Every now and then I join other authors in a shared promotion. It’s great for readers because it’s a chance to discover new authors and new books. It’s great for writers, because with luck, we’ll find new readers. The crew at Sci-Fi Bridge is hosting this one. All you have to do to participate is signup for the Sci-Fi Bridge newsletter, which goes out two or three times a week with announcements of bargain science fiction ebooks.

You’ll receive five free ebooks just for participating.
Plus, 5 randomly chosen winners will receive 30+ sci-fi ebooks and one grand prize winner will receive the ebooks and a $100 Amazon gift card.

You’ll also have the option of signing up for the newsletters of any or all of the participating authors.

The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
by J.B. MacKinnon

This book was given to me by a reader who thought I might be interested. He was right! The topic is one of my core interests, and it’s even more timely as I begin the process of pondering my next novel.

The Once and Future World begins with a startling look at the former abundance of both plant and animal life on Earth — and how much things have changed since humans came on the scene.

Around the world, our ancestors tended to wipe out megafauna whenever they found their way to new lands. In the modern world, the process of extinction goes on. The past centuries of global exploration and exploitation have caused wildlife populations to plummet everywhere, with many species lost forever. However, this book is not only about loss. MacKinnon looks ahead, asking how and to what extent we might be able to admit nature back into our highly industrialized lives, and what benefits such an effort would bring, not only to us, but to the health and to the intrinsic wonder of our world.

A few years ago I read Charles C. Mann’s 1491, about the civilizations of north and south America prior to the arrival of Columbus. Its descriptions of human interactions with the environment profoundly changed the way I see the natural world and our place in it. The Once and Future World engages in similar ideas, accepting that humanity will shape nature, while insisting we do not need to continue destroying the diversity and abundance of life here on Earth.

If you go looking for The Once and Future World, be aware there are at least three different covers. The one I’ve used here is, honestly, the ugliest of the trio, but it’s from the American edition, so it’s the one most of you will see. (Readers in Canada get a charming fox instead.)

Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers came out last summer to rave reviews. I put off reading it because of its length — 775 pages! I’m not a fast reader, and that felt like way too much of a commitment. But I finally gathered my courage and read the opening chapters — and I was hooked. I was also surprised at how fast I got through it. This book is so well written, and the story and characters are so engrossing, it doesn’t feel long.

Wanderers is set in the present day, as random people begin to “sleepwalk” across America. No one knows why, though an intrepid team of scientists strives to figure it out. Meanwhile, this being America, other factions develop highly charged opinions based on nothing, and seek to exploit events to further their own immediate interests.

Except for the sleepwalking, that summary could probably describe a lot of thrillers, but this one is different. It’s brilliant! It’s a combination of horror, science fiction, and political fiction that adds up to a terrific novel. I’m amazed it didn’t appear on more award ballots.

Highly recommended.

The new ebook boxset edition of Stories of the Puzzle Lands is now available, for the introductory price of just $2.99.

Or, if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, you can read the ebook for free.

The boxset includes two gritty fantasy novels—The Dread Hammer and Hepen the Watcher—plus the short story, “A Moment Before It Struck,” originally published in Lightspeed Magazine.

These books are dark—and darkly humorous. I wrote them when I was returning to fiction after a long hiatus, and I had a lot of fun with them. They’re very different from anything else I’ve written. I do hope you’ll give them a try.

Here’s the blurb for the duology:

His name is Smoke, though some know him as the Demon Dismay. He’s a charming, well-armed young murderer who is not altogether human. Smoke’s purpose in life is to mete out the stern justice of a vindictive goddess, and he is pleased to do it—that is, until he finds other things to live for. A woman, a child, a quiet home deep in the forest. He is so far from anywhere he can no longer hear the haunting prayers of those who would ask him to deliver them vengeance. But the quiet life is not Smoke’s fate.

Stories of the Puzzle Lands is available only at Amazon.

Get it now! The introductory price ends June 10, 2020.

I’m pleased to announce that Edges (Inverted Frontier #1) is now an AUDIOBOOK!

Far better late than never, right?

Edges is read by Nicole Poole. The publisher is Tantor Media.

Find it at Audiobooks.com…

Or click here to find it at Audible.

Silver is scheduled to release on June 16.

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ve already seen the cover to the forthcoming edition of Stories of the Puzzle Lands — and if not? Well, here it is!

