Alasdair C. Shaw's Blog, page 12
April 27, 2017
The April Round-up of Scifi Books Part 2
This month I have split my roundup in two. One post is for Instafreebie books and the other is for retailers like Amazon. This is the second one, the first can be found here.
By the way, if you aren't yet receiving this in an email, you can subscribe to my blog mailing list here.
Robert Baxter once reveled in the intoxicating delights of Atopia—the man-made island where humans lose themselves in a world of boundless virtual realities. Now, Bob has returned to immerse himself in this mind-altering, consciousness-sharing refuge from the eroding Earth.
But something is very wrong. Bob feels a tidal wave of doom cresting above the pleasure dome that is Atopia. As alternate universes perish, the salvation of all he loves—and all that exists—rests with Bob alone. To save the future, he must journey to the farthest edge of the past, where existence itself began and Atopia’s deepest secrets may lie. Yet even the knowledge Bob ultimately gains may not be a match for an enemy as powerful as a god, and as all-consuming as death...
Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom. Unable to make the decision alone, it revives the sole human aboard - the enemy officer who crippled it.
Commander Olivia Johnson wakes to find herself in the infirmary of a strange vessel. Her nightmares deepen when she discovers it is the ship that attacked her destroyer. Even as she recovers from her physical injuries, she can't get past her survivor's guilt. She might have failed to protect her crew, but she vows to take revenge on their killer.
When the ship uncovers a genocidal plot by the commander's own admirals, Johnson realises just what is at stake. Together, the AI ship and the human officer must recruit outsiders from both sides. Training the misfits in battle to prevent the atrocity may be an impossible task, but running and hiding is no longer an option.
Several colonies have been attacked, their populations eradicated and their buildings razed. The culprits belong to an extremist organization, terrorists known only as Orion’s Light. These criminals operate in the same circles as pirates but represent a far more dangerous threat, one of religious zeal and terrifying, military style discipline.
Alliance High Command sends the Behemoth to investigate the attacks, charging them to dispense justice on Orion’s Light and to stop whatever scheme they’re involved in. Armed with the brilliant scientist Durant Vi’Puren, they head out to confront one of the most dangerous adversaries they’ve confronted. For the leader of Orion’s Light may have been one of their own once upon a time and his ambitions could be the domination of all life in the galaxy.
Earth is under attack.
20 years after the American-Chinese war devastated our worlds, we finally have a tense peace. But legendary American Admiral Jack Mattis, on his inspection tour of the first joint American-Chinese space station, finds himself in the middle of the unthinkable: an alien invasion.
Their ships are powerful, their weapons overwhelming. And in the confusion, our tentative peace with the Chinese is shaken to the core.
Taking command of his old battleship, The Midway, Admiral Mattis races the alien fleet to Earth, desperate to prevent the utter destruction of humanity's home. And in Earth's darkest hour, Mattis must unify and lead old adversaries to the fight against a common enemy, one that doesn't care about flags or borders. An enemy driven by malevolent hate and a thirst for blood. An enemy that cares for one thing only: Earth's destruction.
Dead planets litter the Alorian Galaxy in the wake of interstellar war...
Ensign Brendle Quinn has spent five years loyally serving the Greshian Empire in their relentless quest to dominate the Alorian Galaxy. But, as his ship decimates planet after planet, he finds his sympathies swinging toward their defeated enemies.
Sergeant Anki Paro, a Luthian Marine, has been anxiously awaiting the call to deploy. As the last line of defense against the crushing Greshian forces, she hopes the time has finally come for her world to stand against tyranny. However, as her society prepares for imminent destruction, questions of misplaced loyalties lead Anki to wonder if the world she is trying to save has any real intentions of surviving.
As Brendle's and Anki’s worlds collide, they find themselves in an unlikely alliance to try to stop the full might of the Greshian Empire before there’s nothing left to fight for.
In a few hundred years, the Algol system becomes humanity's new home. The question is: is it a better one? When a crew of arms smugglers botches their latest job, Corps-deserter and crewmember, Aly Erikson, is separated from her brother, the only person she can trust, and left behind to fight for her life. In the aftermath, as she tries to piece together what happened, a crew of roughneck settlers pressgang her into a dangerous mission in the heart of Corps territory. Time is running out to get back everything she's lost: her crew, her brother, and her options. But no one is taking her gun.
They're all gone. We remember them like yesterday: pieces of our stolen heritage. Things like NASA. Football. Parades and pies. Good things, comfortable things. We remember a time when we were alone in the universe, safe and oblivious.
But it's all gone now.
We called them the Telestines, and in the face of their ruthless invasion we were powerless. By 2040, all the world's governments and militaries had fallen, and the remnants of humanity exiled to the solar system. We looked down on our blue planet, so close to our birthplace, so close to our home. But the miles may as well have been lightyears.
Our anger smoldered in the darkness of space. On Mars. On Ganymede. In the dank crowded filth of the asteroids. We swore: we will take our planet back.
And today, it begins. Our fleet is ready. Our soldiers determined.
Earth will be ours again.
Welcome to the Wild North, a desolate wasteland where criminals go to hide—if they can outlast the drought and the dangers of the desert. Or the dangers of something else.
Meet Nox, the Coilhunter. A mechanic and toymaker by trade, a bounty hunter by circumstance. He isn't in it for the money. He's in it for justice, and there's a lot of justice that needs to be paid.
Between each kill, he's looking for someone who has kept out of his crosshairs for quite a while—the person who murdered his wife and children. The trail has long gone cold, but there are changes happening, the kind of changes that uncover footprints and spent bullet casings.
Plagued by nightmares, he's made himself into a living one, the kind the criminals and conmen fear.
So, welcome, fair folk, to the Wild North. If the land doesn't get you, the Coilhunter will.
The plague was born from hope.
It was meant to change the world. To cure the incurable and rebuild the broken. When the world ended, the weight of its dead fell on the shoulders of the man at the heart of it all.
For Kell McDonald, survival is not enough.
Alone and surrounded by enemies, he must find a way to do what only he can: find a cure, and perhaps redemption.
Like most engineered kids, Amara can't wait to turn sixteen. Sixteen means confirmation of immunity to the aging infection that plagues mankind. And confirmation means freedom, leaving behind the quarantine of the Tower where she's lived all her life for a new life in the city — no filtration veils required.
But the queen has other plans. The queen is dying and needs a new heart. Daughter or not, Amara's will do. A Guardsman wants to save Amara, but is it for love, or his own dark want?
For centuries our evolution has stagnated. Surrounded by technology, we ceased to adapt. Until now...
When eighteen year old Chris is accused of treason, his world is changed forever. Abducted in the night, he wakes in a facility hidden deep in the Californian mountains. There he is subjected to the depraved experiments of the Praegressus Project – a government led initiative to enhance the human race. Unfortunately for Chris, the chances of survival are slim. But only the lucky get to die.
By the way, if you aren't yet receiving this in an email, you can subscribe to my blog mailing list here.
Robert Baxter once reveled in the intoxicating delights of Atopia—the man-made island where humans lose themselves in a world of boundless virtual realities. Now, Bob has returned to immerse himself in this mind-altering, consciousness-sharing refuge from the eroding Earth.
But something is very wrong. Bob feels a tidal wave of doom cresting above the pleasure dome that is Atopia. As alternate universes perish, the salvation of all he loves—and all that exists—rests with Bob alone. To save the future, he must journey to the farthest edge of the past, where existence itself began and Atopia’s deepest secrets may lie. Yet even the knowledge Bob ultimately gains may not be a match for an enemy as powerful as a god, and as all-consuming as death...
Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom. Unable to make the decision alone, it revives the sole human aboard - the enemy officer who crippled it.
Commander Olivia Johnson wakes to find herself in the infirmary of a strange vessel. Her nightmares deepen when she discovers it is the ship that attacked her destroyer. Even as she recovers from her physical injuries, she can't get past her survivor's guilt. She might have failed to protect her crew, but she vows to take revenge on their killer.
When the ship uncovers a genocidal plot by the commander's own admirals, Johnson realises just what is at stake. Together, the AI ship and the human officer must recruit outsiders from both sides. Training the misfits in battle to prevent the atrocity may be an impossible task, but running and hiding is no longer an option.
Several colonies have been attacked, their populations eradicated and their buildings razed. The culprits belong to an extremist organization, terrorists known only as Orion’s Light. These criminals operate in the same circles as pirates but represent a far more dangerous threat, one of religious zeal and terrifying, military style discipline.
Alliance High Command sends the Behemoth to investigate the attacks, charging them to dispense justice on Orion’s Light and to stop whatever scheme they’re involved in. Armed with the brilliant scientist Durant Vi’Puren, they head out to confront one of the most dangerous adversaries they’ve confronted. For the leader of Orion’s Light may have been one of their own once upon a time and his ambitions could be the domination of all life in the galaxy.
Earth is under attack.
20 years after the American-Chinese war devastated our worlds, we finally have a tense peace. But legendary American Admiral Jack Mattis, on his inspection tour of the first joint American-Chinese space station, finds himself in the middle of the unthinkable: an alien invasion.
