# Looking For A Laugh? My Sci-Fi/Humor Novel THE TWILLER Is Just $2.99



## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

I am extremely excited to announce that my third novel, _*The Twiller*_, is available *now*. Readers of my _Right Ascension_ series will hopefully appreciate the writing and the clever satire, while new readers looking for something a little more casual and light-hearted will hopefully enjoy it as well. It's a humorous romp around the galaxy, suitable for adult or young adult readers, designed to give you a laugh and brighten your day. 

www.amazon.com/dp/B003SE7LPW

Ian Harebungler, our hapless hero, just can't catch a break. First, the deli ran out of his favorite cucumber sandwiches. Then he left the gas on at home. But the lowlight was being abducted from his front yard by a particularly ill-mannered alien, one who apparently doesn't believe in anesthetic, no less. Fortunately, Ian is saved by an unlikely ally: the Twiller, whose bravery is somewhat overshadowed by its uncanny resemblance to a floating yellow marshmallow with big eyes.

_The Twiller_ follows the adventures of Ian and his newfound companion as they are whisked around the Universe, and Ian learns how difficult it can be to find his way home to a backwater planet called "Earth." Along the way, Ian must survive the traffic of El Leigh, the enthusiastic protestors of Bez Erkeley, and rampaging politicians in the city of WMD. Even worse, he must contend with exorbitant prices in the city of York, endure the heat and crazy drivers in Fleur Ida, and struggle to escape the small planet of "Huh? Why E?" before he contracts island fever. Astute readers _might_ pick up on _subtle_ correlations to real places here on Earth, but my lawyers have reminded me to state that such resemblances are purely coincidental.

As it starts to dawn on Ian that the bizarre planets he visits suffer from many of the same problems, comical situations, and inane rules all too familiar to him, he stumbles upon an important secret that gives his quest to return home added urgency. Can Ian make it home? Will he arrive in time to prevent a terrible catastrophe? And can he find a flight without a Saturday night stopover? The answer lies with the Twiller&#8230;



Thanks so much to all my readers and fellow authors here at Kindleboards who kept me going as I worked on this new novel. I think you'll really enjoy it -- it's lighter and more casual than my first two novels, but there's still a bit of satire and social commentary buried in there. I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks!

- David


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## daveconifer (Oct 20, 2009)

Pretty interesting how you switched gears here, so to speak.  Did you feel like you could communicate the social commentary more clearly through satire?  I'll bet this is pretty good!


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Thanks! I definitely enjoyed stepping out a bit and doing something different. While I like the serious tone of the first two books, I also enjoy humor and wanted to write something lighter and just more _fun_. It's also very exciting because I think this book will appeal to a whole new group of people (including the young adult crowd).

The satire just seemed to bubble forth as I thought of the things in my life that were the most funny or silly, and I couldn't help but comment on how ridiculous they were. I based most of the settings on places I've lived or spent lots of time: Los Angeles, Berkeley, Hawaii, and Florida, to name a few. I took some of the weird and silly things about those places, and mixed them in with the inane situations we all deal with in life, like airport security checkpoints, crazy drivers, and the stories about bailouts and fraud that seem to dominate the headlines. I figured, instead of going crazy over life's little annoyances, why not use them as material for the book and try to see the humor in the situation?


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sounds Great. I'm checking it out when I get out of work.

Ed Patterson


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi again, David, and congratulations on your book!

You know the drill, but here's a brief reminder: We invite you to use your book cover as your avatar and have links to your book and website in your signature. Be sure to read the fine print below. Although self-promotion is limited to the Book Bazaar, most of our authors have found the best way to promote their books is to be as active throughout KindleBoards as time allows. This is your target audience--book lovers with Kindles!

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Book Bazaar Moderators

_The fine print:
Please add to your existing book thread when you have news about your book rather than start a new one, it helps the members who are trying to follow you. You may have a separate thread for each of your books. We recommend you bookmark your post so that you can find it in the future.  You may respond to all posts, but if there have been no member posts, we ask that you wait a week before "bumping" the thread by posting back-to-back posts of your own. And we ask that Amazon reviews not be repeated here as they are easy to find at your book link. Also, full reviews from other sites should not be posted here, but you may post a short blurb and a link to the full review instead. All this, and more, is included in our Forum Decorum. From time to time our site rules may change; be sure to check Forum Decorum (http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,36.0.html) for the current guidelines and rules. _


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

I am extremely excited to announce that my third novel, _The Twiller_, is available *now* from Amazon for *just 99 cents*!

