Edward Hoornaert's Blog, page 85
July 25, 2014
Top Ten Science Fiction Cats of All Time
(picture courtesy Deposit Photos)
I need your help with this one because–horror of horrors!–I have only eight cats on my list. I relying on the Internet to help fill out this list, so don’t you let me down. If you think of a deserving cat, leave a comment!
Here are the ground rules I used:
I’m a little loosey goosey about what qualifies as science fiction, but only a little. Alice in Wonderland is an exploration of alternate universes and thus clearly qualifies, in my opinion. So the Cheshire Cat is in. :-) Unfortunately, Behemoth, in The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, is out. As much as I love that evil, vodka-swilling puddy tat, that book is social satire, not sf. :-(
I’ve restricted my list to books. In other words, no matter how entrancing I find Dr. Who’s notion that cats are alien creatures with grandiose names, the good doctor doesn’t make the list. Sorry, but I simply don’t watch enough television or movies to have an intelligent opinion about celluloid felines. (Of course, I haven’t read every science fiction story ever written, either, but since when has ignorance ever stopped me?)
And finally, I restricted the list to CATS. Not Little Fuzzies, as much as I love the beasties. Not leopards, as in Dickson’s Time Storm. And certainly not dogs. That’s another list entirely.
Number ten
???
Number nine
???
Number eight
Pixel from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein. The book itself is subpar Heinlein, but any cat who rates being a title character is star enough to make this list. In one scene Pixel does, in fact, walk through a wall. How? He succeeds simply because he’s too young to know that it’s impossible.
Number seven
Gummitch from various stories by Fritz Lieber. This is one of several selections that prove my weakness for classic science fiction but hey, I’m an old fart. Imagine a kitten with an IQ of 160! They all think they’re that smart, of course, but Gummitch really is.
Number six
Sprockets from Mission to Universe by Gordon R. Dickson. Dickson was an asthmatic who was allergic to cats, but that didn’t stop him from writing a great cat. Sprockets is a stowaway feral kitten who becomes spaceship mascot. He doesn’t purr. The crew believe that if he learns to purr, they’ll find success in their search for an inhabitable planet. That’s the old scientific spirit for you!
Number five
Chester from The Celery Stalks at Midnight by James Howe. Okay, this isn’t strictly speaking science fiction; it’s a youthful fantasy. But back when I was an elementary school teacher, I read this and other books by Howe to my class of ten and eleven year olds, and that’s enough for me to add it to the list. Also don’t miss Howliday Inn. Gotta love a writer who’s unabashed about puns!
Number four
The Green Cat from Green Millennium by Fritz Lieber. The book may not be Lieber’s best, but the cat sure is. The human hero keeps following after the (nameless) cat because of the contentment he feels in its presence. Anyone who’s ever petted a purring pussy can relate. Unless they’re a dog person. But what are you doing reading this if you’re a dog lover?
Number three
The Barque Cats (take your pick from a shipload of cats). They’re the stars of two books: Catalyst by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough and Catacombs by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.
Number two
The Cheshire Cat, who else? This dude’s attitude is 100% feline. If a cat could talk and smoke hookah’s, it would be exactly as aloof and supercilious as this disappearing cat. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
And the number one science fiction cat of all time is …
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Are you ready for it?
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Prepare to boo and hiss if I left off your favorite.
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Petronius the Arbiter (AKA Pete) from The Door into Summer
by Robert A. Heinlein. Daniel Boone Davis occasionally carries this smart, loving cat in a carrying-bag and feeds him ginger ale. Dan calls him Petronius the Arbiter because Pete is a good judge of people. If Pete doesn’t like someone, Dan doesn’t. Like any self-respecting cat, Pete is, of course always right.
And that’s what I’ve come up with. Any additions, corrections, ‘are you crazy’s’? Leave a comment.
The SFR Brigade Presents One Last Triumph
If you haven’t checked out the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, you really should. This group of writers contains some of the major voices in women’s science fiction, including Catherine Asaro and Linnea Sinclair.
Some members write romance set in futuristic settings. Others, such as Mr. Valentine, write more traditional science fiction, but emphasize strong female leads and romantic elements.
This week, several brigadiers are sharing short selections from their work. Below is the last snippet I’ll be posting before The Triumph of Tompa Lee goes on sale July 29. In this scene, we visit the head of Lily Kilsing, a bounty hunter hired to kill Tompa.
