The time for audiobooks is here...

As the title gives away, I discovered ACX this week! I've been wanting to convert my titles to audiobooks for ages, but the cost has always been prohibitive. If you're a writer wishing to do the same, you should check them out if you haven't already - narrators audition FOR YOU! If you're a reader, than my books will all be added to Audible throughout the year. I anticipate Neon Sands being ready in March. So watch this space!

Some oddity this week - Neon Zero, the FREE Neon prequel - shot up in the charts. I'm not sure who shared it or where it was posted, but if it was you - THANK YOU! Or if you downloaded a copy - I HOPE YOU ENJOY! Don't forget to leave a review!

I've also begun The Risen Part 2 and have a very tasty Prologue, which I may well share next week. It has already gone in an unexpected direction, with a narrator protagonist who will be very challenging to write, but not boring! It'll be a big change from writing in the Neon world, set in middle England and Wales, blood waterfalling down the hills.


NYC Midnight Short Story Competition

I've entered this year's NYC Midnight Short Story Competition, so wish me luck! There are 4 rounds of writing (if you get through) and the first round is open now. I have about 6 days left to write a 2,500 word short story, and I've been given Fantasy, an Obsession, and a Mason as my keywords. I'm currently at a loss, but I'm sure something will come to mind. Once submitted I'll share it here. If I get through then I'll be given a new assignment and a smaller word count (and shorted timeframe). All good fun and practice!

The Outsider

I haven't read Stephen King's book yet, it took forever to finish A Clash of Swords 1, and my reading time is being eaten by other things at the moment, so I thought I'd give The Outsider TV show a go. While I did enjoy the first 2 episodes (great directing and acting) it does take its time. It's not told with the experienced viewer in mind, so there's a lot of slow reveals that we could have figured out already in the first ten minutes, in the Body Snatchers vein. That 2 hours have already gone and we're still doing these 'surprise' reveals slows the pace, but I expect the mystery to return going forward. It can't be as straightforward as it so far seems...

Bookfunnel & Story Origin

As promised last week, I've rejoined these two sites and will have a raft of promos going forward. Check out the first one with a variety of genre choices!

Recommended!

Everything is on the table when survival's at stake.

Captain James Henry is caught between a rock and a hard place – again. Merchant ships operating in neutral space near the Terran Coalition and the League of Sol are disappearing without a trace. The latest report has something the others didn’t.

A survivor.

In a far corner of the galaxy, the seven systems of the Fire Quarter face a terrible threat from a dangerous warlord.

On the fire planet of Abalon 3, evil Raylan Climlee threatens to unleash a wave of destruction in order to take control of the planet's valuable source of trioxyglobin, a dangerous but valuable liquid used for starship fuel. The only person who can stop him is Lianetta Jansen, a disgraced former Galactic Military Policewoman now turned smuggler, who is haunted by a terrible tragedy in her past. Along with her ragtag, wisecracking crew—the one-armed pilot Caladan, and the malfunctioning droid, Harlan5—Lia must confront her own demons, while trying to stop another.

Fire Fight is the beginning of the Fire Planets Saga, an epic new space opera series.

It's 2350. Cold Fusion, AI nanotech cops, and the SkyLine between a dying Earth and a developing Mars are parts of life. 

Major General Christopher Droan has survived a crisis. It left him with trauma and a deeper understanding of his dad’s distrust for technology.

Now all he wants is to focus on the love of his life, Sheeba.

It’s a turbulent time to be a Major General, even one resigned to desk work. But the calm can only last so long. When tragedy strikes Precinct 117 in Shanghai, Chris and his unit are forced to gear up again.

What waits for them in the heart of a robot with a beta personality matrix will change the planets on both ends of the SkyLine, mankind, and Major General Christopher Droan, forever.

No-one comes in peace. Every being in the galaxy wants something, and is willing to take it by force.

The Hedalt were no different. They came from the distant reaches of the galaxy to wage war. Their fleet wanted to take Earth for its prize, but we were ready. We were stronger.

For years, we fought them, ship-to-ship, until we scattered their forces and drove them back. Pursuing the Hedalt fleet to their home world, we delivered the decisive blow. We nuked their planet and wiped them out for good.