Artist is Agata Broncel of Bukovero.com

click to see it big

Stories of the Puzzle Lands is a boxset edition of one of my existing series. It includes the two novels The Dread Hammer and Hepen the Watcher, along with a prequel short story, “A Moment Before It Struck,” originally published in Lightspeed Magazine.

For at least the first three months, the new boxset will be available only at Amazon. If you’re a Kindle Unlimited reader, you’ll be able to pick it up through your subscription. If not, you can just buy the ebook.

The ebook is available now as a preorder at a 50%-off promotional price of just $2.99! The publication date is June 2.

Here’s the cover copy:

Two gritty dark fantasy novels and a bonus short story:
His name is Smoke, though some know him as the Demon Dismay. He’s a charming, well-armed young murderer who is not altogether human. Smoke’s purpose in life is to mete out the stern justice of a vindictive goddess, and he is pleased to do it—that is, until he finds other things to live for. A woman, a child, a quiet home deep in the forest. He is so far from anywhere he can no longer hear the haunting prayers of those who would ask him to deliver them vengeance. But the quiet life is not Smoke’s fate.

Right now, there’s only an ebook edition, but a print edition will follow, possibly in late summer.

Follow this link to find it at Amazon.

Oh! And please subscribe to my newsletter if you don’t already. Sign-up form is over there -> in the right column.

What The Wind Brings by Matthew Hughes

My last book recommendation was River of Darkness by Buddy Levy, a nonfiction account of Francisco Orellana’s voyage down the Amazon in 1541-42. What The Wind Brings offers another look at the fallout of Spanish conquest in South America, this time in the form of a novel.

Matthew Hughes has based his story on a historical event: the shipwreck of a Spanish galleon on the unsettled coast of Ecuador.

Aboard that ship are African slaves. They survive the shipwreck and escape to freedom — but can they stay alive? And can they stay free?

The story is far-ranging, touching on the expanse of the slave trade, the depredations of disease in the new world, life among the tribal peoples of lowland Ecuador, and the Spanish takeover in the highlands.

I often find books intellectually interesting for their ideas or manner of storytelling, but it’s easy for me to take my time reading them. I rarely find a novel so compelling that it’s hard for me to put it aside. This is so different from when I was young, and books could possess me — and I miss that! What The Wind Brings began, for me, as one of those interesting, admirable stories, but I am delighted to report that along the way it became so compelling that I shifted my daily schedule around to find more time to read.

Here’s the cover copy:

Out of the fires of Caribbean revolution, shipwrecked onto the shores and jungles of Ecuador, a slave, a captive, and a shaman fight Inquisition-era Spain for freedom. In times like these, when power spends blood like pennies, what chance do these disparate underdogs have to create an independent nation?

Highly recommended.

If you decide to take a look at What The Wind Brings, let me know what you think. The ebook edition is only $6.99 at Amazon.

Find it at Amazon ~~~ Also at Kobo ~~~ and Barnes & Noble

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service offered by Amazon, in which readers pay a set fee each month to read as many “Kindle Unlimited” ebooks as they want. Last fall I enrolled two of my fantasy novels in the program. The results haven’t been spectacular, but there has been an uptick in interest.

A few days ago, I enrolled another novel, Skye-Object 3270a. This one is a far-future adventure written for a middle-grade/young-adult audience. It’s set in the Deception Well story world, but is otherwise unrelated to that book.

Here’s an excerpt of a review by Marianne Dyson at the National Space Society’s website:

Author Linda Nagata puts her degree in zoology, work experience with computers, and life experience growing up in exotic Hawaii to imaginative use throughout the story, creating fascinating new creatures on the planet and in space that are a mix of biology and technology in unique environments. The teens, fearful that adults will not listen to them or act quickly enough to save Skye, behave in a very believable way—taking risks for reasons that will make sense to most any young adult today.

The story has plenty of cool world-building, new tech, adventure, alien creature encounters, and a touch of romance (limited to kissing) that are sure to appeal to young readers, both girls and boys. Adult space enthusiasts may also appreciate this unique view of what family life may be like in a future society where people have faced extinction and yet live hundreds of years.

Skye-Object 3270a is ideal for advanced readers on the younger end of the teen spectrum. Follow this link to find it on Amazon. I hope you’ll check it out! It’s also available in a print edition.

