News for January 2012

Kia Ora everyone! I hope you enjoyed the festive season. I for one am glad to be starting a new year that promises to be very different in more ways than one - my day job of translation will be in an office for six months, instead of working from home. But we have a whole lot of exciting stuff planned with Splashdown! There's a Kindle freebie for you today and tomorrow, so keep reading :)

2011 was a huge year for us, publishing 9 books and bringing our total to 16. Yep, it may not seem like much, but for a micro-sized team, I think it's pretty cool - and I'm grateful to everyone who helped make it possible. You can check them all out in our bookshop: www.splashdownbooks.com/bookshop

Fiction Awards Voting Time!

Despite the name, I am not affiliated in any way with the Grace Awards ;) but I'd sure love for you to vote if you enjoyed one of our books. Here's what to include, according to instructions at www.grace-awards.com:

- Link to your Facebook profile (or any other kind of online profile; your page must have existed before November 2011)

- Speculative Fiction: Title/Author

- Why you liked it (at least 25 words)

Send all this to graceawards@aol.com. You may only vote once in each category, so choose carefully!

Our eligible titles for this year's contest are:

Reality's Dawn and Reality's Ascent by R. L. Copple

The Crystal Portal by Travis Perry and Mike Lynch

Winter by Keven Newsome

Finding Angel by Kat Heckenbach (Also eligible for the YA category!)

The Seer by Fred Warren

Caffeine by Ryan Grabow

(Anthologies aren't eligible, so don't vote for those!)

There's also the Family Fiction Readers' Choice Awards, with several categories to vote in, such as best author, best novel, best NEW author, etc. You can leave categories blank if you don't have favourites. There's one for short stories so if you're fond of Aquasynthesis or Odd Little Miracles, you can put them there. And there's even a category for best video trailer (remember Winter, anyone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5r8Lb6Er_A).

To vote in this award, go here:

http://www.familyfiction.com/news/vote-in-the-2012-familyfiction-readers-choice-awards/

Preparing for an awesome year!

We have another full year of stupendous stories coming up for you, beginning very shortly with I Am Ocilla by Diane M. Graham. This young adult fantasy novel was a winner of the legendary Marcher Lord Select contest in 2009 - and guess what, she's been making it even better ever since! I bet you're going to love it.

After that comes the grand finale to Caprice Hokstad's Ascendancy Trilogy: Blood and Brine. Return with us to the kingdom of Latoph where Duke Vahn fights for his life and that of his people - in more ways than one.

And much more, of course! Details forthcoming. Science fiction, supernatural, young adult fantasy, and more sequels to books you have loved!

FREE KINDLE STORY

That's right! If you've read this far, you get to join in the fun and grab a retro tale by yours truly. Invasion is one of the first short stories I wrote as an adult, around the time I was finishing work on my first novel. Religious content is fairly strong in this one, so give it a miss if you're sensitive. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006UI73CO

You don't even need a Kindle e-reader - you can view it directly in the Kindle Cloud Reader online, or download Kindle apps for PC, Mac or smartphone.

This free offer is for today and tomorrow only - Saturday and Sunday! Ends Sunday midnight, Pacific time. And - if you like it, leave me some stars!

This is the first in a series I've christened Splashdown Droplets - the bite-sized weirdness of my own short stories, possibly to be joined by other Splashdown authors in the near future. See them all here: http://amzn.to/z0KnAj and watch for new ones coming out.

We'll be back next month with Ocilla, more Kindle goodies, AND something else we've never done before! So stay tuned.

All the best, and happy reading, from the (rather wet) Kiwi summer!

Grace

Thanksgiving Update

Kia ora everyone! Boy, have we got a lot going on at Splashdown this month! Want one of our paperbacks for less than $3.00? Read on...

But first, our latest release, this time from the realms of science fiction:

Caffeine, by Ryan Grabow

"Supernatural: above, beyond, in excess of nature. If the meaning of life cannot be found in nature, then I must determine if the answer lies beyond it."

In an authoritarian and overstimulated 22nd-century America, all Brandon can do to relieve his pain is indulge in the computer-simulated fantasies of a network called Dynamic Reality...until a virus takes control of the simulation. A philosophical thrill ride like no other - don't miss this one.

Ebook Sale

As of right now through Sunday night, all our ebooks are priced at $2.99 - including our November new releases. That's a saving of at least 50% - Come on in and grab your choice! Kindle books are discounted direct at Amazon and all are collected HERE in our Amazon store; if you'd like a different format, just say the word and we'll send you a voucher.

