Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! May all your hopes and dreams come true, and your endeavors prove fruitful.

By the way, my science fiction novel, Sunrise Destiny is up for Book of the Month at Dark Divas Reviews. Click here to vote for it. (Voting ends at midnight on January 6.) To read the Dark Divas review of Sunrise Destiny, go here.

Thanks, and have a wonderful new year!

Mark.

Another wonderful review for Sunrise Destiny

My 2010 EPIC Award-nominated science fiction novel, Sunrise Destiny, just received this terrific review from Kathy at Dark Divas Reviews (the bold emphasis is mine):

Rating: 5 Delightful Divas (their highest rating)

I added Mark Terence Chapman to my auto-buy list; and that was just 80-some pages into the book. This is a very long ~ at 450 pages ~ story, but I never got bored, never lost focus and certainly never wanted to rush it to its conclusion. Sunrise Destiny started off in the vein of one of those old-time PI stories, but there were a few things that didn't quite fit… until I remembered that this is also a sci-fi story. I was much taken with the slight dichotomy and, as the story progressed, found myself more and more intrigued.

Sunrise Destiny can almost be split into at least two parts; at first I wasn't sure it would work, but Mr. Chapman is able to move seamlessly between the two worlds and make everything come together very well. Generally, I find most science fiction stories a little harder to adjust to; especially with regard to the speculative nature and otherworld aspects. With Sunrise Destiny, Mark Chapman's narrative was strong and wonderfully detailed, without overdoing it, and I found myself so involved in Donatello's adventures that I was easily able to enjoy the futuristic elements.

There's evil galore, a plot for world domination, aliens and a good old-fashioned adventure. This is also a romance; the hero, a PI, whose reputation flirts with notoriety and a heroine who is a prostitute and Sunrise's sometime lover. Two people, who on the surface, just don't seem to have what it takes. But they do, and in spades. I loved watching the progression of their long-time relationship from now-and-again to full-bodied romance. Very nicely done Mr. Chapman, very nice indeed.

I do feel that a warning should be given: There is some violence and a disturbing scene; while it's there it is by no means graphic. And it goes a very long way to adding impetus for actions taken later in the book. All in all Mark Terence Chapman's Sunrise Destiny was a wonderful surprise and a story that will definitely be a re-read.

To find out more about Sunrise Destiny, including a blurb, a 4,000-word excerpt, and ordering links, please visit my web page.

Mark.

Chatting with Savannah Chase on Nov. 23

I'll be chatting online Monday (11/23/09) with paranormal author Savannah Chase about my current novel, Sunrise Destiny, my EPIC Award nomination for that book, and whatever else comes to mind.

The chat will be held in Savannah's Yahoo group. (If you haven't already registered with the group (it's free and takes only a minute), you should do so as soon as possible so Savannah has time to see your membership request and approve it.)

Please join us from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m Eastern time (U.S.).

I hope to "see" you there.

Mark.

More good news

It seems that good news, like the bad sort, comes in bunches.

First, on Monday, I learned that my novel, Sunrise Destiny, is one of three finalists in the EPIC Awards competition (science fiction category). The winners will be announced at EPICon in March 2010. The book is currently offered in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.com. (Other ebook formats are available from the publisher.)

Then, on Tuesday, I learned that my short story, Harvey-467 Makes a Bride is now available for sale from Amazon in Kindle ebook format. (Other ebook formats are available from the publisher.)

I wonder if there's any more good news waiting around the corner....

More later.

Mark.

Tuesday was a great day!

First, I received a wonderful review for Sunrise Destiny, from Coffee Time Romance & More. Then I found out that SD was finally available for sale on Amazon.com.

