Carol Van Natta's Blog, page 26

December 25, 2016

Holiday Space Opera Sale for Your Hungry eReader

Holiday Space Opera Sale Just for You – 99¢ Books

Did you get a shiny new ereader for the holidays? Maybe an alluring new Kobo Aura H2O, or a stellar Nook Galaxy tablet, or a blazing new Kindle Fire? If your ereader is like mine, it’s probably hungry, so here’s a special sale on my series to give your ereader what it craves: Space Opera!


Feed Your Hungry eReader with space opera, adventure, and romance


25-30 December 2016


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Overload Flux by Carol Van Natta


Overload Flux

Central Galactic Concordance Book 1

by Carol Van Natta

Regular price $3.99 • On Sale for $0.99


The only vaccine for a deadly galaxy-wide pandemic is missing … and the only ones who may be able to find it are a powerful talent on the verge of a meltdown, and a security specialist hiding her extraordinary skills in a menial job. Brilliant investigator Luka Foxe’s hidden mental talents are out of control, meaning he must rely on an enigmatic woman who has secrets of her own. The last thing Mairwen Morganthur wants is to be plunged into a murky case involving sabotage, treachery, and the secret military division that would love to discover she’s still alive. With everything in their universe at stake, can they learn to trust one another?


Buy from: Amazon Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | Google Play |

Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU



SPACE OPERA • ADVENTURE • ROMANCE




Minder Rising by Carol Van Natta


Minder Rising

Central Galactic Concordance Book 2

by Carol Van Natta

Regular price $3.99 • On Sale for $0.99


In the future, the Citizen Protection Service tests children for minder talents, and recruits the best. Injured agent Lièrén Sòng, recovering from a near-fatal crash, should want to return to interrogating criminals for the CPS, but he’s made unexpected friends with a woman and her son. The boy has strong telepathic talents similar to Lièrén’s, and his attractive mother makes Lièrén long for family. Imara Sesay works hard as a road crew chief and part-time bartender to provide for her son. For him, she even breaks her ironclad rule never to get close to a customer, when she trusts Lièrén to teach her son how to control his telepathic talents. However, new fatalities make Lièrén suspect he isn’t a lucky survivor, he’s a loose end. He should pull away from Imara and Derrit to keep them safe. But when the local CPS Testing Center shows a more than usual interest in the boy, Lièrén must make an impossible choice—save himself, or stay alive long enough to save Imara and her prodigy son?


Buy from: Amazon Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | Google Play |

Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU



SPACE OPERA • ADVENTURE • ROMANCE



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Published on December 25, 2016 03:53

December 14, 2016

JUMPER’S HOPE: SFR Brigade Showcase

JUMPER’S HOPE in the SFR Brigade Showcase

SFRB Showcase Banner Holiday


Welcome to the Science Fiction Romance Brigade Showcase, where authors share snippets from new work, works in progress, cover reveals, character interviews, and so forth. See the holiday bonanza of other engaging posts here. Look for the giveaways and chances to win prizes. And speaking of gifts…


Get Zero Flux free at Bookfunnel, for SFR Brigade Showcase readers Happy Holidays from me! For a limited time, get a FREE copy of Zero Flux , the Central Galactic Concordance novella, over at BookFunnel.

 


Today, I’m sharing a short excerpt from my new release, Jumper’s Hope, Book 4 in my Central Galactic Concordance space opera romance series.



Jumper's Hope showcase
* GDAT 3242.002 * Planet: Branimir *

It took Jess Orowitz a lot longer than it should have to realize the injured pilot he and his neighbor pulled from the flitter wreckage was a dead woman.


She groaned as they set her down as gently as they could on the glascrete surface of the public flitter port’s landing pad in front of an older, gaunt man who was slowly opening his large medic kit.


Jess’s farming neighbor, Bhalodia, the man who had called Jess to the scene, stood and moved back, rocking side to side on antsy feet. He’d dressed up in his only white tunic to come to town, and now it was ruined by a smear of bright red airfoil lubricant on his sleeve.


