Life, The Universe And Everything

Hello dear, dear friends! And you as well.
I hope that you are all having a fantastic day, or at least a day that is better than the recent average.
In a couple of short weeks, I shall discover the secret to life, the universe and everything. This is my roundabout way of saying that it will shortly be my birthday, my 42nd birthday, to be exact, hence all the Hitchhiker's references...
God, I feel old.
Anyway, in celebration of this most auspicious of occasions, I'm making all of my books FREE for the weekend of my birthday, which is the first weekend of March (my birthday being on the 4th).
So that's all 4 of my books, for free, for anyone who wants to download them over that weekend!
They're quite good as well, and don't just take my word for it, positive reviews all round!
And if you'd like to give me a birthday present, I wouldn't object to some more positive reviews and it wouldn't cost you a penny/dime - just saying!
American Author's page
UK Author's page
Goodreads page

I'm currently writing the sequel to Heroes Wanted, which should be released later this year barring unforeseen catastrophe.

I've done a few more paintings, visible in my gallery, and I've opened up an Etsy store where you can buy prints and originals directly from me - check it out here!
If you fancy a commission, just get in touch through the Contact Me page or email ADonnellyArt@gmail.com

There are time-lapse vids of some of the paintings up on my YouTube channel, including my latest effort, a portrait of Chadwick Boseman from the just released Black Panther film, which I'm very excited about (and which I won't get to watch for several months at least).

All of that aside, I've spent altogether too much time watching the Overwatch League on twitch (ESports!), playing Overwatch, and breaking my nose (not an interesting story, I just slipped and face-planted like the clumsy dumbass I am).
Currently also watching Altered Carbon on Netflix - fine bit of cyberpunk sci-fi business, if you like that kind of thing. And don't mind nudity. So much nudity.

That's all for now.
Be excellent to one another, and happy birthday to me!
Al

And that's November done!

What a month, eh? I know, I know, let's not talk about it.
Let's be positive - I've done NaNoWriMo! 
Are those straws clutched in my hand? I rather think they might be.
Anyway, I've just gone past the 50,000 word mark on a novel despite the crushing, existential angst that is the default emotion of 2016. I consider that an achievement in itself, although to be honest, this year, just finding the will to get out of bed in the morning should earn you a medal.

This novel, which I've called The Beating of an Iron Heart, is actually the same novel I did for the 2014 NaNoWriMo (then called simply Ironheart - see, I came up with that name first, Marvel! You know, in the unlikely event that it ever gets popular enough to warrant attention from anyone who would care).
And there was another attempt at it earlier this year. Basically, this is my third try at getting this damned story to do what I want. It remains to be seen if this one will work out.
Hope springs eternal, right? Man, that phrase sounds hollow this year.

I don't have much else to offer, it's cold (except in the Arctic, but let's not talk about that either because Jesus Christ it's all just too much), and I'm going to pretend that everything isn't going to hell and have a coffee and Irish Cream to celebrate. I might even have a second chocolate biscuit.

Finally, congratulations to everyone who took part in NaNoWriMo this year!
Let's do it all again in 2017. Hopefully I'll actually have finished this story by then and the world won't have ended. Fingers crossed!

Al

This year...

I can't even make jokes about 2016 being awful any more, it's just taken too much and given back nothing but misery, sadness and fear (unless you're a Leicester City/Chicago Cubs fan).
Seriously, fuck this year.

