10 Sep 2019

Crucible Bursts into Life!

posted in: Book launch, Crucible of Time, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time | 2

Crucible of Time by Jeffrey A. Carver

At last, Crucible of Time is now live and burning a hole in pockets everywhere fine ebooks are found! And many of the places fine paper books are found, as well! If you’re just tuning in, Crucible of Time is the second half of the story begun in The Reefs of Time, bringing The Chaos Chronicles one giant leap closer to completion.

You may have heard that the new Margaret Atwood book, The Testaments (a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale), is also being published today! I am honored that Ms. Atwood’s publisher decided to join me in picking Sept. 10 as a good day to die—I mean, as a good day to publish. If modesty didn’t forbid it, I would note that perhaps they were riding my coattails just a little… yes, I’m sure that’s it. Well, I’m happy to give them a boost; it’s undoubtedly a fine book, too.

But back to burning a hole in your pocketses, may I suggest, plead, cajole, that you tell everyone you know about Crucible? Ask your local library to order a copy? Suggest that your brick-and-mortar neighborhood bookstore order it? Stock up on copies to give for Christmas and other holidays? Turn your loved ones into book addicts—I mean, onto a good read? Yes?

It’s in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. (The hardcover is loose in the wild, but it may take a few days to show up in listings. I’m still waiting for my own copies to arrive.)

To buy your copy, start here. You guys are the best!

2 Sep 2019

New Print Editions: Reefs of Time in Hardcover!

posted in: books, print editions, The Reefs of Time | 1

Yes—the hardcover is finally out! I made it live just before I left for Dragon Con, and by now it should have trickled into all the store catalogues. I think it came out great!

If you would like to ask your local library to order a copy (Please do! Ask nicely, but ask!), you can tell them it’s available from Ingram, and the ISBN is 978-1-61138-834-3. Same info applies to your local bookstore.

It’s also available from Barnes & Noble online: http://bit.ly/ReefsBNhardcover

and Amazon: http://bit.ly/ReefsHardcover

28 Aug 2019

Starstream Could Be Real, Scientists (Almost) Say

posted in: astronomy, my books, science, The Reefs of Time | 2

Way back in the late 1980s when the rocks were still cooling, I wrote a pair of novels, From a Changeling Star and Down the Stream of Stars, that proposed an interstellar highway (sort of a modified wormhole) created by the joining of two black holes with a long strand of cosmic hyperstring. That same starstream features prominently in my new work, The Reefs of Time / Crucible of Time.

Now, I read here that real scientists have proposed that one could create a real wormhole, using—are you ready?—two black holes and a couple of strands of cosmic string. Seriously, is that cool or what? God, I love science!

 

10 Aug 2019

Hardcover Update

posted in: The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time | 1

Reefs of Time hardcover layout

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for the hardcover edition of The Reefs of Time, it’s almost ready. I’m waiting for a seemingly endless review process at Ingram, the company that will be printing them. Once they approve it, I’ll get a proof printed to make sure everything is done right. When I approve it, then I can make it available.

Soon! I promise!

28 Jul 2019

Porgs Weigh In on The Reefs of Time

posted in: quirky, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time | 0

Porgs and The Reefs of Time

This photo and the following review landed in my inbox, from someone calling hirself “The Porg Apprentice” (or “Poppy Bunsen”). Seriously.

The meeting of the Porg Book Club is called to order!

Ingrid: “Today we are discussing The Reefs of Time, a new book by Jeffrey A. Carver. It is the story of friends who work together and make a good team. In previous episodes, I mean, books, they have saved the Earth and other planets from being wiped out by meteors and evil civilizations that try to reprogram people’s minds with nanotechnology. In this book, the friends are split up to fight the nanobots, which are trying to infect hyperspace. I liked it. I finished it in a weekend. What did you think?”

Sherie: “I liked the theme that friends can become found family. It reminded me of the Rebels and the Resistance who are a team that become family, and how sad they were when they were split up after Hoth and Crait. But they still had hope.”

George: “I thought it was funny that the people in the retro 1950s spaceship were somebody else’s UFO on a different planet!”

Lucky: “Because my friend Tag will ask, there are no porgs in this book.”

Snowy: “But there is a cat that exists in different dimensions! I wonder if Loth-cats and gokats can learn from each other?”

Sherie: “I liked that this book can stand alone, and I didn’t have to read the other books to understand this one. I missed the last book because I had a nest of porglets to take care of.”

Ingrid: “So I think we’re agreed, two wings up?”

Lucky: “Yes! Two wings up! You can find it on pretty much any bookseller, or ask your librarian nicely to order it from Ingram. They’ll know what that means.”

23 Jul 2019

Lift Off! We Have Lift Off of The Reefs of Time!

posted in: Book launch, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time | 12

Apollo-Reefs combined image
We have a launch! The Reefs of Time is riding a pillar of fire into the sky, shooting for the Moon! We are on our way!