“She one lucky pilot.” His English was more pidgin than Standard, but he got by similarly in at least twenty other languages besides his native Thai. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder toward the hot, still-sparking remains. “Broke flitters usually tumble, not slide.”


Jess knew it had been the pilot’s skill that avoided the buildings when landing what was left of her ruined flitter, but he was too stunned to speak. Kerzanna Nevarr, the only woman he’d ever loved, the woman who’d been killed four years ago in a full-city riot on a distant planet, was alive. He stayed on his knees and had to remind himself to breathe.


Considering the Central Galactic Concordance had more than five hundred settled planets across the galaxy, hundreds of thousands of cities, and hundreds of billions of people, the chances of the two of them reconnecting again in a tiny town in farm country on a back-of-beyond planet were impossibly remote.


And yet here she was.


Her tangled dark blonde hair was much longer and curlier than he remembered, and partially covered the decorative Jumper tattoos on the side of her neck that led to the skulljack interface just behind her ear. Her nose looked straighter, and the thin scar that had bisected her right eyebrow was gone. He wondered if her eyes were still as blue as the summer sky. Cosmetics made it easy to change eye color on a whim, but Kerzanna had never paid much attention to fashion. Under the bloody, torn casual pants and loose jacket and top she wore, all shades of brown and cream, she was still tall and looked well muscled. Maybe she’d been one of the lucky Jumper veterans to escape the long-term side effects of the mech implants and enhancements.


. . . . .




Buy Jumper’s Hope : Amazon | Nook | Kobo | Google Play | iBooks | All Romance Ebooks



Book Blurb: Reunited lovers must outwit a ruthless government agent, or this time, their rumored deaths will be real.


Two retired elite special forces veterans discover their battles aren’t behind them after all. Someone considers them loose ends, and will stop at nothing to erase their knowledge of a secret government project. Their service left them both with wounds that will never heal. Do they still have what it takes to survive?


Kerzanna Nevarr’s elite special forces days of wearing Jumper mech suits and piloting Citizen Protection Services’ ships are long gone. The dark legacy of her service forced her to learn to live a quiet life. And she had to do so alone, without the lover who died before her eyes.


Jess Orowitz, veteran of CPS’s secret spy organization, Kameleon Corps, made the mistake of trusting his superiors. He’s paid a horrific price—fractured memories, constant headaches, and the death of the only woman he ever loved. Retirement on a quiet farming planet has kept him in an emotional deep freeze, but safe.


But now, Kerzanna is being hunted for reasons she can’t guess, and even more stunning, the man who helps her escape is Jess, her supposedly dead lover. For Jess, discovering Kerzanna is still alive is only the first of the lies and betrayal he uncovers.


Worst of all, their hunter is someone with CPS intel and lethal resources. Someone who believes the only obstacles standing in the way of success are one broken-down ex-Jumper and a fractured Kameleon.


Together, are they strong enough to escape death one more time?


Hang on for a desperate race for survival in the far reaches of deep space—get your copy of Jumper’s Hope today!



Jumper’s Hope is a complete story. It can be enjoyed without having read the series, but your experience will be enhanced if you’ve read the previous books.


Central Galactic Concordance series by Carol Van Natta featuring Jumper's Hope Showcase


The Central Galactic Concordance series:



Overload Flux (Book 1) — The only vaccine for a deadly galaxy-wide pandemic is missing … and the only ones who may be able to find it are a powerful talent on the verge of a meltdown, and a security specialist hiding her extraordinary skills in a menial job.
Minder Rising (Book 2) — A covert agent asked to train a prodigy telepath discovers he must first keep the boy and his mother alive in a gleaming city full of darkness and danger.
Zero Flux (Book 2.5) — Luka and Mairwen (Overload Flux) investigate murder on a cold planet and discover their first challenge is staying alive.
Pico’s Crush (Book 3) — A galactic security specialist expects a quiet vacation visit to his daughter’s college campus. Instead he finds himself in battling for the safety of the students, with old friends and an ex-military squad-mate fighting at his side. Can they find a cunning serial killer before he finds his next target?
Jumper’s Hope (Book 4) — Reunited lovers must outwit a ruthless government agent, or this time, their rumored deaths will be real.