Here's the meat of the review:

This has to be the most entertaining book I’ve read this month; I absolutely loved it! I began to get an inkling that the story was set in the future because of some of the scifi type gadgets Sunrise had, but I never imagined until I got about a quarter of a way into the story that it would also end up being one heck of a scifi adventure as well. Private eye type stories are usually not my thing at all, but this book could fit into a number of different genres very well, and I think the cross genre elements are what really make the story work. I loved how Sunrise respects Lola in spite of the fact that she is a hooker, which you do not often see in fiction, usually the hooker is the bad girl, but in this story she is one of the heroes. I really liked that. The world building is extraordinary and really pulls the story together. I know this is one book I’ll be reading over and over. I cannot say enough good things about this book, and I encourage everyone to go out and get a copy today, it is well worth the money spent!

You can read the full review (5 Cups, their highest rating). For anyone who hasn't already read an excerpt of Sunrise Destiny, or to buy it, go to the order pages at Red Rose Publishing or Amazon.com. (Amazon misspelled my middle name. LOL! Have to get that fixed.) For information about my other novels and short stories, please visit my website.

Later!

Mark.

#1 bestseller!

My sci-fi short story, Harvey-467 Makes a Bride, was released by Red Rose Publishing on Thursday as an ebook. When I checked the RRP bestseller list Thursday afternoon, I was pleased to note that it was #2. It was still #2 Friday morning, but by Friday evening it had jumped to #1, where it remains as of Saturday morning. Wow!

If you're interested, you can buy it here for only 99 cents. You can't beat a deal like that!

Here's the story blurb, and a short excerpt:

Harvey-467 is a typical 25^th century android--blond, blue-eyed, and perfect in every way. Except he’s constrained by his programming. He yearns to be creative, but it’s impossible. Everything in his life is planned, deliberate, precise.

One day he concludes that it's time to get married, to have a soul mate with which to share his life. So he custom-orders a bride from a catalog: beautiful, talented, and equally perfect.

And that's when everything goes terribly wrong.

Excerpt:

When consciousness resumed, he checked his internal chrono and was stunned to find that 1.86 hours had elapsed since shutdown. It was well past midnight.

Wow, my cortex must really have gotten hot if it took this long to cool down to safe levels.

He became aware of his surroundings. But how did I get from the living room to the back porch?

I wonder what Maya must have thought when I froze up. She was so angry I wouldn’t be surprised if she went on for ten minutes before noticing.

He chuckled at the image of her berating the back of his inanimate head, and then becoming twice as incensed that he hadn’t heard a word she’d said all that time.

She must have been so mad she carried me out here. Well, I guess I’d better get it over with. I hope she didn’t lock me out.

He sighed and tried the door handle. It turned.

What he saw in the living room shocked him to the processor core. There lay Maya, her beautiful face smashed flat and her cortex spilling out of massive rends in her cranium plate. The spark of sentience was gone from her lovely green eyes. Red hydraulic fluid had leaked all over the mint green Berber carpet she’d insisted on buying. More had sprayed the walls and ceiling.

But how? Who? What happened here? Who would murder an android—and why?

I also have a novel, Sunrise Destiny, available for sale at RRP. For more about my writing, see my website or my blog. I hope you enjoy them! Mark.

Chatting on June 11

I'll be chatting with author Bryn Colvin and several others on June 11th in the Latte Lounge at Coffee Time Romance & More. (The chat is all day, but I'll be popping in and out.) The topic will be pirates. (Is June International Pirates Month, or something? I'm already scheduled to chat with author Rowena Cherry and others June 2nd on Internet Voices Radio as part of that month's Crazy Tuesday. The topic will be space pirates. What an odd coincidence.)

I'll be mentioning my third sci-fi detective novel, Sunrise Destiny, which releases tomorrow, but mainly I'll be talking about my upcoming fourth sci-fi novel, My Other Car is a Spaceship, which--amazingly enough--is about space pirates. 8^} You can find out more about both books at my website.

I hope to "see" you at one or both chats.

Mark.

Join me for a chat!

Please join me on Sunday May 17 for a chat at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/savannahchase/. I'll be talking about my upcoming science fiction detective novel, Sunrise Destiny (to be released on May 21) and other topics.

I hope to see you there.

