Laura Montgomery's Blog, page 8

Night Vision and the Pan

When I wrote Manx Prize, which is about a race to de-orbit space debris, I relied heavily on what I’d learned from my day job as a space lawyer at the FAA.  Also, because I was terrified of getting things wrong, I researched like crazy.  I saved clippings from Space News with the inclinations, perigees and other parameters of defunct satellites, and used them for my imaginary zombiesats.  I got the dimensions– if not the makeup –of a certain dead European environmental satellite and put that...

Totally jealous

If you are a Dorothy Dunnett fan and live in Los Angeles, I’m jealous of you.  In my daily perusal of the Federal Register’s table of contents in my other life as a lawyer, I came across the U.S. State Department’s determination of cultural significance for importation of the Medieval Book of Beasts.  I’m betting anything that Francis Crawford of Lymond saw this book. Certainly in Queen’s Play there should have been a copy of it lying around.  Perhaps there was and I don’t remember, but you h...

Flaw Propagation

I was so happy the other day.  I had Simple Service ready for my beta reader.  I’d finished the re-read, fixed all the continuity errors that I could see, and hit Send.

Ten minutes later I realized I hadn’t checked my list of fixes.  I keep a list as I go, and write DONE when I’ve addressed an item on the list.  One of the items was a scene with missing “oregano” as my critique group put it.  I had finally figured out what the missing oregano was, and I’d resolved to add it after I finished t...

Sightings of the Hyperborean Age

I am a fan of what my brother calls “house porn.” I could spend hours going through stacks of House Beautiful and Architectural Digest–and I have. So when a list of 50 Perfect Powder Rooms showed up in my inbox , I had to peek. There are some lovely ones, of course, but #26 prompted the following snippet:

A dark bronze vessel served as the sink. Its handles and ornate carvings made it better suited to catching the blood of a human sacrifice than to Ethan washing his hands in the twenty-second...

FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP – Just Released!

Perpetual plaintiff Lewis Ostrow needs a ticket to Mars. His litigation profile renders him ineligible. Lewis, however, always stands ready to fight the system.

A legal fantasy.

A short story.

A bit of science fiction.

 

 

 

 

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Borrowing Mercenary Calling

This is just to let those of you who might be interested in reading Mercenary Calling through the Kindle Unlimited program know that its days there are numbered.  I will be taking it out on January 22 for about a month, maybe longer.  If you think you want to read it, check it out now.  Even after it leaves KU I believe you will be able to read it as a loaner if you have already picked up a copy.

Exoplanets.

Terrorists.

Lawyers…

Calvin Tondini has his first client, but he may be in over his h...

Short Story Update

I’m getting my short story “Fractional Ownership” ready for publication. I started to call it my “most recent” short story, but it is actually the first short I wrote when I began writing short stories a few years ago. I’ve been a little reluctant to publish it, not because puppies are killed or anyone’s arm gets sawed off, but because I don’t admire the main character who wants to go to Mars. At all. He’s not an attractive fellow, so it’s good the story is super short.

Back when my boys were...

Happy New Year!

I hope your holidays were good ones, and the year coming up treats you well.

I hope to do the same, and wanted to remind you that if you sign up for my newsletter you can get a free copy of Early Spaceports through BookFunnel, which provides a surprisingly simple process. Just click on the link or cover, and when you get your free copy you’ll sign up.

In the newsletter itself I’ll tell you about new releases and sometimes share a chapter or two from a work in progress. You’ll also be the fi...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I conducted a noble experiment and learned that one should not use almond flour in place of wheat flour when making pecan tarts. Twenty-four tarts turned out like ugly little puddings with shreds of almond flour dissolving all around when you tried to pick one up. They were not fit for exchange. My husband and I called them scruffies and ate them ourselves. I used regular flour for the next two batches.

We do Christmas Eve every year for my extended family in the area, so today I’m cooking go...

The Space Show on Friday, December 21

I’m very excited to be on Dr. David Livingstone’s Space Show again tomorrow, Friday, December 21. We’re going to talk about this year’s exciting new developments in the space arena. If you like the issues in my fictional Ground Based Universe, you might enjoy David’s show.

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