L.D. Colter's Blog, page 6
August 28, 2018
I HAZ A MAP!
Did you get a copy of The Halfblood War already? If so, I owe you a map.Shortly before going to press, it was decided, rightly, that my map was a bit too um... well let's just say my cover artist for While Gods Sleep made a far better one for the book.
Feel free to contact me HERE and I'll send it to you.
If you don't have the book yet, it should be added to the print and ebooks very soon.)
August 22, 2018
The WorldCon That Wasn’t
Subtitle: A case study of “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
The plan:
Buy WorldCon membership eight months prior to event to get the early bird discount - Check
Get plane tickets and hotel reservations for self and hubby months in advance - Check
Apply for and achieve being a presenter at WorldCon (a first) - Check
Get epic fantasy novel The Halfblood War published in time for WorldCon - Check
Get ARCs of a forthcoming book While Gods Sleep printed in time for WorldCon - Check
Apply for and achieve a spot at the SFWA book table to promote said books - Check
Schedule many get togethers with friends at WorldCon - Check
Plan vacation up the Northern Calif coast with hubby to follow WorldCon - Check
Car rental, AirBnB cabin in the woods, places to see on vacation - Check
Schedule meet ups with friends I’ve not seen since I moved away from N Calif. 15 yrs ago - Check
What actually happened:
The afternoon before leaving for WorldCon hubby is exposed to chlorine gas.
I spend 6 hours in 2 different ERs and hubby spends 2 days in hospital.
We keep thinking we’ll salvage bits of the trip until we get realistic and admit defeat
Nine hour wait with him for his discharge from hospital.
Spend the remaining days of vacation retrieving his car, dealing with work comp, following up with doctors, and helping my 100-year-old live-in mom to have her beloved elderly dog euthanized.
In summary:
Things could have been much worse. The gas was diluted and exposure was limited. The big picture turned out as well as it could have. I still have my husband and my husband is back at work on full duty.
Snapshot of the past week: the week sucked.
The plan:
Buy WorldCon membership eight months prior to event to get the early bird discount - Check
Get plane tickets and hotel reservations for self and hubby months in advance - Check
Apply for and achieve being a presenter at WorldCon (a first) - Check
Get epic fantasy novel The Halfblood War published in time for WorldCon - Check
Get ARCs of a forthcoming book While Gods Sleep printed in time for WorldCon - Check
Apply for and achieve a spot at the SFWA book table to promote said books - Check
Schedule many get togethers with friends at WorldCon - Check
Plan vacation up the Northern Calif coast with hubby to follow WorldCon - Check
Car rental, AirBnB cabin in the woods, places to see on vacation - Check
Schedule meet ups with friends I’ve not seen since I moved away from N Calif. 15 yrs ago - Check
What actually happened:
The afternoon before leaving for WorldCon hubby is exposed to chlorine gas.
I spend 6 hours in 2 different ERs and hubby spends 2 days in hospital.
We keep thinking we’ll salvage bits of the trip until we get realistic and admit defeat
Nine hour wait with him for his discharge from hospital.
Spend the remaining days of vacation retrieving his car, dealing with work comp, following up with doctors, and helping my 100-year-old live-in mom to have her beloved elderly dog euthanized.
In summary:
Things could have been much worse. The gas was diluted and exposure was limited. The big picture turned out as well as it could have. I still have my husband and my husband is back at work on full duty.
Snapshot of the past week: the week sucked.
August 9, 2018
While Gods Sleep - Preview
Things have been busy around here, and next month will see yet another new book release from me. I have Chapter 1 up on the CreateSpace preview galley. If you'd like to check it out, just click here: While Gods Sleep - preview
I hope you'll enjoy it and consider leaving a review!
And here's the cover reveal of the fabulous artwork by Trevor Smith, and design by Em Tippetts!
The first time Ty died he was five; the second time he was seven. Revived by bystanders on both occasions, he’s always believed his third death will be the final one. Now he may find out.
Greece, 1958. More than twenty years after his near-death experiences and the visions of terrifying gods that came with them, Ty leads a quiet life as a locksmith. His ordinary existence is shattered when he’s persuaded by a client to play an ancient game of throwing bones. Entering the world of obsessive gambling that he’s despised since childhood, he finds himself manipulated into borrowing over his head. Now, deeply in debt, his life and death hang in the balance once more.
