Kobo is a multinational ebook vendor and for the next few days they’re offering indie-published ebooks at 50% off. Be aware that Kobo ebooks are in EPUB format only, so you’ll need a compatible e-reader or app. But all ebooks published in the USA, Canada, and Australia under my imprint, Mythic Island Press LLC, are included in the sale. And if you are in the United Kingdom or New Zealand, the first two books in The Red Trilogy should also be available at the discounted price.

Here’s a link to my ebooks. Because of the way the search works, the list also includes issues of Lightspeed Magazine with stories by me.

The discount is not automatic and it’s not open to all regions. Here are the specifics, direct from Kobo:

Customers will be able to redeem 50% off of any title published by KWL using the promo codes below an unlimited number of times […] the sale runs in different dates by territory, and each territory has it’s own promo code. See below for the full details.

Canada
October 28th – October 31st
Promo Code: CA50SALE

United States/Australia/New Zealand
October 27th – October 30th
Promo Code: GET50SALE

United Kingdom
October 30th – November 2nd
Promo Code: UK50SALE

Oh. Hey. TWO WEEKS UNTIL GOING DARK IS RELEASED. Be sure to sign up for my New Books/Newsletter in the right column, and I’ll send you an email when it’s available.

Edit: And a couple of hours after I posted this, UPS dropped off advance copies, one each of the mass-market paperback and the hardcover. Just like the first two books of the trilogy, Going Dark will be published simultaneously by Saga Press in mass-market paperback, hardcover, and ebook, with an audio book by Audible. All are due out on November 3.

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. I’m doing so under my own publishing imprint, Mythic Island Press LLC.

What does this mean for readers in the UK? It means you’ll get an ebook with the text formatted by me, and cover art that’s different from the American edition. Be assured though, that the stories are the same.

For now, I’m only doing ebook editions of the trilogy.

The ebook of The Red: First Light has already been available in the UK for around a month. It has the same cover as the original Mythic Island Press edition, but the text is revised from the original, making it the same as the Saga Press edition.

I’m very pleased to announce that The Trials is now available as well!

You can find both ebooks at Amazon UK.

The Red: First Light is also available through Kobo to residents of Great Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand. The Trials will also soon be available at Kobo, hopefully within a week.

Amazon links:
The Red: First Light
The Trials

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

Science Fiction World is the primary publisher of Chinese-language short science fiction. I’ve been told they are the largest-circulation SF magazine in the world. A few years ago they translated and published my novella “Goddesses,” but I never saw that edition.

Now they’ve translated and published my story “The Way Home.” It appeared in the June issue. I just received my copies, so I thought I’d share them here. Of course I can’t read the issue, but check out the cover art below.

“The Way Home” was originally published last March in the anthology Operation Arcana. It was republished at Lightspeed Magazine, where it’s available to read (in English) online.

One month until The Trials publishes!

The Trials is book 2 of The Red Trilogy and it’s due to publish on August 18. For those of you who read the self-published edition of The Red, it’s been a long wait. Thank you for sticking with me. I think you’ll find there’s a lot going on in book 2, and I hope it’s to your liking.

The Trials is available for preorder from most retailers, in simultaneous hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions, and there will also be an audiobook. So you can pick your favorite format.

I’ve seen no reviews yet. Fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Here’s the back-cover copy:

“No Way Out But Forward”

A new cycle of violence ignites when rumors of the elusive, rogue AI known as the Red go public and Shelley is, once again, pulled into the fray. Challenged by his enemies, driven by ideals, Shelley feels compelled to act. But are the harrowing choices he makes really his own, or are they made for him, by the Red? And with millions of lives at stake in a game of nuclear cat-and-mouse, does the answer even matter?

Order from your local bookstore, or find it online. Here are links to some US retailers:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Powell’s Books
Mysterious Galaxy
Tattered Cover

The Saga Press edition is finally here!

