Jennifer Foehner Wells's Blog, page 3

Steady as she goes, Cap'n...

It's been three months since my last update about the progress of REMANENCE, the sequel to FLUENCY, so I thought I'd check in briefly. If you scroll down to the previous post, you'll see the timeline I've set up. It's still 100% in play without any delays.

I'm still on target for a March release. The exact day is yet to be determined (possibly I'll be prepared to give one by late February or early March). I could give you an exact date now, but that would make life very uncomfortable for me, as I either push myself beyond my limits, or sit on my hands for a week after it's done, waiting for that date to arrive. I'd rather just publish it when it's done.

You want to know when that day arrives? Sign up for my newsletter (and get the bonus of a free story). I hate spam, so I don't send more than a few emails a year. Your email address is safe with me. I'll only send you mail when I have something important to say.

People are asking for pre-orders. I'm not going to do those. They actually work against indie authors and I don't want to promo something that's not ready for sale. I won't be having a book launch party or a cover release with a bunch of fanfare. That's not my style. I've participated (reluctantly) in some of these things for other authors or anthologies but I don't enjoy them and I don't think they help an author's career. I don't need to do an AMA because I'm always available to answer questions here, on Twitter, or Facebook. Okay, that's enough curmudgeon-Jen for today.

Here's what has happened so far:

I wrote a first draft of the novel: Remanence.

I did my own first revision of the novel.

I passed that novel on to my professional editor to do a developmental edit (this is story level editing) and simultaneously asked about ten people to read it. Those people include my IRL (in real life) writing group/critique partners, a NASA/JPL engineer, an independent aeronautic engineer, a theoretical physicist and a couple of general readers.

I am now scouring the notes I received and assessing each one with a good old fashioned gut check. If someone noted a blind spot and I think it's valid, I'm fixing it. If something was too hard to understand, I'm clarifying it. If a scene is missing, I'm adding it. And so on. It's tedious work, but also really rewarding, because a novel is taking shape that I am really proud of. I'm nearing the end of this process now. I've been working around the clock. No tv time for me. It's all work and very little play around here until this is done.

The next step starts in two weeks when my professional editor will take the manuscript and do a thorough line edit. That will look at the novel more at a sentence level than the story level. He'll be looking for homophones, grammar errors, typos--as well as redundancies in the narrative, overused words, poorly constructed sentences, unclear passages and so on. It's a critical step in making a book as clean and readable for you, the reader. I won't skip it.

While my editor has the book I will be finalizing the covers for the ebook and paperback and making up a glossary to tack on to the end. I'm also hoping to find time to set up a giveaway as a thank you for all my dedicated readers.

Once the editor gives me the manuscript back, I will make the corrections, then I publish. I'm predicting that will be the third week of March, but anything could happen. Stay tuned.

These are exciting times! Read on!

The One Where I Talk About Remanence, Confluence Book 2 (THE SEQUEL TO FLUENCY)

I get asked a lot when the sequel to Fluency is going to come out. I'm here to tell you today when that will be.

But before I do, allow me say:

1.) I'm relatively new to noveling. (READ: new=takes longer.)
2.) I've had a lot on my plate over the last year (those are personal details that I won't be sharing).
3.) Writing a sequel that lives up to a very successful first book is a lot of pressure.
4.) I've got two kids (anyone who has lived with children knows what this means.)

That said, I've been working hard on this book for about a year. Considering that it took me two years to write and revise Fluency, I think I'm gaining some speed here. I'm not interested in churning out books. I want them to be the best I can make them.

Remanence is near completion. I'll be finishing it up and doing my own revision through the end of the year.

I've commissioned the same cover artist to create the cover artwork that did the cover for Fluency and he's already turned it over to me. Stephan Martiniere works as a concept artist for film (Guardians of the Galaxy was one of his projects) and he had to finish work on a Spielberg film before he could work on this cover. It's SPECTACULAR. You won't be disappointed in this cover art.

I've hired a professional editor and scheduled him to work on the manuscript in early January. This will be a developmental edit. Story level--looking at story arc/character arcs/searching for plot holes. In general, this guy makes me look good. He's edited several of my short stories. We work well together. He'll turn the manuscript around in about a week and I'll take the rest of the month to complete that revision. Assuming there won't be a ton of rewriting to do, that should be just enough.

(Authors--if you want to know who I use for editing, please take a look at my author resources page.)

Also in January I'll be sending the manuscript to a few select expert beta readers--fans of Fluency who happen to be aeronautic engineers, physicists and so on. People who are essentially going to tell me if I've misunderstood or misrepresented the science in some way. There are a lot of technical details in this book. While they are a backdrop, they add a layer of realism that my readers enjoy. This is a step I can't skip. 

