Tag Archives: cannon fodder

Free Review Copy of Cannon Fodder

Are you on Goodreads? Do you want a free copy of Cannon Fodder? For the next few weeks, I’m giving away free copies of Cannon Fodder on Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. If you’ve been on the fence about picking up a copy, and you like being opinionated about books, here’s your chance.

Check it out here on Goodreads.

A note on the Norgolian Empire

I have to admit something. The name of the Norgolian Empire, the home of the characters of Cannon Fodder, isn’t original by me. I lifted it from “The Eye of Argon,” a remarkable short story by Jim Theis.

Now in the public domain, the short story was first published in 1970 in OSFAN, a fanzine. It’s … well, it’s more or less Conan the Barbarian fanfic, but that doesn’t do it justice. I first ran into the story at a party game at Science Fiction and Fantasy club back in college. We’d printed out copies of the story and handed them out to the participants. The object of the game was to read an entire page of the story out loud, pronouncing all the spelling errors, and keep a straight face. I’m pretty sure nobody won that night.

You have to see this story to believe it.

I’ve read godawful writing before, but “The Eye of Argon” manages to transcend godawfulness and become a kind of work of art. I wanted to celebrate this story by throwing the name of the Norgolian Empire into Cannon Fodder. Theis’s short story is about the Empire’s outer reaches, so who knows what might be going on at the capitol? Hence the setting for Cannon Fodder. I like to think that at the time of Alec’s kraken problems, Grignr is still out there somewhere, hacking away at other barbarians.

Cannon Fodder’s Kickstarter campaign is complete

As of the closing of the campaign on March 28, we’d raised $266, or 118% of the $225 goal. Thanks to all the backers, here’s the cover art that you have made possible:

CannonFodder_Type_small

Yeah! Again many thanks to Kelsey King, the illustrator who drew this. E-books of Cannon Fodder with this cover will be available at Smashwords and Amazon very soon. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Cannon Fodder

Hey, guys? I have exciting news. My last ebook, The Confederacy of Heaven, was published in the fall of 2010. Now, after three and a half years, I’m finally ready to publish another ebook.

Kelsey's concept of what the book will look like.

Kelsey’s concept of what the book will look like.

It’s called Cannon Fodder, and here’s a taste of how it goes:

The good guys always win – and Alec Nightshade isn’t going to take it anymore. Alec’s a fifteen-year-old member of the Norgolian Society of Evil Overlords, which means not having much of a life expectancy. When a hero hunts down and kills his aunt, the Viper, he sets off on the first evil scheme of his life to set things straight.

Starting an evil scheme proves to be harder than it looks. Alec catches a break when a friend tips him off about the Eggbeater of Doom, a device that can summon a kiloton-sized elder god with a grudge against those puny hairless apes. If Alec blabs about the Eggbeater, gets a hero to go after him, then kicks the hero’s ass, he can break the cycle of prophecy that dooms his side never to see the age of fifty. He doesn’t mean to hurt anybody else. But when another overlord steals the Eggbeater with the intent to actually level a city, Alec knows what he and his gang of minions will have to do: save the day. He will never get to live this down.

Like the sound of it? I’m running a Kickstarter campaign starting today to raise money for professional cover art. I’m working with Kelsey King, a local artist who’s illustrated my other ebooks. If you preorder a copy of Cannon Fodder through the Kickstarter, not only do you get to help support the cover art, but you’ll get the book at a discount.

Check out the Cannon Fodder Kickstarter campaign.

Want to know more about the project? Drop me a line. I’ll keep you guys posted about the campaign’s progress now through the end of March.

Cannon Fodder is Coming … Eventually

Hello, everybody, and happy new year!

It’s 2012.  I’ve mentioned earlier that I was expecting Cannon Fodder, the book I’m working on right now, to come out in 2012.  I’m writing this post to explain that it might take longer than that, but I have a very good reason: I’m going to try to sell this one.

For the past … oh … many years, I’ve been sort of learning to write and sharing it with people.  If that short story about the mushroom alien was in sixth grade, that was 1999, so about thirteen years.  I’ve learned a lot from the experience, and I think it’s time to give it a shot.

That sort of thing takes a lot of time, no matter whether I try for traditional publishing or go Amanda Hocking style.  I’m going to run Cannon Fodder through critique group and get the thing seriously ironed out.  Then I’m going to go through the process of pitch to an agent, pitch to another agent, agent pitches to an editor, editor asks me to make revisions, editor go talks to a typesetter, which can take a couple of years.

But never fear!  There will still be regular updates on this blog, and I’ll let you know how it’s going.  Until then, I hope you all have a great year 2012.