Their ships are powerful, their weapons overwhelming. And in the confusion, our tentative peace with the Chinese is shaken to the core.
Taking command of his old battleship, The Midway, Admiral Mattis races the alien fleet to Earth, desperate to prevent the utter destruction of humanity's home. And in Earth's darkest hour, Mattis must unify and lead old adversaries to the fight against a common enemy, one that doesn't care about flags or borders. An enemy driven by malevolent hate and a thirst for blood. An enemy that cares for one thing only: Earth's destruction.
Dead planets litter the Alorian Galaxy in the wake of interstellar war...
Ensign Brendle Quinn has spent five years loyally serving the Greshian Empire in their relentless quest to dominate the Alorian Galaxy. But, as his ship decimates planet after planet, he finds his sympathies swinging toward their defeated enemies.
Sergeant Anki Paro, a Luthian Marine, has been anxiously awaiting the call to deploy. As the last line of defense against the crushing Greshian forces, she hopes the time has finally come for her world to stand against tyranny. However, as her society prepares for imminent destruction, questions of misplaced loyalties lead Anki to wonder if the world she is trying to save has any real intentions of surviving.
As Brendle's and Anki’s worlds collide, they find themselves in an unlikely alliance to try to stop the full might of the Greshian Empire before there’s nothing left to fight for.
In a few hundred years, the Algol system becomes humanity's new home. The question is: is it a better one? When a crew of arms smugglers botches their latest job, Corps-deserter and crewmember, Aly Erikson, is separated from her brother, the only person she can trust, and left behind to fight for her life. In the aftermath, as she tries to piece together what happened, a crew of roughneck settlers pressgang her into a dangerous mission in the heart of Corps territory. Time is running out to get back everything she's lost: her crew, her brother, and her options. But no one is taking her gun.
They're all gone. We remember them like yesterday: pieces of our stolen heritage. Things like NASA. Football. Parades and pies. Good things, comfortable things. We remember a time when we were alone in the universe, safe and oblivious.
But it's all gone now.
We called them the Telestines, and in the face of their ruthless invasion we were powerless. By 2040, all the world's governments and militaries had fallen, and the remnants of humanity exiled to the solar system. We looked down on our blue planet, so close to our birthplace, so close to our home. But the miles may as well have been lightyears.
Our anger smoldered in the darkness of space. On Mars. On Ganymede. In the dank crowded filth of the asteroids. We swore: we will take our planet back.
And today, it begins. Our fleet is ready. Our soldiers determined.
Earth will be ours again.
Welcome to the Wild North, a desolate wasteland where criminals go to hide—if they can outlast the drought and the dangers of the desert. Or the dangers of something else.
Meet Nox, the Coilhunter. A mechanic and toymaker by trade, a bounty hunter by circumstance. He isn't in it for the money. He's in it for justice, and there's a lot of justice that needs to be paid.
Between each kill, he's looking for someone who has kept out of his crosshairs for quite a while—the person who murdered his wife and children. The trail has long gone cold, but there are changes happening, the kind of changes that uncover footprints and spent bullet casings.
Plagued by nightmares, he's made himself into a living one, the kind the criminals and conmen fear.
So, welcome, fair folk, to the Wild North. If the land doesn't get you, the Coilhunter will.
The plague was born from hope.
It was meant to change the world. To cure the incurable and rebuild the broken. When the world ended, the weight of its dead fell on the shoulders of the man at the heart of it all.
For Kell McDonald, survival is not enough.
Alone and surrounded by enemies, he must find a way to do what only he can: find a cure, and perhaps redemption.
Like most engineered kids, Amara can't wait to turn sixteen. Sixteen means confirmation of immunity to the aging infection that plagues mankind. And confirmation means freedom, leaving behind the quarantine of the Tower where she's lived all her life for a new life in the city — no filtration veils required.
But the queen has other plans. The queen is dying and needs a new heart. Daughter or not, Amara's will do. A Guardsman wants to save Amara, but is it for love, or his own dark want?
For centuries our evolution has stagnated. Surrounded by technology, we ceased to adapt. Until now...
When eighteen year old Chris is accused of treason, his world is changed forever. Abducted in the night, he wakes in a facility hidden deep in the Californian mountains. There he is subjected to the depraved experiments of the Praegressus Project – a government led initiative to enhance the human race. Unfortunately for Chris, the chances of survival are slim. But only the lucky get to die.
The April Roundup of Sci-fi Books
Last weekend I spent a wonderful day on Dartmoor with my daughters. Walking, scrambling and weaselling (the caving equivalent of bouldering) were all on the menu. They even found five letterboxes!
This month have split my round-up in half. This first part covers Instafreebie books. My usual collection of suggestions from other retailers can be found in the next article.
Instafreebie is a service which allows readers to download free ebooks, usually in exchange for agreeing to have their email address added to the author's mailing list. You can simply unsubscribe at any time if you don't want to hear from them any more. It is probably worth waiting to see what they have to say, for instance if you grab a copy of my book Independence, you will receive monthly scifi roundups like this one, interviews with authors, an exclusive short story, and background on my characters.
All participating books should be available from 28 April to 5 May 2017, however many will continue to be downloadable long after that.
Click here to continue to part two of this month's scifi round-up...
This month have split my round-up in half. This first part covers Instafreebie books. My usual collection of suggestions from other retailers can be found in the next article.
Instafreebie is a service which allows readers to download free ebooks, usually in exchange for agreeing to have their email address added to the author's mailing list. You can simply unsubscribe at any time if you don't want to hear from them any more. It is probably worth waiting to see what they have to say, for instance if you grab a copy of my book Independence, you will receive monthly scifi roundups like this one, interviews with authors, an exclusive short story, and background on my characters.
All participating books should be available from 28 April to 5 May 2017, however many will continue to be downloadable long after that.
Click here to continue to part two of this month's scifi round-up...
April 9, 2017
An Excerpt from Equality
I'm afraid that the author I was going to interview this month was suddenly unavailable. So instead, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of my work in progress.
Equality is a military science fiction novel in the Two Democracies: Revolution series. It is due to be released this summer.
In the chapter below, Prefect Olivia Johnson leads her small fleet and their allies to retake their adopted homeworld of Robespierre from mysterious enemies. Please note that this is an early draft and has not yet been properly edited or proofread.
“First wave, go.”Two frigates flashed and disappeared. Johnson surveyed the crew on Orion’s bridge. All sat calmly, some talking to colleagues in other parts of the ship, others silently reviewing data.“Set the clock at two minutes,” she said. A red countdown appeared in the corner of her vision. Over the next few seconds, the confirmations from the other ships in the fleet arrived, staggered by the light travel time between them.
The clock ticked over to thirty seconds. Johnson took a deep breath. “All stations, give me a final go / no go.”“Engineering, go,” called Specialist Smith. Yang would be hard at work in the drive room.“Flight, go.”“Sensors, go.” Centurion Hanke shone with confidence. Gone, it seemed, was the awkward teenager.“Tactical, go.” Johnson still expected to hear Levarsson’s voice, even though it was months since she’d been given her own command.“Air group, go.”“Legionaries, go,” called Decurion Ombaru on behalf of Centurion Anson. Like the chief engineer, the centurion’s duty station was elsewhere.“Damage control, go.”“Infirmary, go.”“Secondary bridge, go.”The bridge lit with a swirl of bright motes. They coalesced into the image of a blue-skinned woman in a green dress standing beside Johnson. “Orion, go.”The names of the other ships in the fleet turned green in Johnson’s peripheral vision. She reclined in her acceleration couch, but her calm demeanor belied her racing pulse.“All hands, standby for manoeuvering.” Johnson shuffled around as the arms of her couch folded over her and gel pumped into the cushions.She took a deep breath. “Clear to jump on schedule.”The bridge wobbled as Johnson fought off a wave of nausea. Dammit. We really need to suss out what stops that happening when I’m with Indie, and fit it to Orion.The display refreshed, revealing the two frigates from the first wave in otherwise empty space. Over the next few seconds the other ships appeared, the light from their arrival taking time to travel to the Orion. The data from all their sensors combined, and a holographic representation coalesced in the centre of the bridge.“I’m not showing any hostile ships,” said the tactical officer. “But we’ll have to get a lot closer before Robespierre will be in range of the new counter-stealth sensors.”“Understood, Yosef.” Johnson squinted at the display. Nothing tickled her intuition. She opened a channel to each element of her fleet. “Flag to all ships, proceed with plan Alpha Two.”The frigates boosted hard, heading out in arcs that would bring them to Robespierre from opposite sides. The core of the fleet lit their mains, plotting a course that would take them near the least-time course, but above the ecliptic. ^Good hunting, Olivia.^ The Indescribable Joy of Destruction didn’t show on the sensor feeds. At the velocity it had jumped in, it would already be on its way to check out the base it had found on its previous recces.^Good hunting, Indie,^ she replied. His departure tugged at a thread in her heart, but her place was in the command centre.“Orion, you have the bridge,” Johnson said, triggering the release on her acceleration couch. The enfolding arms out of the way, she stood. “I’ll be in my ready room if you need me.”She knows where every member of the crew is at all times. I guess that statement was more for the rest of the staffers.“Make sure you all rotate with your deputies and get some rest,” she said to the room at large, before leaving through the hatch behind her chair.
