Carol Van Natta's Blog, page 30
June 23, 2015
Overload Flux: Award Finalist (x3)
Recently, I told you about Overload Flux being a finalist for a NERFA. I’m pleased to tell you that my book is now a finalist for an Award of Excellence from the fine folks at Colorado Romance Writers. If you’re counting (I know I am), that makes three finalist placements (not that I’m smug, or anything).
This time, I’m in the “Paranormal” category, which is where the CRW puts the plucky little genre of science fiction romance.
There are six of us finalists. Here are the other worthy contenders: Restless Spirits ~ Kathy Bryson, Blood Moon ~ Lisa Kessler, Call of the Siren ~ Rosalie Lario, Stop Dragon My Heart Around ~ Susannah Scott, and Happy Medium ~ Meg Benjamin. The winners will be announced at the CRW’s mini-convention in Denver on 8 August 2015.
I can’t pretend I’m embarrassed by the attention. I’m proud of my book and like that other people think it’s good enough to consider for another award. Overload Flux already won a 2015 SFR Galaxy Award, so I can’t complain too much if I don’t win any of the others, but it would be nice.
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June 21, 2015
Overload Flux: Award Finalist Again
So, this book I wrote, Overload Flux, is a finalist for an award. Another one. Back in May, I may have mentioned (or perhaps tastefully broadcast far and wide) that it was nominated for a Readers’ Crown award. I didn’t win that one, but…
The excellent folks at the First Coast Romance Writers were kind enough to make Overload Flux a finalist for a 2015 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award (NERFA) in the Paranormal/Futuristic category. The winners will be announced on 20 July.
Congratulations to the other two finalists, Kay Corcino for Spark Rising (science fiction romance!), and to Sharon Kay for Wicked Flames. Even if I don’t win, I’m in some pretty good company.
I like awards, because they’re a bit of validation for the work that goes into writing. Of course, I like hearing from readers, too, so while awards are nice, I’d like to hear what readers have to say, whether it’s in an email, a comment, a Facebook post, or in a review posted to Amazon or Goodreads. Ultimately, I write to tell stories, so I hope you’re enjoying the ride as much as I am.
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Amazon Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Smashwords | iTunes | Google Play | All Romance Ebooks
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June 19, 2015
Overload Flux Sale – Last Day
The summer solstice is almost here!
Sunblock: check.
Vacation plans: check.
Good book to read: Oh, no!
Let me help with that last one. Today is the last of the $0.99 USD sale (with similar discounts in other countries) for Overload Flux, the first book in the Central Galactic Concordance series. If you’ve already got it, you could tell your friends about the fine bargain, or you might be interested in Minder Rising, the second book in the series.
Someone is stealing the vaccine for a galaxy-wide pandemic. Forensic investigator Luka Foxe has a hidden mental talent that’s out of control, and security specialist Mairwen Morganthur has hidden skills and enough secrets to drag a ship from orbit. To solve the case, they must follow a convoluted trail with corrupt pharma corporations, murderous mercenaries, sabotage, and deadly space battles. The body count is rising… their only hope for survival lies in trusting one another.
Amazon Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Smashwords | iTunes | Google Play | All Romance Ebooks
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June 15, 2015
Summer Solstice Sale for Overload Flux
Just in time for the upcoming Summer Solstice celebration, a common holiday in the Central Galactic Concordance, Overload Flux is on sale for just $0.99 USD (and similarly discounted across the planet). The sale ends June 19, so buy your copy today (or tell your friends about the great deal).
Available here: Amazon Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Smashwords | iTunes | Google Play
Someone is stealing the vaccine for a galaxy-wide pandemic. Forensic investigator Luka Foxe has a hidden mental talent that’s out of control, and security specialist Mairwen Morganthur has hidden skills and enough secrets to drag a ship from orbit. To solve the case, they must follow a convoluted trail with corrupt pharma corporations, murderous mercenaries, sabotage, and deadly space battles. The body count is rising… their only hope for survival lies in trusting one another.
* * * 2015 SFR Galaxy Award winner * * * Readers’ Crown Finalist * * *
The Central Galactic Concordance has been stable for two centuries, but trouble is brewing. A pandemic is affecting hundreds of civilized planets, and someone is stealing the vaccine…
Brilliant investigator Luka Foxe’s hidden mental talent is out of control, making him barely able to function in the aftermath of violence, and the body count is rising. The convoluted trail leads to a corrupt pharma industry and the possibility of an illegal, planet-sized laboratory. In the face of increasing threats, he must rely on an enigmatic, lethal woman he just met, but she has deep secrets of her own.
Mairwen Morganthur hides extraordinary skills under the guise of a dull night-shift guard. The last thing she wants is to provide personal security for a hot-shot investigator, or to be plunged into a murky case involving sabotage, treachery, and the military covert operations division that would love to discover she’s still alive.
Two more lives in a rising death count won’t bother their enemies one bit. Their only hope for survival is revealing their dark secrets and learning to trust one another.
Includes a free excerpt from Minder Rising, the next book in the series.
