Needle is book 3 of the Inverted Frontier series. It’ll be out in less than a month.

But maybe you’re not familiar with the Inverted Frontier story world?

If that’s the case, please let me fill you in…

This is a story world in which radically advanced nano- and bio-technologies have long since become an accepted part of everyday life. Indeterminate lifespans are taken for granted. Innate repair mechanisms clean up damage due to cosmic radiation. Materials can be grown at need or dissolved back into raw substrate. People can exist as physical or virtual beings. And over time, starships can evolve. People can too, though most are culturally inclined to hold on tightly to their humanity.

But molecular technologies cannot collapse the vast distances between stars or open mythical gates or wormholes to shorten the journey, and they cannot speed the flow of information, which remains limited by the speed of light.

Over the past several millennia, human civilization spread from stellar system to stellar system — and then collapsed for reasons unknown to those few surviving settlements at the far reaches of the human frontier.

Inverted Frontier is the story of the recovery. It’s told through a ship’s company of explorers and scientists who leave the frontier, undertaking a voyage of re-discovery. These adventurers are the first in centuries to confront the hazards of an inverted frontier as they venture back along the path of human migration.

If that sounds like your kind of story, I hope you’ll give the series a try. Start with book 1, Edges. Read the opening chapters on my website, and decide if it’s for you.

Thank you!

This is just a quick note to let you know that preorders for Needle (Inverted Frontier #3) are at last available at Kobo. Click here for the US store.

Kobo-folk, thank you for your patience!

Needle publishes on July 12. For more information and links to other ebook vendors, please visit my website.

The print edition should be ready soon. I’ve submitted the files to the printer and looked over the resulting PDF proof. It all looks good, but I’m waiting to see a physical copy before I approve the book for preorder.

More soon…

I discovered just a few weeks ago that a lot of readers thought Inverted Frontier was a two-book series. No! Not at all! That said, the first two books did serve as a kind of market test. Together they make a complete story, and if the duo had sold poorly I could have stopped there. It’s not financially viable to undertake a longer series if only a handful of people are reading it (no matter how enthusiastic those readers are!).

But the first books did just well enough to convince me to try another. That’s book 3, Needle, and it’s available on preorder NOW. And then — maybe — two more volumes after that.

A five-book series? Yes, that’s what I’ve planned, and it’s what I’ve invested in. I already have finished cover art for books 4 and 5. I tell you that, so you know I’m serious. Two more books to go…

But that’s assuming the long tail works — that more readers try the series, and like it, and that Needle (book 3 – the new one) does well enough. We’ll see.

Needle is available for preorder now (ebook edition; print edition to come). Give me a reason to believe, LOL.

More on Needle here.

It’s been a long time coming, but Inverted Frontier #3 is real, it’s happening, and it now has a publication date of:

It’ll be available on that date in both print and ebook editions. (I’m hoping there will be an audiobook, but I don’t know yet.)

So without further ado, please allow me to introduce you to…

“Tanjiri is not for you. You are not ready to encounter what exists there.”

So Lezuri spoke in warning, long ago. Urban still possesses the strange gift—the impossible puzzle—Lezuri gave him that day. A needle, ultra-thin and twelve centimeters long, with a silvery surface that slices light into rainbow glints. All Lezuri’s knowledge lies locked within that needle. Urban has only to discover the trick of opening it, to gain that knowledge for himself—but the needle remains an enigma.

Now Dragon and its fleet of outriders has reached the periphery of Tanjiri system. The belt of ruins lies ahead: a chaos of remnant megastructures from a fallen civilization. Farther in, an Earthlike world orbits in the company of a miraculous living moon created less than 4,000 years ago. An entity—one greater even than Lezuri—must have made that moon. And yet the system is silent. No one, nothing, has answered Dragon’s hails.

Perhaps the entity is gone? But Urban doesn’t believe this. He is sure that when the fleet enters Tanjiri system, he will meet this maker of worlds—with the lives of everyone he loves at stake. Better, safer, to encounter this entity from a position of strength, armed with all the knowledge and power contained within the needle.

So he believes.

Are you a Kobo reader? If so, I want to let you know that the ebook will be available at Kobo, though I won’t be able to set up the preorder there until at least mid-June.

Do you prefer the print edition? Once I have the final, copyedited manuscript, I’ll be able to set up a preorder for the print edition. I’ll let you know as soon as that’s ready.

I know it’s been a long time since book 2 came out. I hope you’ll continue with the series — and thank you for your patience!

This news first appeared in my June 9th newsletter. If you haven’t yet signed up for my newsletter, you really, really should. It’s fun, it’s once every four weeks (with an occasional special issue), and it’s the best way to stay in touch. Sign up here.

Did you know that my novel Memory is a companion novel to the Inverted Frontier series?

Memory is not on the main sequence, but if you’ve read Silver, you’ve met Jubilee. Memory tells her story in the time before she encountered Urban.

In my April newsletter, I held a simple survey asking reader opinions on Memory‘s then-current cover art. Results were mixed, but I did receive a brilliant suggestion: Why not commission a new cover in the style of the Inverted Frontier series, making it clear that Memory is a tie-in novel?

Why not indeed! I immediately acted on the suggestion, and here is the result, courtesy of artist Sarah Anne Langton, who also designed the covers for all the Inverted Frontier books — whether published, underway, or still vaporware. 🙂

I like the expansiveness expressed in this cover, and the way the stone arch echoes the curve of the world as seen in the cover art of Silver. As well, the swirls and the lighting give it that “out there,” science fiction feel. I hope you like it too.