.


CGC_endOfBookGlyph_200x27


 


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Published on December 14, 2016 09:55

October 26, 2016

NEW RELEASE: Jumper’s Hope (CGC 4)

New Release Zero Flux New Release: Jumper’s Hope (Central Galactic Concordance Book 4)

Reunited lovers must outwit a ruthless government agent, or their rumored deaths will be real this time.

Hang on for a desperate race for survival in the far reaches of deep space—get your copy of Jumper’s Hope today!






new release Jumper's Hope

Two retired elite special forces veterans discover their battles aren’t behind them after all. Someone considers them loose ends, and will stop at nothing to erase their knowledge of a secret government project. Their service left them both with wounds that will never heal. Do they still have what it takes to survive?


Kerzanna Nevarr’s elite special forces days of wearing Jumper mech suits and piloting Citizen Protection Services’ ships are long gone. The dark legacy of her service forced her to learn to live a quiet life. And she had to do so alone, without the lover who died before her eyes.


Jess Orowitz, veteran of CPS’s secret spy organization, Kameleon Corps, made the mistake of trusting his superiors. He’s paid a horrific price—fractured memories, constant headaches, and the death of the only woman he ever loved. Retirement on a quiet farming planet has kept him in an emotional deep freeze, but safe.


But now, Kerzanna is being hunted for reasons she can’t guess, and even more stunning, the man who helps her escape is Jess, her supposedly dead lover. For Jess, discovering Kerzanna is still alive is only the first of the lies and betrayal he uncovers.


Worst of all, their hunter is someone with CPS intel and lethal resources. Someone who believes the only obstacles standing in the way of success are one broken-down ex-Jumper and a fractured Kameleon.


Together, are they strong enough to escape death one more time?


– – – – – – – – – –


Jumper’s Hope is an 82,000-word novel that is best enjoyed after reading the earlier books in the series (see below for a list).


– – – – – – – – – –


Amazon
Links for other retailers coming soon




5starsAmaz


Publisher: Chavanch Press, LLC

Publication Date: 27 October 2016

Ebook ISBN: 978-0983174172

ASIN: B01M328UO1

Cover Art: Gene Mollica Studio

Copy Editor: Shelley Holloway (Holloway House)

Length: Novel (82,000 words)

Series: Central Galactic Concordance 4


Buy from Amazon Kindle Books   Kobo, Nook, iBooks, Google Play, and All Romance Ebooks coming soon


 



Note from the Author on the New Release of Jumper’s Hope

Jess Orowitz, and ex-spy for the Citizen Protection Service, and Kerzanna Nevarr, an ex-elite forces Jumper for the CPS, each thought the other was dead. Their reunion and return to the dark, corrupt city where they met sets events in motion that disturb more than the surface calm of the Central Galactic Concordance. Yes, more books are coming.

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Published on October 26, 2016 14:32

October 21, 2016

New Release Coming Soon

New Release Coming Soon

New release coming soonComing soon into realspace near you: Jumper’s Hope, Book 4 of my Central Galactic Concordance space opera saga. Here’s the tagline: Reunited ex-lovers must figure out why a government agency is trying to kill them and why, or their supposed deaths will be real this time.


The target release date is the last week of October.


I’ve hit the milestone for having published my first solo book two years ago, on October 18, 2014. That was Overload Flux (Central Galactic Concordance Book 1), the start of my space opera series. It won an SFR Galaxy Award, and has some nice reviews. Since then, I’ve published three more books in that series: Minder Rising (Book 2), Zero Flux (Book 2.5), and Pico’s Crush (Book 3). And now, Jumper’s Hope (Book 4). Yay, me!


The Future Is Shiny

So what’s next? Glad you asked.