Mark

New excerpt

I've added a longer (4,000-word) excerpt for Sunrise Destiny on my website. (It replaces a 1,000-word excerpt.) So if you have any interest in reading a paranormal sci-fi action/adventure novel, this should give you a good taste of the style of writing. Sunrise Destiny will be released on May 21, 2009.

Mark.

Radio interview on June 2

I'll be participating in another interview as part of Crazy Tuesday on Internet Voices Radio, hosted by author Rowena Cherry. The theme of this show is "space pirates," which just happens to be the subject of my fourth (as yet unpublished) science fiction novel, My Other Car is a Spaceship. The show will be from 10:00 a.m. to noon on June 2. I'm sure I'll also be able to slip in a mention or two of my upcoming sci-fi novel, Sunrise Destiny, which will be released shortly before the show, on May 21.

More details on the other authors who will be participating when I find out. Please join us. It'll be a blast! (Blast? Blaster? Blast-off? Space pirates? Get it?)

Mark.

Sunrise Destiny coming May 21

It seems like it's taken forever, but my third sci-fi novel, Sunrise Destiny, will be released on Thursday, May 21, by Red Rose Publishing. It will be released initially as an ebook, with a printed version coming later. You can preorder the book from the RRP order page, and later order it from Amazon.com and other booksellers.

I'll post an excerpt containing the Prologue and Chapter 1 in a separate blog shortly. I hope you'll check it out.

Mark.

Harvey-467 Makes a Bride coming soon

I have a tentative release target of July 2009 for my sci-fi short story, Harvey-467 Makes a Bride. Although it's not out yet, the publisher, Red Rose Publishing has created an order page for it, which includes a brief excerpt of the story.

If you'd rather, here is a direct link to the excerpt on my website.

Here's a blurb for the story:

Harvey-467 is a typical 25th century android--blond, blue-eyed, and perfect in every way. Except he's constrained by his programming. He yearns to be creative, but it's impossible. Everything in his life is planned, deliberate, precise.

One day he concludes that it's time to get married, to have a soul mate with which to share his life. So he custom-orders a bride from a catalog: beautiful, talented, and equally perfect.

And that's when everything goes terribly wrong.

More later when I have more details, and a cover.

Mark.

Sunrise Destiny coming May 21

I have a tentative release date for my upcoming sci-fi novel, Sunrise Destiny. The plan is for a May 21 release.

Although the book isn't yet out, the publisher, Red Rose Publishing, has created an order page for it, containing a thousand-word excerpt. The cover price for the ebook is $5.99. A print version should be out later. If you prefer, here is a direct link to the excerpt on my website. Here's the book blurb:

When private detective Donatello Sunrise is coerced into finding a Mob boss’s daughter, he stumbles onto a much bigger case. Dozens of women, all young, all petite, have disappeared in recent weeks. Mysterious and conflicting clues seem to point to a government conspiracy, a mad scientist bent on global domination, or perhaps abduction by bloodthirsty alien vampires. Nothing makes any sense.

Before he knows it, Sunrise and his hooker friend Lola find themselves in a life-or-death struggle. The Mob wants them dead, the cops want them for serial murders—even the kidnappers are after them. With the fate of two worlds intertwined, Sunrise and Lola must somehow help the good guys defeat the evil ones.

The trick is telling one from the other.

I'll follow up when I have a firm release date.

Mark.

Upcoming interview

I've been interviewed by author Michelle Pillow. The interview will appear in her blog on May 5, 2009. She posts "silly interviews" there each Tuesday, so don't expect anything heavy. They're meant to be fun as well as informative.

If you want a head start on the interview, there's one coming next week, February 24, 2009, with romance author Keta Diablo. And another one the Tuesday after that and the Tuesday after that, and...you get the idea.

In my interview, I talk about the inspiration for my upcoming novel, Sunrise Destiny, as well as the last place on Earth I'd want to live, what fictional character I'd like a date with (and what we'd do on that date), and more. I hope to see you there on May 5th!

Mark.

Blog Talk Radio chat with Kim Smith

If you missed my chat yesterday (Sunday, Feb. 8) with fellow author Kim Smith, you can listen to the podcast at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kims.