Since the results of the American elections came in, in between bouts of incoherent screaming, I've come up with several pieces of searing, scorching rhetoric, all of which I've deleted because what the hell's the point? I have no real insights to offer, nor any solutions, and many better writers than I am have already laid out everything I wanted to say.
I'm an utterly obscure sci-fi writer and mediocre artist who lives in the arse end of nowhere in northern England, as middle-aged, middle-class and white as they come. All I can offer is support and sympathy and maybe a distraction from the awfulness that is the world.
For what little it's worth, I've made The Salvager free on Amazon from now until the end of the weekend. It's a fun, lightweight sci-fi story about mechs, friendship and a boisterous, bisexual Irish woman in a wheelchair who pilots a mech. It's not going to change the world at all but it might help you forget about it, at least for a couple of hours.
It does feature, as one reviewer noted, a lot of sand. Lots of sand. It's set on a planet that is largely desert, sand is inevitable. If sand is not appealing then this may not be the book for you.
It's normally priced at 3 bucks (or, the way the British currency's been going, about £100 by the time you read this). If you read it and it think it doesn't completely suck, consider donating the money you didn't pay to one of the many American charities set up to help the people who will likely suffer the most under the rule of the racist orange fuckwit with a ferret nailed to his head.
Here's a non exhaustive list of possibilities, there are many others you could choose from:

The Human Rights Campaign
The Trevor Project
Trans Lifeline
Planned Parenthood
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

And even if you don't have the cash to spare, just give someone who looks like they need it some support, even if it's only a smile or a hug (if they want a hug - I'm not suggesting just leaping on people).

On the day after the election, I saw on twitter that it was also the anniversary of the death of Dylan Thomas, the great Welsh writer. These words from one of his most famous poems seem apposite for these dark times:

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Right, I'm going back to my NaNoWriMo novel, I've fallen behind on my word count.
Stay strong, be good to one another,
Al

The Well Oiled Machine

That's what this operation is. Oh yes, no doubt about it, the Donnelly publishing machine is a finely honed, perfectly balanced, ruthlessly efficient thing, shark-like in its hunger and pursuit of perfection...and it just released a book a day early because the idiot at the keyboard got the dates wrong.
Bollocks.

Buy on Amazon

So yeah, The Salvager is out! Surprise! It certainly was to me when I turned my computer on this morning to do some last-minute, pre-release promo.
Somehow, when setting up The Salvager on Amazon, I was sure I'd set it to release on Tuesday the 25th of July. Convinced of it, I was. Now, the more astute among you will be frowning at this point and going, "But Allen, Tuesday is the 26th," and you would be exactly right.
Somehow, I was absolutely positive that Tuesday - which is to say tomorrow as I'm writing this - was the 25th. I couldn't tell you how, why or when my brain decided to commit to this reality, but here we are.
So, er, yeah - please buy it!
It's a cool story with some of the best characters I've come up with (in my less than humble opinion, anyway).
I'd also love it if you might sling a review my way as well!
You can find it on Goodreads here as well!

Currently I've got it setup as an Amazon exclusive to try and take some advantage of their KDP Select thing, but I'm not a fan of exclusivity so I'll be making it more widely available after the first 90 days are up.
Not a lot happening here. Writing, painting, watching red squirrels nicking bird food...

Salvaging some pride - New Book!

Another hilarious blog title, because my next book's called The Salvager. And the blog's title is "Salvaging some pride". Salvaging, see?
It's a gift, it really is.

So, The Salvager, a fun and exciting tale about friendship, adventure, giant robots, human consciousness and beer, can be yours to own on July the 25th!
In fact, you can pre-order it from Amazon right now and I would greatly appreciate you doing just that. Ah, go on now!
Also, please tell your friends if it sounds like the kind of book they'd be interested in.

I really like this book. Obviously, I'm biased, but I think you might like it too. It was a lot of fun to write and I love the characters.

What else has been happening? Well, not a lot. Once I finally heard back from Angry Robot that they didn't want to publish The Salvager (more fool them. I'll show them, I'll show them all!!!11!one!) I've been working on getting it ready for self-publishing. 
Other than that it's just been slowly walking the dog (oh so slowly, poor old bag of bones - her, that is, not me), trying my hand at watercolours and playing Overwatch (man alive, I'm addicted to that game, but please, for the love of all the gods, nerf Torbjörn!).

That's it really. All that remains for me to say is BUY MY BOOK! Please?
(Man, I've got the hard sell down to a fine art)

I'll leave you with a painting of a, er, whale? Probably? Something like that anyway.