lunes, 27 de febrero de 2017

Another Free Sci-Fi & Fantasy book promo

My book isn't participating in this particular event, but I just thought maybe you will like the books being offered here. I've read Lady Ruth Constance Chapelstone and the Clockwork Suitor and enjoyed the book. Haven't read any of the other books listed (sadly I don't have the time to read novels right now because of my new job but I do hope to read the books I downloaded when I have the chance).

However they do seem rather interesting.


Click HERE.

domingo, 26 de febrero de 2017

Character Profile: Lord Spaulding of the Kasimma Clan

These are my final 2 days of loitering before I am expected to begin my residency so I am granting readers a little treat. Whenever I have the time, I hope to complete artwork of several characters from my series and offer an insight of them (without spoiling too much on the way). I will probably someday purchase a domain and haul these profiles there. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy learning more about the characters from An Ominous Book Series.

If you are wondering, bloodtypes are a huge thing in Eastern Asia. They along with zodiac signs help show some personality traits. If you are curious, I myself am a type A and the neuroticism of the type is quite close to home.


Name: Lord Spaulding
Race: Elf with distant human ancestry
Associated Clan: Kasimma
Birthday: August 5th
Bloodtype: A
Sorcery: Fire/Water
Phantom Beast: Hiratori (a sort of fire bird)
Occupation: Clan Leader/Ranger
Known relatives: Noeru (father, deceased), Ariel (mother, deceased), Hamarin (political uncle), Richard Earlrose (distant nephew), Nelida Earlrose (distant niece)

Lord Spaulding is the main hero of An Ominous Book. A rare mortal elf that saw his elderly father Noeru die from old age as a child, he inherited the clan's leadership at a young age but soon became bored with the comfortable nobleelf lifestyle. Several decades before the beginning of the story, he manages to convince the Elf King Salman to train as a ranger and works part of the year policing the lands from meandering common criminals.

Spaulding is not a common person in the Elf Kingdom, he belongs to a rare minority of the nation's population that is attuned to two magic elements at the same time. While he is a massively impressive fire mage, Spaulding's mediocre water sorcery has caught Salman's interest and wishes to force him to join his elite army known as the Äimite guard at all costs.

It is explained early in the series that Spaulding doesn't have any known blood elf relatives (Hamarin is technically his great paternal uncle but by not belonging to the Kasimma noble bloodline, he is considered to be a political relative like everyone else in the clan). However, even though everyone knows about Spaulding's human ancestry, he never knew he had surviving noble relatives that need his help. Even though Richard quickly becomes fascinated by the strange kingdom, Spaulding has to find the way to return both Richard and Nelida to their birth nation of Ayrtain because of the risk of damaging diplomatic relations.

Spaulding is brave, loyal, an excellent swordsman and a good friend. He is however at the same time obsessively stubborn and taciturn in his decisions which causes him a lot of problems in the series in particular with Lord Froylan and King Salman. He is severely ignorant about human customs having never left his country before and his poor human language penmanship skills are a running gag in the series. While his loyalty is pure without ill intentions, he does on occasion speak poorly of his best friend Trevilin. Although he dislikes his orphaned relatives that have disrupted his peaceful lifestyle, he soons grows fond of them which causes the many chain of events that move the story forward.

Spaulding is not only impressive because he is a rare dual mage. It's explained during the series that phantom beasts with the ability of flight are moderately rare and over the course of several decades, he managed to only summon the wings granting him the ability to fly in the air with them.

jueves, 23 de febrero de 2017

Flinch Free Fantasy Books

Look at all of these goodies! I was browsing the net and bumped into this little beauty. This selection of fantasy books are either fully free or heavily discounted and the covers look indeed very enticing. A huge plus is that they seem to be flinch free which is super important for people that like to read to their children.

I'm certain a lot of you will be very excited to enjoy this selection of ebooks.


Click on the link HERE.

Un libro ominoso is free for 5 days

Amazon will be offering the Spanish translation of An Ominous Book for the next 5 days.