You’ve been waiting for eleven years. I’ve been waiting for eleven years! This new chapter of The Chaos Chronicles, Part One of the “Out of Time Sequence,” is now available in all major ebook stores, and in print from Amazon and other booksellers*! Grab your copies while you can. The price is reduced for Launch Day. It will go up soon.

Please help me spread the word!

(Part Two, Crucible of Time, will launch on September 10.)

*Regarding print copies: On sale now are trade paperback copies (a nice, hefty-but-comfortable 5.5in by 8.5in trim size). Thanks to cover artist Chris Howard and cover designer Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, both talented writers themselves, it’s a great-looking book! Regarding availability in bookstores and libraries, it is available to all through the major distributor Ingram. But that doesn’t mean it will magically appear in your local bookstore. You might have to request it. I encourage you to do so! Ask them nicely if they would consider stocking it. If they want to know the ISBN, you can give them this: 978-1-61138-799-5.

I still plan to release a hardcover edition, and hope to have it ready in a few weeks. I’ll let you know.

Celebrate with me! Please let the far corners of your social media know, and let’s shoot for the Moon together!

 

19 Jul 2019

Reefs Print Edition Is Go for Launch!

posted in: Book launch, The Reefs of Time | 2

Everything worked out for the print edition! Maya, who does my cover designs, came through for me from vacation and tweaked my cover so that both Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP) and Ingram Spark accepted it. There will be a trade paperback edition on sale next Tuesday! You can pre-order it right now!

The pricing is a little weird, though. Bear with me on this. I set different prices at Amazon and Ingram, because the profit margins are very different between the two places. At Amazon/KDP, I can make a decent profit on a sale at $20.99 for the print version. (That’s higher than I would like, but print-on-demand publishing is still more expensive than the old way.) At Ingram—which is the company that libraries and most bookstores would order from—I would make almost nothing at that price. So my Ingram price is $22.95. That still gives a pretty thin profit margin, but I can’t see going any higher.

That part’s a little weird, but here’s the really weird part: Amazon doesn’t allow pre-orders of their own version of a paper book, but they do allow pre-orders of the Ingram version! So the pre-order displays at $22.95. On launch day, I plan to release the Amazon version at $20.99—so on launch day or soon after, that price should go down. So you can pre-order today, but I have no idea whether you’ll get the Ingram edition at $22.95 or the KDP edition at $20.99! They should be pretty much the same, though they’ll come from different printing plants.

Anyway, as of now, everything is go for launch!

Edit: I forgot to add, I am planning a hardcover edition, but have had to delay it. I hope to get it up in a couple of weeks, but it’s dependent on when other people are free to help with the technical aspects.

Also, the paperback edition is a trade paperback (i.e., large format), 5.5″ x 8.5″, which is the same size as the planned hardcover.

 

15 Jul 2019

For My Gravestone, Now More Than Ever!

posted in: The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time | 2

I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again: These are the words I want on my gravestone:

“The Typos Are Your Problem Now!”

I have been proofing and proofing and uploading and proofing, and correcting and uploading and proofing for the print edition of The Reefs of Time. I am heartily sick of the whole process! With thanks to my daughter Jayce for reminding me, I formally request that my gravestone, when the time comes, read: “The Typos Are Your Problem Now!” I can think of nothing that would better honor my life!

(Neepery warning) There are two widely-used channels for putting out self-published print-on-demand editions: Amazon (formerly CreateSpace) and Ingram Spark. Amazon is suddenly refusing to accept the cover file that they were just fine with on the last proof run, even though nothing has changed but the corrected interior file, with the exact same page count. And my cover designer just left for a two-week vacation.

Ingram squawked about the cover, but let me override. And their proof looks fine. Except… after a week of refining the print layout and getting rid of all widows and orphans, what do I see? Widows and orphans! Augh! I have just gone through and weeded them out. Again. And await Ingram’s processing once more.

I will have a print version available on launch day, come hell or high water. But the hardcover will be delayed until I can get the cover design expanded for the dust jacket. Not by long, I hope.

Augh. Augh. Augh!!

2 Jul 2019

Are You Going to a Con?

posted in: Street team, The Reefs of Time | 0

I need your help! Are you going to be attending an SF con or other similar gathering where it might be helpful to put out some of my promotional freebies (flyers and coasters)? I’d really appreciate it.

I already have volunteers for Necon, Worldcon, Ad Astra, CanCon, Confluence, and Dragon Con. Is anyone going to Readercon? Other gatherings?

Please let me know, and I’ll mail you a batch of materials!

Also, if you haven’t already joined my street team—the Starstream Troupers—and would like to sign up to help me get the word out, please let me know! (You don’t have to be on Facebook to help me, of course! But if you are, and would like to join that FB group, that’s where the most organized action is. Also if you join there, you can download an advance reading copy of Reefs/Crucible, both as a thank-you and to give you something to plug!) Come join the team!

 

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