In February I've got an editor lined up to do a line edit. This level of editing looks for grammar errors and typos. Some editors at this level also fact check. This is a time consuming process and will likely take all of February. My prose is pretty clean, but everyone makes typos or uses homophones on occasion.

In February, after looking at where I'm at, I will put the book up on pre-order for a March 2016 release. I won't name the date of the release until I'm sure I can do it. There are penalties associated with not making a pre-order happen on time. Remanence will be exclusive to Amazon for a while because Amazon has been very good to me.

More exciting news? As soon as the Remanence final manuscript is out of my hands, I'm planning to finish a partially completed novel that I started right after I finished Fluency (before I knew Fluency was going to sell the way it did.) That book is 50% complete and I'm planning to finish and release it in 2016 as well. 

Druid (working title) is set in the same universe as Fluency with a new cast of characters and a different set of problems. It's a sort of superhero origin story. 

​ Then I will return to Confluence series to complete that trilogy. (My plan has always been to go back and forth between the two series until both were complete.)

I'm sorry I couldn't bring you the book sooner. But I hope you enjoy it when it's ready. (And I'm really hoping the zombie apocalypse doesn't happen between now and then. What can I say? I'm a worrier.)

EDITED TO ADD: If you want to be the very first to know when I release ANYTHING, sign up for my newsletter. You'll find boxes to sign up all over this site. Notably, in the top menu bar, under the word: subscribe.

***Additional edit: The clock starts ticking on the audio book AFTER the book is complete and ready for sale. Production takes a few months. So I'm guessing we'll be looking at June or July for an audio version.

Hear! Hear! The Grove is Now Available in Audio

I recently went to my first big con--NorWesCon in Seattle. While I was visiting that lush city, I met up with Marcia, the producer at SicSound, the studio that produced the Fluency audio book. 

While there, I spent a few hours reading in front of a mic. The result is an audio book of my novelette, The Grove. 

I've been wanting to try narrating audio books for a long time. I have a background in theatre, so it's a good fit for my vocal training. This short story was an easy way to dip my toes in and see if I'd be any good at it.

I'm pleased to say that the early reviews about my performance have been great!

If you're interested in hearing my dulcet tones for yourself, it's about an hour and is available at:

iTunes

Amazon

Audible

As always, Read On!

The One In Which I Compile Recommendations

I get asked A LOT to recommend books. Last night on Twitter, someone asked me to recommend middle grade SFF books with a female protagonist. I didn't have any good answers so I turned around and posed the question to my own Twitter followers. Since this wasn't the first time I've been asked this particular question, and since I have a middle grade reader in my household, I thought I would compile a list of the books tweeted to me.

As usual, Twitter was very kind and dozens of people enthusiastically jumped into the fray, tweeting titles at me. I managed to keep up and have listed them here in the order I received them. I recognize some of these as being YA but some MG readers are ready for YA, especially if there's a dearth of MG stuff they enjoy reading. I have added links to Amazon for some of them. I'll try to update it in time. It's time consuming to add that many links! Based on what I've seen so far, most of these recommendations are excellent choices for children to read!

