Attached to the Job – A Devolution Universe Short by Lee Hodgson

Weak sunlight illuminated the morning mist carpeting the vast expanse of cracked tarmac.

Parco peered through the foggy windscreen at the lines of cars, searching for a space.

“Do you enjoy driving?”

Parco glanced at his passenger. “Most of the time.”

“Most of the time?”

“Some days it gets a bit tedious,” he sighed.

“What makes it tedious?”

Parco shrugged. “Well. Maybe searching for a space in the same parking lot day after day.”

He turned the vehicle as it reached the end of the line of tightly packed cars and drove into the next row.

“Are you happy in your work?” Continue reading

NaNoWriMo – WINRAR!

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Last year I took part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month), and the result was Static Push. This year I have been working on the sequel, Genesis Push, and once again I managed (by the skin of my shoelaces) to hit the 50,000 word target. Genesis Push is still a ways off being complete, but it’s a damn sight closer than it was before November. I will keep you updated on progress!

Rich

Goodreads Giveaway!

Click the link below to enter the Static Push Goodreads giveaway to be in with a chance of winning a signed premium paperback copy of Static Push!

Entries will be accepted until the 8th of November when Goodreads will select a winner from the list of entrants, so please share this around and get your friends involved.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Static Push by Richard Horsley

Static Push

by Richard Horsley

Giveaway ends November 08, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Book Injection: Ready Player One

This weekend I decided to read a book. My time for reading has been decreasing recently and as such I’ve been reluctant to take a chance on unknown books. Bad, I know, but sometimes you just want to read something you know is going to be great.

So I re-read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

And then I couldn’t put it down. So after topping off the weekend with a two hour bath (I think this is the longest I have ever been in water and I looked like the worlds largest prune when I came out) I finished the whole thing in a weekend.

It’s amazing, it makes you feel amazing. Read it.

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Why the Game of Thrones TV Show is Better than the Books

WARNING: There may be spoilers in this post. I’ll try and keep it to a minimum, but if you’re worried about finding out who dies before you’ve seen it happen then go read one of my other posts instead 😉

So, first off I’m going to get in before fans of the series start shouting “But the books aren’t even called Game of Thrones, they are collectively called ‘A Song of Ice and Fire'”. Yea, I bloody know, but most people know it as Game of Thrones because they haven’t read the books, and frankly, good on them. Because the books kinda suck.

Here’s why. Continue reading

I killed a tree!

It doesn’t matter how many of us read books on our Kindle / Kobo / phone / TV / microwave, there will always be a place for dead-tree copy. I thought I was firmly cemented in the ebook revolution (I use a Kobo), and I almost never buy hard-copy books any more.

Then today I received this.

SPPaperbackJust in case you were wondering, I had squee. In fact I probably need to italicize that… Squee. 

Yea, I think it needed to be bold now. Screw it, you get the idea. I mean, this thing is broken, the cut is too close to the title (despite my sticking rigorously to the sizing, formatting and bleed guidelines) and so it needs to be re-formatted, but hell… It’s MY book. In my hand.

Squee.

Yea, that’s better.

So as you’ve probably guessed, Static Push will very soon be available in Premium Paperback. Notice the Premium back there? I’m not really sure what that means, but I assume it might be gold plated or something. So if you have been waiting to get your hands on Static Push in risk-of-papercut edition, you will soon be able to do so. Once I get the cover right.

Rich

Disclaimer: It totally won’t be gold plated.

Static Push: Available NOW!

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Well, that’s that then. I’ve only gone and bloody released it.

I want to doll out a massive heartfelt thank you to everyone who was involved in the development of this book, most notably Lee, Rob, my Mum (no, really) and everyone on Twitter and Facebook who has been following it’s progress and offering advice.

Static Push is now available on both Amazon and Kobo as ebooks, but a physical paperback copy is in the works and should be available soon. Go get it now!

Or I might cry.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Static-Push-Book-1-ebook/dp/B013OVNIQE

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/static-push

Rich

Short Story in Progress: Doll House

While I wait for Static Push to come back from editing, I have decided to try my hand at something a bit different. Doll House is based on a brief by my friend, Lee Hodgson. He provided me with a very short theme, and I could immediately feel the story unfold in my mind. So I started writing:

There is a world of dreamers, drifting through the void of space. The seeds of life, a pre-packaged colony that will take many years to reach its destination. Humans sealed in pods like packaged dolls.

 

But there is one person awake, although he shouldn’t be. One among thousands. Trying to survive, alone, in a place he does not know, with only the mindless walking vat-clones to keep him company.

 

He is four years old. And this is his doll house.

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You can find the work in progress over on my WriteOn profile, where I am adding and editing live (which is a little scary in and of itself). But no guts, no glory, right?

And yes, that is my son, Eli, who happily got dressed up and allowed me to photograph him for the (temporary) cover image. This story is for him, my little space man.

All comments are welcome, and if you have any themes or scenarios you might like to see turned into a short story, let me know!

Rich

A Date with a Slate

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Recently I guest-hosted on Episode 9 on the Lave Radio Dataslate podcast. Head over to their website to listen to the episode where we discuss news, writing and review some great books.

Go listen to the episode now!

For anyone who has heard me on Ready Player 2, this is a considerably more subdued version of me, with nearly 90% less swearing and innuendo, which for me isn’t just impressive. It’s life threatening.

Revisited, rewritten. New samples for all!

A while ago I mentioned on Twitter that I wasn’t happy with the start of Static Push.

This is quite a big thing for any writer to admit, especially since I had previously released sample chapters containing the original content. But it wasn’t right, and after re-visiting, revising, pruning and adding for what felt like the bazillionth time, it just wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do.

So, I took drastic action.

I started again from scratch.

I have rewritten the whole intro to Static Push. The characters are the same. The humour is still there. The soul of the story is intact. The team at Dennison are better than ever (of course 😉 ).

So, let’s not call this a new beginning. A reboot, revamp. Instead I’m going to take a leaf from Lucas.

Static Push: Platinum HD Remastered Edition

Yea, that works 😉

Get the re-written sample chapters below, and as always, your feedback really matters to me!

Download as Epub Download as PDF

NOTE: Theses samples have been superseded by the released version of the book and may contain issues that were fixed in the final version! Also, wookies. So, y’know. Warn.