Hal 1 sample as text file

A number of people have asked whether they could get the sample Hal Spacejock chapters in text format, presumably so they could load it onto their PDAs and read the thing under the desk at work.

I think that's a wonderful idea, because there's nothing like getting fired for laughing on the job. So, I've put the sample chapters up in an easily-hidden text file on this page:

5 sample chapters of Hal Spacejock in plain text format

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

Handling Rejection - article

I've added another article to my website, this one on rejection. (The author kind, not personal relationships!)

You've spent months or years writing a manuscript, you've made a short list of agents to submit to, you've polished your query letter and first five pages until they practically glow in the dark, and you're just about to hit the post office. What's the most likely outcome?

This article also introduces my pyramid 'o' doom, as seen below:





(The pyramid is subject to revision, as are all my articles. I update them from time to time to correct rampant misinformation and physically impossible advice.)

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

Staying behind the curve

You know when some new gadget comes out and everyone's ooh-ing and aah-ing and plonking down serious amounts of cash? That's when I set a 3-4 year timer and go about my business.

Mobile phones, mp3 players, the original playstation, the Gameboy Advance, inkjets, laser printers, the PS2, digital cameras, just about all computer hardware ... you don't miss much by picking up slightly older or outdated gear. Or even waiting until a technology (e.g. Digital cameras) have matured to the point where a mid-range model now would have cost you $10,000 five years ago - assuming anyone had built such a beast.

For example, back in 2000 or 2001 we bought a decent digital camera at work to take pics for our product catalogues. I still have the camera in a box somewhere - Olympus, 3 x optical zoom, 1024x768 resolution and a memory card which can hold 4 pictures. (It uses a weird paper-thin wafer card, and when I tried to get a larger capacity I discovered all the bigger sizes use a different voltage and are not compatible.) The batteries (4 x AA) would take about five shots before they were drained. That camera cost my workplace $3600. The camera I bought late last year has a 10x optical zoom (28-300), takes pics at 3800 x 2600, holds 400 of them on the memory card and can take over 280 shots on one set of batteries. It cost me under $700.

Please note - I'm not saying nobody should buy the latest gear, ever. If you need the features and/or have the money to spend, I'm not getting between you and nirvana. For example, when it was time to upgrade my PC last October I chose an E6700 Core 2 Duo chip when the E6600 was half the price. Sometimes it feels GOOD to spend up ...

Strangely, the only thing getting more expensive year on year is software, and for that there's Open Source and freeware. (Just look at Firefox, Thunderbird, VideoLan Client, OpenOffice, The Gimp and many other apps ... and some of my own stuff, of course.)

As for tech, let's use PDAs as an example. Until yesterday I was happily using a Palm M125 purchased new in mumble mumble (yeah, a while ago). Nothing released this century has really caught my eye, and if it did it was over a grand. Devices and operating systems have come and go, and through it all I've held on to my cash.

Well, yesterday I sprung for a second hand Treo 650. This is a nifty phone/PDA/media player/etc in one neat little gadget, and while I can see the 680 or the 700 or the 760 or 9500 have more features (I can already hear the Palm enthusiasts rolling them off), I'll just wait a couple of years for those. Yes, Wifi would have been good, but that can wait.

With the 650 I can check my email on the go (at eye-watering data prices - won't be doing THAT very often), browse the web (ditto) and use a mini qwerty keyboard to write proofed, grammatically correct SMSs in plain English (Yes! I've avoided SMS until now, partly because of the leet speak aspect and partly because there doesn't seem to be a way of typing two letters on the same key without waiting for the cursor. Why isn't there a 'Yes, I want that letter. Now show me the damn cursor for the next one?' button? And don't get me started on predictive input. If my phone knows what I want to write, why doesn't it just go ahead and do it without me?)

The 650 has a few other tricks up its sleeve. Bung in the freeware TCPMP player and you can watch full size AVIs, resampled on the fly to the 320x320 screen. There's an MP3 player for the Treo too, and it'll play tracks off the SD card, so my 1 gig MP3 player is heading for retirement. There's also a bunch of emulators for older gaming systems - the ZX Spectrum, for example - which is like having an arcade in your pocket.

The 650 was apparently featured as the mobile of choice in the TV series 24, back when this PDA was over a grand (aussie dollars) and bleeding edge. Now they can be picked up relatively cheaply, and here's the amazing thing: They still have all the same features they had when they cost over a grand! Wow.

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

Get 'em while they're hot

With my publisher's permission I've put the first five chapters (53 pages) of Hal Spacejock online. There are 32 chapters in the book, so this represents just over ten percent of the total, which should be enough for anyone to decide whether it's their cup of tea or not.