To repay his money-lender, Ty is forced to descend to Erebus, a mid-world that lies between the surface and Tartarus. His task is to steal an item from Eros' daughter, but to do that he’ll have to find a way to survive the demi-goddess as well as monsters he’d believed existed only in myth. Once in Erebus, those considerable dangers are eclipsed by far greater ones; he discovers the item he seeks is tied to the fate of the sleeping gods, the powerful factions that seek to control them, and an enemy that could destroy them all. Ty must make the biggest gamble yet, betting his life to save his own world and the underworlds below it.
I hope you'll enjoy it and consider leaving a review!
And here's the cover reveal of the fabulous artwork by Trevor Smith, and design by Em Tippetts!
The first time Ty died he was five; the second time he was seven. Revived by bystanders on both occasions, he’s always believed his third death will be the final one. Now he may find out.
Greece, 1958. More than twenty years after his near-death experiences and the visions of terrifying gods that came with them, Ty leads a quiet life as a locksmith. His ordinary existence is shattered when he’s persuaded by a client to play an ancient game of throwing bones. Entering the world of obsessive gambling that he’s despised since childhood, he finds himself manipulated into borrowing over his head. Now, deeply in debt, his life and death hang in the balance once more.
To repay his money-lender, Ty is forced to descend to Erebus, a mid-world that lies between the surface and Tartarus. His task is to steal an item from Eros' daughter, but to do that he’ll have to find a way to survive the demi-goddess as well as monsters he’d believed existed only in myth. Once in Erebus, those considerable dangers are eclipsed by far greater ones; he discovers the item he seeks is tied to the fate of the sleeping gods, the powerful factions that seek to control them, and an enemy that could destroy them all. Ty must make the biggest gamble yet, betting his life to save his own world and the underworlds below it.
While Gods Sleep - Amazon Preview
Things have been busy around here, and next month will see yet another new book release from me. I have chapter one up on the Amazon preview galley. If you'd like to check it out, just click here: While Gods Sleep - preview
I hope you'll enjoy it and consider leaving a review!
And here's the cover reveal of the fabulous artwork by Trevor Smith, and design by Em Tippetts!
The first time Ty died he was five; the second time he was seven. Revived by bystanders on both occasions, he’s always believed his third death will be the final one. Now he may find out.
Greece, 1958. More than twenty years after his near-death experiences and the visions of terrifying gods that came with them, Ty leads a quiet life as a locksmith. His ordinary existence is shattered when he’s persuaded by a client to play an ancient game of throwing bones. Entering the world of obsessive gambling that he’s despised since childhood, he finds himself manipulated into borrowing over his head. Now, deeply in debt, his life and death hang in the balance once more.
To repay his money-lender, Ty is forced to descend to Erebus, a mid-world that lies between the surface and Tartarus. His task is to steal an item from Eros' daughter, but to do that he’ll have to find a way to survive the demi-goddess as well as monsters he’d believed existed only in myth. Once in Erebus, those considerable dangers are eclipsed by far greater ones; he discovers the item he seeks is tied to the fate of the sleeping gods, the powerful factions that seek to control them, and an enemy that could destroy them all. Ty must make the biggest gamble yet, betting his life to save his own world and the underworlds below it.
I hope you'll enjoy it and consider leaving a review!
And here's the cover reveal of the fabulous artwork by Trevor Smith, and design by Em Tippetts!
The first time Ty died he was five; the second time he was seven. Revived by bystanders on both occasions, he’s always believed his third death will be the final one. Now he may find out.
Greece, 1958. More than twenty years after his near-death experiences and the visions of terrifying gods that came with them, Ty leads a quiet life as a locksmith. His ordinary existence is shattered when he’s persuaded by a client to play an ancient game of throwing bones. Entering the world of obsessive gambling that he’s despised since childhood, he finds himself manipulated into borrowing over his head. Now, deeply in debt, his life and death hang in the balance once more.
To repay his money-lender, Ty is forced to descend to Erebus, a mid-world that lies between the surface and Tartarus. His task is to steal an item from Eros' daughter, but to do that he’ll have to find a way to survive the demi-goddess as well as monsters he’d believed existed only in myth. Once in Erebus, those considerable dangers are eclipsed by far greater ones; he discovers the item he seeks is tied to the fate of the sleeping gods, the powerful factions that seek to control them, and an enemy that could destroy them all. Ty must make the biggest gamble yet, betting his life to save his own world and the underworlds below it.
