20-page 'to do' list.

Finally, at the beginning of January, I sat down and started revising my manuscript.  It took me all month.  It was a bit like pulling teeth sometimes . . . cherished scenes and vignettes had to be ruthlessly discarded, or amended, or even carved up and redistributed to other parts of the book.  I added a couple of new scenes, too.  I think the exercise has been worth it.  I've certainly learned a lot in the process, and I daresay the book is very much better for the extra effort - certainly considerably improved in terms of character development, etc. compared to the first two Maxwell books.  All this hard work will also help me to make subsequent books in the series that much better.

Today I began the final formatting process.  It's a lot easier since I switched to using Microsoft Word, which is the default software and document format used by Amazon.com and other e-publishers for their source documents.  I found an infuriating niggle today.  If one compiles a manual table of contents (TOC), hot-linked to each chapter by bookmarks, it works in MS Word's DOCX format.  However, converting the DOCX file directly to Amazon Kindle's MOBI format did not produce a working, hot-linked TOC - only a list of chapter names that wasn't hot-linked.  Frustrated, I tried using Calibre to convert the DOCX file to an EPUB format e-reader file, and found that the TOC worked fine.  When I then converted that EPUB file to MOBI, it still worked.  Why didn't it work on the single-pass conversion, but did work on the three-cornered format change?  I have no idea!  Technology!  AAARGH!

I'm looking forward to getting this book out there.  I think it's my best work yet.  Now to see whether you agree!  Watch this blog for a publication announcement and link to the book later this week.

Peter

The next book is almost ready

With a huge sigh of relief, this morning I finished the major revisions to the third volume of the Maxwell Saga, 'Adapt And Overcome'.  I've got a few days of final checking ahead, to make sure that I've tied all the elements together, dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's;  but I think I'm well on track to publish the book next week.  It'll come out first in a Kindle e-book edition, followed within a week or so by a print edition.

Thank you all very much for your patience in waiting longer than expected for this book. I'm glad I took the time to put in more work on character development.  I'm not saying it's perfect, but I think it's a lot better than it was when I sent it out to beta readers last year. I'm going to draw on the lessons learned to make Maxwell Volume 4 even better than Volume 3, and hopefully onward and upward in the same way throughout the series.

Peter

Writing about military service, war, and killing

I have a question (or a series of questions) for my readers, particularly those interested in military science fiction and other military fiction, but also to everyone interested in this topic in general.

Recently I wrote about the problems of character development, etc. in a guest post over at Sarah Hoyt's place.  In that article, I mentioned in passing:

I’ve been annoyed by a great many military SF books that are quite obviously written by people who have no military background themselves (or, if they have some military background, don’t have combat experience). It shows very clearly.

In a comment to that article, reader Smithgift asked:

Speaking as a civilian planning to write a book containing lots of WAR and VIOLENCE, what is the most important thing to do to avoid this? What is the most important thing NOT to do?

I've been thinking about this subject ever since, and I think it's best addressed by writing a few articles dealing with the difference between a military and a civilian mindset.  Much that seems instinctive or axiomatic to a military veteran is strange to a civilian, and needs to be explained in terms of the different way of life that military service involves.  In particular, I find that those who haven't seen combat - in particular, those who haven't killed or wounded an enemy 'up close and personal' - truly don't understand the reactions of the human psyche to the act of killing.  I've seen altogether too much of it for my peace of mind.  I'm well aware that individual reactions vary, depending on a whole host of factors.  It's a complex subject, but one that hasn't been well addressed in the context of writing fiction.

There are several books out there analyzing and embodying the military environment and mind-set, and the issue of killing, from micro- to macro levels.  They include (but are not limited to):

• 'On Killing' by Lt-Col. David Grossman (which I find interesting, but overrated, and I'm forced to disagree with some of what the author concludes on the basis of my own experience);
• 'On Combat' by Lt-Col. Grossman and others (a more rounded presentation, IMHO);
• Two books by Victor Davis Hanson, 'Carnage And Culture' and 'The Father Of Us All', looking at the broader issues of war as a reflection of society and culture (both excellent);
• Three books by Steven Pressfield:  two novels - 'Gates Of Fire' and 'The Virtues Of War' - and one non-fiction work - 'The Warrior Ethos' (all highly recommended);
• 'Martial Virtues' by Charles Hackney (oriented more towards the martial arts, but definitely applicable to some aspects of combat - useful background material);
• 'Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected' by Rory Miller and Barry Eisler - a very good analysis of the experience of violence and how to prepare oneself for it in a defensive situation;
• 'Warrior Mindset: Mental Toughness Skills for a Nation's Peacekeepers' by multiple authors - an interesting perspective on preparing to enter a climate of violence.

