Another “Atlantis” Fall 2013 Release!

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I’ve been watching this trend over the past few months.

First, there was the announcement that fantasy author T.A. Barron will release the first title in a planned series: “Atlantis: Rising.”

Then, BBC announced that an epic mini-series “Atlantis” is in production and scheduled for airing in the Fall.

Atlantis Revelation image

Image retrieved from TheBookSeller.com

Now there’s the news from British media The BookSeller.com that Penguin and Amber Entertainment will collaborate on a book and film called “Atlantis Revelation.”   Julian Fellowes, the creator of “Downtown Abbey,” will be Executive Producer of the film. The book, scantily described as an “action adventure,” has an anonymous author at this stage.

Fall 2013 is the season for Atlantis, including The Seventh Pleiade by Andrew J. Peters!!

 

Sign This Amazon Petition

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Some fellow authors brought to my attention this campaign for fairness in e-book seller policies.

Currently, Amazon’s return policy for e-books leaves a gaping hole for fraud:

“Books you purchase from the Kindle Store are eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within seven days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you’ll no longer have access to the book.”

Here are the problems with that:

1. While physical products from Amazon must be returned unopened or packaged or at the very least undamaged, those conditions don’t apply to electronic property; thus customers quite easily could “use” the e-books they buy and return them just to receive a refund.

2. Seven days is loads of time for customers to read most e-books. These include short stories, novelettes, novellas and novels. Customers can return these products like returning a book to the library.

3. Customers already have a mechanism for evaluating e-books at no cost. Through Amazon’s ‘Preview’ feature, they can read the first few pages of a book on-line (sometimes more) to decide whether they want to buy the story; so the seven day “trial” period is unnecessary.

3. The end result is that authors and publishers get screwed because they have to buy back e-book returns, many of which are fraudulent purchases.

Here’s the link to the petition at change.org. Sign it! Thank you very much. 🙂

The George Wayne Interview: Jacks Dowd

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I love Vanity Fair, and one of my favorite features is the George Wayne interview.

George Wayne is described as “a chronicler of global café society,” a “distinguished cultural arbiter,” (both from Vanity Fair) and an “invasive celebrity interrogator” (New York Magazine). He can be counted on to pose off-color and sexually-provocative questions to anyone, from A-list Hollywood actors to right-wing politicians. He’s kind of a forerunner to Sasha Cohen Baron’s Borat with a less intentionally clueless deviousness and more self-winking camp.

So I thought it would be fun to imagine Wayne interviewing the hero Jacks Dowd from my upcoming Werecat: The Rearing.

http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/george-wayne

Retrieved from VanityFair.com

 

Wayne:  So Jacks, you’re a gay college student. Tell us what the young gays are doing for fun these days.

Dowd: I was a college student. But I dropped out in my last semester. I went to a pretty small college in upstate New York so there wasn’t a whole lot going on. House parties. Sometimes we’d go up to Montréal–

 Wayne: I’ve heard there are now gay fraternities. Isn’t that concept redundant?

Dowd: They didn’t have any gay fraternities at Calverton University. They had a Gay-Straight Alliance.

Wayne: In my day, a Gay-Straight Alliance was something that happened in the backrooms of Merv Griffin’s studio. Or was it a hustler service for Republican politicians? Anyway, have you ever been spanked?

Dowd: (guffaws) Yeah.

Wayne: I promised myself I wasn’t going to ask this question. But I can’t help myself so let’s just get it out of the way. Your story is called Werecat. What is a gay man doing in a book about pussy?

Dowd: It’s about feline shapeshifters. I don’t have sex with women if that’s what you’re asking.

Wayne: Thank God. I knew a man on Fire Island who used to dress up as Cat Woman and pull a chariot down the boardwalk offering people free rides. Is that the kind of werecat we’re talking about?

Dowd: No.

Wayne: So what are the young werecats doing for fun these days?

Dowd: I would have no idea. If you read the book, my boyfriend and I spend most of the time hanging out in an abandoned building.

Wayne: Oooh! I did that in the early 90’s. It’s like a rave, right?

Dowd: No. It’s not like a rave.

Wayne: Did anyone ever tell you: you’re a lousy interview?

Dowd: Did anyone ever tell you: you’re a sexually-obsessed old queen who asks lousy questions?

Wayne: Touché. [roots out a business card from his pocket] Here’s my number if you’re ever in the mood for Grandpa trade. I’ll bring the catnip.

Dowd: [takes the card and crumples it up in his fist] No thanks. Is this over?

The Seventh Pleiade on Amazon and GoodReads

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Happy Faces

© Alice Herden | Dreamstime Stock Photos

I was delighted to discover that my upcoming title The Seventh Pleiade is up on Amazon and GoodReads.

It won’t be available until November 19th, and the listings are sorely in need of cover art and other goodies. But you can pre-order the book and/or mark it as “Want to Read.” I’d love it if you would! It was also nice to discover a list of customers who have already added it to their to-read list. 🙂