Pat Nelson Childs's Blog
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My Blog Has Moved!
Hi everyone!
I have moved and renamed my blog.
The URL for the new blog, "My Fevered Brain", is
http://myfeveredbrain.blogspot.com/
I'll be keeping that up regularly, so please check it out!
I am also on Twitter now:
http://twitter.com/patnelsonchilds
FOLLOW ME!
Best to all,
Pat
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Moving to NY in the Spring
Current mood:
Greetings all!
rejuvenated
I will be moving to Port Jervis, NY this April to start a new publishing company called Young Offenders Media. It will be doing GLBT stuff, but also other genre fiction, graphic novels, manga and videos (and anything else that is out of the mainstream and interesting). If you have such an idea or project in your trunk or on your laptop, keep us in mind. We will be very receptive to offbeat ideas.
In other news, I have found a new editor, which seems to have broken through my writer's block. Let's hope this is a sign of good things sooon to come.
Well, must get back to work now.
Ciao!
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Long-Awaited Update and Words of Thanks
Current mood:
hopefulDear readers and potential readers,
I do humbly apologize for those who have waited so long for Numen's Trust. With my poor health, it was a mistake to give release dates in anticipation of finishing it. That was almost inviting bad tidings. Most of you know that I am not in the best of shape much of the time, and because of that, my writing has been very sporatic and slow this entire past year. I hate to jinx things by saying that I am now making fairly steady progress in writing and editing again. Let us say that over the past month or so, things have begun to show improvement, and though there are no guarantees how long that will last, I am going to try and make the most of the momentum I have once again managed to build.
I cannot adequately express the appreciation I feel for all of the loyal readers and friends (many of whom are one and the same) who have supported me and encouraged me without being angry at me. When I am ready to give up at times, I think of you, and always find the strength to continue.
A word on the book itself. Most of you have said that Scion's Blood was a substantial improvement on Orphan's Quest, and I concur. I wish that all those who gave OQ such poor reviews would go on and read the second installment, as I think they would be pleasantly suprised. Perhaps with all the skills I have gained over these years, I shall one day go back and come out with an Orphan's Quest: Revised Edition, like Stephen King did with The Stand, but I am still torn over that. The idea was to have each work progress, book by book, from teen-oriented adventure romp to a deep and complex arc with greater and greater depth and complexity. Of course, if people don't read on past book one, then that whole idea will have failed, at least for them. We shall see when the trilogy is all finished what I decide to do. I hope you will all be encouraged by the fact that my early readers and spotters have said that Numen's Trust is unquestionably the best work of the three, and about that, I am truly pleased and gratified.
Meanwhile, I have a favor to ask of you. If you have already read the first, or first two books, please take a few moments to review them on Amazon. I still get many letters from fans telling me how much they love the books, but not many of those people seem to be reviewing them these days, and as a result, my negative reviews are slowly accumulating, and threatening OQ's 4-star rating, and SB has not received a review of any kind in a long time. So if you have a little time, please sign in and share your thoughts. Even if you didn't by the books from Amazon, as long as you are an account holder, you can review them. This is not a request for puff pieces. I want your honest thoughts, even if they are negative. I learn from all who take the time to share their feedback with me. I am still working on the end details of Numen's Trust, so perhaps your views will influence the eventual details of the outcome, as others have done before. If so, you will assuredly receive a place on the acknowledgments page of the book.
I plan to put this message on my website, my blog and anyplace else I can think of. As always, I welcome your well-wishes, or admonishments. Both show me that you care about my beloved Firma, and the characters who dwell there. I hope to have the final installment of this trilogy out to you soon. At the very least, I am trying as hard as I possibly can. Please send your good karma my way, as there are days I still sorely need it in the day and weeks to come.
Peace to you all,
Pat Nelson Childs
http://www.chroniclesoffirma.com
P.S. If you haven't already check out our newly renovated website, please do! It's beautiful! As always, your feedback is more than welcome. -PNC
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Lunarpages.com: Customer Service? WOW!
Current mood:
blissfulOkay, I had to post this because good (and in this case, GREAT) customer service is so rare these days, I feel obliged to give kudos to companies that actually go out of their way to practice it.
For anyone looking for a company to host their website (or several sites, as I have), I can't recommend anyone more highly than Lunarpages.com. They are very inexpensive, they give you tons of space and bandwidth, you can host multiple domain names on one account, and their utilities are very user-friendly, as are their customer service people. Issues emailed to them are dealt with in a timely manner, and their phone wait times are generally very short (that one in itself is enough to recommend them).
BUT...the inspiration for this post is as follows:
My account is billed annually and was up for automatic renewal this month. Unlike some other companies, Lunarpages actually emails you in plenty of time to let you know this. Well, as it happens, this is NOT the best month for me to deal with a payment that size, so I phoned them to ask if they offered a month-to-month option. As it happens, they don't, and most companies would have wished me luck and moved onto the next caller. The guy in billing, however, took it upon himself to inform me that they were running a special for NEW customers that was almost 40% cheaper than my renewal bill was going to be, and offered to sign me up for that instead of renewing at my regular rate. I hadn't seen the new-customer special, so I would have had no idea that they were running it if he had not volunteered the information. In less than two minutes, it was all done and I had saved a big chunk of money.
THAT is the way to treat customers, ladies and gentlemen - not just to give them the things that they ask for (which most companies these days rarely do anyway), but to actually care enough to offer them benefits that they DIDN'T know to ask for. I will be keeping my sites hosted on Lunarpages for a long time, and will recommend them highly whenever I have the chance. I wish I had gotten the guy's name who helped me, but he has a bunch of good karma heading his way.
http://www.lunarpages.com