‘Under a Graveyard Sky’ might be the best zombie apocalypse story to date

13 June 2013 Your Remarks

Ok, so everyone these days is doing the Zombie Apocalypse tango. Heck even I’m working on one (For certain values of working, I’ve had three chapters done for six months, but I digress). John Ringo, however, has now put every other ZA book, movie and video game to shame. There is a reason the man is the master. Part horror novel, part techno-thriller that would make Tom Clancy bow down in envy, UAGS is superb. Ringo takes a hard look at how a real ZA might happen, and his undead aren’t. Ringo uses the familiar trope of the “Zombie plague,” but turns it on it’s ear, using real science to show how it might happen. He then takes a close look at how someone might survive a real biological disaster and what steps … Read entire article »



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A Game Tie-in Book With a Difference

If you’ve been following OG, you know that I am a fan of the MMORPG Guild Wars 2. Not too long ago, I came across a book set in the Guild Wars world, and was quite happy that I bought it. The book is , and it’s unlike most game tie-ins that I’ve read. Rather than telling a story about characters that you’ll never meet in the game, and dealing with events that really don’t have much to do with your game experience, Edge of Destiny tells a large chunk of the backstory of the world as you find it in Guild Wars 2. It also introduces us to a group of characters, at least one of … Read entire article »

Good news for Sims fans! [Updated]

I just noticed today, EA/Maxis is announcing that the next version of the Sims franchise will be available sometime in 2014. The Sims 4 page has just a bunch of simlish and a sign-up for updates right now, but at least now we know that it will be coming, though not exactly when… it could be January or it could be December 2014. I would imagine that means that Island Paradise will be either the last or the next to the last expansion for Sims 3. Just my luck, they always seem to bring out the best expansions right before they introduce the next version, and Island Paradise has me quite intrigued. Update: According to The Sims Wiki … Read entire article »

Pacific Rim looks like 200 feet and 10,000 tons of AWESOME

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‘The Written’: Another good idea marred by technical mistakes

One of the best things about independent publishing, is authors with really good ideas can get those ideas into print without hassling with convincing a big publisher to spend the money for an initial print run of an untried author. However, removing the big publisher also highlights a problem with many independently published books — all too often there’s no editor’s hand apparent in the work — leaving behind technical problems that detract from the story. It’s easy to understand why a fledgling author would skip an editor. For a full-length manuscript a professional editor can cost a thousand dollars or more, and many fledgling authors just don’t have that kind of money. But even with the … Read entire article »

New author Cedar Sanderson and self publishing

(Editor’s Note: New Author Cedar Sanderson has graciously taken the helm today to give us a few thoughts on self publishing. Be nice kiddies and share the cookies.) If I couldn’t self-publish I probably would not have sought to become published. When I first started to study writing about ten years ago, I started to hear the stories about traditional publishing, and I figured out fairly quickly that I had little to no chance of ever being published. Maybe it was because I was also struggling with the other parts of my life, but I put aside any thoughts of publishing and just wrote when I could. About two years ago, now, I started to hear about self-publishing, and … Read entire article »

An Amazing Superhero Story

Imagine that the world has been changed in such a way that any traumatic incident might trigger permanent superpowers. That’s the world Hope Corrigan lives in, so when a terrorist bombs the bridge she’s crossing, she becomes one of Chicago’s most powerful “capes,” to use the slang term for costumed superheroes. , the debut novel by Marion G. Harmon, begins with a bang (the aforementioned bomb) and ends in tears. Along the way we take a fascinating tour of a few months in the life of a brand new superhero, codenamed Astra. We learn that it’s not all as wonderful as you might think to be able to fly, lift cars, have super-senses, and heal at … Read entire article »

Forbes Says Ebook Sales Slowing; I’m Not So Sure

Well, this is both good news and bad news for writers. Forbes has a report out today regarding the fact that e-book growth slowed to “only” 41% for 2012. They explain: According to the latest numbers from the Association of American Publishers, revenue for ebooks for some of the biggest categories grew by 41% in 2012. Ebooks now account for 23% of trade publishing revenues. In any other industry for any other business, this would be eye-popping growth. For the world of ebooks, it represents a significant slowdown from years past. The AAP has been tracking ebooks since 2002. That year, ebooks represented 0.05% of all trade publishing revenues. To get to the current 23% number, the biggest gains … Read entire article »

WordFire Press titles to become part of the Baen eBook library

Kevin J. Anderson’s WordFire Press has just signed a deal for all their titles to join the Baen eBook Library, the largest SF-dedicated eBook site. WordFire Press features over fifty backlist and previously unpublished titles by Anderson, Frank Herbert, Bill Ransom, Brian Herbert, Neil Peart, and others. WordFire Press books are already distributed in most eBook formats through major eBook retail channels. Becoming part of the Baen eBook Library will introduce those titles to a very large, dedicated, and specialized audience. In coming months, WordFire Press books will be featured in the Baen newsletter, which goes out to more than ten thousand very interested readers of SF eBooks. Baen Books has long been a pioneer and … Read entire article »

Sarah A. Hoyt finalist for her second Prometheus Award

The Libertarian Futurist Society will present its Prometheus Awards ceremony Labor Day weekend at the World Science Fiction Convention. Winners for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) will be presented in San Antonio, Texas at LoneStarCon3, the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention to be held from August 29th through September 2, 2013. We are happy to announce the finalists for the Prometheus Best Novel award and for the Hall of Fame award. The Prometheus finalists for Best Novel recognize pro-freedom novels published in the last year. The finalists in the Best Novel category of this year’s Prometheus Award, for the best pro-freedom novel of 2013 are (in alphabetical order by author): * … Read entire article »

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