***Keep in mind--these have not been vetted for age-appropriateness. Do your due diligence and research the titles before you buy for your favorite Middle Grade or Young Adult aged kiddo. If you keep a keen eye out, many of the books have suggested reading ages right in the descriptions!***
So You Want to be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane 
A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman (recommended twice)
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones (appears to be out of print)
Divergent by Veronica Roth (this is more YA, but my 11 year old son enjoyed it.)
Uglies by Scott Westerfield 
Leviathan by Scott Westerfield (several suggestions for these)
The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancy
Maximum Ride by James Patterson
Matched by Ally Condie
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville (recommended twice)
The Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett
Fledgling by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn (YA, very clean--I've read this one)
Hunger Games
Thursday Next by Jasper Fford
Tales From Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
Beyond the Pawpaw Trees by Palmer Brown
Dealing With Dragons series
School For Good and Evil
Lunar Chronicles
Mars Evacuees
The Fellowship For Alien Detection
Dove Arising
Earthseed by Pamela Sargent
Molly Fyde by Hugh Howey
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Zita the Spacegirl (comic format)
Legend by Marie Lu
Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Podkayne of Mars by Heinlein
The Water of Possibility by Hiromi Goto
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Ninth Ward by Rhodes
Falls' Dark Life
Starters and Enders by Lissa Price
A Girl of Many Parts
This Place Has No Atmosphere
Farmer's House of Scorpio
Alaya Dawn Johnson and Joyce Chng both write YA SFF with WoC protagonists
Icefall by Matthew Kirby
Spellsong War by LE Modessett
Heretics 
Chapterhouse Dune
Love is the Drug
Cats of Tangle Wood Forest by Charles deLint
Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
Abhorsen by Garth Nix
Otherland by Tad Williams
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Tunnel in the Sky by Heinlein
MG Anthology: Young Explorer's Adventure Guide
YA Anthology: Kaleidoscope
Pern books by Anne McCaffrey
Elizabeth Moon
Never to Return by Marjory Davey
Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds
Dangerous by Shannon Hale
Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J Anderson
A Wolf at the Door by Ellen Datlow (MG)
Swan Sister by Ellen Datlow (MG)
Troll's Eye View by Ellen Datlow (MG)
The Green Man by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (YA)
Sassinak by McCaffery and Moon
Delia Sherman
Cat Valente
Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
Amulet (graphic novel)
Legacy of the Clockwork Key
Ghoulish Song by William Alexander
Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill
Breadcrumbs and The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu
Song of the Lioness Books by Tamora Pierce
Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede
Forbidden Library by Django Wexler
Frostborn by Lou Anders
Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairy Land by Catherynn Valente
Diary of a Mad Brownie by Bruce Coville
The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee
Juniper Berry by M.P. Kozlowsky
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Inkheart by Cornela Funke
The Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede
The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman (couple of recommendations for this one!)
Fairyland Books by Cat Valente
Sparkers
Monstrous
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
West of the Moon
Changeling by Delia Sherman
The Kat Incorrigible Books by Stephanie Burgess
The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell
The Smoking Mirror by Carolina Garza
Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackeys
The Chronicles of Morgaine by C.J. Cherryh
The Chanur Series by C.J. Cherryh



Here are some links to other people's collections of books in the same vein:

10 YA Fantasy/Science Fiction Novels About Latino Characters
Asian Inspired MG and YA Fantasy by Asian Writers
10 Diverse Dystopian YA Books
A Pinterest page on Diverse MG Fantasy
A Pinterest page on Diverse MG Science Fiction
A Goodreads page on MG SFF Starring Women of Color

And then, there's always the All Ages Edition of FLUENCY. : )

READ ON!!!!

Jen Tweet Storms ;D

Car Dancing

All the Happy Frood News

The Alien Chronicles has been published on Amazon and the reception has been wonderful! It's currently poised at #8 in Science Fiction Anthologies with 12 5-star reviews. The early mentions of my story, The Grove have been positive, which is very exciting, because The Grove is a prequel to another novel I hope to publish in late 2015 or early 2016 (after the sequel to Fluency has been published).

I recently shipped off a bunch of Fluency paperbacks to my new publisher in Germany, where Fluency will be translated and traditionally published. I'm not sure yet when that will go to market. The book has also been sold in Russia. Very exciting!

In a recent blog post I told you about how I was diversifying and putting Fluency up across platforms--iTunes, Nook, Google Play etc. Well, that flopped. I've taken the book down from those vendors and reinvested in exclusivity with Amazon, the people who made my career happen. I may try to go wide again when Remenance comes out.

So, I now have 2 links to share: 

1.) The standard edition of FLUENCY, which I've now engineered to take you to YOUR Amazon store in YOUR country. Technology is so cool!

2.) The All Ages Edition of FLUENCY, which will also take you to the Amazon site that you need where you live. This is the edition safe for younger readers or for those who are sensitive to adult situations and language.

I'm sorry if you're wanting to find links to other platforms, but I needed to make a business decision. I owe a lot to Amazon. It has been very good to me, as an organization. And I have my boys' college funds to save for and bills to pay just like everyone else.

In other news, IndieReader reviewed Fluency and gave it 5-stars! They said some lovely things like: 

"What might be the most impressive part of FLUENCY is the attention paid to each character, making them not one-note stock characters (there are no Red Shirts here!) but interesting, complicated individuals."

So that's been pretty exciting!

The Hugo Award Winning SFSignal podcast recently interviewed Rachel Aaron and she mentioned how much she loved reading Fluency. This is a podcast with some great timely info. I'm going to try to listen to it more often. I just happened to be listening because I love Rachel's book, Fortune's Pawn, when all of a sudden she just mentioned me and my book. My jaw dropped and I started to hyperventilate. What a crazy moment!

There's probably lots more I could say but my dance card is full. I need to get back to writing! Oh, and one more thing--I'm re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, probably for the first time since high school and LOVING IT. Read on!