“If you ask me again, I’ll marry you.” But even to her ears, the words to a dead man sounded hollow and insincere.
Derek had loved her, and it had killed him, and she would kill Tompa Lee and the people she loved. Her fingers itched to kill Ming and the Shon—but not yet. She still needed them for bait. She would, however, turn on the cell’s water torture, slowing filling the cell and killing them by inches. Everything Lee loved must die.
But why couldn’t she cry for Derek? Avenge him, yes, she would do that. But cry? His lifeless eyes accused her.
“I’m sorry I never said ‘I love you’ while you were alive.”
But did she love him? The question rose like bile in her throat.
With dry eyes and an inner fury such as she’d never experienced in a life filled with cold rage, she charged back to the workshop to don her armor and to pay some Shons to bury Derek.
This was no longer just a job. Tompa Lee was no longer just an abstraction that she felt duty-bound to eradicate.
Now it was personal.
Be sure to check out the great excerpts from other SFR Brigadiers!
1.
Sue Ann Bowling
2.
Aurora Springer
July 18, 2014
The SFR Brigade Presents another Triumph
If you haven’t checked out the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, you really should. This group of writers contains some of the major voices in women’s science fiction, including Catherine Asaro and Linnea Sinclair.
Some members write romance set in futuristic settings. Others, such as Mr. Valentine, write more traditional science fiction, but emphasize strong female leads and romantic elements.
This week, several brigadiers are sharing short selections from their work. Below is the opening of The Triumph of Tompa Lee, which will be available on July 29.
When the goddess from outer space began removing her nightgown, Awmit rotated his neck one-hundred-eighty degrees to look away. Tompa Lee never wanted him to view her body.
Cloth rustled. The bed creaked.
His friend’s bizarre modesty baffled Awmit for the twelve-to-the-twelfth time. Tompa could suppose negatively that human nudity would arouse him. The idea flew beyond ludicrous.
Yet he writhed with curiosity about human beings, and as the ancient proverb taught, curiosity was the opposite of a waistline: when starved, it grew. Perhaps the time had come to slay this silly obstacle to comprehensive friendship. He would quietly turn and watch as she—
A thunderclap of words exploded the thought out of his mind.
“Tompa Lee,” the thunderclap snarled, “we command you to commit suicide!”
You can check out the brand new reveal of Triumph’s cover. I’m particularly proud of this cover, so please, let me know what you think!
And be sure to check out the great excerpts from other SFR Brigadiers:
Anna Hackett
Sue Ann Bowling
Deborah A Bailey
Aurora Springer
Greta van der Rol
July 13, 2014
Mirror Shattered
In the spirit of book releases, and seeing that Ed Hoornaert’s The Triumph of Tompa Lee is only weeks away from release, Mr. Valentine is hosting a cover reveal for a great new science-fiction romance by KG Stutts: Mirror Shattered.
Mirror Shattered is the second book in a sci-fi romance series by new author KG Stutts. The first book, Mirror Image, introduced us to Maddie, a brilliant scientist who finds out she’s a clone. Maddie gets swept into a secret world of the Intergalactic Security Commission, an organization which works to keep Earth safe. The primary goal with the ISC is to keep the secret that we aren’t alone in the galaxy and not all other planets are as friendly as we are. Maddie works with her counterpart who goes by the name Mack to keep a powerful weapon from falling in the wrong hands. Maddie goes beyond expectations of a clone, and even falls in love.
But now it’s two years later. As the team struggles under the leadership of a new commander, news is uncovered which shakes Mack and Maddie to the core. Everything they believed in is shattered, including a loved one. Before they could recover, the team is on a mission to protect a planet from an ogre-like race. The world is attacked by an alien race long thought extinct, the Synth. They barely escaped with their lives, but not without some heavily losses. On the way back home, the ISC’s most trusted ally, the Isgurd, delivers more bad news. They can’t return home. In fact, home never existed. The Synth managed to go back in time to kill their former commander, Charlie Westlake, before he could befriend the Isgurds and for the ISC. They must go back to 1965 and stop the Synth, even if it means their lives.
