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Hey guys, I just wanted to put up a thread letting everyone know that I finally finished my book, and it's now been published on Amazon. You can even read the first few chapters on dakka by clicking here, and can buy a copy directly by clicking here.



Now you, too, can read a book written by a dakkanought. If you liked my battle reports, you should definitely give this a try, as it's sort of like those, but professionally edited.

Thanks to everyone on dakka who helped make this possible! I love you guys.

Ratius wrote:Thats pretty darn cool. Gratz on getting officially published.

Thanks!

Paradigm wrote:And I'll add in a recommendation, this really is a decent read, both for those who can 'fill in' the not-40k blanks and just as a sci-fi-political-action-thriller novel.

Yeah, it's sort of a 40k novel in the way that bitz sites will sell "chaos space knights" upgrade packs. I was trying to write it in a way where you didn't have to know anything about 40k in order to understand what was going on, but to include a few inside jokes if you did.

djphranq wrote:Added to my wishlist so I remember to buy it when my paycheck deposits next week. Grats bro!

Thanks, I hope you like it!

Also, thanks to whichever dakkanought from the Netherlands picked up a copy. Someone got one from amazon.nl and chipped in a few euros. I don't know anyone outside of dakka that lives in the Netherlands, so either it was a huge coincidence, or it was either thenoobbomb or Sgt. Oddball, I think. Thanks a bunch to whoever!

Apple fox wrote:And I have fish swimming around inside me :0

What?

I'd like to think that that's an idiom I've never heard of before. Given that you live in Australia, though, it might actually be true. Everything there is trying to kill you or worse, right?

MrMoustaffa wrote:Oh cool, didn't know you wrote a book, I'll have to check that out sometime

Yeah. The rough draft of the story was put up as I wrote the chapters, but it's a thread in dakka fiction. Even I don't go there that often. In retrospect, it probably wasn't going to generate THAT much publicity, but so it goes.

Though perhaps this whole thing will make my next one more likely to be followed? I guess we'll see.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

Sgt. Oddball wrote:'twas me. Also got you a review on amazon.nl, for whatever that's worth .

Thanks a lot!

I'm really glad that you liked it, and that you commented along the way. I'm sure you've already found a few things here and there that I've fixed based on your excellent advice. Did you like the first Claire chapter better? Or, well, the Claire chapters in general? I think she was the character that got the most reworking between rough and final drafts.

Sgt. Oddball wrote:I was wondering if you could still edit the file? It could kinda use a final edit as there are quite a few typos/errors/missing or extra words around, probably as a result of your editing work.

Absolutely. I paid to have it professionally edited once, but then went in and took his advice to fix everything (making it over 10% shorter in the process). Undoubtedly there are a few errors I created in the process, but was only able to afford for my editor to give the beginning and the end a second glance. I'll shoot you a PM about it.

Sgt. Oddball wrote:And to interested others: yes, this is worth getting. Read it.

Trust the Dutchman. He's reading it twice now, and he still likes it.

Sgt. Oddball wrote:Any plans for a next book yet?

Yes, and I just started putting pencil to paper a few days ago to start getting a rough idea for where I'm going. The next one is going to be more light-hearted than The Geomides Affair. It's also going to have a couple fewer characters, which means the overall book will likely be a bit shorter. I do plan on doubling down on some of the more interesting parts of this book, like adding in a lot more chiasmus.

The other main difference as well is that this time I'm starting with the characters, rather than the plot. I think this will make everything even more solid, but it's also going to be an interesting challenge to set up the plot after character instead of the other way around.

In any case, the target for The Geomides Affair was a cross between Dune and Game of Thrones. The target for this next one is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum crossed with a sci-fi to be determined. I haven't figured out if I want to go pure silly like Hitchhiker's Guide or satirical, like a non-preachy version of Starship Troopers. Who knows, it might even wind up 40k-esque again. It's certainly an easy setting for me to write to.

Anyways, I'll keep people updated. I might run this next one in dakka fiction as well!