Jen's Christmas Stollen Recipe

Christmas Stollen 2014 Stollen 2014 I make this every year on Christmas Eve to be enjoyed Christmas morning. It is rich and sweet and buttery, chock full of fruit and nuts. It's wonderful toasted! This recipe makes 2 loaves.

Step 1: Macerating Fruit

• 3 cups total of a mixture of dried fruit of your choice (sour cherries, cranberries, diced apricots, golden raisons, candied citrus peels, candied pineapple, etc.)

• 1 cup of Sailor Jerry's Rum (or your favorite brandy or whiskey--any of these work)

• 3+ tablespoons of flour

• 1 cup sliced almonds (optional)

Combine and macerate for 1-24 hours. If you forget to do this ahead of time, a couple of short blasts in the microwave to warm the mixture will work to quickly plump up the fruit with boozy goodness. When you think the fruit has had enough, drain in a colander, then spread on a clean, dry towel for a few minutes to dry a bit more. Then, mix with flour until well coated. Add the sliced almonds.

Step 2: Make the Dough

• 5 cups of all purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon of yeast

• 1 1/4 cups of milk (I use canned coconut milk) warmed to blood-warm temp (not hot, but warmer than room temp)

• 3/4 cup of butter, melted and cooled a little bit (don't want it scalding hot)

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 tsp almond extract

• 1 teaspoon lemon or orange extract

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 eggs, warmed to room temperature, beaten

For later use:

• 4 tablespoons of soft butter (divided between 2 loaves)

• 4 tablespoons of sugar (divided between 2 loaves)

• 7 ounce package of Almond Paste or Marzipan, divided (optional ingredient)

I combine the first 10 ingredients in a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook and knead until a nice soft/wet/sticky dough forms. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Knead some more and dump in the drained/flour-coated fruit. Yes! It appears to be equal amounts of each. Yes! It is difficult to get all the fruit to mix into the dough. Every year I swear I'll use less fruit next year. Every year I make the same amount of fruit. : )

Put in an buttered bowl, cover and place in a warm spot for 1 1/2 to 3 hours--until doubled in size.

Punch down and knead a little bit, working the fruit into the dough even more. Divide in half. This makes 2 large loaves. Pat each half into a rough square and roll out to roughly 8" x 12" x 1/2".

I use an off-set spatula to smear a couple of tablespoons of butter across the surface of the rolled out dough and then sprinkle that with the 2 tablespoons of sugar. 

I take the almond paste (less sweet) or marzipan and divide it in half and roll under my fingers into a rope just slightly shorter than the longest side of the dough. Lay this over the dough.

The next bit is hard to describe in words and probably not important, but it is done a certain way, traditionally. Fold over one of the long sides over the almond past. You are not folding in half. You are just folding up the bottom third. Then fold the other part over top of that, so that it's folded in three layers. You'll need to wet the edge with plain water to seal the dough to itself and tuck the ends under on three sides (one long edge and the 2 ends). This makes a nice oblong loaf. Do this for both loaves.

At this point I pick off any fruit that is protruding from the surface of the loaves. It will only burn anyway. This makes the loaves much neater in appearance and gives a tastier finished product.

Set the loaves out on parchment paper-covered cookie sheets. One per sheet. (You cannot crowd these on a single sheet.) Cover the surface of the loaves lightly with soft butter and the plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for another hour or two. They will be almost twice their size. Toward the end of this period, preheat your oven to 375° Fahrenheit.


Bake the loaves 30-35 minutes. The outer crust will become dark mahogany. Some of the fruit on the surface may burn or get quite dark. Remove to a rack to cool for 2 hours. Wrap carefully and save for Christmas morning. On Christmas morning I sprinkle the loaves with powdered sugar and present to my family. 

Captain's Log: Supplemental

I know it's been a while since I wrote a post. Every blogger says this. I don't really consider myself a blogger. I write sci fi. This is just an infodump so you know what's going on. : )

First off: I have a novelette called The Grove coming out in January in an anthology called Alien Chronicles (this will be part 3 of The Future Chronicles). I just checked and the pre-order isn't up yet. But the cover is beautiful and I'm told it goes up for sale on January 9, so stay tuned. 

What is a novelette, you ask?  Screenshot from the Hugo site It's a Hugo and Nebula award category. Most people don't know what they are, so don't fret about it. You could call it a really long short story or a really short novella. I think the categories are important, though some writers profess that they aren't.


The audio book of Fluency produced by  The most exciting thing to happen in my writing life recently is twofold. First, I met and employed my first intensive line/developmental editor, Alex Russell, also known as the Typo Hammer. 

