travel. writing.

i went to europe, and it’s still there.

You may not have seen me around on the blog or social media these last few weeks. That’s because I went on a two-week trip to Europe, from which I just returned a few days ago.

I had some novel research to do in various places, and the German edition of TERMS OF ENLISTMENT was released on June 15, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and combine both occasions for a business trip. Heyne (my German publisher) hosted me at their office in Munich, and they organized a reading/signing for me at Otherland, a great SF/F indie bookstore in Berlin. In between, I visited my mother, who spends the summers at her vacation home in Croatia’s Istria region, and I squeezed in two days to see a good friend in London. It was a fantastic trip, albeit a very tiring one involving criss-crossing northern and central Europe a few times.

The reading/signing at Otherland was awesome. Made a bunch of new friends and read my work in German for the very first time, which was a novel experience (no pun intended.) They treated me like a rockstar and made me feel very welcome, and their store kicks some serious ass. If you’re ever in Berlin, you should go check them out (and tell them I said hi).

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Currywurst, the most popular blue-collar fast food in Germany. You can get it just about everywhere. Even McDonald’s Germany offered it once upon a time as McCurrywurst, but they couldn’t compete with the traditional wurst stands.

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My book! On the shelf! In a Berlin bookstore! (My awesome tour guide Charleen and I stopped at every book store we passed to check inventory, of course.)

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There it is again, next to some genre heavyweights.

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Marko Kloos im Otherland! I know that guy. 

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Seeing my name on those covers never gets old.

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There were people there! And I didn’t even have to bribe most of them to come!

 

So yeah—lovely trip, met lots of readers, made new friends and reconnected with old ones, saw lots of sights, and had a blast. But after two weeks of GOGOGOGOGO, I’m also happy to be back home and get back to work.

aminals. castle frostbite. new hampshah.

avian squatters.

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These little guys are currently costing me $5 a day.

We rented a huge dumpster for our long-overdue major spring cleaning and attic junk culling. It costs a flat amount up front that includes the fee for dumping all the trash, and then $5 per day for every day we keep the dumpster beyond the included 5-day period.

I hauled a bunch of old furniture out onto the porch before the dumpster arrived so I’d be able to just take everything apart and chuck it into the dumpster. Right after they delivered the unit, we found that a robin had built its nest on one of the furniture piles sheltered underneath the overhang from the porch roof. There were little blue eggs in there, which turned into the little fuzzy birds you see in the picture above. I can’t remove the furniture until the wee ones have flown the nest because I don’t want to displace them, which would kill the baby robins. So the meter on the dumpster is running. On the other hand, it gives me a good excuse to take my time with the cleaning of the attic, which is handy because right now my priority is finishing Frontlines #4 anyway.

Here’s the parental unit, collecting protein for the kids in our backyard:

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Like Dr. Jeff Goldblum said in that Mostly Cretaceous Park movie—“Life will find a way.”

books. capitalism. shameless self-promotion.

foreign frontlines editions update.

I love seeing the covers of foreign editions of my novels. Here’s the cover of the Japanese edition (published by Hayakawa), which apparently went on sale on May 25th already:

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According to a Japanese friend, the title translates to “Enlisting For A Space Soldier”, which is one heck of a lot more accurate than the translation that Google gave me at first. It has a few reviews on Amazon in Japan already, and they’re very positive, which makes me happy:

“Interesting SF novel for the first time in many years. Looking forward to the following translations”; and “Great details about the army things which we can’t know from our secretive Self-Defense Forces. And good translation!” 

And here’s the cover of the German translation of “Lines of Departure”, which is available for pre-order for a January 11, 2016 release:

 

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The “Frontlines” series has been retitled as “Alien Wars” by Heyne, and the subtitle “Planetenjagd” means “planet hunt”. I am pleased that I finally have my very own Heyne novel with laser-firing spaceships on the cover. IT’S A CHILDHOOD DREAM COME TRUE.

There are translations into Polish and Czech in the works as well, and I can’t wait to see the covers for those. It’s still a little surreal to see my name on the covers of foreign translations when the first Frontlines book went on sale only just a little over two years ago on the Kindle store in the United States.

 

 

books. capitalism. shameless self-promotion.

kindle deals on frontlines #1 and #2.

Hey, kids!

Amazon has my first two novels, Terms of Enlistment and Lines of Departure, on sale as the Kindle Daily Deal in Science Fiction today for a measly $1.99 a copy. That’s, like, less than two bucks!

And if you already own those books on your Kindelmaschine, but you have a friend or three you want to introduce to the Frontlines books, today would be a good day to do it, seeing how LESS THAN TWO BUCKS. Why, that wouldn’t buy you anything but a pitying look from the barista with the tongue stud at that trendy coffee shop on the way to work!

aminals. art. friends.

uther hendragon, first of his name.