If you want to grab a copy, click HERE.

viernes, 17 de febrero de 2017

Is it an Ominous Book Series or not Goodreads?

Goodreads sort of frustrates me. The website indeed serves a great purpose to be both a social network of book readers (although I haven't really formed friendships with anyone on the site or posted much in the groups, it seems to be a great mingling place for other people). One of the big draws of this website is that people without credit cards such as teenagers can write reviews which is something they can't do on Amazon. I know, Amazon has a very good reason why they have that policy which is to skirt spambots, but most people that take the time to review books don't abuse the system as much.

On one hand, Goodreads fills out a huge void that in any way will help authors connect with potential readers.

The qualm I have with the website pertains a lot to my book series. It seems like they screwed up in more than one thing. For starters, they placed the Spanish translation of An Ominous Book as the predilected version. The covers of both versions are identical, but it's going to confuse a gargantum of readers who might shy away from a much needed review. I can't find the way to fix that problem even as an author. I published the Spanish translation after the English version so I don't know if that affected things.

Second, they epicly screwed up the title of the book series. It's not an Ominous Series. It's an Ominous Book Series. *Quiet grumbles*

The paperback editions of the books were listed separate. Amazon did the same for some reason but it would be nice if they could fuse them together so that readers that prefer to read physical books know that they exist. The paperback books don't even include the cover!!! How will people know they exist?

Finally, I published Quandary in December but they haven't included it in the series. Technically, it's as if I never wrote that book. Frustrating to say the least.

I wonder how can a mere mortal get this fixed. I could request the website for librarian privileges, but with my new job that I start in 10 days, I don't think I can make a huge time compromise. If someone that reads this rants knows someone that can fix this for me, I'll be super grateful!

Click on the link to the Goodreads page of my first book in English HERE.

Before I go, I'd like to remind everyone that this Sunday begins the super Epic Worlds Giveaway. I'll be sharing the news on social media, but spread the word! I've already given out almost 300 free preview copies of Book 1 of An Ominous Book and start to grow my mailing list to reach new fans, let's make this event a success!


Click HERE to check it out!

Do you want to read the first 3 chapters of An Ominous Book for FREE??? Click HERE to get your copy right now!

Lastly, I finally got a smartphone for my new job which made my friends elated. I'm currently playing around with Pokemon GO and learning how to use the Wats Ooops or whatever that is. My best friend pleaded with me to put a real avatar for Whats Oops and I knew very well what that meant. He wanted me to draw Lord Damantin, arguably his favorite character from my series and I couldn't say no to his endless begging. I hope you guys enjoyed the drawing half as much as I did when I drew it!


Have a fun weekend everyone!

martes, 14 de febrero de 2017

Feb 10th lunar eclipse: FAIL!

I had high hopes for last Friday's lunar eclipse. It was going to happen unusually early in North America and that day the Yucatan peninsula had a lot of sun with just some clouds, just the right amount that allowed me to not go overboard with the sunscreen. I had barely arrived at Playa del Carmen's bus terminal at around 6:30 pm which was when the reported maximum eclipse was going to happen. And so I tread to the insanely overcrowded Mamitas beach with high hopes of being amazed.





Okay, so this time around, PDC's famous beach isn't invaded by a swarm of hideous sargazo algae like the last time I was in town last August. Good. The sunset's color were brilliant and the blues in the ocean were sure nice. The only thing missing was the damn eclipse. So I turn around towards the northeast which is where the eclipse should be visible... and you guessed it, clouds! Lots and lots of clouds right in the wrong place at the wrong time. AAAARGH!




Go away!!! NOOOOOO!!! UGH!!! Just assume the moon was glowing gold uh... somewhere over there. ARGGGHHHH!!!

