I finished 2001: A Space Odyssey last night, the movie and book are so go on their own. They make a power synergy of each medium, there are instants where I prefer the book and others where I prefer the movie. I'm very glad that I chose to re-read the book, now I just shouldn't wait another 20 years to do so. Now I'm moving onto Stephen Kings "Under the Dome." I plan on watching the tv series when its released.
I am now reading The Woman Who Wouldn't Die by Colin Cotterill. It is the 8th book in the Dr Siri mystery series. Dr Siri is an elderly coroner and the books are set in Laos in the 1970s.
Finished this month's "Atlan" (Perry Rhodan spin-off) yesterday, which is actually a reprint of two Atlan novels from the early 1980s, but they're new to me, and up till now pretty entertaining. Now I'm reading the second print edition of the new "Heliosphere 2265" series, with novels 3 and 4. Also, quite entertaining, although there were major space battles in all the first three novels, so I hope this doesn't get formulaic real quick. Expect to finish it tomorrow, I'm reading 'em fast these days. For afterwards, I already got my copy of Dan Simmons' "Endymion". I absolutely fell in love with the first two novels of the Hyperion Cantos, so I'm really looking forward to this.
I'm reading a book by an acquaintance of my mother. Pretty standard stuff. The tale of two women who deliver babies on the same day, and about their lives. Some of the chapters ends with little optimistic/quasi-philosophical poetry bits. It's not entirely my cup of tea. I like the short chapters approach she's taken. But. What's interesting is how she got it written and released. She decided for an a beginning, an end and the basic characters, and then she furiously took notes on the train back and to work every day for three years. When it was done she hired a printing company in the baltic states to print up 2000 copies, payed the equivalent of 2000 USD to do that. And now she's selling them herself for 10 bucks a piece. And it's gone really well. She's on her third printing now. It makes me think...maybe it's not impossible for me to write some more off kilter stuff and get it published. Horror/fantasy has been a pretty popular genre over the past decade with John Ajvide Lindkvist's novels (among then Let The Right One In). What I'm writing and some other stuff I want to write might work.
^^ This is a great time to be an independent creator. E-book technology and print-on-demand mean that you don't even need to make that much of an initial investment like your mother's friend did. Even established writers are going that route. Larry Blamire, the guy who did Lost Skeleton of Cadavra et cetera, published his collection of supernatural Western short stories through Lulu, the same publisher I used for my paperbacks. You can also publish e-books directly through Amazon or Barnes & Noble (and other independent publishers like Smashwords). I did that with my second short-story anthology-- I only charge 99 cents and I make three times as much per sale as I do with the paperbacks. There are other options developing, too. Tim Pratt, a well-regarded fantasy author, has financed a couple of his books through Kickstarter. So get going, dude, and keep us updated.
Vlad Dracula: The Dragon Prince by Michael Augustyn. A historical novel about the life of Vlad Tepes.
Yeah it's definitely a better (and cheaper) time to self publish. Sadly I think a lot of people never recouped their investments in the old days of vanity publishing. And there are lots of success stories these days as well (take 50 Shades!). I published my first novel via Lulu, and now have a novella/anthology on Amazon (shameless plug see my sig). I'm currently reading Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin, my first Rankin/Rebus novel but I don't think it'll be my last. As an interesting coincidence in the introduction Rankin talks about the influence of Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder novels, and the book I read imemdiately before starting Mortal Causes had been the latest Scudder novel!
I have just downloaded a novella called "The Devils of Amber Street" onto my iPad. I don't know much about it, it only cost me 99c, and I will read it as soon as I finish Lost Classics: Writers on Books Loved and Lost, Overlooked, Under-read, Unavailable, Stolen, Extinct, or Otherwise Out of Commission which I have been reading on and off for about three weeks.
Yeah, now there's a distribution system in place. The biggest problem remaining is advertising. Amazon UK won't let me buy it, unfortunately.