New website coming

I'm in the process of transitioning from my old website (tesserene.com) to a new one. In the meantime, please use markterencechapman.googlepages.com.

The website itself will look the same. Only the url will change.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

Mark.

Join me on Blog Talk Radio

I'll be interviewed by author Kim Smith on Blog Talk Radio on Sunday, February 8, 2009, from 4:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (eastern time, U.S.).

We'll be talking about my new anthology (The World Outside the Window), my first novel (The Mars Imperative), and whatever else comes to mind.

I hope you'll join us!

Mark.

The World Outside the Window now available for Kindle

In addition to the trade paperback print edition, The World Outside the Window anthology is now also available in Kindle ebook format. (Other ebook formats will follow.)

Mark.

"The World Outside the Window" anthology available

I have a sci-fi short story ("Fallen Star, Rising Star") in The World Outside the Window anthology, which is now available on Amazon.

The anthology contains 19 stories by 19 authors, spanning multiple genres, from romance to sci-fi, from paranormal to suspense.

If you love good stories and like to explore different genres, this anthology is a great way to start out the new year.

Here's a blurb and short excerpt for my story:

Blurb:

While playing catch, two boys spy a falling star. When they investigate, they discover that the meteorite is much more than they bargained for. In fact, the fate of all humanity depends on what they do next.

Excerpt:

"Be careful!” Joey cautioned, stepping back. “It might still be ho—”

Paul clutched the shape before Joey could finish his warning. “Nah, it’s fine. Well, it’s a little warm, but not much. C’mere and look at this! It’s so cool!”

He held it out in both hands for Joey to admire. It was roughly baseball-sized, but not spherical—more egg-shaped. Paul brushed off some of the soil that still stuck to it, revealing what lay beneath. The object was multifaceted, like a giant emerald, but unlike any emerald the two boys had ever seen or heard of. The gem glowed with an internal fire, pulsing like a heartbeat, first brighter and then dimmer.

“Here, hold it.” Paul offered.

“Nuh-uh,” Joey replied. “I don’t like the looks of it.”

“Chicken. Bawk-bawk—”

“Shh! Someone might hear you!”

“Yeah? Who? There’s no one around here but us. Bawk-bawk—”

“All right, all right!” Joey reached out and touched the object with the tip of a finger for the briefest instant.

Mark.

At last: the cover for Sunrise Destiny

I've been waiting for this cover with breathless anticipation. Sunrise Destiny is my new paranormal sci-fi novel. I really put Shirley Burnett (the Art Director at Red Rose Publishing) through her paces until I got exactly what I wanted. (If you don't like the cover, blame me, not her.)

Click on the link above for the blurb and an excerpt, and on the image for a larger view. There is still no release date; I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

Let me know what you think of the cover!

Mark.

Guest blog at Kissa Starling's

I just realized I forgot to mention my guest entry in the blog of author Kissa Starling last week (January 17). I mused about what it would be like to be telepathic, and what a society of telepaths would be like. I also tied my thoughts into my upcoming paranormal sci-fi novel, Sunrise Destiny.

I hope you enjoy it.

Mark.

Redesigned website

I've redesigned my website to be much more attractive than before, but just as easy to use.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Mark.

Chat at The_Haunt_at_PNR on Jan. 25

Please join me in The_Haunt_at_PNR Yahoo group on January 25, 2009. I'll be chatting about writing, the publishing industry, my new paranormal sci-fi novel and whatever else comes up from noon-6 p.m., eastern time, U.S.

See you there!

Mark.

Interview correction

Oops! I really messed up that post. The interview appears Sunday, January 18th, not today. Sheesh.... Sorry about that!

Interview
Excerpt

Mark.

Interview on Alisha Paige's blog

I've been interviewed by author Alisha Paige. The interview will appear in her blog on Saturday, January 17, 2009.

Come find out everything you ever wanted to know about me: the six people I'd want to spend a week with on a deserted island, the sexiest thing ever done for me, and with whom--living or dead--I'd like to a have a conversation (and more). Also, I reveal some details about the characters in my upcoming sci-fi novel, Sunrise Destiny.