#
One and a half hours into her next shift, Johnson stretched out in her command couch. A flicker of movement caught her attention, and she enlarged a section of the holographic display. The Indescribable Joy of Destruction’s icon was active and weaving about, though there was no suggestion of what it was dodging.^A littl- hel- would be apprec-ted ove- here,^ sent Indie. Then the link shut off.The deck shifted under Johnson, making her glad everyone on the bridge was ensconced in acceleration couches. The pilot looked over to her, lifting his hands clear of the controls. Johnson raised an eyebrow at Orion.^I know, you didn’t order me to change course,^ Orion sent, her projection remaining impassive. ^If it is bad enough for Indie to request help, I am the only ship capable of rendering assistance. I merely pre-empted what would be your logical order.^Johnson shook her head fractionally. ^Quite right. Perhaps a quick heads up next time?^The pilot canted his head for a few seconds then returned his hands to the controls.^I have apologised to Decurion Thompson,^ sent Orion. ^I will warn him before any further non-emergency course changes.^Johnson checked the link to Indie, confirming her suspicion that it was being jammed. Despite coming across this jamming the first time they’d met this enemy, they were nowhere near a way to burn through with normal comms.The display showed his last known position and course. Johnson tried to guess what her friend was doing. Unfortunately, his actions in battle were very unpredictable; a good thing for avoiding the enemy, terrible for getting rescued.Should I launch fighters? There’s not much they can do against something threatening Indie, but they’ll get me eyes in the area.Johnson rapped her knuckles on the arm of her chair. “CAG, green deck.”“Green deck, aye,” replied Centurion Ngie, the grey-haired commander of the air group, before turning to his screens. “Launch all birds.”Eight Goshawk fighters hurtled out of the axial tubes, two per flight deck, over the course of the next three seconds. Their main engines lit and added to the momentum imparted by the two-hundred-metre catapults. “Strike wing away,” reported Ngie.Another four fighters rippled out of the much shorter lateral tubes on one of the decks. They split into two pairs and moved away from the Orion, keeping pace with her. “CAP away.”“Thank you CAG,” said Johnson. She’d served on a carrier for a couple of months, back when she’d been a young lieutenant in the Congressional navy. It had taken her almost three weeks to pluck up the courage to ask someone why the ‘air’ had survived in ‘combat air patrol’ and ‘commander air group’, why it hadn’t become ‘space’. The squadron leader had laughed so deeply that Johnson had half expected him to ruffle her hair when he recovered. It turned out that it was just one of those things you didn’t question, a tradition going back so far there was no way anyone was going to change it. Rather like the name Marine.A larger vessel emerged from one of Orion’s fight decks. The moment it was over the threshold, its main engines lit, outshining the squadron of fighters. Orion winced and Johnson chuckled.There goes Seivers. Chief of the Deck’ll be fuming about her opening the throttle so close!
Half an hour later, the telemetry from the strike wing came back strong through the laser link. Johnson had to remind herself that Indie was probably fine, his lack of signal probably down to not knowing their position to beam towards.Split down into pairs, they swept space for clues, but there was nothing. They couldn’t even get a general sense of a source of the jamming. A whole fleet could be hiding behind the gas giant, but at least she’d get warning if they made a move.A comms link request popped up in Johnson’s vision. She checked the sender and accepted. “Percy, what’ve you got?”“We have found The Indescribable Joy of Destruction. I am attempting to establish a connection while Seivers keeps us out of harm’s way.”Johnson perked up. She sent an order for the strike wing to redirect to The Perception of Prejudice’s location. The connection widened and Johnson saw The Indescribable Joy of Destruction tumbling through space. “What do you think happened?”“I do not have sufficient data to speculate.”Johnson cursed under her breath, having forgotten how young an AI Percy was. “Can I talk to Seivers?”“I am afraid not. There is rather a lot of harm around here and we keep getting in its way.”Johnson blinked. “Just give me a sitrep.”“We are currently being engaged by twenty-three small craft. They are armed with small versions of the distortion field weapon you met the first time you encountered this enemy. Given the accelerations they are performing, I would speculate that they are not crewed by humans.”“You’ll have backup in… six minutes. Can you hold out?”“They seem quite intent on us, but it seems they are not intent on a quick kill. All twenty-one are co-ordinating their attacks, but in small waves.”^Orion? How long to weapons range?^^Twelve minutes, assuming you want better than even odds of hitting the right targets.^Do I risk the strike wing? AI fighters would make mincemeat of them.“Having observed them for several minutes now,” said Percy, “I have formed the opinion that they are not autonomous. They act in packs rather than as individuals, and there is a distinct time lag when they react to a change in our tactics. For instance, we used the railgun for the first time just now, and it took six point two seven seconds before they started to avoid the bow. And then all sixteen craft changed their attack patterns simultaneously.”Johnson ran the maths in her head. Say three seconds to realise what had happened and issue new orders. That left one point five seconds comms lag each way, two seconds at most. She opened a channel to the CAG. ^New intel. Have the strike wing search for an enemy carrier. Two light second radius from The Perception of Prejudice’s location. Coordinate with Orion.^^Will do. What about Flight Decurion Seivers?^ asked Ngie.^She’ll have to look after herself.^Just the way she prefers it.“Thank you, Percy. That was useful intel. We’re hunting for their command ship now.”“You are welcome. You might want to tell Orion that these little things appear to lose lock for a fraction of a second whenever I set my adaptive camouflage to pulse dazzle patterns. She might find that useful herself at some point.”Johnson checked on the rest of her fleet. The Serendipity of Meeting and the Concorde destroyers were on course for Robespierre as planned. She briefly considered recalling Seren, but realised how that would look.Besides, if those destroyers get into trouble like we’re having here, they won’t stand a chance without her.Orion brightened next to Johnson. “I have lost telemetry from two Goshawks near the gas giant.”Johnson squinted at the main situational display. The two light second globe clipped the planet. She replayed the events in her head, confirming where Indie had originally reported trouble. “It’s there, isn’t it?”Orion nodded. “Most likely.”“Do you have a clear shot?”Orion grinned. “We have no assets in the line of fire.”“Engage as you see fit.”Seconds later the ship hummed as the Orion’smain railgun turrets sent round after round towards the gas giant. Five hundred steel slugs were flung out at significant fractions of the speed of light within seventy seconds.“How you doing, Percy?” Johnson transmitted.“Fine and dandy,” he replied. “We are having a particularly intimate dance with a dozen little acquaintances. Shame we are out of missiles.”Johnson rolled her eyes. “We have engaged where we think the enemy command ship is. Let me know if the drones’ behaviour changes at all.”“Will do.”Two minutes after the last round left Orion, the first hit the atmosphere. Johnson’s jaw dropped. She had expected a random spread of impacts. Instead, concentric rings of hits spread out across the face of the planet. It only took five seconds for all five hundred rounds to fall, each one with the energy of a strategic nuclear weapon. A circular patch of atmosphere was blown away, revealing a greenish lower layer.There’s something there.The lights dimmed. Johnson caught other bridge crew looking around with apprehensive glances.“Don’t worry,” said Orion, rising to address to the room at large.Johnson could feel where the power was being diverted, and made a fist. Just over a second later a light flared against the green clouds.“Got him,” said Orion, and sat back down, folding her hands onto her lap.
Equality is a military science fiction novel in the Two Democracies: Revolution series. It is due to be released this summer.
In the chapter below, Prefect Olivia Johnson leads her small fleet and their allies to retake their adopted homeworld of Robespierre from mysterious enemies. Please note that this is an early draft and has not yet been properly edited or proofread.
“First wave, go.”Two frigates flashed and disappeared. Johnson surveyed the crew on Orion’s bridge. All sat calmly, some talking to colleagues in other parts of the ship, others silently reviewing data.“Set the clock at two minutes,” she said. A red countdown appeared in the corner of her vision. Over the next few seconds, the confirmations from the other ships in the fleet arrived, staggered by the light travel time between them.