*http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003SE7LPW*

I am hoping for a great launch that shoots it up into Amazon's Top 100 overall bestseller list for Kindle books. I just hit #400, so I'd be extremely grateful for your support!

I'd also like to take the time to thank all my readers who have bought any of my three novels, and those of you who have posted reviews on Amazon or commented on my blog. Your support means a great deal to me, and my success is all thanks to you.

One other word of thanks to my friends over at the excellent "I Love My Kindle" and "Kindle Review" blogs, who were kind enough to give a shout-out for today's launch.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

floating yellow marshmallow?  Okay, I'll bite... uh, buy....


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## PhillipA82 (Dec 20, 2009)

Interesting...


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Thanks for giving it a shot, guys -- I really hope you enjoy it. It's been fun writing humor, and I definitely like the idea that I'll hopefully be putting a smile on people's faces. 

Thanks to you guys, _The Twiller_ rose into the Top 200 in the Kindle store and Top 5 in "Humorous," so yesterday was a pretty exciting (exhausting, but exciting) day!


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

I was fortunate enough today to receive a very nice review from Bufo Calvin, author of the excellent (and popular) _I Love My Kindle_ Blog. A few excerpts:



> Science fiction can be profound, using a speculative framework to show us the deepest secrets in our collective psyche, and to perhaps serve as a warning of what our worst natures may bring, and an inspiration as to how the human imagination can bring about a better existence.
> 
> Or, you know, it can be silly and full of puns.
> 
> _The Twiller_, by David Derrico, is very solidly in the second camp.


I was also very happy to hear his comments about the proofing and formatting:



> One other point: I know some of you are reluctant to try self-published books because of a concern about proof-reading and such. Relax: _The Twiller_ is as error-free as any novel from a traditional publisher that I've read. The author also understands formatting for e-books: the clickable Table of Contents is in the back (and reachable through the menus), which is also where you'll find the author bio. Why is that better? So you can get a better sample. You can also flick right (on any Kindle except a Kindle 1) to move forward through the parts of the book&#8230;a convenience many large publishers seem to ignore.


And, finally, he sums it up with a pithy description I have to be very happy with:



> So, if you are looking for a light and airy entertainment, a popcorn book with an intergalactic setting, _The Twiller_ is a button-pusher that will keep you smiling.


Thanks again to everyone who's supported me with my new novel! You can read more (and the link to the full review) here:

http://www.davidderrico.com/twiller-review-from-the-i-love-my-kindle-blog/


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Just to spice things up, I thought I'd maybe quote a quick excerpt from the book:



> Ian continued walking through the spaceport, more or less at random. Abruptly, he was startled by a loud ringing sound coming from his pocket. Belatedly, he realized the sound was coming from his cell phone. He went to answer it, and paused, then shrugged disinterestedly. He never got signal anywhere back on Earth, so why shouldn't he get reception half a galaxy away?
> He answered the phone skeptically. "Hello?"
> "Mr. Harebungler?" came a voice, rather clearly, Ian thought. "Is that you?"
> Ian looked down at himself. "I believe so."
> ...


In other news, _The Twiller_ is now available in paperback too, just in case you know anyone still living in the 20th century.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

I love Douglas Adams, so I've eventually succumbed and bought Twiller. I've read a few excerpts from your website, and they certainly made me laugh. Some of the review, though, have made me wonder. Just how strong is the social commentary aspect? Both a 2-star and a 5-star have said something similar, though one clearly enjoyed them and another didn't.

I guess what I'm asking is, what are you _really_ trying for? A mixture of both? Or is there more emphasis on one or the other? I want to make sure I don't go in expecting one type of book and getting another, if that makes sense. I'm hoping toward the humorous side, but I'm also not blind to the subtle diggings Douglas Adams does as well.

That, and seriously, a yellow creature that looks like a piece of chiclet gum with eyes? I can only see him so long before I finally give up and buy 

David Dalglish


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

It's always interesting to get multiple reviews that say essentially the same thing, yet one person loved it and one hated it. Such is life (for an author, anyway). 

As for _The Twiller_, I meant it to be *funny*, first and foremost. I just wanted to make people laugh. One of the ways I find that I do that (in real life) is when I "rant" about silly or inane things we all deal with in life: trying to make sense of contradictory political ads, taking off your shoes at airport security lines, or my favorite: when you call the phone company, punch in your phone number, then when you speak to someone they always ask for your phone number again. First, why did I just punch it in, and second, don't you guys have Caller I.D.?? Aren't you the _phone company_??

