DRAGON AWARDS!
Hey! THE MUTINEERāS DAUGHTER is nominated for this yearās Dragon Award for Best SF Novel, against a BUNCH of big-name, mainstream books. Actually, FIVE of my publisherās books are nominated. What can you do? Buy em, read em, & vote for em here:
http://application.dragoncon.org/dc_fan_awards_signup.php
And thereās NEVER been a better time to check them out as ALL 5 BOOKS ARE ONLY 99Ā¢ THIS WEEKEND:
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DRAGON AWARDS!
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A SWORD INTO DARKNESS = 99 cents!!!
A SWORD INTO DARKNESS = 99Ā cents!!!
If you havenāt yet read my debut novel A Sword Into Darkness and all the awesome hard science fiction, military sci-fi, space opera kickasseryĀ inside, ITāS ONLY A BUCK ON KINDLE THIS WEEK.
And, SECRET, itās totally, frickinā, no lie, gosh-darned FREE every day, all day if you have Kindle Unlimited!
If you have read it, nowās your best chance to gift it, or to move on to my next novel, Theā¦
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News, Progress, & SWEET, SWEET FREE SHIT!
News, Progress, & SWEET, SWEET FREEĀ SHIT!
Howdy, fans and random stoppers-by!Ā Welcome! Tom here, writer of all that stuff over there to the right (or below, if thou art a visitor from theĀ mobileverse), here with a progress report.Ā Iām very glad you stopped by ā make it a regular thing! The Mutineerās Daughter is doing well, with solid, consistent sales and page reads.Ā I donāt have the numbers and tracking I did withĀ A Sword Intoā¦
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Woo-Hoo!Ā First of all, THANK YOU to all of you that hopped to and helped Chris Kennedy and I have such a GREAT book launch weekend, no Foolinā (get it?Ā Because it was April Foolās Day aaaaaandĀ Easter .Ā .Ā . .Ā Iāll shut up now).
Eggcellent .Ā .Ā . .
I wonāt bore you with the whole play-by-play but, briefly, when The Mutineerās DaughterĀ launched on Amazon on Friday, it had an insurmountable, back-of-the-pack sales rank in the 600,000ās ā which basically meant around 600,000 books were ACTIVELY selling better than it.Ā Pitiful, but it was pre-official launch.Ā After the early readers, early reviewers, my Facebook and Twitter friends, Chrisās minions from his mailing list, etc. got done pushing it, it rose to the lofty sales rank of 11,600.
Now, that may not sound really impressive to you .Ā .Ā . but it kinda is.Ā For a self/indie/small-press publication, opening weekend, with just word of mouth and a bit of intra-Amazon advertising, THATāS AMAZING.Ā Yes.Ā 11,000 books were selling better.Ā But thatās 11,000 out of ALL the books Amazon sells.Ā Which is a lot?Ā Iāll have to ask Chris what the actual sales were, but Iām pleased.
Along with garnering 19 4-and-5-star reviews, getting an aggregate of 4.7 ā 4.8 stars, and reaching the lofty rank of 11,600 before falling into a more reasonable 16,000 range, I thought it couldnāt get any better.
Then I googled myself.
(donāt look at me that way .Ā .Ā . itās not a sin .Ā .Ā . .)
And thatās when I saw that the great Nyrath (Winchell Chung of Atomic Rockets ā the best dang science resource for space sci-fi authors and game designers on the internet) had not just given TMD a glowing review, he had also awarded our book the prestigious Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval!Ā Aaaaand the Radiator Award!
Ā The first goes to books or games that are suitably āhardā with their science and space physics.Ā Things have inertia.Ā Acceleration takes time and velocity builds, which then has to be decelerated against.Ā Nothing is 100% efficient.Ā Energy and reaction mass has to come from somewhere and theyĀ impose limitations which then have to be accounted for.Ā Thereās (for the most part) no stealth in space.Ā Thereās no sound and distances are VAST.Ā You canāt zip around or bank your space fighters.Ā You,Ā in fact, realize space fighters donāt really work that well, even if it means yourĀ inner X-Wing or Viper pilot dies a little inside.
