The Imperative Chronicles is Available for Preorder

This two-book set of THE IMPERATIVE CHRONICLES contains the complete, unabridged, highly rated sci-fi thrillers, THE MARS IMPERATIVE and THE TESSERENE IMPERATIVE. It's a perfect holiday gift for the hard sci-fi fan in your life, with almost 700 pages of excitement. It ships Dec. 6.

Get ready for a near-future universe where the science and technology is as real as anything you might encounter today. It's a universe of space elevators, terraforming, mining camps on Mars, and prospecting for minerals in distant asteroid belts; a universe where the Earth is dangerously overpopulated. We must expand outward to survive.

Dangers abound in space, but so do opportunities. Succeed and the galaxy is opened for human exploration; fail and humanity is doomed to extinction.

Which will it be? Come along for the ride of your life. It's a bumpy one, but well worth the trip.

THE MARS IMPERATIVE:
Mars is a frontier town, filled with prospectors and mining camps. It’s a place of deadly dust storms and near-vacuum atmosphere. And then there’s the terrorist.

When James McKie leaves for his first job in space, he has no idea what he’s getting himself into. Traveling to Mars is harrowing enough. Surviving once he gets there is another matter entirely. Yet there is a discovery waiting to be made, one that could open Mars to human colonization—if it doesn’t kill everyone first.

THE TESSERENE IMPERATIVE:
It was supposed to be a routine mission, but in an asteroid belt nothing is routine.

When prospecting ship Shamu is almost destroyed, the crew of five is left with three days of air, little water, a smashed starflight drive, and no hope of rescue. It will take every ounce of ingenuity and stubborn pigheadedness they possess to find a way to survive.

In the shadows of a small moon, there's a discovery waiting to be made--the secret to first contact. Will it open the stars to widespread exploration, or doom mankind to extinction?

THE IMPERATIVE CHRONICLES series is available on Amazon in 12 countries: http://hyperurl.co/ImperativeChronicles. To find out more about my books, go to my blog at http://tesserene.blogspot.com or my website: http://MarkTerenceChapman.com.

Frequently Misused and Misspelled Words and Phrases (and how to use them correctly) is available for preorder

From the author of the former #1 bestselling Military Sci-fi novel on Amazon (My Other Car is a Spaceship). FREQUENTLY MISUSED AND MISSPELLED WORDS AND PHRASES (and how to use them correctly) is now available for preorder on Amazon.

Do you sometimes find yourself using the wrong word (such as discrete vs. discreet), or using a word incorrectly? Are you confused by the differences between similar words (such as shined, shone, and shown; lay and lie; or to, too, and two)? Do you misspell common words (alright vs. all right, or ect. vs. etc.) and phrases (such as tow the line vs. toe the line)? Do you write fiction, nonfiction, business memos, emails, or anything else that others will read? Then this book is for you.

It explains in simple language the differences between words and phrases that are frequently misused and misspelled, as well as rules for proper punctuation and capitalization, and other elements of English that often trip up the unwary writer. And it does so with frequent humor to keep it from becoming too dry. For example:

Baited vs. Bated
Wrong: I waited with baited breath.
Right: I waited with bated breath.

Do your friends call you “fish-breath”? If not, then you wait with bated breath, which means “reduced, lessened, lowered in force.” The expression bated breath (using a short form of abated) refers to how someone almost stops breathing through awe, terror, anxiety, or extreme anticipation. Perhaps you waited with bated breath as he baited the hook.

and:

Dessert vs. Desert
Wrong: She wandered for days, lost in the dessert.
Right: She wandered for days, lost in the desert.

Unless she was eating the world’s largest hot fudge sundae, she was lost in a desert (an extremely dry place that supports only sparse vegetation), not a dessert (the final course of a meal).

and:

Site vs. Sight vs. Cite
Wrong: Check out my web sight.
Right: Check out my web site.

A site (noun) is a location. (“This is the site of our upcoming restaurant.”) A sight (noun) is a vision or a glimpse of something. (“She was quite a sight in that dress.”) Cite isn’t even a noun, it’s a verb. It means to quote as an authority (“Cite your sources.”), to commend for outstanding service (“He was cited for bravery.”) or to summon to court (“She was cited for speeding.”). The noun form of cite is citation. (Isn’t it interesting how a citation for bravery can be a good thing while a citation for speeding is a bad thing?)

and:

Tact vs. Tack vs. Tactic
Wrong: I’m going to take a different tact on this problem.
Right: I’m going to take a different tack on this problem.
Right: I’m going to try a different tactic with this problem.

The phrase “taking a different tack” comes from nautical terminology meaning a course run obliquely against the wind in a zigzag fashion. So, taking a different tack means to try another approach or come at the problem from a different direction. Tact, on the other hand, is a sense of what’s appropriate or a skill with delicate situations. A tactic is a plan or procedure to attain a goal. A person of tact, then, might try a different tack as a tactic for achieving victory.
Check out the Look Inside feature for hundreds of other examples.

FREQUENTLY MISUSED AND MISSPELLED WORDS AND PHRASES (and how to use them correctly) is available on Amazon in 12 countries: http://hyperurl.co/FrequentlyMisusedWrd. To find out more about my books, go to my website: http://MarkTerenceChapman.com.

Lots of good stuff going on....

I know I'm way behind in  updating this blog, but I've been really busy. So, here goes:

1) My Other Car is a Spaceship is nearing 11,000 copies sold.

2) The audiobook version of My Other Car is a Spaceship is on schedule to ship in early December. It will be available via Amazon, Apple iTunes, and Audible.com.

3) My Other Car is a Spaceship will also be available as an ebook from Barnes and Noble, Apple iBook, Oyster, Scribd, txtr, Smashwords, and other retailers, as well as distributors that sell to over 20,000 libraries, on December 5.

4) The Mars Imperative and The Tesserene Imperative will be combined into one ebook volume called The Imperative Chronicles (Books One and Two). It will be released on December 6.

5) My self-help book for writers of all types, Frequently Misused and Misspelled Words and Phrases (and how to use them correctly), will be released on December 5.

Whew! December will be insane. (In a good way.) :)

My Other Car is a Spaceship audiobook on schedule

We're still looking at a late November or early December release for the audiobook version of my bestselling military sci-fi thriller, MY OTHER CAR IS A SPACESHIP. Here's the cover for the audiobook:

Keep watching for status updates and the final release date. In the meantime, the ebook version is currently available on Amazon in 12 countries: http://smarturl.it/MyOtherCarSpaceship. To find out more about my books, go to my website: http://MarkTerenceChapman.com.

10,000 copies sold!

My Military Sci-fi thriller, MY OTHER CAR IS A SPACESHIP has now sold over TEN THOUSAND copies. Maybe that's not New York Times bestseller numbers, but it's pretty rare for an unknown self-published author. :)

MY OTHER CAR IS A SPACESHIP is currently available on Amazon in 12 countries: http://smarturl.it/MyOtherCarSpaceship. To find out more about my books, go to my blog at http://tesserene.blogspot.com or my website: http://MarkTerenceChapman.com.