August 7, 2018
Book Release: The Halfblood War
I'm very happy to say that my novel, The Halfblood War is out now from WordFire Press. If you enjoy capricious and dangerous fae, star-crossed lovers, and the intrigues of nations on the brink of war, I hope you'll enjoy this stand-alone epic fantasy. 
A sweeping story of love and war, prejudice and acceptance...
Tirren, heir to the ruler of Thiery, has raised his half-Elven son in a land that hates and fears the Elves, but his son’s struggle for acceptance is only one source of Tirren’s pain. The other is his unfading desire for Yslaaran, the Elven woman who eighteen years ago captured him in a spell, seduced him, and vanished. She returned only once more—to hand him his infant son.
When a neighboring ruler attacks the land of Thiery, Tirren rides to battle with his half-breed son at his side. Learning of the war, Yslaaran fears the conflict will unravel her long-laid plans for the boy. If she doesn’t interfere, he could die before his time, but if she reveals her hand by meddling, her own people could rise up against the humans they despise—and that will trap the land between two deadly enemies.
The fate of two races hang in the balance, but only Yslaaran knows that both humans and Elves risk a future more devastating than war.
"A grand epic fantasy in the classic tradition." D. J. Butler, author of Witchy Winter
Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo
A sweeping story of love and war, prejudice and acceptance...
Tirren, heir to the ruler of Thiery, has raised his half-Elven son in a land that hates and fears the Elves, but his son’s struggle for acceptance is only one source of Tirren’s pain. The other is his unfading desire for Yslaaran, the Elven woman who eighteen years ago captured him in a spell, seduced him, and vanished. She returned only once more—to hand him his infant son.
When a neighboring ruler attacks the land of Thiery, Tirren rides to battle with his half-breed son at his side. Learning of the war, Yslaaran fears the conflict will unravel her long-laid plans for the boy. If she doesn’t interfere, he could die before his time, but if she reveals her hand by meddling, her own people could rise up against the humans they despise—and that will trap the land between two deadly enemies.
The fate of two races hang in the balance, but only Yslaaran knows that both humans and Elves risk a future more devastating than war.
"A grand epic fantasy in the classic tradition." D. J. Butler, author of Witchy Winter
Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo
July 8, 2018
Review: The Stars My Destination
It took me a long time to get around to reading this classic novel from 1957, but I'm glad I did.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. Just wow. I'm not often won over by hard sci-fi - this is an exception. I rarely find books from this era riveting - this is an exception.
After a brief history of humanity's discovery of teleportation, called jaunting, the book opens with Gulliver Foyle's formidable fight for survival under horrific conditions. The experience molds the brutish, uneducated mechanic into an anti-hero who bulls through the rest of the book with the single-minded and all-consuming motive of revenge. The stakes start out high as they can get, and they spread across the cast of characters as Gully Foyle encounters each of them. One of the things I loved best was that Bester took the book beyond the normal aspects of any good novel: stakes, pacing, a character who changes; and constantly introduced new and intriguing details. The albino woman who sees only in certain spectrums, the telepath who can send but not receive, Dagenham, who is permanently radioactive, the Scientific People, Jeffery Fourmyle and his circus, the burning man. My one caveat is a trigger warning for the use of rape - and subsequent emotional abuse of the victim - as a plot device. The clunky handling of it is one of the few reminders of the age of the book. Overall, though, a surprisingly good read, and a book that's going on my to re-read list. Wonderfully read in this audio version by Gerard Doyle.
View all my reviews
The Stars My Destination by Alfred BesterMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. Just wow. I'm not often won over by hard sci-fi - this is an exception. I rarely find books from this era riveting - this is an exception.
After a brief history of humanity's discovery of teleportation, called jaunting, the book opens with Gulliver Foyle's formidable fight for survival under horrific conditions. The experience molds the brutish, uneducated mechanic into an anti-hero who bulls through the rest of the book with the single-minded and all-consuming motive of revenge. The stakes start out high as they can get, and they spread across the cast of characters as Gully Foyle encounters each of them. One of the things I loved best was that Bester took the book beyond the normal aspects of any good novel: stakes, pacing, a character who changes; and constantly introduced new and intriguing details. The albino woman who sees only in certain spectrums, the telepath who can send but not receive, Dagenham, who is permanently radioactive, the Scientific People, Jeffery Fourmyle and his circus, the burning man. My one caveat is a trigger warning for the use of rape - and subsequent emotional abuse of the victim - as a plot device. The clunky handling of it is one of the few reminders of the age of the book. Overall, though, a surprisingly good read, and a book that's going on my to re-read list. Wonderfully read in this audio version by Gerard Doyle.
