SEPTEMBER 2009 - Newsletter

What's New

SEPTEMBER 2009 - Newsletter

DavidR 09-04-2009, 5:31 PM
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SEPTEMBER 2009 - Newsletter
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Hello from the Sky Bunker, perched upon a crumbling pile at the crest of a hill overlooking Bristol, England. I'm currently listening to my new favourite track, one I've had in my possession for a few months but certainly something of a grower: it's "Marionette" by Mathew Jonson.

Check it out here: http://www.play.com/Music/MP3-Download-Album/4-/4361085/Marionette/Product.html

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What's Up
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<> Who Won July's Book Giveaway.

<> SFX Interview

<> New novel - progress

<> Iron Man Project

<> Thanks

<> Appeal

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Who Won July's Book Giveaway
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The winner was a very nice chap called Christopher Clark Plambeck from the US, who selected "God Seed" as his prize. He admitted that he participated in the contest to get his hands on the RPG "Yellow Dawn" and was thrown into a paroxysm of indecision when he realised the choice of novels available. Made me smile. Thanks to Chris for the extra fans he generated. Watch this space as I'm hoping to run another giveaway before Christmas.

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SFX Magazine Interview
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SFX Magazine is a big name in Euro sci-fi and I was recently approached by them to do an interview. I completed the interview with editor David Bradley yesterday. Watch this space and I'll link when my slot comes up. SFX Magazine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SFX_%28magazine%29

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New novel - progress
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After much delay due to other commitments (Yellow Dawn) I'm finally back into a groove with the new book. Dog Eat Dog. It's the first to be set in the world of Yellow Dawn and I'm pretty damn excited about it. Yellow Dawn takes the near-future world of my novels, applies an apocalyptic event (caused by a Lovecraftian Mythos God) and picks up the pace ten years later. There's human survivors dishing out racial intolerance on post-apocalyptic mutants; Dead Cities lost to the living dead but representing treasure troves of resources for scavenging; and there's a plethora of political interplays - which is how the main characters of the novel enter the fray. I'm due to end the final phase of notes and planning this weekend with a view to starting writing in earnest mid-September.

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Iron Man Project
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Iron Man Project is a novel that I finished back in 2005 and suffered a quiet launch. Sales have recently started to spike - a slow burner? - and I've been getting some excellent feedback. Here's a lovely email from this dutch fella, who's just finished reading Iron Man Project. Good words:

From: panzercreuzer@XXXXXXX.com
To: clovenfeet@XXXXXX.com
Subject: RE: IMP
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:54:49 +0200

Hey David

I want to congratulate you with The Iron Man project which I just read. It’s been a while since I bought it, but it had ended up in Italy and I stumbled across it now that we are spending a few weeks here recovering from our Africa trip. Anyway, I think it’s a bombshell, extremely captivating. The plot is so rich you could have made a trilogy out of it, easily. Mildly futuristic but without the cyborg-stuff, so I actually enjoyed it very much, more than Godseed I must admit. I especially liked the picture you paint of the future world, different from the usual science-fiction scenarios where super-technology is over-organising every aspect of the daily life, which I believe is not what is going to happen. As far as I see it, the progress in technology is increasingly geared towards private, individual interests, so yes, we’ll have fancy PA’s doing whatever you can imagine, but also power cuts and water shortage because no-one cares about investing in the public good. The rich will be living in star-trek surroundings but there will still be poor living in slums. If you worked out these concepts further in detail, focussing on the political-societal aspects instead of the plot, you could write another trilogy based on the same contents but for a different audience. Perhaps you could even become one of television’s futurism experts.

[...]

I've omitted the rest of the email simply because it's about stuff personal to him and not about the book.

You can preview / buy Iron Man Project here: http://www.lulu.com/content/673754

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Thanks
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Thanks to all the new fans who've recently joined my Facebook page:

Aandromedan Startrek; Paul Bedding; Fatmata Farid Kamara; Ray Garbageman O'Donnell; Tyler Wilson; Robyn Jewiss; David Keech; Clare Smith; Manuelle Knowls; Luke Timmins; Shonette Laffy; Louise Lydall; Richard Lydall; Liinda Seaniger; Chase Burgess; Laurie Daly; Jess Shuttleworth; Lisa Beattie; Renee Sawyer Fry; Ryan Bartkowicz; Corey Lawson; Leah Carroll; Marianna Christina Jack-Lamont; Jero Pollak; Brandon Price; Matt Stanton; Heidi Keränen; Andy Geisler.

Facebook fan page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-J-Rodger/10090348898

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Appeal
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I'm a self-published author, skirting the pitfalls and unpleasant contracts of the traditional big publishing houses. Although deeply rewarding it's also acutely challenging - specifically, getting my name out there. If you like my work, please please please tell other people. Blog about it, if you can. The power to spread the word is in your hands.

That's it

wishing you the very best of dark dreams

David J Rodger