That doesnāt mean you canāt cheat a little for the sake of telling an exciting story.Ā If you didnāt cheat a bit, every realistic space story would be slow and methodical and locked in our solar system using drones and probes.Ā You can have great stories like that, but too much reality can limit the imagination.Ā However, you donāt have to go full space fantasy like Doctor Who or Star Wars either ā not that those arenāt fun in their own way.Ā Too often, though, they require the use of oo much secret handwavium or macguffiniteĀ to resolve the story in favor of the protagonists.Ā Thatās like writing (and reading) on easy mode.Ā Deus ex machinas everywhere.Ā The Doctorās sonic screwdriver and Star Trekās transporter basically do WHATEVER the stories require, and after a while that just gets lame.
Writing/reading āhardā science fiction is a joyful challenge, sort of like solving a puzzle, or really getting into a game of chess.Ā Everyone knows how the pieces work.Ā The enemy can see your every move, and you can see every one of theirs,Ā and you still have to pull out a victory or achieve tactical surprise!Ā Ā There are no 11th-hour saves from out of nowhere.Ā Instead, whatever cheats you MUST use in order to keep your adventure moving briskly at the speed of plot have to have limitations.Ā They need to have well-defined rules and costs that prevent them from being some sort of deus ex machina, and ā once established ā YOU CANāT BREAK THEM, even if they involve physics that donāt exist (yet) in our reality.Ā Thatās how you can have faster-than-light travel (even if it breaks causality in our physics) or super-duper-efficient fusion drives, like in the suitably-hardĀ The Expanse series and novels.
So, yeah.Ā Ā The Mutineerās DaughterĀ does that, asĀ A Sword Into Darkness did before it.
The second award is ā in its words āĀ For Excellence In Realizing Heat Needs To Go Places āN Shit . . . .
The ships in TMD have fragile, easily crippled radiators to expend all that pesky waste heat into the vacuum of space.Ā They are both a hassle and a constraint to be exploited.Ā Remember, on a fusion-powered ship, the worry isnāt that youāll freeze in the cold vacuum of space if your systems fail.Ā The worry is that youāll be roasted for years as your whole hull reaches thermal equilibrium with the reactor and you SLOWLY cool off via inefficient infrared emission.
Not enough people appreciate convection through the atmosphere.
So, THANK YOU, Atomic Rockets!
And as if THAT wasnāt enough, Chris Kennedy sent out a shout this morning that the fun of the weekend WAS NOT OVER.Ā Because this morning, Amazon ranked TMD as the #1 New Release in Childrenās Science Fiction Ebooks regarding Aliens, which jumped our numbers up all over again.Ā From 16,000 back to 11,000, then 10,000, 9000, 8000, 7000 . . . finally peaking at a sales rank of 6920!Ā Again, big number, but MUCH SMALLER than many.Ā That made us rank not only on the New Release list but also on the regular list.Ā At this point we are at #2 of all Childrenās Sci-Fi Ebooks ā Aliens, ABOVE in the listĀ A Wrinkle In TimeĀ at #4.Ā Thatās not to say weāre better than Madeline LāEngleās classic, just that itās nice to be in such company ā especially as that book has a movie out now.
Now, would I think of TMD as a Childrenās Ebook?Ā Heck no!Ā Itās young-adult at most and is written to appeal to teens and adults alike.Ā Sailors are in there.Ā Sailors curse.Ā Iām just waiting for the first angry parent to dress me down because the antagonist in chapter One says āFuckā.
But until then, Iām enjoying these lofty ranks, these 23 stellar 4 & 5-star reviews, and looking forward to where this might go.Ā Thank you all!
Achievements Unlocked for THE MUTINEERāS DAUGHTER! Woo-Hoo!Ā First of all, THANK YOU to all of you that hopped to and helped Chris Kennedy and I have such a GREATā¦
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Book Launch Alert - THE MUTINEER'S DAUGHTER
Book Launch Alert - THE MUTINEER'S DAUGHTER Check out Thomas A. Mays' and Chris Kennedy's latest mil-SF, hard-science, young-adult blockbuster novel!
What would it take for you to discard everything you believed in and give up your sacred honor?
What would it take to make you rise up and fight when all the odds are against you?
Think about those questions.Ā Really, THINK.Ā I have.Ā Iāve given it a lot of consideration.Ā Many meat-space processor cycles have been devoted to that, and the literal truth is that I have no idea.Ā Iād like to thinkā¦
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We Who Are About To Die Salute You (middle fingers only)
Itās a bittersweet thing, putting the finishing touches on a novel.
Sweet, in that youāve achieved a significant, hard-won victory over your own procrastinations, distractions, and the inertia of life. Sweet, in that you can look back and remember fondly crafting the intricate puzzles of your plot, the subtle painting of your scenes, and the gentle creation of your characters, watching over themā¦
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Un-Amateur, Un-Professional
Hi there.
