Take Another Deep Breath…

A new release of my novel The Fifth Man is finally out in e-book form, joining the new paper version that was published a couple of months ago.

This is the sequel to Oxygen, a space adventure novel with a strong female lead character. Like Oxygen, The Fifth Man has a storyline that flies, full of suspense, humor, and romance.

About The Fifth Man:

Valkerie Jansen is tough, beautiful, and being pursued by every man on the planet. Literally. The planet in question is Mars, with a total population of four.

Days before a giant dust storm is projected to strike their camp, Valkerie is attacked by an unseen assailant.

Fortunately, there are only three suspects.

Unfortunately, all three of them . . . are innocent.

This is the second edition of The Fifth Man, released in May, 2012. This “Writer’s Journey” edition of The Fifth Man contains three bonus appendices (over 60 pages!) for fiction writers and anyone interested in getting the inside scoop on how John and Randy develop their stories. Learn some of their most powerful techniques, including story drivers, high concept, and scene structure.

About the Authors:

John and Randy have been collaborating on one crazy project after another for the past fifteen years.

Not only are they novelists, Ph.D. scientists, and entrepreneurs who’ve founded four different corporations between them, but rumor has it that they prowl the night wearing steampunk battle gear to rid the streets of vampires, werewolves, and ducks that poop on your front lawn after it rains.

John and Randy deny all such tales as “vicious exaggeration.”

Extras for Novelists

For writers (and for anyone who wants to know the story behind the story), John and I added some extras that I think my Loyal Blog Readers will find immensely valuable. We created three appendices for the novel, totaling more than 16,000 words:

• Developing the Big Idea
• Developing a Powerful High Concept
• Every Scene is a Story

I think you’ll find that second appendix Xtremely interesting. John has this technique he’s been using for years to take “high concept” story ideas to the next level. Editors love John’s ideas, and I could never quite figure out what he was doing to make that happen.

I suspect he’s been trying to explain his technique to me for a long time and I’ve been too dense to get it. But now I do. I always wondered why his novels sell better than mine. I think this is part of the answer.

You might also find that third appendix to be pretty cool. I’ve been teaching for years on the theory of “Scenes and Sequels” or what I prefer to call “Proactive and Reactive Scenes.”

In the third appendix, I had unlimited room for examples of those pesky Proactive and Reactive Scenes, so I packed them in. I analyzed the first 31 scenes from The Fifth Man, showing what made them work. In a few annoying cases, I showed what we could have done better if I’d known 10 years ago what I know now.

Why Only $2.99?

That price won’t last forever. In fact, we intend to increase it this coming Sunday night, June 3, 2012, at midnight California time.

Caveats: Be aware that the online retailers don’t always charge exactly the price we want them to. Amazon sometimes charges a higher price to some customers outside the US and they don’t sell in absolutely every country on the planet. Barnes & Noble sells only to the US (and I think also to Canada). We don’t have any control over where these folks sell and what exact price they charge. We have given them full world-wide distribution rights and we told them the price we want. If they don’t do exactly that, there are reasons, but they’re above our pay grade to understand.

Fortunately, Smashwords can sell to most countries in the world at pretty much the same price, and they make e-books available in the ten most common electronic formats.

Where to Get The Fifth Man

Grab your e-book copy of The Fifth Man here on Amazon for $2.99.

Grab your e-book copy of The Fifth Man here on Barnes & Noble for $2.99.

Grab your e-book copy of The Fifth Man here on Smashwords for $2.99.

If you don’t have an e-reader, you can get free apps for your computer, iPad, or smart phone on Amazon to read Kindle e-books and on Barnes & Noble to read Nook e-books.

You can also get the PDF version fromSmashwords, and remember that a PDF file is readable on any computer.

If you prefer paper and you live in the US, you can order a paper copy here at Marcher Lord Press (the current price is $16.99, and I assume this is subject to change — again this is not under my control.)

The paper edition has the same content as the e-book, but it has a different cover because different publishers always have different covers for a given book.