None of these ten books get it all right, but they all get some of it right - at least, in terms of my experience.  I think they're all worth reading.  Recommended.

I'd like to avoid duplicating the work done by those authors - there's no sense in reinventing the wheel.  I think I can provide some useful input in terms of my own background and life experiences, and in terms of the literally hundreds of other servicemen in several different countries and armed forces with whom I've spoken about these issues.  I can also bring an 'up close and personal' experience of violence and death to bear on the subject.  I really don't want to go into detail about that, for obvious reasons, but nevertheless, those who've 'been there and done that' will understand me when I say it's a bit like sex.  You can read about sex all you like;  you can go through all the theoretical sex education in the world;  but only when you've actually experienced it will you truly understand it, grasp it, feel it as part of you.  Killing is very similar in that sense.  It changes you.  Forever.  That's one reason why those who've done so very seldom write about it in any detail.  It feels almost obscene to do so.

What I'd like to ask is this.  Will it serve a useful purpose to try to go into the experience of violence and death - the experience of killing - in greater depth?  I don't want to go into voyeuristic levels of detail.  I simply want to help aspiring writers to be more realistic in their work, and not to spout reams of pablum about something they don't fully understand.

Let me give a concrete example.  Readers may recall my review of 'Act Of Valor' in 2012, which I watched with my wife.  In it, I commented that one of the scenes of death in combat brought tears to my eyes because it reminded me so powerfully of the death of one of my own comrades in arms, about which I'd written a couple of years earlier.  The fictional film brought that reality back to life for me, far more powerfully and immediately than any 'ordinary' Hollywood production could have done.  Some time later I had the opportunity to discuss the movie with some active-duty Navy SEAL team members, who confirmed to me that the incident in question was based on the death in combat of Michael A. Monsoor.  I think all of us had a tear or two in our eyes as we discussed lost comrades in arms . . .  I'd like to be able to make that same level of reality more accessible to prospective writers of military fiction.  That's why I'm considering writing this series of articles.

So, what do you think?  Would such a series of articles be useful to current and prospective writers?  Of equal importance, should they be written, or would it be best not to have overly realistic detail - to the point of possible voyeurism - splashed all over the pages of more fiction?

Over to you, readers.  Please let us know your thoughts in Comments.

Peter

Marko's second book is out today

Many of you know of Marko Kloos, fellow blogger and long-time acquaintance, who self-published his first book last year.  It was a smashing success, so much so that 49North, Amazon's SF imprint, signed him to a two-book deal.

In the intervening months, he finished the manuscript for the second book in the series, and also re-worked his first book with the help of one of 49North's editors.  It's been republished along with his second book, both still very reasonably priced.  Click on the images below to go to their book pages on Amazon.com.

His first book's cover now looks like this:

His latest book, and sequel to 'Terms Of Enlistment', is 'Lines Of Departure'.

I've already bought my copy.

Marko, like me, is a veteran of military service, and his background shows in his writing.  He does a great job, IMHO.  There'll be a third book in this series, and he's hinted that more may follow the initial trilogy if the inspiration is there and reader demand justifies it.

Congratulations, Marko!  I hope I can emulate your success when my next book comes out (which, all being well, will happen next week.)

Peter

Workin', like a workin' man do . . .

So I keep on workin'
Like a workin' man do
I need to buy my baby shoes
I keep on workin'
Oh, it's the only thing to do
I make my livin' by the sweat of my brow
Oh, workin' just like you

Those lyrics from Lynyrd Skynyrd's song (aptly titled " Workin' ") just about describe my writing life over the past couple of months.  In November I mentioned that I'd delayed the release of my next novel in order to improve its characterization and other aspects.  I've been hard at it, and I'm beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.

To give my readers some idea of what I've been doing, I wrote a guest article for Sarah Hoyt.  She published it on her blog this morning.  Nip over there and read it for an 'inside' look at the trials and tribulations of many newbie authors who (like me) have to learn the trade as they go along.  (We can't all be Hemingways or Grishams or Micheners from birth, you know!)

I hope to have Maxwell Volume 3 ready by the end of the first week in February, all other things being equal.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Peter

A sample from my new novel

A respondent to a thread on my Amazon.com author forum asked, "Might there be a excerpt? To get a taste of the awesome Maxwell Saga 03."