Or so we thought.

For decades, Earth Fleet sent out Deep Space Recon missions to scour the galaxy and clean up the remnants of the Hedalt Empire. Eventually, we found only ghosts – empty outposts and long-dead colonies. But, close to the edge of known space, I – Captain Taylor Ray – and my crew are about to make a discovery that will change everything.

The war isn’t over. The war has yet to begin.

New year, new releases

Happy new year to all! If you celebrated the whole xmas period I hope it was merry and full of whatever things you like doing. New books, new word experiences and plenty of mouth pleasure, (that's all food is at xmas, right?!) Mine was family filled and new years eve was Srabble-icious, with some back to back comedies. Knocking out QUEUED for 105 points in the Scrabble game was probably my highlight, ha! (Lots of double letters and double words involved.)

January has started positively on the book front, with a few additions to the roster. Neon City Book 3, Purge of Deceit, is now out and available to purchase, or read in Kindle Unlimited.

With this one, I really wanted the characters of Elissa, Annora, Deke and Calix to be the driving force of the story, delving deep into their motivations while asking questions of the city. I also wanted to try and break down a lot of the narrative limitations that the city itself posed upon ME, the writer, so that I could go into the final trilogy (Neon Driver, see previous entries) with a little more freedom. I hope you enjoy it, readers. I had a lot of fun writing it.

If you're new to my writing, or at least new to the Neon City trilogy aspect of the Neon series, then the boxset is also now available, enabling you to purchase all 3 books at a reduced rate. 

Paperbacks (and signed)

I've also caught up with the paperback situation. All 6 books in the series are now available as paperbacks (if anyone wants the Neon Zero prequel book in paperback, let me know.) Neon Sands is now selling in my local store, so I have plenty of copies of this, should anyone like a signed copy. If you contact me via email or through social media, I would be happy to send you a signed copy for £10 (plus P&P if you're outside the UK).

The Risen Part II

I'm not sure if that should be part 2 or part II. I prefer part II, but what does that do to the algorithms, if anything? Something for me to research! Anyway, as a bit of a break from Neon, my next book is going to return to The Risen world. Looking back at the story and the reader comments, there's potential there for me to tap into, and I've wanted to do a first-person narrative for a while; and the way part 1 ends offers me a perfect opportunity to explore this. The world is your typical post-apocalyptic one, set in the UK, with a monster variety. However, there is a twist - you'll need to read the first one to find out.

The sequel is out on preorder now for a special price.

New year

This year will be different. There will be a revamp, both in the focus of my writing, but also in my online presence. My Instagram and website will no longer be Stranger Writings, but Adam J Smith Author - Sci-fi, Dystopian, and Horror. This will also be exemplified on my Twitter and Facebook pages. Find me, and you will know what I write. For many writers, writing the book is the easy part, it's maintaining an online profile and building up support where the struggle begins. I think it requires a discipline and certain extravagance that many, like me, don't have. We wish we could just churn out something and put it out there and by magic, people will find it. We have to advertise it, and us too, and I often forget that.

So this blog will play a role; a weekly update whenever possible. Connecting with other authors, and sharing more about myself , while also updating on book offers. I have a 2k mailing list, but that needs to grow, so I'll rejoin bookfunnel and storyorigin, and rebrand the newsletter. And I'll grow the Facebook page, sharing more posts both related to my work, but also to hashtags like #cyberpunk #scifi and #coolshit. Or something. It'll get something done to it.

About me

My stories percolate in the shadow of the Malvern Hills in Central England; just a few long strides from a glorious view, though one not so grand or as high as the sand mountain, no doubt. Rain dapples this quaint English town (of course it does) but on clear days you can see for miles as the land ebbs and flows, green and pale fields sliced apart by hedgerow and road. The occasional farmhouse unchanged for decades. Perhaps a boxy Grand Design or two.

