My novel Limit of Vision is now available at Book View Café. Book View Café is a professional authors cooperative offering DRM free ebooks in multiple formats to readers around the world. You’ll find Limit of Vision available in both epub and mobi formats.

Here’s the book description:
“LOVs” are a tiny artificial lifeform containing bioengineered human neurons. Three young scientists illegally use implanted LOVs to enhance their cognitive abilities–but when the experiment goes wrong, the consequences are bizarre and unforeseeable. A space station module containing the last remnants of the LOVs crashes to Earth in the Mekong Delta, and the sole surviving scientist, Virgil Copeland, finds himself in a race to recover them–and avoid arrest. He meets Ela Suvanatat, an independent journalist infected by LOVs when she arrived first at the crash site. Together, they will ride the whirlwind of a runaway biotechnology leading to the next phase of human evolution.

Grab a sample and check it out!

Over at the Book View Café blog, Sherwood Smith has some interesting–and unsettling–thoughts on young adult and middle grade science fiction, starting with the question “Where is it?” The post provides a great summary of where we are, and the comments have some very interesting points to offer.

The main subject of the post though, is the release of Vonda McIntyre’s middle grade science fiction novel Barbary. Here’s how Sherwood describes it:

This book is solid science fiction, but it does not follow the old formula at all. At the center is 12-year-old orphan Barbary, who has been kicked around foster homes for a while. Now she’s got a ticket to a space station, to be adopted by her mother’s best friend—and this family has a daughter Barbary’s age, Heather.

But Barbary can’t get on the shuttle—she keeps getting kicked off by V.I.P’s for no reason that anyone will explain. Something weird is going on in space, but Barbary doesn’t care about that because she has a secret that she is terrified will be revealed—she has to get on that shuttle. So she tries to scam her way on board, and so the story begins.

If you’ve got a middle grade reader, check out Vonda’s Barbary at Book View Café.

Just out from Book View Café: the first digital edition of Judith Tarr’s classic historical fantasy, THE DAGGER AND THE CROSS: A Novel of the Crusades.

In this magical tale of love in a time of war, immortal Prince Aidan, whose tale was last told in ALAMUT, has finally won his beloved Assassin. But the world and the Church are determined to tear them apart. Bound by oaths and honor and sundered by their opposing faiths, they find themselves on opposite sides of a bitter war.

Available DRM-free in epub, mobi, and pdf formats.

Just $4.99 at Book View Café.

Read a free sample.

I’ve never tried writing flash fiction. Until very recently I didn’t even know what it was, but now that I do, I find the concept fascinating.

A full story concept needs a beginning, middle, and end, along with a story problem and character change. Every time I sit down to develop a story, I feel challenged to come up with all these elements, even at novel length. So I’m fascinated by the ability to accomplish all of this in an ultra short story.

This week, Book View Café releases a collection of flash fiction, Flashes of Illumination by our own Nancy Jane Moore. Here’s the background:

Nancy Jane Moore wrote her first flash fiction many years ago when every one in her writing group decided to enter a contest for one-page stories. None of them won, but she got hooked and has been writing short-shorts ever since. Her first project for Book View Café was posting a free flash fiction every week for a year. Some were reprints, others older stories that needed one more revision, but quite a few were written in the week they went up. This 52-story collection includes most of those stories and a few new ones as well.

Nancy Jane Moore’s other books include the collection Conscientious Inconsistencies and the novella Changeling. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including the two volumes of The Shadow Conspiracy. She is a founding member of Book View Café and lives in Austin.

The pro writers at SfNovelists.com have produced a FREE ebook sampler containing 25 first chapters from recent novels, covering the science fiction/fantasy spectrum.

Featuring:

7th Sigma by Steven Gould
Bone Shop by T.A. Pratt
Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley
Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee
The Cloud Road by Martha Wells
Dangerous Water by Juliet E. McKenna
The Dread Hammer by Trey Shiels
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
Fright Court by Mindy Klasky
The Heretic by Joseph Nassise
House of the Star by Caitlin Brennan
Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese
Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
Medium Dead by Chris Dolley
Midnight at Spanish Gardens by Alma Alexander
Play Dead by John Levitt
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C. Hines
Spellcast by Barbara Ashford
The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg
TruthSeeker by C.E. Murphy
Up Against It by M.J. Locke
With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan

The Adventure of the Field Theorems
A Sherlock Holmes Scientific Romance
by Vonda N. McIntyre

Science Fiction/Novella
$2.99
July 26, 2011
ISBN: 978 1 61138 086 6

In which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hires Mr Sherlock Holmes to investigate crop circles, and Dr Watson demonstrates to Holmes that astronomy does have a useful function in Holmes’ universe.

It sometimes feels like writing the back cover book description is harder than writing the book. Over the past months I’ve written at least three versions for my novel Deception Well–Book 2 of the Nanotech Succession. Today I wrote two more. I need to get it right this time, because I’m about to send in the files for the print version. If you’ve got a minute to read the following, I’d appreciate feedback. If you haven’t read the book, all the better. But even if you have, I’d still appreciate hearing your opinion.

UPDATE: NEWEST VERSION (07.25.2011)

In a war of belief, faith is a virus, and it’s spreading fast.

Remnants of an alien nanotechnology infest the surface of the planet, Deception Well, giving rise to deadly plagues that make the Well uninhabitable—or so most believe. Jupiter Apolinario saw it differently. He believed the planet was host to an ancient, alien mechanism of transformation meant to embrace all life forms in an ecstatic communion. Jupiter disappeared on the planet along with a handful of followers, though whether they were taken by death or transcendence, no one could say.

