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Well, ALF Warz hasn't been picked up by an agent or a publisher as yet.
Quite disappointing, considering how much crap does get published by the tradional print media.
I guess if ALF Warz was a teen supernatrual angst fest I'd be signing the movie rights contract about now.

I finished a modern day military based adventure thriller a few months ago, called Havoc. Still waiting to see if anyone wants that, as well.

In the meantime I have had one result...with a story I wrote almost two years ago, began life as Cog Town, re-titled as the Secret of Konrad Drexler and published in a SFF ebook anthology called Breechspace.

My fellow SFF author and friend John Whalen has this to say about my story in the antho:

Among the talented writers in the collection is Kevin Lumley, known as Jaqhama by his friends on the Internet. His novela, “The Secret of Konrad Drexler,” is a steampunk tale told much in the manner of an early Edgar Rice Burroughs historical adventure. There’s the gallant hero, the beautiful love interest, the unusual location. Solid writing that makes great reading. Available from:

http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/101826/BREACHSPACE-Chronicles%2C-Volume-1

Being compared to ERB is quite a compliment, as I'm a huge fan of his sword and planet adventures.

My good wife, Linda provided much of the editing for my story and others in the anthology.

Linda and I are currently re-editing a half dozen of my sword and sorcery stories for inclusion in an ebook that we plan to have available in the next four weeks or so.

Tenatively titled: Of Swordsmen and Sorcery: Volume One.

We've already got the front cover sorted, designed and drawn by ourselves. A full colour piece of artwork that tastefully reflects one of the novellas in the ebook.

Linda and I are also helping Dave Felts at SF Reader to initiate and produce a new small press, under the banner of SF Reader Press...our intention to publish in either ebook or POD a number of genre specific anthologies, the first being a Steampunk antho.

I've already got a couple of suitable stories ready to go for that and it's now just a case of waiting for the end of June deadline to see what other stories we get from the rest of the invited authors.


Cheers: Jaq
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ALF WARZ still looking for home

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ALF WARZ has been re-edited from first page to last and further inclusions or exclusions have been made.
My ever helpful wife, Linda slaved over the edits for hours, constantly seeking just the right word, in just the right place.
As of today I've subbed my MilSF novel to a well known SF publisher in the UK. Fingers crossed for an acceptance there.
But no matter, write it and sub it and move on to the next novel.
I'm two thirds of the way through an action thriller.
Halfway through a crime noir novel and still knocking out chapters every now and again for Rise of the Bayloks.
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ALF Warz: The Iron Sergeant is finished and sent out into the world!

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So...finally finished the edits for ALF Warz: The Iron Sergeant, and have sent it out into the world.
Now we just have to wait and see what happens.

Take note that the few pages I orginally had on-line at the Web Fiction Guide were hardly an indication of the entire novel I only recently completed.
The female reviewer who made comment on those pages compared ALF Warz to Starship Troopers. Which shows a decided lack of depth in her ability to discern the differences between MilSF novels.
Almost all of them have soldier's fighting an enemy in a Sci-Fi setting. That's about as far as most MilSF stories go in relation to being similar to Starship Troopers. The reviewer isn't into MilSF from what I could see, hard to imagine why she decided to read or comment on my story over at WFG to begin with.

Still adding to my Baylok story over at BG.
Started another adventure story featuring my new character Doc Havoc.
Now that ALF Warz is finished I can go back and finish my crime noir story, already halfway through that.
Looking thoughtfully at writing another novel in a different genre. News on that in the future, if I manage to get the first half written.
So many stories I can imagineer, so little time.

On the adventure motorcycling front Shalako-Lin and I haven't been anywhere lately. Lin has almost completed a Library Assistant's course at TAFE and finishes in a couple of weeks time.
When she does we're going to go away for a week on the bikes somewhere.
We'll have to dress warm for that, winter here in Sydney, and while it's not as cold as northern countires it still gets down to zero at night, and the wind chill on the bike when you're riding can be savage. Especially down the Snowy Mountains. (Where, strangely enough, it snows.)
Snowy Mountains...that's an original name huh?
Who said the Aussie's don't have any imagination?
Should I mention that one of our deserts that is full of rocks is called the Stony Desert?
No, better not to, I expect.
No, we don't have a big forested area called The Forest, not sure why not, must have missed that oppotunity I guess.
They have a New Forest in the UK...is there an Old Forest?
And what's the difference?

Anyway, that's all our news for now.
Fingers crossed for ALF Warz. A few people have read the trial copy and everyone thinks it's as good as any other MilSF action story out there.
We'll see.