The clock ticked over to thirty seconds. Johnson took a deep breath. “All stations, give me a final go / no go.”“Engineering, go,” called Specialist Smith. Yang would be hard at work in the drive room.“Flight, go.”“Sensors, go.” Centurion Hanke shone with confidence. Gone, it seemed, was the awkward teenager.“Tactical, go.” Johnson still expected to hear Levarsson’s voice, even though it was months since she’d been given her own command.“Air group, go.”“Legionaries, go,” called Decurion Ombaru on behalf of Centurion Anson. Like the chief engineer, the centurion’s duty station was elsewhere.“Damage control, go.”“Infirmary, go.”“Secondary bridge, go.”The bridge lit with a swirl of bright motes. They coalesced into the image of a blue-skinned woman in a green dress standing beside Johnson. “Orion, go.”The names of the other ships in the fleet turned green in Johnson’s peripheral vision. She reclined in her acceleration couch, but her calm demeanor belied her racing pulse.“All hands, standby for manoeuvering.” Johnson shuffled around as the arms of her couch folded over her and gel pumped into the cushions.She took a deep breath. “Clear to jump on schedule.”The bridge wobbled as Johnson fought off a wave of nausea. Dammit. We really need to suss out what stops that happening when I’m with Indie, and fit it to Orion.The display refreshed, revealing the two frigates from the first wave in otherwise empty space. Over the next few seconds the other ships appeared, the light from their arrival taking time to travel to the Orion. The data from all their sensors combined, and a holographic representation coalesced in the centre of the bridge.“I’m not showing any hostile ships,” said the tactical officer. “But we’ll have to get a lot closer before Robespierre will be in range of the new counter-stealth sensors.”“Understood, Yosef.” Johnson squinted at the display. Nothing tickled her intuition. She opened a channel to each element of her fleet. “Flag to all ships, proceed with plan Alpha Two.”The frigates boosted hard, heading out in arcs that would bring them to Robespierre from opposite sides. The core of the fleet lit their mains, plotting a course that would take them near the least-time course, but above the ecliptic. ^Good hunting, Olivia.^ The Indescribable Joy of Destruction didn’t show on the sensor feeds. At the velocity it had jumped in, it would already be on its way to check out the base it had found on its previous recces.^Good hunting, Indie,^ she replied. His departure tugged at a thread in her heart, but her place was in the command centre.“Orion, you have the bridge,” Johnson said, triggering the release on her acceleration couch. The enfolding arms out of the way, she stood. “I’ll be in my ready room if you need me.”She knows where every member of the crew is at all times. I guess that statement was more for the rest of the staffers.“Make sure you all rotate with your deputies and get some rest,” she said to the room at large, before leaving through the hatch behind her chair.
#
One and a half hours into her next shift, Johnson stretched out in her command couch. A flicker of movement caught her attention, and she enlarged a section of the holographic display. The Indescribable Joy of Destruction’s icon was active and weaving about, though there was no suggestion of what it was dodging.^A littl- hel- would be apprec-ted ove- here,^ sent Indie. Then the link shut off.The deck shifted under Johnson, making her glad everyone on the bridge was ensconced in acceleration couches. The pilot looked over to her, lifting his hands clear of the controls. Johnson raised an eyebrow at Orion.^I know, you didn’t order me to change course,^ Orion sent, her projection remaining impassive. ^If it is bad enough for Indie to request help, I am the only ship capable of rendering assistance. I merely pre-empted what would be your logical order.^Johnson shook her head fractionally. ^Quite right. Perhaps a quick heads up next time?^The pilot canted his head for a few seconds then returned his hands to the controls.^I have apologised to Decurion Thompson,^ sent Orion. ^I will warn him before any further non-emergency course changes.^Johnson checked the link to Indie, confirming her suspicion that it was being jammed. Despite coming across this jamming the first time they’d met this enemy, they were nowhere near a way to burn through with normal comms.The display showed his last known position and course. Johnson tried to guess what her friend was doing. Unfortunately, his actions in battle were very unpredictable; a good thing for avoiding the enemy, terrible for getting rescued.Should I launch fighters? There’s not much they can do against something threatening Indie, but they’ll get me eyes in the area.Johnson rapped her knuckles on the arm of her chair. “CAG, green deck.”“Green deck, aye,” replied Centurion Ngie, the grey-haired commander of the air group, before turning to his screens. “Launch all birds.”Eight Goshawk fighters hurtled out of the axial tubes, two per flight deck, over the course of the next three seconds. Their main engines lit and added to the momentum imparted by the two-hundred-metre catapults. “Strike wing away,” reported Ngie.Another four fighters rippled out of the much shorter lateral tubes on one of the decks. They split into two pairs and moved away from the Orion, keeping pace with her. “CAP away.”“Thank you CAG,” said Johnson. She’d served on a carrier for a couple of months, back when she’d been a young lieutenant in the Congressional navy. It had taken her almost three weeks to pluck up the courage to ask someone why the ‘air’ had survived in ‘combat air patrol’ and ‘commander air group’, why it hadn’t become ‘space’. The squadron leader had laughed so deeply that Johnson had half expected him to ruffle her hair when he recovered. It turned out that it was just one of those things you didn’t question, a tradition going back so far there was no way anyone was going to change it. Rather like the name Marine.A larger vessel emerged from one of Orion’s fight decks. The moment it was over the threshold, its main engines lit, outshining the squadron of fighters. Orion winced and Johnson chuckled.There goes Seivers. Chief of the Deck’ll be fuming about her opening the throttle so close!
Half an hour later, the telemetry from the strike wing came back strong through the laser link. Johnson had to remind herself that Indie was probably fine, his lack of signal probably down to not knowing their position to beam towards.Split down into pairs, they swept space for clues, but there was nothing. They couldn’t even get a general sense of a source of the jamming. A whole fleet could be hiding behind the gas giant, but at least she’d get warning if they made a move.A comms link request popped up in Johnson’s vision. She checked the sender and accepted. “Percy, what’ve you got?”“We have found The Indescribable Joy of Destruction. I am attempting to establish a connection while Seivers keeps us out of harm’s way.”Johnson perked up. She sent an order for the strike wing to redirect to The Perception of Prejudice’s location. The connection widened and Johnson saw The Indescribable Joy of Destruction tumbling through space. “What do you think happened?”“I do not have sufficient data to speculate.”Johnson cursed under her breath, having forgotten how young an AI Percy was. “Can I talk to Seivers?”“I am afraid not. There is rather a lot of harm around here and we keep getting in its way.”Johnson blinked. “Just give me a sitrep.”“We are currently being engaged by twenty-three small craft. They are armed with small versions of the distortion field weapon you met the first time you encountered this enemy. Given the accelerations they are performing, I would speculate that they are not crewed by humans.”“You’ll have backup in… six minutes. Can you hold out?”“They seem quite intent on us, but it seems they are not intent on a quick kill. All twenty-one are co-ordinating their attacks, but in small waves.”^Orion? How long to weapons range?^^Twelve minutes, assuming you want better than even odds of hitting the right targets.^Do I risk the strike wing? AI fighters would make mincemeat of them.“Having observed them for several minutes now,” said Percy, “I have formed the opinion that they are not autonomous. They act in packs rather than as individuals, and there is a distinct time lag when they react to a change in our tactics. For instance, we used the railgun for the first time just now, and it took six point two seven seconds before they started to avoid the bow. And then all sixteen craft changed their attack patterns simultaneously.”Johnson ran the maths in her head. Say three seconds to realise what had happened and issue new orders. That left one point five seconds comms lag each way, two seconds at most. She opened a channel to the CAG. ^New intel. Have the strike wing search for an enemy carrier. Two light second radius from The Perception of Prejudice’s location. Coordinate with Orion.^^Will do. What about Flight Decurion Seivers?^ asked Ngie.^She’ll have to look after herself.^Just the way she prefers it.“Thank you, Percy. That was useful intel. We’re hunting for their command ship now.”“You are welcome. You might want to tell Orion that these little things appear to lose lock for a fraction of a second whenever I set my adaptive camouflage to pulse dazzle patterns. She might find that useful herself at some point.”Johnson checked on the rest of her fleet. The Serendipity of Meeting and the Concorde destroyers were on course for Robespierre as planned. She briefly considered recalling Seren, but realised how that would look.Besides, if those destroyers get into trouble like we’re having here, they won’t stand a chance without her.Orion brightened next to Johnson. “I have lost telemetry from two Goshawks near the gas giant.”Johnson squinted at the main situational display. The two light second globe clipped the planet. She replayed the events in her head, confirming where Indie had originally reported trouble. “It’s there, isn’t it?”Orion nodded. “Most likely.”“Do you have a clear shot?”Orion grinned. “We have no assets in the line of fire.”“Engage as you see fit.”Seconds later the ship hummed as the Orion’smain railgun turrets sent round after round towards the gas giant. Five hundred steel slugs were flung out at significant fractions of the speed of light within seventy seconds.“How you doing, Percy?” Johnson transmitted.“Fine and dandy,” he replied. “We are having a particularly intimate dance with a dozen little acquaintances. Shame we are out of missiles.”Johnson rolled her eyes. “We have engaged where we think the enemy command ship is. Let me know if the drones’ behaviour changes at all.”“Will do.”Two minutes after the last round left Orion, the first hit the atmosphere. Johnson’s jaw dropped. She had expected a random spread of impacts. Instead, concentric rings of hits spread out across the face of the planet. It only took five seconds for all five hundred rounds to fall, each one with the energy of a strategic nuclear weapon. A circular patch of atmosphere was blown away, revealing a greenish lower layer.There’s something there.The lights dimmed. Johnson caught other bridge crew looking around with apprehensive glances.“Don’t worry,” said Orion, rising to address to the room at large.Johnson could feel where the power was being diverted, and made a fist. Just over a second later a light flared against the green clouds.“Got him,” said Orion, and sat back down, folding her hands onto her lap.
March 27, 2017
The March Roundup of Scifi Books
This month, with the increasing day length, I've been able to get out more. I've had a few trips caving, as well as taking my daughters climbing. Then I spent this weekend assessing a sniper stalk and coaching on the range.