First up is a new paranormal romance novella as part of S.E. Smith’s Magic, New Mexico Kindle Worlds project, which will release in Feb. 2017. If my muse is feeling frisky, I’ll have a second paranormal romance novella as a companion piece, which will have a character or two from In Graves Below. After that, I’ll burn flux like a madwoman to write and publish Book 5 in the space opera series, because Book 4 ends with unfinished business—it’s not a cliffhanger, but things are moving along for the Big Damn Story Arc that the CGC series is all about. Characters’ lives are at stake!


Because the Central Galactic Concordance is my favorite series (okay, it’s my only series), the books all got spiffy new covers, and will soon be available in paperback, just in time for holiday gift giving (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).


Here are the covers for Overload Flux, Minder Rising, and Pico’s Crush, and the cover for Jumper’s Hope will be just as spectacular.


Overload Flux


Minder Rising


Pico's Crush



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Published on October 21, 2016 14:29

September 29, 2016

Authors Being Wild Again

Authors Being Wild Again at RomCon 2016

Authors Being Wild Again at RomCon 2016Forecast for the weekend: authors being wild again, this time at RomCon 2016 in Denver, 30 Sept. & 1 Oct. I’ll be there both days.


Authors Being Wild Again, including Carol Van Natta, who wrote In Graves Below


The list of attending authors is amazing, and includes some of the Magic, New Mexico coven… uh, pride… uh, team, such as Susan Hayes (Etched in Stone), Michele Callahan (Touch of Fire), Geri Foster (Touch of Mayhem), Evelyn Lederman (Touch of Patience), and Sylvia McDaniel (Touch of Decadence).


RomCon is a reader-centric convention, meaning it’s meant to give readers the opportunities to see, meet, and schmooze with their favorite romance authors. I love meeting readers and other authors.


News About the Space Opera Series

This isn’t so much authors being wild again as authors communing with their muse and writing a lot, which is what we do most of the time. My space opera series is about to grow with another book. Jumper’s Hope (Central Galactic Concordance Book 4) is off to the editor, and the cover design is in progress. As you may know, all the books are getting snazzy new covers, and print versions, too. I’ll tell you all about this book and my plan for galactic domination with the series in an upcoming post.


News About Other Projects

I’m just about to start plotting another entry in the Magic, New Mexico world, because the first was such fun to write. A certain exasperating ghost may be making another appearance. More about this once my muse comes back from Plotlandia.


That’s it for now, mon petite chouchou.


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Published on September 29, 2016 05:47

September 2, 2016

Authors in the Wild; Weekend 99¢ Sale

Authors in the Wild

Admit it: “Authors in the wild” sounds more thrilling that “authors at a convention,” which is what really happened. Science fiction and fantasy romance author Melisse Aires and I attended the 2016 Fort Collins Comic Convention. More below. But first…


Weekend 99¢ Sale

It’s a long weekend for folks in the U.S., so why not pick up a few books for your ereader while they’re on sale? Science fiction and fantasy, all vendors, and all 99¢ (or the equivalent in your market). You could pick up MINDER RISING, from my space opera series, for a proverbial song.


99-cent sale by authors in the wild


Photos from Authors in the Wild

Melisse and I shared a vendor table at the 2016 Fort Collins Comic Convention on August 27. Our table’s cuteness alone should have draw in the crowds (snerk), but we offered candy, too. We’re pretty sure the attendee demographic skewed about 15 years younger than people who read our books, but we did get to meet other regional authors.


Authors in the Wild


Look, stars!


On Sunday, we participated in a panel, Science Fiction Romance. Considering it was at 10:00a after a late night, we were pleasantly surprised to have 13 people in the audience. We got some interesting questions, too, including by some young ladies who are interested in creating a science fiction romance graphic novel. We told them we hadn’t seen one, but we’d be their first customer.