So I wanted to write something light and funny and easy to read -- partially as a counterpoint to my first two novels, which are much more serious and tackle interesting (to me, anyway!) ethical themes. Now, some satire and social commentary _did_ manage to slip into _The Twiller_, but it's nothing too deep or complex. More just maybe to make you think, "Yeah, that is pretty silly!" For example, I make fun of politicians, but I make fun of all politicians equally, I'm not trying to hide any secret political ideology in there or anything. Well, beyond the obvious point that our current system is pretty much broken and easy to make fun of. 

Bottom line, with this book I just wanted to make people laugh, not get them thinking too hard or anything.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

David Derrico said:


> As for _The Twiller_, I meant it to be *funny*, first and foremost.


Awesome. Just as long as there's no grandstanding, 'uh oh Derrico's on a podium' stuff should be just fine. I like an author who simply wants to entertain, and knows how to do it well.

David Dalglish


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Half-Orc said:


> Awesome. Just as long as there's no grandstanding, 'uh oh Derrico's on a podium' stuff should be just fine. I like an author who simply wants to entertain, and knows how to do it well.


No, no, there's no grandstanding, I don't have any political agenda or anything in _The Twiller_ -- I just want to give people a good chuckle. Even in my first two books, I did hope to get people _thinking_ about some serious ethical issues, but I wasn't trying to guide them to one philosophy or the other -- I just hoped my book could serve as a stimulus to encourage people to consider some things that I found interesting and to make up their own minds about them.

Here, I'm not even really doing that -- I'm just using some things I see as funny or absurd as a way to make people laugh. As you said, I just want to entertain.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Just for kicks, I've put _The Twiller_ on sale for 99 cents for a limited time. If you're looking for something to make you laugh and hopefully brighten your day a bit, please take a look and see if it might be up your alley. Thanks!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003SE7LPW

If you're looking for something more serious, an action/adventure sci-fi story that challenges its characters with a series of ethical dilemmas, you may find my first novel, _Right Ascension_, more to your liking.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Haven't even gotten to read this yet and I get an e-mail from amazon that there's a newer version....


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> Haven't even gotten to read this yet and I get an e-mail from amazon that there's a newer version....


Thanks for the heads-up &#8230; I actually got the same email (I bought it to triple-check the formatting), and so did at least one other person I know of. What's bizarre is that I hadn't uploaded a new version yesterday when I got that email. I have no idea why they sent that email or what the "error" with the file was, but it wasn't anything I had changed. I assume it was some weird glitch on their end?

In a total coincidence, I _was_ working on a slightly newer version and uploaded it this morning (after that email), but there are only a couple of VERY minor changes, nothing to worry about. But I don't think that had anything to do with the email. When I deleted the old version on my Kindle and re-downloaded it from my archives, I couldn't tell any difference in the file. So I'm actually baffled, but if they're giving everyone who bought my books refunds (and not counting them as refunds against me, which I guess they're not since I only have 2 in 2 months), then I guess we shouldn't complain?


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

I'm yet to get that email, so I wonder if there was a specific window in which maybe the file got corrupted, or the formatting wacked out?

David Dalglish


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Half-Orc said:


> I'm yet to get that email, so I wonder if there was a specific window in which maybe the file got corrupted, or the formatting wacked out?


I've been on the phone and emailing Amazon trying to get to the bottom of it. Here's what I know so far: there was a glitch where some Amazon books (including mine) weren't connecting to Whispersync properly -- the "Sync to Last Page Read" and "Book Description" menu items were grayed out for some people. (Amazon assured me it was a glitch on their end, nothing to do with my file.) Supposedly, they have now fixed this glitch. However, to get the new version, you have to email them (or reply to the email they sent), asking them specifically to send it to you. Deleting and re-downloading (or even permanently deleting and re-purchasing) does _not_ get you a new version of any Kindle book.

Long story short, the formatting was fine (pretty darn good, if I say so myself  ), but if you got the email and were experiencing the Whispernet sync issue, you can reply to the email and ask Amazon for a new copy. On the plus side, it sounds like Amazon will be refunding some or all of the people who bought my book, so woo-hoo for free books! If the issue wasn't bothering you, just do nothing and you'll get a refund from Amazon that you can spend on another deserving KB indie author. 

I'll keep you updated (pending the rule against self-bumpage) if I learn more, or when they send me the new file and I can determine for sure if it's fixed. I do apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone!