Beaten and defeated, I wasted 20 minutes at a bus stop where none of the buses to where I wanted to go stopped. After sending some insults to the bus stop guy that marked me as a gringa tourist (I sure told him to put a sock in his mouth to not assume anything), I got on a bus that didn't take me directly to my destination, but just 2 blocks away. By then it was dark and I did catch a glimpse of the eclipse ending with just a menial tone of grey to the side at a brief moment where the sky was clear. Sadly I stupidly didn't take the photo.




I got outside to try to take at least one photo to claim I saw the eclipse.. and the clouds came back and that was pretty much it. UGH! I hate this!




miércoles, 8 de febrero de 2017

Fantasy free books!

My book is participating in a nifty massive ebook giveaway that officially will run between 19 Feb-19 March 2017. It will even be featured on Instafreebie's official site on the 22nd for maximum exposure.

I'm getting really excited because despite the limits that my book will remain on KU until March 30th forcing me to only offer a 10% book preview, I hope I'll get maximum exposure and a lot of new fans.

I've already read a few of the books that are participating and enjoyed them. I'm certain you won't feel ripped off.


Visit the giveaway HERE.

My cat is a fan of An Ominous Book

I just came home and a very nice packacge arrived in the mail. I promised my parents I'd give them an autographed copy of all 6 books of An Ominous Book series and it finally arrived today. However it seems like my cat was going overboard in her enthusiasm and decided to musk her little face on the books to claim them as her property.



She sure is a sweetie pie!





If you have been piqued with curiosity from my cat's enthusiasm, why not check out the books HERE?

martes, 7 de febrero de 2017

An excellent dark fantasy ebook

I have been reading quite a lot of books lately, many of them courtesy copies from established and upcoming indie authors. As a common courtesy I have written a review for each book I have read. I hope my books start to get much-needed reviews soon because I'm now living with a decreased income and could use the extra help.

Tonight I want to give some free publicity to a dark fantasy book by an indie author named A. J. Francis. I bumped into Hollow Eyes during a forum discussion about really good covers and taking advantage it's a Kindle Unlimited title, I wanted to read the book immediately. I was literally blown away at how awesome the book is.

Hollow Eyes is a dark novella that takes place in a ruined unnamed city that is locked inside of a powerful magical energy field in a desperate attempt several decades ago to trap inside a horde of zombie like monsters. A handful of unfortunate humans still reside in this hell-hole and try their best to survive while they find a way to communicate with the outside world and escape their prison.

Meddled into all of this is the story's hero Estin. He is not a human being, but he's not a zombie monster either. He is a sort of undead being that is now a walking skeleton with some degree of intelligence that needs to drink blood to survive. Estin lives in the sewers of the dilapidated city, feeds off of rats, and sometimes visits the cemetery to stare at his tombstone hoping he might recover his memories when he used to be a human.

He hates the zombies that are fortunately afraid of the rain and tries to behead them with a rusted sword whenever he can. One day when he attacks a few couregeous human survivors to feast on their blood he meets a little girl named Miro. There is something about this terrified girl that intrigues him and a desire to protect her from the zombies becomes his new mission. He hasn't realized this girl with psychic powers might hold the clue to regaining his memories.

If you like dark fantasy stories with zombies, you should really read this book.


Read Hollow Eyes HERE

sábado, 4 de febrero de 2017

Paintschainer, a new coloring toy

I was just scrolling down on an anime group on facebook and someone posted a new AI coloring APP that is making mangakas go bonkers these past few days. The online program is called Paintschainer and I just had to try it out.


Basically you upload a random small image (the pixel image limit sure sucks) and the program does an initial random coloring scheme. If you aren't happy with the result, you just simply clic colors with a simple paint type menu and then clic on colorize and just keep on fooling around until you find a result you like.


The images don't even have to be black & white, I tired out a small Hama drawing to see the result and they vary a lot. The automatic coloring indeed works best with B&W drawings.

 

Saiylan looks rather odd with dark hair.


All in all, with just taking some quick drawings, the software cuts up the painting time by 95%. If it could accept images that are larger than 1000 pixels it would be a sure winner. However, it's indeed insanely addictive. I'm having a lot of fun playing around with it.