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This painting of Henry was commissioned by my friend Chang for me after Henry died, and he brought it to Castle Frostbite with him when he came to visit not too long ago. 

I still miss my boy terribly, especially right now. The days are sunny and warm, and the remaining dachshunds are having a great time sunning themselves in the backyard or running around on the lawn and barking at passing cars. Henry would have enjoyed this, especially after being cooped up for months during this last, awful winter. But life goes on, as it does.

I’m keeping that painting in my new office for now until I have a suitable place to hang it. I’m very glad to have such good friends. 

books. digital housekeeping. friends. shameless self-promotion.

new digs, yo.

First post at the new domain! WOO!

This is markokloos.com, which is almost exactly like the old munchkinwrangler.com except with a new address and a snazzier header image (which was designed for me by my friend Erica, who is super-talented and an altogether awesome human being.)

Now I just need to have time to add more content to this blog thingy again. Currently wrapping up “Chains of Command”, #4 in the Frontlines series, and if things go as they usually do after finishing a novel, my brain will be tapioca for a few weeks after I turn this thing in. On the plus side, it’s a pretty kick-ass novel, I think. Keep your calendars clear for some more Space Kablooie action later this year!

 

 

books. shameless self-promotion.

lovely “angles of attack” review.

Claire Thorne at Fanboy Comics has written my favorite review of “Angles of Attack” so far (and one of my favorite general “Frontlines” series reviews). It’s a very perceptive and detailed review, and you should go over there and read it. She has kept it mostly spoiler-free, for those who haven’t read Angles yet, and she really gets what I am doing with the story in general and Andrew in particular.

I only have to correct her on one minor detail: Frontlines is not a trilogy. I had planned it as one, but things got a little bigger than expected, and there will be at the very least a fourth book (called “Chains of Command”), and maybe more.

friends. travel. writing.

paradise lost.

I just spent a long weekend down in San Antonio, Texas, for the Paradise Lost 5 writing workshop. I was invited to be a guest lecturer at the event, and I took the opportunity to participate in the retreat track. 

San Antonio is a lovely city, and the company was fantastic. I met up with my old friends Claire, Katrina, and Jeff, reconnected with fellow Viable Paradise XII grads Steve and Tim, and made a whole bunch of new friends from other Viable Paradise years and different workshops.

I also got to meet these two goobers for the first time in real life:

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Chuck Wendig and Delilah S. Dawson, both Internet friends I’ve talked to for YEARS. You know how you have this picture of people in your head from talking to them online, and then you fear the possibility that they’re completely different in real life? Well, Chuck and Delilah are precisely like I pictured them from our online talks. They are smart, funny, goofy nerds, and hanging out with them was a lot of fun because I am also most of those things.

My lecture went over very well (I talked about self-publishing and various ancillary things), and people did not fall asleep or throw rotten fruit at me, which I will call a success. I find that the more talking I do in front of larger groups, the more I enjoy it. 

We had fruitful work sessions, and then we all goofed off and socialized. There were group meals on the riverwalk and at various local eateries, Cards Against Humanities sessions, liquor store safaris, rooftop writing sessions, and the consumption of ALL THE BOOZES. And I got to fly First Class for the first time ever, which was a REVELATION. This is how reasonably comfortable and relaxing flying commercial can be? Well, sign me right the hell up.

Paradise Lost: AAAA+++++, 10/10, would goof around with old and new nerd writer friends again.

In closing, have some pictures from lovely San Antonio what I took mostly with my pocket point & shoot Sony. Some of them turned out all right, I think.

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art. books. capitalism. shameless self-promotion.

got me a gen-u-wine series now, i guess.

This is the color version of the current Amazon Kindle screensaver ad for the Frontlines series. I’m biased, of course, but I think it looks massively cool. Can’t be long now before I have enough books out for a boxed Frontlines set…

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Yes, there are indeed a million ways to die in the Frontlines universe. And I have listed them all alphabetically and then again by embarrassment factor in the appendices of Angles of Attack!

(The cover art is done by Marc Simonetti, by the way.)

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“angles of attack” release day.

“Angles of Attack”, the third novel in the Frontlines series, is officially out and available for purchase. Those of you who pre-ordered the book should either get it delivered today (if you ordered the physical print or audio copies), or have it on your Kindelmaschines already.

“Angles of Attack” is available via Amazon in Kindle, paperback, and audio formats here:

http://www.amazon.com/Angles-Attack-Frontlines-Book-3-ebook/dp/B00OIBPIZO/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1

Go buy! Go read! And leave a review if you are so inclined. In the meantime, I am going to try and get some more work done on Frontlines #4, “Chains of Command”, instead of obsessively checking the Amazon sales ranking every five seconds while stress-binging on Nutella straight from the jar. NOT THAT I’VE EVER DONE THAT.