Needless to say, I'm very flattered to hear the next book described as "awesome" before the respondent had even read it!  I hope I can live up to his expectations.  For those who haven't seen it yet, here's how the cover will look.

I'm now only a couple of weeks from publication, so I don't mind putting up a 'teaser' excerpt from the beginning of the novel.  I tried to do so on my Amazon.com forum, but for some reason the forum software keeps on deleting it:  so I'll put it up here.  I hope you enjoy it.  Feel free to leave feedback in Comments, if you wish.

# # # # #

Lancaster

May 2847, Galactic Standard Calendar

“Here she comes! Straight up the valley!”

The observers turned towards the windows looking south, some zooming in with electronic binoculars, others adjusting the images projected onto their helmets’ visors. A dot appeared in the distance, dropping out of the cloud base about two hundred meters above the ground, arrowing down towards them. The roar of the assault shuttle’s reaction thrusters began to build in intensity as the plasma cannon in its low, streamlined barbette aimed towards the serried, widely-spaced ranks of hulked shuttles, cutters, gigs and transporters.

“Damn, the pilot’s coming in fast!” one of the observers muttered. “He won’t be able to hit more than one or two of them before he’s past and gone!”

“Wait for it,” Master Gunnery Sergeant Hogarth advised, standing in his usual ramrod-straight attitude. “These new birds have the most capable targeting system I’ve ever seen, and a tri-barrel plasma cannon can put a whole lot of hurt downrange. If we didn’t require visual confirmation of targets for these tests, he could have started firing much further out, while still in the clouds, and taken out a couple of rows of them by now.”

The incoming shuttle’s plasma cannon began to fire. The force-field surrounding the path of each bolt, extending its range tenfold in the thick lower atmosphere, shimmered in a fleeting translucent line between shuttle and target. Five hulks far downrange erupted in blasts of smoke and dust, pieces of metal tumbling and twirling in mid-air. The shuttle banked away as if to avoid enemy fire, dodging and weaving as it skimmed low over the control center perched on the rim of the valley. Its reaction thrusters shook the building, rattling the glass in the windows, making most of those inside cover their ears against the roar.

“Shit hot!” one of the watchers exclaimed, unable to keep a huge grin off his face. “These new Mark XVIIA’s are hell on wheels!”

The Master Gunnery Sergeant wasn’t smiling. “That damn fool’s hot-dogging it! If he doesn’t back off, he’s going to…” He was reaching for the microphone as he spoke.

“Kingsman Control to Shuttle One, slow it down, I say again, slow it down! This is a weapons test, not a live firing pass against a hostile target! This low cloud severely limits your visibility and reaction time. Ease off on that throttle! Acknowledge. Over.”

A brief pause, then, “Shuttle One to Kingsman Control, sit back and relax, buddy. This bird can do things no previous model’s ever done! You’re just not used to seeing her at work.”

The irritated senior NCO couldn’t help but notice the speaker didn’t end his transmission with the regulation ‘Over’, but decided to let it slide for now. However, he silently promised that when they got their bird back to base, there’d be an official complaint about range discipline waiting for them that would well and truly scorch their asses. He didn’t appreciate back-talk from a civilian test crew, even if most of them were former military.

“His echo’s disappeared behind the hills to the west,” the radar operator reported. “Should come into sight again to the south in about thirty seconds, the rate he’s moving.”

“Too damn fast!” the Master Gunnery Sergeant muttered to himself, shaking his head. That sort of speed, that close to the ground, in limited visibility, in a prototype rather than a thoroughly tested, fully qualified, all-the-kinks-worked-out operational vehicle, made him nervous. He glanced at the Range Director’s console to confirm that all the recorders were running – visual, audio, radar and data.

Half a minute later the shuttle dropped out of the cloud three kilometers away, arrowing towards them once more. The radio crackled again. “Just watch this! Stand by for a salvo of six missiles!”

The Master Gunnery Sergeant’s mouth dropped open in dumbfounded disbelief for a moment, then he leaped for the microphone. “Kingsman Control to Shuttle One, do not attempt missile fire! You’re moving way too fast for that! I say again, do not – oh, dear God, NO!”

Things happened very fast – too fast for the naked eye to follow all of them. The horrified observers saw a brief flurry of movement on top of the Mark XVIIA, a flicker of light and dark; then there was a sudden, violent explosion. The shuttle twisted downward and sideways, flailing as it fell, broken-backed, fluttering, shedding chunks and fragments of wreckage. It smashed into the valley floor, cartwheeling for hundreds of meters in a welter of flying dust and dirt and pieces of torn and shredded metal, coming to rest in a tangled, unrecognizable heap. There was a brief, desolate moment of silence, then a gout of flame and smoke as fire bloomed.