Fred Warren's Feast

Not only did we release Fred's second novel, The Seer, just a few weeks ago. Now, Amazon is discounting his short story collection in paperback, Odd Little Miracles! At the time of writing the price had fallen to $2.78, and it's even eligible for their 4-for-3 special - which means you can get four copies for under $9.00. The perfect odd little gift for, well, just about anyone! But don't dally - Amazon is notorious for changing prices around at their whim. This discount is not under our control, so get it while the gettin's good!

By the way, the same 4-for-3 promotion also applies to Aquasynthesis, our collection of stories from all Splashdown authors to date. Something for all reading tastes.

That's it for this time - thank you for reading!

Grace and the team at Splashdown

How to get a manuscript accepted at Splashdown

Here it is, folks - the comprehensive guide with everything you need to know.

1. Write a phenomenally good book. This should be obvious. But don't just have a high opinion of yourself. Have your writing peers look at it, preferably professionals as well, and take their advice.

2. Be nice. If I should suggest your story might need more work, please forego the retaliatory backbite that rises from the hurt. Don't burn Bridges, cause this Bridges has been burned enough. Full, willing and eager cooperation and teamwork is expected from our authors, and anything less at the outset will get you nowhere.

3. On first contact, give a concise summary of your project. Merely sending files gives me nothing to consider in the intervening time until I can get to look at it properly - and that may take a while, because it's just little old me back here.

4. Tell me your relevant marketing experience. Make me believe you're a good investment and that your book will pay out.

5. There better not be any typos in your first-contact material.

6. Respond maturely to criticism and advice, and be committed to continued learning and improvement.

7. If you submit to Splashdown, you should be a fan and friend of Splashdown. Not just the Facebook kind, either. KNOW Splashdown. Read our books and see if this is a family you want to be a part of. Immerse yourself in our histories, anecdotes, modus operandi, authors' blogs, and grasp our unique flavour.

There is one more item; unfortunately, it's rather unquantifiable, and I'm sorry about that, but this is the way it is...

8. Your story must be one that I LOVE. Yes, it all comes down to personal taste. Sorry. If your tale charms me... AND if all the above criteria are fulfilled... then we could very well be good to go.

If this sounds like a rant, that's because it is. I'm sick and tired of people offloading their submissions on me without any regard for how I like to do business. Ignore my feelings at your peril.

November News

Kia Ora!

November is an exciting month for Splashdown...New releases, new reviews, and new opportunities for you to save on quality speculative fiction. Read on!

Now Available

You loved The Muse. Fred Warren ups the ante with The Seer. Follow Stan Marino and his daughter Hannah as new threats emerge from the world of inspiration.

Stan plopped into the sofa and ran his hands through his hair. He felt so tired, but sleep was the last thing he wanted now. “Okay, let’s put everything on the table. Hannah can see the future. Her new best friend can get into other peoples’ dreams. I may or may not have Leila Starling, the Malevolent Muse of Minneapolis, playing tiddly-winks inside my head. Finally, my not-so-late wife Charity, whose secret identity I have carefully shielded for the past five years, now must be explained to Hannah. Did I leave anything out?”
“You also led an army of comatose nerds against Leila’s devil dogs in the realm of imagination.”
“Not helpful, Jilly.”
“Sorry. You asked for it.”

Available at Amazon in paperback and Amazon for Kindle, as well as the paperback at Barnes & Noble. Other retailers are taking their time to list it, but you can get Epub for Nook at Smashwords along with many other formats.

Reviews:

Looking for that special something to fill a virtual Christmas stocking? Check out these reviews and excerpts for our newest Splashdown offerings:

The Seer:

Barn Door Book Loft

Finding Angel:

Spire Reviews

Magical Ink

Interviews:

Sometimes you want to know more about a book than what's inside the cover.

Fred Warren:

Barn Door Book Loft

Kat Heckenbach

Magical Ink

10 Minute Writer

Caprice Hokstad:

Remnant In The Stars

Coming Soon

Ryan Grabow wowed you with his short in Aquasynthesis. Soon he'll thrill you with his full-length debut novel Caffeine. Stay plugged in for the latest updates.

Avenir Eclectia Celebrates 100 Stories!

Can you believe it? Just yesterday we posted Avenir episode #100, a tale by Travis Perry in his ongoing thread. The project has been running since March at three brief stories per week, and is going to pass the milestone of 50,000 words by the time we get to #102. Our awesome designer Mike Rogers has provided a new skin for the website to celebrate, so get on over and check it out: www.avenireclectia.com.

