I forgot to update this news page when the glitch was worked out with Amazon.  You can now order Star Sons from BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and many other sites with no problem!  I'm currently polishing the second book of the Star Sons series, with the hope of publishing it early next year. 

If you read Star Sons, please leave a review on its page on Amazon.com!  That's supposed to help with my search engine rankings there.  Thanks!

Abraxan

I can feel a headache coming on - I've been banging my head against brick walls all morning trying to get this information as well as trying to get the problem fixed.  I'm sorry for the problem.  Apparently I was the victim of a rare computer glitch.  *sigh*

Amazon has well and truly cancelled your orders.  You will need to re-order the book in order to get it.  The glitch with the system is SUPPOSED to be fixed today - if the site says there's only "one new and used" available for $29, the site isn't fixed yet.  When it is, place your orders, and please, you should only have to pay $19.95 for the book, not $29.95 as many places are offering it (they're getting it from the UK distributor, as far as I can tell).  Once the system is fixed, the books should ship quickly.  I am so sorry for the problem and confusion, but it's out of my control.  Thanks so much for your patience!

Abraxan

If you ordered your copy of Star Sons already, you may have gotten an e from Amazon saying it was no longer in stock and they had no idea "when or if" it would ever be available!  Ack!!  Turns out there was a glitch in communication between the distributor and Amazon and the other outlets.  The glitch is now repaired, but Amazon and the others need to do some tidying up on their sites to get things going again.

Bottom line:  If you DID NOT cancel your order, it will ship as soon as they get their act together.

I went to my page on Amazon to see what today's status was and was pleased to see Star Sons looking like a normal book for sale again!  But the reason it looked like that was that somebody who actually received the book (a few did) has put it up for sale for TEN DOLLARS OVER RETAIL!!!!  I hope nobody jumps at this bait, since the books will ship soon, but at least my book looks like a book for sale again - and apparently the seller thinks people will be willing to pay that much more for it!  Yikes!  And to think I tried to keep the price down!!! 

Thanks for your patience!

Amazon has taken down the "not in stock" note and added the "search inside" function (so you can see the first chapter and covers), so Star Sons is shipping!  Yay!  Once you've read it, please post a review on Amazon - that will help improve my ratings!  Thanks!

Abraxan (AKA Lynda Sappington)

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Sons-Dawn-Lynda-Sappington/dp/0972380515/ref=gfix-ews-form

or Tiny URL:  http://tinyurl.com/3655g8

One of my Yahoo group members told me she'd already ordered it and that
it was on back-order - and I've heard from other folks that they've ordered it as well!  I'm up to six orders that I know of already!   HUZZAH!!!!!!!!!!  The page shown isn't the "final" ordering page, which will include the book cover art and a description, but it's a working ordering page, YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Amazon.co.uk and BN.com should have it on there by the end of the month, which is when the full ad should be on Amazon.com, too.

COOL BEANERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My book's on AMAZON!!!!!!!!!!  And I've SOLD some!!!

Oh, BTW - if you want an autograph, you can send a business-sized self-addressed stamped envelope and any "instructions" ("To ___" that kind of thing) to:

Lynda Sappington, c/o Whimsy Hill Publishing, 15401 Eaton Pike, West Alexandria OH  45381-9610.

In your return envelope, you'll receive an autographed bookplate for your copy of Star Sons! 

Thanks for your interest in my writing!

Abraxan

If you're on my Yahoo group or on the StarSonsReaders group, you've already read this, but I wanted to get the word out to as many of my readers as possible, hence this post!

Sad to say, there was a problem with the file and publication of "Star Sons - Dawn of the Two"  has been delayed by 2-3 weeks. I expect the book to be out by the end of
January now. My apologies!! But I've seen the proof book and it's
GORGEOUS! And the story's still a good read despite my having read
it maybe a hundred times by now!! Yay!