The original edition of Fluency was extensively revised and proofread, but nothing beats having someone scrutinize every sentence and fact for grammar, accuracy and clarity. Alex took my new All Ages manuscript (and then the standard edition) and did just that. The end result is a subtle but marked improvement for the reader.

And once that was done, I was able to present this to young adult readers of Science Fiction: FLUENCY: All Ages Edition.

I've been asked a lot (and ridiculed as well) for providing this version. My reason for creating this version is primarily this: my 11-year-old son wanted to read my book. 

I have no issues with him reading language, but some of the adult situations in Fluency would raise a lot of questions and probably make him uncomfortable. Since I was determined to create this version for him, it only took a bit more effort to provide it for anyone who would prefer a version without language and sexual situations. I call this the PG version. The feedback from those who have read it has been nothing but positive, including from my own son, who says, "two thumbs up!" You can find FLUENCY: All Ages Edition on iTunes, Nook, Kobo, Google Play, and Amazon.
It's suitable for ages 13 and up (or equivalent reading level) and those who are sensitive to language and adult situations. Paperbacks are also available through Amazon.

The second exciting thing to happen was also twofold. My exclusive contract with Amazon expired and I was able to take this newly edited edition of Fluency to all of the ebook platforms. Because the edit was fairly extensive (there's no new content, just clarity and a lack of typos) I'm calling this a second edition. If you bought the original edition from Amazon, you'll be able to refresh that to the new edition without any trouble. Just go to your amazon account and manage your devices and navigate from there.

So, FLUENCY is now available in the following stores: iTunes, Nook, Kobo, Google Play, and Amazon. And, as always, FLUENCY is also available in paperback--and can even be ordered from your local bookstore, if you wish.

Happy Holidays, to those who are celebrating this season and best wishes for a happy new year for you and all the ones you love.

Margaret Atwood Cautions Us With The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a modern dystopian classic and a cautionary tale. It is insanely depressing to read because we are simply a pandemic or natural disaster away from something like this potentially happening. The fundamentalist religious right already has so much power, if our country were to splinter, civil war could erupt allowing pockets of this kind of evil to proliferate.

This book is about cultism on a grand scale imposing itself on a helpless populace before it could organize itself. So, while I loved this book for its attention to detail, for its bravery and insight, I also found it so difficult to read because there is not a moment of brightness in the protagonist's life. It is unrelievedly wretched, and rightly so.

Atwood's prose is starkly poetic and mesmerizing, only sometimes verging on purple prose. Claire Danes' performance on the audio book is spot on: perfection in every way. I highly recommend her dramatic reading. This should be required reading. I should not have taken so long to pick it up.

View all my reviews

NaNoWriMo has me in its clutches!!!

I have been INSANELY busy. With a novel underway, 2 kids, 2 kittens (they are new--yes I'm nutty), a dog, 3 rats, a husband (never forget the helpmate!), a house that never wants to stay neat, a short story that wants to be a novel under deadline...

I'M BUSY.

But, I told my kids and my husband that November was going to be the time to dig deep. Everyone is pitching in to give me more time to write--except the kitties. They really like to get between me and my laptop screen. 

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year, which means that I'm going to write 50,000 words this month--that's almost half the length of Fluency which at one point was 100K, but by publication time had been whittled down to 89K. This means I have to write, at minimum, 1667 words per day to "win" the challenge. I've attempted NaNo before, or contests like it, but writing that many words per day is difficult for me, since I'm a very slow writer. This month, I'm trying to change that. This year I aim to pull through. I want to get the sequel to Fluency, REMANENCE, to you as much as you want to read it. If you are NaNo-ing too, find me at the link above!
In other news, Goodreads is having its annual Goodreads Choice Awards. 

Since FLUENCY wasn't published by one of the big 5 (4?) publishing houses, it isn't a default choice in the science fiction category. 

BUT you can write it in! (Just start typing, it will quickly autofill!) 

And if you like Fluency more than the other choices--PLEASE DO!
I just finished a rather long short story that will be featured in an upcoming anthology with some fantastic SF authors called Alien Chronicles. You can already get Robot Chronicles and Telepath Chronicles is available for pre-order now! 

When Alien Chronicles is available for pre-order you can bet your sweet bippy I'll be telling you about it. It should be released in January AND the short I wrote is a prequel to another novel series I'm working on (set aside while I write the sequel to Fluency) called DRUID, which is a super hero origin story. Expect that book in late 2015 or early 2016, after REMANENCE (Book 2 of Confluence) is released.