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The Central Galactic Concordance series:
Overload Flux
Minder Rising
Book 3 – Fall 2015
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June 7, 2015
6 Things I Learned from Romances
6 Things I Learned from Reading RomancesI’ve mentioned it before, but when I set out on the Central Galactic Concordance journey, I read a lot of romances so I’d know what romance readers expect. Because my CGC universe also has mental talents (hence the title of my latest book, Minder Rising), an element that usually appears in paranormal romances, I made a special study of them as well. Here are six things I’ve learned from reading them:
If you want to attract a predator shifter, learn how to bake. Wolves and bears in particular have a weakness for any and all baked goods and the people who make them.
All terrestrial males (and most vampires, shifters, and demons) have big-screen entertainment systems. Alpha males use them to watch sports; beta males watch movies; geek males play computer games, usually ones they wrote.
Don’t buy that antique mirror, ring, painting, or locked diary, regardless of how much they call to you, unless you’re dying to find out what it was like in the days when they had no electricity, antibiotics, or indoor plumbing. And if you succumb and buy the object anyway, whatever you do, don’t put it in your bedroom where you can dream about it.
If you’re rich and male, you earned your money by hard work, ruthlessness, taking a risk, and being smart. If you’re a vampire, you’ve also made smart investments over hundreds of years. If you’re a shifter, your pack/pride/herd is also wealthy. If you’re rich and female, you inherited it, and are probably spoiled (but not too spoiled for your bodyguard to fall in love with you).
If you’re a billionaire, you have control issues, usually stemming from people who want your money instead of you, and occasionally because your parents sucked at parenting. You want people to love you even when you hurt them, tie them up, and degrade them.
Don’t touch the magic sword, unless you want it to try to eat your soul, shine like a blue-light special beacon, or make you a killer. Exception: it’s OK if the sword belongs to that smokin’ hot male main character — that’s a different kind of magic sword.
What lessons have you learned?
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June 1, 2015
Minder Rising at the SFR Summer Café
This is my kind of café, one that caters to book lovers. This week’s special at the SFR Brigade Summer Café: SPACE OPERA!
In keeping with the theme of the summer café, below is a food-related excerpt from my brand-new novel, Minder Rising. It’s the second in the Central Galactic Concordance series, and takes place after the events in Overload Flux, but it stands on its own, so you don’t have to have read Overload Flux (though of course, I hope you will). And as a bonus, at the bottom is a recipe for the food-related item mentioned in the excerpt.
Sign up to win fabulous prizes (including free copies of OVERLOAD FLUX and MINDER RISING). Winners will be randomly chosen on Saturday, 6 June and notified on Sunday, 7 June.
Minder Rising (Central Galactic Concordance 2)A millennium into the future, all children are tested for minder talents, and the best are recruited for the Citizen Protection Service.
Agent Lièrén Sòng is recovering from a near-fatal crash. He should want nothing more than to get back to interrogating criminals for his covert CPS field unit, but being sidelined gains new appeal when he makes friends with a woman and her son. Imara Sesay, road crew chief and part-time bartender, breaks her ironclad rule never to get close to customers when she asks Lièrén to teach her son how to control his growing minder talents.
Unexpected deaths in his field 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 is entirely too interested in Derrit’s talents, Lièrén must make an impossible choice. Can he avoid whoever is trying to kill him long enough to save Imara and her prodigy son?
Exclusive Excerpt
Imara sighed. “Sorry about that.” She glanced at the clock, then gave a little whistle to get Derrit’s attention. “Dinner,” she said.
Derrit bounded up out of the chair toward her as if spring-loaded. “I’m starving. Can I make toad-in-the-hole? Want some, Agent Sòng?”
Lièrén’s puzzlement must have been obvious. “It’s a fried egg in the center of toast with cheese,” she said.
Lièrén ducked his head. “Thank you. I’m afraid my culinary skills are limited to self-heating pouches and reading menus.”
“I could teach you,” offered Derrit, with pride. Lièrén hesitated, then nodded. It would be good for Derrit to be the teacher instead of always the student. And it would take Lièrén out of Imara’s orbit for a while, so he’d quit being tempted by her.
Imara eyed Lièrén up and down, then smiled at Derrit. “Okay, but don’t let the kitchen manager see him.”
Derrit put his hand in Lièrén’s and pulled him toward the kitchen. Lièrén trailed obediently behind him, smiling at Derrit’s enthusiasm.
As they entered the large industrial kitchen, Lièrén asked, “Why shouldn’t the kitchen manager see me?”
“You don’t dress like staff,” he said, dragging out a stool and placing it in front of a cook surface. “Customers aren’t allowed.”
Lièrén glanced down at his dark green cut-and-slash pants and multi-pocket, metallic silver tunic with electroluminscent green piping. He’d grown rather fond of the high style of his new wardrobe, but Derrit was right, it couldn’t even pass for trendy corporate wear. When he went back to the field unit, he’d have to order a new, more staid wardrobe for the unit’s official, boring cover story.
