Aetherborne Book 2: The Oblivion Valley Oddity has arrived on Kindle. Yes, it has finally become a series, and this time around, we're doing something unabashedly audacious: let's make fun of venerable weird fiction classics like H. P. Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith and entertain the idea that one's cosmic horror is just somebody else's lousy day on the job.

Keen observers may notice that it is not "next weekend", as it took me a bit longer than expected to finish up—not much of a surprise there. As of posting this, it's also been a few days already since Book 2 was published, which isn't quite as much of a bungle as it may seem, as nobody appears to read this blog anyway. It's really just here for flavour, I suppose.

Anyway, head over to Amazon, grab The Oblivion Valley Oddity and enjoy a small-time sci-fi writer's feeble homage to the heavyweights (may contain minor parody of their antiquated philosophies, read at your own risk).

New Edition of Aetherborne Book 1... And More to Come!

The second edition of Aetherborne Book 1: A Tale from Elsewhere is now available on Amazon. Most obviously, it comes with new (hopefully much nicer) cover art, but I also changed and fixed a couple of details about the book itself.

More importantly, though, this update harbingers the upcoming release of Aetherborne Book 2: The Oblivion Valley Oddity, which I suppose will officially make this a series—as originally intended almost exactly four years ago when I first published Book 1, naively believing I would get around to finish a sequel “soon”. That timeframe alone makes me somewhat reluctant to promise an actual release date for Book 2, but it might or might not drop next weekend(-ish).

I’m also using this opportunity to temporarily make Book 1 Amazon-exclusive… again. Once more, I’d like to try the associated promotion tools, hoping they might be useful to reach a slightly wider audience with this new edition. Honestly, I’m really just messing around when it comes to promotion and marketing strategies, I genuinely have no idea what I’m doing. It will probably be available in other formats again at some point; “soon”, I suppose?

Aetherborne Temporarily Goes Amazon-Exclusive

So... I'm not going to beat around the bush here: From now until 7th December 2019 (PST), Aetherborne Book 1 will be exclusively available on Amazon. Sorry to the Smashwords crowd, I promise it's only temporary.

My justification is as flimsy as it is mundane: I'd like to try the tasty promotion options on Amazon. Unfortunately, they don't let you unless you sell them your soul your book is enrolled in KDP select, which means 90 days of not publishing it anywhere else. Isn't it refreshingly honest when companies are so sure of their monopoly they don't even pretend to play nice?

Anyway... from 10th September to 11th September, and again from 13th September to 15th September 2019, you can pick up Aetherborne Book 1 for free on Amazon—that is, free as in free beer, not as in free software.

If you really don't like them at all, you can still wait for the re-release on Smashwords in December, which is likely going to come with a lengthy sorry-for-the-inconvenience free promotion.

It's Another Writer's Blog!

Ooh, it's a potential reader! Hey there. Bear with me.

I'm Marco Craine, writer of the tongue-in-cheek space fantasy Aetherborne. Pick up the fun, little sci-fi romp Aetherborne Book 1: A Tale from Elsewhere on Smashwords or Amazon and meet small-time space explorers Sar-Shey and Kirido on their first ill-fated mission to stay out of deadly trouble.

Keen observers may already have spotted the subtle tell-tale signs that this is intended as a series starter. Don't panic, though: The first ebook pretty much stands on its own, thanks to my deep and heartfelt contempt for cliffhangers.

While Book 2 is in the making, I may or may not use this blog to post an occasional artwork and keep my imaginary imaginative readership up to date. Quite frankly, I also hope to attract more potential readers by running a blog, because... you know... successful writers have blogs; therefore, it follows that having a blog will make me a successful writer. 😕 I guess there's no cult like a good, old-fashioned cargo cult.

Also, running a blog lets me pretend that I have an audience. It's really a two-in-one feel-good package deal.

So why are you still here? Grab a cup of tea (or a beer, if that's what helps you make an impulse buy), head over to Smashwords or somewhere and buy my stupid book be one of the first to experience this engaging new series by Marco Craine. I promise it's going to be vastly more fun than reading some pointless promotional blog post.

It will also last longer.