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WyrdStar News  This page contains the latest announcements from WyrdStar. Older bulletins are on the WyrdStar News Archive page. If you'd like to keep track of the latest news, you can:
Thanks for visiting! - Steph Bennion. |
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New edition of Hollow Moon out now
| The new ebook edition of Hollow
Moon, which has had both an editorial refresh and
new cover artwork by Victor Habbick, is now available from Smashwords and Amazon USA / UK (recommended price
£2.99 / $3.99). The new Smashwords edition, soon to be
available from Kobo, iBooks, Sony, B&N and other
retailers, includes a bonus in the shape of the short
story It's A Blunderful Life (previously only
available for the Kindle, in Three Tales for
Christmas). Hollow Moon is a fast-paced and witty space opera mystery that tells the tale of Ravana, a teenage girl who has to grow up fast when she and her father become embroiled in a plot of interstellar intrigue. For further details and the latest news, please see the Hollow Moon page. |
_reduced.jpg "A new edition of HOLLOW MOON!") |
Sneak preview of new ebook artwork!
| I've been plugging away for a while on Paw-Prints of the Gods, due for publication sometime this summer. This is a sequel to my 2012 novel Hollow Moon, which itself will be getting an editorial refresh and a second edition release very soon. The big news is that both ebooks will feature some lovely new artwork (pictured) by Victor Habbick. I am so pleased with these I couldn't resist publishing a sneak preview... Steph. | |
_reduced.jpg "PAW-PRINTS OF THE GODS") |
Easter Offers
WyrdStar has two special offers this Easter. Firstly, Hollow Moon is for a short period available for just $0.99 at Smashwords using discount voucher PW26X, in an offer that runs until Monday 1 April 2013.
Secondly, despite the official arrival of spring, it's snowing here in London so it seems not entirely inappropriate to run a free offer on Three Tales For Christmas on Easter Monday (1 April) from Amazon UK / USA (and other Amazon sites). As before, this offer starts around midnight US Pacific Standard Time, so should take effect from 8:00am in the UK.
This free offer on Three Tales for Christmas will be repeated on St. George's Day (23 April), which coincidentally is also the birthday of Nobel Prize physicist Max Planck and of course playwright William Shakespeare. I like to think that the Bard of Stratford would be pleased that The Tempest inspired the classic 1956 film Forbidden Planet, thus paving the way for the glories of space opera!
Hollow Moon and 'Read an Ebook Week' at Smashwords
Hollow Moon at Smashwords is this week available at half price (see special voucher code details) as part of Smashwords' annual 'Read an Ebook Week' promotion, which has lots of offers from the authors and publishers who release works through this site. The sequel to Hollow Moon has taken longer to write than expected, but a first draft of Paw-Prints of the Gods is now awaiting editing and should be out sometime this summer. Meanwhile, I also have the WyrdStar mobile site to finish. Busy days! Steph.
27 January 2013
Website Scheduled Maintenance
WyrdStar's hosts LCN will be carrying out a platform upgrade on the morning of Saturday 2 February between 00:05 and 06:05 GMT, during which time this website will be unavailable... Steph.
Smashwords Reads 2012
A belated Happy New Year to all! Since entering the world of 'indie' publishing, I have read a fair few Smashwords ebook titles on my trusty Kobo Touch. The Smashwords Reads 2012 page lists the ebooks that took my fancy in 2012, with a brief summary, review and my Goodreads ratings. I hope it may prove useful in finding your next read... Steph.
Merry Christmas!
| Christmas 2012 looms
near, despite the attempts of those who incorrectly
believed the Mayans predicated the world was due to end
yesterday. If you postponed Christmas shopping on the
off-chance that armageddon would render it unnecessary,
I'm afraid you have left it rather late to buy gifts for
your nearest and dearest. May I recommend an ereader and
some indie fiction? For those of you who unwrap a brand-new Kindle this Christmas and thus find yourselves suddenly eager to fill it up with ebooks, Three Tales For Christmas will again be available for free on Christmas Day and Boxing Day from Amazon UK / USA. As before, this offer starts around midnight US Pacific Standard Time, so should take effect from 8:00am in the UK. Many thanks to all the readers who have come to WyrdStar in 2012. Merry Christmas! Steph. |
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European Space Expo
On Thursday 6 December I visited the European Space Expo at Horse Guards Parade, London (which conveniently is barely five minutes from where I work). This event was to showcase the European Space Programme's projects for satellite navigation and Earth monitoring, but also featured a series of talks on all things space. Thursday saw 'Astronomy from your sofa', presented by astrophysicist Chris Lintott (co-presenter of BBC TV's The Sky At Night), which was a fascinating hour on space exploration past and present. This was one lunch hour well spent! Read more at the UK Space Agency news page.