Closer to home, the garden is full of daffodils and crocuses, as well as my award-winning hellebores.
Right, enough about me for another few weeks. Here is my latest pick of science fiction books. We're back to a heavily milSF/space opera collection this month, though there are still some other genres for those of you who like variety.
By the way, if you aren't yet receiving this in an email, you can subscribe to my blog mailing list here.
Two men went on a surfing trip in a remote area. Only one came back, accused of murdering the other. Sounds simple, right?
Not quite, because the alleged murder happened on another planet, the accused is a member of the secretive Pretoria Cartel of super-rich business tycoons--with illegal off-Earth ventures--and the only person who can remotely be called a witness is an alien, the elder Abri from the Pengali Thousand Islands tribe.
Diplomat Cory Wilson is asked to accompany Abri to the Nations of Earth court, but when he and his team arrive there, their contacts have been moved to different cases, their rooms are bugged and their movements restricted. No one is answering their questions, but it is when a lawyer is murdered and Cory's team captures a mysterious stalker that things get interesting.
Just as well they are prepared in the usual way: alert and highly armed.
Centuries after three quarters of the human population on earth fell victim to a savage plague, a new enemy rises to threaten the existence of humanity. A civilization divided by those still fully human, those part-machine and those who are both dead and alive at the same time, what it means to be truly human has already been long forgotten.
Surviving in a world four hundred years in the future that is as strange as it is dangerous, Detective Nathan Ironside is facing the first ever invasion of Earth by an alien force. Caught between the threat of war, an allied fleet and a family he barely knows, Nathan is assigned the case of a serial killer unlike any other he has ever seen: a killer who leaves his victims mummified and without their internal organs.
As the case takes him into the depths of New Washington’s darkest corners in search of black-market organ smugglers, he realizes that the killer is not a human being at all. As remote outposts in nearby star systems start falling silent one by one, Nathan and the fleet realize that the killers are entities that have assumed the identities of their countless victims to infiltrate mankind, and that the invasion of Earth began long, long ago…
Millions of years from now, the planet is dying. The oceans have dried into plains of ash. Strange, lethal creatures ravage the land. The surviving pockets of humanity eke out a brutal existence.
But some humans have also evolved—into Magi, men who can move objects with a mere thought, and Strigas, women who can control others' minds. Once, Gorgons could do both, and were the rarest of all. But a devastating war eradicated the Gorgons, and their terrifying presence faded into legend.
Miri, a powerful Striga and the chosen protector of her village by the Great Silt Sea, is sworn to defend her people against attacks by raiders and monsters. But when a mysterious young boy is found near the wastes, her once familiar world shatters, and she and her allies must journey across an unforgiving planet in order to unravel a mystery surrounding the extinction of the Gorgons—one that could change everything they thought they knew.
Sergeant Teve Porter's life changed when the Zeal invaded Earth and devastated the planet. Fighting on the ground for the United Earth Forces, Teve battles the alien aggressors while soldiers around him continue to die.
After a failed op, Teve is sent on a rescue mission to recover an important soldier taken prisoner by the Zeal. The ambitious task takes him behind enemy lines, revealing something so shocking about the Zeal, it may change the war forever.
Lieutenant Bradley Porter has spent the last three years fighting the Zeal fleet that hovers around Earth's orbit. A pilot in the Mars Armed Forces, Porter delivers vital packages to Earth from one of the Martian battlecarriers that defend Mars from the Zeal.
After recovering from a crash landing, Porter learns of the MAF's intentions to finally assault the Zeal fleet and reclaim Earth's orbit for humanity. Against all hope, he will come face to face with certain death and must make a choice that could cost him his life but swing the war in humanity's favor.
Will the two brothers defy the odds and survive the Zeal? Or will the ruthless aliens crush humanity into oblivion?
They tried to destroy our planets. Or way of life. They tried to send us into extinction. But we, the Coalition, fought them and won. That was a decade ago. We had assumed they were beaten for good.
We were wrong.
They’re known as the Host: a cabal of aliens seeking to dominate our sector of space. And they’re back—with help from a powerful new enemy.
Against their wrath, we must stand. We’re outnumbered and unprepared. If we lose, we lose everything.
But there is hope. An ancient race of long-dead but technologically advanced aliens called the Navigators have a ship called the Blackstar that could potentially turn the tide. That is if I, Kai Locke, a humble ship racer, can find it and learn how to harness its power in time.
If I fail, the Coalition will fall, and the Host will consign us to a distant memory. I refuse to let that happen. I will fight to my last breath for the Coalition’s survival.
The cybership came from deep space. It sent the signal. Now our computers are killing us, helping the enemy drive us into extinction.
But some of us refuse to die. We fight back. We learn.
Jon Hawkins revives from cryogenic sleep in a drifting SLN battleship. The crew is dead and the main computer has been destroyed. Jon is a soldier, the start of the resistance, the one man with the will to beat the alien death machines that have terminated a thousand races.
This is our hour as we face the ultimate evil, the galactic destroyer of life.
When Terra knelt to an alien Imperium, they guaranteed our safety and our future. But now their enemies are coming for us.
To preserve humanity’s survival and freedom in a hostile galaxy, Annette Bond tied her world to the A!Tol Imperium, taking on the mantle of Duchess of Terra to rule humanity in the Imperium’s name.
The A!Tol have provided technology, ships, and money to uplift the new Duchy of Terra, but those gifts come with strings attached. The Imperium has their own plan for Terra—but Bond has tricks of her own.
With enough time, she can build Earth a place in the galaxy. But as Bond’s many enemies gather their forces, the clouds of war threaten not only the recovering Terra but the entire Imperium.
Engineering corvette Copernicus One is down on the surface of Bayone Three. With her boat's crew missing, life support failing and nearly all her systems damaged, Chief Engineer Yili Curtiss must use all her scientific and tactical knowledge to practically re-invent spaceflight from the ground up before nearby enemies locate her crash site.
Meanwhile, with the entire crew of the battleship Argent also missing, a Sarn Invector destroyer squadron on the warpath and unusual readings coming from an abandoned planetary defense base near a civilian settlement on the planet, Rebecca Islington, skipper of the escort frigate DSS Minstrel, stands between Captain Hunter's enemies and the capture of a Skywatch capital ship.
Now, with the very fabric of space itself unraveling, a formidable enemy army pouring out of the Bayone Three base, and Jason Hunter forced to enlist the aid of the Condor Pirates and fugitive privateer Captain Cerylia L'Orleans, it is up to an enigmatic Skywatch Marine Intelligence officer, Commander Jayce Hunter's refitted Perseus Task Force, a battalion of 19,000-ton superheavy Razorback tanks and a malfunctioning Tarantula-Hawk gunship and its unlikely pilot to battle their way across Gunfighter's Quarry and learn the impossible secrets of the traitorous Colonel Atwell's dangerous plan to alter the destiny of the human race before it's too late!
Twenty five billion people have appeared in the Gaia system unexpectedly, and only one person knows how or why. Yet preparations for fifteen billion exist, but only one person remembers the work being done. The one who knows, and the one who remembers, are the same, but Jane is not human. So good is she at hiding being an Artificial Intelligence, no-one knows except her fellow AI's. To her falls the responsibility for guiding Humanity as they come to terms with not knowing where they are. The how and why seem simple to her, but twenty five into fifteen doesn’t fit, and humans don’t tend to get along when crowded together. It really isn’t her problem, and yet, Jane feels obligated to make things work. Humanity needs to spread out again, so who stays and who goes? But is there somewhere to go to? The galaxy doesn’t know about Humans yet, and they have their own problems. Human problems collide with Alien problems, with Jane in the middle. For Jane, everything is new. She's no longer the hero's side-kick, but is in her own right, Admiral Jane.
Humanity has colonized Mars and invented interstellar travel—joining the thousands of alien races that explore the deepest reaches of the galaxy.
Jas Harrington is the sole survivor of a Martian colony disaster. After growing up in institutions on Mars and Earth, she travels to Antarctica to train as a deep space security operative. All she wants is to graduate college and escape her past, but it isn’t long before she faces familiar prejudice against returned colonists.
Jas must navigate aggression, bigotry, and the frozen Antarctic wastes if she’s to fulfil her dreams.
For once, fighting her way out of her problems isn’t an option, until it is.
The Department is watching, ensuring telepaths play by the rules, but a murder in their ranks drives Ruby to hunt her friend's killer.
But as she goes undercover, Ruby gets tangled in the secretive world of telepaths, desperate to prevent a conflict the world isn’t ready for—and can’t survive.
Libby is a mutant, one of the top burglars and assassins in the world. For a price, she caters to executives’ secret desires. Eliminate your corporate rival? Deliver a priceless art masterpiece or necklace? Hack into another corporation’s network? Libby’s your girl.
Climate change met nuclear war, and humanity lost. The corporations stepped in, stripping governments of power. Civilization didn’t end, but it became less civilized. There are few rules as corporations jockey for position and control of assets and markets.
