Website Update: DARC AGES, THE ARGUS PROJECT & Tech Issues

Weekly update of my official website:

- NEW chapter in the serial DARC AGES.

- NEW chapter in the serial THE ARGUS PROJECT.

- I fixed a bug in the text of DARC AGES which caused the letter "é" to look wrong.

NOTE: If said letter still looks wrong in your Web browser, please adjust your Character Encoding settings to "Western" or "Auto-Detect" characters(=letters).

Since I have no control over which character settings are used by each individual browser, it can be frustrating to use some letters in texts posted online -- especially those letters with a little "comma" on top: é, á, è, etc.

I considered simply removing those letters from all text pages, but I felt that might create another problem -- namely that I'd end up with different versions of the same novel.

Kameron Hurley On Writers Getting "Branded"

Read Kameron Hurley's essay "Branded: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly."

Choice Quote:
"I think that as much as we like to pretend that what gets us ahead is our originality and creativity, writers – whether consciously or not – end up either being branded or branding themselves over the course of their careers."

Website Update: DARC AGES and more

Busy... gotta make this quick:

WebsiteupdatedwithDARCAGESandGALLERYandTHEARGUSPROJECT!

Play BOOK REJECTION BINGO!!

Tearing your hair out at rejection slips that make little or no sense?
Save your hair!
Instead, play... BOOK REJECTION BINGO!!



Game board created by the eminent Kameron Hurley
(whose short story "The Women of Our Occupation" you must read.)

Kameron noted, on her blog:
"It was terribly fun to write up... lots of these are based on rejections of now-famous books."
Ouch, publishers. Ouch.

Website Update: November 16, 2009

My official website has been updated with:

- A new, rather long chapter of the novel DARC AGES
(originally serialized around the year 2000).

- The beginning of the serialized novel THE ARGUS PROJECT
(originally serialized in 2001).





So, are these books "any good"?

I'm mostly critical of my old stuff -- there's always something in it I wished I had done differently -- but one has to move on, you know?
Still, I think both books have some qualities -- most of all the absolute refusal to get dull.
Every chapter of them is set up to create, build or sustain some sort of confrontation -- between wills, between armies -- even, in THE ARGUS PROJECT, a confrontation inside the protagonist's body...

And... Oh, just read the damn things and make up your own minds.

Here are some DARC AGES reviews I managed to find:

"DARC AGES is one of the best books that I've read in a LONG time, the only other thing that is up to par with it is Catch 22, in my humble opinion."
-Scott Lovenberg, USA (Guestbook posting, 2000)

---

"It has suspense and action and romance. It has a great ending and I wouldn't mind seeing other books by this author..."
-David Andrew Ellison, USA (Amazon.com reader review, 2001)

---

"Darc Ages by A.R. Yngve is a very entertaining story that walks a tightrope between humor and seriousness. Many of the humorous elements have a light and a dark side; I both laugh silently to myself and get an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.

"The uncomfortable element is hard to put one's finger on, but comes from that under the surface of this wacky and exciting adventure lies social criticism on different levels. Sometimes it is obvious and sometimes covert, but often to the point. [...]

"It is difficult to score Darc Ages, for it is rather uneven, but the fact remains that I simply like it. It gets a strong 3."

Score: 3 out 5
-Vinter (Review on Swedish website Catahya, 2006.)

Das Websiten Bist Updaten, Ja!

In this week's website update:

- DARC AGES, chapter 6
- BLOOD & SWINE: A COMEDY OF TERROR, sample chapter 3
- "SNIPER, VIPER..." The first of the PRECINCT 20: DEAD STRANGE stories

Obligatory Shameless Marketing Post.

I have a wife and kid. So... PLEASE BUY SOME OF THIS MERCHANDISE. Thank you.

Stephen King's CARRIE Was Rejected HOW Many Times??

Gee, I didn't know that Stephen King's breakthrough novel was rejected 30 times.

Surely it must be part of a massive conspiracy to make big publishing houses seem like a bunch of clowns...?
(The same conspiracy that made so many unsuspecting big publishers make the apparently conscious decision to reject an apparently unsellable manuscript called HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.)

Read the list of 14 bestsellers which were rejected many, many times. And don't give up.

(Thanks to Ashok Banker for the link suggestion.)

Website Update: BLOOD & SWINE, DARC AGES and THE TIME IDIOT

Check out my official website for new sample chapters of the novels BLOOD & SWINE and THE TIME IDIOT, plus a new chapter of the web serial DARC AGES.

Choice quote:
---------------

"Hey!" Prescott called out to the other cell. "Wake up! I've gotta ask you something!"

The other prisoner stopped snoring. "Shut up," he moaned. "My head hurts. God, that was some foul booze! I'll never drink home brew again."

"Listen up! I need to know a few things. Like, what's going on?"

The prisoner sat up, groaned and rubbed his neck. He was wearing a wrinkled infantryman's uniform. "What the hell are you talking about?" He spoke with a slight slur.

"You know, our country. Are we at war?"

The prisoner scratched his unshaven chin and made an effort to focus his eyesight on Prescott. With his bronze skin, sharp nose and high cheekbones he resembled a Native American. "Whaddya mean, 'at war'? We're always at war with someone or something. It's America's Manifest Destiny to fight the good fight!"

If the soldier was attempting sarcasm, it went right over Prescott's head.

"Is the Cold War still going on?"

"What, there's a cold one now?"
--------------
(From THE TIME IDIOT)