View all my reviews
July 7, 2018
There's Something You Don't See Everyday
A tornado. At 10,000 ft elevation. IN a wildfire.
July 2, 2018
June - Wins, Workshops, and Wildfires
June flew by in a gale of activity. The month began with the excitement of attending the Colorado Book Awards ceremony in Denver where my debut novel, A Borrowed Hell, won the award for Science Fiction/Fantasy, and ended with packing and heading out to the Taos Toolbox workshop for two very full weeks of lectures, writing, critiques, plot-breaking, and fun group dinners.
Though it's named Taos Toolbox, the master's workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers is actually held about 25 miles away in Angel Fire, a ski and summer resort in the mountains of New Mexico, which sits at an elevation of 8400 ft. The instructors were the same as the past 11 years, Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress, and our guest lecturers were Carrie Vaughn, Em Tippitts, and - capping off our first week with a bang - the estimable George R. R. Martin. I left on June 17th and just got home a couple of days ago on the 30th.
It's also been another month of extreme drought and fire danger for the southwest - southern Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona in particular. On my way to Taos Toolbox, I drove through the almost extinguished Ute Park burn area in NM, and during the workshop the Sardinas Canyon fire started about 15 miles SW of us, growing fairly slowly to about 1800 acres before we left. I was looking forward to leaving the smoke and fire behind, but three days before coming home a new fire started near the town where my husband works, and only about 40 miles from where we live. It exploded into the largest fire in Colorado and possibly the fastest growing fire in the nation, blowing up to nearly 35,000 acres in the first 3 days. As of today (5 days in) it's now reached over 50,000 acres. It's far enough from us that I can't imagine it growing to the point we'd be put on evacuation alert, but close enough that we know people who've had to leave their homes. Two more fires started since I got home, both in central Colorado. We're in the 'extreme' drought region of Colorado. I didn't even know a rating higher than extreme existed, but apparently we border an area of 'exceptional' drought. Last year at this time, I was looking out my window at a lush green landscape; today I'm looking at yellow grasslands, a dead lawn, and hazy skies from smoke. Whatever way you might believe in sending positive energy out to the universe, please keep the severe, extreme, and exceptional drought areas of the country in your thoughts.
Though it's named Taos Toolbox, the master's workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers is actually held about 25 miles away in Angel Fire, a ski and summer resort in the mountains of New Mexico, which sits at an elevation of 8400 ft. The instructors were the same as the past 11 years, Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress, and our guest lecturers were Carrie Vaughn, Em Tippitts, and - capping off our first week with a bang - the estimable George R. R. Martin. I left on June 17th and just got home a couple of days ago on the 30th.
It's also been another month of extreme drought and fire danger for the southwest - southern Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona in particular. On my way to Taos Toolbox, I drove through the almost extinguished Ute Park burn area in NM, and during the workshop the Sardinas Canyon fire started about 15 miles SW of us, growing fairly slowly to about 1800 acres before we left. I was looking forward to leaving the smoke and fire behind, but three days before coming home a new fire started near the town where my husband works, and only about 40 miles from where we live. It exploded into the largest fire in Colorado and possibly the fastest growing fire in the nation, blowing up to nearly 35,000 acres in the first 3 days. As of today (5 days in) it's now reached over 50,000 acres. It's far enough from us that I can't imagine it growing to the point we'd be put on evacuation alert, but close enough that we know people who've had to leave their homes. Two more fires started since I got home, both in central Colorado. We're in the 'extreme' drought region of Colorado. I didn't even know a rating higher than extreme existed, but apparently we border an area of 'exceptional' drought. Last year at this time, I was looking out my window at a lush green landscape; today I'm looking at yellow grasslands, a dead lawn, and hazy skies from smoke. Whatever way you might believe in sending positive energy out to the universe, please keep the severe, extreme, and exceptional drought areas of the country in your thoughts.