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Published on September 02, 2016 08:42

August 19, 2016

Appearing at Fort Collins Comic Con

Fort Collins Comic Con

Fort Collins Comic ConScience fiction and fantasy romance authors Carol Van Natta* and Melisse Aires** will be appearing as authors at the Fort Collins Comic Con, 27-28 August 2016, at the Northside Aztlan Center in Fort Collins. There will be photos.

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Published on August 19, 2016 06:40

August 14, 2016

Minder Rising: Swirl Award Finalist

Minder Rising is a Swirl Award Finalist

Minder Rising Swirl Award FinalistThe Swirl Awards were created to promote romance without color barriers. Minder Rising, the second book in in my space opera series, is a finalist for a 2016 Swirl Award in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category. You can see all the nominees here.


From their website: “The Swirl Awards is the brain child of many, many conversations with several authors who write interracial and multicultural romance. Often overlooked and unrecognized for their contributions to romantic fiction.”


Minder Rising Swirl Award Finalist About Minder Rising (Swirl Award Finalist!)

A millennium into the future, the Citizen Protection Service tests all children for minder talents, and recruits the best.


Injured agent Lièrén Sòng is recovering from a near-fatal crash in Spires, the gleaming capital city of the galaxy. He should be preparing to return to interrogating criminals for the Citizen Protection Service, but he’s made unexpected friends with a woman and her son. The boy has strong telepathic talents similar to Lièrén’s, and his attractive mother makes Lièrén long for the stability of family


Imara Sesay works hard as a road crew chief in Spires and part-time bartender to provide for her son Derrit. For him, she even breaks her ironclad rule never to get close to a customer, when she trusts Lièrén to teach her son how to control his growing telepathic talents.


However, new fatalities in his covert unit make Lièrén suspect he isn’t a lucky survivor, he’s a loose end. He should pull away from Imara and Derrit to keep them safe. But when the local CPS Testing Center shows a more than usual interest in the boy, Lièrén must make an impossible choice—protect the boy, or run for his own life. Can he stay alive long enough to save Imara and her prodigy son?


Hang on for another action-packed ride through a futuristic galaxy—get your copy of Minder Rising today!


Amazon | Kobo | Nook | iBooks | Google Play


CGC_endOfBookGlyph_200x27


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Published on August 14, 2016 04:48

June 28, 2016

Screenplay Adaptation: Overload Flux

What would a screenplay adaptation of Overload Flux, the first book in my space opera series, look like? Glad you asked.


Screenplay Adaptation of Books

Read about Overload FluxBooks get made into movies all the time, even science fiction books (just ask Andy Weir about The Martian). Even series get made into films, such as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. For the most part (JK Rowling excepted), the original author doesn’t write the screenplay adaptation. The two media are different, and the writing skillsets needed are different. In books, we know what the main characters are thinking because we’re in their heads. For example, take this quick sentence: “Margie was glad Bill didn’t see her steal the can of cat food, but she still felt guilty, knowing he wouldn’t approve.” The film version would have to rely on the externalities (yes, it’s a word, because I said so) — Margie loitering around the pet food aisle, checking to make sure Bill wasn’t watching her, slipping the can into her pocket, then looking guilty when Bill says something about hating people who steal.


By the same token, twenty seconds of screen time can set up an entire city, starting with the big panorama shot, and zooming in on a freeway, then on a traffic jam, then on one particular car caught in that traffic jam, then on the antsy bank robbers in the car. The book version would probably take a page descriptive paragraphs to provide the same information.


Book to Screenplay

A few weeks ago, a kind and interesting fellow named Ira Schwartz (see his bio below) offered to adapt a few pages from one of my books into a screenplay version. Ira is a professional freelance screenwriter; film production companies hire him to write original works, edit screenplays, and to adapt books for the screen. He made the “see what it takes to turn a book into a screenplay” offer on a Facebook group for authors, as a fun and instructive exercise, and I took him up on it. I purposefully sent him a challenging passage, one that demonstrates why my Central Galactic Concordance series is likely a poor candidate for film adaptation.