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Okay, you get one of the highest scarlet kudos, the book almost made me miss my stop on the train ride home tonight.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

scarlet said:


> Okay, you get one of the highest scarlet kudos, the book almost made me miss my stop on the train ride home tonight.


Now, _that's_ a recommendation. . .'cause real New Yorker's _never_ miss their stop!


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Now, _that's_ a recommendation. . .'cause real New Yorker's _never_ miss their stop!


But we have really tiny apartments.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

scarlet said:


> But we have really tiny apartments.


Yeah. . . .but space is over-rated. . . .you just fill it up with crap you don't really need.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Oh, and I must say



Spoiler



the traffic jam reminded me more of Doctor Who than Hitchhiker's


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> Okay, you get one of the highest scarlet kudos, the book almost made me miss my stop on the train ride home tonight.


Wow, thanks, Scarlet! That _is_ high praise.  I'm very glad you're enjoying it.

Wait, have you gotten to the part with the tiny apartments in the city of York yet??


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

David Derrico said:


> Wow, thanks, Scarlet! That _is_ high praise.  I'm very glad you're enjoying it.
> 
> Wait, have you gotten to the part with the tiny apartments in the city of York yet??


Yes,


Spoiler



he just got kicked to the curb by the one nice person in York.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

David Derrico said:


> I'll keep you updated (pending the rule against self-bumpage) if I learn more, or when they send me the new file and I can determine for sure if it's fixed. I do apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone!


P.S.: I replied to the email Amazon sent, and they sent me the new version, and I can confirm the Whispersync issue is now fixed. Good news, and thanks to Amazon for the refunds!


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> Yes,
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


As a New Yorker, hopefully you're not _too_ offended by my take on your fair city &#8230;  I meant everything in this book to be all in good fun. And don't worry, I make fun of lots of different places equally, including my own home state (I'm from Florida).

As for _Hitchhiker's_, I know I kinda rib myself in the Foreword for "stealing all the good parts" from that most excellent book, but other than being inspired by the general frivolity and hilarity of it, I really tried not to make them too similar.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

David Derrico said:


> As a New Yorker, hopefully you're not _too_ offended by my take on your fair city &#8230;  I meant everything in this book to be all in good fun. And don't worry, I make fun of lots of different places equally, including my own home state (I'm from Florida).


Since you've made equal amounts of fun of other cities, I am of course not offended.


Spoiler



oh, and loved the MAD magazine reference.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> Since you've made equal amounts of fun of other cities, I am of course not offended.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


That's good to hear! The MAD reference was one of many little "easter eggs" I stuck in &#8230; it goes back to a theory a friend and I shared in high school that if you ever reached the edge of the Universe, Alfred E. Newman would be there waiting for you, and would reward you with an "e." Not the letter, the mathematical constant: 2.71828&#8230;

Hm&#8230; now that I write that theory down like that, I notice for the first time that it might sound somewhat unusual. Yeah, the really funny thing is that I didn't even do any drugs in high school (or thereafter)&#8230;


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Wow, I haven't thought of Mad Magazine in ages...that and Scarlet's high praise has made me get a sample.  

Betsy


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Wow, I haven't thought of Mad Magazine in ages...that and Scarlet's high praise has made me get a sample.
> 
> Betsy


Thank you for giving it a shot -- I hope the sample brings you a chuckle or two. 

And thanks again to Scarlet for the kind recommendation!


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Hey Dave, I was wondering which kind of peep the Twiller looks like.  Chick, bunny or other?


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> Hey Dave, I was wondering which kind of peep the Twiller looks like. Chick, bunny or other?


Hmm, good question! I'd say the Twiller is the color and consistency of a Peep, and about the same size as the chicks. As for the shape, a little bit like the bunny with no ears &#8230; but really more shaped like a regular marshmallow. Oh, and with much bigger eyes.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

David Derrico said:


> Hmm, good question! I'd say the Twiller is the color and consistency of a Peep, and about the same size as the chicks. As for the shape, a little bit like the bunny with no ears &#8230; but really more shaped like a regular marshmallow. Oh, and with much bigger eyes.


You describe him as a "peep" so I was wondering. Eyes like those of the minions in Despicable Me?

Just proves I really read it.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Well, if you almost missed your stop, you must have been reading it pretty closely! 

OK, I had to look up the minions (haven't seen that movie yet) &#8230; I'd say the Twiller's eyes are even bigger than those guys, well, at least proportionally. They pretty much take up half of its body. Twillers have _excellent_ eyesight. 