The observers stood frozen, as if unable to believe what they’d just seen. A cloud of smoke hung in the air where the explosion had occurred, the wind already tearing it into rags, whisking away the thin dark line joining it to the impact point below. Beyond the burning wreck one of the shuttle’s wheels, somehow ripped whole and intact from the fuselage, rolled and bounced aimlessly down the valley. It trundled up a shallow rise, slowing as it topped the crest, and wobbled out of sight down the reverse slope. As it did so, a siren began to wail from behind the building as one of the range’s fire and rescue trucks belatedly, uselessly, pulled out towards the crash site.

The Master Gunnery Sergeant reached over and adjusted the radio channel. His voice was suddenly terribly weary.

“All stations Kingsman, this is Kingsman Control. The range is closed. I say again, the range is closed. All personnel, secure your stations and return to Kingsman Control. Bring with you all recordings of this morning’s exercise. The Accident Investigation Unit will want them. There will be no further live fire today. Kingsman Control out.”

He put down the microphone, moving slowly like a man in great pain. As he did so the Private First Class at the radar screen asked, voice breaking a little, “W – what went wrong, Master Gunnery Sergeant? Why did they crash?”

Hogarth restrained his immediate impulse to snap at him. He’s not stupid – just young and inexperienced, the senior NCO reminded himself. You were that way once. Be patient with him. This is probably the first time he’s seen people die.

He said, almost gently, “They fired a missile while traveling too low and too fast. Outside planetary atmosphere, or inside atmosphere at slow speeds or at rest, shuttles fire their missiles just like spaceships do. Their vertical-launch tubes kick out their missiles straight up. In atmosphere, at high speed, it’s a different story. How fast was that shuttle moving?”

The radar operator glanced at his data readout. “Says here it was almost 500 kph.”

“Uh-huh. Think how much aerodynamic resistance is generated by the thick air this close to the ground, particularly at high speeds. That’s one reason shuttles have removable stub wings, to carry forward-firing rockets and missiles that can launch directly into an airstream like that. They hadn’t been fitted to the Mark XVIIA for today’s tests – it was using its internal vertical-launch missile tubes. Their launch systems aren’t designed to work against that sort of air velocity and pressure. The shuttle’s first missile was ejected straight up by the mass drivers in its tube, at right angles to the airstream, which would have pushed it off its launch trajectory the instant its nose was exposed. That must have forced it back against the edge of its launch tube, which might have bent it – maybe even broken it in two. The bottom half of the missile almost certainly never made it out of the tube. The shuttle might have survived that, even given the off-center aerodynamic drag it would have caused; but the explosion… that finished it.”

The radar operator nodded slowly. “I get it. Thanks for explaining, Master Gunnery Sergeant.” He looked out of the window at the burning wreckage. “Should I call for an ambulance?”

“No. Nobody out there needs medical help any more. It’s a job for AIU and the bucket and shovel brigade now… and the coroner… and, God help them, whoever gets the job of explaining four useless, pointless deaths to their families. If that damn pilot hadn’t been hot-dogging it, and his Weapons Systems Operator had been more careful, they’d all still be alive.”

~ ~ ~

Steve walked slowly to the refreshment station set up on the folded-down rear gate of a utility vehicle. He took a disposable cup, filled it at the water dispenser and gulped it down; then refilled it with coffee, added creamer and sweetener, stirred, and sipped more slowly as he surveyed the crash site. His face was weary and drawn, his eyes tired.

A voice came from behind him. “How’s it going, Sir?”

He looked around to see Master Gunnery Sergeant Hogarth, approaching from the direction of the control center up on the hillside, and smiled wearily in recognition. “It’s going, Master Gunny. That’s about the best that can be said for it.”

“I see the coroner’s vehicle just left.”

“Yes, we finally managed to get the last human remains out of the last bits of wreckage. It was a job for scrapers, I’m afraid. We’ve no idea who was who in there. Unless the forensic pathologists can figure it out – and I don’t know whether they can DNA-match charcoal – it’ll be a joint funeral in closed coffins and a single shared grave.” He made a wry, sour face. “I don’t think I’ll ever get that stench out of my nostrils, or these coveralls.”

