Archives: sci-fi

Release Date for “Settling Darkness”, update on next book!

Hello once again!  It has been so long – TOO long, and I’ve got to catch you guys up to what I’ve been up to!

While avoiding this insane heat we’ve been already having this summer, I’ve managed to wrap up the final touches on “Settling Darkness”, the sequel to “Cataclysm Epoch”.  I’m really jazzed about this new book and I’m excited for you guys to have a look at it.  I’m planning on releasing “Settling Darkness” on 9/14/18  BUT if you’d like to get a sneak at this a month earlier (kindle format only), there’s an easy way of doing that.  All I ask in return is when the time comes you leave me an honest review of the book.  Interested?  Here’s a link for details: http://www.paulheingarten.com/krewe-of-paul-vip/

In my work to wrap up “Settling Darkness”, I took a good hard look at the cover for “Cataclysm Epoch” and decided it needed some sprucing up.  So, I hired a new cover designer and had a new cover done for “Cataclysm Epoch”, check it out!

What do you think?  I felt it captured more of the rawness of Ana Crucinal, and her journey that she sets out on in “Cataclysm Epoch”.  In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m really enjoying writing this character and I suspect I’ll be visiting her world via new stories and books quite regularly in the future!

In addition to working on these two books, I started a Facebook group for the world of this series, called “The Valkyrie Chronicles”.  I’ll be posting details about the books there, as well as some fun tidbits as well.  I want this to be a place you can join in the discussion too, so please look it up on Facebook and join!  Here’s a link https://www.facebook.com/groups/2589440271280542/?ref=br_rs

Finally (as if that wasn’t already enough), I’m hard at work on the sequel to “Settling Darkness”!  Hey, I can’t leave you guys hanging now, can I?  I’m about 1/3 of the way through the first draft and I’ll be hammering away on this one for a while longer.  But fear not, there’s more on the way from me!

Thanks again for your interest, and don’t forget about the Krewe of Paul if you’d like to, you know, get these books I’m writing for FREE!  http://www.paulheingarten.com/krewe-of-paul-vip/

Until next time, take care and stay cool with a good book!

-Paul

New book in beta, and another just getting started!

I once knew a guy who insisted that January was the coldest month of the year. I went back and forth with him on it, I always felt it was more December that was the freezing month. Well, I think THIS January is sure winning the record. WHOA!!! I’m in the deep south too, and I know what you folks up north would probably say, “That’s nothing, what you’ve got down there!” Well for folks in the north, yeah, our cold here can’t compete with you, but it’s certainly a relative amount of suffering via low temps all around!

So, an update on where I’m at in the writing world. “Cataclysm Epoch” is out for two months as of today. Check out the bookmarks and buttons I had made for it! 

“Cataclysm Epoch” is getting some good reviews, and I’m pleased. The word’s getting out quicker, and thanks to my email list I’m able to reach a lot more people to spread the word faster. Did you know about my email list? I send an email out roughly once a month or so to update on my new releases and also to share free ebook deals I find. You can sign up for free and cancel at any time, no hassles at all. I’ll even throw in a free book just for signing up! Here’s a link: Paul’s Update

I have begun the beta reading process for “Settling Darkness”, the sequel to “Cataclysm Epoch”! I’m targeting a late summer/early fall release this year, so stay tuned! Also working on the untitled THIRD book in this series. Yep, I’m gonna have a trilogy pretty soon! There’s plenty of stories and ideas coming too!

I hope you’re keeping warm, preferably with a good book somewhere!
-Paul

Cataclysm Epoch – new novel now available!

I’m pleased to announce my novel “Cataclysm Epoch” is available in Kindle and paperback on Amazon.com!
Cataclysm Epoch on Amazon

This marks the end of a five year journey that began back in 2012 when I sat down in a Barnes and Noble in my hometown, fired up my laptop and my imagination. I’d already seen the first “Hunger Games” film by then, and it really made an impact with me. I hadn’t really read dystopian sci-fi to that point, and Suzanne Collins’ story and characters really got my wheels turning on what I could do in that genre.

I’ve been a fan of the strong female characters for awhile though. From Princess Leia in Star Wars, to Sarah Connor in the Terminator series, to Ellen Ripley in the Alien series and so on. All the way to today with the wonderful Daisy Ridley in the new Star Wars trilogy (The Last Jedi debuts in less than two weeks!!!!), I like stories about tough women who can overcome, improvise, and kick some serious butt.