If your curiosity has been piqued, why not try it out? Click HERE and have fun!

I don't just draw with a computer mouse

People might feel curious about how I draw the artwork of An Ominous Book. It's a computer program called Photoshop and a cheap mouse I bought at Walmart for 60 MXN that oddly enough hasn't gone bust. I've always had bad luck with the expensive 250 MXN mouses that die on you in 6 months. Even though my hand gets exhausted with my cheapo blue mouse after a while, I've had it for nearly 3 years.

I have some unfinished photoshop drawings that I haven't published yet. I might finish them when I am in the mood. HOWEVER! While I must agree people are really impressed I have the hand dexterity to draw with a mouse that should be really hard to do, I have been drawing doodles on my notebooks for ages.

I purchased some really wicked markers in Washington DC that you can't easily get in Mexico and I will try to draw more often. On the meanwhile, I wish to present two dawings that I scanned and fixed a few blemishes on the computer. I know, I wished they sold skin colored markers that weren't soooooo... pink.

Enjoy!



A new aquarium in Mexico City

I am doing a little bit of pre-spring cleaning of my external harddrives and bumped into a folder of photos I took in 2015 of a new aquarium in Mexico City. It's highly unusual for me to do tourism in this city because well, I grew up here and I've already visited most of the tourist traps a dozen times by now. However the Inbursa Aquarium that is located in Polanco was merely opened 2 years ago.




I like aquariums and if you are really curious, La Torre Latinoamericana skyscraper that is right across the street from Bellas Artes has the highest level aquarium in Latin America. On the other hand, The Inbursa Aquarium boasts to be the largest aquarium in the country. It's been over 20 years since I visited the aquarium in Veracruz so I will be unable to compare.




Why did I visit this aquarium in a city where I seldom do sightseeing? I was on a medical congress in a nearby hospital and sometimes when the conferences are over, the organizers invite everyone to go to random social gatherings. I didn't really know anybody making mingling a sort of pointless endeavor (being an introvert in a huge place filled with strangers that don't care about talking to you doesn't make socializing easier). On the other hand, I heard as lot of reviews of the place and couldn't resist the temptation to tag along. The congress organizers gave us a nice 10% discount which was even better because the fee to visit this aquarium is really steep.





The instant I entered the oddly shaped underground facility, I ended up alone from the group of congress attendees but that gave me the chance to enjoy the exhibits on my own pace. Sadly I was taking so many photos of the congress that the battery of my pocket camera died and had to rely on my tablet for the photos. I'm glad that at least the photos of the animals turned out pretty nice albeit the selfies look close to atrocious.





The first sections are dedicated to sharks and stingrays. Sadly the place was infested with school children that hogged all of the best spots and the camera of my tablet can't capture decent photos of fast moving objects.





You then walk around a confusing tunnel and see all sorts of salt and freshwater animals. Some of the exhibits are illuminated with fluorescent lights. I really enjoyed the tiny jellyfish that glow in the dark thanks to clever artificial lighting.




The later sections of the aquarium feature land dwelling animals such as axolotls which are a severely endangered kind of salamander in Mexico. More than 40 years ago they used to be common in Xochimilco and Texcoco but the severe contamination of this city and complete lack of interest from the mexican government has nearly left these lovely animals almost nonexistant in the wild. I guess if you are not a cute panda, nobody cares.




The final section of the place was infested with eager kids. Yes, Inbursa Aquarium has some penguins. Spiffy indeed.



All in all, the entrance fee to this place will be too much for most mexicans and the kind of families that come here are clearly upper middle class. The place claims to be the largest aquarium in the country but unless the crowds come early in the morning, I can hardly imagine school kids to be able to fully enjoy the place because the hallways are so narrow. I'd avoid this place on the weekend and on high tourist season at all costs to try to avoid the crowds. On the other hand, taking away the negatives, it's a nice place to visit in a section of the city that doesn't have a lot of other tourist attractions.

I'm adding some videos I took of the aquarium for the final touch. ;)