This is nothing like Neon, and neither is the town plagued by an overzealous hierarchy. (At least to my knowledge, though fools and kings are so often interchangeable.) So Neon is my escape; while I dream of places like Tokyo and Google the dunes of the Sahara, hoping one day to visit. Who lives here? And what do they do? Why do they do it? These questions I try to answer, pointing the character towards a goal and letting them make their own decisions on the way. I’m often surprised by the result – I hope you are too.

Stay connected

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There’s never very long to wait until the next title – be sure to follow me wherever you roam

Election fallout thoughts...

Writing duties took a backseat to campaigning for Labour in this election, so to see the result go the way it has is an unbelievable disappointment. I've read and listened to a lot of reaction since Thursday night, but though I may now be more informed, my initial reaction as the first result was announced still rings true. The addition of the people's vote is what killed any chance of winning, and was political suicide. People will and have said it was Corbyn, but 2017's results disprove that, winning a higher number of votes than even Blair. Sure, a perception of unpatriotism played its role, but I doubt it would have been much different to the affect it had in 2017.

In this election, the PV addition was a massive own goal. That result came in and it was plain to see: the Brexit Party stole a few votes from Labour, and the 'Get Brexit Done' mantra stole a few for the Tories. The lesson wasn't learned from 2017, when Labour committed to respecting the referendum, or from the MEP elections this year when the Brexit Party romped it. Like it or not, this country voted to Leave in such great numbers, that it was always going to cut through any other issues. It's frustrating that Labour had a leader who could easily have championed Lexit, but was not allowed to. If that was weakness or short-sightedness on Corbyn's part, I'm not sure, but it is evident that PV was pushed upon the policy makers, despite the evidence that it was not going to work. How Thornberry could say on TV after the MEP results came in that the evidence is clear that Labour needed to be unequivocally remain completely defeats me - it was just a complete refusal to accept the facts staring her in the face.

And if the PV champions had any braincells they would have realised that, in this election, if it was so important, they should have turned it categorically into a PV vs Brexit election and created an alliance party made up of Lab, LibDem and Green. But they couldn't even do that in Parliament between themselves when they had the balance of power. There was a point, if everyone disgruntled with Boris, had dropped their party allegiances and called a VONC, they could probably have achieved their PV. Maybe. But that's moot anyway, because PV was the whole problem anyway, and appeasing anyone on this would still have resulted in what we have today.

Years of anti-scrounger and anti-migrant rhetoric from the right-wing press have stoked up division so much that the battle was already lost. No amount of careful or considerate debate could have won them back - largely because they wouldn't be watching! Or reading! Or listening! So entrenched is it now. This is not to denigrate Leave voters, it is just fact. They're on the streets believing that austerity was a symptom of immigration and the negative aspects of benefit culture, ignoring the facts of Tory cuts. Just days after, and there are reports and videos of emboldened racists attacking minorities, similar to just after the Brexit result. It is of course incorrect to paint every leave voter with this brush, but in much the same way that right-wingers and centrists have painted Labour party members as anti-semitic, the answer is to clean your house. Labour did and do. I see very few Tories denouncing Tommy Robinson's membership, or these attacks, though perhaps it is early yet. After the video of Boris not denouncing the member of public spouting xenophobic garbage at him, though, I'm not too hopeful. After all, they are quite happy to quietly reinstate someone who was previously sanctioned, if it suits their needs.

Maybe there's something to be said for the pride of not attracting these fringe racists and bigots, but with renationalisaton on the ticket, Labour were unlikely to draw over many of the Tory waverers. So again, PV was the over-arching pivot. No PV, no need for Farage to stand any MPs, as he expressly said the only reason he did so was to stop PV. Only he will know if he'd have formed a deal with Boris to stand some MPs anyway, which would then have made things difficult for the same reason as now, but I believe Labour would still have held those who normally could never bring themselves to vote Tory.

There'll also be a portion of the population well and truly fed up with the Brexit policies, wanting to get it done as soon as possible, and seeing Boris as the path forward for that.

In the end, I feel heartbroken for Jeremy and everyone who worked so hard during this election to elect a Labour government. And to think, this was just a few short weeks of hard work, and Jeremy has spent his life championing the kinds of policies and thought put forward in the manifesto. Those still piling on with the personal attacks should show some class; you may not agree with him, but he has always been the voice for those who needed it most. (Whatever country that has been - blind nationalism is as foolish as blind faith when you set your stable upon those foundations.)

