I have no idea how long this will last [Edit: runs through December], but Amazon has put the Kindle editions of both The Red and The Trials on sale for $1.99 each. Tell your friends! Tell everyone! Don’t say I didn’t tell you. 😉

By the way, neither book has ever been discounted before.

Oh, and the math works out so that you can get the entire trilogy for $12.97 + tax.

Edit: The $1.99 price is also available at both iBooks and Barnes & Noble and Kobo! Sale applies to the Saga edition.

Edit 2: The United Kingdom edition is also on sale. It’s £1.99 at Amazon. Hopefully it’s priced the same at Kobo, though I can’t actually see the page from within the USA.

A new ebook anthology is just out, and it’s FREE. War Stories from the Future is published by the Atlantic Council. It’s part of their Art of Future War Project, whose mission statement reads:

The Atlantic Council’s Art of Future Warfare project is driven by the Scowcroft Center on International Security’s mandate to advance thinking and planning for the future of warfare. The project’s core mission is to cultivate a community of interest in works and ideas arising from the intersection of creativity and expectations about how emerging antagonists, disruptive technologies, and novel warfighting concepts may animate tomorrow’s conflicts.

My contribution to the anthology is a reprint of my short story “Codename: Delphi,” but the anthology includes original stories commissioned from Ken Liu, Madeline Ashby, Jamie Metzl, Mathew Burrows, and project director August Cole, co-author of the World War III thriller Ghost Fleet. And there’s a reprinted story from David Brin. New voices are also included in the anthology, in the form of contest-winning stories from Alec Meden, Nikolas Katsimpras, and Ashley Henley.

Find more information and download links here. Available in EPUB and MOBI (Kindle) formats.

Follow up:
November 12, 2015
This was a fun giveaway that brought a lot of visitors to the blog, though most of you decided not to comment! ::sigh:: But that’s all right. Since there were just six active participants, it was easy for me to give a code to all of them. The emails have already gone out to the address you used when you posted your comment. If you haven’t heard from me, check your spam folder. If you still can’t find the email, contact me at linda at mythicisland dot com (converted to regular email format of course) and I’ll re-send.

A big mahalo (thank you) to all participants, and to everyone who helped boost the signal!

Thank you to those who’ve served and who continue to serve our country this Veterans Day!

Because it’s Veterans Day, and because the audio-book edition of Going Dark has just been released TODAY, I thought I’d do an audio-book flash giveaway. Audible has provided me with download codes. So I’ll be giving away one code for each book in The Red Trilogy — and I want to have three different winners. So enter to win with a comment on this post, letting me know which book you’d like to win — either The Red, The Trials, or Going Dark — and if you’re willing to settle for your second or third choice.

My son-in-law, US Army veteran Edward White, will be selecting the winners. If you’ve got a veteran anecdote to share, he invites you to do so, but it’s not required to enter.

The Audible editions of books in The Red Trilogy are narrated by Kevin T. Collins, and they’re available worldwide where Audible books are sold. I haven’t been told there are any regional restrictions on the code, so do enter even if you’re outside of the United States. You do need to be registered at Audible/Amazon to redeem a code, but you do not need a paid membership plan.

Enter today! Winners will be announced tomorrow, November 12 (Hawaii time). Thanks for participating!

Full title: Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield

Ashley’s War, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, is a nonfiction account of the first wave of women in the US Army who volunteered to be part of the “cultural support teams” that accompanied Army Rangers and Green Berets on missions in Afghanistan.

These teams were developed beginning in 2011 because it was felt that women soldiers could interact more effectively with Afghan women, most of whom are forbidden from interacting with men who are not immediate relatives. The program proved successful. Women soldiers came to be seen as a “third gender,” one whose presence didn’t threaten the social status of Afghan men.

But Ashley’s War isn’t about Afghan culture or the politics of war. Instead it’s firmly focused on the stories of the American soldiers who volunteered for this program, and who survived the brief but rigorous training. These women came from diverse backgrounds. Some were regular army, some were National Guard. Some were on their own from a very young age, some came from strong families. Some were from families with traditional military backgrounds, and some were from civilian families. All were athletic and determined, and most joined the military because they wanted to be soldiers, and to experience combat.

As the story develops, it’s fascinating to see these women coming to terms with what it means to be a “strong woman character,” as we so frequently discuss in fiction:

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For those readers in the United Kingdom, the ebook edition of Going Dark is now available from Amazon UK. Find it here.

As I’ve mentioned before, when I sold The Red Trilogy to Saga Press, I was able to retain the right to publish the books separately in the United Kingdom, and I’m doing so under my own publishing imprint, Mythic Island Press LLC, though I’m only publishing the ebook edition, at least for now.

You’ll find the United Kingdom editions of The Red and The Trials at Kobo Books as well at Amazon. Right now Going Dark is only at Amazon UK, but it will eventually be available at Kobo too.

Amazon links:
The Red: First Light
The Trials

Kobo links:
The Red: First Light
(9781937197193)
The Trials
(9781937197186)

Two interviews are just out this week:

Over at SF Signal I answer questions posed by book reviewer and writer Anthony Vicino. Topics covered include the contrasts between indie and traditional publishing, military science fiction, and Going Dark. I think this is one of my better interviews. I hope you check it out!

And at the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog you’ll find the Don’t-Mess-With-Texas interview, titled “Mission Complete: Discussing The Red Trilogy with Linda Nagata”. Here Andrew Liptak asks questions about all three books in the series, and what I’m doing next.

The Functional Nerds is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with science fiction and fantasy authors, artists, and more. I had the privilege of being a guest of the show back in May 2014. Patrick Hester and John Anealio are looking to expand their offerings, lacking only the funding to make it happen. So if you’re into SFF podcasts, do consider a contribution to The Functional Nerds Patreon project.

It’s launch day plus one for Going Dark.

Yesterday afternoon, instead of annoying my Twitter stream with “Hey, my book is out!” messages, I decided to go hiking on Haleakala’s Skyline Trail. This is an amazing route that starts at the summit and descends along the southwest rift zone into the forest at Polipoli State Park.

The complication with this hike is that you need someone to drop you off at the top and pick you up at the bottom. Luckily, my son had his day off, so we drafted him for that purpose. It turned into a fun afternoon, as well as a successful distraction from the stress of book launch.

Below: I call this “the road on the edge of the world.” This old road, which runs past the observatories and communications facilities at Haleakala’s summit, is the beginning of Skyline Trail:

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ALL THREE BOOKS IN THE RED TRILOGY ARE NOW OUT

GOING DARK:

“No Real Allies, No Fixed Enemies, No Certain Battlefields”

Presumed dead by those closest to him and with no intention of setting the record straight, former army Lt. James Shelley is recruited by a black ops outfit devoted to two things: guarding the Earth from existential threats, and the Red.

Operating for almost two years among soldiers who are enhanced, and controlled, just as he is, Shelley believes he’s learned a proper caution in working with the mysterious artificial intelligence—until the Red’s increasingly erratic behavior ignites an accidental war, and launches Shelley on a collision course with his old life.

In the final book of The Red Trilogy, Shelley must choose who—or what—to trust, while struggling to contain an escalating conflict that threatens to plunge the world into chaos, and destroy those he loves.

Some online booksellers (USA):
☆ Amazon
☆ Barnes & Noble
☆ Powell’s Books
☆ Mysterious Galaxy
☆ Tattered Cover

Or get the audio book, narrated by Kevin T. Collins, and available worldwide from Audible:
☆ Audible

Information on the United Kingdom ebook edition is here.