In the year 2200, the world has barely recovered the level of technology that existed before the ice melted and the subsequent wars. Corporate elites live in their walled estates and skyscraper apartments while the majority of humanity supplies their luxuries. On the bottom level, the mutants, the poor, and the criminals scramble every day just to survive.
The year is 2037AD.
Red: Mars is being colonized by the communist Chinese.
White: The Moon is Russian, but now, just like great swathes of the Siberian steppe, no longer loyal to the Putinists in Moscow.
And Blue: The US is leading a new western renaissance, free finally from the draining trials of the Third Gulf War and decades of economic malaise. The nation, optimistic and resurgent, plans to return to space.
But it seems that space is not as empty as we have been led to believe.
When the sky begins to burn, and not just on one world, we have to face the truth that our only possible allies are our all too human enemies.
It is the end of days, the Apocalypse of Revelations has begun and terrorists have effectively taken out the super powers cleansing the planet of the 'disease of civilisation'.
Small bands of survivors are forced to confront the horrors of a psychopathic enemy. They fight back the only way they can - with sudden and savage violence.
Sundown, under the mentorship of an ex IRA commander and a retired Vietnam war CIA operative, struggles with his own demons as he guides a determined band of civilians to defeat their enemy and to survive the harshness of the Australian desert.
It’s 1868. Samuel Inwood is fulfilling his dream of exploring remote Dutch New Guinea as a naturalist when things go horribly wrong. A savage aboriginal tribe takes him captive, and as Samuel fights to survive, he begins to doubt that he is the civilized man he had thought himself to be. But his personal concerns suddenly become trivial when he realizes the tribe is harboring the greatest discovery in human history, and he finds himself solely responsible for the future of all humanity.
This is Samuel Inwood’s story, as told in his own words in his field notebooks. It depicts the events that took place 150 years before those of the novel, Diffusion, but it is an independent, stand-alone story.
Set in 2175 in Colorado, USA, where Citigogs are the new form of cities and citizens are kept under a careful population control, we meet Ilia the Princess of our main Citigog named Iliad, and Jez a Giver. As Ilia spends more time with Jez, she finds herself drawn to the Outside and ventures out of her Citigog only to learn that everything is not what it seems.
Flint Dugdale, blunt Yorkshireman and reality TV show winner, has used his large frame and ‘persuasive personality’ to take charge of Britain’s first mission to Mars.
Little does he know that the base – built by an advance party of incompetent robots – is not quite ready yet, with no food, no water and no doors. Worse, the ship’s scanners are picking up strange signals from the surface.
There is life down there. But will it be pleased to see him?
Will be 99c 1-3 April 2017.
In Jonah’s dystopian world, the government doesn’t use barbarian warriors battling in the arena to pacify the masses anymore. Instead, they hold elections for modern day gladiators called politicians who thrive on hype and controlled media coverage to make the public think things will change, though the only thing that changes is the rich get richer no matter which party gets into office.
The aristocrats have learned to disguise robbery, exploitation and the new rise of serfdom by using controlled financial markets and crony corporations.
Children don’t work in factories anymore, instead they attend institutions where they are conditioned to avoid critical thinking. Instead, they learn just enough to make a bit of money so they can buy the mind-numbing products the company stores provide and accept being powerless and poor.
Outlaws, bullies and thugs are common, but many of them find camouflage in corporate suits or blue uniforms and badges that provide them the power to rob or terrorize the homeless, the poor minorities and anyone else who gets in their way. Resources are running out, but the elite only care about power and wealth. Though they’ve learned to 'donate' in a way that makes them seem benevolent in media coverage which they can purchase by parting with a few tax-deductible pennies on the dollar from the money they rake in. The frustrating thing for Jonah is that he IS a critical thinker, a scientist—expert in Systems Thinking with graduate degrees in Business, Engineering and Finance.
He’s developing a disruptive business model that could peacefully revolutionize society using existing science, technology and information, but it’s going to take a lot more than a village to make it work.
You can be sure the aristos don’t want their world to change.
As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, when a beautiful woman picks him up at his favorite bar while he’s on the rebound, he discovers the Earth has been invaded by aliens who also have a plot to rule the world.
Oh yes…, and she’s an alien too.
Yes.... it is, in fact, an alien invasion of Earth.
Tiana is a symbiont humanoid warrior who has pursued the parasite niiaH remnant across the galactic core to Earth.
She made the first contact alien encounter with the humans on Earth at the turn of the 19th century and she still hasn’t found the niiaH. It’s a big planet.
But she knows they're still here. She’s found the signs. She needs Jonah’s help, and Jonah sure as hell needs hers!
Ms Opeia Gayens, head of AllEarth Corp, has a problem—her company is rotten with Space Pirates. She wants to get rid of them once and for all. An unexpected invitation to dinner challenges her plans to be the bait that will draw the nasty pirates out. It’s been forever since she’s been on a date—just been Opi. Somehow, Owain McDevitt, mild-mannered, potato farmer from the planet Islay 2 is drawn into the intrigue. Yet, no one is who they seem, least of all Owain McDevitt.
Betrayal after betrayal threatens Opi’s existence and she must discover who the traitor really is before she can find her true path to happiness.
Set in the cyberpunk year 2055 in British Columbia, Canada, where humans are part robotic and robots are becoming more humanlike, the line dividing the two is becoming less clear.
When sixteen-year-old Fione meets Maci, a twenty-one-year-old Flexbot who escapes from ImaTech located along the crust of the Coast Mountains, Fione’s life is taken on a roller-coaster ride of events that begins with trying to save Maci from ImaTech Corporation and ends with trying to save the country.
With Fione's best friend and love interest, a Flexbot named Pix, Fione and Maci must come face-to-face with the greatest dangers their country has ever seen and learn the disturbing secrets of the popular online program Exotiqa—which her friends, family, and most of the country has downloaded onto their Cerebral Slabs. This won’t be easy, since Maci’s only love and greatest enemy, nicknamed Thirty, is tracking her every move.
Space is cold and lonely. You have to protect those around you. When calamity befalls the Hope Moon Base, tensions rise between the members of the crew. Martin has to do everything he can to save his team, even if it costs him his career. After all, the base may just be the one thing keeping the nations of the world at peace.
When the world falls apart, when civilization collapses, when life as we know it ends, our greatest terrors becomes real. Perhaps it's nuclear war with its poisonous radiation, hideous plagues or chemical contamination, rogue artificial intelligences controlling killer robots, or zombies that turn our friends and neighbors into inhuman monsters. What can the common man or woman do in the face of apocalyptic fears? The Apocalyptic Fears books are collections of bestselling, award-winning or just plain exciting stories by some of the best independent authors of today.
Vivian Hsu, a psychic mercenary with a fierce temper, is barely making ends meet down in the dark slums of the Columbia Sprawl. When a mysterious death compels her to investigate, she finds herself embroiled in the midst of a corporate conspiracy that threatens to leave her dead in the street.
Forced to rely on any help she can find, Vivian discovers an unlikely ally in the darkness- the startlingly powerful hazardous materials specialist, Yakov Berkowitz.
With the full might of a ruthless corporation aimed at her, can Vivian separate the truth from the lies before it is too late?
Who should she trust in a world of constant surveillance and betrayal? What frightening secrets lurk behind Yakov's intriguing eyes?
Ebola, one of the most feared of the hemorrhagic diseases, begins spreading across the borders of countries in West Africa. Soon after, the disease mutates into the “Z” or Zombie Virus. Journalist Hunter Morgan uncovers a disturbing connection between Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals and this mutation. Further investigation reveals a web of sinister intrigue connecting the pharmaceutical company to a treatment and research camp in West Africa, U.S. government officials, the CDC and the World Health Organization. Racing against time to find a cure, Hunter and several scientists go underground in order to hide from powerful forces trying to silence them forever.
Closer to home, the garden is full of daffodils and crocuses, as well as my award-winning hellebores.
Right, enough about me for another few weeks. Here is my latest pick of science fiction books. We're back to a heavily milSF/space opera collection this month, though there are still some other genres for those of you who like variety.
By the way, if you aren't yet receiving this in an email, you can subscribe to my blog mailing list here.
Two men went on a surfing trip in a remote area. Only one came back, accused of murdering the other. Sounds simple, right?
Not quite, because the alleged murder happened on another planet, the accused is a member of the secretive Pretoria Cartel of super-rich business tycoons--with illegal off-Earth ventures--and the only person who can remotely be called a witness is an alien, the elder Abri from the Pengali Thousand Islands tribe.
Diplomat Cory Wilson is asked to accompany Abri to the Nations of Earth court, but when he and his team arrive there, their contacts have been moved to different cases, their rooms are bugged and their movements restricted. No one is answering their questions, but it is when a lawyer is murdered and Cory's team captures a mysterious stalker that things get interesting.
Just as well they are prepared in the usual way: alert and highly armed.
Centuries after three quarters of the human population on earth fell victim to a savage plague, a new enemy rises to threaten the existence of humanity. A civilization divided by those still fully human, those part-machine and those who are both dead and alive at the same time, what it means to be truly human has already been long forgotten.