Latest news!

So it's been a while since the last update! Lots happening though; on the written word front Tides of Hysteria was released, and Purge of Deceit was put onto pre-order. The story arc through these two titles takes a slightly different approach to the previous books, with a more direct follow-on, meaning I had to choose the best place to cut Tides of Hysteria. The initial release had the cut in a place that I later decided would be better placed further on, so an updated version was uploaded. If you downloaded the preorder and have finished/haven't yet finished it, you may want to update the file if you haven't already, or in some cases delete the file and re-download, depending on what Amazon and Kindle will allow! There'll be a few thousand words extra at the end!

It's time for a generation to take its final stand.

The city is divided; which side do you stand on? The authority’s? Or the lowcases? Across Neon, the elite and the protesters are rising to battle for their future; for their children and the generations to come. To keep down the boot, or to rise from the darkness. Just what is freedom anyway when the walls of your oppression are everywhere you look?

Coming soon!

Also on the written word front, you may want to check out Ten Billion to Ten's Facebook page for notice of a free download next week. "War of the Worlds meets 2001: A Space Odyssey". I've written the words to a sci-fi story about the end of civilization, about space, and exploration; and this has been composed into an awesome electronic musical score by colleague and friend doctea, and narrated excellently by DJ Ed Steelefox. Should you reside in the Midlands there is a live performance on Monday 28 October - Ten Billion to Ten: A Live Reading. Otherwise it will available to download next week!

Review: Purge of Deceit: The Neon City Trilogy

Purge of Deceit: The Neon City Trilogy by Adam J. Smith
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Now up for preorder! 99p/c intro price

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XBBCRKS

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Paperback & Cover Reveal!

Poking my head out of the freezer to announce a couple of exciting developments! First, Neon City can now be purchased as a paperback. Here's a link for that!

~~~~~~~

For some, the streets aren't wild enough.

Xi Chen can see beyond the surface level of the work-sleep cycle, and the shackles imposed on its population by the city of Neon. He's joined a group of like-minded individuals seeking to force change from the ground up. Only when change comes, it's not exactly what they had in mind.

It's far from what Detectives Deke Allinson and Catherine Slay had in mind too. With so many deaths on their hands, the pressure from above and their need to 'do what is right' stretches them to breaking point. How far are they willing to go to test their loyalty?

Book one in a cyberpunk, crime and mystery trilogy, Neon City follows on from the Neon Sands trilogy, with characters old and new fighting to break the chains of slavery.