Mirror Shattered is a powerful story with a lot of heart. It’s a roller coaster ride with huge implications. If you had the option to change the future, would you do it? That’s a question Maddie is faced with…
Head over to kgstutts.webs.com to check out news, excerpts and more for this and her several other books. The first book in the series, Mirror Image, is on sale for $.99 now through the 20th! Catch up with the series before this book comes out on August 15th.
Here’s an excerpt from the book:
The ship rocked as a blaster shot from the enemy ship hit but had no damage.
“Shields still holding,” Seth announced.
“Someone have a brilliant idea?” John asked.
The ship fell silent. Seth had managed to maneuver the ship to avoid the second blaster charge.
“I think I have it. Fly into that star,” Maddie instructed Seth.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” David said, exasperated.
“The shields will hold,” Maddie assured Seth.
Seth looked to Jackson who nodded in agreement with Maddie.
“I hope you know what you are doing,” Seth muttered, setting in the coordinates.
Me, too. Maddie thought. But she knew she couldn’t lose her nerve now.
“What’s your plan?” Jackson asked.
“We can actually use our shields to deflect energy toward our attackers,” Maddie responded.
“That sounds dangerous,” John warily said.
“It will take everything we have in shields to do this. We’ll only get one shot at this. If my math is wrong, it could destroy us,” Maddie admitted.
The crew looked on as Seth punched in the coordinates to the nearest star. The attacking ship began to follow suit. Maddie pulled out her data tablet and connected it to the ship.
“Maddie, please be correct,” Seth prayed.
Her entire body shook as she turned on her tablet. If she was off in her calculations were off by even a fraction…
“Maddie…” John encouragingly said.
“A minute.” She shook her head.
“We don’t have a minute, Madison,” Jackson sharply said.
“Got it!” she exclaimed, just as the ship entered the star.
The ship began to hum as the shields started pushing back against the star’s energy. The enemy stopped its pursuit.
“It’s waiting for us to come out,” Chris said.
“On my mark, Seth,” Maddie said, loading up her newly-written program into the ship’s control panel.
“The temperature in the hull is rising,” David alerted her.
“I’m aware. We’re almost there,” Maddie replied.
“I think we have it,” Seth said.
“Fire!” Maddie shouted.
Growing up in Texas and later South Carolina as the youngest in a house full of science-fiction fans, K.G. Stutts had her natural curiosity and imagination nurtured since birth by family movie nights where they would watch Star Wars, Indiana Jones and even timeless Disney favorites.
A prolific writer of sci-fi, romance and mystery, K.G. draws much of her inspiration from those amazing works that gave her an appreciation for telling rich, compelling, character-driven stories for all audiences.
Book one in her science-fiction romance is out now by the wonderful group at http://distinguishedpress.com in eBook and paperback and a romance eBook launched at the beginning of June from http://lazydaypub.com and http://blushingbooks.com. There is also more sci-fi and romance books in the works to come out later this year. She is also a contributor to http://iwassociation.com and http://thewritingnetwork.com
Keep up with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/KGStutts or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KGStutts Visit her website at http://kgstutts.webs.com She also is on Tumblr at kgstutts.tumblr.com. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, Brad and works for a customer service call center full time. She’s a lover of Star Wars, Star Trek (original, TNG, and Voyager), Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, Muppets, Garfield, Disney, Indiana Jones, role playing and classic video games, and is a big football, wrestling, and hockey fan.
July 8, 2014
The SFR Brigade Presents a Triumph
If you haven’t checked out the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, you really should. This group of writers contains some of the major voices in women’s science fiction, including Catherine Asaro and Linnea Sinclair.
Some members write romance set in futuristic settings. Others, such as Mr. Valentine, write more traditional science fiction, but emphasize strong female leads and romantic elements.
This week, several brigadiers are sharing short selections from their work. Below is a snippet from The Triumph of Tompa Lee, which will be available on July 29.
A very short setup: Tompa Lee, our underdog heroine, is trying to rescue her husband and best friend from the clutches of a bounty hunter who’s used them as bait to lure Tompa to an alien city. Tompa accidentally sets fire to the building where the bounty hunter sleeps. You’d think a raging fire would do in even a huntress wearing battle armor…
As one, they fled, leaving Tompa alone to face the blackened ruins. Was something moving in there? Maybe sap had expanded in wood, like a fireplace log shooting coals into the air.
A blackened board flew into the air. Then another.
