Tag: Science-Fiction

The Distomos Ranked #1 Book of the Month!

On By UncannyDerekIn The Distomos2 Comments

I found out The Distomos has made #1 on the Top 100 Sales in ALL BOOKS and SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY this MONTH on Lulu!

Distomos Ranked First

This has completely taken me by surprise! I have to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased a copy and have supported me through this journey!

It’s been a wild ride so far! I’ve been driving all across the city, hand-delivering books and stirring up excitement along the way. I had not anticipated how much labour I would be doing when selling. Of course the snow hasn’t helped. . .

I digress. I can tell you that I have already gone through a good chunk of my inventory and am ready to continue pushing the book into deeper channels! When I get a chance to next week, I’ll be hopping into local stores with my ISBN number to get the book out there further!

The whole self-publishing journey has been a great experience so far. I cannot express how happy I am with how it has gone. Now I cannot stop thinking about how I will plan my next novel.

As for this first week with The Distomos – it’s been a blast. I have been given so much love and support; it’s definitely overwhelming with “the feels.”

With that, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and more importantly, spread the word around about the book!

For more information about the book or how to purchase it, see below:

Paperback copies available through Amazon.ca
Paperback copies available through Amazon.com
Paperback copies available through Barnes & Noble.com
Paperback copies available through Lulu.com.
Limited edition signed copies are available through me. For more information, please contact me at uncannyderek(at)hotmail.com with the subject line: The Distomos.

Ebook copies:
iTunes Store
Lulu.com

The Distomos

Cover art by Matthew Therrien: MCTherrien.com

ABOUT

Mankind has taken to the stars; maintaining their empires through the belief in God. Peace and prosperity are kept through Church-appointed Templars: the police of the galaxy. But when the Distomos, a secret weapon from the Church falls into the hands of the enemy, two ex-Templars, Kieran Rhet and Normandie Jade, are hired to get it back.

With only a matter of time before interstellar war begins and the Distomos is used, friendships, courage, and faith will be tested when all seems lost.

—–

Until next time, Keep on Space Truckin’!

NotDeadNoWriMo

On By UncannyDerekIn Discussion, Writing3 Comments

I’ll admit that I’m struggling to make these titles still work.

Anyway, Happy New Year! It’s been a bit, I know. As with the holidays, things become needlessly hectic and out of control. I unfortunately got zero editing done in the month of December. It felt as if it was the busiest month of 2013 for me – next to February (when I moved).

As of last week though, I got back on track. I’ve edited about an eighth* of my story and am still plugging along. I definitely plan on having it completely finished with edits by the end of February. From there I’ll be passing the story off to a few English Literature friends of mine to do a once-over.

From there I’ll be making the necessary changes to either send it to a professional editor, or head right to publishing!

Now whether I’m going to self-publish or go through a publisher has yet to be seen. I also am debating whether I should self-fund or Kickstart the novel. For one thing, Kickstarter definitely offers awesome publicity.

On the other hand, I have no idea what I’m doing.

We’ll see what happens next! I’ll keep you posted!

*I am awful with fractions.

EditNoWriMo

On By UncannyDerekIn Discussion, WritingLeave a comment

“EditNoWriMo?” Why do I keep coming up with this garbage?

Today was the first day I sat down and began to re-read my story from the beginning. I’m pleased to say, while my writing did not change, I did add a lot more detail early on in the novel.

When I originally started thinking and writing. . .

. . . I continued to describe things – how people looked, the environments, and what-not. I found I was focusing too much on the “image” of things and not the actual story. So not even a sixth (maybe an eighth? I was never good with fractions) into the book, I started leaving out those details in order to get the plot done. It turned out great for me because hey – I finished writing my novel!

Now I am going back to add in the little details I skipped over before. It’s really interesting because it’s like going through a novel you have read in the past, then adding your own flair to it.

But it’s also a bit strange going back to the beginning. Obviously I know how it all ends, but you know, it’s hard to explain. The fact that I can see the book from it’s conception? Is this how parents feel looking at baby photos? I sure hope they don’t always think of their child’s conception when they look at them. . .

I digress.

When I tell people I still have to edit my novel, I am continually asked: “How long will that take?” Since I have began the edits today, and keeping in mind I’m adding new things as I go along, it took me about an hour to get through two pages. And I also added another six hundred words! Hooray!

So yes, I’m rocking it so far!

In sum: I cannot answer the question because I still have my work cut out for me. And damn, is it ever fun!

Until next time, folks!

Novel: Completed!

On By UncannyDerekIn The Distomos2 Comments

I’ve been off of here for the past while because I’ve been a bit busy! As the title suggests, yes! I’ve finished my novel!

After multiple versions with my own “NaNoWriMo,” many of cups of tea, hundreds of albums listened to, and pumping over 15,000 words in the past two days, I finally completed the story last night around 11:30pm.

It seemed like a long journey, but it really was not all that bad. I was able to say what I had to say in the story and hit all of my plot points with ease.

Was it relieving to type “The End?”

Yes and no. I was grinning wildly when I finished the book, but I had just done over ten hours of writing that day. I was pretty tired.

What’s next?

Well, I’ve never published a book before, so I’ll have to really work on studying how that system all operates.

I definitely need to take the time and hard edit the entire story. There’s a lot of little things I knew about when writing that I had to go back and fix, but I left it until the end. I wanted the skeleton of the story done first, followed by my editing to fix up the rest.

Then I’ll need test readers. I have a lot of friends who I went to University with for English. They’ll be the first on the docket to get the story. I’ll pass the early draft on to some friends and family of varying ages as well to see how the different audiences like it.

Once completed, I’ll go back to editing!

When the corrections are made, I’ll probably send it off to an editor to get looked at – maybe that would be the last edit? I don’t know!

And finally, I’ll move on to publishing.

I still have a long while ahead of me, but I’ll definitely get it sorted all out. I do not have a deadline exactly in mind yet, but I’m sure I’ll find one when I figure out how the publishing aspect works.

Thanks you kindly for reading and your many words of support over the past year. I’ll be back soon with some updates on how editing works!

Ah, the joys of being a writer.

And Happy Halloween!