Special Deals

Black Friday approaches and Splashdown wants to join the festive fun.

All Splashdown ebooks will be on sale November 25, 26 and 27 for $2.99.

We'll send a reminder but plan your Christmas budget now to save a little dough for more sugar cookies.

That's all for this time... Thanks for reading!

Grace and the team at Splashdown

September News

Kia Ora from New Zealand and hello from Splashdown!

Lots of goings-on this month, so let's dive right in...

Now Available

Finding Angel, the first novel by veteran author Kat Heckenbach, is here!

It's aimed at middle-graders and young adults, but fantasy-minded grown-ups will love it too.

Perfect for reading with or without kids!

Angel doesn’t remember her magical heritage…but it remembers her.

Magic and science collide when she embarks on a journey to her true home, and to herself.

Angel lives with a loving foster family, but dreams of a land that exists only in the pages of a fantasy novel. Until she meets Gregor, whose magic Talent saves her life and revives lost memories.

She follows Gregor to her homeland…a world unlike any she has imagined, where she travels a path of self-discovery that leads directly to her role in an ancient Prophecy…and to the madman who set her fate in motion.

Available at Amazon (in Kindle too). Other retailers are taking their time to list it, but you can get Epub for Nook at Smashwords along with many other formats.

New Look

www.SplashdownBooks.com has a new face. Check out the new-and-improved, easier-to-navigate website. Find books faster. See what's new with your favorite authors. Handy drop-downs and a splashy backdrop are just a few of the upgrades. Drop by and dive in!

Splash Hit

Splashdown's first group anthology made a big splash at Amazon, rising to #1 in Bestselling Science Fiction and Fantasy Anthologies shortly after going public! See what all the fuss is about with stories from all the current Splashdown authors - Fred Warren, Caprice Hokstad, P.A. Baines, Adam Graham, R.L. Copple, Travis Perry, Mike Lynch, Keven Newsome, Kat Heckenbach, Grace Bridges and Ryan Grabow, with narration from Walt Staples.

Snag Aquasynthesis at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favourite online location.

$5.98 in print or $2.99 in e!

E-book Sale!

The Crystal Portal e-book by Travis Perry and Mike Lynch is available for $2.99 this month only. Check it out at Kindle and Smashwords!

We're also launching a cool new spin on the cover - up now in ebook formats, and coming soon to the print version:

Award Finalist

Caprice Hokstad's Nor Iron Bars a Cage finaled in the Global eBook Awards! The full list is here - look for the Speculative Fiction: Fantasy category.

Congratulations, Caprice!

In Brief

• Keven Newsome's Winter now wears 22 five-star reviews at Amazon!
• Next month sees the release of The Seer by Fred Warren - the long-awaited sequel to The Muse. It's a doozy, I can tell you!
• Avenir Eclectia has passed a total of 75 mini-stories in its shared world. Why not get on board?

That's it for this time - but watch out in the weeks to come for more exciting developments!

Splashdown News: August 2011

Aquasynthesis is here!

Welcome at last to the premiere of Splashdown's first group anthology. Delays in retail channels have kept us waiting, but no longer! Stories from all the current Splashdown authors fill the pages - Fred Warren, Caprice Hokstad, P.A. Baines, Adam Graham, R.L. Copple, Travis Perry, Mike Lynch, Keven Newsome, Kat Heckenbach, Grace Bridges and Ryan Grabow, with linking narration from top Avenir Eclectia writer, Walt Staples.

Gizile follows her mysterious teacher, Tok, to contemplate a series of strange and mystical visions that appear upon the ice of an ocean pool: Astonishing tales of technology and transcendence, aliens and elves, space and time, dragons and demons, prophecies and scriptures, humor and horror, the gifted and the enslaved, virtual and supernatural reality, insanity and inspiration. Dive into the creations of the Splashdown wordsmiths. Cross the borders into novel worlds you love already, and taste their delights if you are new to Splashdown's universe.

Grab Aquasynthesis at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favourite online location.

Just $5.98 in print or $2.99 in ebook, for over 200 pages of stories - Beat that!

Party time!

The Launch Party for Aquasynthesis is at: http://tinychat.com/splashdown (no login required, or you can use Facebook or Twitter) at 8pm Central time on Tuesday August 18th. We'll be doing some ebook giveaways as usual, so don't miss it!

Coming Soon

You've loved her short stories. Now you can enjoy her at full length. Finding Angel, the first novel by veteran author Kat Heckenbach premieres October 1.

Angel doesn’t remember her magical heritage…but it remembers her.

