How about that game last night, huh?  I pretty much think the only things preventing riots in Colorado were A) abject depression at your NFL AFC champions playing like an office flag football team, and B) the clouds of sweet, sweet, fully legal ganja you could use to damp your disappointment.  Also, it’s quite cold there.  You just don’t burn the world down when you’re chilly, bummed, and baked.

Let’s say, however, that your preferred methods of misery masking do not or cannot include toke-able diversions.  Perhaps you have an unspecified job within the military-industrial complex, or you’re not a huge Taco Bell fan.  Whatever.  Might I suggest you distract yourself with the fun little world of A Sword Into Darkness, available for sale NOW in trade paperback and Kindle.  A couple of chapters in and — I promise — Manning’s depth perception will be the last thing on your mind.

How are things looking the day after Launch Weekend?  Pretty good, I’d say.  Sales have been steady, considering I have a very limited reach thus far, and the comments and reviews that have been posted have been (for the most part) very satisfying.  Now, I’m new at this, so as one reviewer noted/warned, I probably do look at reviews.  I admit it.  I do.  I’ve put out a product that I’m proud of, and that I’ve been told by third parties is a damn fine adventure, but I still want to know if folks are happy with it.  So, yes, I do look at reviews, but less because of vanity than as a matter of conscience.

Have all the reviews been great?  No.  One guy was kind of “meh” about the whole thing, and another guy ABSOLUTELY LOATHED it.  There’s an immediate reflex response to disregard them, to say that the second guy might be trolling, or that his extreme, dismissive dislike was because of personal hangups rather than my writing, but that’s an unworthy attitude.  Their opinion is just as valid as the majority opinions of the folks who loved it, and I just have to accept that not everyone is going to be a fan.

To that pair of less-than-satisfied customers, I’m sorry my book wasn’t what you wanted it to be.  As a consolation — and as a treat for all the rest of you who either loved my book or haven’t read it yet — I’ve got a bunch of free goodies right here on the blog!  Check over in the Pages section and you can read two rip-roaring rocketpunk/steampunk/aetherpunk tales, The Improbable Adventures of Dylan Darby (where this blog gets its name) Episode I:  “Gambler’s Cruise” and Episode II:  “Waking the Rock”.  Those stories are just the beginning of a long planned series, a series which has goals far beyond just a collection or episodic novel.  My friend Nathaniel has already made a fantastic radio play out of “Gambler’s Cruise”, available here, but we’d love it if we could sell Dylan Darby as a TV series.  And there’s more!  You can read my two pro-published short stories:  “Strategic Deployment”, a much-different military sci-fi tale (which actually has a spec-script version for production), and “Dreams For Sale — Two Bits!”, a soft sci-fi tale about infinite possibilities and the baggage you carry with you.

And what can you expect from The Improbable Author as we move past launch?  I’ll continue to cover news about ASID, concerning deals and sales, the up-coming audiobook launch and expansion of the e-book to Nook, Kobo, Sony, and iPad/iPhone, as well as the planned app and table-top game.  I’ll also begin tackling Echomancer again, continue working on short stories, and also launch something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.  What is it?  🙂  You’ll just have to click one of those Follow buttons to check back and see!  🙂