Final episode

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Dex starts working on Captain Zhang’s plan.

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Dex asks for help in some unlikely places.

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I’ll be pretty busy over the weekend. I’m participating in a few panels:

• Overpopulation in SF (Saturday 10am)
• Armageddon as Allegory (Sunday 9am)
• Getting Published (Sunday 10am)

I’ll be doing a reading Sunday at 3pm, and I’ll head over to the group signing after that. I plan to have a few dead tree books for sale, and possibly some method for selling an ebook bundle as well. The complete convention schedule is here.

I also plan to be at the SpecFicNZ gathering and gnereally wandering around the con. If you’re going to be there, drop me a line at darusha@darusha.ca or just find me and say hi. I’ll probably* be the one with the blue hair.

*Probably, because it may have faded to green by then and I might not be the only one.

Captain Zhang delivers an ultimatum and Dex stumbles across important information.

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Annabelle shares a shocking revelation.

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Rev. Alford divulges a secret while Annabelle takes some time off.

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I got myself safely to my seat by the helm and took a sip of tea. I sighed, hooked my tether to the harness I always wore above decks, and leaned back over the rail. The sky was clear and full of stars in that complete way that only happens on a moonless night hundreds of miles from shore. I hadn’t seen another vessel in days and that was just fine. Nothing to run into, nothing to worry about. Just me, my boat, the big blue below and the big black above.

I did a 360° scan of the horizon, just in case, and seeing nothing, set the timer for twenty minutes. I lay down on the soft cockpit cushions and closed my eyes. I had a rig that would steer the boat to the wind for me, and I knew that nothing should be able to make it from beyond the horizon to my position in less than twenty minutes. Even so, I had the radar set to sound an alarm if anything showed up within ten miles. I dropped off to sleep in the rocking of the waves.

The timer went off, and I drowsily opened my eyes. I sat up, and looked around. Still nothing. I smiled to myself and took a sip of tea, still warm in its thermal cup. I checked the instruments — with twelve knots of wind on the beam, we were rocketing along at six knots; pretty good for my heavy old thirty-four footer. I leaned back out to look at the stars again, and squinted. I’m no celestial nav expert, but I’ve spent enough time looking up to notice when there’s something new. Occasionally, I’ll notice a new satellite or something up there. But I’d never seen anything new that was this bright before. Or moving so fast.

#

The radar told me that the thing landed about eight miles away, and I thought I could even hear the splash. I certainly saw the flash of light falling from the sky into the sea. Was it a meteorite? I guess that must happen sometimes, and the odds were that at least some of those times someone would be out and about and be able to see it. Still, I didn’t think there were any meteor showers predicted for this area, and I hadn’t seen any other shooting stars all night. And it really didn’t look like any meteor I’d ever seen before. I was sure I’d seen lights on the thing.

You don’t keep much of a tight schedule travelling on a sailboat, so a detour wasn’t going to hurt me any. I disconnected the self steering, and swung the wheel to starboard. I eased the sheets, and soon was surfing the little waves bearing straight toward the radar target that still glowed bright green on my screen.

An hour and half later the predawn light was starting to peek up over the horizon and I was close enough to see the debris. There were a couple of still-blinking white lights among the wreckage, and I thought I could see a glint of metal in the early morning light. I got out my binoculars, and braced myself to try and get a clear view of it while Lucky Lady pitched and rolled beneath me. It was hard to get a good view, but I thought I could make out some kind of yellow lettering on the largest piece floating on the waves. I put the binocs down, and paid close attention to my course. I didn’t want to drive right through the stuff, but I wanted to be able to get close enough to see it better.

I tried to steer myself slightly upwind of the debris, and when I was already too close for comfort, I threw the wheel hard over to port. I hauled on the mainsheet, then cranked in the jib. As the main came around, the Lady bobbed up like a cork and slowed. I tied off the wheel once I was sure we were well hove to and then clipped my leash to the jacklines running fore and aft on the topsides. The sun was rising in earnest now, and I could see the debris pretty clearly, floating about a football field away downwind.

There were three or four distinct parts floating on the surface, and I suspected a fair amount of the thing had sunk already. I could read some of the lettering on the largest piece now: MA R M. This was no meteor.

Read on a single page

Photo by jvleis

One of the questions I asked in my survey is whether or not people write reviews of the books they like. Many respondents said they don’t. When asked why, not ever thinking to do it was a top answer.

Not all readers are writers, and some people also expressed that they felt unqualified to write a review.

There are some really excellent review writers out there, and I’ve read my fair share of long, well-thought out pieces. But a review doesn’t have to be a 500-word essay. In fact, on sites like Goodreads, you’re more than welcome to submit a a star-rating with no comment at all.

For most authors, word of mouth is our main marketing tool. And in the current world, word of mouth includes recommendations on facebook, twitter, G+ etc. When they get a line on a new book or author, many people head over to Amazon or Goodreads to see what others say about a book and a dearth of reviews on those sites can make people skip over to something else.

It doesn’t take long to rate a book and leave a one or two sentence review. “A fun read” or “Not my favourite” is enough of a review if you don’t have the time or inclination to write a longer one.

