Author Newsletter
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Thoughts on Calibre (ebook software)
March 3, 2013
Uncategorized -
Calibre is free ebook software that manages your ebooks, allows you to share them if you choose, and best of all lets you link up almost every ereader to easily update and install books.Read More -
Blog Integration
February 28, 2013
Articles and Opinions, News -
After finding a theme I liked, I have finally managed to get blogs and books onto one site, which should make it a lot simpler to maintain, and hopefully leave more time for writing. Everything is now going to be under the vhfolland.com root domain.When I first switched to Wordpress I did not know what I was doing, which left me with two seperate installs (not even a multi-site) and managing two sets of logins, plugins comments, themes...it was a little overwhelming. Now? I am a lot happier with it, and I've found a theme that looks good and handles blogs and book pages well. You can see the new site now. All the blogs have been transitioned across, and now the last step is updating the feed to all the sites that have my blog syndicated.
Hope you like the new site, because I definitely
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Time Travel Stories and Paradox
February 25, 2013
Articles and Opinions -
Ever since HG Wells, there have been stories of time travel. Each of them handle issues of paradox and continuity differently. Some just don't bother, while others work it in as an essential part of the story.
What I am covering here are some of my favourite stories where the element of time travel, continuity and paradox are handled in a science based and logical manner. These are all hard sci-fi, not fantasy.1. Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany
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What is there to say about this book, other than Read It! Multiple overlapping time streams, multiple characters developing at multiple periods, and the books that gave us the simplex, complex and multiplex view of the world. A book that tells its story off-screen and is no less gripping for -
How to migrate from Blogger to WordPress
February 21, 2013
Articles and Opinions, Off-topic, Uncategorized -
Migrating content, particularly in this day of search engines and old links, can be tricky if you don't want to lose a lot of ground. However, I found the new Google interface difficult to use and awkward, which is why I started the new blog in the first place, and trying to handle comments was difficult. Ideally I wanted to get all my content in one place without breaking any third party links and losing visitors. Making any links to posts redirect to the new posts without having to manually recode them, or add the annoying "This blog has moved page" was the main target - and if I could get the search engines to redirect that would be even better.
It turns out there is actually a way to do this.
The process I used was based on this article from Digital Inspirations with a few
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Blogs and Updates
February 20, 2013
weekly round up - Well, the free day went well, and shifted several hundred ebooks. That's more than I expected for something I did spur of the moment with no promotion. With luck some readers will enjoy it.My rather larger update has to do with the blog: I'm migrating my old blogger content to this blog, having found a way to do it successfully with a redirect on the original pages so the links redirect instead of breaking. The small downside is that the importer has been rather too enthusiatic in creating new categories, so I'm going to be doing a bit of trimming once it has finished. Meanwhile, if you spot any other problems on the blog with the imported content, please let me know.Otherwise my spare time, if I have any today, will be spent writing. Unfortunately my current project switched genre on meRead More
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Sample Sunday – Going Under
February 17, 2013
Uncategorized - For Sample Sunday this week, it's Going Under. Mainly because I have a new cover to show off and the book is free today.Read More
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Going Under – finalised and upcoming Free Day
February 16, 2013
Uncategorized -
The final cover for Going Under has come out, and will be working its way through the Amazon listings and feed today. I am a little nervous as there is a different formatting system in play for the ebook. It is meant to get rid of those annoying gaps between paragraphs, leaving blank lines as obvious scene breaks.
Anyone who picked up the pre-release copy should now have their update. If not, let me know.
And the Launch is tomorrow, when it will be free for a day, so don't forget to stop by Amazon and pick your copy up!
Image from Amazon.co.uk
The main problem I've had is the same as every other author: reaching readers. Going Under will be in Select for ninety days, just to try and broaden my readerRead More -
A bitty week
February 8, 2013
Uncategorized - I've been writing solidly all week: my word count is up by 10,000 words and a lot of that is revision. There's another novella almost out the door, and another Brooke's Vale story nearly complete (the last one I did is back from editing) and a fresh story started in my notepad: not to mention the 1,500 word short I still need to type up from last week. Now I just need to decide whether to release the Brooke's Vale stories all as $0.99 shorts or finish the collection first. There's an interesting situation with reverted rights for some media tie-ins I did long before Fire Season was published (I'm fairly sure I mentioned this isn't my first penname), which is taking some sorting out: 14 finished novels, and either a media licence or an extensive rewrite required to publish them... Let'sRead More
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Free Standing Guard
February 1, 2013
News -
Standing Guard is free to download on Amazon for the next three days: 30th Jan, 31st Jan and 1st Feb, world-wide.
Flying home from their display seems a perfect time for Jim to train his wife on radio procedures. An SOS on a non-aviation channel was the last thing he expected to hear. The laws of sea and air are clear: the person who receives a distress call is bound to assist.
Even if they are in a very old aircraft, over a very large ocean, looking for a very small boat.
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Standing Guard – Free 30th, 31st Jan and 1st Feb
January 30, 2013
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Standing Guard is free to download on Amazon for the next three days: 30th Jan, 31st Jan and 1st Feb, world-wide.
Flying home from their display seems a perfect time for Jim to train his wife on radio procedures. An SOS on a non-aviation channel was the last thing he expected to hear. The laws of sea and air are clear: the person who receives a distress call is bound to assist.
Even if they are in a very old aircraft, over a very large ocean, looking for a very small boat.
Standing Guard is a short aviation story.
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.ukOther Amazon Sites:Amazon.com (includes India)
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Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Amazon.ca (Canada)
Amazon.fr (France)
Amazon.de (Germany)