~~~~~~~~ 

The second announcement is the cover reveal for Neon book #7 - Neon Driver. It was created by the awesome Amir Zand - you can check out more of his work on Twitter and Instagram. I had a little taste of popularity when he revealed the cover over on Twitter, as it was liked and retweeted hundreds of times, and since I was @'d I'd never seens so many notifications. How do the popular people manage it! Anyway, I love it! I'm aiming for a December/January release, so it's not on preorder yet, but you can add it to your Goodreads shelf here.

~~~~~~~~

When he puts his foot down someone will die...

In Neon where quantum memory and virtual reality render so many chair-bound, the Driver craves the roar of the engine. He longs for the smell of biofuel, to see the road flash by and the city lights sliding across the puddled blacktop.

He yearns for destruction. For blood. For death.

Tides of Hysteria on preorder - 0.99

Hi folks! Tides of Hysteria has been on preorder a while now but I just realised I hadn't blogged about it! And after Rebecca Gransden's 5-star review on Goodreads for Neon City I thought now might be a good time to shout it out loud! Here's a clip:

For this book he visits the hyper-stylised world of future noir, creating a tense narrative featuring propulsive action and a plot harnessing classic crime and suspense themes. The backdrop is one of glossy opulence juxtaposed with grimy backstreets, moody rain flooding neon soaked streets. All very inviting.

 Thank you Rebecca!

Tides of Hysteria is book two in the Neon City trilogy and will build on the suspense and action from book one, getting into the cracks of gutters and looking closer behind the glass of the Agridome. It'll be out early September and can be preordered for 0.99 pence or cents, before going to full price. As only book ones are ever free, this is your only chance to get it at a reduced cost!

It's time for a generation to take its final stand.
The Neon City trilogy continues with book two, Tides of Hysteria. With the citizen's eyes beginning to open, it's a race against time and a fight for truth to open them further, or close them forever.

Revised edition of Neon Sands - FREE download

Hi folks, it's been pretty quiet here recently while I've worked on various projects. Primarily, this has involved revising Neon Sands. I've learned so much writing its sequels and prequel that I felt I had to go back and add more. Calix and Annora needed more building - and we needed more story. So there's an extra 15k words there now, including a map of the world around Sanctum, adding some lore and more depth. (Probably spurred on by reading GRRM.) This book is free to download 11-12 July - if you have it on your ereader it should update next time you open it. If you don't have it yet, now's a perfect time to grab it.

Other titles are also free or reduced, including The Risen, Hereafter, Neon City, Plains of Ion, and Flames of Apathy. Head over to my Amazon page to check them out. 

Two other projects currently in the works are Tides of Hysteria, the Neon City sequel, and a musical project with Doctea, an album of moody, scifi tones with a scifi adventure story at its core. Looking forward to seeing this one play out!

Review: Sea of Glass

Sea of Glass by Rebecca Gransden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sea of Glass is an ocean of the macabre; of twisted bodies, flayed skin and idiosyncratic prose. It is Kattar's journey through the haunted halls of a not-quite nondescript tower in the middle of a city. The story flits from the metaphorical to the real, a dreamlike consciousness, with tangible cornerstones for the reader to grab hold of - something they can recognise - before being thrust back into a bizarre world of tower-dwelling maniacs, floating stars, half-women, flaming zombies, and more.

It breaks as many rules as it creates, both in the story and the way it is told. You might need a dictionary with some sentences - I didn't mind this as it added to the sense of 'otherworld', but I can see why another reader may feel interrupted. The prose interferes here, it is not a story you can truly get lost in, the writing and the story are wrapped in one. This works well here as it adds to the sense unease as Kattar makes his way up the tower. The visuals are very graphic, raw - something a horror fan would enjoy. While the narrative can be poetic and make you think. Recommended read!



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Cracked

A wonder, a wander, journey adjourned,
A question, answered, questioned, adjourned,
A malted sorrow, a sour and bitter adjourned,
A path, of stone, of gravel, of mud adjourned.

Adjourned.

Bluest skies bloodied red at mourning dusk,
A boulder ground by words of wind to dust,
Lightest sunlit white-washed walls of rusting
laughter, lusting plaster, damp and cracking.

Cracked.

Review: NOS4A2

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's an odd thing that recently I have given more 5 star ratings to indies than professionally published works; do I expect more of the Joe Hills of this world, or less of my own ilk?

I've now read The Fireman and NOS4R2 (English version?) and by far preferred this. The world of the inscape was brilliantly realised, and though Manx's 'roads' were a little cloudy, Vic McQueen's (a little too on the nose for a name) bridge was a great narrative construct to play with. The idea of all these hidden doorways was reminiscent of The Dark Tower and the world's created by Stephen King, so to touch upon these made the book feel a part of THAT world. There were inconsistencies and glossed over points, such as Vic's eye trauma whenever she used the bridge (in her childhood, it had the impression that she would lose her left-eye sight if she stayed on the other side of the bridge for too long, but by the end of the book she was happily skipping from one place to the next. I guess this was solved by her 'disappearing' the bridge, though felt a little 'forgotten').