The older man regarded the Junior Lieutenant compassionately. He was about a hundred and eighty centimeters tall, the Master Gunnery Sergeant estimated, well-muscled but not overly bulky. His face wasn’t particularly handsome, but strong, with determined dark brown eyes set beneath heavy eyebrows and buzz-cut hair of the same color. The senior NCO recalled seeing him in Number Two uniform early in the investigation. For a junior officer, he’d worn a better-than-average number of medal ribbons and combat stars on his chest. He’d worked hard, too, as hard as any of the others on the accident investigation team. That was a good sign, the Marine acknowledged silently to himself. He’d seen some officers behave as if their commissioned rank and status exempted them from hard work. This man clearly didn’t suffer from such delusions of grandeur.

He reassured him, “It passes, Sir. It just takes time – although it’ll come back now and again, sometimes when you least want it to. I’d burn those coveralls, though, if I were you.”

“I guess you don’t reach your rank and length of service without finding that out the hard way, Master Gunny.”

“No, Sir, I’m afraid you don’t.”

The NCO helped himself to coffee, then came to stand next to Steve. “At least the fusion reactor’s protective compartment functioned as designed, Sir, and contained all the radioactive material. I was half expecting this part of the range to be shut down for months while it was decontaminated.”

“Yes, the compartment did its job. Good thing, too, or we wouldn’t be able to investigate the accident in person. We’d have had to use robots.”

“I guess so.” The Master Gunnery Sergeant hesitated. “Sir, I don’t want to ask questions I shouldn’t, but do you have any leads yet as to what happened?”

“I’m way too junior, and much too inexperienced, to be party to all that’s going on, Master Gunny; but all the comments I’m hearing center around that missile warhead. It should never have exploded like that.”

Hogarth nodded thoughtfully. “Anything unusual about it, Sir?”

“It’s a nanotech-enhanced development of Composition 46 super-explosive. They gave it a new suffix, 46-N. It’s said to be denser, with a higher detonation velocity and relative effectiveness factor, than anything else out there. Combined, those factors are supposed to allow the Ocelot’s smaller warhead to produce a greater explosive effect than those of bigger, earlier-generation missiles. It was developed by a company called Brisance. They started as a subcontractor to Commonwealth Defense Industries, and designed the warhead for the Ocelots. CDI liked their work enough that they bought the company a few months ago. Brisance certified 46-N to be insensitive just before that, but after this accident I reckon there’s going to be a lot of questions asked about that.”

“I bet! It was a hell of a bang. Watching the slow-motion vid, we could see it peel back the shuttle’s battle armor like it was no more than tin plate. It must have instantly killed everyone aboard, even before the crash.”

Steve nodded, draining the last of his coffee. “That’s because it was an internal explosion, of course. I’m told the warhead was still inside the missile tube when it blew. The experts will be looking at that very carefully.” He set down his cup on the tailgate.

The Master Gunnery Sergeant nodded towards an approaching figure. “One of yours?” The man wore no badges of rank or other insignia on his coveralls.

“Yes. That’s my boss, Lieutenant-Commander Bullard.”

Bullard was an older man, hair and beard peppered with gray. Steve and the Master Gunnery Sergeant came to attention as he approached.

“Lieutenant Maxwell, I’m taking the final batch of samples back to the lab. I’ll leave you in charge of the accident site.”

“Aye aye, Sir.”

“The transporter will return shortly from towing the accommodation trailer to the warehouse. It’ll pick up its flatbed trailer, load the last pieces of wreckage, then take them to the warehouse as well. You and the cleanup team will escort them. Make sure none of those damn vultures get their hands on any of it!” He glanced sourly at the hardstand outside the Range Control Office, where a utility van emblazoned with Brisance’s corporate logo had waited since the accident. The technicians inside had been warned they would be arrested if they entered the area around the wreck while it was still cordoned off. They hadn’t liked being ordered around, and their company had protested all the way up to the Board of Admiralty, but to no avail.

“It’ll be late by the time you get there, so don’t bother to unload the transporter,” he continued. “Park it inside the warehouse. Make sure the security systems are activated before you leave, and remind the compound security staff that no-one except AIU staff may enter the building. In particular, no-one from Brisance is to be allowed inside under any circumstances!”

“Aye aye, Sir.” Steve hesitated. “You keep mentioning that company, Sir. Is something wrong?”

“Yes, there is, dammit!” Bullard scowled, then shook his head. “Sorry, Lieutenant. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. It’s just that Brisance is trying to cover its ass any and every way it can. It knows its warhead is the prime suspect in what happened, and its deal with CDI might be on the line as a result. It’s trying every trick in the book, and a few that aren’t, to get hold of any scrap of information it can use to defend itself, either in court or to the politicians. It’s even insinuating that we aren’t fully competent to conduct the inquiry, because of what it claims are ‘new technologies with which we’re not familiar’. Captain Ratisbon and I have been defending AIU against that sort of thing all week. It’s frustrating as hell!”

