Book Brouhaha

Summary: Acerbus hates his job. While he is content to watch and study the mortal races, the other gods constantly look for reasons to destroy their newly-created world. When they finally find an excuse, they command Acerbus to become the Smiter, destroyer of all creation. Armed with nothing but spite and goblins, Acerbus decides that there is only one way to ensure his own failure and save the world: by becoming an Evil Overlord. Review: This is an absolutely delightful story.  Thomas has such a fun style of writing!  "Smite Me" was a perfect blend of whimsy, humor and thought-provoking ideas.  I frequently found myself laughing out loud as I read though this story.  The way Acerbus interacts with his fellow gods is priceless. While this story remains engaging throughout, I found myself a tad confused in the middle.  It was unclear to me why any of the gods, including our main character, would obey the main god, Lux.  Acerbus constantly seems to...

Welcome to Book Brouhaha! Why don't you start out by introducing yourself and telling us a little about "Wool." Thanks for having me, Alain! I suppose I'm just this normal guy who just wrote a little story called Wool. It's about a group of people who live underground. When their society turns on itself, it threatens all of mankind. In a way, it poses the conundrum of every revolution: How do you destroy an unjust social structure without the collateral damage being worse than the injustices were? I suppose the most interesting thing about me, personally, is that I lived on a sailboat while I was in college. This led to a career as a yacht captain, which sent me all over the Caribbean and the East Coast. I didn't start writing in earnest until my wife dragged me away from the sea and into the mountains. I've always loved the short form. I've been told that it isn't as marketable, even though science fiction has a long and glorious history of c...

This particular story is a standalone I have available on Amazon, BN, etc. that takes place in my Muzik Chronicles universe.  Muzik Chronicles is my serial sci-fi blog I started it a little over six months ago.  It's kind of like a weekly comic strip only blog-style.  The goal is to eventually have it be a place where people could submit their own little mini adventures. On the blog, all adventures are flash fiction in that they are under 1,000 words.  In an effort to help attract a wider audience, I created this longer short story featuring one of my reoccurring characters, Calen Natari.  I really enjoy writing these stories.  They're just... fun ... to create.  I guess they let me relive my Star Wars fandom from when I was little?  It helps me to unleash the geek within?  I dunno.  What I do know is that I hated it when the Star Wars books got really serious.  To me, that totally defeats the purpose.  Ther...

Summary: A London bus driver runs into a gang of youths who begin a campaign of terror in London. Will these reeling events take more than the streets? Review: Though never flat out stated, this short story references the riots that took place in London a few months back.  As far as I remember, the youth of London were upset about the lack of jobs.  Or something along those lines.  Which leads to problem I had with this story... While Ward's writing is solid and engaging, much of the impact a piece like this could have is lost due to my lack of knowledge of the events taking place.  Our protagonist is is a normal-guy-turned-hero that has the unfortunate luck to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  However, if the reader is not up-to-date on current events, they would have no idea as what is going on in the story. I get that Ward was trying to convey "the untold story."  When the real life events w...

This has been a problem I've really been mulling over for several weeks now.  I write a serial sci-fi blog that could be enjoyed by anyone but is aimed at a young adult audience.  The problem is figuring out how to get that audience to notice. From an SEO standpoint the blog is slowly gaining traffic but not as fast as some of the others I've started.  When you write about "short stories" and "kindles," Google is quick to pick up on that stuff.  When the blog consists mostly of sci-fi terms... different story. I've tried emailing/calling middle school teachers with not much luck.  Schools are really particular these days about who they invite as a guest lecturer.  I suppose I should try using my teacher contacts? I have a twitter account for the blog which does help to generate some hits.  I make a point of following my target reader types regularly. But still. I guess I'm just going to have to let age help this one?  I mean, it's n...