I hope you take a look at my latest work, and if you do please be so kind to leave a review, I’d love to know what you think! I’m polishing the sequel to “Cataclysm Epoch” now, and plan on having it out next year. Take care and I hope you’re enjoying life!

Cataclysm Epoch on Amazon

New Book out soon, and some other great news too!

Hi there, how’s your fall going so far? Has the weather cooled off enough for you yet? In the southern US, where I live, our version of cool is probably way warmer than you folks in the north are accustomed to. When the temps dip to the 50s through the low 70s, we’re all breathing a sigh of relief that fall is finally here. Of course, we get these crazy fluctuations so even though we’ll get cool temps we’ll still get those 80-degree days as well. The weather sure keeps us guessing around here.

So, about the title of this post. My next novel “Cataclysm Epoch” is ready to debut on Kindle on Friday November 17, 2017! I’m so very excited about this, and to have it happen on that date, 11/17… that happens to be five years from the date I first sat in a Barnes and Noble with my laptop and typed up a simple text file. I was inspired at the time by the Hunger Games, and I wanted to come up with my own story like that. It took some time, some life experiences, and a good amount of effort, but it came to fruition, and I am very proud to share this with you!

Also on the good news side, you may have seen me comment how I entered “Cataclysm Epoch” into the 2017 William Faulkner William Wisdom writing competition in New Orleans. Well, they’ve announced the results and the novel was selected as a semi-finalist! I’m very excited and honored by the judges’ consideration.

You can pre-order “Cataclysm Epoch” for Kindle here:

Until next time, enjoy your fall!!!

-Paul

Writing Goals!

Greetings, I hope your 2016 is going ok so far.  We’ve sure had a bumpy start, with all these iconic musicians and actors leaving us so early in the year.  Hopefully we won’t have much more bad news for awhile.

My writers group Bayou Writers Club held their first meeting of 2016, and it was suggested of the members that we come up with writing resolutions.  Ya know, kind of like New Year’s Resolutions but writing related?  Typically I’ve shied away from these and New Year’s Resolutions in general, because I just haven’t had a lot of luck with them in the past.

However…

I’ve also done pretty well with goals for myself, so I’m opting to think of these more as “goals” than “resolutions”, since aren’t resolutions kind of apt for being broken?  Gym workout resolutions, anyone??

So, I figured I’d put my writing goals for 2016 here so you can see them and I can come back and update you throughout the year on my progress.  Now some of these have to do specifically with writing, but not all of them do.  Some are for more of the complimentary stuff for writing, like getting twitter followers or (ahem) blog posts.  Ok, here we go, in no particular order:

Paul’s 2016 Writing Goals:

• Get to 700 followers on my twitter account, @tanis2112
• Write four blog posts over the year [counting this one? maybe 😉 ]
• Either self publish or query my general fic manuscript (title forthcoming… I like surprises lol)
• Complete two short stories and submit them either to contests or for consideration to be Kindle Singles
• Make significant progress on my sci-fi manuscript (title forthcoming… see above about surprises)

So that’s it!  I’m trying not to go too far with these, so I have goals that are reasonably attainable, but not TOO easy.  Wish me luck!

Happy writing!

Dystopian Manuscript progressing!

Very excited that I’m done with the writing phase of my dystopian manuscript!  I’ve been working on this particular piece on and off since about mid 2013, so this is a great accomplishment.  Currently, the manuscript is approximately 86k words in length and is what I’d say about the third draft.

Mind you, I may still have a little bit of rewriting in order on this one.  I plan to read it from start to finish though.  The way I wrote this one, very little of an outline… it seems necessary to go back through to make sure what I’ve written and anything else I intend to write to fill in the gaps fits with the story.  Otherwise, I’ll just be writing end on end forever.  At some point it’s got to be finished, right?

My hope and plan for this is to be fine tuning and polishing this manuscript up throughout 2016, and then start presenting/querying this to prospective agents by 2017.  I’m giving myself some time to get it together so it feels right.  Seems better for me to have a goal, but not one so imminent and close that I rush things.

I still have the 2nd half of a critique of my general fiction manuscript to work through as well, so I’ve got something to break up my train of thought a bit too.  I find that helps me from getting stagnant.

Anyway, plenty of writing and rewriting work in my near future.  Now I wonder if the Bayou Writers Group will be sending their novel length project for me to edit as well.  Busy times!

I hope you’re all well and are able to write and read plenty!