Ray Mazza's Blog

Or: Zombie Car Botnets are Just Around the Corner Soon, we’ll have autonomous vehicles on the road, 100% without humans. Well, we already do, in some places. But I mean soon they will be ubiquitous.

At first, the impact of self-driving cars seems simple – “Hey, now I can eat Taco Bell while doing tight-quarters yoga in my car on the way to work… just like always, but now it’s safer because my car is driving for me! Wow!” Yes, it will let us spend commute time doing things we need to do,...

Maxis is bursting at the seams with creative people. Usually, that creativity is spent making awesome Sims games. Sometimes, it is channeled into inventing new delicacies. Or, occasionally, that creativity gets diverted into mischief. I remember a lot of that mischief fondly, so I'd like to share just a few of the occasions when it found its way into someone's cube. The Giant Beach Ball Meet Manu and his beach balls! Manu made the mistake of being away from his office for a while during...

Recently, I was interviewed by Ruty of Reading…Dreaming. She’s an avid reader from Uruguay who wanted to learn more about my approach to The Day Eight Series. She asked some great questions. Here is the first half of the interview:
1. Ruty: Why did you decided to write THE DAY EIGHT SERIES?
Ray: In high school, almost 20 years ago, I read George Orwell’s 1984. The main character, Winston, decides to keep a journal, “For the future, for the unborn,” when the mere act of even thinking abou...

As I was piloting a heat-shielded helicopter around anelectromagneticash cloud and into the caldera of a reawakening volcano (well, as I was daydreaming about it), I was thinking about how wonderful a thing it is when someone you don't know decides to set aside time from their life to write a review for you!

Yesterday, The Reborn found itself with 3 more reviews from readers I've never met. They are 3 of the 8,500+ who discovered The Day Eight Series during a 3-day promotion and downloaded The R...

As I was piloting a heat-shielded helicopter around anelectromagneticash cloud and into the caldera of a reawakening volcano (well, as I was daydreaming about it), I was thinking about how wonderful a thing it is when someone you don't know decides to set aside time from their life to write a review for you!

Yesterday, The Reborn found itself with 3 more reviews from readers I've never met. They are 3 of the 8,500+ who discovered The Day Eight Series during a 3-day promotion and downloaded The R...

Today was the final day of a 3 day promotion where The Reborn – the first part of mytechnothriller novel series– was free on Amazon.After fantastic results on Day 1, then declining (yet still pleasing) results on Day 2, I expected Day 3 to continue the waning trend. But that’s not what happened.

Here are final numbers from the end of each day, with some sales and rank comparisons to just before The Reborn went free. Note that none of the books were ranked in any lists before the promo, aside...

Today was the final day of a 3 day promotion where  The Reborn  – the first part of my technothriller novel series – was free on Amazon. After fantastic results on Day 1, then declining (yet still pleasing) results on Day 2, I expected Day 3 to continue the waning trend. But that’s not what happened.

Here are final numbers from the end of each day, with some sales and rank comparisons to just before The Reborn went free. Note that none of the books were ranked in any lists before the promo, a...

I’m wrapping up Day 2 of a 3 day promotion where The Reborn – the first part of my technothriller novel series – is free on Amazon. Today, I’ll compare the results of Day 1 with Day 2.
Overall, Day 1 was roughly 2x as successful as Day 2, but Day 2 started with a bang (see the brag-sheet I made above... sorry, I got excited, you'll have to forgive me). Let’s look at some numbers.
Day 1 Totals (Friday) Total Sales of The Reborn: 4161
Free Kindle Rank: 49
Free Kindle Technothriller...

I’m wrapping up Day 2 of a 3 day promotion where The Reborn – the first part of my technothriller novel series – is free on Amazon. Today, I’ll compare the results of Day 1 with Day 2.
Overall, Day 1 was roughly 2x as successful as Day 2, but Day 2 started with a bang (see the brag-sheet I made above... sorry, I got excited, you'll have to forgive me). Let’s look at some numbers.
Day 1 Totals (Friday) Total Sales of The Reborn: 4161
Free Kindle Rank: 49
Free Kindle Technothriller...

The Reborn hit #2 in free Kindle Technothrillers! Today – Friday, August 31st – is the first day of a 3-day free promotion for The Reborn , the first novel in my technothriller series about raising super-intelligent simulated humans in computers. (You can get it here.)

This is the first time I’ve used Amazon’s free promotional days, and I’ve gotten some great results. I’d like to share what I’ve learned along with some numbers.

(Quick history: In April, I published a 3-part novel series which...