Remember what I said above, about being in character’s heads? A significant part of my book series involves people with “minder” talents — telepathy, telekinesis, patterns — that are ALL in people’s heads. Luka, the male main character in Overload Flux, has minder talents. Furthermore, Mairwen, the female main character, has extraordinary senses, much better than average, and that’s all in her head, too. So the challenge to Ira, the screenwriter, is visualizing how that might look on film, then figuring out how to invent dialog and action that substitute for the characters’ thoughts.


Here’s what Ira says:


Most people would think adapting a novel to the screen would be easy work. I mean you are already given the story right? Well… it’s not. Having done several I can tell you it is extremely difficult having to pick and choose what stays in and what goes. You not only have to write the screenplay but you are also editing someone else’s work… a work they care about as much as you care about yours. Now having said all that, there are special cases that need extra deep thought, especially in Science Fiction, and especially where characters have mental talents. I am sure most of you have seen the movie Dune or Star Treks original pilot “The Cage.” In both, the writers decided to have the actors actually speak their thoughts as a voice over. It moves the scene forward and does so quickly but if over used like in Dune can get old fast. You can also use a device that can translate thoughts into words or you can just have the character speak his thoughts as dialog. All three do work well, but greatly depend on the original story. Bottom line is you always try to keep the author’s original intent intact as best you can. Not just out of respect for him/her but because there is a reason why the author put it there in the first place.



Screenplays Are Close to Work for Hire

First, I should tell you that I know something about the film industry, more from the indie side. I was the co-executive director of a film festival for seven years, and have worked on camera as an actor and behind the scenes in multiple films, from zero-budget guerilla shorts to larger budget independent films. I still know people in the industry because it’s actually a pretty small world.


Whereas every film starts as words on a page, screenwriters rarely get the glory. Let’s say a producer loves your book, and miraculously finds funding to make the film, signs on a name actor or two, and has a deal with a reputable distributor. She options your book (the equivalent of buying your movie rights), then she hires Ira Schwartz to write the screenplay, because he’s experienced, a good writer, and meets deadlines. Ira could just write it on his own, but he’s a nice guy and prefers working with the author to get things just right. You and Ira spend days and weeks on the screenplay, then turn it over to the producer. That’s not, I repeat, NOT what ends up on the screen. I’ll let Ira explain:


What people need to understand up front is a screenplay is a road map of the film for the producer, director, actors, and production personnel. It is not something that is intended to be read by the general public. They will use it to build sets, props and costumes, find locations, allow the director to set up shots and allow the actors to understand the characters they are playing. It is also used by the producers to set up a budget for the film. Most importantly it is also not set in stone. Rewrites are usually the norm, with some writers actually rewriting pages on the very day of the scene is to be shot.



Screenplay writing is just this side of work for hire. Ira may get credit for it (and the Academy Award if his screenplay wins), and he may get royalties, depending on the deal, but he’s signed away his rights forever. Original authors rarely get royalties, unless they have the clout of Stephen King or John Grisham. (TV series adaptations, by the way, are a different deal, and a discussion for another day.)


screenplay adaptation of Overload FluxNota Bene for Authors Who Want to See Their Work on the Big Screen: Please understand that your precious characters, scenes, and subplots may not make it onto the screen. It may sound totally wonderful to have a film version of your book, and the producer may dangle a lot of money in front of you, but you must be prepared for the production company to mangle the parts you care about the most, and that you must smile and say you like it when the arts reporter asks. If you can’t handle that, hire a kick-ass entertainment lawyer and agent, negotiate for more control over the screenplay, casting, final edit, etc., and be prepared to walk away from the deal.


Screenplay Adaptation of Overload Flux Scenes

So, here’s what Ira did for me: PDF of the original text from Overload Flux • PDF of Ira’s first draft screenplay version


If Ira and I were working on this together for real, instead of just for fun, I’d talk to him about easing back on Mairwen’s sociability in this scene, to give her room to grow later. Ira cleverly finessed the problem of showing the audience that Mairwen carries hidden knives galore.