Tompa stepped closer, peering into the heat. Embers glowed like demon eyes. The air shimmered and smoke spiraled up, shrouding … whatever it was. Tompa’s face felt like toast, yet she edged nearer still.
It couldn’t be.
A shape struggled to rise. A head?
Yes, and shoulders, too.
But it couldn’t be Kilsing. The assassin’s armor was painted a rainbow of swirling colors, while this fiend from Hell was as dark as midnight. Thrusting blackened timbers aside, the shape rose. The head swiveled. Stopped when it pointed toward Tompa.
Lily Kilsing, charred and blackened, with tendrils of smoke leaking upward from her helmet like Lucifer’s halo, had risen from the dead.
Be sure to check out the great excerpts from other SFR Brigadiers!
July 6, 2014
Triumphant Cover Reveal
And now, alas, for some shameless commercialism. Amazing how different it feels, though, when it’s my commercialism … noble, almost, or at least artistic and marvellously important, as opposed to crass.
Without further apology, here’s the cover reveal for The Triumph of Tompa Lee, my upcoming science fiction adventure with dollops of romance. Leave a comment to let me know what you think of the cover, or the book, or your book, or the weather–whatever. I’d love to hear from you!
In the beginning, there was hardcover.
Then ebook and trade paperback.
Along came a sequel.
And then there was…
…at long last…
…after many trials and tribulations…
TRIUMPH!
The third book in The Trilogy of Tompa Lee, available July 29.
Preorder it now!
Tompa Lee — orphan, anti-social loner, and homeless street meat — has clawed her way up to the stars. There, on planet Zee Shode, she finds the galaxy’s greatest treasures: friendship and love.
Happily ever after? Not if the Galactic Trading Council has its way. The Council rules by divide and conquer, and Tompa commits the unforgivable crime of ‘forgery’—forging an alliance between humans, Shons, and Klicks. When the Council hires Lily Kilsing, earth’s most feared bounty hunter, Kilsing lures Tompa to a deserted alien city by kidnapping her fiancé and her best friend.
Can Tompa kill the huntress–or will she be forced to sacrifice her own life, trying to save her loved ones?
———————————
What people are saying about Tompa Lee:
“Ed Hoornaert is a marvelous writer: a terrific, engrossing storyteller and a consummate stylist.” – Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author
“A leading lady worth rooting for…” San Francisco Book Review
“…an attractive, ambitious vagabond.” – Arizona Daily Star
“I love Tompa Lee! She grabs me in many of the same ways that are so captivating about Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.” – Pamela Keys, author of The Jumbee
“Reminiscent of the best of classic Star Trek.” – TheBestReviews.com
“…a rollicking romp on a distant planet, full of adventure and heart.” – Amber Belldene, author of the Blood Vine series
So what are you waiting for? Preorder it now!
June 15, 2014
Starry Nights
Welcome to the SFR Brigade’s 3rd Midsummer Blog Hop. The theme is “Starry Nights”–which works out perfectly for me, because my heroine, Tompa Lee, and hero, Ming Mengliev, first made love under the stars.
Jane Austen famously omitted marriage proposal scenes, but I offer my lovers no such privacy. To celebrate the blog hop, I’m sharing a wedding proposal from my upcoming release, The Triumph of Tompa Lee, available in ebook and trade paperback July, 2014
I’m also offering a prize — a digital copy of my award-winning science fiction short story, Devil, Devil – to anyone who can tell me how many times Ming (the hero) says the words ‘marry’ or ‘marriage’. Simple, eh?
In your comment, please make sure you leave your email address to claim your prize. Use the format name at email dot com if you prefer. Unless you tell me otherwise, I’ll send the little devil in Kindle format.
The blog hop also offers huge prizes. Details on that at the end of the post. Good luck, and enjoy!
“Now may not be the best time to bring it up,” Ming said, “but if we get out of this alive, Tompa, will you, uh…”
She waited, then asked, “What?”
“It’s … well … kind of hard for me to say.” Ming was brave. When he volunteered to fight a deadly, seven-foot-tall Klick on her behalf, he hadn’t stammered like this.
“Will I…” She swallowed. A premonition of the impossible sent a shiver down her spine. “Will I what?”
Ming said nothing. The gleam in his eyes, though, spoke sonnets and roses.
“Come on, Ming, spit it out.”
“Are you really going to make me say it?”
“Say what?” Then, without a pause: “You bet your flickin’ oboe I will.”
