Friday, January 30, 2015

"To Sleep, Perchance to Dream" free through the end of February

There is a common thread in many of my short stories and even in my poetry about the nature of reality and the relationship between sleep and wakefulness and the conscious and subconscious mind. As is the case with a number of my short stories, this was inspired by a dream. It delves into one possible explanation for what lurks in the dark recesses of our mind for which science has yet to discover a clear use.

This short story (2,792 words) is reprinted from Book of Dreams: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories, (C) Victor D. Lopez 2011, Book of Dreams Second Edition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) Victor D. Lopez 2012, and Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2014 by Victor D. López.

Through the end of February 2015, you can download this short story free of charge here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/428684. The short story will also be available for free download later this month at Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Amazon and other leading retailers. I hope you enjoy it.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/428684


Also from Smashwords and other leading retailers:

Monday, January 19, 2015

Free download of "Eternal Quest" available through the end of January

My short story “Eternal Quest” is free for a limited time from Smashwords. You can download it by clicking here. The short story will also be available for free download from Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and other leading retailers during January. Although the short story will sell at its normal price at Amazon,  the Kindle version is also available free of charge from Smashwords at the above link through the end of January.

On its surface, this speculative fiction short story (7,800 words) deals with one man’s obsessive quest for knowledge and the devastating price he must pay for the knowledge he ultimately acquires. Beneath the surface, this story is about deep friendships complicated by unrequited love, split loyalties, the interplay of id, ego and superego, and existentialist lessons tragically learned too late in life. It is one of my earliest short stories that also appears in my Mindscapes short story collection in paperback, eBook and audiobook formats. It is still one of my favorites and I hope you will enjoy it too.


Saturday, January 10, 2015

Aujourd'hui, je suis français!

 I am a full-blooded Spaniard, Argentine by birth, and an American by choice and by the grace of my adopted country that I love above all others on Earth. Today, however, without a doubt,

 Aujourd'hui, je suis français!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Audio Preview of Mindscapes Short Story Audiobook

http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Mindscapes-Audiobook/B00MXE2QSK/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1420570033&sr=1-1

For a preview of my new speculative fiction short story collection, please click on the audiobook cover above (or here)  and then click on the "play audio sample" icon underneath the book cover. The preview, read by Dale M. Wilcox, is from the short story "Earth Mother" one of ten short stories in this collection.

For more information about the stories in this collection and the paperback and eBook versions of the book, as well as an extended preview of the short story "Eternal Quest", you can visit the book's page at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other leading retailers. 

Although the audiobook is read and produced by Dale M. Wilcox, I enjoyed creating a simple book trailer for the book that features my reading of the entire short story "Justice" -- the shortest story in the collection. You can view that book trailer here.  For anyone interested in other free previews from this collection, I'm making the two shortest stories in the book, "Justice" and "The Riddle of the Sphinx: Solved" available free of charge in versions for all popular eBook readers (and computers) through Smashwords here.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

On Writing: Answers to Goodreads.com Posted Questions

See my answers to Goodreads.com questions about a variety of writing related issues, including advice for new writers, my approach to dealing with writer's block, inspiration, current projects, etc. here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/774657.Victor_D_Lopez/questions