I hope you enjoy the interview.

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 78)

Ready for some more words to watch out for? Here goes:

Descent vs. Decent vs. Dissent

Wrong: He seems like a descent enough person.

Right: He seems like a decent enough person.

Descent (duh-SENT or dee-SENT) is the act of moving from a higher place to a lower one, while decent (DEE-sent) means satisfactory, proper, modest, or respectable. Dissent (dih-SENT) means disagreement. A mountain climber wouldn’t want to descend too quickly. Ideally, he should use a decent rate of descent and avoid dissent with his fellow climbers.

Ascent vs. Assent

Wrong: I got his ascent to proceed.

Right: I got his assent to proceed.

Ascent (uh-CENT) is the opposite of descent. It is act of moving from a lower place to a higher one, while assent (same pronunciation) means agreement. That same mountain climber should get the assent of his sherpa before beginning the ascent.

More next time!

Mark.

Auctioned Bride is now available

If you like romance novels, check out Victoria Chapman's book, Auctioned Bride.

Erotic Romance: Contemporary, Interracial/Multicultural

ISBN: 978-1-60435-281-8
Word Count: 60,870
Release Date: January 15, 2009

Who will win the battle and who is going to win the war?

When Kathy Adams finds herself alone in a deserted building during a hurricane, the last thing she expects is to run into a stranger in the dark. He turns out to be a Peruvian billionaire who takes one look at her in the glare of his flashlight, and decides to add her to his collection of pretty toys. He offers her a dream job on his private island in the Caribbean, and their seduction dance begins.

He is handsome, arrogant, and thinks that every woman has a price. And she's a girl who won't be bought. She wants the real thing—she wants love. Paul Andros doesn't know the meaning of the word.

Kathy is falling for him against her better judgment, every instinct telling her to run. She'd never met his type of man before. Exciting, volatile and always in control. He uses sex as a weapon to leave her weak at the knees.

After one of their many fights, he bids for her at a charity auction, and pays three million dollars to teach her a lesson. The farm girl from Iowa, and the Inca King from Peru wage their final battle on their wedding night and find love and passion strong enough to bridge their differences.

Can hate turn to love? Find out in Auctioned Bride…

**********

To order, or for an excerpt, visit the order page or Victoria's blog.

Mark.

Join me in a chat on Sunday Jan. 11

I'll be chatting in the Yahoo group of author Savannah Chase tomorrow. If you have some time, please drop by and join us. Feel free to ask questions about the publishing industry, science fiction and fantasy, my books, or anything else. (If I don't know the answers, I'll make something up!) The url is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/savannahchase/. (You'll need to join the group before you can ask a question, so please allow a few minutes for approval.)

I'll be online from 7-9 p.m. (U.S. eastern time; GMT -5 hours), but if you can't be there during those hours, you're welcome to leave a question beforehand and I'll respond when I "get there". Or feel free to follow the discussion later when you have time.

See you there!

Mark.

Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 77)

Still with me? Here are some more words and phrases to watch out for:

Cartoonish vs. Cartoonlike

Wrong: Her art has a cartoonish quality that I enjoy.

Right: Her art has a cartoonlike quality that I enjoy.

Cartoonlike refers to something that has the appearance or essence of a drawn or animated cartoon. Cartoonish, on the other hand, has the negative connotations of exaggerated or overblown (like a caricature). You might not mind people referring to your artwork as cartoonlike, but you’d probably object to them calling your makeup cartoonish.

Poinsetta vs. Poinsettia

Wrong: We sent them a lovely poinsetta for Christmas.

Right: We sent them a lovely poinsettia for Christmas.

Poinsetta is simply a misspelling of poinsettia.

I have more, so stay tuned.

Mark.

Follow-up to my eBook sales blog

My previous blog entry received by far the most feedback of all I've written so far. I thought I'd respond to some of the objections readers posted in a discussion group I follow:

Comment: Until there is an e-book reader that is actually convenient and reasonable to use (Kindle is close, but who will pay $300.00?) e-books are going to be a fringe market.