If you’ve visited my blog before, you probably know that The Red: First Light was originally published in 2013 through my own company, Mythic Island Press LLC. It was my first science fiction novel in ten years, and became the first self-published novel to be nominated for a Nebula award. Last year I received a nice offer from Joe Monti of Simon & Schuster’s Saga Press for rights to The Red: First Light, along with two sequels. Once that contract was signed, I withdrew my own edition from the market, and the novel has been unavailable since then.

But not anymore!

As of today, The Red is on the market again. This time it’s available in hardcover, mass market paperback, and ebook editions, all from Saga Press, and in audiobook format from Audible. The audiobook will be available both in the United States and the United Kingdom. A special note for the UK: the ebook edition will be out shortly, published by Mythic Island Press LLC.

So go get it! The Red is available online, and if things have gone well you should be able to find it in bookstores too. If you do see copies out in the world, I’d love it if you let me know — or post pictures! I’m curious to see what kind of distribution it gets.

Publishers Weekly has included The Red on their list “Best Summer Books 2015.” But if you’re still not sure — maybe you don’t think you’d like military fiction — go visit Amazon. They’ve got the first seventy pages available to read online. That’s enough to let you know if this book is for you. I hope it is. I hope you enjoy it.

And thank you! … for your support and your patience. Readers are awesome.

Find The Red online at these vendors:

Amazon USA

Barnes & Noble

Powell’s Books

Mysterious Galaxy

Tattered Cover

Books-A-Million

It was just past 6pm here in Hawaii, but on the East Coast of the United States, it was midnight…and I received this tweet from @radix42.

Hey @LindaNagata its midnight on the East Coast, so guess what just dropped onto my Kindle Reader? pic.twitter.com/cYgxR8GEeV

— David Mercer (@radix42) June 30, 2015

@LindaNagata I guess that counts as the first "picture of it in a bookstore"…the giant Amazon one!

— David Mercer (@radix42) June 30, 2015

Yes, it does!

The Red is finally back!

Going Dark. No that’s NOT my planned career path. It’s the title of the final novel in The Red Trilogy, with another amazing cover by Larry Rostant — and Going Dark is well on its way to publication.

My first drafts tend to be pretty solid, but my initial ideas for a new novel are not. I was reminded of this when I was reading an email I’d written last year, when Going Dark was just getting started. The direction I had in mind for the book at that time changed radically as I worked my way past the opening, and the story is a lot better for it.

Right now I’ve got editorial notes on Going Dark from Joe Monti, my editor at Saga Press, and for the past few days I’ve been working on final revisions. I’m happy to say, the requested changes and additions are fairly minor. But it’s always the case in this process that as I get close to the final-final updates, I’m amazed at the difference even small changes can make. The final polish of a novel is always exciting.

I haven’t yet posted a back cover description for Going Dark, because that needs work. But here’s the tagline:

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

Sound exciting? I hope so!

The Red Trilogy has been a big project. Though I’d written ten prior novels, this is my first real trilogy — not that I planned it that way. It just sort of happened — and now it’s nearly done. For me, anyway! I hope not for you. As the books are published, I hope you’ll come along for the ride. All three books are due out this year. Here are the dates:

The Red — June 30

The Trials — August 18

Going Dark — November 3

Yes, you can preorder!

If you read the books, if you like them, I hope you’ll let other people know. Buzz matters.

And if you’d like to get a look at the opening scene of the first novel, find it here on my website.

Okay, back to those revisions…

This is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime honor, so I’ll note it here: The Red is on Publishers Weekly list of “Best Summer Books 2015 (SF/ Fantasy/ Horror).”

Publishers Weekly is an industry magazine important to book buyers at stores and libraries, so fingers crossed that this will help sales when the Saga Press edition is released June 30.

The ARCs are here!

ARCs, or Advance Reader/Reviewer Copies, are early versions of an upcoming book that get sent out a few months ahead of publication to reviewers, and to other writers or well-known people who might offer a quote that will help publicize the book.

The ARCs for The Red went out a couple weeks ago, but my copies arrived late yesterday.

There will be a simultaneous hardcover edition, but the copy I have is an “oversized” paperback — the sort commonly seen for political thrillers. So with luck, this Red Thriller should fit right in.

The Saga Press edition of The Red releases in June. You can read more about it here.