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This will now be the point of check for anything new and exciting in the world of Universal Nexus.

Jason and Shannon’s Blogs still exist and will be updated, but they’ll be all manner of things, not just Universal Nexus (in fact, they’re already that).  This won’t update as often, there won’t be a word by word update on our projects and such, but here’s where you’ll definitely learn if and when a new book is coming out, here is where you can learn when a new short story/vignette has been posted.

I definitely recommend subscribing by email, WordPress, or RSS.

Ciao

Finally!

Well after something on the order of 2 years The Guide, and the blogs are working correctly again.

Apparently something in the WordPress core files had corrupted in a way that wasn’t triggering any error messages, just basically making it utterly ignore various aspects of the .htaccess file where the blogs.dir was concerned. It’s embarrassing, really, how easy it was to fix. I mean, it was a sudden spark of inspiration to replace the WP core … and one so bloody obvious that I ought to have tried it a lot earlier.

C’est la vie. It’s working again. Yay!

New book available TODAY!

Jake's Last MissionJake’s Last Mission, Shannon’s latest work is now available in Print and eBook!

The paperback should be available anywhere you like to buy books.  Just ask for ISBN 978-1497316010.  Online, you should find it at such places as Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books•A•Million, and Powell Books.  MSRP us$6.99 (proportionate UK & EUR pricing), though most retailers will take advantage of wholesale pricing to offer at various discounts so by all means, shop around!

EBook is available through our usual list of major retailers, though at this exactly moment Nook hasn’t caught up with everyone and put the book for sale, it’s still “processing”.  us$1.99 with proportionate pricing in various other countries as offered by the different retailers (51 countries for Apple, about a dozen for Kindle, etc.)

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Jake’s Last Mission • Available for pre-order!

Jake's Last MissionThe entire future of Sweytian/Mugdaran relations rests on one man’s shoulders.

That one man, Jake Kavaliro, would really like nothing more than to retire.  Unfortunately, while on his last patrol he encounters a Mugdaran determined to restart a war that ended decades before.  Now Jake – who’s never been known for his skill at diplomacy – has to go and explain what transpired to the Mugdaran Emperor in person, an emperor who’s only had the position for a very short time and who is already being pressured by others to restart that long ago war.

Available now for pre-order on Smashwords!  For you iBookstore fans it’ll be open for pre-order there very soon as well.

18 April 2014 we learn if Jake manages not to start the 3rd Sweytzian/Mugdarran war.

Nominations time for Indie Author Land

So they’re pretty cool folks and if you are interested, it might be worthwhile to jump over there and nominate your favourite indie author(s).

None of my stuff qualifies right now, but Crown of Eldrete (Kavalior Cousins book 1) by Shannon Haddock does!

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The 50 Self-Published Novels Worth Reading (2013/14)

Nominations Now Open!!!

We need your help in putting together a list of some of the best self-published books from the past year. Read something great? Nominate it. Written something great? Urge a fan to nominate it.

The interest our list has already generated has been phenomenal; in the three days since we opened up nominations it has already become our most popular post ever. That’s great for our ego, but more importantly, it means that whichever books make the list will get the exposure they deserve.

The Rules

1. The book must be self-published or published by a small, “indie-minded” house.
2. The book must have been published on or after 1 January, 2013.
3. The book must be available for purchase, in paperback or ebook format, from a large store – Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
4. Only nominations received on or before 21 April, 2014 will be considered.

Haven’t read a self-published book yet? Here are some we think might be worth your consideration.

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Fully back in business!

The site is back up, running, and possibly a little better than ever.

For those who might be searching for a solution to a MU WordPress self-hosted losing all the images in the media library, except not — you know, all there on the server, editable, etc?  Well look no further than your rewrite rules in your .htaccess file.  Seriously, that’s all it was, but WordPress doesn’t put this line in by itself, you have to do it.  Go figure.

RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]

Here is where I found the solution.