The chances that my books will be made into films are vanishingly small, but it’s fun to think about.


Biography of Ira Schwartz

“While I have been writing most of my life, I have been doing screenwriting professionally for the past 25 years. I have been produced twice: In the Shadow of the Cobra starring Sean Young and Rutger Hauer, and Devil Winds starring Joe Lando and Nicole Eggert. I am presently in pre-production of my latest film, The Christmas Gift, starring Kevin Sorbo and directed by action director Isaac Florentine. I have work uncredited for numerous studios over the years including Dean Devlin’s and Roland Emmerick’s Centropolis Productions.


“Also, for the last 12 years I have done weekly articles for the webzine ‘A Hollywood Republican.’ Though this is a Republican website, my articles represent a much wider view including Democrat, Conservative, and Liberal positions. Besides my political writing, I have also written movie reviews, obituaries of the passing of some of Hollywood’s greatest, as well as several short stories. Some of my articles for ‘The Hollywood Republican’ have also been picked up by other publications and shared across the web.


“Though I am listed on the IMDB website, I have not updated it in over ten years. I am old school in the respect of letting my work and references speak for themselves.”
http://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382637/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290219/


 



Thanks for reading.


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Published on June 28, 2016 11:42

June 24, 2016

Writing Cross Genre

Writing Cross Genre, or How I Got Hit by the Cross-Genre Bus

I got hit by the cross genre busMy flagship series is the Central Galactic Concordance series, a sprawling space opera with a big damn story arc that I figure will take at least nine books to do it justice. My muse’s home planet is science fiction, probably because I was corrupte… er, exposed at a young age and grew up with scientists. However, my muse loves vacationing in fantasy, romance, action, suspense, paranormal, adventure, mystery, and thriller, several of which are likely to turn up in my stories. I’d always planned to write the first four or five stories in the CGC series, then start a whole new second series from one of the dozen plot bunnies I’ve squirreled away. Instead, I got hit by the cross-genre bus.


Back in December, a best-selling science fiction and fantasy (and now YA) author named S.E. Smith asked if I’d like to be part of a new Kindle Worlds project she was putting together. (Think of Kindle Worlds as licensed fan fiction.) She was looking for paranormal romance novellas written in her good-natured “Magic, New Mexico” universe. Mind you, I’d never written a paranormal romance in my life, and I tend to write long, but the opportunity to work with her and eight other authors was too good to pass up. The result was In Graves Below, about a disabled veteran and a magical dancer vs. a demon horde that wants to make Denver an all-you-can-eat buffet.


Writing cross genre resulted in a PNR novel IN GRAVES BELOWDestination: Paranormal Romance

Paranormal romance, or PNR for short, is usually an overlay of magic on the traditional subcategories of romance – contemporary, historical, suspense, etc.  It’s like asking “what if” on a grand scale—what if the main characters not only had to deal with falling in love, but the fact that they turn into panthers on a regular basis? This is world building 101, which is catnip to my science-fiction oriented muse.


In some ways, the PNR world was easier, because it’s based on the real world, but that’s a double-edged sword. In my space opera series, I can invent interstellar travel and new materials, but in PNR, I have to research the real world so I know what laws of physics I’m breaking, or where my story deviates from the real history of Native Americans in southern New Mexico in the 1700s. It was fun to write, and if this one does well at the virtual bookstore, I have enough research to write another one, too.


Right now, I’m working on books four and five of my space opera series, for which the first three books, Overload Flux, Minder Rising, and Pico’s Crush, laid the groundwork. Peace and stability have prevailed for the past two hundred years, but underneath, trouble is brewing, bringing change—unwanted by some, welcomed by others. It’s going to be wild ride.


After that, I plan to visit the bus stop and see what comes along.waiting for another cross genre bus



 


This post on writing cross genre is cross-posted with Patricia Stoltey’s blog. She writes delightful mysteries, starting with The Prairie Grass Murders.


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Published on June 24, 2016 05:01