I
had a plan to have ten of my Kindle ebooks on sale leading up to the
election. The hope was that maybe
somebody would download one of my books so they would have something to read
while they waited in line to vote. So that
was the plan, but then I started seeing all these posts of people waiting in
line for ten hours or more to vote early.
My big sale that wouldn’t start until the end of the month wouldn’t help
them, so I’m now doing four smaller sales from now through the election. This post will show which books are free to
download when. So if you’re going to be
waiting in line, hopefully something of mine will strike your fancy and help
pass the time. And if you’ve already
voted, then reward yourself. And if you’re
not an American citizen, then be sure to vote in your country’s elections. Democracy only works if the people
participate.
Thursday
October 15 through Monday October 19
A Man of Few Words
A
Man of Few Words is a collection of fifty flash fiction stories by Stephen L.
Thompson. What would really happen if a “T-Rex on steroids” attacked a city?
Why do science fiction writers make the best lovers? How does a company get to
Second Base with VIPs? These questions and more are explored by Stephen using
less than 1000 words and in various genres from humor to horror and general
fiction to science fiction.
The
majority of the stories were previously published (most by Stephen himself on
his website) but all were revised for this collection. In addition, each piece
is accompanied by some background information on the origin of the story or a
funny tale about the writing of it to give a fuller experience.
The Moon Before Mars
Over
the last few years a lot of people have caught Mars fever. It seems a week
doesn’t go by without a report of some new group wanting to send people to
Mars, or some big name in the industry talking about why we have to go to Mars,
or articles talking about the glorious future humanity will have on Mars. All
of this worries Stephen L. Thompson. In his opinion, a Mars base is currently
not sustainable because there’s no way for it to make money. A few missions may
fly doing extraordinary science, but if it’s then cancelled for cost the whole
Mars Project may just be seen as an expensive stunt.
Fortunately,
there are other places in the solar system besides Mars. While bases on the
moon and amongst the asteroids won’t be as inspirational as one on Mars, they
will have opportunities for businesses to make goods and services as well as
profits, meaning less chance of them being outright cancelled. This will make
life better on Earth and secure a firm foothold in space for humanity. The
essays in “The Moon Before Mars: Why returning to the moon makes more sense
than rushing off to Mars” allow Mister Thompson to describe his ideas on what
can be accomplished on the moon and with the asteroids, and why Mars isn’t the
destiny of humanity its cheerleaders make it out to be.
Tuesday
October 20 through Saturday October 24
Lonely Phoenix
Partway
to a new colony world, board member Geoffrey Ames is woken from hibernation by
the caretaking crew of the Lucian. They require him to look into the matter of
their fellow crewman Morgan Heller. Morgan’s claims – such as being over 1500
years old – would normally land him in the psychiatric ward, except he can back
up some of his other claims.
The Only Certainty
On
The Day, for reasons unknown, people began changing. They went to sleep as
their old selves and woke in their beds in different bodies: bodies that had
belonged to other people. And each time they fall asleep, they wake in a new body.
Set months later, “The Only Certainty” follows Derrick Gorton on an average day
in this new world as he deals with food shortages, the semi-collapse of
society, and how to finish his latest novel.
Sunday
October 25 through Thursday October 29
Relics
This
work contains some profanity and sexual situations. It is intended for mature
audiences only.
A
plague that kills men has devastated the world’s population. Only a few
thousand boys and men were able to be quarantined. But Mike Shay is the only
man known to have a natural immunity to the plague. Therefore, he is
practically the only man in a world of women. He spends his days reading,
playing video games, and making the occasional sperm donation. Then Dr.
Veronica Barrett shows up, disrupting what passes for his life. She says she’s
there to investigate his “mental wellbeing,” but is there more to her visit?
Instead
of the normal, adolescent, heterosexual male fantasy of being the only guy on a
planet of women, “Relics” tries to give a more realistic view of Mike’s life.
Seventh Story Stockpile
Over
the years, Stephen L. Thompson has posted several short stories on websites
that later – for one reason or another – died. While the corpses of some of
these sites are still around where you can read his stories, many have vanished
from the internet. And since there are few sites that will publish such
previously published works, the only way you could read them was if he
self-published them in a collection.
In
addition to such “lost” stories, he’s included some new stories that – for one
reason or another – he felt he’d have a hard time finding someone to publish
them. So “Seventh Story Stockpile” basically contains stories he didn’t know
what to do with. But now he can move on to other projects.
Friday
October 30 through Tuesday November 3
Political Pies
Everybody
complains about politics, but does anyone do anything about it? Stephen L.
Thompson’s attempt to do something about it is to collect forty of his short
stories with a political element into his Political Pies anthology. His stories
are either politically neutral or equally condemning of the national parties.
Instead of trying to sway you to one ideology or another, his goal is to just
get people thinking about politics in the hopes a rose might grow out of all
the political manure.
The All-You-Can-Read Buffet
The
All-You-Can-Read Buffet is a collection of forty stories covering various
genres and themes ranging from six to over 4,200 words in length. Some of these
stories Stephen L. Thompson began writing a decade ago, while others were
written especially for this collection. All together, they are a buffet of his
writing. As such, he encourage you to read as much as you want. Go back for
seconds, thirds, fourths even. He won’t even mind if you skip over the stuff
you don’t like, but, to quote your mother, “How do you know you don’t like it?
Have you tried it?”
The Future is Coming
As a
science fiction writer, Stephen L. Thompson has spent a lot of time thinking
about how technology will change the way we live. He has come up with these ten
short essays about science fictional elements that will – almost certainly –
one day become science fact as a way for people to start coming to terms with
them. Because he has spent time thinking about clones and AIs, Stephen feels
that he’ll be okay when they do finally show up whereas most people will
probably freak out. He hopes his essays will get people to start thinking about
the future because, no matter what we do, the future is coming.
Duty
For reasons of safety
and avoiding paradoxes, Time Travel Incorporated assigns a Guardian to all its
travelers. So when there is an accident during political historian Roj Hasol’s
trip back to 1968, it’s his Guardian Susan who sets out on the arduous task of
cleaning up the mess.
