Matakishi's Tea House

Cleaned it up, kicked it out the door, and am moving on. Here's an eBook in various formats. There's a real print version on the way soon.

Paul, I'll mail you a copy asap.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/21337

Thanks all.

Thanks Patrick, I will put it on my e-reader like a proper sci fi book

I read it a few months ago now and generally liked it a lot. There are some excellent ideas and scenes in it and some innovative expressions; 'tetrising' made me smile, very clever.

Interestingly (or maybe not) I enjoyed it more when I was reading it as installments in the early days. Your writing is very dense in places with a lot of detail and concepts often crammed in to a few short sentences which makes fast digestion (especially late at night before sleep which is my only reading slot) difficult. Perhaps a symtom of a first book? You work hard to perfect every word and the end result can be too perfect, too streamlined and pared down. Occasionally some waffle is ok, allowing th eye to skip across a few less important bits can help a sentence come into focus in the mind.

I'm not expressing it very well. Basically, especially in the fast parts, I found that instead of skipping along and furiously turning pages to keep up with the action I was stopping, re-reading and checking I'd got everything before I could continue. Sometimes I found I had missed something important when a later part didn't make sense.

Now, obviously this just shows me to be a crap reader, but I found it was easier to take in little chunks.

It was refreshing to see some Christian ideas as well. Not something I believe in and often handled with a very heavy hand. In this case it fitted, it was just as relevent as if one of the APC folk had focussed on Shinto, just part of the story. Managing not to preach was a triumph and it made for a good ending. 'Write what you know' is often difficult in the far future

Right, I'll stop here, I can feel my mind wandering into extended waffle mode. I found two typos, (one on page 11 I think and the other much later on but I forget,) both were missed by your spell checker because they were actual words, just out of place. Like a homonym (but not).

The book was not signed.

Apart from the above two little errors it was great to finally hold the actual book, self published or not. I look forward to the next one.

Paul,

I'm told a good book isn't so much written and re-written. I was so stunned and happy I'd actually written an entire novel I let it out a couple drafts too early. My bad. Objectivity only came with time/with distance, and I realized it needed serious editing.

The current version has yet to be copyedited by someone other than me, so there might be typos. Substance-wise, I've re-structured the sequence of events to make more sense, streamlined those burdened passages and dialogue, and tried to add some character depth without sacrificing action.

Christianity... it is there, but I hope it's organic without being tediousor didactic. I've already encountered those in the extremes who say it's either 1. violent and profane garbage; or 2. proselytizing crap.

Can't win. It is what it is.Either way, it was high time I put it out there to sink or swim, and moved on to my next book. The print version will be available at Amazon, B&N, and elsewhere, and will have benefited from a final outside polish for typos.

Thanks for everything. Next copy you get will be signed, I promise. 

Paul,

BTW... not that I don't appreciate all your hard work, but would you pull the current version down off the Tea House? Now that's it's being published, I need consistency. 

I mean, if you're so inclined, you can replace it with the current Prologue through chapter 5, and whatever pictures you deem appropriate, but I'm sure you have better things to do.

Thanks again.  

Here's a 10% off coupon good through this weekend:  YX28G

Enter it when you check out. Thanks. 

All gone

Thanks.

I've approached a couple illustrators on DeviantArt regarding images to accompany at least the first five chapters. I'll inform you if anything definite comes of it.

The guy that did the cover did a great job, quickly, for short money, but I'm not sure that's image/tone I want for the print version. It's cool, but in a Splinter Cell, comic book kinda way, and I was hoping for a hint more maturity and menace. 

Paul.

Running a new PC. Old info and emails gone. Please re-send your mailing  address to

CCGlazier AT Gmail DOT com

Thanks,

Patrick