Laura Montgomery's Blog, page 7

Dragon Con Question and Answer

I had a great time at Dragon Con.  My son, his girlfriend, and I went to panels, bought art from the art show, and bravely let the son donate blood.  We didn’t get in to see either David Tennant or Brandon Sanderson, but I saw the lines for each snaking around the hotel and stretching all the way to Chattanooga.  I was glad the writer had just as long a line as the actor.  Everywhere you looked you saw people in costume.  A cavalcade of Wonder Women had a meet up.  Dr. Strange was so good I w...

Simple Service is now available!

It’s here!  Simple Service is live on Amazon in ebook form.  And, it’s only $0.99 until September 17.  It’s about–

A lost starship. A lost colony.

Two factions. One expendable son.

When the colony’s governor requisitions the colonists’ personal weapons, Peter Dawe’s father sets him a simple task. Get their weapon back.

But the Marss have all the technology, and Peter, a second generation colonist, the youngest of ten, the expendable son, must contend with the guard, palace politics, and his b...

Dragon Con!!

I’m super excited to attend Dragon Con this year.  This will be my first time, and I am in awe of the size of it, tens of thousands of attendees and four hotels.  Wow.

I will be on two panels.  You will recognize me because I’ll be the one talking about space law.  They are:

Title: Why Haven’t We Been to Mars…YET!
Time: Sat 02:30 pm Location: 212-213 – Hilton (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: The raging question within the space community is not SHOULD we go to Mars but WHEN WILL WE go to Mars? S...

A Snippet of Nwwwlf–Simple Service is up for Pre-order!

I wanted to let you know that Simple Service is now available for pre-order in ebook, and for sale in paperback!  The ebook will go live September 9.  Here’s the blurb:

A lost starship.

A lost colony.

Two factions.

An expendable son.

When the colony’s governor requisitions the colonists’ personal weapons, Peter Dawe’s father sets him a simple task. Get their weapon back. But the Marss have all the technology, and Peter, a second generation colonist, the youngest of ten, the expendable son, mu...

Space Subcommittee Hearing

As some of you know, I’m a space lawyer in my day job.  My life is nowhere near as exciting as Calvin Tondini’s is in Mercenary Calling, but tomorrow counts as exciting for me.  I will be testifying at 2 p.m. to the House Space Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.  The hearing topic is The Commercial Space Landscape:  Innovation, Market and Policy.

I’ll talk about legal and regulatory issues.

by

Terraforming, Mountain Laurel, Mycorrhizae, and the Primordial Soup

I’m working on a prequel series to my Waking Late trilogy.  It’s much closer in time to the original settlement of Nwwwlf, and has thus forced me to think about terraforming and how one would bring Earth’s flora, fauna, and microbial infrastructure to a new world to make it a clone of Earth.  That was the original plan for the hapless ancestors of my Waking Late characters, who thought they were heading for a terraformed Earth clone.  Instead, they are stuck on the wrong planet, one with its...

Cover Reveal! Simple Service is Coming Soon

I’m looking forward to publishing my next book, the first in my new series, Martha’s Sons.  I’ve made final edits and sent Book One, Simple Service, to my proofreader.  After that, I’ll start getting it ready for print and for ebook publication.

Simple Service is set in the early days of Nwwwlf, a couple centuries before Sleeping Duty.  Peter Dawe is born on the planet to parents who expected something a little more Earth-like when they emigrated from Earth’s WesHem.  It’s all Peter knows: th...

Space Settlement and Policy Forum on June 5

In my day job I’m a space lawyer.  That might be part of why so many lawyers show up in my Ground Based Universe.  I’m not sure, but it could be.  I’m also hopeful that we will reach other planets, and that in my lifetime I’ll get to see a person walk on the Moon again.  And on Mars.

One thing that makes me hopeful is that for all the obstacles that stand in our way–technical, financial, and legal–the commercial sector is moving forward.  Blue Origin, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and others all a...

Salt Magic

I am a Georgette Heyer fan.  Georgette Heyer wrote Regency romances, many of them romantic comedies, that I devoured as a child and still re-read as an adult.  I believe it is now a whole sub-genre in the romance world.  I’ve read a few other Regency romances here and there, from time to time.  Other writers capture the world well, some of them, but they don’t often capture Heyer’s humor and charm.

Margaret Ball does.  Her book Salt Magic isn’t a true Regency in that it contains fantasy eleme...

The Exodus Trope

If everything here sucks, maybe we could leave.  I think that sums it up.  That’s the Exodus trope.  Oh, and, also, we will get a fresh start.

Science fiction has a lot of this.  I was thinking about it recently because I just finished beta-reading someone’s manuscript, and it has what I call the Exodus trope.  So, first, what is it?  As a trope, I may have made it up, because a quick internet search didn’t get me anything on the first page and I was too lazy to look at the second page.  But...