May 2022 Newsletter
Well here we are! Book 3 of the swashbuckling Space Opera The Long Way Home is up on BookFunnel.
WARNING. All the Bookfunnel freebies come down in a couple of weeks.
Then they’ll be published on Amazon, book 1 at $2.99 on 1st July, book 2 at $4.99 on 1st August and book 3 at $4.99 on 1st September, with pre-orders from day 1.
There might be minor changes and edits. I might actually get around to including a diagram of the spaceships involved, a brief summary of the physics of Chang space and associated tech (no equations, I promise) and maybe even a basic layout map of the stars of the Parvi sector.
Dunno what I’m doing for the newsletter next.
What I’m doing now
(Apart from clearing newsletter stuff today) Concentrating on Bite Back 8. There’s a fierce load of concentration going on, and writing, but not a huge amount of real progress to report.
I finished turning one thread from the unfinished book 3 of Among the Stars into a short story that has been submitted for inclusion in an anthology called The Expanding Universe this summer. If I don’t make the cut, I’ll publish it as a short story or wrap it up with the newsletter.
Reviews
I love all my reviews, even the negative ones. Of course I love the positive ones more! I don’t often highlight one, but this lady made a lot of effort to review A Name Among the Stars.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R2OMAOQ7FHROP1
In other news
As many of you know, my covers are done by Andrew Dobell (he also did Michael Anderle’s Kutherian Gambit covers). Now, Andrew is a writer of Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction. He’s offering his 12 book UF box set for $4.99 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B193KLG9), but wait a moment… put a reminder in your diary that between June 13th-17th there will be a special deal on the box set because on the 16th, he’s running a worldwide BookBub deal. Put it in the diary now!
Also, Netflix-Folk, looky, watchy this trailer for teen vampires. Great setup based on VE Schwab’s short story, and a slick trailer.
LINKS to TLWH on BookFunnel
Update. Book 7. Serial novels.
Bite Back book 7, Queen of Diamonds, is with the editor. She has promised to get back to me this week. I am still hoping to publish this month (Dec 2020).
The book is 135,000 words long, which is pretty much standard for my main novels. It has taken me a little more than a year (so far) to produce, but I have had other projects running at the same time.
I’ve given lots of estimates out about the length of the Bite Back series. I started thinking I was writing a trilogy! At the extreme, I thought it would take me 16-18 books to tell the story. Currently, I think it’s 9 books long, so there will be at least two more.
While waiting for the edits, I’m working on the two serial novels I have running. These are for subscribers to my mailing list only, and have been going down a storm. The general idea is the same as the serial format I used in this blog, but the updates are bigger and only arrive monthly. Unfortunately, I had to skip last month’s episodes to get Queen of Diamonds to the editor, but I should be back with new episodes this month. The two novels are The Long Way Home (Science Fiction, set in the same universe as Among The Stars, but at an earlier time) and Stand Up (Urban Fantasy, loosely tied to Bite Back, and set in New York after the novella Change of Regime).
Update: Bite Back 7 & Newsletter
The first quarter of Bite Back 7 is with the beta readers. The events covered were intended in the original plan to be the first 10%, but things snowballed and Amber got the bit between her teeth.
That section is 45,000 words long, which suggests book 7 will be 180,000, which will be approximate the length of Wild Card. Looking to release in Q3, but it may slip to Q4.
Newsletter
The other news of the week is the first newsletter has just gone out.
Some of you read the novels which I ran in serial form here on the blog. Change of Regime, A Name Among the Stars, A Threat Among the Stars, and The Harvest of Lies all appeared in weekly or monthly sections on this blog before being released as full books. I’m doing the same thing in the newsletter, but on a monthly release with longer sections.
There are two serial novels available with each newsletter. One is Science Fiction and the other is Urban Fantasy.
Science Fiction: The Long Way Home.
Their war has just ended. Their struggle has just begun.
Set in the universe described in ‘A Name Among the Stars’, but much earlier, around the time known as the Third Expansion. Janice and Bjorn are two young soldiers from a remote, pacifist planet on the Frontier who signed up to earn the money for essential Terran technology to save their colony from dying out. But nothing is easy. They have to overcome betrayals, corruption, greed… and pirates, on ‘The Long Way Home’.
Episode 1 is currently only available in eBook form in an anthology called ‘The Great Beyond’ ($0.99/£0.99)
smarturl.it/greatbeyond
(You can get the FREE audiobook for episode 1 at bit.ly/thelongwayhomeaudio)
Episode 2 ‘Problems and Opportunities’ is ready for download now, and you need to sign up to the newsletter to be able to use the links.
https://mailchi.mp/27afed3e7c0c/mark-henwick-scifi-newsletter-signup
Once you’ve signed up, then the download link is https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ae4uomtjpa
Urban Fantasy: Stand Up
This is an Athanate PNR, set in New York, and the events occur between Bite Back Books 6 and 7. This book is not essential for the Bite Back series. It follows on, in a fashion, from the Change of Regime novella, in that some of the characters return.
Carla is a comedienne, running away from a terrible event in her past, and whose stand up routine has run out of inspiration. Katja is a sophisticated New York Athanate in a state of denial over her broken heart. Neither of them wants what the other needs. Or do they?
Episode 1 is called I Died Tonight.
As before, sign up for the newsletter and then your download link for Episode 1 is: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/2dkw4kl9xq
Newsletter news and brief update
Hello! Long time, no post!
My efforts these days are going more toward writing the books and newsletters. Today’s blog post is mainly about newsletters.
First off, where am I with writing? I’m 20 chapters into Bite Back 7, Queen of Diamonds, and I was expecting this to be about 70 chapters. Having said that, I’m spending a lot more chapters on the early part of the book, without actually seeing any of the later chapters reduced. Maybe this will be one of the longer books. Hopefully I should finish the draft by the end of summer.
Concentrating on Bite Back 7 means that Bian’s Tale 2 and Among the Stars 3 are both started but on hold.
That’s my weekday writing. As many of you will know, I try and do something very different at weekends (no, I don’t write every day, but most days). I’m back doing something that I did on this blog site a couple of years ago, when I write Among the Stars books 1 and 2 – I’m writing a serial.
It’s another Science Fiction, in the same universe as Among the Stars, but centuries earlier. It’s called The Long Way Home. I will be publishing it in episodes of about 10k words on a monthly basis. I’ll be publishing it as a newsletter.
Episode 1 is available as the opening story in an anthology called The Great Beyond, available for 99c/99p at the moment. To continue reading The Long Way Home, you’ll need to join my newsletter, and new episodes will be released each month, starting with July (this one!). Episodes will be free.
Links below.
What’s it about?
“Their war has just ended. Their struggles have just begun.“
Janice Skelling and Bjorn Thorsson are desperate to get back from the war with the technology that will mean the difference between life and death for their remote home planet, out in Frontier space. But nothing is easy. They have to overcome betrayals, corruption, greed… and pirates, on The Long Way Home.
Two easy steps to get on board:
1. Buy The Great Beyond anthology ($0.99/£0.99) to get episode 1.
smarturl.it/greatbeyond
2. Sign up for the newsletter and get free monthly episodes.
https://mailchi.mp/27afed3e7c0c/mark-henwick-scifi-newsletter-signup
BONUS STEP! Get a free 1 hr audio. Jessica Henwick, star of Iron Fist & Matrix 4, narrates The Long Way Home, Episode 1!
bit.ly/thelongwayhomeaudio
I hope you enjoy it!
And reviews. Reviews on any of my books. Reviews are lifeblood for writers. Reviews please, readers. 🙂
Thank you!
Mark Henwick 