Image of the Day
Yes, it's been quite a while since Nakota Publishing's last update. Arlys and I have been adjusting to new day-jobs and new transportation. Our creative endeavors have not gone idle, however. We have been working on further publications featuring our favorite steampunk heroine, Professor Ione Dfrdwy.
At long last, the paperback version of Miss Ione D and the Mayan Marvel is slated for publication on April 1, 2017. We have added a dozen original illustrations to make this book a special collector's item with bonus material that's not available in the e-book. Don't get me wrong; I love my Kindle. The convenience of having dozens of books in a single device can't be beat. Yet there's something about the feel of a real paper book, turning real physical pages, that can't be simulated.
On the left is the first in the series, Miss Ione D and the Mayan Marvel, due out in paperback very soon. Thanks to our models, left to right, Arlys Endres as Ione (both covers), Anna Nguyen as Lily, and Brittney Reed as Emma. Photos by my amazing co-author Arlys Holloway. Thanks also to the GIMP (not the guy from Pulp Fiction), a free open-source graphics application I used to create them.
Tentative release dates are:
Miss Ione D. and the Mayan Marvel, paperback – 4/17/2017, the 178th anniversary of the Republic of Guatemala
Professor Ione D. and the Epicurean Incident, e-book, 5/24/2017, Queen Victoria's birthday
Professor Ione D. and the Epicurean Incident, paperback – to be determined
Watch this site for more Nakota Publishing news!
My girlfriend and collaborator Arlys would like to introduce Niela the Alien, a Petite Grey from Zeta Reticulus who aspires to be a shape-shifter of sorts. Niela helps us celebrate holidays and important events by changing costumes to fit the situation. You'll be seeing him or her (we're not sure which) now and then throughout the upcoming year. Unfortunately, he/she hasn't filled out the requisite forms with the INS, so you'll have to help us keep his/her whereabouts secret from the Donald.
This week, Niela is celebrating all the exciting things that we at Nakota Publishing have planned for the coming year.
- A paperback release of Miss Ione D and the Mayan Marvel
- A new Ione D novel called Professor Ione D and the Epicurean Incident
- I'll be submitting more short-short stories to George Donnelly's Flash Flood series of anthologies, so hopefully you'll see more of my work there.
- A possible new edition of my first novel, Centrifugal Force
- I'll definitely be working on a sequel to Fidelio's Automata.
- Watch this site for more new releases from Nakota Publishing!
We'd like to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our readers and site visitors. I'd like to note that this year, Hanukkah begins at sunset on December 24th so for a change the two holidays coincide. So for once I won't be late in wishing a Happy Hanukkah as well!
A.D. 2016 has been a year of challenges and surprises for all of us. The one upside of these last few years of economic hardship is that they cause us to pause in our pursuit of material things and focus on more important things like relationships with friends and family. Even for those who don't accept the literal truth of the Christmas story, it can remind us to be grateful for what we have, and inspire us to live better lives.
Here's hoping that 2017 sees America and the world back on the path to peace and prosperity.
In preparation for our upcoming Ione D novella, "Miss Ione D and the Mayan Marvel," I did a web search of sample steampunk book covers. I was surprised to see how modern most of them looked. They followed the 21st century style in which the entire cover is a photograph, some of them showing bodice-ripper type scenarios. It's true that steampunk is a mix of the old with the new, but sadly, these concepts didn't seem the least bit Victorian. So instead of following one of these formats, I consulted my antique book collection to find something that looked more appropriate. What I found was my grandfather's hymnal from 1918, which provided a design that was ornate but not excessively so. As always, I used the GIMP, the open source Photoshop equivalent that runs on Linux to create the finished product. The attached image is our preliminary version, which features my collaborator Arlys' daughter, Arlys Endres, in the role of Ione. By the way, the font I used is called "Arizonia."
Our new book, “Miss Ione D and the Mayan Marvel” is scheduled for release in e-book form on 5/24. That's less than two weeks away! The e-book will also include a sneak peek at the first chapter of the Ione D sequel, “Professor Ione D and the Epicurean Incident,” which we hope to publish later this year.
On that topic, I've finished converting Ione's first adventure from its original “Libre Office” format to e-book format, using Kovid Goyal's handy e-book application “Calibre.” It's actually a general-purpose program, which allows you to catalog your e-books, read them on your computer, and synch with your e-reader device. Best of all, it's available to download free of charge, and it works on Linux (also Windows and Mac by the way.) For those using Microsoft word, here's a link to a tutorial that explains how to create e-books from DOC or DOCX files. One bit of advice: if you're going to use Calibre's table-of-contents generation tool, make sure to format all section and chapter headings with standard styles (i.e., Heading 1, 2, or 3.)
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I'm pleased to announce that my short story “Ghost Writer” has been accepted for the anthology “Flash
Liberty 2016,” published by fellow sci-fi writer George Donnelly (See his page at http://georgedonnelly.com). This collection of very short liberty-themed stories by many different writers is sure to be awesome. I'll keep you posted as the publication date approaches. My entry is a unique twist on conspiracy theories. If you're an "X Files" fan like me, I know you'll enjoy it.
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