So, I've been requesting that Amazon make the first book in the Progenitor series free, on and off, since about 2014. They've always just replied "no", but for whatever reason, this time they answered "yes". So, here you go everyone... the link for #1, free.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009SQ1KJM

It's also available on Smashwords, for those who would prefer not to use Amazon:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/245324

Further developments in the Progenitor series have been moving on lately too. I haven't published a complete new ebook yet, but I have three different works in progress on Vella - among them is Progenitor 4, which gets a new ep every other week. I've also got a subscription site via Reamstories for folks outside of the US. (Added as edit; I checked just after posting this and it was working!)

Once Progenitor 4 is complete, there's a 30 day or so delay before I'm allowed to publish it as an ebook.

If you're in the mood for something a little different from Progenitor though, I also have The Fallback Plan as a work-in-progress. That story follows a colony ship where the gestation pods get sabotaged, requiring the ship's AI to resort to growing humans the old fashioned way - inside of other humans. But with a few twists to accelerate pregnancy, mature the babies to adults in days, and then the ship compels them to join the breeding program as well. There's a mystery arc running across the entire story too - Kara, our main character, notices that things are off. The ship looks much older than it should be, and the logs are damaged. So, Kara decides to choose which crew members to give birth to on the basis of which ones have the necessary skills to help her get to the bottom of what's happening with the ship.

To be honest, so far it's 85k words of the best setup I've thought of yet for group labor scenes, etc.

Anyway, hopefully one link-bomb at the bottom is less annoying than links to stuff scattered throughout. This post here is less about marketing, more about what I've been up to writing-wise, during the 5 years since I published Progenitor 3. Real life wise, it's been mostly kids. When you find that woman who does indeed want to make as many of 'em as possible with you, that kinda takes away your writing time for a while.

• The Fallback Plan: Kindle Vella (link)
  
• Progenitor 4: Kindle Vella (link)
  
• Winning The Genetic Lottery 2: Kindle Vella (link)
  

I read Progenitor and some of your other works many years ago. It's weird that you're here now because I was just thinking about this story the other day and wondering whatever happened to it! I really enjoyed the Progenitor books and am happy to hear that more is coming

Hi,

Not sure if the free offer is no longer valid, but Progenitor isn't free for me (perhaps it's because I'm outside the US?). Anyway, I'm happy to buy it but please could you give us a but more information about what pregnancy-focused content is in it? The Amazon synopsis seems fairly mainstream and pregnancy isn't mentioned at all. Obviously, I am not expecting you give out all the details, but perhaps you could give some of the codes? Hyperpreg, NC, rom, etc...

Thanks,
DA

I'm still hanging out for another merlin-related story. I need to dive in to the progenitor series though!

(April 11, 2023, 4:19 pm)deux_anges Hi,

Not sure if the free offer is no longer valid, but Progenitor isn't free for me (perhaps it's because I'm outside the US?). Anyway, I'm happy to buy it but please could you give us a but more information about what pregnancy-focused content is in it? The Amazon synopsis seems fairly mainstream and pregnancy isn't mentioned at all. Obviously, I am not expecting you give out all the details, but perhaps you could give some of the codes? Hyperpreg, NC, rom, etc...

Thanks,
DA

I suspect that perhaps you may have found one of the other titles on Amazon with "Progenitor" in the title? The correct one is in the screenshot below, and the text (at least, the text it shows me, which is in the screenshot) is a pretty accurate description of what's going on. For me, at least, it's still showing price as $0.00. If it turns out not to be free where you are, please do give me a link to where it isn't - I'm curious to find out what's going on here.

   

And of course, there's always Smashwords, where it's free regardless of how Amazon's whims may change on any given day.

The link for the Smashwords edition is at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/245324

Hope that helps; between those two sites, there SHOULD be a freely accessible copy for folks anywhere in the world at this point.

(April 12, 2023, 3:23 am)Zededd2000 I'm still hanging out for another merlin-related story. I need to dive in to the progenitor series though!

