Welcome, welcome to the first proper edition of The Starved Blog newsletter, your one stop shop (except it’s kind of a shop that gets sent to you, so maybe more like a door to door salesman, but one you invited to your house) for everything relating to the science fiction shenanigans of me, Thomas Norford. First up…
Announcements.
The Starved God Audiobook
I’m delighted to announce the release this summer of the audiobook version of The Starved God, coming out on Audible. It’ll be narrated by a fine individual by name of Richard Auty, who has a wonderful voice. He sounds a bit like Johnathan Pryce, don’t you think? Here’s a sneaky peak:
Scourge of the Unblessed
As a thank you to you good people, I’ve written a spin-off short story called Scourge of Unblessed, set in the Starved God universe. It stands alone, but you’d probably want to read the novel first. Or maybe not, I dunno. I’ll send you all a separate email with a link to a folder, from which you can download it in various formats. If you want it in a different format or you can’t make it work, let me know in the chat, or on Facebook or whatever. If needed, I can daub the whole story in red paint on the pavement outside your house. The cover, by the way, was designed by my clever daughter.
Lamia: An Alien fan-fiction story
Quite a while ago now I wrote a short story set in the universe of Aliens, as in xenomorphs, Ripley etc. It was a kind of warm-up exercise for writing The Starved God and I was quite proud of it in the end. It’s about a messed up kid living alone in an old farm. An injured xenomorph drops from the sky near his home and mayhem ensues. If you want to read it, hit the button below:
By the way, if you want to read ePub books on your phone, I recommend an app called ReadEra.
Book marketing for the poor and unconnected
So, being a self-published author, I’ve had to try and market The Starved God myself. This has been eye opening to say the least, and not a little confusing. What, for instance, is a Reader Magnet? No idea, but they’re important apparently.
ARCs - Advance Reader Copies - are also important. The idea is that you send people the unpublished manuscript to review before releasing the book, and they help you generate buzz, reviews on their blogs etc. I went down the maverick route of publishing straight away and then trying to generate interest by purchasing proper copies for people I know. Oops.
Also highly confusing are the USA tax forms you have to complete in order to publish on Amazon, Google etc. What is a W8BEN form? I’m not sure, but I’ve filled one in anyway, so if the IRS haul me to prison, that’s probably why.
I’ve joined a band of local self-published writers called Northants Authors This is their website if you’re interested. It seems quite a good thing to be involved in, because they have links to local literary festivals and stuff which I might be able to tag along to and flog my wares. Well, ware.
I also made myself a website using Google Sites because that is the done thing, apparently. Here…
Something Cheered, Something Weird, and Something Beard.
AKA Science Fiction Reviews of the Month.
I assume you people like science fiction books, so I thought I’d do a review or three in each newsletter. These come under three categories:
Something Cheered: Well known and celebrated science fiction books.
Something Weird: Underappreciated or little-known science fiction books.
Something Beard: Science fiction books by men with beards.
First up, Something Cheered: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the guy who wrote The Martian, which ended up as a film with Matt Damon. It’s one for fans of very, very, detailed and legit scientific detail. A man wakes up on a space craft and he can’t remember who he is or what’s going on, but it would appear he is burdened with the task of saving Earth, because of something to do with the Sun. I can’t really remember. There’s an alien it it, though, which was quite good. It’s not very fast paced, mostly because of all the scientific detail that’s gone into it, but it’s well written. The narrator is sort of annoying at times, in a chirpy, can-do American kind of way. Rating: 3.14 Matt Damons out of 5.
Something Weird: The Fungus by Harry Adam Knight. Imagine if The Last of Us was created by fictional schlock-horror writer Garth Marenghi in 1985. A mutated fungus experiment has run wild and everything in the UK is covered, or indeed, has become, fungus. A man has to travel to London, or Ireland maybe, to meet his ex-wife because she’s a scientist and might know what to do about it, because she started it all. It’s very James Herbert-esque - there’s something very British about it in a naff, appealing way. There are fungus monsters, freakish fungus-based sex scenes, and supremely grotesque science experiments gone wrong. Rating: 4.9 spores out of 5.
Something Beard: Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This writer is really, really, good, and absurdly prolific. He does fantasy and science fiction. For The Starved God, I basically pinched the idea of evolved octopus from one of his books. This is one of his SF novellas, and it’s about a man called Gary who’s trapped on a space station where time and reality don’t seem to work properly and there’s something lurking in the darkness. Rating: 4.6 Garys out of 5.
Work in Progress
My next proper novel is called The Silent Earth. You know the classic trope of the detective who goes with his gut, pisses off his superiors and has crippling personal flaws? Well, this will be like that, except it’s a children’s social worker somewhere in the midlands…and there’ll be monsters, cults, and various shenanigans. Here’s some blurb:
A movement is growing. People are stepping away from the daily humdrum of life, to reconnect with nature, to link hands and feel the soil under their naked feet. But what of the strange symptoms which accompany this behaviour? Eating non-edible substances, strange abrasions on the hands and neck, disconnection from loved ones…Is this a transcendent social movement, or something more fantastical and sinister?
I’m still working out the plot and I won’s start actually writing it until the whole story is mapped out. Microsoft OneNote is very useful for that. Based on my current rate of output, it should be released in 2079. I enjoy being ignored, so I’ll send it to a few literary agents when it’s finished.
Other nonsense
There is no further nonsense to report at this time.
Feedback
It would be nice to start a dialogue, so feel free to start a chat on any topic, eg: What would you like to see more/less of in this newsletter? How often do you want it? Questions about The Starved God? Is anything in the newsletter, like me, wrong or broken?
If you share this newsletter with one other person I will give you £1. (Not really).
Until next time!