Tag: books

Announcing Shattered Earth, a science fiction novel

Shattered Earth is my fourth novel.

What it’s about:

Advanced humans, called Terrans, leave Earth when its threatened by a massive meteor. The remaining humans on Earth fall back into primitiveness. The advanced humans, and a group of aliens, the Ragnor, involve Earth in an interstellar war. Thousands of years later, the humans of Earth decide to do something about this. Interstellar politics will never be the same again once Earth is done with their revenge.

These Terrans involve themselves throughout human history. Some play as King Arthur and Merlin. Another is a scientist, whose name is Galileo, and he gets into all sorts of trouble for challenging official orthodoxy about the sun, the Earth, and which one is revolving around the other. Then, we have Amelia Earhart, who has a very valid reason for disappearing. When an alien spaceship gets shot down over Roswell in 1947, President Truman orders the creation of Area 51, Project Blue Book and Sign, and has the United States embark on a plan that will culminate 60 years in the future. Nothing will ever be the same again when the United States gets involved in interstellar politics. But, the whole plan backfires when Earth ends up the worse for wear over it. Other species find out what Earth did, since no one else was bold enough to even try, so they want to help bring down the Ragnor once and for all. The new President of the United States imagines a galactic federation or a republic, but, none of the other species wants anything to do with it. Once they destroy the Ragnor’s technology, they leave the Ragnor to ponder why all the other species hated them enough to attack them. Will the galaxy remain at peace?

Currently can be found as an e-book on Smashwords, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, and Kindle.

Book review of The Usurper – a political thriller

Here is the newest book review done by Nurture Your Books

“A cold-blooded, Clancy-esque political thriller; The Usurper is sure to entertain.”

As decades of meticulous scheming and planning finally come together, the KGB, an under-appreciated threat, takes the final steps towards the ultimate coup. The terrorist faction exploits idealistic volunteers to do some of the dirty work and utilizes educated individuals, in positions of power, who are more than willing to die for their belief in ultimate control by the government. When a mixed group of terrorists and extremists spend years training for the eventual downfall of the western world, collateral damage and the loss of life isn’t given consideration.

The Usurper starts off slowly, but quickly picks up momentum as the plot thickens and the story unfolds. There are multiple themes in this fictional novel, not the least of which is terrorism, persecution and indoctrinated loyalties; this story painstakingly illustrates a plan for world domination that requires countless willing and blackmailed participants. The main characters are written with the most depth, while supporting characters have very little in the way of a back story. More internal dialog would enhance the reader’s ability to connect with the characters and pull them deeper into the story itself. Some structure and grammatical errors, while few and far between, need to be addressed to ensure a smoothly-flowing story that every reader will be able to enjoy.

Despite the minor issues mentioned, The Usurper is a very fast-paced, political thriller that will keep readers on their toes and offer some thought-provoking twists on historic and future possibilities in the political arena.

Plus.. featured book on Nurture Your Books.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Usurper-conservative-political-ebook/dp/B007K9WDA4

Writer’s Digest Self-Published Awards

Last year, I submitted Don’t Mess with Earth to the “Writer’s Digest 17th Annual Self-Published Book Awards” and a couple of weeks ago, I received in the mail, the results of entering into the competition. I know it was almost a month ago, but, I’m busy with finishing up my last semester of college. I have to type in the Commentary Sheet because there is no digital copy, which I wish they had, so here goes:

Author: Cliff Ball
Title: Don’t Mess With Earth
Category: Genre
Judge: 57

On a scale of 1 to 5 , with 1 meaning “poor” and 5 meaning “excellent,” please evaluate the following:

Plot: 3
Grammar: 4
Character Development: 2
Cover Design: 3

Judge’s commentary:

What did you like best about this book?

Ball covers a long period of time in the book, from biblical times to present day. He does a nice job weaving all of this human history into a sci-fi story.

The opening scene is compelling and draws readers right into the story. The author does a great job creating interest from the start.

The author’s passion for the story creates a story that entices the reader to keep reading to find out what events he will next tie into the story.

It can be difficult to remain consistent with the point of view. Third-person was the only plausible point of view for this story. This made for a richer story.

The author’s grammar and spelling make for an easy read.

How can the author improve this book?

It’s obvious the author spent time working on the plot. However, covering such a large expanse of time made it difficult to create a protagonist with whom the reader identifies. Readers need a character or group of characters to root for — someone to tie the story together.

The Terrans and Ragnor seem extremely forthright when talking with the humans. They seem extremely trusting of a planet they want to conquer.

The cover image portrays the essence of the story. With a few tweaks or the help of a professional designer, it could easily sit on the fiction shelves with other covers.

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_genre17/
Check out the link, and you can find me near the bottom if you do a search/find on your web explorer.

Location of Don’t Mess With Earth
Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Amazon paperback
Kindle US
Kindle UK
Barnes and Noble paperback
BN Nook
Smashwords all E-book formats

Writing and author sites

Updated: This was blogged two years ago and I just thought I’d bring it back to the front.