Itās been a while.Ā For those of you who donāt know me (or have ā quite reasonably ā forgotten about me), Iām Thomas A. Mays, intermittent sci-fi author.Ā Welcome!Ā For those thatĀ doĀ know me, hello again, sorry for the significant delay.
When last I wrote, back during the innocent days of November 2016,Ā I would have called myself a semi-pro author (self-published category).Ā I hadā¦
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Election Insanity
Soā¦. Yeah.Ā
That happened.Ā
Iām fairly a-political/moderate. My vote swayed nothing and the result surprised me, but it is the world we find ourselves in and Iām going to pretty much kick back and go into observer mode. Letās see how all this plays out, hold fast to our principles, and STOP BURNING THINGS, ASSAULTING YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS, SPRAY PAINTING YOUR REACTIONARY AND/OR RACIST RHETORIC ONā¦
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Regarding My 2016 Hugo Award Nomination
Regarding My 2016 Hugo AwardĀ Nomination
Today, MidAmeriCon II announced the nominees for the 2016 Hugo Awards, chosen by the attendees and supporters of the 74th WorldCon for the best works in science fiction, fantasy, and fandom produced in 2015.Ā My military fantasy adventure story, āThe Commuterā was one of the five nominees in the short story category.
I must regretfully decline the nomination.
Iāve known for some time that āTheā¦
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In Honor of St. Valentine's Day
In Honor of St. Valentineās Day
Hello,Ā Ladies . . . .
Are you ready toĀ settle*?
Do you haveĀ lowĀ expectations in the world ofĀ love?
Then Iād like to introduce you toĀ Tom!
Heās like the best possible mix of Peter Griffin, Captain America, and Neil Degrasse Tyson. Ā Heās slightly rounded, somewhat crude and obtuse, almost as funny as he thinks he is, a know-it-all who doesnāt mind letting you know it, and honorable and dependableā¦
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The X-MAS Truce
Merry Christmas, everybody. Ā Please enjoy the holidays and this little, award-winning tale of war, robots, the Christmas spirit, and French Canadian meat pies . . . .
THE 1011000-100110110000011010011 TRUCE
by: Thomas A. Mays
āMerry freakinā Christmas, boys.Ā It donāt get no better than this.āĀ Staff Sergeant Malcolm Riddell glared at the snowy, broken battlefield before him and took anotherā¦
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X-Mas (and a new Improbable Author post) Comes But Once A Year
X-Mas (and a new Improbable Author post) Comes But Once AĀ Year
Merry Christmas, all!Ā As well as Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, and an excellent Ramadan, Boxing Day, Yule, Saturnalia, Festivus, Officially Sanctioned Non-Religious Winter-esque Holiday, or whatever else brings you indoors this season and causes you to get nostalgic with family and friends, drink, eat, and exchange gifts and good will.
I donāt wanna judge.Ā Me, Iām celebrating Christmas withā¦
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Introducing Sad Puppies Four: The Bitches are Back
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Hugo Article & Catching Up
Sorry I havenāt posted in a while. Many things going on in my life outside of writing and sci-fi. Perhaps Iāll talk about them at some point, but not for the moment. I will note that I am writing, working on both a film script, about halfway done with Lancers Into The Light, and submitting a pair of short stories around.
Also, the Hugo Awards happened. Iām unsurprised but somewhat disappointedā¦
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BLUF Review: The Last Ship, Season 2 Episode 5, "Achilles"
Bottom Line Up Front:Ā Hmmmm. If The Last Ship is naval porn, this one is the navy fiction equivalent of two over-excited, but ignorant teens fumbling around in the back of somebodyās El Camino, trying something they saw online once.Ā An exciting and engaging ep for those NOT in the know, filled with tension and the ātruthinessā of anti-submarine warfare (ASW). For those with experience . . .ā¦
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BLUF Review: The Last Ship, Season 2 Episode 4, "Solace"
Bottom Line Up Front:Ā KICKASS!Ā Miffed about the lack of action and new plot development last week?Ā Well, this one has it all, and all of it is done well.Ā Weāre back to action-packed naval porn, and in a much more satisfying manner than in the season premiere two-parter.Ā This one stays on the re-watch list and would be a great entry point for new watchers this season.
Ā Summary:Ā Again, Iāmā¦
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