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Calling all Super Fans!

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Patreon exclusive sticker

I’ve taken the plunge on creating a Patreon page. I toyed with Patreon, way back when as an experiment to support my community conferences. My most heartfelt thanks to those awesome folks that supported those efforts.

I closed those Patreon pages down after about a year because it was a lot of work to create content just for those few supporters. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to warrant people’s support. It was an experiment and I learned a lot.

Now that writing is a much larger part of my life, and, I hope an ever-growing part of my income, I wanted to explore offering something a little extra for those folks that want it.

The biggest hurdle (for me) in creating something like this was committing to creating extra content. I worried that I’d have to dedicate time to creating Patreon content, vs. writing. I realized however that I have no shortage of content to share with those that want it, early and in some cases exclusive access to my words.

So, if you want to get access to scenes as I write them, or early access to digital releases, or even want to ensure that every book I release, there’s a signed copy with your name on it, then check out the options on the Patreon page.

If you’re happy to buy the books when they release and don’t need more than that, that is 100% fantastic.

I won’t be sharing less on the blog, or in the newsletter, and the Rogues Gallery will still get content. I don’t want to create a walled garden.

Patreon supporters will get access to things that I don’t normally share (Scenes, commentary on scenes, etc), things I share sporadically here (Cover reveals and such), as well as access to other stuff first (Ebook and audiobook releases). I’ve also created a special sticker (Image above) that is just for supporters. Sorry, I wanted to sweeten the deal. :)

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know that making a full-time living as a writer is my goal. This is one more step toward that. Like any business, Rogue Publishing will have multiple revenue streams. I want to offer as many ways as possible for fans to support me.

Apple’s ‘Pro’ Problem

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So the other day, Apple held its first 2022 event. It was flashy and everything you’d expect from an Apple event. And yet again it showed that they really have lost all sight of their ‘pro’ users.

Sure they released the Studio Mac, avoiding adding ‘Pro’ to the name. It looks like an excellent machine. I’ll probably buy one next year (or maybe 2024) to replace my 2018 Mac Mini. Of course, I have less than zero hope that Apple addressed the Bluetooth issues that have plagued the Mac Mini form factor for the better part of eight years now.

What I really wanted to hear was how they were leveraging the iPad Pro. I wasn’t hoping for a new device, but a tease of something, anything coming in iPadOS would have been nice.

Instead, they released a new iPad Air that it spec for spec almost an iPad Pro, sans cameras.

Image of iMac pro from Wikipedia

I hadn’t thought too much of it, until this last Apple Event. Apple has a track record or releasing ‘Pro’ things, then letting them languish, being overtaken by their standard models until they quietly discontinue the.

The iMac Pro. Released in 2017, quietly End Of Life’d before the Mac Studio was released.

The iPad Pro has been refreshed over the years, but iPadOS has been virtually stagnant most of that time.

Sure we got some simplistic windowing, but it’s just that, simplistic.

As you likely know, when I’m not at my desk, I’m 100% an iPad-only user. During the Apple event, I was at the dining table of a rental in the mountains for a little retreat from the house.

A screenshot of my iPad Pro trying to multitask

The only way to watch the event, AND still work, was to float a firefox window over my workspace. Which as you can see obscured the compose window for Tweetbot, forcing me to constantly move the floating window from one side to the other just to see what I was doing.

I didn’t actually need to see what was going on, but audio can’t stream from background apps (that aren’t sports app or music apps… despite the iPad Pro having the same CPU as Macbooks and Macbook Airs [the M1]).

But they offer “side by side”

And it’s trash. You’d think, cool, I’ll have one app on one side, and the other in the other side. When you’re giving one app focus, you’d expect Alt-Tab to swap out just one pane, but not. It switches back to single app view, killing background audio. Because of course it can’t tell which pane you’d like to swap an app out of.

Image of the Mac Pro from Wikipedia

The ongoing Mac Pro Joke

Many folks in the Mac world joke that Apple releases a Mac Pro every decade or so. Whole new design, absolutely marvelous looking. Expandable and powerful…

Then they ignore it.

Then they release a wholly new Mac Pro and the cycle repeats, leaving the previous buyers with a beautiful retired product.