Surviving in a world four hundred years in the future that is as strange as it is dangerous, Detective Nathan Ironside is facing the first ever invasion of Earth by an alien force. Caught between the threat of war, an allied fleet and a family he barely knows, Nathan is assigned the case of a serial killer unlike any other he has ever seen: a killer who leaves his victims mummified and without their internal organs.
As the case takes him into the depths of New Washington’s darkest corners in search of black-market organ smugglers, he realizes that the killer is not a human being at all. As remote outposts in nearby star systems start falling silent one by one, Nathan and the fleet realize that the killers are entities that have assumed the identities of their countless victims to infiltrate mankind, and that the invasion of Earth began long, long ago…
Millions of years from now, the planet is dying. The oceans have dried into plains of ash. Strange, lethal creatures ravage the land. The surviving pockets of humanity eke out a brutal existence.
But some humans have also evolved—into Magi, men who can move objects with a mere thought, and Strigas, women who can control others' minds. Once, Gorgons could do both, and were the rarest of all. But a devastating war eradicated the Gorgons, and their terrifying presence faded into legend.
Miri, a powerful Striga and the chosen protector of her village by the Great Silt Sea, is sworn to defend her people against attacks by raiders and monsters. But when a mysterious young boy is found near the wastes, her once familiar world shatters, and she and her allies must journey across an unforgiving planet in order to unravel a mystery surrounding the extinction of the Gorgons—one that could change everything they thought they knew.
Sergeant Teve Porter's life changed when the Zeal invaded Earth and devastated the planet. Fighting on the ground for the United Earth Forces, Teve battles the alien aggressors while soldiers around him continue to die.
After a failed op, Teve is sent on a rescue mission to recover an important soldier taken prisoner by the Zeal. The ambitious task takes him behind enemy lines, revealing something so shocking about the Zeal, it may change the war forever.
Lieutenant Bradley Porter has spent the last three years fighting the Zeal fleet that hovers around Earth's orbit. A pilot in the Mars Armed Forces, Porter delivers vital packages to Earth from one of the Martian battlecarriers that defend Mars from the Zeal.
After recovering from a crash landing, Porter learns of the MAF's intentions to finally assault the Zeal fleet and reclaim Earth's orbit for humanity. Against all hope, he will come face to face with certain death and must make a choice that could cost him his life but swing the war in humanity's favor.
Will the two brothers defy the odds and survive the Zeal? Or will the ruthless aliens crush humanity into oblivion?
They tried to destroy our planets. Or way of life. They tried to send us into extinction. But we, the Coalition, fought them and won. That was a decade ago. We had assumed they were beaten for good.
We were wrong.
They’re known as the Host: a cabal of aliens seeking to dominate our sector of space. And they’re back—with help from a powerful new enemy.
Against their wrath, we must stand. We’re outnumbered and unprepared. If we lose, we lose everything.
But there is hope. An ancient race of long-dead but technologically advanced aliens called the Navigators have a ship called the Blackstar that could potentially turn the tide. That is if I, Kai Locke, a humble ship racer, can find it and learn how to harness its power in time.
If I fail, the Coalition will fall, and the Host will consign us to a distant memory. I refuse to let that happen. I will fight to my last breath for the Coalition’s survival.
The cybership came from deep space. It sent the signal. Now our computers are killing us, helping the enemy drive us into extinction.
But some of us refuse to die. We fight back. We learn.
Jon Hawkins revives from cryogenic sleep in a drifting SLN battleship. The crew is dead and the main computer has been destroyed. Jon is a soldier, the start of the resistance, the one man with the will to beat the alien death machines that have terminated a thousand races.
This is our hour as we face the ultimate evil, the galactic destroyer of life.
When Terra knelt to an alien Imperium, they guaranteed our safety and our future. But now their enemies are coming for us.
To preserve humanity’s survival and freedom in a hostile galaxy, Annette Bond tied her world to the A!Tol Imperium, taking on the mantle of Duchess of Terra to rule humanity in the Imperium’s name.
The A!Tol have provided technology, ships, and money to uplift the new Duchy of Terra, but those gifts come with strings attached. The Imperium has their own plan for Terra—but Bond has tricks of her own.
With enough time, she can build Earth a place in the galaxy. But as Bond’s many enemies gather their forces, the clouds of war threaten not only the recovering Terra but the entire Imperium.
Engineering corvette Copernicus One is down on the surface of Bayone Three. With her boat's crew missing, life support failing and nearly all her systems damaged, Chief Engineer Yili Curtiss must use all her scientific and tactical knowledge to practically re-invent spaceflight from the ground up before nearby enemies locate her crash site.
Meanwhile, with the entire crew of the battleship Argent also missing, a Sarn Invector destroyer squadron on the warpath and unusual readings coming from an abandoned planetary defense base near a civilian settlement on the planet, Rebecca Islington, skipper of the escort frigate DSS Minstrel, stands between Captain Hunter's enemies and the capture of a Skywatch capital ship.
Now, with the very fabric of space itself unraveling, a formidable enemy army pouring out of the Bayone Three base, and Jason Hunter forced to enlist the aid of the Condor Pirates and fugitive privateer Captain Cerylia L'Orleans, it is up to an enigmatic Skywatch Marine Intelligence officer, Commander Jayce Hunter's refitted Perseus Task Force, a battalion of 19,000-ton superheavy Razorback tanks and a malfunctioning Tarantula-Hawk gunship and its unlikely pilot to battle their way across Gunfighter's Quarry and learn the impossible secrets of the traitorous Colonel Atwell's dangerous plan to alter the destiny of the human race before it's too late!
Twenty five billion people have appeared in the Gaia system unexpectedly, and only one person knows how or why. Yet preparations for fifteen billion exist, but only one person remembers the work being done. The one who knows, and the one who remembers, are the same, but Jane is not human. So good is she at hiding being an Artificial Intelligence, no-one knows except her fellow AI's. To her falls the responsibility for guiding Humanity as they come to terms with not knowing where they are. The how and why seem simple to her, but twenty five into fifteen doesn’t fit, and humans don’t tend to get along when crowded together. It really isn’t her problem, and yet, Jane feels obligated to make things work. Humanity needs to spread out again, so who stays and who goes? But is there somewhere to go to? The galaxy doesn’t know about Humans yet, and they have their own problems. Human problems collide with Alien problems, with Jane in the middle. For Jane, everything is new. She's no longer the hero's side-kick, but is in her own right, Admiral Jane.
Humanity has colonized Mars and invented interstellar travel—joining the thousands of alien races that explore the deepest reaches of the galaxy.
Jas Harrington is the sole survivor of a Martian colony disaster. After growing up in institutions on Mars and Earth, she travels to Antarctica to train as a deep space security operative. All she wants is to graduate college and escape her past, but it isn’t long before she faces familiar prejudice against returned colonists.
Jas must navigate aggression, bigotry, and the frozen Antarctic wastes if she’s to fulfil her dreams.
For once, fighting her way out of her problems isn’t an option, until it is.
The Department is watching, ensuring telepaths play by the rules, but a murder in their ranks drives Ruby to hunt her friend's killer.
But as she goes undercover, Ruby gets tangled in the secretive world of telepaths, desperate to prevent a conflict the world isn’t ready for—and can’t survive.
Libby is a mutant, one of the top burglars and assassins in the world. For a price, she caters to executives’ secret desires. Eliminate your corporate rival? Deliver a priceless art masterpiece or necklace? Hack into another corporation’s network? Libby’s your girl.
Climate change met nuclear war, and humanity lost. The corporations stepped in, stripping governments of power. Civilization didn’t end, but it became less civilized. There are few rules as corporations jockey for position and control of assets and markets.
In the year 2200, the world has barely recovered the level of technology that existed before the ice melted and the subsequent wars. Corporate elites live in their walled estates and skyscraper apartments while the majority of humanity supplies their luxuries. On the bottom level, the mutants, the poor, and the criminals scramble every day just to survive.
The year is 2037AD.
Red: Mars is being colonized by the communist Chinese.
White: The Moon is Russian, but now, just like great swathes of the Siberian steppe, no longer loyal to the Putinists in Moscow.
And Blue: The US is leading a new western renaissance, free finally from the draining trials of the Third Gulf War and decades of economic malaise. The nation, optimistic and resurgent, plans to return to space.
But it seems that space is not as empty as we have been led to believe.
When the sky begins to burn, and not just on one world, we have to face the truth that our only possible allies are our all too human enemies.
It is the end of days, the Apocalypse of Revelations has begun and terrorists have effectively taken out the super powers cleansing the planet of the 'disease of civilisation'.
Small bands of survivors are forced to confront the horrors of a psychopathic enemy. They fight back the only way they can - with sudden and savage violence.
Sundown, under the mentorship of an ex IRA commander and a retired Vietnam war CIA operative, struggles with his own demons as he guides a determined band of civilians to defeat their enemy and to survive the harshness of the Australian desert.
It’s 1868. Samuel Inwood is fulfilling his dream of exploring remote Dutch New Guinea as a naturalist when things go horribly wrong. A savage aboriginal tribe takes him captive, and as Samuel fights to survive, he begins to doubt that he is the civilized man he had thought himself to be. But his personal concerns suddenly become trivial when he realizes the tribe is harboring the greatest discovery in human history, and he finds himself solely responsible for the future of all humanity.