Yes, this post is partially a plea for fans of my work to submit a few reviews or ratings. But it’s also a plea for reviews and ratings of any books you like — I use those stars to find stuff to read, too.

My books on Amazon.com

My books on Goodreads

Dex chases down some leads and Annabelle shows up unexpectedly.

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Photo by mag3737

The reader survey made it pretty clear that lots of people would prefer to buy books directly from the authors, so to that end I’ve created a store where you can buy an instant download of any of my digital products (ebooks or audiobooks).

It’s a pretty slick interface powered by Gumroad, and I’ve never used a faster method to buy something online. You just type in your credit card details and then bang, you’re downloading your book. Check it out!

Photo by Xtina L

One of the most interesting parts of my recent survey was, predictably, the comments. I learned some interesting things about readers’ habits and interests, and I’ll be working on some changes thanks to what you’ve told me.

I asked people what they would change about getting books and one of the comments really hit home:

No DRM. Absolutely none. If eBooks have DRM then I pirate them simply to have them without DRM.

I agree that DRM is a non-starter for me as well, though there are solutions other than piracy*. But what the heck is DRM, anyway?

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which is a way of locking digital goods. DRM is why most Kindle books can’t be read on a Kobo reader. The problem with DRM, of course, is exactly that: if I buy a book from the Sony Reader store, then decide I want to read that book on Stanza on my iPod, too bad for me. Even though it’s my book. I think this is not cool.

Some books from the main ebookstores are sold without DRM and can be converted into other formats. Most, however, are locked unless you remove the DRM (be aware – doing this may be illegal in your country, even if you own the book and are converting it only for your personal use).

I believe that DRM makes digital goods less than fully functional, and I can’t in good conscience sell a defective product. I don’t want DRM in the books I buy, so I don’t sell books with DRM in them.

Yes, that means it’s possible for you to give your friend a copy of my book. Yes, that’s theoretically a lost sale for me. But it’s also a possible new reader. So, if you want to give one of my book to someone you think would like it, go ahead. That doesn’t mean uploading the files to P2P sites, but passing on a beloved book to a fellow reader is a long and wonderful tradition among book lovers.

* It’s possible to remove the DRM from most legally purchased ebooks. A google search leads to some good information. The open source ebook library software Calibre can help you convert DRM-free books from one format to another with one click.

Dex and Annabelle have a night on the town.

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The past comes back to haunt Dex.

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As a fantastic example of this, I was reading crime author extraordinaire Lawrence Block‘s blog post about a pretty bad editing error he just discovered in one of his books. After the book’s been in print by several publishers for over 20 years.

I did find a few typos I’d somehow missed. Well for wall, means for meant, a word or two left out. And then, remarkably, I found this paragraph:

I nodded. “And Lynn London’s been married and divorced, and half the neighbors on Wyckoff Street have moved somewhere or other. It’s as though every wind on earth’s been busy blowing sand on top of her grave. I know Americans lead mobile lives. I read somewhere that every year twenty percent of the country changes its place of residence. Even so, it’s as though every wind on earth’s been busy blowing sand on top of her grave. It’s like digging for Troy.”

…

Could some gremlin had added it since my last reading? I checked the eBook version, and saw that I’d somehow failed to notice it in either of my two passes over the text… I studied the paragraph, and it seemed clear to me that the first wind-and-sand line was the one to cut. But why not make sure? So I went and hauled out my copy of the Arbor House hardcover first edition and checked.

And there was the full paragraph, just as I quoted it above, with both sentences about the wind blowing the sand on Barbara Ettinger’s grave. That, evidently, is how I wrote it over thirty years ago. And that’s how it’s been ever since, sailing past Jared Kieling, my editor at Arbor House, and their copy editor, and their proofreader, and everybody else who’s been involved with the book over the years.

It happens to the best of us.

Things go from bad to worse for Stella Bish and Dex runs into someone at the bar.

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I posted the books today, so watch your postboxes over the next two weeks.

Apparently, if you buy three things, you can get the fourth thing free. Not everything on Amazon is a qualifying thing, but my books are. So, if you want to pick up some things at Amazon, you can get one or more of my books included in the deal.

And coincidentally, I have four books available on Amazon. So, for $30, you could get the whole bibliography in snazzy paperback goodness. If you’re shipping to the US, my books all qualify for free shipping for orders over $25.

Just thought you might want to know.

* You can still fill out the survey and let me know about how you read. It really helps me make it easier for readers to find and get my work.

Dex follows up on a couple of hunches.

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Mack Larsen horns in on the cases and Annabelle analyzes the data.

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Use the coupon code REW50 when you check out at Smashwords to get the savings. Read an Ebook Week ends on March 10, so if you’re going to take advantage of the sale, better get on it.

If you’re new to Smashwords, you can get ebook formats for any device, including pdf, rtf and plain text. No special reader required!

As usual Ms. Wehm has created a story you can jump into and characters to embrace, with interesting insights on society; her books reflect on today’s current state and probe any possible future. The Beauty of Our Weapons is an easy recommend, as is the entire series.

Annabelle wonders if the cause of the trouble in M City is evidence of a bigger problem.

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