Delayed Releases

So October was supposed to see me launch a couple of things. First, the promised preview of Through Darkness and Stars, the second novel of The Omniverse Series, which was launched when I published The Unearthing, back in 2006.

Second, I had hoped to complete work on my next eBook, Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind.

Unfortunately, neither project is ready to launch. Nevermind is taking longer than expected to put together and format, and I was so engrossed in the work on that one that I never got around to compiling the aforementioned Through Darkness and Stars.

Here we are, mid-November and I've decided to put Nevermind back on hold for a while, so I can get Darkness out to you, dear readers, sooner rather than later.

I still hope to launch the Nevermind eBook before the end of the year, and Darkness by mid 2010.

Your patience will be rewarded, I promise!

Though I am loath to endorse any hyperlink that leads back to the dreadfully awful Montreal Gazette, the following story is both important and uplifting to anyone who believes that all Quebecers should have the same full, and equal, rights under the law. This should encourage anyone who believes in freedom of expression, of multiculturalism, and most of all, of courage in the face of overwhelming (albeit utterly discredited) opposition and even violence.

I reprint it here, without permission, solely to ensure that in the likely event the Gazette caves to pressure from a "special" interest group comprised of a goon squad of separatist racists.

One woman against the anti-Royal mobBy David Johnston, The Gazette

Photograph by: John Mahoney, The Gazette

She was a single lone woman up against a noisy nationalist mob tonight outside of the Black Watch armory on Bleury St., in the hour before Prince Charles arrived with Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

As the bright lights of national television created an something of a chilling aura around the 150 slogan-chanting Quebec nationalists, a small determined woman named Suzanne Reny walked up to the front lines of the protest and told them they were all a disgrace.

Speaking in fluent French and English, and carrying a well-known Scottish flag, the Rampant Lion, this petite daughter of a retired Canadian air-force pilot, and husband of a man of Scottish orgin, tore a strip off the protestors in front of a dozen cameras.

She called them ignorant and stupid, and she called them other things that can’t be printed – and the protestors were taken aback at first, until one man pushed her, prompting other protestors to intervene on behalf of her.

“If they are allowed to have their way in public, then I am allowed to have my say in public, too,” said Reny, the daughter of a father from the Beauce region and a mother from Trois-Rivières.

“If they are going to come here as a gang and say ‘We’re the Jeunes Patriotes’ and all that stuff and ‘we represent Quebec,’ well, I’m here to say they don’t represent Quebec,” said Reny.

Royal-family lovers who had come to stand outside the armory in the hope of greeting the royal couple looked on in amazement as Reny took on all comers and stood her ground in the glare of TV lights against the intimidating mob.

“Am I afraid? No way!” said Reny, who grew up in Lachine, LaSalle and Dollard des Ormeaux.

One of the protestors, a red-haired francophone woman named Danielle Fortin who said she was “a quarter” Irish and who was carrying an Irish flag, said to Reny, “Whose the real minority here? Don’t you know your history?”

Reny shot back, “Where did you learn your history? At the University of the St. Jean Baptiste Society?”

The louder Reny shouted the protestors down, the more the protestors in the background craned their necks to get a look at this woman who had come to stand them down. She was a one-woman counter-demonstration, and the royal couple’s and Black Watch’s strongest defender.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Coming Soon: A 6 Chapter Preview!

An ancient Ship completing a millions-year old mission has taken Human passengers and crew on an historic voyage to the heart of an ancient cosmic dynasty.

But despite their extensive training, no one aboard the Shipflight is prepared for what they find, as they search for the Great Races of the lost League of Worlds.

When catastrophe forces Shipflight onward, unable to return to Earth, they set out to discover what happened to those who passed through the cosmos before them.

What awaits them beyond the world that Mankind has always called home is a growing madness aboard the Ship, and a lost enemy, stalking them as they travel through darkness and stars...

Through Darkness and Stars
Part Two of Steve Karmazenuk's Omniverse

FREE 6-CHAPTER PREVIEW COMING SOON

FULL DOWNLOADABLE EBOOK COMING IN 2010

Back on Track

So I got my computer back on Monday, only to find that the promised backup of all my data that was to have been done before the nitwits at Furture Shop reformatted and reinstalled everything on my computer wasn't done.

What limited bakcups I had did not cover everything I had, and it looked as though I had lost all my photos, two novels and everything I've ever written for CONFRONT Magazine. Needless to say I wasn't impressed.

It took me complaining to two different managers and telling customers coming to the repair counter at Future Shop to take their computers elsewhere - and why - before they agreed to do anything to help me.

Finally after an hour-long pissing contest with the idiots in charge of computer repairs at Future Shop before they finally acquiesced and did a data recovery - for free, and in under two hours - of the files I lost.

I recovered everything, thank God.

So, moving on.

This week I finished writing the seventh chapter of the third book of The Omniverse, 'The Aeons War' and last night I hit a wall while trying to start chapter eight. Well, I hit a couple of walls. I don't like the flow of chapter six (which relates directly to chapter eight) so I'll be going back and giving it a rewrite before going forward with chapter eight.

However, 'Aeons War' has been taking most of my writing attention of late, and I am trying to get another e-book out before the end of the ear, namely 'Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind'. So, I'm going to take a break from one to work on the other. I've discovered I've got a little bit of a rewrite to do on certain chapters of 'Nevermind', and so I'm going to start working on that for a while.

What about 'Through Darkness and Stars', you ask? I know a lot of you have read 'The Unearthing' and are anxious for the follow-up. As I've said, I am waiting on some legal work related to The Omniverse and specifically to 'Darkness' to work through; once it's done, I will be launching 'Darkness'. However, before the end of the month I promise to release a preview chapter or two, which you will be able to link to from the link bar on the left.

That's it for now--right now I've got places to go, things to see and people to do, so I'll post again soon.

Still Being Screwed By Life

The first thing you'll notice is there's no K-rune picture embedded in this post. That's because my computer is currently at Future Shop, where the creme de la creme of Montreal's retail computer technicians have been mucking about and not returning my phone calls for three days. What should have been a simple rootkit removal has turned into a complete electronic sodomization of my computer as they have to reformat and reinstall everything.

Now, owing to the less than stellar customer service they've provided thusfar (in what, 4 days ago, was to have been a 24 hour turnaround) I'm half-expecting to lose all my stored music, images, valuable, valuable pornography, archived emails and other precious electronic resources.

Before you chip-heads bother to mention it: THANK you, I know I should have backed everything up. Didn't happen. I was able to back up my writing files before this cluster-fuck started, but that's it.

Needless to say I've not done much writing work since my last post (the computer went tits-up the day after) and I have rather restricted access to the computer I'm using now.

When and if things ever get back to what apparently passes for normal in my life, and I will let you know.

Stay tuned.