Steve settled for a diplomatic, “Sorry to hear that, Sir.”

“Not half as sorry as I am! Anyway, I’ve left you half a dozen of our people under Petty Officer Gilson. Once everything’s safely in the warehouse, you can dismiss them. They’ll return to their normal duties tomorrow, while our technicians and lab crew start going through the wreckage in the warehouse. I want you to be there for that. You’ll learn more in a week on an actual investigation than I could teach you in two or three months in the office.”

“Aye aye, Sir.”

“Your pilot’s license and operating endorsements for all the Fleet’s small craft are still valid, right?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good. Your input as a qualified assault shuttle pilot will be very useful.” He stretched wearily. “Give thanks for your young back and legs, Lieutenant. Mine have about had it after a week of bending and digging. I’ll see you tomorrow. I promised my wife I’d be home by eighteen, to take her to the theater tonight. She’ll stomp me into the doormat if I’m late!”

He turned and headed for his official vehicle, limping slightly. Steve and Hogarth relaxed from their positions of attention, their eyes following him. Hogarth asked, “He’s pretty old for his rank, isn’t he, Sir?”

“Yes, but he hasn’t been commissioned his entire career. He served in the ranks for twenty years, rising to an E-9 Master Chief Petty Officer, then was appointed as a Warrant Officer in the Accident Investigation Unit. He served another twelve years, staying in AIU and rising to W-5 Chief Warrant Officer, then was commissioned as a Limited Duty Officer. He’s been with AIU almost twenty-five years now, which is a record for any unit in the Fleet. His knowledge and experience make him the most qualified investigative team leader we’ve got.”

The senior NCO chuckled. “With that background and all that experience, he must be quite a character, Sir.”

“He is. I’ve only been on his team a few months, but I’ve already learned a hell of a lot from him – ah, here’s the transporter!” Steve glanced towards a heavy vehicle approaching along the road leading to the Range Control Office. “I’ll get the last of the wreckage loaded, then have our people take down the perimeter tape. After that the range will be yours again.”

“It’ll be good to get back to normal, Sir. We’ve got a lot of backlog to make up.”

# # # # #

Just a couple more weeks, and the book will be ready.  Keep your fingers crossed for me until then!  The editing's a big job.

Peter

Tired puppy

I've been working too hard on revisions and editing of Maxwell Volume 3, now only a couple of weeks from publication.  I'm stiff, I ache, and my eyes are dry and scratchy from too many hours staring at a computer screen.  I go bed now.  You come back tomorrow for more posts.

Sleep well, y'all.

Peter

Another blogger joins the author club

Fellow blogger Rolf Nelson, a contributor over at Joe Huffman's The View from North Central Idaho, has just published his first science fiction novel, 'The Stars Came Back', as an e-book on Amazon.  He describes it as follows on his own Web site:

"Helton Strom is a fairly ordinary guy who runs afoul of officialdom and space pirates. He is left with nothing but his wits and the clothes on his back, without so much as planetary citizenship left to his name. Is the ugly, ancient, broken down military surplus starship he wins in a card game the key to a bright future hauling passengers and cargo among the stars, or will his repairs allow the demons lurking in its murky and lethal past be reawakened to come back and deliver a world of destruction?

"The Stars Came Back might be classed as a space-western, with lots of action and adventure. Or maybe it’s a space-opera, and tension ebbs and flows. Unless it’s military fiction, with everything from spaceship battles to serious swords-and-sandals action. You might consider it a philosophical sci-fi, or perhaps it’s a mystery set in space (well, Tajemnica certainly is, in any case). Whatever you want to call it, if you want a good adventure with a few things to think about along the way, this story is for you.

"This is my first novel. Hopefully, it won’t be the last."

It's an interesting effort.  Apparently it was begun as a film script, and it still follows that style of writing;  but it merges into the novel genre, allowing the characters to speak for themselves.  When I read an early draft of the book, I wasn't sure I liked the way Rolf had written it.  It wasn't like the books to which I'm accustomed.  However, once I'd figured out how he was approaching it, it was surprisingly readable.  I think you'll find it a worthwhile experiment.

If all goes well, there'll be more books in the series.  Congratulations, Rolf, and welcome to the world of blogging authors.  There are lots of us out there!