In the meantime, I have a question. I've been asked about doing
autographed copies of the book, which I'd be happy to do, but I also
want to keep my sales counts up at Amazon.com, because it only takes
5000 sales to be a best seller there! And Amazon does a lot of nifty
things to market your books when you're a best seller! So I'm HOPING
to get there!!! If I buy the books to autograph and send out to
those who order directly from me, I lose Amazon sales. Some of my
writing buddies here at FFA suggested I offer autographed bookplates,
which I would certainly be willing to personalize (for instance, if
you ordered a book for your Aunt Suzie, I could write, "To Suzie" and
then whatever else and my signature). Would bookplates interest you
guys? I have to see how much they'll cost, but I think the expense
would be minimal.

If you have suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them! Thanks! And I
do apologize for the delay. Thanks for searching on Amazon for my
book - Amazon's noticed and made my name a "related search" as a
result! Cool!!!

Abraxan

If you happen to run across a story called "Harry Potter and the Mysterious Illness" by a thief named Griffin 23, please let me know.  This idiot is copying and pasting "Refiner's Fire" on fanfic sites all over the Internet, apparently, only changing a few things here and there, but even using either my chapter titles or slight variations on them!!!  My readers on my Yahoo group have alerted me whenever they've found them - the latest instance is on the Leaky Cauldron's "HarryPotterFanfiction.com" site.  I've notified the site admins, demanding the story be removed.  It was a pleasure to see that all four of the reviews posted before mine were from my own readers, one of whom called Griffin 23 a "genius - of the CUT-AND-PASTE method!"  LOL!  I do love my readers and how well they take care of me!

So please, if you see this story anywhere, notify the site admins ASAP, leave a scathing review about story theft, and let me know, as well.  Thanks!!

ADDENDUM!  On January 8, 2009, one of my Yahoo group members told me the first chapter of  "Refiner's Fire" had been added to the harrypotterfanfiction.com site by some idiot who said he had received the original author's permission (and he misspelled "author's" and "received" ARGH!) to post it - NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Griffin23 posted the story mentioned at the beginning of this article TWICE to HarryPotterFanfiction.com!!  And now here's the original, unchanged "Refiner's Fire" being posted by cut-and-paste to the SAME site!  That's three times in less than two months time that my story has been posted to that site without permission.  The admins have pulled it fairly soon after being notified (they get faster and faster at it - experience is a good teacher!), but still, this is ridiculous.  The poster this time wasn't Griffin23 but someone calling himself  "LFC DJE" (he also renamed my story "Harry Potter and The Refiner's Fire" when the REAL title is "The Refiner's Fire"). 

If you see my stories posted by ANYONE but me, please let me know!  And if you see them posted anywhere but FFA, FFN, SIYE, OWL, Schnoogle or my Yahoo group, please let me know!  AND let the admins of that site know that the person who's trying to rip off my story is NOT the author and does NOT have permission to post it!  THANKS!!!!!

Someone on the forum asked for the order in which my stories should be read, so I posted this list there.  I try to have a proper list in my Author's Notes, but I suppose not everyone reads those.  Anyway, if you want to read the stories in the order in which they happened in Harry's life (not the order in which I wrote them), here ya go:

The Refiner's Fire (Harry's 6th year)
The Time of Destiny (Harry's 7th year) WITHOUT the epilogue
A Fox's Tale (summer after 7th year)
Beginnings (fall after 7th year)
Now and Forever (fall-winter-spring after Hogwarts - this is the story that's just started uploading - the first chapter's online now)

Then there's a 4 year and some months break (this is the gap I'm filling in with stories now)

Then Destiny's Epilogues 1

Hedwig's Tale and A Very Harry Christmas both take place when Harry's an adult with a house full of children, but none of them have gone to Hogwarts yet.

Then Destiny's Epilogue 2, when Harry's oldest sons go to Hogwarts for their first year.  "On Second Thoughts" fits in this epilogue, IIRC.  It was a scene I'd meant to write and forgot until after Destiny was published, so I wrote it separately.