My response: I agree, but that's changing quickly. The quality of the screen, the battery life, and the ease of use are already much better than they were three years ago, and the prices will keep dropping. (Probably under $50 in a few years. Look at DVD players, which were over $500 a few years ago) I think within the next five years ebook readers will reach the tipping point, where they're good enough and cheap enough that people will buy them in droves for the convenience. Look at iPhones. They're ridiculously expensive, but people buy them because of what they can do. A few years ago, iPods were the same way. But now there are lower-end models that are affordable, and everyone seems to have one. eBook readers will be the same way.

Comment: People want to do what they want with things they buy.

My response: Of course. And they should be able to, within reason. But I think being able to sell 500 copies of something they paid for one copy of is unreasonable, yet some pirates are doing exactly that.

Comment: Educating people is never going to work as long as people believe they
have the right to the product they bought

My response: That's exactly the point of the education, to open people's eyes and get them to understand that what some people are doing is wrong. The PETA ads and others of that type have opened people's eyes to animal cruelty. Fur sales are down, and animal testing of cosmetics has pretty much been abolished.

You know what they say about locks only keeping honest people honest. If everyone thinks it's okay to share ebooks with everyone they know (and some they don't), then the book industry is done for, because eventually all books will be sold that way. The revenue stream will dry up if books are routinely pirated. But if we can make readers understand that they are hurting the book industry (authors and publishers alike), most people (the honest ones) will stop posting ebooks to websites for widespread distribution. The publishing industry can take action against relatively few pirates, but not against millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens who each upload a few books.

Objection: I've seen e-books for $25, so they're not even cheap. I guess the author and/or publisher figures people will pay $25 for a hardcover, so why shouldn't they charge the same?

My response: I'm sure there are exceptions, but most ebooks are significantly cheaper than the equivalent print book. Check out fictionwise.com.

Comment: E-books are not going to make large printing houses go away from still offering the book in actual paper. The profit to cost is still great enough to warrant printing of books.

My response: I agree that ebooks aren't going to make large publishers stop printing books. The cost of printing and shipping them will do that. In the past year, many of these publishers had to lay off employees, merge with other publishing houses, and even cut mid-list authors, because they were losing money or barely getting by. The picture isn't as rosy as you seem to think. The publishers can't keep laying people off to save money, because a certain minimum number are required to do the job effectively. (If you've read any books lately, you've probably noticed that the editing quality of some of them is aready suffering, with frequent grammatical and spelling errors that I never used to see from the big houses.)

As a result, they'll start offering ebooks as a cost-saving alternative to print. Oh, they'll bill it as a way for consumers to save money, but it'll really be to save them money. Costs will be ower and profits higher. And they'll start promoting the hell out of ebooks.

Consider the various costs incurred by publishers: editing, designing covers, printing (printing machines, paper, and toner/ink), shipping, advertising, etc. All of these are incurred by print books. But with ebooks, you can eliminate the printing and shipping costs. Everything else should remain the same. We all saw what happened to the cost of food and almost everything else when fuel prices skyrocketed last year. A large part of the price increases was due to the higher cost of shipping. (After all, trucks, airplanes, and ships all use that expensive fuel.)

Sure, fuel prices have dropped back to more reasonable levels, but for how long? The next mid-East crisis or whatever can send them up again. And fossil fuels will only get dearer as the supply diminishes. But those are costs that go away entirely with ebooks (along with the costs for paper and those multimillion-dollar high-speed printers).

The consumers won't be quick to switch--many of them won't unless forced to. But eventually the only way they'll be able to find certain books will be in electronic form, and they won't have any choice but to do so. When that point is reached, it's just a matter of time until all books are only offered that way.

And it's not a bad thing. All those back-list titles that are out of print can be reissued, because with no printing costs (they've already been edited and the covers designed), there's no reason not to offer them if there's even minimal demand.

All this won't happen in five years, perhaps not ten. But I don't think we'll see any more print books (except possibly special edition hardbacks) 20 years from now. (Do you buy many albums on cassette tape these days? I don't think video tapes will be sold much longer, either.)

Everything's going digital: TV, music, movies, cellphones, and now books.

Mark.