Midlist Writer: We Had Flags

Showing posts with label We Had Flags. Show all posts

Monday, 21 September 2015

My lastest post-apocalyptic novel We Had Flags is out now!

We Had Flags, the third in my Toxic World series of post-apocalyptic novels, is out now. The series starts with Radio Hope and continues with Refugees from the Righteous Horde. The Scavenger is a novelette in the same world.

In We Had Flags, the residents of New City face their biggest challenges yet. For those of you familiar with the series, the main characters in this volume are the Doctor, Pablo Cruz, and someone you haven't met yet. A blurb is below.

A law doesn't work if everyone breaks it.
For forty years, New City has been a bastion of order in a fallen world. One crucial law has maintained the peace--it is illegal to place responsibility for the collapse of civilization on any one group. Anyone found guilty of Blaming is branded and stripped of citizenship.
But when some unwelcome visitors arrive from across the sea, old wounds break open, and no one is safe from Blame.

We Had Flags is available via Kindle's Prime program, so if you're a member you can read it for free!

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

We Had Flags blurb, version 2.0

Here's version 2.0 of the blurb I posted earlier. This is for WE HAD FLAGS, the third in my post-apocalyptic series. Blurbs are hard, so suggestions are most welcome.

A law doesn't work if everyone breaks it.
For forty years, New City has been a bastion of order in a fallen world. One crucial law has maintained the peace--it is illegal to place responsibility for the collapse of civilization on any one group. Anyone found guilty of Blaming is branded and stripped of citizenship.
But when some unwelcome visitors arrive from across the sea, old wounds break open, and no one is safe from Blame.

Thursday, 27 August 2015

Blurb help please!

I'm getting ready to publish We Had Flags, Book 3 in my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series. It will be out in mid-September. Right now I'm fiddling with the blurb, always a tricky part of any project, and I could use some help. The blurb is below. Any thoughts? Thanks!

A law doesn't work if everyone breaks it.
For forty years, New City has been a bastion of order in a fallen world. One crucial law has maintained peace--it is illegal to place Blame for the collapse of civilization. Anyone found guilty of Blame is branded and stripped of citizenship.
But when some unwelcome visitors arrive from across the sea, old wounds break open and no one is safe from Blame.

Saturday, 22 August 2015

Enjoying an Oxford Summer

I'm nearing the end of my usual summer of research/writing/relaxing in Oxford. Weather-wise, this has been a nonsummer in the UK, with cool temperatures and way too many clouds. Like the English, we take advantage of any good weather we get and immediately head outdoors. This shot of the River Isis (the local name for the Thames) was taken on a walk to the medieval church of St. Margaret’s and its holy well. I also celebrated turning halfway to 92 with a medieval birthday cake. Click the links for the posts I wrote about this for Black Gate.

In writing news, I'm doing the final edits on We Had Flags, the third novel in my post-apocalyptic Toxic World series. It will come out in September. I'm also moving along in No Man's Land, the third in my Trench Raiders series.With all this bad weather, I've been doing more than my usual hiding in the Oxford University library researching and writing!

How has everyone else's summer been?

Thursday, 27 November 2014

Made it through the National Novel Writing Month Challenge!

I've just made it over the 50,000 word mark on We had Flags, Book Three of my Toxic World series of post-apocalyptic novels. There's still a ways to go on this one. It's feeling like an 80-85,000 word novel.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun. Hope any other NaNo folks out there are having as much fun as I am!

Monday, 13 October 2014

Finished writing my next WWI action novel: Digging In!

This weekend I finished Digging In, the sequel to Trench Raiders, my WWI action novel. I'm going to give it another hard edit and then send it out to my uber-cool team of beta readers. This book has Company E trying to survive the First Battle of Ypres in 1914. Things do not go well for either side!

For the next two weeks I'm going to work on some short stories, including Christmas stories for my Trench Raiders and Toxic World series, and then I'm going to do National Novel Writing Month. My project will be We Had Flags, Book Three of my post-apocalyptic Toxic World series. The folks in New City are going to have some surprise guests whose appearance will open old wounds and get everyone talking about who was to blame for the fall of civilization. For those of you who have read the earlier books, you know that being found guilty of Blame gets you branded and exiled, but if everyone starts doing it. . .

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The Case of the Purloined Pyramid

The Last Hotel Room

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet. Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change? A portion of my royalties will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

Warpath into Sonora

Arizona 1846: Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages. Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . . A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son. A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command. One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2)

When you only have one shot, you better aim true. In a ravaged world, civilization’s last outpost is reeling after fighting off the fanatical warriors of the Righteous Horde. Sheriff Annette Cruz becomes New City’s long arm of vengeance as she sets off across the wildlands to take out the cult’s leader. All she has is a sniper’s rifle with one bullet and a former cultist with his own agenda. Meanwhile, one of the cult’s escaped slaves makes a discovery that could tear New City apart. . . Refugees from the Righteous Horde continues the Toxic World series started in Radio Hope, an ongoing narrative of humanity’s struggle to rebuild the world it ruined.

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times. The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive. Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Trench Raiders

September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think. After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing toward Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate. Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?

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