And that's it so far. They're written out of order because I only planned to write Refiners and Destiny (and its epilogues), not the others. Then the others just seemed like fun to write, so I wrote them. Sorry for the confusion!

"Friesian Elegance" was awarded Oct. 28, 2007, and I got to be in the presentation ceremony.  My Artist's Proof was on display in my booth, my customer had his bronze (#1) at his booth by his stallion's stall, and the trophy was on display in the FHANA (the breed organization) booth, all covered the first two days in anticipation of an unveiling ceremony.  The ceremony never happened, but I was letting Nanning (the stallion in the sculpture) "flash" people (I'd lift the cover so they could see it).  Someone who saw it that way said, "I want that!" and insisted on buying my Artist's Proof (which sells for a MUCH higher price than retail!).  She also bought two other bronzes (!!!) so between those sales and the others that weekend, I had a great show!  I've uploaded a picture of the finished bronze, but can't figure out how to insert it here.  You can see it on my art site at this link:  http://www.thesculptedhorse.com/Elegance.html   I'm VERY pleased with how it turned out!  The metal finisher at the foundry loves model-making and added a tremendous amount of detail, things too small for me to sculpt in (nuts on the carriage wherever there would be nuts, for instance, and braces around the axle too tiny for me to sculpt - he did them in wire).  I'm so excited about this piece!  Yay!

On the writing front, the book designer has been working on the typesetting for Star Sons - he's nearly finished, and I only have a few chapters left to proof before it will be ready to publish!  I HOPE it will be available in December, but if not, certainly by January!

"Now and Forever," my new HP story that covers Harry's first year out of Hogwarts,  only lacks about three scenes before it's finished, but the holidays and other obligations have gotten in the way of my finishing it.  I expect to start uploading it probably in December - I don't have to have the last few chapters beta'd to be able to upload the first ones.  I will upload a chapter a week, as before.  I look forward to your reviews!

Star Sons: Dawn of the Two is nearing publication, YAY!  I wil let you guys know when you can order it!  I don't know what the price will be yet, bu all the information will be included in the publication announcement.

I'm nearly finished with my latest HP story, a chaptered fic that fits into the time gap between the end of Destiny and the epilogue.  "Now and Forever" shows how Harry's dealing with the aftermath of the war, as well as his first year in Auror School and playinf for the Lions.  This is also the "Harry/Ginny wedding" fic I promised you.  My betas say it's a good read so far, so stay tuned!

The carriage piece is being cast in bronze now.  I will be going to Oregon to supervise the finish work on it (all the tiny pieces--the horse's bit, parts of the harness, the driving lines, the carriage step, etc.--have to be made and attached by hand, and I have to supervise that).  In the meantime, you can see the completed clay piece here:  http://www.thesculptedhorse.com/Elegance.html.  "Elegance" will be awarded at the Friesian Extravaganza (their World Championship show) in Springfield Ohio the last weekend in October.  I'll be a vendor there as well, with all my art and jewelry in my booth.  If you get the chance to attend, it's at the Clark County Fairgrounds.  Stop by my booth and say "Howdy!"

I mentioned the sculpture commission I'm working on and neglected to include the links so you can see it!  Sorry about that.  The page here shows the horse in progress (he's the harness horse near the bottom of the page - the pair of rearing horses near the top are a portrait of our two horses).  The second page shows the carriage being made.  I should have new pics online later today, since the carriage now has clay on 3/4 of it and I've started adding a bit of clay to the driver, as well.

This is all a bit off the Harry Potter topic, but since I mentioned the horse and carriage piece, I thought I should show it to you!

I've uploaded the cover art for my novel, created by my good friend Elin Pendleton (click here if you want to see her work - check her blog for pics of this painting in progress!).  The font shown is just Elin playing around.  We haven't settled on a font yet.

Here's the picture. . .

Someone e'd me to ask about the status of my novel(s) and after I replied to him, I thought I should probably pass the update on to you guys, as well. So here goes!