You'll find the sample pages here. Right now they're page scans, but an electronic file is a possibility in the future.

Enjoy, and say hi to Clunk for me.

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

I like my publisher ...

Fremantle Press is a great publisher for many reasons, and this is just one of them: For some time now I've had the first chapters of all three Hal Spacejock books online as free samples, but I just got permission to put the first five chapters of Hal 1 up. All it took was a quick phone call, and off we go. They're happy to leave it in my hands, and I'm happy to oblige.

I've just got the minor matter of writing a chunk of Hal 4 to deal with - now - but right after that I'll get a new section of the Hal Spacejock website set up to handle the 57 pages of freebie goodness. (The entire book is 350, so you're getting a decent chunk.)

The reason for five chapters? The first chapter doesn't contain any Clunk, and it's the Hal vs Clunk sections which make the entire series. Hal without Clunk is like a bookstore without Harry Potter.

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

Top 100 bestselling authors

This is the list of bestselling authors at Fantastic Planet bookstore since they opened their doors in 2005. (The books list I posted a couple of days ago was for individual titles.)

I made #34 on this list, and that's not bad when you look at the authors around that spot.

31..Isaac Asimov
32..R. A. Salvatore
33..John Birmingham
34..Simon Haynes
35..Neal Stephenson
36..Dan Simmons
37..Katharine Kerr
38..Arthur C. Clarke
39..Alan Dean Foster
40..Harry Turtledove

(The original list can be found on the web here)

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

Hal 5* on Powells

Just spotted a nice five star review of Hal Spacejock on Powells. I never ask people to leave reviews for my books on Amazon, Powells or anywhere else, but I really do appreciate it when people take the time to do so.

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

Another happy 'jocker

"I couldn't possibly count the number of times I laughed out loud."

Review here

Thanks, EM Sky ;-)

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

Back again

I just spent a lovely week in the South West of Western Australia with the family. Lots of bike riding, good food, crackling log fires and no rain (until today, but today was driving home so it didn't matter.)

Anyway, I'm back. I just synced all my email and source code changes across from the laptop and then I hit the web. And the first thing I saw was a blog post by Fantastic Planet containing their all-time bestsellers list dating back to when they opened their doors. Hal 1 and 2 both feature, which was a pleasant surprise. (Hal 3 has only been out 4 months, but it was a bestseller in January so it might show up next time.)

Here are the relevant portions of the list:

21..Nylon Angel…Marianne de Pierres
22..Woken Furies…Richard Morgan
23..Forest Mage…Robin Hobb
24..Flight of the Night Hawks …Raymond E. Feist
25..Hal Spacejock…Simon Haynes
26..Eldest…Christopher Paolini
27..The Blue Girl…Charles de Lint
28..The Gold Falcon…Katharine Kerr
29..Accelerando…Charles Stross
30..Altered Carbon…Richard Morgan

and slightly further down:

41..The Hallowed Hunt…Lois McMaster Bujold
42..White Tiger…Kylie Chan
43..Engaging the Enemy…Elizabeth Moon
44..Hal Spacejock: Second Course…Simon Haynes
45..Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell…Susannah Clarke
46..The Complete Chronicles of Narnia…C. S. Lewis
47..Bad Case of Loving You…Laney Cairo
48..Priestess of the White…Trudi Canavan
49..Court of the Air…Stephen Hunt
50..Iron Council…China Mieville

I don't mind being in that company, I can tell you!

View the full list here

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

Hal supporters

I said I'd post links, and here's the first batch. Go visit them, say hi and commiserate on their folly.

Chief spanner holder
Engineer
Engine tester
AutoChef Tester
Robot polisher
Toolbox fetcher
Refueller

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

For the 3 people on Earth yet to win a copy ...

There's nothing I like better than giving away copies of my books, and now that my publisher has given ME a bunch of spare copies I've rejigged the Hal Spacejock Support Crew, turning it into another giveaway. Yes, it's another opportunity to score with Hal.

All you have to do is post the support crew info from this page onto your blog, and you're automatically in the draw for a signed copy.

Additional pleading will be viewed with favour, but may not affect the outcome ;-)

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

Free books ...

... but this time they're mine! Temporarily, at least.

*

I'm not sure whether you realise this, but whenever I give away books in my monthly draw I pay for the books and the postage myself. (Yes, I get a discount on the books, but the average draw costs me $120-$200 depending how many I give away and how many of them are going overseas.)