Magic and science collide when she embarks on a journey to her true home, and to herself.

Angel lives with a loving foster family, but dreams of a land that exists only in the pages of a fantasy novel. Until she meets Gregor, whose magic Talent saves her life and revives lost memories.

Angel follows Gregor to her homeland…a world unlike any she has imagined, where she travels a path of self-discovery that leads directly to her role in an ancient Prophecy…and to the madman who set her fate in motion.

Fans of Caprice Hokstad

Writing continues on Caprice's Book 3 of the Ascendancy Trilogy, the long-awaited sequel to Nor Iron Bars a Cage. Read what Duke Vahn, kee and all your favorite characters do with war and plague threatening. Check out Caprice's blog post here and sign up to receive the chapters as she writes them!

Now Available!

Have you ordered your copy of Odd Little Miracles? Why not? The price is right and the stories will blow your mind.

Do the impossible…Change the future…Save the world…

All you need is one odd little miracle.

Twenty-two bizarre tales—where odd is commonplace, little things make all the difference, and miracles are everywhere, if you know where to look...

Find it at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Not least...

Splashdown author P.A. Baines received two Finalist medals in the 2011 NextGen Indie Publishing Awards. Congrats, Paul!

And lastly...

Splashdown authors have been busy in a number of books lately - not just our own!

Check out work by Rick, Kat and Fred in While the Morning Stars Sing from ResAliens Press, edited by Lyndon Perry.

Also: Rick's new science fiction novel Mind Game from Ethereal Press. Great stuff!

Splashdown News: July 2011

New books, new worlds, old favorites...and special offers on ebooks*.

Do the impossible…Change the future…Save the world…

All you need is one odd little miracle.

We’re doing the miraculous at Splashdown Books this month. Or rather, publishing the miraculous stories of our own Fred Warren. Twenty-two bizarre tales—where odd is commonplace, little things make all the difference, and miracles are everywhere, if you know where to look...

Available July 1, 2011 from Splashdown Darkwater.

At Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Ebook versions coming soon.

LAUNCH CHAT WITH FRED WARREN

Tuesday July 5th, 8pm Central

at http://tinychat.com/splashdown

No login required. See you there!

(Don't forget the special offer I mentioned*.)

Avenir Eclectia at Digital Dragon

This month's issue of Digital Dragon magazine is devoted to stories set in the world of Avenir Eclectia. Many of the same characters you've met already can be found in the pages of DDM—in longer stories than you'll find at http://www.avenireclectia.com/.

Check out stories by Kat Heckenbach, Greg Mitchell, Frank Creed, Walt Staples, Grace Bridges, Ed Erdelac, and Holly Heisey. And don't miss the interview with Avenir's artist and song writer, Eleon.

(You haven't forgotten, have you? Special offer* coming up...)

Splashdown's First Group Anthology

Coming soon is Splashdown's first group anthology, Aquasynthesis. Stories from all the current Splashdown authors fill the pages, and are linked together by a special narration from top Avenir Eclectia writer, Walt Staples.

Gizile follows her mysterious teacher, Tok, to contemplate a series of strange and mystical visions that appear upon the ice of an ocean pool: Astonishing tales of technology and transcendence, aliens and elves, space and time, dragons and

demons, prophecies and scriptures, humor and horror, the gifted and the enslaved, virtual and supernatural reality, insanity and inspiration. Dive into the creations of the Splashdown wordsmiths. Cross the borders into novel worlds you love already, and taste their delights if you are new to Splashdown's universe.

Look for it in print and ebook August 1, 2011.

(Almost there*...stick with me, now...)

Congrats to Keven Newsome

Our release of Winter by Keven Newsome couldn't have been better. An instant in-house best-seller, Winter has been met with enthusiastic readers and amazing reviews.

Great job, Keven!

Winter is available from Splashdown Darkwater in print and ebook formats.

Ebook Lovers

Ah, yes....time for that *SPECIAL OFFER* promised at the beginning of this newsletter!

The weekend of July 2-4...

...all Kindle books from Splashdown Books...

...will be 99 cents at AMAZON!

Don't miss your chance to get all the books you've been holding on your wish-list.

This weekend only - at http://amzn.to/splashdownkindle

And if you prefer another ebook format, we won't leave you behind - all formats are available at Smashwords. If you want one of those, EMAIL ME here (or leave a comment

on the blog with your email address) saying which book/s you're after, and I will send you a coupon for 99c.

Splashdown's Soundtracks: ELEON

CONTINUUM on Amazon - includes our theme song SPLASHDOWN!

~Continuum on iTunes~