I met a professional editor on a writers board who offered to take a look at what I was sending out to potential agents, so I sent along my first three chapters. It took him a while to get back to me, but just last week I heard from him. He reads the slush piles (stories submitted in hope of publication) for a sf/fantasy magazine, so he can't connect me with a book agent or publisher, but still, his opinion is valuable. Sooooooo . . .after reading my first three chapters, he pronounced them "a very good read!" WHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've sent queries to several agents and become annoyed at how long this whole process takes (once I get an agent, he or she has to find me a publisher and after THAT, it can take up to three years for the book to see the light of day!! argh.) I've never been a patient person (except when it comes to perfecting my sculptures and my stories!), so I'm taking matters into my own hands and self-publishing so I can get the first book into my readers' hands while I still have a following among HP readers who HOPEFULLY will be interested in buying my books!

I learned some months ago that one of my readers on FFN is actually a lawyer, a professor at U. VA and an experienced, professional writer and copy editor. He offered to be a beta and I agreed and he's been VERY helpful, and he's going to copyedit the novel for publication. He, too, said it's a "very good read!" YAY!  My betas all liked it, but to hear this kind of opinion from these two guys who are actually in the publishing business is *sweet*!

I've been researching various means of self-publishing and found the printer who prints books for a lot of the "subsidy publishing" companies, Lightning Source. They're also a subsidiary of Ingram's which is one of the two big wholesalers that supplies bookstore chains with books. I'm already a registered publishing house due to my self-publishing my sculpture book, so Whimsy Hill Studio (my art business) will be publishing "Dawn of the Two: Book 1 of the Star Sons Saga" as soon as I can get the text properly formatted and proofread, then copy-edited by Alex.

I have a friend doing cover art right this very minute - she's a fabulous painter, and she waived any fee in exchange for my offering prints of the cover art on the website I'll be making for the books, which suits me just fine! She just sent me a picture of the painting in progress and I was blown away!! It's GORGEOUS!!!!!!  (i've posted pics on my Yahoo group and a link to her daily paintings site - you can also see the pictures on her blog)

I'm still researching printers, but Lightning Source looks like it may be the "winner" - just have a few more things to research before making a decision. Then I have to reformat the entire 124,000 word novel (around 500 pages in a 6" x 9" trade paperback format) into the final format for publishing, send it to Alex to copyedit, look over his edit, do a final polish and then send it to the printer. I HOPE to have it printed by the end of the summer.

I have this horse-and-carriage sculpture (very complex, a nightmare to work on, but a fascinating challenge and a World Championship Trophy!)  to finish by the end of June - the horse is really close to done, but I have to build the carriage and sculpt the driver and do some detailing where the carriage and horse come together. Once that's out of my hair, I have to teach a week-long sculpture workshop in Dayton, Ohio, but once THAT's done, I can get serious about getting my novel published (of course, I'm working on it and my HP story whenever I'm not in the studio, and I can only sculpt so many hours, so it is getting some attention now).

I'm still working on my next HP story, too, but that's gotten stalled by all the research I've had to do for the sculpture project and the book publication. I'll get it online ASAP, but it has to go through the betas first, and it isn't even finished yet (except in my head, which is good, anyway!)  What I've written is good - around 60 pages, but it's still kind of bare-bones. As Asad told me in an email, rushing it to publication before it's ready isn't a good idea, so my readers will just have to bear with me while I deal with having too many irons in the fire to get it finished.  You'll have a much better story to enjoy once I get this sculpture finished and shipped to the foundry!!

Anyway - that's what's happening here for now!

My original novel, "Star Sons," is finished, polished, repolished and is going through a critique on a writer's board now, which is helping it a lot (not that it was bad before!).  I sent queries to some agents a couple of months ago, but then went to a writer's conference where I learned some things that made me want to do serious revision on the novel before sending it out again.  So it's been in revision mode ever since, but it's making good progress!

