Free Fiction Thursday - A Phillip Carter special + Convention appearance in UK
In which one of my stories is free.
Hello!
I have a regular Free Fiction Friday coming tomorrow night, but right now I want to show you a story I wrote back in 2020.
It’s called ONCE THERE WERE OTHERS, and it follows two alien archaeologists as they hunt for an ancient technology that can reignite dying stars. It is one of my favourite stories.
The star resurrection tech is important to them, because at the time the story is set, less than 100 stars exist in the universe, and all of them are dying.
This story is set in the far future of all my stories, and paints a dark picture of those final days for reality in which the last sentient race of beings are scrambling desperately to find a way to outlive the cosmos, whilst at the same time keeping the end of time secret from the public.
These froglike aliens are part of an elite scientific crew, and only they know that the universe is dying.
And for a limited time, the story is totally free.
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNX7G71M
Not got Amazon? I don’t want you to miss out. Here’s a link for ONCE THERE WERE OTHERS which covers lots of other retailers.
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https://books2read.com/oncetherewereothers
Escaping the algorithm
You’ll notice this post in the WHO KILLED THE HUMANS? section of my newsletter. That’s because the story originally came out in the first book, WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? But if you already have that book, I must ask you to download the free eBook anyway, for no reason other than to help me clamber my way up the Amazon rankings.
You see, I republished it so it could have its own space to breathe, and it seems to be doing okay! I didn’t expect it to be this popular, and it is not far away from climbing to the top, so I thought I would ask for help getting it there.
You get a free story out of this, and I hopefully get to brag about how amazing and popular and handsome I am.
It’s a good story, one of my favourites, which is why I chose it to be republished on its own. It deserves this extra attention.
I am hoping that, with your free download, I can get the story to number 1 before this weekend’s convention appearance (news on that below). If you have an Amazon account, please consider helping me reach this goal. It would be nice to have something to brag about at the convention other than the fact I can fit 42 Lego figures in my beard without them falling out.
!!!UPDATE!!!
After only two hours, this is the new ranking
Thank you so much! We are now incredibly close to the number 1 spot in not just one, but three categories! Since this story is from WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? my hope is that new people see it on Amazon’s top page, and that it helps bring new people to WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? which in turn will mean WHO KILLED THE HUMANS? gets more pre-orders (we’re on ten at the moment).
My Sci-Fi Seminar
I’ve always enjoyed teaching. I got accepted onto a few courses in 2018, but had to drop out of the one I picked to look after family. Anyway, I like teaching, I did it for a bit at Edge Hill University in 2017, both as a student assistant for my Digital Aventure Games tutor, and for my Writer’s And Poetics society, which I founded in 2014. It was the uni’s only academic society at the time, and I created presentations and writing tasks for each weekly seminar until I graduated. We covered everything from disability representation to the paranormal. We even put out an anthology, which I was told was functionally impossible with eleven editors. It went well. I decided to put new and experienced artists and writers side by side, breaking down the barriers usually present in publishing as far back as 2015. Looking back, that was the true spiritual origin point of Halfplanet Press.
We watched The Dead Poets Society at the start of each year.
I also got my students to go outside and bring bits of nature into the classroom. I did not tell them why. When they returned, I got them to write about those things. Hayden told me his poem about a branch was one of the most profound things he had written, and I knew this would happen.
Because you cannot find the profound on purpose. You must simply cast a wide net with your mind, and hope you catch some profound as you journey through the ocean of something or something you get the idea.
It cannot be forced.
It can only be captured as it passes overhead like a bat in the night.
Which brings me to my upcoming lecture.
I am going to be at Manchester Geek Fayre this weekend (14th and 15th December 2024) and if you’re around, it would be good to see you.
I will be borrowing bits from my standup set about Time Travel (first written for Bright Club), and mixing that together with my Creative Writing material, to teach people about why time travel has transcended all genres of fiction, and become something bigger than the genre it was born in.
Why is time travel so important to literature, and how can you use it in your story, even if time travel isn’t allowed in your story’s physics?
You’ll find out in the lecture.
It’s going to be weird.
Be there if you can.
If you can’t make it and feel you’re missing out on convention book deals, don’t worry, most of the deals will apply to online books too.
More news on that on Saturday morning.
I am really hoping enough people grab ONCE THERE WERE OTHERS whilst it is free, to push it into the number 1 slot on Amazon. That would be a tremendous boost to my visibility, and would help me get closer to being a self-sufficient author.
Because between me and you, I want more time to write.
I have so many ideas, so little time.
If only there were a machine for that…
Thanks again!
Spoilers
Here are my business cards for the convention. They arrive tomorrow. They link off to linktr.ee/phillipcarter and to this newsletter, as those are both the nucleus of all my writing adventures.
