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Discuss this new review by @Gary Oswald here
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Review - The Bear Cavalry by D.G. Valdron
- Thread starter Gary Oswald
- Start date
Alexander Rooksmoor
Active member
Yes, it might be a one-person band. I have a 'publishing company', A.R.C. Rooksmoor, and it is just me, only putting out my books in different genres. Sometimes it can be handy when self-publishing to have an entity a little beyond yourself. When I wrote under the pen name Dominic Chandos, I used a different company, 'The Dornford Press'. I guess it is a bit of fun and to some degree addresses what readers are looking for, especially back in the early days of self-publishing.
Alexander Rooksmoor
Active member
I do wonder if Valdron was influenced by the armoured bears of 'His Dark Materials' series or if there is a mythology that both Valdron and Pulman has drawn upon to envisage bears in battle. There were the legends of 'were-bears' associated with berserkers, has anyone heard any others involving bears. The other thing that it reminded me of were the boar-riders from Runequest that have been carried over into Warhammer, at least the computer game version.
- Location
- Doncaster/ Sheffield
I wonder, is this the DValdron who used to post on AH.com? Seems an unlikely coincidence of name if not.
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It is yes. He first posted this over there, which is how I know about it. His stuff was very hit and miss for me but this particular story was one I always wanted to see published.
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A brilliant review @Gary Oswald and I'm going to seek this out now. Is it on Kindle or something like SmashWords? And how on earth did you find it?
This reminds me of finding Michael Cnutte's War Plan Crimson novel, or those two random short stories I reviewed as a duology, including one about the Tulip Boom extending to the modern era. I absolutely love finding these little isolated authors who have self-published but never been picked up elsewhere - they always seem to have the most imaginative ideas
This reminds me of finding Michael Cnutte's War Plan Crimson novel, or those two random short stories I reviewed as a duology, including one about the Tulip Boom extending to the modern era. I absolutely love finding these little isolated authors who have self-published but never been picked up elsewhere - they always seem to have the most imaginative ideas
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I bought it from Amazon on Kindle. I really do think you'll enjoy it. It is dry (like 40% of that first story is painstaking Bear facts of the kind of old school sci-fi, 'I've done my working out and now I'm going to show you it because I'm very proud') but he does try and break that up as much as possible and honestly I'm the kind of nerd who was really into the bear facts (my favourite ever AH book is Bearfish published by Sea Lion Press which shares similar qualities with this). And I found it simply because it was first posted on AH.Com, which is a very boring answer.
Also you'll probably get more out of that bonus story, the monster horror one, than I did.
It is the good side of the self-publishing industry, the sheer imagination on show in terms of setting and plot.
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Also, little bit of Trivia, this review was originally ready to go up on the 2nd of May but I put out the request for new articles the week prior to that (the 26th of April) and got so many people sending me articles that it kept being moved back to make room for new writers and this was the first slot where I didn't have anything else ready.
I think it genuinely was in the schedule in more than 20 different dates during those 5 months.
I think it genuinely was in the schedule in more than 20 different dates during those 5 months.
- Location
- Over the rainbow
On a slightly tangential note, does that mean you need more articles at the moment?
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I wouldn't say no to them, certainly.
You can tell how many articles I get by how often you see my name, because my articles tend to be the first pushed back to make room for other people's work. So in April, I put up 7 Articles that I'd written vs 11 by other people. Where as this is the first of mine since June because I was getting all 18 from other people in July and August.
At the moment October and November look like being heavy on Gary articles. But you know, I quite enjoy writing stuff myself so it's not a disaster.
- Location
- Derbyshire
Before you ask, I am most definitely, not going to be writing a series on the Eighty Years War.
- Location
- Over the rainbow
Saving your writing energy for the Hundred Years’ War?
- Location
- Derbyshire
I'm not a medievalist and also I kind of think despite the much longer time period there's possibly less really interesting alternative outcomes?
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To go into more detail on the schedule than anyone wants, lets look at chunks of 28 days, so not quite a month.
Currently, I'd be looking at 5 articles a week so 20 articles (not including new book announcements etc.). From October than would be 6 a week and so 24 articles.
4 of those slots would be on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are reprints of articles first put up elsewhere, 2 of those Tuesdays will have up Vignettes reprinted from the contest and 2 will be articles from Never Was. So that's 4 slots that don't need filling with new material.
Likewise 4 of those slots will be Thursdays. For the remaining months of 2020, Thursdays will have an interview up with someone in the AH community about their projects, whether that's blog, facebook group, youtube channel, publishing company etc. So those 4 slots also aren't open for articles.
So that's 16 slots for regular articles. @Thande, @SpanishSpy and @Alex Richards each have a fortnightly spot for their own regular articles. So they get 2 articles each within the 28 days.
So that leaves us with 10 slots. @heraclius has an extended counter factual scenario serial running once a week for some time yet so that's 4 slots.
So there are 6 slots in those 28 days for everybody else. So the way I look at it is worst case scenario is April, nobody else gives me articles and I have to write 6 myself. That's fine, I'm happy to do that, I have more than enough ideas to do that. Best case scenario is July or August, 6 articles come in and I write nothing. Also fine, I have no problem with that. And more likely most months will look like September where it's somewhere inbetween and it's 5 from other people and 1 from me or 3 vs 3 etc. The point is all the options are acceptable.
Currently, I'd be looking at 5 articles a week so 20 articles (not including new book announcements etc.). From October than would be 6 a week and so 24 articles.
4 of those slots would be on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are reprints of articles first put up elsewhere, 2 of those Tuesdays will have up Vignettes reprinted from the contest and 2 will be articles from Never Was. So that's 4 slots that don't need filling with new material.
Likewise 4 of those slots will be Thursdays. For the remaining months of 2020, Thursdays will have an interview up with someone in the AH community about their projects, whether that's blog, facebook group, youtube channel, publishing company etc. So those 4 slots also aren't open for articles.
So that's 16 slots for regular articles. @Thande, @SpanishSpy and @Alex Richards each have a fortnightly spot for their own regular articles. So they get 2 articles each within the 28 days.
So that leaves us with 10 slots. @heraclius has an extended counter factual scenario serial running once a week for some time yet so that's 4 slots.
So there are 6 slots in those 28 days for everybody else. So the way I look at it is worst case scenario is April, nobody else gives me articles and I have to write 6 myself. That's fine, I'm happy to do that, I have more than enough ideas to do that. Best case scenario is July or August, 6 articles come in and I write nothing. Also fine, I have no problem with that. And more likely most months will look like September where it's somewhere inbetween and it's 5 from other people and 1 from me or 3 vs 3 etc. The point is all the options are acceptable.
Death's Companion
General Ugg Apologist.
So you are going for the second hundred years war?
Where we all eat garlic and baguettes underneath Napoleon's Column?
Nazis VS Confederates: The Steamy Punk Tales Book 1 of 19 [photo of two women in corsets with badly photoshopped flags on]
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"You've got to start charging for these reviews! We lost four men out there, and all we did was uncover a seam of Wehraboo fanfiction"
"If you can think of a better way to get reviews, I'd like to hear it"
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- Location
- Derbyshire
Probably not.
Death's Companion
General Ugg Apologist.
More seriously I'd love for you to write articles on any time period. Because your style is definitely the best and its always entertaining as well as educational and you make the complex simple but still leave no doubt how complex it was.