Peter

Lessons learned while moving to a new computer

You'll recall that last month, I asked for input about buying a new computer.  I eventually settled on a HP desktop system from Costco, which was at an almost unbeatable value-for-money point.  It arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I've slowly been moving my programs and data onto it and setting it up as my primary workstation.  I've learned a lot in the process.

First, I've used Mozilla Thunderbird as my e-mail client for many years.  I have several different e-mail accounts, depending on their purpose and scope (this blog's is only one of them).  Thunderbird lets me open them all in a single application and keep track of them without problems.  The last time I migrated to a new system, I ended up simply installing a new copy of Thunderbird and abandoning my earlier e-mails on backups, as I simply couldn't get them to migrate across successfully.  This time was far simpler.  I used the Mozbackup utility, which made the process amazingly simple once I'd figured out the correct sequence of events.  For the benefit of those who might do the same in future, here's what to do, and in this order.

1. Download Mozbackup to your old system and run it, placing the backup copy of your Thunderbird (and, if you wish, other Mozilla software such as Firefox) on an external hard disk or thumb drive.
2. Download the relevant Mozilla software (Thunderbird, Firefox, etc.) to your new computer and run it once, in order to set up each program's default profile.  Don't do anything else like enter your e-mail account details.
3. Download Mozbackup to your new system and run it.  Tell it to restore the profiles of the software you've installed, and point it to the external drive where you've stored the backed-up profiles from your old system.

That's really all there is to it.  Simple, quick and easy.  I imported eight different e-mail accounts, complete with four years of archived messages and all the settings, without a bobble.

I had some serious problems getting used to the Windows 8 interface (Windows 8.1, actually, but it's the same interface as 8.0).  It looks like a very useful product for touch-screen devices, but if you're working with keyboard and mouse, it's a pain in the butt.  I set up my new system to boot directly to the desktop screen, as in Windows 7, and installed Pokki to simulate the Windows 7 startup screen.  It works fine.

Microsoft Office 2010 gave me some serious headaches.  By default, it installs in 32-bit mode;  but Windows 8.1 is a native 64-bit application, as installed from the manufacturer on my computer.  I had some nasty compatibility issues until I figured out (by trial and error) that Office 2010 also has a 64-bit version, that can be installed by running its dedicated Setup program from the CD.  Once I'd switched to that version, things went much more easily.  I still had to locate it on my hard disk;  Windows 8.1 kept on trying to get me to load the preinstalled trial version of Office 2013 and/or pay for the Office 365 version.  I ended up uninstalling both of the latter trial versions, and now things run much more smoothly.

I've still got some music and video files to copy across to my new system, but I'm 90% finished with the migration now.  I'm already using the new system to continue editing Maxwell Book 3.  I'll be setting up a treadmill desk over the next couple of weeks, with a second screen for seated use when I'm not able to walk any further.  I'm pretty happy with the new computer so far.  It's much faster and more powerful than my old laptop.  As soon as the migration is complete, I'll upgrade the laptop's memory and install a new hard disk, and it'll become my occasional-use on-the-road computer.

Thanks to all of you who offered advice.  So far, so good!

Peter

Tired puppy

I'm a tired puppy tonight.  The revisions to Maxwell Volume 3 are burdensome at present, with a great deal of editing and skull sweat involved.  I think I need to take a couple of days off from the book, just to give my mind a rest.

I'll put up more blog posts in the morning.  Until then, please amuse yourselves in the archives, or among those on my blogroll.

Here's another song from Juluka, to go with those I put up last night.  This one's 'Heart Of The Dancer' from their album 'African Litany'.

Lots of memories in that song . . .

Peter

The latest on Maxwell Volume 3

I've now had responses from about a third of those who volunteered their services as beta readers for Maxwell Volume 3. This isn't as many as I'd have liked, but it's still better than I had for volumes 1 and 2; and I'm pleased to see that the comments echo each other to a considerable extent, demonstrating that there's concensus among the reviewers.

The good news is that everyone's picked out points that they like. Some have identified more than others, but the consensus seems to be that the book is much better overall, in terms of plot and development, than the first two.

The bad news (from my perspective) is that some of the problems readers identified with the first two books in the series are still there.  Steve Maxwell is still too much of a 'golden boy', and doesn't have enough in the way of challenges to overcome. Yes, his character is more developed than in the first two books, but he's not developed enough. I need to give a lot more attention to this, and to the use of conflict and tension in the unfolding plot.

