Amazon has discounted Rebooting Fate to $2.99. Don’t know how long that will last, but based on experience: probably until the first few people jump on it.

Speaking of Paradox Book 2, it acquired a rating. A whopping 3 star rating. No reviews, just that. This is a 1st for my books. I don’t get a lot of reviews normally, but when I do, at first they tend to be from readers who liked the book in question. In that way, at least, I’ve been fortunate. Hell and Gone only had 4 & 5 star reviews for years before suffering the first drive-by 1-star.  “Ratings” have made it even easier for drive-by book-bombing. There’s a lot I’m tempted to say about ratings/reviews, but whatever. (UPDATE: While getting links, I saw that a second rating had finally come in–a 5 star, which pulls the average up to 4.)

The bottom line is, Paradox was written as one Tolstoy-length saga, not a series. But to sell it in today’s market, I broke it into a series. It was not meant to be episodic, originally. And though I did what I could to make it work better as an episodic tale, I knew there were going to be problems.  It’s not surprising that a reader would feel they only got part of the story–because any one of these books really is, in fact, just part of the overall story.

And along those lines, I’m mulling over an idea to possibly make the integrated, comprehensive saga available as a hardback and an E-book “box set.” I’ve never done that before, but I think it would be a good fit for this project.

Both of the Paradox books released so far were bestsellers. In fact, both became the #1 Hot New Release. Pleasant surprise, seeing as how I didn’t discount the 2nd one as deeply, nor promote it very hard. And it clung to that #1 Hot New Release spot for almost a week–even after I changed it back to normal price. So yay.

But it sure looks odd when a bestseller only has single-digit ratings/reviews on ‘Zon.  What can ya do?

Paradox Book 3 is scheduled to release in early February. It looks like the paperback will be available not too long after.  Pete/Ike is in college for Defying Fate. There’s a lot of football. As his mind matures, he also becomes aware of parts of life that never interested him as a kid (like politics). Though Uncle Si gave him a good head start, he still has much to learn about friendship, leadership, and women. Not all that learning is painless. He also gets into some sticky wickets that could not happen without a time machine.

It might do better than the previous books for those reasons. It might do better because there’s a nubile blonde on the cover:

Or it might not do better at all. I do plan to lower the price and run a promotion, so we’ll see.

There’s other developments regarding books going on. You may have noticed the new contributor, Gio, has begun reviewing and interviewing. He mines some rare nuggets in today’s literary landscape, and is helping others discover them. Personally, I plan to read Robert Victor Mills‘ old-school sword & sorcery books based on Gio’s recommendation.

I need to post my own review of Hans G. Schantz’s The Hidden Truth–a really good conspiracy thriller with a touch of speculative/sci-fi thrown in. Will look to do that, soon.

Right now I’m reading The Babylon Codex, which, being time travel fiction, is technically competition for my latest. I’m enjoying it so far. Not only is it well-written and plotted, but it deals with (and offers an explanation of) a phenomenon very similar to what I call “The Big Spooky” in Paradox.

With all the stuff happening in the world right now, and what looks to be a whole lot of bad news staring us in the face for the immediate future, there is still some good literature being produced. Embrace it!