He watched, bemused, as Derrit scampered all over the kitchen, clearly at home and comfortable with the dizzying array equipment. Lièrén gathered the employees brought in and stored their own food, so as not to impact the restaurant’s inventory. Toad-in-the-hole was as simple as Imara had described it, but Lièrén hadn’t exaggerated his lack of experience.
“You really never learned to cook?” Derrit asked, his astonishment evident. “Anything?”
Lièrén thought a moment. “I can prepare and serve Oriental tea.”
Derrit patted Lièrén’s arm in a consoling gesture. “That’s okay. Nanay said my dad couldn’t boil water when she met him. If you stay in Spires, she could teach you.”
Although Derrit had tried to be casual, it was hard to miss his latest attempt to put Lièrén and his mother together. It wouldn’t be good for Derrit to get his hopes up. “I’ll be ready for full duty soon, and my job requires constant traveling. I’d never be here for lessons.”
It would be irresponsible of him to get any more entangled with Imara and Derrit than he already was, for a whole host of reasons. The cold logic made his chest feel hollow.
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Buy Minder Rising: Amazon | Nook | Kobo | Google Play | iTunes (coming soon) | Amazon.UK
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RECIPE: Toad in the Hole
(a.k.a. Egg in a Basket, a.k.a. Spit in the Ocean), as made by Derrit Sesay
(Not to be confused with the British version, which involves scrumptious browned English sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding)
1 piece of bread (white, wheat, sourdough, or your choice) or flatbread (e.g., thicker pita or naan)
1 egg
1 slice cheese (cheddar, swiss, pepperjack, or your choice)
Butter
Heat a small or medium-sized skillet over medium heat. It should be bigg enough to hold your piece of bread, but not so big that you have to waste a lot of butter to grease it.
Cut a round hole in the center of the bread using a biscuit cutter or glass, 2″ or 2½” in diameter. Don’t make the hole too big so your toast doesn’t fall apart, or too small so the egg (which is going in the center) overruns it. If you’re feeling frisky, you can grill the leftover little rounds in butter, too, or if you’re hungry, you can eat them right away, like Derrit probably did. Growing boys are ruled by their stomachs.
Add enough butter to coat the bottom of the heated skillet.
Place the toast in the skillet, and give it about 30 seconds to soak up the lovely butter.
Put a little extra butter in the center of the bread, then crack the egg and carefully pour it into the center of the bread, being careful not to break the yolk. Fry the egg for 2 minutes or so, depending on how well-done you like your egg. If you turn it too soon, it’ll break underneath and make a runny mess, so use a spatula to lift a corner first, to make sure it’s solid enough to turn. Using a spatula, carefully flip the bread and egg over. You may need to add a little extra butter. Cover the top of the cooked bread and egg with the slice of cheese, so it melts as your egg finishes cooking, about 1 or 2 minutes more.
Plate and serve.
On the SFR Brigade Summer Café Menu
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May 25, 2015
New release: Minder Rising
Can covert agent Lièrén Sòng stay alive long enough to save Imara Sesay and her prodigy son?
Space opera! Action! Romance! Minder Rising is the second novel in my Central Galactic Concordance series. It’s a standalone story that takes place after the events in Overload Flux, the first of the series.
Synopsis:
A millennium into the future, all children are tested for minder talents, and the best are recruited for the Citizen Protection Service.
Agent Lièrén Sòng is recovering from a near-fatal crash. He should want nothing more than to get back to using his talents to interrogate criminals for his covert CPS field unit, but being sidelined gains new appeal when he makes friends with a woman and her son. Imara Sesay, road-crew chief and part-time bartender, breaks her ironclad rule never to get close to customers when she asks Lièrén to teach her son how to control his growing minder talents.
Unexpected deaths in his field 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 is entirely too interested in Derrit’s talents, Lièrén must make an impossible choice. Can he stay alive long enough to save Imara and her prodigy son?
……
Read the first chapter for free
Available from: Amazon | Nook | Kobo | Google Play | iTunes (coming soon) | Amazon.UK
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May 22, 2015
Sizzling Summer Reads Event
Stock up on vacation reads for the summer at a big party over at The Romance Reviews. With 350+ authors and 350+ prizes to be won (including a grand prize of $100), they’re bound to have something that will suit the occasion.
Since I’m guessing most of you like a good science fiction romance, check out offerings by Jessica E. Subject and Liana Brooks. And of course, there will be a book or two by me in there, too.
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May 19, 2015
New Interview With Me
Just a quick note to point you to the Smart Girls Love SciFi blog, where RK interviewed me about my books, my writing process, time travel, and alien invasions.
Author Interview: Carol Van Natta | Smart Girls love SciFi
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The post New Interview With Me appeared first on Carol Van Natta - Author.
New interview with me
Just a quick note to point you to the Smart Girls Love SciFi blog, where RK interviewed me about my books, my writing process, time travel, and alien invasions.
Author Interview: Carol Van Natta | Smart Girls love SciFi
* * * * *
The post New interview with me appeared first on Carol Van Natta - Author.