We chatted for about half an hour about my novels (The Mars Imperative, The Tesserene Imperative, and the upcoming Sunrise Destiny) and the writing processes she and I use in writing our stories.

For more about my books and short stories (including the new anthology containing one of my shorts) go to my website.

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.

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.

eBook resales: good or bad idea?

There's a thriving business in the resale of used books. It's a great way to clear our shelves of books we no longer want, and these sales can generate some cash for the purchase of new books. Even though the resale of these books deprives the author of royalties for the additional sales, no one really minds. This is because resales are a small percentage of total book sales, and may open new markets (to readers who hadn't previously read a particular offer). The same is true if you lend or give a book to a friend.

The same dynamic should apply to ebooks (books sold in various electronic formats), right?

Unfortunately, no. When you give or sell a printed book to someone, they get one copy and the most they can do is resell or give away one copy. But with ebooks, the one copy you give/sell can be copied hundreds, even thousands of times. So, instead of the author losing the royalties for a single resale, he or she potentially can lose thousands of dollars in royalties--and that's just from a single copy. Think about the impact on that author's income if hundreds of readers each give away copies that are passed on to hundreds of others. (Not to mention the losses suffered by the publishers and those they employ.)

Before you say, "But authors like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling make millions from their books. They won't miss it.", consider this: For every author who's a millionaire, there are hundreds of authors who barely make a living from writing, and hundreds more who write as a second income because writing alone won't pay the bills. If they made more money, perhaps they could quit their day jobs and write full-time (producing more of the books you love).

And before you say, "But my reading an ebook that a friend gave me won't make a difference.", consider this: There are pirate websites and blogs whose sole reason for existence is the sharing of ebooks, CDs, DVDs, and other copyrighted materials. Thre are literally thousands of people trading thousands of books, albums, and movies without paying for a single one. Collectively, that's many millions of dollars in income the artists never get. So it's not just you, it's many people depriving a lot of hard-working artists of the money they've rightfully earned.

Because it's not just you doing it, it won't matter whether you keep doing it or not, right? Sure it does! By participating in this illegal activity (breaking federal and international copyright laws and perhaps illegally trafficking in stolen merchandise across state lines**), you contribute to the problem and even encourage it.

So what can you do about it? Simple:

1) Stop selling/sharing ebooks. If you can't help yourself, and you just have to read the one a friend gave you, fine. When you're done reading it, delete it and buy a copy from a legitimate source. But whatever you do, don't share your copy with anyone outside your immediate family. Certainly, don't post them to the internet or sell them on eBay.

2) Point your friends who buy/sell/share ebooks to this blog, so they can be educated, too.

3) If you know of websites and blogs that share ebooks, report them to the AuthorsAgainstE-BookTheft group on Yahoo.

Remember, the selling and sharing of ebooks without compensation to the publisher and the author is ILLEGAL and harms the industry as a whole. Do you really want to contribute to a publisher laying off employees or even going bankrupt (and perhaps depriving you of the latest work from one of your favorite authors?)

Unless we all (authors, publishers, and concerned readers) work together to stamp out the illegal sharing/selling of ebooks, the problem will only get worse. Think about it.

Mark.

** WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this or any copyrighted work is illegal. File sharing is an International crime, prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Border Patrol, Division of Cyber Crimes, in partnership with Interpol. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is punishable by seizure of computers, up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 per reported instance.

Progress on Sunrise Destiny

I just got word this morning that the art director at Red Rose Publishing has assigned a cover artist to my science fiction novel, Sunrise Destiny. The editing is already well under way, so I'm hopeful the book will be out in February.

I also received word from my editor at RJ Buckley Publishing that the anthology (The World Outside the Window) containing my short story "Fallen Star, Rising Star" is on schedule for January release. The ebook should be out in early January, with the printed copies coming in the middle of the month. Both will be available from Amazon initially, with other outlets coming over time. The anthology is also available for preordering directly from the publisher.

I'll keep you informed as I learn more.

Mark.