Ten years later, Jupiter’s son, Lot, stands at the center of conflict. Like his father, Lot has a seductive presence, and a charismatic nature that seems more-than-human. People are helplessly drawn to him. Their faith in him is strong and their numbers are growing, but Lot is beset with doubts about his father’s teachings. So he sets out to learn the truth about Jupiter, about his own powerful calling as a prophet, and about the real nature of Deception Well, where a razor-thin line divides bliss from damnation.

SHORT VERSION:

In a war of belief, faith is a virus, and it’s spreading fast.

Lot has a seductive presence and a charismatic nature that he inherited from his father, a prophet who preached that transformation and an ecstatic communion could be found among the alien plagues that infest the wilderness planet known as Deception Well.

Lot’s father disappeared on the planet ten years ago, but whether he was taken by death or by transcendence no one can say.

Conflict ignites around Lot as he sets out to learn the truth about his father’s fate, about his own disturbing calling as a charismatic prophet, and about the real nature of Deception Well, where a razor-thin line divides bliss from damnation.

LONGER VERSION:

In a war of belief, faith is a virus, and it’s spreading fast.

Deception Well is an isolated planet on the frontier of human settlement. A massive space elevator links ground to orbit, but the elevator cars were disabled long ago to prevent the spread of alien plagues that infest the wilderness of the planet’s surface. The only settlement is the sky city of Silk, perched on the elevator column.

Silk exists in a fragile balance that’s shattered by the arrival of Jupiter Apolinario, a charismatic prophet who preaches that the alien plagues of the Well do not lead to death, but instead to transformation and an ecstatic communion of human and alien life forms. When Jupiter defies the people of Silk and attempts to lead his fanatic followers to the planet’s surface, battle ensues. Thousands are killed, Jupiter disappears, and the people of Silk must learn to live with the despised survivors, who still dream of redemption in the Well.

Ten years later, as the city’s resources are stretched thin, tensions multiply, and eighteen-year-old Lot, Jupiter’s son, is drawn into a struggle over faith and the city’s future that he’s been desperate to avoid. Like his father, Lot has a seductive presence, and a charismatic nature. People are drawn to him. Their faith is strong and their numbers are growing, but Lot is plagued with doubt.

So he sets out to learn the truth about his father’s fate, about his own disturbing calling as a charismatic prophet, and about the real nature of Deception Well, where a razor-thin line divides bliss from damnation.

Starting today, my books are available at a new outlet, Book View Café.

Book View Café is a professional authors cooperative offering DRM free ebooks in multiple formats to readers around the world. You’ll find my books in both epub and mobi formats.

If you’ve got a Kindle, the mobi format will work for you. You can email the book to your Kindle, which is what I do, or hook the Kindle to your computer to transfer the file.

Epub format works for the Nook reader, and I believe for other devices too.

Note to readers outside the “Amazon countries”–BVC is the perfect outlet for you, because there is no price mark up. Ebooks are available at the same price no matter where you live.

Today only three of my books are available at BVC. They are The Bohr Maker, Memory, and The Dread Hammer.

Next to go up will be Deception Well and Vast, and the other books will follow.

TODAY ONLY: Check out the front page of Book View Café for a chance to win a free ebook of The Bohr Maker.

And check out the other authors at Book View Café too!

Just out from Book View Café: Chris Dolley’s An Unsafe Pair of Hands is a quirky murder mystery set in rural England charting the descent and rise of a detective on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Peter Shand is the ‘safe pair of hands’ – a high-flying police administrator seconded to a quiet rural CID team to gain the operational experience he needs for promotion. On his second day he’s thrust into a high-profile murder case. A woman’s body is discovered in an old stone circle – with another woman buried alive beneath her.

The pressure on Shand is enormous. The case is baffling. There appears to be no link between the two crimes. The media is clamouring for answers. And Shand’s convinced his wife is having an affair with someone called Gabriel. Which just happens to be the name of the two chief suspects. Both are womanisers, and both produce a mystery woman – who sounds suspiciously like Shand’s wife – as their alibi, The pressure builds. Shand can’t sleep, a local journalist is out to discredit him, his wife is about to be dragged into the case and then, goaded at a press conference about lack of progress, he invents a lead. And keeps on lying – to the press, his boss, his team – telling himself that he’ll solve the case before anyone finds out.

And then a second murder occurs. And had there been a third?

Shand begins to doubt his ability. He’s desperate, increasingly unpredictable, pursued by an amorous psychic, and unjustly gaining a reputation for arresting livestock.

What’s going to break first? The case, or Shand?

Find it at Book View Café.

Chris Dolley has been a computer consultant, a pioneer computer games designer, an amateur detective and once, as a teenager, freed a small country. Now he lives with his wife and a large collection of animals on a farm they renovated in the Normandy-Maine Regional Park.

My own Book View Café launch comes next week, but this week belongs to best-selling fantasy, science fiction, and thriller author Gregory Frost.

Look for his novel Lyrec, premiering this week exclusively at Book View Cafe. Lyrec is Greg’s bestselling first novel, back in print for the first time in 25 years. Epub and mobi samples are available for free download.

Book View Café is a professional authors cooperative offering DRM free ebooks in multiple formats to readers around the world, in a variety of genres including mystery, romance, fantasy, and science fiction. Check it out!