Thank the gods that’s over.  Pre-orders for Shannon’s next book are open.  I’ll put links as soon as I’ve finished getting them all ready.  Book should be out the Friday before Easter (20 April for those who don’t know).

Site has half-nuked itself

For reasons as yet unknown the site has utterly lost its mind.

It is being rebuilt or repaired as soon as I can figure out just what in all Hells is going on.

Most links should work, but many files/images seem to be under the impression they don’t exist.

This is definitely not a host issue — the files are all there unharmed.  This is not, I believe, a server configuration issue as everything attempts to resolve as expected.  I’m just starting to think I should very seriously shop around for WordPress alternatives as, clearly, this thing is not half so well written as it once was (other issues, luckily most of them invisible to readers, have been cropping up randomly now for several months).

Happy Holidays!

Okay, so we missed Hanukkah, but it was around Thanksgiving, and a sale lasting from then until New Year seemed overkill.

That said, for Solstice, Christmas, Kwanza, New Year and anything else that might fall between 20 December and 1 January (for example, I’m fair sure there’s an Islamic holiday or two, but I can’t spell them – no, not even well enough to look them up) all our titles are on a steep sale.

How steep?  99¢ for Stolen Time and, Crown of Eldrete.  Free for Once a Hero…  

Limitations?  Well, there’s no way to apply it (not a practical one, anyway) to the print editions, and Nook & Kindle don’t allow us to set the price to free.  Nook … OAH will be unchanged and there’s nothing for it.  Amazon will eventually figure out (nearly) everyone else has OAH free and cut the price for us.  Grumpy about it?  Yeah, so are we, please direct complaints to Barnes & Noble and Amazon, though, as we don’t get a say in how that works.

Now in more stores!

Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon.

Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All current universal titles, and likely all future ones, will now be available to virtually all online and in-store retailers as well as libraries.

Now, this isn’t to say that we will be on any store or library shelves (excepting virtual); only that we can be.

For those who already own the book, this doesn’t really mean anything to you.

For those who prefer not to buy from Amazon for various reasons — the best of which is wanting to support your local Mom & Pop bookstore — you now have that choice.  Links to other bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Powell’s Books, and The Book Depository will be added for all the applicable titles as soon as we notice they’ve come available there.

Happy Samhain!

For Halloween, Samhain, whatever you want to call it all Universal Nexus titles are free!

31 Oct – 4 Nov.

This applies only to the ebooks, and only to retailers that allow it.

Amazon allows free books, but only if they elect to make them free (or are exclusively on Amazon and you have limited number of promo days).  So the books might go free there — eventually, when Amazon decides to price match the other retailers, and will end when they decide to end it.

Nook doesn’t allow books to be set to free, so it’s out altogether — sorry, take it up with Barnes & Noble.

Announcing the release of The Crown of Eldrete: Kavaliro Cousins, Book 1

The_Crown_of_Eldrete_Cover_for_KindleThe Kavaliros have been legendary warriors and guardian faeshir — warrior priests — for centuries. Three generations ago, one branch of the family went into hiding after the legendary Kalem Kavaliro sacrificed himself. His descendant — a member of that famous band of freedom fighters, Darrien’s Daggers, and the young guardian faeshir that is the only descendant of his sister met while both were fighting to free Marohn from Neo-Imperialists. Quickly, they discovered that the Neos weren’t working alone. No worries though, Darrien has a plan to retake the temple at least.

Then they discover the temple is missing several of its most important treasures.

Trying to recover them, especially the Crown of Eldrete — the symbol of Marohni unity, the distant cousins must deal with shady traders, martial artists, giant insects, and more, all the while one dealing with guilt from failing to protect her temple and fear for her fiancée on a fallen world and the other struggling to not disappoint her father by giving in to her impulsive and reckless nature.

Available now from these retailers:

Print edition us$6.99
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eBook editions us$2.50
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Coming soon to:
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