Visit my website to learn more about Memory.

If you haven’t done so yet, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER and you’ll get news of future sales (among other things) directly in your inbox.

Saga Press, the American publisher of my military thriller The Red, has put the ebook edition on sale for the month of June for just $1.99.

This sale comes with a couple of caveats:
• It’s available in limited territories, primarily the USA and Canada.
• It’s definitely on sale at Amazon, and it’s possibly on sale at other vendors. (This is out of my control, so I can’t say for sure.)

So, about The Red…

• Nominated for the Nebula Award
• Finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award
• Selected for the Locus Recommended Reading List
• Publishers Weekly starred review
• Publishers Weekly Best Books 2015

Despite all that, it never sold well. If you haven’t yet encountered The Red, I hope you’ll give it a try. Even if you don’t like military science fiction, this one might work for you. Here’s the description:

“There Needs To Be A War Going On Somewhere”

Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive—because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him—but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger…as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear. (Hazard Notice: contains military grade profanity.)

Amazon US (paid link) — Amazon CA

Update: June 14, 2021:
The sale is over! THANK YOU to everyone who helped spread the word about the sale, and of course, to everyone who picked up a copy! If you haven’t done so yet, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER and you’ll get news of future sales (among other things) directly in your inbox.

The Bohr Maker was my first novel. It sold for a small advance and was published as a mass-market paperback with no hardcover edition. This was before ebooks, but was essentially the equivalent of an ebook-only publication. On the plus side, it had a gorgeous Bruce Jensen cover—and it earned fantastic reviews.

Then, boom! It was out of print within roughly a year. Only when it went on to win the Locus Award for best first novel did it enjoy a brief second run at the market before fading away.

That was the maddening start to my maddening career. But many more readers have had the chance to enjoy The Bohr Maker since it found new life as an ebook, and I’d like to persuade even more to give it a try.

So if an award-winning novel of nanotechnology, adventure, and high-tech revolution sounds good to you, please check it out now, because the ebook is on sale this week for just 99¢/£0.99/€0.99, etc. Available at Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and BN.

Find more info and vendor links at my website.

Days of Storm, book 3 of The Wild Trilogy, is out today.

To read about the origin of The Wild Trilogy, follow this link.

Days of Storm picks up where book 2, The Long War, left off:

Bennek senses change flooding the world. Dread weighs on him, and he fears what is to come. But Jahallon sees hope.

Gifted with foresight, Jahallon is certain it won’t be much longer before Lanyon returns, bringing the talisman with her. Determined to distract and weaken Lanyon’s enemies before they have a chance to waylay her, he launches a great offensive against both the Inyomere Siddél and the sorcerer Édan.

With his growing skills, Bennek serves at Jahallon’s side, directing Habaddon’s army — but his skills are not enough to contend against Édan, while Siddél remains an even greater enemy. All the while, time is running short.

Days of Storm is the concluding volume of The Wild Trilogy. And though I love this series, it’s very likely to be the last epic fantasy I ever write.

The Wild Trilogy was such a long time in the making. I remember working on it when my father was still alive, and his impatience to see it done. Well, it’s finally done now and properly published. One more loose end tied up in the waning days of my career. I hope you enjoy it.

Find Days of Storm at Amazon

The Long War, book 2 of The Wild Trilogy, is out today.

To read about the origin of The Wild Trilogy, follow this link.

The Long War picks up where book 1, The Snow Chanter, left off:

The future of the people hangs in the balance as Lanyon continues her journey north. She must find the Storm Lair, home of the Inyomere Siddél, where she’ll have one more chance to slay the great spirit of storm. But her journey grows ever more perilous and strange, and even her devoted companions cannot keep her safe.

Bennek, meanwhile, has been taken south to Habaddon. Through Lanyon’s magic he has survived terrible injury, yet he still needs time to heal. But time is short — and Siddél is resolved to destroy Habaddon. As the great Inyomere sends ever more arowl south towards the city, Bennek finds himself swept up in a relentlessly brutal war.

The Wild Trilogy will conclude with book 3, Days of Storm, scheduled to release on April 9 and available now for preorder.

Find The Long War at Amazon

As a writer, I plead guilty to genre-hopping. I’ve written near-future, far-future, and military science fiction, as well as science fiction thrillers and grim-dark sword & sorcery. And with The Wild Trilogy, I can include epic fantasy too.

Book 1, The Snow Chanter is available now.

Book 2 releases on March 26, and Book 3 on April 9.

(links to Amazon are affiliate links)

So what’s The Wild Trilogy about?
Here’s the teaser:

Three young warriors risk death to find the fabled Snow Chanter—a nature spirit who might aid them in their quest to restore balance to the world. As they venture north into a wild and forbidden land, they chance to meet a strange young woman—a sorceress, with ambitions even greater than their own.

Click through to Amazon to read more about book 1.

So where did this trilogy come from?
Well, it’s been years in the making. Last December I wrote about The Wild Trilogy, its long history, and what the project means to me. Follow this link to read that post.

I suspect most of you who visit this blog are predominantly science fiction readers, but if you like epic fantasy too, I hope you’ll give The Wild Trilogy a try. It begins with book 1, The Snow Chanter.

The Long War will be out next week, and two weeks after that, the concluding volume, Days of Storm.

Three short novels that took me years to write! I hope you enjoy them.