The horror set-pieces were also nicely done, particularly the first encounter at Sleigh House, and the intro too. Kids with random weapons and rows of sharp teeth - what's not to run away from? As for Manx, perhaps spending half the book comatose was a bit too much. I never felt an urgent sense of peril from him, maybe because he had others, like Bing and the kids, do his dirty work (mostly). Much more though, and it would have perhaps gone against his character, as he was more nuanced then a straight-up evil guy.

The ending, for all the build-up, could have been more nuanced and longer, though the final chapter actually made up for that - and the final, final couple paragraphs added a nice, bloody veneer.

Where does the book fail, for me? I never really connected strongly to any of the characters. Maybe that was my fault because it was a sporadic reading over a couple months (or maybe that says enough about them itself). It felt more plotted than pantsed; a series of moments that the characters experienced rather than actively worked for. Vic showed too much maternal strength towards the end to make her earlier failings realistic (though I concede things like this are redemptive arcs etc etc). I think mostly it came down to the writing, and I have to say, Hill's writing in the two I've read just feels a bit plain, flairless. His father's work has more 'grit', more of an edge, and whenever I saw instances here it felt a little forced, playing at 'King'. The story was great, but the writing just lacked something that I can't put my finger on.

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Neon City RELEASED

So, it's been a couple weeks now since the release of my cyberpunk novel Neon City and the first reviews in are two 4-stars and a 5-star! And to quote one of them:

This was a good enjoyable read.
We have twists, turns, some action all rolled into this one.
Well written story with good characters.
Recommend reading.

This is book 4 in the Neon series, but the first of a Neon City trilogy. And the blurb:

For some, the streets aren't wild enough.
Xi Chen can see beyond the surface level of the work-sleep cycle, and the shackles imposed on its population by the city of Neon. He's joined a group of like-minded individuals seeking to force change from the ground up. Only when change comes, it's not exactly what they had in mind.

It's far from what Detectives Deke Allinson and Catherine Slay had in mind too. With so many deaths on their hands, the pressure from above and their need to 'do what is right' stretches them to breaking point. How far are they willing to go to test their loyalty?

Book one in a cyberpunk, crime and mystery trilogy, Neon City follows on from the Neon Sands trilogy, with characters old and new fighting to break the chains of slavery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I enjoyed writing this one, especially the last third, which had a lot more action than some earlier novels, making the scenes fly by. I gave up writing the blog for the process behind it (it's just not as fun!), suffice to say the characters started running the show. One character even shoe-horned himself in unexpectedly at the end, with dire consequences. Events that were not in my pre-written notes. It's a thin line between plotting and pantsing, but I believe plotting is important to achieve a satisfying ending.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So what's next? A Neon Sands revision, to be exact. This book gets the most eyes, but is currently the lowest ranked of all my books, so before moving on to Tides of Hysteria, it feels right to give this one a little more love. A little more plot and world-building. I even have a map all good to go. As useful as that is out in the empty void of dunes and dust.

Review: Contact

Contact by Carl Sagan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Listening to an audiobook version of this, it felt a little proselytising at times where there were whole sections of religious and moral arguments - it really took you out of the story. Having read a lot of atheist material over the last two decades since this was published, I also didn't believe that someone like Arroway would invest so much time in contemplating these matters, and give the fundamentalists time and space.

There were long sections of being told what was happening, and then whole chapters which were primarily speech. It just felt disjointed as a story narrative. By far the best bit was the ending when they actually used the machine. In audiobook form, listening in the car, the visuals here were great. It really felt like you were being transported to a mysterious otherworld.

Anyway, 4 stars and enjoyable enough!

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Currently active Bookfunnel giveaways

Horror ebooks! (Apr 11 - Apr 16)

Horror & Supernatural Thrillers giveaway! (Apr 5 - May 1)

Springtime is Prequel Time (Apr 1 - May 1)

Spring Speculative Fiction Promo (April 1 - Apr 30)

Every book 99c/p!

Hi subscribers, loiterers, casual passersby and accidental clickers. Who knew writing a novel would take so much out of me I had nothing left to contribute in the Writing a Novel series? Maybe there'll be another update shortly! Certainly when it's passed my final checks. In the meantime, there's a deal on. All my books are 99 pence or 99 cents, or some other lowest denominator in whatever country you reside in! Additionally, the Neon Sands boxset is 1.99. For now, this deal is ongoing. So check them out if you haven't already, or were waiting for one of the titles to come down in price. Neon City is still on preorder for 0.99 too. Happy reading!