New Year's Resolutions

Prompted by a post over on JA Konrath's blog.

I will submit a story to F&SF
I will complete the first draft of Hal Spacejock 4

As ol' JA says, don't set goals where others determine the outcome. Good advice.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

LibraryThing

I signed up with LibraryThing recently, after seeing it mentioned around the place. If you don't know what LT is, it's a site where you can catalog(ue) your books. Free accounts are limited to 200 books, or you can get an annual or lifetime account with unlimited entries.

Most popular titles already have an entry, and the site also offers a bulk ISBN import feature which gathers data from up to three different sources.

Unfortunately, of the 3000 or so books in my house I'd only catalogued about 1300 in my own BookDB software, and of those I'd only bothered to enter ISBNs for about 300. So, it's search-add-search-add for me.

The quickest way I've found is to gather all the books I have by a given author (thank goodness my collection is alphabetical!) and then I search for that author in LT under 'Search works' on this page (NOT 'Search authors' or you just get the author name...) When the list of works comes up you can sort by title and ctrl+click all the ones you have to open their pages in new windows, where you can then click Add to library.

The people running the site are open to suggestions - in fact, they've already made one change I requested and I've only been there a few days. They'll go far with that attitude - or else they'll get purchased by your local mega media conglomerate.

Signup is really quick and easy, with no personal details required, and the site is certainly worth a look if you've ever considered making a list of your books. It's fascinating to see how many other people have copies of the books you own, and you can also leave reviews and scores out of five for any title.

As for backing up, LT offers a CSV export, and naturally I'll be adding an importer to BookDB which will read their file format.

Final thing: If you have Hal Spacejock 1, 2 or 3 you can add them to your LT from their pages below:

Hal Spacejock LT page
Hal Spacejock Second Course LT page
Hal Spacejock Just Desserts LT page

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Draw Results

Every few weeks I draw a batch of names from a digital hat and send those lucky folk a signed copy of my novel. (If you're not in the draw you can enter here)

This particular draw is for a copy of Hal Spacejock with the funky new Dion Hamill cover.



Every person in the draw has received (or will receive) a unique number via email, and if your number appears below you've won a copy! Just reply to the notification email with your mailing address and you'll receive a signed copy of Hal Spacejock.


The winning numbers for draw 1221:

12305
12359
12698
12702



If you missed out, relax! There's a second chance! All you have to do is post a comment below, and in a few days time I'll pick a name at random and they'll also win a copy of Hal. (The second chance draw is one extra book for each of my Blogger, LJ and Myspace blogs. Keen Spacejock fans will no doubt seek out and comment on all three ...)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Upcoming draw

I'm going to draw three or four copies of Hal Spacejock in a couple of days time - this is just an advance warning in case you want to publicise the drawing amongst other fans of science fiction. Friends, family, worst enemies ... send them all here:

http://www.spacejock.com.au/HalNotify.html

(Remember, if THEY win a copy you can always borrow it .. then forget to hand it back.)

In a new twist, these copies will be from the second printing of Hal Spacejock book 1, with the NEW Dion Hamill cover.





And rest assured I'll be drawing copies of Hal 3 as soon as I get my hands on some ...

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Toast part 2

I'm sure you've heard of the Madonna toast and the Elvis toast, but this morning I ended up with Happy toast:



(The mouth is natural but I confess to adding the jam.)

Anyway, my kids thought it was neat, and is there anything greater in life than hearing your own kids laugh? (They're not at the eyeroll age yet.)

Now, I'm a practical sort, and rather than listing this @rare@ and exclusive item on eBay or preserving it in a temperature controlled cabinet for future generations, I decided to put it to good use.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Yoyogod meets Hal Spacejock ...

... and Hal wins ;-)

Read the review here

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Post for nature lovers

A few snaps from around my garden, taken just five minutes ago with a Fuji Finepix S9500 and severely downsized from the original 3488 x 2616 pixels

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Ticonderoga Interview

Russell Farr interviewed me recently for Ticonderoga Online, an Aussie mag which describes itself as "a ticonderogapalooza of gonzo and quality sf in the tradition of Bester, Waldrop and Womack. Fiction, non-fiction, reviews and interviews. Australia's best sf for free!"

If you'd like to read the interview, or indeed, the rest of the issue, or even JUST the rest of the issue, you can do so right here

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock amazon.com update

Amazon has finally added an order button to their listing for Hal Spacejock (book one in the series).

They don't have copies in stock yet, but at least it's the right price AND sold & shipped by Amazon.com instead of the 3rd party merchants who were charging double the sticker price or more. (And wouldn't Hal be proud of that little dodge?)

Book two has been listed on Amazon for a while here. Book three is still pre-release, and not available to order yet.


By the way, I'm not trying to get anyone to order the books, but I keep fielding questions from US and Canadian residents asking when they can get hold of them. So, consider this a heads-up ;-)


Update


Well, I bet you saw this coming. The minute I declare Hal 3 isn't available for pre-order, Amazon adds a pre-order button to their Hal 3 listing. They're obviously spying on my blogs.

"When can I order Hal 3?" is the OTHER question people keep asking me. Click here and you can do so right now ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Daylight Saving in Western Australia

If you live in WA this Microsoft patch for Windows XP, 2003 and Vista will automatically adjust your PC's clock for Daylight Savings over the next three years.

Better than setting them all by hand ...

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)