I’m beginning to worry that the iPad Pro is going to suffer the same fate. There’s an iPad (basic?), an iPad Air, and the iPad Pro. The last two are nearly identical unless you really fancy taking super pics with your tablet or holding it up to play AR games (if any are offered). The ‘Pro’ aspect of the iPad pro is just the name. The spec of the Air is the same, so why pay more for the ‘Pro’?

So what’s the point of a ‘Pro’ iPad?

Writing on the iPad is pretty straightforward. Everything else is an exercise in pain and suffering.

I was creating a slide presentation to end 360|iDev 2021. Keynote is a trash app on the iPad, using a browser to find images to use required saving them to files or the photo reel, tabbing back to keynote, which went into hibernation to save resources (why I don’t know) so I had re-open my presentation get to the slide, tap + then navigate to my saved image.

Try to do anything that requires more than two apps, and you’ll find one put into hibernation to save resources, usually forcing you to start over.

It feels like Apple is following Android’s ill-fated path when they released honeycomb as their ‘tablet OS’ separating it from Android proper only to offer a crappy experience and ultimately give up on the idea.

This was a long post, mostly to vent my frustration. Someone tweeted that Apple was really “The Mac Company” and that’s beginning to feel right. More to the point, they’re the “Powerful hardware, basic OS Company”.

I want to love Apple gear, I know many do, but it’s getting harder and harder to take it seriously.

Guess I wasn’t alone in noticing.

By the way, did you know you can sign up for my newsletter to stay in the loop on my writing? Plus, subscribers get free short stories and access to deck plans and character drawings. You should totally sign up, like right now!

Who doesn’t like free books?

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My newsletter this week featured a ton of promos and bundles. Normally I keep that stuff exclusive for my newsletter folks, but there were too many good ones that I wanted to share more widely.

First up is C.L. Cannon’s Star Wars Fan Giveaway. I do promos with her once or twice a year. It’s a great way to get in front of new readers that love stuff that is similar to my works. Give it a shot. Worse case, you don’t win but meet a few new authors you might love.

Banner for CL Cannon's Newsletter builder

This one ends today, so act fast. Patty Jansen has curated a list of free SciFi and Fantasy books by indie authors. No catches, just free books :) Take a look.

Free Book giveaway banner

I’ve been a part of the International Assoc. of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors since it launched. It’s an indie effort and still in its infancy. One nice thing is that they run promos and bundles. This one is all about Space Adventure. It’s not free books, but it’s a damn good deal! $8 for a bunch of great indie SciFi content.

IASFA Book bundle banner

Last but not least! I told you, this month’s newsletter was packed! This one is more hit or miss, book-wise, I won’t lie. StoryOrigin promos are a mixed bag of content. I don’t normally join them, but figured what the hell :) You never know. Take a look, take a chance on something that looks interesting. You may be surprised.

Storyorigin book promo banner

By the way, did you know you can sign up for my newsletter to stay in the loop on my writing? Plus, subscribers get free short stories and access to deck plans and character drawings. You should totally sign up, like right now!

Writing Update (Grand Human Empire)

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So, last week I talked about the Space Rogues series. This week I wanted to dig into my other space opera series.

The Grand Human Empire came about because I’ve always loved scifi that featured that mostly capable loner/small group, just getting by.

With Space Rogues, I always tried to keep the crew grounded so that every book wasn’t a “The Team saves the galaxy” type of story. I generally don’t love those.

The Grand Human Empire is even more grounded in everyday type adventures. Jackson, Naomi, and the droids are just trying to keep themselves fed and cover the rent. They’re not into getting sucked into galactic politics. After all, getting involved is what killed Jackson’s parents.

What’s it look like when there’s a rebellion trying to fight a mostly evil empire, and you’re just trying to deliver a bunch of parts to a starship repair depot? Sounds boring, but there’s a lot of fun to be had in the middle spaces.

Reception.

So how has the series done? Not bad. I was able to get three books out in pretty rapid(ish) release. I can’t keep up that pace, sorry readers, but I’ll release 1-2 a year like Space Rogues.