“A woman can’t begin to understand how hard this is for a thirty-three-year-old bachelor to say. Tompa Lee, will you … uh, will you—”
“Marriage is forever,” she interrupted. “Forever, no matter what.” Realizing what hopelessly outdated attitudes she was espousing, she added, “For me, at least.”
He said nothing, just looked at her with blazing eyes.
“Damn you, Ming, you’d better say something soon, or else I’ll…”
“Threats? All I get are threats?”
A rosy glow radiated from Tompa’s heart to the rest of her body, until the air in her lungs purred and even her fingernails blushed. Oh, God, oh God. This was really happening. To her.
“Then yes! Yes, Sergei Yusefovich Mengliev, self-styled Ming the Merciless, the galaxy’s best secret agent and this planet’s best—and only—oboist. How do you say ‘yes’ in Russian?”
He looked up at her, grinning. “Da.”
“Oh yeah, I knew that. Da, da, da, I’ll marry you!”.
You’ll also enjoy these other books in the Tompa Lee series:
The Trial of Tompa Lee
The Tribulations of Tompa Lee
Now, About those Prizes
1st $100 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 42 ebooks
2nd $50 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 33 ebooks (including three of mine: Midas Rush, The Trial of Tompa Lee, and The Tribulations of Tompa Lee)
3rd 3 separate winners each receive $25 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 12 ebooks.
Worth winning, eh? The giveaway is open from the 21st-25th June 2014 Pacific Standard Time. Click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway. (Please note that the prizes are as stated–no cash alternatives.)
If you want to enter more than once, be sure to visit other authors in the blog tour. There are lots of neat writers in the SFR Brigade–old favorites of yours and maybe some new favorites. Click here for a list of participating authors!
June 7, 2014
Greetings from Toronto
I’m in Toronto, visiting family. If you’ve never visited the Big TO, you should; as cities go, it’s beautiful and overall great.
The skyline at dusk, from the Toronto Islands
Beyond the skyline, though, the thing that strikes me is the city’s impressive cultural panorama. It’s one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the world. Nearly half the population was born in other countries. Because my sons live in easy walking distance of the Koreatown neighbourhood, I’ve now learned to distinguish written Korean from Chinese. Can you?
Examples of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scripts.
Can you tell which of these scripts are Chinese, Korean, and Japanese? After visiting Toronto, I can. (Click to find out which is which.)
Christmas shopping in Toronto’s Eaton Centre
As great as Toronto is, though, there are millions of reasons why I wouldn’t want to live there–as in ‘millions of people’. Too big and busy for my tastes, thank you very much! It recently passed Chicago to become the fourth largest city in North America, after Mexico City, New York, and Los Angeles.
As you’d expect, such a large city has its share of writers. Wikipedia lists over 300 writers from Toronto. Here are a few who are particularly meaningful to me.
Robert J. Sawyer
Margaret Atwood
Cory Doctorow
Michelle Sagara
Pierre Berton
Dennis Lee
Joy Fielding
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Michael Ondaatje
If you’re in Toronto, be sure to check out Bakka Phoenix bookstore, Canada’s largest store devoted to science fiction.
How about you? What’s your favourite city?
May 25, 2014
On Diversity
I loved this post from Ryan’s “Torrent of Diapers” blog. Love that title, too!
As someone who cut his teeth writing category romances and has featured French Canadian lead characters, Japanese leads (that book didn’t see, though), and Native American leads, I feel strongly that the issue of an author’s race/gender/sexual orientation is largely irrelevant.
The events that trigger certain emotions may vary from race/gender/sexual orientation, but the emotions themselves are vividly similar, and so authors can empathise. More importantly, the triggers are going to vary from one black midget lesbian to the next black midget lesbian. And that’s what novels deal with: individuals, not categories of folks.
Enough from me. Here’s Ryan’s post.
Originally posted on Torrent of Diapers:
Or, I Don’t Think That Word Means What You Think It Means
There’s been a lot of talk recently in literary circles, especially among a select group of Science Fiction and Fantasy (SFF) authors and their fans, about “diversity.” It started with a call for diverse characters and settings, and has evolved into a general white noise of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth lamenting the lack of diverse authors.
This from a genre that peddles primarily in hermaphrodite space apes and elven warrior princesses, written by really oddball folk who are generally living on the fringes of society to begin with.