You know, it's funny you mention that... I've been kicking around the idea of some side-story shorts set in Merlin's world. I've started something like 3-4 different scenes that didn't turn into a complete story, but now that I'm doing the episodic publishing, I might just turn them into short bonus content rather than trying to massage them into a new story.

But you'll be pleased to know this is the setup for the next Merlin story. We introduced Mordred and Jillian in Evil Takes Wang, and their sex cult is what Merlin and Morgana are going to be up against in the (as yet untitled) fourth installment.

Quote:Jillian raised her eyebrow. "Aether transmissivity isn't a constant? None of my texts mentioned this."
Mordred rolled his eyes. "Clueless bint. Why would we tell you humans something like this, when it doesn't even affect your spellcasting? Yes, that's precisely what we would have told your species during the middle ages when you hunted us."
A genuine smile crossed Jillian's face as she lapped up the crumbs of knowledge he had just disclosed. Demons were an abusive lot, and sorcerers deemed it the tuition they paid for their magic. Mordred had just done the equivalent of paying her for a $1 item with a $100 bill and then walking off. "Where would the best feeding ground be for you, then?"
Mordred sighed. "For sex magic? Just off of the coast of Bermuda. Your species calls that region the Bermuda Triangle. We'd have to lure people all the way into the Triangle, then get them to fuck. For best results, we'd need a lot of them, far more members than this cult has ever had."
Jillian paused for a moment, then grinned. "You seriously couldn't have told me this years ago? You couldn't have told me that the only thing we truly need is to lure a fuck-ton of horny young people onto a boat off of the Florida coast for a day of sex? In summer?"
Mordred raised his eyebrow. "I didn't mention it because it's ridiculous. Even in your soft, dissolute world where you can find somewhere to buy a cheeseburger any time you want it, we'd have to find some gigantic pile of horny fools nearby to make this work. We'd have to start a festival or something devoted to this, and spend decades building it up. Perhaps we'll call it Daemonicus or something? We're already in the realm of the ridiculous here, no reason we shouldn't just go fully bat-shit."
Jillian giggled. "Master, there already is a sex festival in Florida every year, right next to the Triangle. It's called 'Spring break'. We only have to provide boats and alcohol - hell, the celebrants will even pay us for the privilege to attend - because they're hoping to get sex."
Mordred blinked in surprise, then his face shifted to rage. "You imbecile! Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Jillian inwardly rolled her eyes. Demons were testy, even when their own secrecy was the core of their problems. And she was finally approaching her own limit. "I'm sorry, Master. It must have slipped my mind to mention that horny kids from every college in the country show up in Florida every year. It is, after all, something every human learns about before they finish high school, so I mistakenly believed that you would have already known about it, given that you've watched our history since it started."

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, you're right. I was looking at the wrong book! That's wierd... I think it's because when I click the link you provided at the top of this thread, it redirects me to the UK site, and that just shows a list of similarly titled books, rather than yours specifically.
Anyway, now that I've found it. I can confirm that it is definitely not free. Thought it is very cheap and I am happy to pay for it.

How odd! Well, keep in mind it will definitely be free via Smashwords.com - you're certainly encouraged to use that route. It'll definitely be free via there, as they don't do a different site for each country.

In the meantime, I shall see if I can get the Amazon folks to correct the pricing for the UK market.

Started reading the fallback plan, pretty good so far up to ep 12.

(April 16, 2023, 5:40 am)haramiru

(April 12, 2023, 3:23 am)Zededd2000 I'm still hanging out for another merlin-related story. I need to dive in to the progenitor series though!

You know, it's funny you mention that... I've been kicking around the idea of some side-story shorts set in Merlin's world. I've started something like 3-4 different scenes that didn't turn into a complete story, but now that I'm doing the episodic publishing, I might just turn them into short bonus content rather than trying to massage them into a new story.

But you'll be pleased to know this is the setup for the next Merlin story. We introduced Mordred and Jillian in Evil Takes Wang, and their sex cult is what Merlin and Morgana are going to be up against in the (as yet untitled) fourth installment.

Now THAT is some amazing news! I was not expecting to hear you had something in the works. Good thing I've got a good new series (Progenitor... new for me at least haha!) to enjoy while it's gestating