June 11, 2018
Guest Author Post - K. Bird Lincoln
The beginning of this month saw the release of K. Bird Lincoln's novella, The Metamorphosis of Aria Mertz. A a cancer survivor herself, here she talks a bit about both her cancer and her novella:I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma in my right breast in 2013 at the age of 41. It was my first ever mammogram. Color me gob-smacked.
I stopped writing for a while. I mean, nothing really seemed worthwhile posting about when cancer was hanging out in the back of my mind. I mean, it’s kind of silly to be all like “Ooh I wrote 100 words!” or “Takeshi Kaneshiro is really hot!” or “Check out this cool taco truck” when what I really wanted to say is “Oh my god I have cancer-- this sucks.”
So yeah, nothing.
But then a High School Friend pointed me towards comedian and TV Star Tig Notaro’s stand up set at Largo about her own breast cancer diagnosis (which fortunately coincided with the “good” week of my chemo cycle) and I found these little bits of stories I’ve been telling people randomly about my whole experience with the FunLand of cancer treatment (I did the whole slash, burn and poison) suddenly wanted to come out and be written.
So I started writing again. And it was such a relief. I owe a big debt to Tig Notaro for creating a space where the darkness of a breast cancer diagnosis is illuminated by humor.
Here’s a story just for you about Chemotherapy and Popsicles and why I stopped eating Lorna Doones.
Want to know my favorite part about sitting in an infusion chair to receive chemotherapy? Watching the nurses in the infusion center tug on big, rubber gloves before they take out the huge-mongous syringe of bright, cherry red poison (Adriamycin) they’re about to literally shove into your veins in the hopes that it will kill off all fast-replicating cells—including your tumor. The gloves are so they don’t accidentally touch it, or get it on their skin. Because it’s poison. Poison=Bad.
So one week I was sitting in my chair being a good, little quiet patient while the nurse gloved up. All of a sudden, Breast Cancer Survivor Volunteer Lady comes in with her tray of Lorna Doones and Pretzels (because we all know nauseous people REALLY want to eat Scottish shortbread) and is all like “Oh, you’re getting the Red Devil, that’s good.” I smile at her. I know she means well. I can forgive her. She’s a breast cancer survivor and I will respect her journey. She’s alive. The very air around her is a mystical blessing, right?
But then the other nurse, without the gloves, brings me a styrofoam cup halfway through the Red Devil syringe. Inside it is a grape popsicle (no way could I handle a cherry red one) because you have to literally freeze the blood vessels in your mouth with a popsicle when getting Adriamycin infusions to keep from getting mouth sores. Then the Breast Cancer Survivor Volunteer Lady was all like “Oooh, and you get a popsicle, too. That’s lovely.” Lovely? That’s where I drew the line. I never ate another Lorna Doone again. All the Volunteers knew not to come by my chair during infusion after that.
Because yeah, Volunteer Lady, getting the popsicle TOTALLY made up for the breast cancer and the Red Devil.
For more on K. Bird's slash, burn, and poison Breast Cancer journey, check out What I Should Have Said
Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/Metamorphosis-Aria-Mertz-paranormal-thriller-ebook/dp/B07D6B5NG8/
Books2Read:
https://www.books2read.com/u/mqZprZ
Barnes & Noble Nook:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-metamorphosis-of-aria-mertz-k-bird-lincoln/1128688583
Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-metamorphosis-of-aria-mertz
Bio: K. Bird Lincoln is an ESL professional and writer living on the windswept Minnesota Prairie with family and a huge addiction to frou-frou coffee. Also dark chocolate-- without which, the world is a howling void. Originally from Cleveland, she has spent more years living on the edges of the Pacific Ocean than in the Midwest. Her speculative short stories are published in various online & paper publications such as Strange Horizons. Her medieval Japanese fantasy series, Tiger Lily, is available from Amazon. World Weaver Press released Dream Eater, the first novel in an exciting, multi-cultural Urban Fantasy trilogy set in Portland and Japan, in 2017. She also writes tasty speculative fiction reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Check her out on Facebook, join her newsletter for chocolate and free stories, or stalk her online at kblincoln.com
June 5, 2018
A Borrowed Hell - Winner of the Colorado Book Award
I am very honored to say that on June 2nd, my debut novel, A Borrowed Hell, received the 2018 Colorado Book Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy from the Colorado Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book). A program department of Colorado Humanities, its mission is to encourage a love of reading and books among people of all ages through diverse cultural activities. Many thanks to all the people involved in this wonderful program. 