I looked at 2021 numbers, and while not unseating Scalzi or anything, not a bad start. Book 1 dropped with little fanfare, as did book 2. I really pushed the pre-orders for book 3 once I had a bit of an audience.

What’s Next?

I’m working on the next book now. Well, right now I’m doodling ideas and plot lining them to see what strikes me. I fully expect to have book 4 out sometime in the fall.

My goal is 1-2 GHE books and 1-2 Space Rogues Universe books. We’ll see how that goes.

Remember, you can buy all my books wherever you buy books, including directly from me (Cutting out the middle man)

Writing Update (For Space Rogues)

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Space Rogues 10 paperback

I’ve been hard at work on “What’s Next” for the Space Rogues universe for a while now.

Book 10: Rogue Enterprises (available for Pre-order!) will be out in a few months. It doesn’t wrap up the Space Rogues story but does provide a place for folks who don’t love long/ongoing series, to gracefully exit.

I have no intention of ending the adventures of Wil Calder and the crew of the Ghost. BUT. I do intend to change things up.

A New Beginning

Enter, ‘Rogue Enterprises 1: Long Days, Short Knights’ I’m almost done with this one. I have about 20k words left to write. This book (the title is a teaser) focuses mostly on our friend Bennie. The rest of the team is there, but the bulk of the story is Bennie learning what being a Knight of Plentallus is all about. It’s been an absolute blast to explore this character more deeply than normal.

The Rogue Enterprises series will start as a new entry point for readers. I’ll introduce the entire team and provide some back story so new readers won’t be lost.

Strategy!

This is largely a tactical decision. Not everyone likes long series. Maybe the blurb for Space Rogues 1 doesn’t wow them, but the blurb for Rogue Enterprises 1 does. Maybe then they decide to go back and read the first 10 to better know the characters.

The other benefit of this is that it gives me one more “book 1” to advertise. I can’t advertise the 8th book in a series. It just doesn’t work like that. I can, however, advertise book 1, over and over, forever.

From a business standpoint, that’s invaluable. To survive, an author either needs a lot of series, with book 1’s they can advertise or lot’s of entry points into fewer, longer series.

A Different Approach

With the Rogue Enterprises series, my goal is to focus on small subsets of the team (Mostly). Book 1 is bennie and (Spoiler). Book 2… I dunno. I’m thinking Maxim and Zephyr need a story. As I said above, everyone gets some time in every book, but each book is going to have a bit of a focus, at least to start.

Eggs, Baskets, Yada Yada

Much like being wide is a part of my business strategy, so is having more than one series. The Space Rogues series is written in present tense and I can’t tell you the number of people who just can’t wrap their heads around it. Rogue enterprises is more traditional, past tense.

Not only multiple series in that universe but adding entirely new universes. I’ve slacked more than I’d like to admit on my Thriller series, but it’s still on my mind. The Grand Human Empire series thankfully, I busted out 3 books in rapid succession so that series can start getting some legs.

Next week, I’ll talk about my plans for these other two series.

Ignite Denver 37 is tonight!

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Whenever someone asks, “How old is Ignite Denver?” Or any variant of that question, I scratch my head.

You see, when I started Ignite Denver, we did a few a year. Then another nearby Ignite launched and started doing like monthly or every other month. So I did too. Despite the distance, the two cities share a lot of the same awesome people.

View from a camera at Ignite Denver

The problem is 6 a year is a death march. We didn’t it for long, the other city slowed down sometime after us.

Then we thought, “Ok, let’s just do quarterly” So we did that for a year or three… but even that proved tough. Sometimes not, but sometimes it was “Oh, god. We have to do this again so soon”

So we kinda settled on our current pattern. Three a year. Early (February-March), mid-ish (June-July), and late (September-October).

It works. The team and I have moved into a rhythm where Ignite Denver isn’t that stressful of a thing. We enjoy each other’s company, and love bringing awesome Denverites to the stage to share.

Ignite Denver Speaker on stage

Join us!

The committee needs another member or two. Keep things fresh, keep the workloads light and evenly distributed. It’s fun, we meet a few times a year to eat and drink and talk about things, otherwise, it’s mostly over slack.

Oh, and we have hoodies… so there’s that. You know you want a hoodie!

Drop me an email!

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