The Kindle ebook Three Tales For Christmas will be available for free on 10 December from Amazon UK / USA. This 24-hour special offer starts approximately midnight US Pacific Standard Time, so should take effect from 8:00am in the UK.
Update: A short while after writing this post I learned the sad news regarding the passing of Sir Patrick Moore, astronomer, writer and host of The Sky At Night. He was an inspiration to amateur astronomers everywhere (including myself) and I have fond memories of reading his science-fiction for young readers back when I was a child. I still have a copy of Killer Comet on my bookshelf at home. May his spirit rest amongst the stars. Steph.
Out today - Three Tales For Christmas!
| Released today is Three
Tales For Christmas, a short-story ebook collection
for the Kindle (Amazon UK / USA). This features a
trio of seasonal tales set in the worlds of Hollow
Moon: To Dance Amongst
The Stars, where poor down-trodden slave Ganesa
meets dashing space captain Hanuman (previously published
December 2011); Merry Christmas, Mister Wolf,
about Christmas at an exclusive ski resort and
malfunctioning robot wolves; and It's A Blunderful
Life, where a mysterious woman shows desperate
fugitive Fenris the greatest blunders of his life. Also published today is the free single-story ebook Merry Christmas, Mister Wolf, which is available from Smashwords. Both this story and It's A Blunderful Life are also available as free WyrdStar pdfs. Enjoy! Steph. |
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Forthcoming Christmas releases from WyrdStar Books
As previously announced, a seasonal Hollow Moon tale called Merry Christmas, Mister Wolf is on its way! Christmas at the exclusive ski resort of Kirchel gets Grimm when robot security wolves are let loose with metal heads full of fairy tales. However, WyrdStar is delivering an extra little present this year, as well as a special treat for Kindle fans. Watch this space!
Hollow Moon - Hallowe'en Ten-Day Sale!
"In the heart of London near Tower Hell, hear Bethnal Scream where demons dwell, the Frightsbridge killers stalk the town, more terrible than the Camden Clown..." Or so my planned introduction to a Danse Macabre gig once went; in the end we didn't use it on the night, as the rest of the band were of the opinion that it made no sense whatsoever to those who did not know the London tube map. Clowns are scary, by the way. "...St. John's Blood the demons sought, carrying STDs the Barons Caught, in Hyde Dark Corners please beware, of the killer squirrels in Leicester Scare!"
Anyway, to make a short news item long, I have a soft spot for the spooky tradition that is All Hallows' Eve. Hollow Moon is science-fiction but nevertheless has its fair share of nail-biting moments, so to celebrate Hallowe'en WyrdStar is running a ten-day ebook sale. Hollow Moon at Smashwords is now available for the scarily-low price of $0.99! This offer extends to the Amazon US / UK Kindle store and meets a grisly end on 31 October 2012... Steph.
Website Update
The WyrdStar website has gone through a few minor changes to try and make it a bit more like that of a proper writer. The changes bring more information on the worlds of Hollow Moon (including forthcoming books), plus an attempt at a biographical page for yours truly. Inviting the squirrel to WyrdStar HQ was probably a bad idea. Steph.
WyrdStar Updates
The old Prozakville website closes down today; if you're reading this, then I assume you: (a) managed to find your way okay to the new WyrdStar site; or (b) are blithely unaware there ever was another website. Either way, welcome!
After distribution problems, Hollow Moon is finally available from the Sony Reader Store (see links on the Hollow Moon page). I would like to take this opportunity to thank my readers who use the Sony store, who have downloaded more copies of the Cinderella-esque To Dance Amongst The Stars than those of any other bookstore apart from Smashwords itself. It seems odd to talk of pantomime science-fiction in August but while I am on the subject, the first draft of a Hollow Moon tale for Christmas 2012 is now lurking in the memory modules of my MacBook. Tentatively entitled Merry Christmas, Mister Wolf, this free short story is due to be unleashed in December. Watch this space! Steph.
Reviews for Hollow Moon and website update
My novel Hollow Moon has received a couple of blog reviews this month, one from Zigzag Timeline and another from POD People. The Zigzag Timeline blog also features an Author Interview from yours truly!
WEBSITE UPDATE: The www.prozakville.co.uk domain will no longer host this website from the beginning of August, which is to move to a new (yet spookily similar) website hosted under the www.wyrdstar.co.uk domain. Both old and new websites will run side-by-side for a very short period. Following this change, the above web addresses will continue to work and redirect users to the correct pages on the new website, but users of the Prozakville News RSS feed will need to update their RSS reader to a new URL. Further updates will follow! Steph.
Older news items are available on the WyrdStar News Archive page.
All content (c) Steph Bennion, WyrdStar and Danse Macabre 2007-2013.
| [Page last updated on 21 May 2013.] |  |