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Things are looking good in 2010

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G'day everyone

Things are looking good so far in 2010.
I've finished my ALF Warz military SF action/adventure novel!
Linda and I are just doing final edits, reading the story off printed pages, as we find it much easier to find any mistakes or flaws in the structure that way.
Got the red pen out and...haven't had to use it very much, which is a nice surprise.
A couple of tweaks here and there and it will be ready to go.
Very exciting finishing your first full length novel.
Even if no one ever wants to publish it, the satisfaction of actually having written an entire novel is huge.
Plenty of people say they will write an entire book, not everyone manages it.
Dedication is the key.
I wrote a couple of pages every night, even when I wasn't much in the mood to do so.
Would have finished the story in a much shorter period of time, except Linda and I spend a great deal of time riding our motorcycles and bicycles on our days off...and for us that will always come before anything else.
Live to ride, ride to live isn't just an expression with us.

So...I was going to start a new blog for my SF story and put up a synopsis and teasers, and in the future I shall do so, but for now any and all news about the book and how it's going in regards to being published will be posted up here.

Over at the Brass Goggles steampunk forum I've been terribly slack at adding to my Baylok serial, but now I've almost sorted ALF Warz out I'll be continuing the adventures of Captain Kregan and Nikola Storm again.

I'm also halfway through an action/adventure horror novel and it looks like I only need to add another 20K words to finish that.

Got some 3 day and week long adventure motorcycle trips planned in the coming weeks/months also. It's getting close to winter here in Sydney and I find I enjoy my dirt road riding more when it's cooler.
Hoping to do a week long ride down the Snowy Mountains in the middle of winter. Did a 2 dayer last year and loved it. Must remember to buy some handlebar muffs this time, as my hands were the only parts of me that really felt the cold.

All for now.
Take care.

Cheers: KJL.

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Nov/Dec 09 update

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Linda Macauley (better known online as Shalako-Lin) and I got married on Nov 21st.
Sorry we couldn't invite you all, but feel free to send mega expensive and rare/exotic presents if you want!

For our honeymoon we went trail biking down the Snowy Mtns into Victoria.
When we returned to Sydney we went to the Galaxy SF bookshop and used the book vouchers friends had given us as wedding presents (at our request) and bought a small horde of SF books.
Which we are gleefully reading now.

On the writing front: I will shortly be deleting my ALF Warz story site and re-writing the tale of Sgt Iron Ryker into a complete novel to be submitted via traditional methods to an agent or a publisher.
I will begin a new site for Sgt Ryker where I will share some info and the occassional teaser as the story moves along.
I'll post the new site address up when I start making in-roads into my re-written story.
It will be more MilSF than fantasy SF and I'll be deleting the space vampires segment and probably the tentacled creatures also.

Over at the Brass Goggles forum I'm still penning my Rise of the Bayloks tale. Having no idea where I'm going with it, I'm just along for the ride myself.

I have no plans to write any new short stories at this stage, mainly concentrating on full length novels.
I'm halfway through a tough as nails UK/Africa based crime thriller.

That's about all the news I can think of at this time.

I'll take this oppotunity to wish everyone a Happy Xmas and a great New Year.

All the best: Jaq.

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And yet more praise for my Crow story.

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"The Beast in the Lake" is a good tale of how teamwork, with the help of a clever leader, can overcome where brute force cannot. The beast of the title had managed to kill two princes of the realm, so Crow Thiefmaster, a friend of their father, decides to help. Through a combination of wit and ingenuity, Crow takes on the beast. It is quite an exciting story, and author Kevin Lumley is to be commended for it.

The quote above and another full review of Rage of the Behemoth can be found here:

http://otter.covblogs.com/archives/2009/04/
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Another nice review for my Crow: The Beast in the Lake story

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I'm pleased to say I can post up another good review for my short story feautured in Rogue Blades Entertainment fantasy anthology: Rage of the Behemoth.
The review of my tale was written over at the Library Thing book website.

The Beast in the Lake (2nd favorite of this theme)
This tale is a bit different, as it is related in first person. It works. I liked the main character here (Crow Thiefmaster). He is mysterious, even though it is told in a first person perspective. The behemoth practically steals the limelight in this tale. Another good ending.

You can read the entire review of Rage of the Behemoth here:

http://www.librarything.com/work/8586268/reviews/

And if you like the review you can order the entire anthology from Rogue Blades Entertainment here:

http://www.roguebladesentertainment.com/

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