If you’re a new writer and looking for websites to market your work or yourself as an author, searching for those places online takes a really long time, especially if you don’t type in the right keywords on google or other search engines. I thought I’d post sites all in one place so you can find what you’re looking for without searching for days on end.

http://www.writersmarket.com Online version of the book

http://www.writersdigest.com

http://www.helium.com Where writers can post articles, stories, opinions

http://www.writing.com  Writing site

http://bookmarket.com/index.html This is John Kremer’s website where there are supposed to be “1001 Ways to Market Your Books”

http://authornation.com/  A community for authors and readers

http://www.bookreview.com/$spindb.query.bottom.booknew  This is where you can get interviewed, post your book, or even get it reviewed.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/  Where you can post short stories, articles, or other kinds of content

http://www.oncewritten.com/

http://www.sffworld.com/  if you write SF, then take a look at this site

http://www.bibliophil.org/  a website you can have a customized library

http://www.ibookdb.net/  an internet database for books

http://ebookscafe.writergazette.com/addbook.php where you can list your e-books

http://www.published.com/  a free directory of writers and artists

http://thewriterslife.homestead.com/promotion.html  book promotion links

http://www.writing-world.com/  articles about writing, or post your work

http://wordpress.com/  a blogging network

http://www.blogger.com a blog site

http://www.writermag.com  a writing magazine

http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/pepb.htm  a website that tells you which sites are real or not real

http://www.bookcrossing.com/  If you ever want to see if people read a book you just leave around, then come here

http://www.goodreads.com/  a social network for book lovers

http://www.librarything.com/  your personal library online

http://www.facebook.com You can do an advertising campaign for your website or book

http://www.authortree.com/  build your own author website

http://bookmarket.ning.com/  social network on Ning.com

http://www.authorsden.com/  Author community

http://www.authorzone.com/index.php  another community for authors

http://www.shelfari.com/  List your library online

http://www.writerscafe.org/

http://www.squidoo.com/browse/homepage 

http://www.editred.com/  Writing community

http://www.myspace.com  this is obvious

http://www.redroom.com/  Author community

http://www.booktour.com/readers  If you feel like going on a tour for your book, this is a place to post it

Well, these are most of the sites I have on my favorites list. Hope these links are helpful to the beginning writer. Have fun surfing!

 Blogging Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory

What I’m writing next

I just thought I’d take the time to post what I’m writing about next, since I don’t blog as much as I should. I’m currently working on a re-write of my novella Out of Time. Since I published it last year, after working on it for what seemed like an eternity, so I had it published even though it wasn’t what it should have been. After about a year or so, I realize it needs more in depth characterization of more than one character, and a lot more details. Those that have read it have told me it’s a good story, but, I it could be so much more. So, watch for a re-release some day after I write the next two that I’m also working on.

The next novel I working on is a sequel to my science fiction novel Don’t Mess With Earth. I always intended Don’t Mess With Earth to have a sequel, because I intentionally made a misleading title because while you’re reading this current novel, you think Earth is going to win in the end. Once you get to the ending, I hope everyone wonders what happens next, so the next title is tentatively called Shattered Earth . *Spoilers ahead* So far, those survivors on Earth who the Ragnor didn’t find, decide to build a fleet of starships with Area 51 technology, armed to the teeth with every conceivable weapon available. They also get aided by another alien species who have tried to stay out of the conflict between the Terrans, Ragnor, and Earthlings, but the remaining Ragnor go on a rampage throughout the Milky Way. An epic battle will ensue, but, who remains standing will be currently undecided.

The third novel I’m writing isn’t science fiction at all. It’s about the United States being taken over by a dictator(I leave the political persuasion up to the reader), who dissolves the military, creates a Civilian Defense Force, has them assassinate the previous president, try to silence through the Fairness Doctrine and then try to kill the main opposition who happens to be a talk radio show host. The president decides that Christians, the 3+ day a week kind, are also the enemy(along with members of the opposition party), and he creates “Re-Education Centers.” States like Texas and Oklahoma secede, taking over the old military bases and the weapons on those bases, while the President tries to force those States back into the Union, causing a civil war in the process. The main character is part of the CDF, is really apathetic about politics and everything in general, that is until his family is rounded up and sent to re-education centers. Once he learns the truth, he makes it his mission to stop the President. Will it be too late?

Book trailer for my two novels

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Experience with self-publishing so far

I just thought I would take the time to post my experience with self-publishing so far. Since I published through Iuniverse.com, they post sales 2 months after the fact, so I just recently found out I only sold 7 of my novellas in February, making all of $2.34 in royalties. I guess I shouldn’t go wild and spend it all! ha ha. I have to wait until the end of May to know how many novellas I’ve sold off of Barnes and Noble.com or Amazon.com, or any other online store that is selling it. I’m learning the art of patience when it comes to waiting to find out my book sales.

I know I’ve sold my novellas on BN.com and Amazon because I used to watch, almost daily, the sales ranking on Amazon. The highest I got to was around 180,000 out of who knows how many million, but its dropped since I’m not advertising Amazon anymore, since I get more royalties off of Barnes and Noble, at least according to Iuniverse.

I have my novella at the library I work at and quite a number of people have put it on hold and have read it. None of them know me, other than the fact that I work there, so they were unbiased. So far, three of them have told me it was a really good story and told me things they liked about it. Two of my co-workers read it and thought it needed a little more work, which I will do eventually, but overall, they liked it too. I recently found out that a 12 year old cousin of mine in California really enjoyed it and thought it needed to be made into a movie. I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m glad it’s enjoyable for all ages.

As far as marketing goes, I’ve done it all online, which is far easier, but still requires a lot of money. Since I self-published, I had to get the coypright for my work copyrighted myself, because I would really like to get it into libraries with a Library of Congress number, but,  being the federal government, it’s taking them a really long time to approve it. So far, doing it myself, I’ve managed to get Wichita Falls Public Library and Midwestern States’ Moffett Library to carry my work, so I’m hoping with a LOC number, more libraries will buy my book through Ingram(the supplier to most libraries).

I’ve actually enjoyed this whole process so far, but, next time, I might try the whole sending in queries to big publishers or sci-fi magazines like Asmiov’s or Analog, but I don’t know if I’ll do that.