Greetings,
Welcome to the bi-weekly newsletter of Science Fiction and Fantasy Author, Greg Sorber. If you’re receiving this newsletter, it means you signed up when you downloaded a copy of Duel of Destiny from a promotion or after reading Pax Machina. No matter how you found your way to my newsletter, WELCOME!
Although I’d love for you to stay subscribed to receive news about my forthcoming books, you are free to unsubscribe at any time.
In this jammed-packed special Halloween edition you’ll find:
- Halloween Hijinks
- My Musings
- Mechs and Machinations News
- A Pax Machina Promotion
- On Darkhaven Forged Writing Update
- Las Vegas Signing Update
- Newsletter/Email Housekeeping
- Promotions (Featured and Group)
There’s something for everyone, so please read through to to the end to get all the information.
Halloween Hijinks
Halloween is great! I see it as the kickoff of all the fun Fall/Winter Holidays starting with Halloween, progressing to Thanksgiving, and then culminating with Christmas and New Year’s. Once I became a father, I became more of a Halloween facilitator and costume maker…some good, some not so good, but all fun. Here are some of my favorite costumes I’ve worn or made for my kids over the years!
Happy Halloween from Sorberine! 
Baby Groot and Groot 
Nexo Knight 
First Order and Imperial TIE Fighters 
Too Soon? Spiderman from Infinity War 
Dipper and Stanford Pines
I’m upping my Stanford Pines game for this Halloween and cosplay day at the 20Booksto50K conference…pics to come in the next newsletter!
My Musings
- Since the last newsletter, it’s been a busy time in the Sorber household. My youngest son is in a theater production at school and I’ve been shuttling him to and from rehearsals at crazy hours in the morning and night. Luckily, the show started on Thursday and should wrap up on Saturday evening. After that we should get back to a more normal schedule.
- I watched Dune last weekend at home on HBOMax. I really enjoyed it. Then again, I’ve like all the versions of Dune, even the ones no one else does. We would have snuck out to our local super duper deluxe theater and watched it, but none of the times were convenient. That being said, if you’re a Dune fan…do yourself a favor and go see it on the biggest screen with the best sound you can find.
- I’ve been working my way through Foundation on Apple TV+. Overall, I’m enjoying the series so far. I’m on episode 6. I think some of the episodes are stronger than others, but I like the ambition and production quality of the entire series.
- My wife, son, and I will watch My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission this Sunday to celebrate the wrapping up of his school’s production.
- So I’ve mentioned High School Theater, Sci-Fi, and Anime, how about a little Fantasy? That’s right, a full trailer for The Wheel of Time has dropped and it looks great. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/mPAYuCt7Eco
Mechs and Machinations News
So you might have heard…that Mechhaven Book 2: Mechs and Machinations came out this week. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, now’s a great time to get it.
It’s free to read as part of a Kindle Unlimited Subscription, $4.99 to purchase on Amazon Kindle, or $16.99 for the Paperback (U.S. Prices).
If you enjoy the book, please feel free to leave an awesome review on Amazon. Every good review helps!
To get Mechs and Machinations, click below:
Pax Machina Promotion (ON SALE for $0.99)
Get the book that started it all!
If you haven’t had a chance to read Mechhaven Book 1: Pax Machina, I wanted to make it as easy for you as possible.
For the next seven days, the e-book version of Pax Machina is ON SALE for $0.99. It’s still free to read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription and the Paperback is still $14.99
Click below to get the promotion from 10/31/2021 to 11/06/2021!
This promotion is only available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
On Darkhaven Forged Update
- I’m nearing the 50,000 word mark and should hit it in the next day or two. My word count pace slowed down over the last two weeks while I finished editing and prepping for the launch of Mechs and Machinations. I’m still making progress and am looking forward to ramping up my speed again this weekend and next week.
- I recently finished a chapter that is one of my favorites that I’ve written in the series so far. It’s a flashback to The Mechanai War and follows a character on a daring mission. I can’t wait to share this with you this June!