See, you can see how big they are even in this tiny thumbnail pic:

vvv


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

A HUGE thank you to the illustrious *scarlet* for posting a review of The Twiller over on Amazon!



> Derrico does a great job of spoofing various cities, and I found myself looking forward to the next one.


Full review here.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Oh, David, you might want to be careful where you wander the next couple of days.  A strange person has been killing off Davids....

Don't know why, something must be setting her off....

Oh, and I apologize if the first sentence of the review is a little wacky, I did a lousy proofing job on it.  Wow, should I really admit that?


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Ah, so the anti-David backlash has begun? Well, I doubt the board members will even notice if one or two of us disappear. It seems we have a never-ending supply. 

I don't see anything wrong with the first sentence (or any other ones, for that matter), I thought it was a great review, but of course I'm biased.    I hear a lot of reviewers worrying about writing a "perfect" review or whatever, but I really think so long as you're honest and explain what you liked and/or didn't like about a book (instead of just "It was great!" or "It sucked!"), then I think that's a useful review that will help other readers. And I certainly thought yours was helpful. I did see someone had already tagged it "unhelpful" -- don't worry about that, I have an anonymous stalker on my Amazon page who makes sure to vote all the good reviews down and all the bad reviews up within hours of them going live.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

I pay no attention to people who mark things helpful or unhelpful, I only care about what I think.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

That's certainly the healthiest attitude. As we can see from my thread about the author who posted fake 1-star reviews, there are people trying to sabotage authors they see as "competition," and that includes downvoting and casting aspersions about people who left me positive reviews. I'm hoping most readers are smart enough to see through that nonsense and read the sample and the legitimate reviews from readers like yourself.

On a happier note: thanks to the nice people over at Kindle Cheap Reads, who featured my books on their site yesterday! They post about a lot of great Kindle book deals (usually under $5) and sometimes throw an indie author or two into the mix. 

http://dailycheapreads.com/2010/09/12/indie-author-david-derrico/


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

A huge *thank you* to everyone who helped my entry for The Twiller win Week 2 of the Red Adept Reviews Eulogy Contest. On to the finals next week!!   

http://redadeptreviews.com/?page_id=3528


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Spoiler



S'mores?



David, you are one sick puppy. And for a sec I thought maybe the Twiller could write an eulogy for Ian.


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

Why, yes, I am looking for a laugh. Off to sample.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...


  I was trying to do something a little different, and write something that kinda captured the humor and style of the book. I mean, what a way to go, right? 

Hopefully, people like it enough to vote, and maybe even be intrigued / entertained enough to check out the book!



chbunn said:


> Why, yes, I am looking for a laugh. Off to sample.


Cool -- thanks for giving _The Twiller_ a try! I do hope you enjoy it, and would love to hear any thoughts you have about it.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

David Derrico said:


> I was trying to do something a little different, and write something that kinda captured the humor and style of the book. I mean, what a way to go, right?


It was perfect, I admit it. But...


Spoiler



it would be fun to hear things from the Twiller's POV. You know me, I have to be difficult.


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## Joe Chiappetta (May 20, 2010)

Sounds like a great mix: sci-fi and comedy. I mix that same combo in many of my sci-fi novels and comic books. So I wish you the best of success.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> It was perfect, I admit it. But...
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


Hm&#8230; actually sounds like a great idea for a sequel&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; 

Since one of the main themes of _The Twiller_ is making fun of all the silly and inane things people do, I think it could be really funny to explore what the Twiller thinks about us humans and some of our customs and our everyday lives&#8230; so maybe something set on Earth, from its POV...



Joe Chiappetta said:


> Sounds like a great mix: sci-fi and comedy. I mix that same combo in many of my sci-fi novels and comic books. So I wish you the best of success.


Thanks! I've been told it has something of a _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ vibe, which is a great compliment, and is kinda what I was going for. I don't know if the sci-fi / comedy genre is as popular as I thought, since this book hasn't sold nearly as well as my first two (which are more serious space opera / action-adventure sci-fi). But there have to be more people out there like us, who enjoy sci-fi / comedy, right? Anyway, best of luck to you and your books as well!


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

I'd like to announce a special holiday sale: _The Twiller_ is now *just $0.99* for the next few weeks.

Here's a quick excerpt:

The Veraxian warship bristled with weaponry. It bristled with rage. It bristled with some combination of weaponry and rage. What the exact proportions of weaponry to rage were, it was hard to say, but there certainly appeared to be enough of both to go around.

