Despite my self-imposed medical retirement, sometime in the next month or so, I will start reading back through the whole Blue Horizon series, making much-needed revisions to the text. After looking through some of the old tales, I realized with horror that a number of un-edited versions of the stories were used instead of the finished and polished editions. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the spit-and-polished files on any of my backup discs, so I'm going to make the effort to go through that process once again to correct this oversight. I am embarrassed at what I've seen released online and in the printed books, so I'm going to make this my priority for a while. I'll be cleaning up grammar mistakes, typos and while I'm at it, I think I'm going to make some changes to some of the background characters and also to one of the major running themes that's ongoing through the whole storyline that I was never really happy with. Liz Jackson, the talented artist who created the cover art for Sunset of Furmankind, Second Chance, A Wilder West and Hoenix, will start work on each of the Blue Horizon covers soon. I've long wished for actual cover art instead of the generic color covers I've used for years, and I'm pleased that she's agreed to commission them for me. This will come just in time to coincide with the revisions, so when each cover is completed, a revised book will be released as a New Edition, both in printed and ebook formats, in addition to the website library. Liz Jackson has completed another masterpiece, the new cover to my novel Hoenix. I liked the old cover by Chris Carter, though it was unfinished and the artist never seemed to have the opportunity to get back to it, but he'd granted me permission to use it as-is. Now that Liz has become my go-to artist for the covers of my books, she will be eventually replacing all of them for me, including the five books of the Blue Horizon series. I'd selected Hoenix as the next commission and I'm again pleased with the work she's done for me. It's a different scene on the cover but just as appropriate to the story. Now that the artwork is completed, a revised printed novel is available through the Lulu bookstore, and the ebook files of the story on this site have been updated with the new artwork. If you click on the thumbnail image at the left, it will open up the full image on Liz's FurAffininity site so you can see it in greater detail. I would like to introduce you to James R. Lane, a long-time friend and fellow anthropomorphic author of novels "Redeeming Factors" and "Lifetimes". You may have also seen me refer to him here on occasion as my "beta reader" as the one who helped read each chapter of my tales to help smooth out bumps before they make it online. For his help, I have been most grateful. His own website was long frozen in time, the material locked on a site he was unable to update after misplacing the login data - until just recently. However, his website has recently undergone revisions and has been updated. There are several short stories there that you may read, though his two big novels are currently unavailable as out-of-print. Sample chapters of both, however, are available on his site. You can find them all at Lane-Books.Com. This may come as a surprise to some of you — though not to others since I've hinted at it for some time — but due to physical issues, I am officially retiring from active fiction writing. All current projects are now on an indeterminate hiatus, which means that I may or may not add further material to them anytime soon. I apologize to my readers who may have continued to follow the tales I've weaved, but after nearly forty years of writing, my hands, wrists and finger joints are all worn out. I have enjoyed the storytelling that allowed me to stretch my creative imagination over the years, and I'm especially grateful to fans of my work, but there comes a time when the realization sinks in that it's time to put away the pen, close the book and rest for a while. For those who may be thinking that I may have serious medical issues, let me put your mind at ease and assure you this is not the case. My energies are simply tapped out, and what used to be a joy has slowly become a chore with time due to the frequent pain. I appreciate every single person who has read and enjoyed my tales. I've always said that I wrote my stories for myself, so if there were those who didn't like what I've written, that's okay since I didn't write these for them. For those who did, however, I'm glad to have had you along for the ride. It's possible I may still jot down a few new passages from time to time as the condition of my hands permit — since I really hate to leave some tales unfinished — but officially I've turned the "Closed" sign on the door and have shut off the lights. Although active production has stopped, this site will remain online; the web space is provided free of charge and requires no maintenance, so it should be safe to leave up for as long as the servers are active. Despite my medical retirement, I still plan to post new chapters of Jeff's stories as he submits them to me. His projects are too good to keep outside, so those will still have a home to new segments as they are written. Thanks for stopping by, my friends, and Good Night. — Ted R. Blasingame The spaceplane in Sunset of Furmankind that was based upon SpaceShipTwo built by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic had its first powered test flight today. Things have gone well this week, though it may still be a while until we've finished getting everything set up in the new place. Some things will remain boxed up until we can move to a larger place at some other time in the future, but for now we're having to decide what to put out or leave in storage. I have managed to get in some writing during my lunch breaks at work, but not so much whilst at home. If all goes well, I may have another chapter of A Wilder West online within a day or two. There are some of you that already know this, but we are in the process of packing up for a move out of the rental house that's been sold out from under us and into an apartment complex across town. The new place will be closer to work for both of us, so this is not necessarily a bad thing, and it's even cheaper. We're allowed to bring our dogs since they're under the weight/size limit, though we had to put down a cleaning deposit for both. Under ideal circumstances, we would have preferred to make the move this past weekend due to it being the last of the month, but the apartment wasn't ready for us and the owner of the house was gracious to allow us until next weekend to make the move. We've already made a good dent in boxing up the place, though some of it will have to go into storage since we have more stuff than will go into the apartment. It's unlikely I'll be able to get anything further written on the stories for a while so we can unpack and set up the new place, but once the dust has settled, I have plans to get back to the tales as soon as I can. The newly Revised & Expanded edition ebooks of Sunset of Furmankind are now online for immediate downloading. You can find links to both mobi (Kindle) and epub (Nook, Sony) versions at the bottom of the SOF library page. I have just spent the opening months of 2013 reading back through the Sunset of Furmankind manuscript, making edits, adding material and generally expanding some sections of the story. Some of the changes were based upon reader comments I've received since the story was first made available to the public and others came to me as I read back through the story as a whole. Along with nearly twenty extra pages of material scattered throughout the story, I commissioned Elizabeth Jackson to create a new front cover to go along with the revised and expanded book. Liz is the one who has created the wonderful covers for my two works-in-progress, Second Chance and A Wilder West. The new artwork depicts Brian Barrett VS Jonathan Sunset to represent the internal struggle between the opposing sides of his personality throughout the changes he must face. The new edition of the book is now for sale online through Lulu Press as a giant trade paperback, and all of the chapters on the website now reflect the new material. I am still working on the ebook versions for Kindle, Nook and Sony readers, but these will take some time as ebook formatting is a whole 'nuther animal. I hope to have both versions available soon, so be sure to watch for news and updates. I cannot lie when I say that I enjoyed the little extra income from sales of the ebook versions of my books, but it was my original intention to offer them as free downloads just as my webpage books have always been free to read online. I priced them as low as Amazon, Lulu and Barnes & Noble allowed ($2.99), but now I can now fall back upon my original plans. The printed books are still available through Lulu Press for those who prefer a solid physical product, but for those who have Kindle, Nook, Sony and other e-readers and would like to take our stories along for convenient reading, you may now download all of my ebooks for free from my website. However, unlike purchasing them through Amazon or Barnes & Noble, these will not automatically download over the air to your readers. You will need to side-load them onto your units, but these are the same files that I originally uploaded to my online stores. All have been tested on my Nook and my wife's Kindle and they all seem to work just fine. The download links for each ebook are located on the same library pages as the online versions of our stories. — Enjoy! |
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