Las Vegas Signing
Just a reminder that I’ll be participating in my first “live” signing event in Las Vegas on November 12, 2021. If you live in the area or feel like traveling, below is just a small sample of the authors of all genres that will be taking part.
I’ll be at Table 65 with 7 other authors. We’ll be on some sort of rotation so all eight of us aren’t sitting at the table at once. We likely won’t have the details worked out on the schedule until the day of the event. If I’m not at the table, and you want to meet me, the others will no doubt have a way to reach me. If you’re planning to attend, please reach out and let me know.
For more information, join the Vegas Author Signing 2021 Facebook Group.
Newsletter/Email Housekeeping
Little by little, I’ve been learning more about how my email service (SendFox) works. In exploring the features, I noticed that there is a discrepancy in the number of sign-ups for my newsletter vs. how many emails actually get sent. Working with SendFox, I discovered the problem is one of two things:
- SendFox requires a double opt-in to comply with various international rules and regulations. This means if you didn’t complete the double opt-in, you are considered “unconfirmed” and won’t receive future emails. If you are receiving this newsletter, you completed the double opt-in process.
- SendFox requires a certain percentage of emails to be opened, otherwise, it automatically throttles the number of people you can send email to so you don’t send too many and get marked as SPAM. They have a formula that calculates the industry open rate, so as long as you stay above that you’re fine. As I’m just learning about this, some of my messages may have dipped below the industry standard rate, which means some of you might not be getting all of my messages. Of course, if you’re reading this, you’re probably fine.
So, how do I fix the email dilemma? For starters, over the next month, I’ll be identifying any “unconfirmed” subscribers and resending confirmation emails to try to get them fully subscribed. For some reason, SendFox limits the sending of these messages to five at a time, so this could take a little while to complete.
For Number 2, I will monitor the open rates of my next few messages and start sending reminders a few days after it goes out if you haven’t opened the email. This means you might get an extra email or two from me, but if my open rates increase, I’ll scale this back.
I know we’re all busy and get tons of email; I know I do! I’d much rather spend the time writing, but keeping a tidy email list/system is part of what indie authors do. So, if you can help me out and open, and if possible, click on a link within the emails I send, that would be great.
I just wanted to let you know about the above steps so you aren’t surprised if you get some extra messages from me. Thank you in advance!
Featured Promotion
After countless years of preparation Mission Terra Firme One is finally ready to commence and give Earth the answers it has long waited for, about the planet Neighbor. The TSS Cartographer is about to arrive and its First Officer Baldwin “call me Win” Tavares believes that he might just be able to touch his hand to that rocky ground and that’d be enough for him to learn everything there is to know about their old Neighbors, the things they’d done and what they’d left behind. But not everyone is as kind-hearted or has such noble intentions, and Neighbor holds more mysteries than anyone could have imagined. Exploring it might open the gates for a flood that threatens to drown everything, and Win must make decisions that hold his life, and that of all around him, at stake.
Group Promotions
This will be the last you see of this batch of group promotions, so get them while you can. I’m working on some new promotions that will be featured in the next newsletter.
Tales of The Future (Giveaway)-Only One Day Left on this one, take a look now!
Tales of The Future (Bargains)-Only One Day Left on this one, take a look now!
New Horizons Await-Only One More Week Left!
Fight The Monster-The books in this one look particularly good. Give it a try!
Contact Me
This newsletter is a great way to stay up to date with the happenings of Gregeration X. It will usually come out twice per month. However, if you want to follow me in more places or contact me directly, here’s how:
Website: www.gregerationx.com (gregsorber.com and mechhaven.net work great also!)
Email: greg@gregerationx.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gregerationx
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gregerationx
TikTok: Coming Soon??? Still looking into this…if you have any thoughts about it send them my way.
Amazon: Greg Sorber on Amazon (All my books in one place!)
I look forward to hearing from you.
Until next time, Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!
Greg