I haven’t been posting much here or on Twitter, in part because things at our home are much the same from day to day, so there’s not a lot to report.

After finishing the first draft of the current novel, I took a little over a week off. Before I went back to work on it, I set up a new daily schedule. I still get up around 5:30 or 6am, as I’ve done for many years. After giving the dog a couple of minutes outside, I get to work on the novel, and continue working on it — in several sessions with breaks between — until the early afternoon. This is where my schedule has changed.

Instead of going back to the novel, I try to shift to a publishing chore — contracting for a new book cover, setting up promotion for a sale, prepping my newsletter, writing a blog post(!), or reading an advance copy of someone’s new novel…

(Wait! Reading is not a chore.)

(Oh — and a belated THANK YOU to everyone who helped spread the word about the recent ebook sale. It’s truly appreciated.)

But back to the schedule…

In the late afternoon, I try to exercise or do yard work. Years ago my daughter bought me the soundtrack from the Broadway play Hamilton — which I never listened to…until now! It’s perfect for jogging on the treadmill† because I focus on understanding the lyrics instead of on how much farther I still have to run. It has also inspired me to start listening to the audiobook edition of Ron Chernow’s biography, Alexander Hamilton, which was supposedly an inspiration for the play.

Once a week, Ron and I will go to the post office to check the mail. Every two weeks, we go all the way into town for a supply run. Masks are now mandatory. Each time we’ve gone to town, I’ve been surprised at how many people are out and about, given the lockdown. The parking lots at Lowes and Home Depot are packed! I guess people have decided they might as well do home improvement projects while they’re at home. It’s also true that landscape and construction companies are considered “essential businesses” here and are still allowed to work.

Hawaii still has a comparatively low rate of COVID-19 infection. The governor essentially closed the border by mandating a 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving in the state, so the visitor industry is on hold. Unfortunately, here on Maui we had a large cluster of infections among hospital staff, which is very troubling.

Ron and I are incredibly lucky because we can stay home, and we’re comfortable here, with room to wander, the means to exercise, and a quiet neighborhood around us. I know almost everyone else out there is facing far greater challenges — and knowing that, it’s tempting to rage on politics — the incompetence, bullying, and malice of the current administration, their don’t-give-a-shit behavior, their determination to roll back environmental regulations, and to siphon off taxpayer money for their own benefit and that of their wealthy friends, and all the rest of it. But you hear about that all the time, don’t you? I know my Twitter feed has become a very dark place.

Here’s hoping we throw out the whole cohort of GOP bums in November.

In the meantime, I find myself a bit worried over all those dogs in America who are going to have separation anxiety when their beloved humans finally go back to work…

Please take care of yourself and take care of each other.

† I suspect this treadmill won’t last much longer, as the electronic dashboard has become intermittently non-responsive. Sigh.

River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon by Buddy Levy

I think I picked up this audiobook as part of a 2-for-1 credit sale at Audible. Audible has these sales every now and then, and even though I’ve accumulated a lot of credits and don’t really need the extra books, I find the sales irresistible. And they’ve led me to some fantastic listens I wouldn’t have discovered on my own — like this one.

River of Darkness is exactly what the subtitle says: it’s a detailed history of conquistador Francisco Orellana’s voyage from the headwaters of the Amazon river, to the sea, and from there to a Spanish colony. As I’ve mentioned before, I love adventure stories and tales of exploration. This one was made more poignant by having read Charles C. Mann’s 1491 and knowing that those civilizations described in the notes kept by Friar Gaspar de Carvajal would soon be gone. The pandemic we’re experiencing now, for all its ravages and the speed of its transmission, is nothing compared to the apocalypse that struck the new world in those days of early contact. But in the time of Orellana’s voyage, the civilizations of the Amazon were still strong and intact.

The story that Buddy Levy tells in River of Darkness goes well beyond a description of the river journey. It also follows the misadventures and eventual rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, the original captain of the mission, and it dips into both Spanish and colonial politics.

Though I found the opening chapter or two to be a bit slow, once the introductory material was past, the story was riveting.

By chance, just before I started listening to River of Darkness I read the opening chapters of a novel called What the Wind Brings, by Matthew Hughes. It’s set in the same era, in South America, and I look forward to returning to it as soon as time permits. I suspect it will make an interesting pairing with River of Darkness.