Aren't publishers supposed to do this sort of thing? Yes, and they do during the first few months after the launch, but they can't keep pouring cash into publicity when a book has been out for a year or more.

Anyway, I asked my publisher for yet another box of books to give away, and when they arrived I unfolded the invoice and discovered they hadn't charged me anything for them. 25 copies for nix! (I know they appreciate my efforts, and they know I'm spending up to promote Hal Spacejock. I guess it works both ways.)

So, that's the next couple of months taken care of. More draws coming up - get your name in!

* Amongst the box of new release Hal Spacejocks I received some of the original Hal Spacejocks. So, I had to include the other cover image.

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

Throwing it all away

I was working on draft scenes in chapter 25 of 32, and I finally reached a point in the novel where I had to make a decision. I've been glossing over this section (about 6 chapters) where people are flying all over the place and the bulk of the Bad Things happen, because quite frankly it didn't really work and I knew I could come back to it.

I'd already written the aftermath and the beforemath (?), and so it came time to tackle the math itself. Hence decision time.

And what a fun day it's been. When the smoke cleared I discovered I'd thrown out a whole chunk of material - about 12,000 words all told - but I did have my outline for the last 8 chapters.

Is it set in concrete? No chance. But each run-through gets closer to the finished product, and involves smaller and smaller changes.

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

Linux to the rescue

My daughter managed to stuff up the boot partition on her Windows XP by resetting the machine while it was still updating files. I added her drive to my PC and tried to access the partition, but after a few minutes of flashing lights Windows declared the whole thing corrupted. It's formatted NTFS, which makes things all the more fun. I couldn't even run the Windows Repair since the partition showed up as zero bytes, no data, no free space.

I do have a couple of backups of her data, one a partition image from March and the other a My Documents backup from last Monday. However, I wanted to salvage whatever I could so I took her drive from my PC and put it into a Ubuntu linux machine. Booted up, mounted the damaged partition and bingo! There are all the files.

I'm copying everything off now via the network, and the moral of the story is this: if you think you've lost everything off a hard drive partition, don't despair. Before you wipe it and start the long reinstall process, try the drive in a Linux machine first. You might be able to get everything back.

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

Anyone on LinkedIn?

I was invited to this a while back, made a profile but never let anyone know about it. So, if you're on LinkedIn, here I am:

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

Hal 4 release date

Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch (book four in the series) had a provisional release date of January 2008, but after discussion with my publisher and editor we're now looking at April instead. (It would have been March, but there weren't any free slots.)

The main reason is that they'd need the final manuscript by the end of August to meet a January launch, and even then they'd rather have it mid-August. Depending on my editor's reaction when she gets the first draft that could be barely achievable or completely impossible, and so April is a much more sensible choice.





(I don't particularly like January launches anyway, especially when a book has a large YA audience. Schools are closed, everyone's on holiday and all the publicity, advance copies and launch announcements have to be done in December, only to be forgotten over the long Christmas break. Hal 2 and 3 were both January-ish, so I speak from experience)

So, big apologies to those hanging out for Hal 4, but it'll be all the better for the delay. And for those of you NOT hanging out for Hal 4 - now you have more time to pick up and read the first three.

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

Wild weather

I don't know the official figures, but Perth has been hit with loads of rain and some very strong winds recently. (Nothing compared to the flooding in Queensland and NSW, or the really bad flooding in the UK. But it always seems dramatic when you're caught up in it.)

Anyway, I thought I'd share a pic I took over the back fence yesterday:





As you can see - not your typical warm sunny Western Australian day.

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

heARTlines Festival

I finally managed to visit the heARTlines expo at the Mundaring Art Gallery. Amongst many excellent exhibits were the original Dion Hamill paintings for the most recent Hal Spacejock book covers, which were shipped over specially. Pics below!

Big thanks to the organisers for putting on the whole event, and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.




Acting the Hal 1 cover



Acting the Hal 2 cover



Acting the author

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

Wet Ink Newsletter

EM Sky's 'Wet Ink...' newsletter for July 2007 is online, and includes several Hal mentions along with a link to a competition for Jim C. Hines' Goblin Quest or Goblin Hero. (To sum Jim's books up in a sentence, think of a dungeon-clearing adventure written from the viewpoint of a creature about to be cleared. I've read the first one and it was great fun.)

In the newsletter, 'Wet Ink...' has asked all their readers to email me to suggest I send a preview copy of Hal 4 ("Hal Spacejock - No Free Lunch") in for a review. And the emails have already started arriving...

There's lots more to read in the newsletter, and you'll find it right here.

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