But I digress.
Diversity is a wonderful thing. It’s one of the reasons I gravitated to SFF in my early teens. I love SFF. Maybe not in the dress-up-like-a-Wookiee-and-go-to-conventions Überliebe1 of hardcore fandom, but in my own, quiet, avoid-crowds-and-people-with- way. Most other genres are fairly narrow—similar plots, stock characters…
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May 21, 2014
The Trials, Tribulations, and Triumph of Writing Sequels, part 2
In my previous post, I introduced three issues I found I needed to be careful of when I began writing sequels.
Issue #1: Lots of names from previous books
Issue #2: Lots of recapping
Issue #3: Assuming that readers identify with protagonists because they read previous books
For the beginning of this article, originally published at Savvy Authors, click here.
I also recommend The Top Ten Things Readers Hate about Books.
The Trials, Tribulations, and Triumph of Writing Sequels, part 2
#2: Lots of recapping
Laurel K. Hamilton is a wildly popular author. Even in my daydreams, I’m not as successful as she is. I bought one of her early books, though I don’t remember the name; it’s been too long and I no longer have it. Did I notice that the book was deep into a long series? Nope.
Big mistake. After introducing the heroine, Hamilton proceeded to spend much of the next two chapters recapping the forces aligned against the heroine. If I’d read those earlier books, the recapping would have made me smile in fond remembrance. Being a newbie, though, I nearly drowned.
All novels have backstory, and it’s always a major challenge to fit it in—but if you think about it, a sequel has no more backstory than many novels do.
My solution: I tried to be as miserly with the backstory from previous books as I would in a standalone. In the first book, my heroine is proclaimed a goddess by alien Shons. Instead of explaining how this came to be, The Tribulations of Tompa Lee opens with “The goddess from outer space moaned and thrashed in her sleep.” Her godhood is stated as a fact, just as I stated that the hero of my first published romance, The Perfect Ten, was an orchestra conductor. The reader learns—slowly, bit by bit—how Tompa’s godhood came about and how intensely uncomfortable she is with it. Just because Tribulations was a sequel doesn’t mean that an info dump was allowed, or even needed.
#3: Assuming that readers identify with protagonists because they read previous books
Making readers care about our imaginary people is an art. We work hard to make our heroines strong, powerfully motivated, and yet vulnerable. We strive to give our heroes positive traits, and yet they also suffer. We give them ‘save the cat’ moments to show they are likeable.
Sometimes, though, authors—even great authors—expect readers to already identify with their recurring protagonists, without making them as sympathetic all over again. Robert Heinlein, one of the gods of science fiction, was guilty of this once. In Methuselah’s Children, he introduced a great character, Lazarus Long. After appearing in several other books, Lazarus becomes one of Heinlein’s best developed characters—but toward the end of Heinlein’s career, in The Cat Who Walks through Walls, Lazarus is a stick figure, a symbol, whom readers would love only if they already knew him. Heinlein forgot to make his character sympathetic all over again. Lazarus not only doesn’t save the cat, he doesn’t even pet it.
J.K. Rowling is a master of creating sympathy, by the way. Each of the Harry Potter books opens with Harry suffering unfairly at the hands of his cruel muggles family, and we sympathize with his plight—and with him.
The Triumph of Tompa Lee, available June 2014
My solution: I opened the third book in the series, The Triumph of Tompa Lee, by showcasing many of my heroine’s positive traits. Readers first meet Tompa as she stands up to threats by alien bullies. Positive trait: bravery in the face of danger. When a friend tries unsuccessfully to help, she sympathizes with his plight. Positive trait: empathy.
In the very next scene, her lover proposes marriage (I did start out writing romances, so you can expect to see love even in my sci fi). Tompa resists at first because she can’t imagine why anyone would like her, let alone want to marry her. Positive trait: modesty deepened by insecurity and vulnerability. The hero responds by pointing out her determination and strong moral compass.
Conclusion
As you may have noticed, the solutions that my inner reader devised aren’t unique to sequels. They can apply to all good storytelling.
Don’t overwhelm your readers with too many characters—yes, even in standalones.
Avoid turning backstory into an info dump—sure, that’s obvious.
Make readers care about your characters—of course we want readers to empathize.
To produce my desired sequels, I couldn’t assume that I could skimp on any of these points just because I was writing a series.
