murder

Dear Readers,

/ catconnor / Leave a comment

Seemed like a good title for a blog post … not sure if it works but hey, you be the judge.

Since I’ve been away taking very good care of #MyKnight while he recovers from a hip replacement, I’ve actually done a few things. I know, I was surprised too.

For starters, ALL the Byte Series books have been re-released for the American and European market, in paperback. Metabyte got an entirely new format, cover, and ISBN. The others just got a freshly formated guts.

That means, if you’re not a kiwi in NZ and you’re looking for a paperback, you can now buy them from Amazon and other places – but please pay attention and don’t buy anything that lists ‘Rebel ePublishers’ as the publisher because they’re sold by 3rd party sellers and have NOTHING to do with me. I get diddly-squat from those sales, so, don’t be that guy, okay? Cheers.

Also, all the Byte Series novels are back on Amazon as kindle versions, gloriously reformated for 9mm Press. You’re welcome. I listened, I acted.

Cryptobyte launches soon – I’m excited. I can’t wait to see what I say at the launch at Upper Hutt Library on Friday, Nov 8th. Not kidding. 🙂 Maybe. Perhaps. Okay, okay, I wrote a speech because Yvonne would be most disapproving if I didn’t, and Readers, I don’t want that. Come along and have cake!!! It’s a phenomenal cake. Trust me, I’m a fruitcake maker. (Crime writer, same thing, whatever)

But wait there’s more … I’m now about halfway through the first draft (no such beast really) of Vaporbyte, which is the 12th-byte novel. Hold the applause until I finish!

Meanwhile … I also learned how to make moving cover images in GIMP and can’t remember what I learned, guess it’ll come back when I go to do it again?

And yes I have red hair – it’s actually Boho copper or so the box said.

 

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It was Crashbyte …

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This morning I opened a file called ‘Crashbyte’ – that’s what Vaporbyte was always supposed to be called. Book 12: Crashbyte. Somewhere as I was following the story, (and it happened pretty fast – two chapters in) I realized Crashbyte wasn’t going to be book 12. It may not ever be an anything. That’s okay, it happens. I left the file and a few days later I saw an entire scene – nothing at all to do with the two chapters I’d written.

I started writing. I knew straightway it the beginning of something. By the third chapter I knew it was something called ‘Vaporbyte’. Great.

This morning I opened that other file, the Crashbyte one. As I read, a slow dawning occurred. By the time I’d finished I knew what I was looking at. It’s not a nothing at all. It’s part of Vaporbyte. It’s the other story thread.

Apparently I’m writing again. Need to catch up? Then, here …

Bear with …

/ catconnor / 4 Comments

Here are a few of the 15-sec videos made for the Byte Series … YouTube seems to think they have all been uploaded, they have not. YouTube is kinda a dick sometimes.

But here’s a link to go along with them! Byte Series Awesomeness

Five of the videos:

killerbyte
terrorbyte
exacerbyte
Flashbyte
soundbyte

My life is a book …

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Seriously! Saw a text from TBH when I woke this morning about strange noises and something/one outside our house – in the front yard. She also said it sounded like something ‘heavier than a bird’ landed in the tree.

The tree in question is a huge camellia tree, right outside my bedroom window. Yeah, I was asleep.

It’s still dark – I have yet to open the curtains to discover what may or may not be in my tree. Of course last night I read a passage in KILLERBYTE about something in a tree (while looking for a few sentences for a graphic). I can assure you that I am in NO hurry to check out the camellia tree this morning. No hurry whatsoever.

As a special treat The Byte Series Boxed Sets are 50% off via smashwords. Until June 1st. Don’t daly. Get in there are enjoy. The Boxed Sets have additional stories – they’re not just three books sandwiched inside a glorious umbrella cover. 🙂 So if you fancy 9 books for well under $10, grab them now.

A lot of you know that Romeo (my faithful greyhound companion) crossed the rainbow bridge on May 5th. He was involved in the writing process of flashbyte, soundbyte, snakebyte, databyte, eraserbyte, psychobyte, metabyte (he was the rock that helped me write that ending), qubyte, cryptobyte … and all the Byte shorts that go along with the series, including the poetry book. Ro was my sounding board. He very much approved of readers reading the Byte Series.

Here he is rocking his killerbyte bandana (original cover)

Ten years …

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This year marks my tenth year in this industry. Obviously, my journey began long before 2009 because, well, you don’t write a book overnight. Nor do you learn your craft, overnight. My journey began in about 1992. It began because I wanted to read something with real women in it. I wrote a lot and then became serious about this storytelling lark. In 2001 my first short story was published. (Yes, back in the dark ages with gatekeepers and whatnot.)

Around about this time of the year in 2009, I approached Rebel ePublishers in South Africa. (Yay for the internet!)

This year is the tenth anniversary of Killerbyte (April 2009) and the tenth anniversary of Terrorbyte (Nov 2009). They are the original publishing dates. Even though, we tend to say terrorbyte was 2010. It wasn’t. The paperbacks came out in 2010.

The tenth year! That’s supposedly a magic time. Any second now and I’ll be an overnight success. I know, right? Exciting stuff.

Ten books, 1 novella, 3 boxed sets, 1 book of poetry, I don’t know how many related short stories, all in the Byte Series. [Never mind the earlier short stories, or the kiwi novel, or the long shorts, that are unrelated to the series.] The work is there and continues.

I’m as prepared as I can be for instant success. Bring it on. 🙂

Ten years with a main-character like Ellie – could be medal worthy!