I spent the month of November participating in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where you try to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  I used that time to work on the second Star Sons novel (still untitled) and am a NaNo winner with 55, 506 words as of this past Sunday!  Yay!  I have about four major scenes to write to complete the plot, with some other scenes between those to make smooth transitions, then I'll go back and insert the descriptive stuff I omitted so I could write the plot as fast as possible.  It's a good read so far!  Yay!  I expect it to end up being 110,000-120,000 words like the first one, which is 115,000+ words.

I have a new HP ficlet that's been beta'd, but I haven't had time to go through the story with the beta input and polish it yet, due to the NaNoWriMo project.  I hope to get that one finished and uploaded by Christmas, so stay tuned!!

I have a publisher who invited me to submit my novel when it was finished (yay!).  I'll be submitting it there and various other places starting in January, I think - at least, that's my goal!

That's it for now!

Abraxan

Just a note to let you know I've finished "Star Sons" and have gone through it twice more to polish it after hearing from some of my betas.  Just waiting for two of them to send in their reports and I'll go over it one more time, then start searching for an agent and/or publisher!  YAY!  I've already got the second one pretty much planned out and have started writing it, too.  No title on it yet - for now, it's "Star Sons Book 2" - not the best title ever, huh?  I'll work on that!  :-)

Stay tuned to this site for my new HP fic, "Beginnings," which should be posted on Wednesday (Aug. 2, 2006).  It's another story that fits into Destiny's epilogue, this one taking place just after "A Fox's Tale," during the summer after the trio leave Hogwarts.  It's no ficlet, at 79 pages!  I hope you enjoy it, and please remember to review!

Abraxan

Due to some recent problems with FFA, there may be some lingering issue(s) with how the text in various chapters is displayed or otherwise. If you notice any such issues/problems, etc post it as a comment, review or else post it on Abraxan's Forum on FFA Forums.

A chat is held each Wednesday at 9 PM EST for readers of Abraxan's fics to discuss the fics and ask Abraxan any questions they might want to. Spoilers for future chapters are also given during the chat. Click here to go to the chat room.

To participate in the chat, you have two options:

1 - Participate after registration - Use your registration id and password.
2 - Participate without registration - Use any name you want for your id and leave the password field blank.

I hope to see you in the chat!

Note: Avoid using AOL for participating in the chat since it is known to have problems with the chat room. Use Internet Explorer or Firefox instead.

PS: Post any problems you encounter in the comments or mail at abraxan@yahoo.com.

FFA now has a forum for discussion of the fics!

Click here to go to the forums.

On Feb. 8 and 9, I shipped all of the shirts ordered so far (except for one plus-size -- I get those shirts from a different supplier and that shirt has not arrived yet -- it should be here today, I hope!).  I'm leaving for a trip (Florida this time) tomorrow, so any shirts ordered before I get home will be shipped ASAP after I return (your chapter will be uploaded on time, don't worry!  Asad has it.)  

If you're interested in a London Lions t-shirt, please order soon!!  I won't be offering them forever!  Thanks!

I may not reply to your reviews right away while I'm gone, but be patient, I'll get to them as soon as I can!  Thanks a lot, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter! 

Check the London Lions t-shirt ordering page for info on sizes 2XL-10XL.  There's a "contact me" email link there for ordering info on those sizes (the Paypal coding was getting cumbersome for the extra sizes -- this way's easier!).  Write me at sculptedhorse@aol.com and tell me the sizes you want, and how many of each, and I'll send you an invoice for the shirts and the shipping -- and there will be a handy-dandy Paypal button included in the email for your convenience!  

Whether you're getting larger sizes or not, please order soon so I can get things going!  I'd like to get the bulk of them shipped out before my show season starts getting crazy in April.  I should be able to ship the ones ordered so far by mid-February.

I may add tote bags to the London Lions line -- would you like them?  I'll put a vote form on here to find out what you want.