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Yesterday I decided to take a shot at adding the series to Google Play.  You can view the listings here: https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=Duane+L.+Martin

Again, the first book, Origins is free everywhere including the official site. The only place it isn’t is on Amazon because they’re a pain in the ass about their pricing, so I’ve changed it to .99 cents there and I’m trying to get people to report price matches so they’ll knock it down to free on there as well.

A quick thought on Google Play. Much like Amazon, they have a space for the series title and the volume number, and yet they make no mention of it at all in the listings. At least Amazon is listing the series now next to the title, but even there it’s not linked to a full list of the series titles. I really don’t know what these retail sites are thinking. It should be absolutely elementary to have the title the series and the volume number all on the listing for any given book for which a volume and series number apply. Honestly, the only site I’ve seen doing this so far is Smashwords, so they’ve got it right. Another problem with Google Play are the reports. You can’t view them online. You have to download a CSV file to view. How basic would it be to have that info viewable on a nice reports page? I mean they’re Google! What the hell?

Yes, that’s right.  I’m now giving away the first book of the series, not just as a special promo, but permanently.  You can get it free either here on the official site, or on Smashwords.  I believe it’ll be free on the retail sites too once it propagates.  I’ve changed the price on Amazon to .99 cents since that’s all they allow with their pricing options, but you can either price match there if you want, or you can buy it for .99 cents and throw me a few pennies. 🙂

Work has officially begun on book 10 of the series, Encounters.  The first chapter is done, though my writing is going to be very piecemeal for the next week or so because I have a lot of movies I have to review before the end of the month.  I’ll fit in the writing when I can though just to keep things moving.

Just a reminder that the first book of the series, Origins is available for free this week here on the website.  The free giveaway will end on May 25th, so be sure to grab it while you can.

I am very happy to announce that book 9 of the Unseen Things series is now available!

Synopsis: When Logan’s body was removed from its grave, they thought it was just the work some a cult, or a deranged individual. Never in a million years would they have dreamed that Derek’s brother had been taken for a very specific reason, nor could they have possibly guessed what that reason might be.

They’d gained their immortality and all of their vast mental and physical abilities from the serum they were given, but what if it could be used for more than that? What if it could be used to regenerate the dead and then bring them back to life with their memories fully in tact? That’s what Freddie wondered, and based on the education that he and Diana had received in the field of genetics from Charles and Richard, Freddie came up with a theory that allowed them to do just that.

What would you do if suddenly your loved ones could be brought back to life with the same immortality and abilities that you have? It was a possibility that was something they never could have conceived of, and yet all of a sudden it was all too real.

With new abilities, new characters and new secrets revealed, Resurrection marks another great leap forward in the development of the Unseen Things universe.

Resurrection is book 9 of the Unseen Things series.

You can purchase the book right here through the official site and get it in three different formats (Epub, Kindle and PDF), or you can get it from Amazon or Smashwords. Once Smashwords sends it out for premium distribution, it’ll be available on a variety of other sites as well.

I just finished writing book 9 of the series, Resurrection.  I’ll start the proofreading tonight, and it all goes we’ll I’ll have it published by next Monday at the latest.  This book was sort of an emotional roller coaster, but the last two chapters are quite a lot of fun, so at least it ends on a high note.  It also ends exactly where the next book is going to begin.

Now…on to the editing.

So as I’ve stated many times before, I rarely pre-plan anything in my books other than the most general ideas.  All the rest I just type and let the story flow out of me in whatever way it feels like it should, just as though I were standing there watching the scenes in real life while I typed it all out.  Even the simplest little notion can turn into something that affects the whole series, like the notion I had today.  I’m currently working on chapter 14 of Resurrection and there was a part that came up that had nothing to do really with what I ended up doing, but it led to it, and what I did felt so natural when I did it.  It was something I’d sort of hinted at a bit in the past but never really out and out said, nor had I had any plans at all to say it in this or any other book, but in this one particular moment, it felt right to finally say it, and now that one little thing is turning into a major part of the story.  Not only that, but it’ll bring someone who heretofore was sort of a secondary character and will elevate her up to main character status along with the others.  I’m not going to say what this all involves because that would ruin it, but let’s just say that I’m really excited about what I’m doing with it.

Resurrection has been a difficult book for me to write.  It just hasn’t been flowing as well as the others for one main reason…it’s kinda depressing.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are some really fun scenes in this book, but there’s also a lot of heavy emotional and relationship stuff that was done out of necessity.  You can’t just bring people back from the dead without there being some regrets, resentments and other emotional issues that go along with that.  The problem with that sort of thing is that it’s a bummer to have to write it.  The fun stuff is a blast and I can blow through those scenes in no time at all, but the heavy stuff…that takes a lot more thought and you really have to become each of the characters so you can really understand their point of view and why they feel the way they do.

Now, that said, aside from the fun stuff and the heavy drama, there are also a lot of firsts in this book.

1. You’ll go to Charles and Richard’s house for the first time.
2. You’ll meet the Ach’len for the first time.
3. The main characters all discover and develop a new remote linking ability that allows them to do some really cool (and fun) stuff.
4. One of the characters reveals a secret that becomes a major part of the story.
5. That part of the story is sort of an offshoot of something they were already doing, but they’re going for a completely different result.
6. You’ll find out a bit about how just how tough the reptilians are.
7. You’ll find out the details of what happened the night Logan committed suicide.

There’s probably more I’m forgetting to mention, but there are some major story advancements in this book.  If I keep up with my chapter a day goal, the book will be finished by Friday at the latest, and then it’ll take me three or four days to proofread it and get it ready for publication.  I’m hoping to have it out by next Wednesday or so.

Also, since I know what’s coming generally in the next book, the name popped into my head today while I was writing.  The next book will be called Encounters, and it’ll be the 10th book in the series, which is way cool! 😀

That’s it for now.   Time to get back to writing.