It's really important to me not to put out books in too much of a hurry.  I don't simply want to make a fast buck or two:  I want to build long-term success as a writer.  That means I have to put in the hard work 'up front' to make sure that every book is better than its predecessors. As a result, I've decided to delay Maxwell Volume 3 until mid-January 2014. The extra six weeks will give me time to thoroughly re-work certain sections of the book, and improve the areas identified as weak or needing improvement by my beta readers. I won't have it out for the Christmas shopping season, but that's less important to me than making this book the best I can possibly produce at this stage of my writing development.

Thanks to everyone who helped with reviews and input. I value your contributions very greatly. You've already helped by identifying areas that need attention;  and when I've addressed them, you'll have helped to make Maxwell Volume 3 a much better book overall.

As a teaser, here's the preliminary cover image that Oleg whomped up from a graphic that Miss D. and I gave him. It's still a work in progress, but this will give you a taste of it.

Keep your fingers crossed for me as I settle down to the hard work of re-shaping and improving the book.

Peter

Learning a lot

Feedback is beginning to come in from my beta readers for Maxwell Volume 3. It's clear that I have a lot of work to do in tightening things up, largely due to the book having been written in some haste to meet my self-imposed deadline.  Publishing four books in a planned seven months was definitely 'a book too far'!  It'll certainly stretch to 7½ months, and perhaps to 8.

I'm still battling to come to terms with the issue of 'conflict', in the way that word is applied in modern literature.  I was raised with more classical reading matter, where the edgy, conflict-ridden themes of modern books would have been regarded with dismay, and probably rejected outright. (Think, for example, of early Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Lewis and Tolkien - they're among my formative influences, and very different from contemporary SF and fantasy authors.)  There were differences of opinion, there were obstacles to be overcome, but 'conflict' wasn't on every page. Rather, it was something where there had to be a winner and a loser, and the outcome would damage the latter.  I still don't understand how the term evolved into the way it's applied to books today.

I'm going to try to introduce more 'conflict' to my protagonist, because many readers of the first two books complained that there wasn't enough of it:  that Steve Maxwell was a 'golden boy' who got all the breaks, and never had to struggle for anything.  I didn't see it that way, but clearly, my perspective has been colored by a different reading pattern and by being brought up in a different culture.  I thought I had more of it in the third volume, but clearly there isn't enough, as some of the same complaints are being made.  I'm going to go through those comments very carefully, and try to absorb a sense of how the book is being read and/or received, rather than how I'm writing it.  I need to put myself more into an American reader's shoes if I'm to understand how they see it.

I may delay the release for a week or two in order to rewrite certain sections to incorporate these 'lessons learned'.  It might be December 15th instead of the beginning of the month (although I'm going to shoot for as early a release date as possible - I don't want to miss the Christmas shopping season).  I may put out the Kindle version first, with the print edition following a few days later, so as to speed things up.  Rest assured, I'll work on it as fast as possible.

Thanks very much to all my beta readers, and to all of you who've corresponded with me about Maxwell 1 and 2, or left reviews on Amazon about it.  I'm taking everyone's input very seriously.  I hope you'll see the improvement when Maxwell 3 is released.

Peter

Giving birth (sort of)

That's about what it feels like to send my latest novel out into the world. (Yes, I know, I'm not a woman, so how the hell would I know what giving birth feels like? Hey - I have an imagination, and I'm not afraid to use it, OK?)

Maxwell Volume 3, 'Adapt And Overcome', went out to beta readers this morning. I've asked them to get back to me within a week, then I'll spend the next week to ten days fixing the problems they find. Meanwhile, Miss D. and I will write the cover blurb, then we'll get together with Oleg to prepare the cover.  I'll set up the template for the print version, and have everything ready to upload the corrected final edition as soon as it's ready.

Meanwhile, the 'pantser' fantasy novel is already over 13,000 words, and galloping along.  I'm deliberately not planning it at all, letting the words flow and seeing where they take me.  It's a completely new way for me to write, and as such a big challenge, but also a lot of fun.  It may turn into something publishable in due course. We'll see.  It's definitely going to be in the style of 'classic' fantasy, rather than urban-edgy or horror-nasty, and definitely not Dungeons-and-Dragons-interminably-going-on-forever-world-without-end.  Tolkien I'm not, but who knows?  I might turn out to be a literary Gollum, if I work at it!

I've already worked out the basic outline for Maxwell Volume 4. I'll kick that off during December, but at a less frenetic pace than this year's been so far.  I'm planning to publish three Maxwell novels next year, with the 'pantser' fantasy book as a possible fourth, but only if I can do that without working myself to the limit as I've done this year.  My health (mental, physical and spiritual) is more important than making like a humanoid word processor regurgitator.

Peter