The ship looked as if it were the sort of ship that was perpetually ready to pounce at any other starship, asteroid, or planet it saw, and as if it very much desired to do a wide range of not very nice things to whatever it pounced upon. It always looked as if it were at the end of a very bad day, the sort of Tuesday afternoon that just dragged on with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It looked as if it were permanently incredibly put out by something or other.

How an inanimate object managed to convey such a degree of pent-up rage is hard to describe, but anyone who has ever seen a Veraxian starship invariably remarks the same thing.

This particular Veraxian warship appeared to be in an even worse mood than normal.

The savagely beweaponed machine slowly crept toward the Tranasazian ship, the ship that had had the unmitigated gall-not to mention extremely poor judgement-of being within the same galaxy as an enraged Veraxian starship. As if that weren't enough, the Tranasazian ship had the incredibly unfortunate luck to be that exact shade of bluish green that elicited the very strongest, most visceral hatred from Veraxian warships.

The upshot of all of this is that the Tranasazians were about to have a very bad day.

With a frenzied rush, the Veraxian ship sped toward the blue-green vessel, smashing into it with its proton battering rams, beating at it with its force generators, and generally harassing it with its ion field emitters. The Tranasazian ship shuddered at the assault, seemed to scream in the void of space, and generally appeared to lose a great deal of its resale value.

It seemed as if the Veraxian ship smiled, just a bit.

The onslaught continued.

If you think another 56,000+ words of that sort of thing is worth a buck, I invite you to try _The Twiller_ over at Amazon, or wherever fine e-books are sold. Thanks for looking!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003SE7LPW


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

Very cool, the second round winners of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest were just announced, and I'm excited to see _The Twiller_ on the list!

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011

Congratulations and good luck to all the entrants -- hopefully a KB author will win!


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

big yellow marshmallow peeps to all the second round winners.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

I woke up this morning surprised to be reminded that today is the day of my Kindle Nation Daily sponsorship for _The Twiller_. I hope it goes as well as it went for _Right Ascension_ back in January! It's always a thrill to see a bump in sales and ranking and know that people are finding (and hopefully reading and enjoying) my work. 

http://kindlenationdaily.com/?p=1663

I'm interested to see if this sponsorship can kick-start _The Twiller_, which hasn't seemed to catch on as well as my more serious sci-fi novels. Are there just no sci-fi humor readers out there??


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

David Derrico said:


> Are there just no sci-fi humor readers out there??


what am i, chopped liver?


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> what am i, chopped liver?


Sorry!  You know I didn't mean to omit you! I definitely appreciate your kind words here and you taking the time to leave a review on Amazon as well. And certainly there have been other people reading _The Twiller_ as well. So I shouldn't have said "*no* sci-fi humor readers," but I wonder if it's just not a very popular sub-genre, or at least not as popular as other types of sci-fi.

It's just one of those things where I wonder why it doesn't seem to be nearly as popular as my other two novels (when the covers, writing, description, etc. are all of the same style and quality).


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

well, maybe you need to make it look a bit different from your "harder" books....

and i think the comedy sci-fi market is a bit of a hard one.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

scarlet said:


> well, maybe you need to make it look a bit different from your "harder" books....
> 
> and i think the comedy sci-fi market is a bit of a hard one.


Yeah, I generally like the cover of _The Twiller_ (and I fell in love with that NASA image and wanted to use it), but my main concern was that it might be too similar to the other two. On the other hand, since it _is_ similar, I think that somewhat takes the cover out of the equation when trying to figure out why Book 1 sells better than Book 3, you know? (Either both covers suck somewhat equally, or both covers are somewhat equally good.)

But, are you saying that maybe the cover doesn't "fit" as well? That maybe people see the cover, think "space opera" or "regular sci-fi" (or whatever) and then see the description is something whimsical and humorous and it's just a mismatch? I would be interested to hear your thoughts on that (and thoughts of any other readers who might be lurking).


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

see, i can't comment concretely on your covers, 'cause i've never really seen 'em.  i bought twiller based on your posting here (and the fact that you're a cool dude i wanted to give 3 bucks to....)


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

A huge thank you to Red Adept (and her new review crew) for selecting _The Twiller_ for a review, which was posted today!

*4 3/4 stars*

"It's funny, really funny. &#8230; Author David Derrico came very close to matching Douglas Adams' farcical, achingly funny style of writing that fit the story so perfectly. &#8230; Overall, this was a fun book to read."

Check out the full review over at Red Adept Reviews:

http://redadeptreviews.com/?p=5274


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

congrats!


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