TWO NEW BOOKS, AND A GOOD IDEA By Peter Grant

*This is Sarah.  It’s my fault this is late.  I need to get Peter set up to put his posts up directly.  It’s not like he needs editing, it’s more both of us are being technologically declined.  As I prepare to move, though, I have maybe one thought a day not related to writing books and packing, and he shouldn’t be hostage to my strangeness.*

TWO NEW BOOKS, AND A GOOD IDEA

By Peter Grant

 

 

First of all, I hope you’ll celebrate with me the publication of my latest book, ‘War to the Knife’.

 

 

 

It’s the first volume in what I hope will be the Laredo War trilogy. Oleg Volk put together the cover, based on an image selected by my wife Dorothy and I, and as usual he did a superb job. Here’s the blurb Dorothy and I worked out together.

 

Laredo’s defenders were ground down and its people ruthlessly slaughtered when the Bactrians invaded the planet. Overwhelmed, its Army switched to guerrilla warfare and went underground. For three years they’ve fought like demons to resist the occupiers. They’ve bled the enemy, but at fearful cost. The survivors are running out of weapons, supplies, and places to hide.

Then a young officer, Dave Carson, uncovers news that may change everything. An opportunity is coming to smash the foe harder than they’ve ever done before, both on and off the planet. Success may bring the interplanetary community to their aid – but it’ll take everything they’ve got. Win or lose, many of them will die. Failure will mean that Bactria will at last rule unopposed.

That risk won’t stop them. When you’re fighting a war to the knife, in the end you bet on the blade.

 

I think it’s my best work yet, and initial reviews from alpha and beta readers and from initial readers on Amazon.com bear out that sentiment. Here’s hoping for sales success!

 

Next, Cedar Sanderson made a very thought-provoking remark in her blog review of Dave Freer’s new book ‘Stardogs’.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to Dave on a great launch. On the very first day of publication he rose into the top 1,000 books in the Kindle Store, which is an outstanding performance! Cedar wrote of his book:

 

Grab it, review it, and let’s all meet back here later to talk about it!

 

You know, I almost wish that would work. Book club for great new science fiction and fantasy…

 

That got me thinking. Why don’t we, as a group of independent authors and their closest relatives and fans, consider setting up something like that right here on Mad Genius Club?

 

We could put up one in-depth review of a book each week – preferably a book by a member of the author circle here. That might be linked to a low-cost special offer to buy the book, or even a link to a free copy (partial or full) that could be posted for one or two days only, with access restricted to MGC readers. It could also tie in to other book promotions going on through channels such as Amazon’s Kindle Countdown Deals, or BookBub, or something like that.

 

In the comments to that review, those who’ve read the book could share their insights about and reactions to it, and ask questions of the author, who could respond in comments of his or her own (or in a follow-up article on MGC if interest was sufficiently great). It might develop into an interesting back-and-forth discussion each week, possibly going on for several days even as other articles take over the main page. We could bookmark the week’s review in the sidebar, so that those wanting to keep track of the discussion could click on it whenever they navigated to the Mad Genius Club main page.

 

What do you think, fellow authors and readers? Would this be a good start?