This is Samuel Inwood’s story, as told in his own words in his field notebooks. It depicts the events that took place 150 years before those of the novel, Diffusion, but it is an independent, stand-alone story.
Set in 2175 in Colorado, USA, where Citigogs are the new form of cities and citizens are kept under a careful population control, we meet Ilia the Princess of our main Citigog named Iliad, and Jez a Giver. As Ilia spends more time with Jez, she finds herself drawn to the Outside and ventures out of her Citigog only to learn that everything is not what it seems.
Flint Dugdale, blunt Yorkshireman and reality TV show winner, has used his large frame and ‘persuasive personality’ to take charge of Britain’s first mission to Mars.
Little does he know that the base – built by an advance party of incompetent robots – is not quite ready yet, with no food, no water and no doors. Worse, the ship’s scanners are picking up strange signals from the surface.
There is life down there. But will it be pleased to see him?
Will be 99c 1-3 April 2017.
In Jonah’s dystopian world, the government doesn’t use barbarian warriors battling in the arena to pacify the masses anymore. Instead, they hold elections for modern day gladiators called politicians who thrive on hype and controlled media coverage to make the public think things will change, though the only thing that changes is the rich get richer no matter which party gets into office.
The aristocrats have learned to disguise robbery, exploitation and the new rise of serfdom by using controlled financial markets and crony corporations.
Children don’t work in factories anymore, instead they attend institutions where they are conditioned to avoid critical thinking. Instead, they learn just enough to make a bit of money so they can buy the mind-numbing products the company stores provide and accept being powerless and poor.
Outlaws, bullies and thugs are common, but many of them find camouflage in corporate suits or blue uniforms and badges that provide them the power to rob or terrorize the homeless, the poor minorities and anyone else who gets in their way. Resources are running out, but the elite only care about power and wealth. Though they’ve learned to 'donate' in a way that makes them seem benevolent in media coverage which they can purchase by parting with a few tax-deductible pennies on the dollar from the money they rake in. The frustrating thing for Jonah is that he IS a critical thinker, a scientist—expert in Systems Thinking with graduate degrees in Business, Engineering and Finance.
He’s developing a disruptive business model that could peacefully revolutionize society using existing science, technology and information, but it’s going to take a lot more than a village to make it work.
You can be sure the aristos don’t want their world to change.
As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, when a beautiful woman picks him up at his favorite bar while he’s on the rebound, he discovers the Earth has been invaded by aliens who also have a plot to rule the world.
Oh yes…, and she’s an alien too.
Yes.... it is, in fact, an alien invasion of Earth.
Tiana is a symbiont humanoid warrior who has pursued the parasite niiaH remnant across the galactic core to Earth.
She made the first contact alien encounter with the humans on Earth at the turn of the 19th century and she still hasn’t found the niiaH. It’s a big planet.
But she knows they're still here. She’s found the signs. She needs Jonah’s help, and Jonah sure as hell needs hers!
Ms Opeia Gayens, head of AllEarth Corp, has a problem—her company is rotten with Space Pirates. She wants to get rid of them once and for all. An unexpected invitation to dinner challenges her plans to be the bait that will draw the nasty pirates out. It’s been forever since she’s been on a date—just been Opi. Somehow, Owain McDevitt, mild-mannered, potato farmer from the planet Islay 2 is drawn into the intrigue. Yet, no one is who they seem, least of all Owain McDevitt.
Betrayal after betrayal threatens Opi’s existence and she must discover who the traitor really is before she can find her true path to happiness.
Set in the cyberpunk year 2055 in British Columbia, Canada, where humans are part robotic and robots are becoming more humanlike, the line dividing the two is becoming less clear.
When sixteen-year-old Fione meets Maci, a twenty-one-year-old Flexbot who escapes from ImaTech located along the crust of the Coast Mountains, Fione’s life is taken on a roller-coaster ride of events that begins with trying to save Maci from ImaTech Corporation and ends with trying to save the country.
With Fione's best friend and love interest, a Flexbot named Pix, Fione and Maci must come face-to-face with the greatest dangers their country has ever seen and learn the disturbing secrets of the popular online program Exotiqa—which her friends, family, and most of the country has downloaded onto their Cerebral Slabs. This won’t be easy, since Maci’s only love and greatest enemy, nicknamed Thirty, is tracking her every move.
Space is cold and lonely. You have to protect those around you. When calamity befalls the Hope Moon Base, tensions rise between the members of the crew. Martin has to do everything he can to save his team, even if it costs him his career. After all, the base may just be the one thing keeping the nations of the world at peace.
When the world falls apart, when civilization collapses, when life as we know it ends, our greatest terrors becomes real. Perhaps it's nuclear war with its poisonous radiation, hideous plagues or chemical contamination, rogue artificial intelligences controlling killer robots, or zombies that turn our friends and neighbors into inhuman monsters. What can the common man or woman do in the face of apocalyptic fears? The Apocalyptic Fears books are collections of bestselling, award-winning or just plain exciting stories by some of the best independent authors of today.
Vivian Hsu, a psychic mercenary with a fierce temper, is barely making ends meet down in the dark slums of the Columbia Sprawl. When a mysterious death compels her to investigate, she finds herself embroiled in the midst of a corporate conspiracy that threatens to leave her dead in the street.
Forced to rely on any help she can find, Vivian discovers an unlikely ally in the darkness- the startlingly powerful hazardous materials specialist, Yakov Berkowitz.
With the full might of a ruthless corporation aimed at her, can Vivian separate the truth from the lies before it is too late?
Who should she trust in a world of constant surveillance and betrayal? What frightening secrets lurk behind Yakov's intriguing eyes?
Ebola, one of the most feared of the hemorrhagic diseases, begins spreading across the borders of countries in West Africa. Soon after, the disease mutates into the “Z” or Zombie Virus. Journalist Hunter Morgan uncovers a disturbing connection between Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals and this mutation. Further investigation reveals a web of sinister intrigue connecting the pharmaceutical company to a treatment and research camp in West Africa, U.S. government officials, the CDC and the World Health Organization. Racing against time to find a cure, Hunter and several scientists go underground in order to hide from powerful forces trying to silence them forever.
March 9, 2017
An Interview with Ash Litton
Hello again. Before we get on to the interview, I just want to mention that my novel Liberty is available for the special price of 99c/99p this week.
So, shamefaced plug out of the way, to the interview... This month I'm talking to Ash Litton, author of the Appalachian Dream series.
First off, any tips on what to do and what not to do when writing?
Don't get bogged down by "rules" when writing. If you're sitting down to write: write. There's no sense in stopping every few lines to go back and edit out a verb arrangement or passive voice. Just write the story. Worry about editing later once you have the big, completed picture of the manuscript in front of you.
That's interesting, because it is the complete opposite to my approach. I find I cannot ignore the editing until I've finished. Anything I spot, I need to change then. If I don't, it will bug me until I do it, stopping me getting on with anything else.
Are you traditionally published or self-published?
I have one novel, Uncertain Heirs, that I keep querying to agents. In the meanwhile, I've got my other manuscripts and short stories that I'm self-publishing.
What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of each route?
While Uncertain Heirs has not been picked up by an agent, yet, I am able to use the process to fine-tune my skills at pitch, query, and summary writing; stay relatively well-informed with what the current market trend is for my genre based upon agent query requirements; and, perhaps most important, learn to accept rejection. The latter is so very important, because any author who hopes to be successful should always be ready for a bad review, but also to take said review with grace.
Unfortunately, the downside of pursuing traditional publishing is that there can be a LOT, and I mean a LOT, of waiting. Uncertain Heirs has been finished since June 2014. It's still being queried.
Conversely, self-publishing has been fantastic for me. I've got material on the market, I'm building my fanbase, I'm establishing my name in the industry. And I'm making a profit while doing so, which at least helps me to keep up the "rent" on my author site. It's taught me how to make connections with others, so that we can exchange skills and ideas, as well as set personal due dates and meet them. I've learned to be thorough, putting each story through as many peer reviews as necessary until it's in the best shape possible to be published.
The downside of self-publishing is that I'm alone in my own corner, managing every aspect of my platform. Website, marketing, story covers, editing, revising, etc. are all under my purview. I have no one that I can dictate duties to, because, quite simply, as a self-published author, I don't have the means to employ others to help. So my turnaround is slow, but you can guarantee that I'm doing my best to put out the most quality work possible.
How much research do you do?
A lot. I post articles every Thursday to my Facebook page that give the faintest taste of how involved my research can be.
Yeah. I love your Theory Thursdays.
Is there any marketing technique you used that had an immediate impact on your sales figures?
Facebook groups.
That's quite a contentious topic. I know some authors who swear by them, and others who say they're only populated by other authors posting their work and never reading anyone else's posts. What makes you come down on the pro side?
I didn't see the sales I do now until I started going to specific, indie-author Facebook groups and promoting my stories there each month.
I guess that the choice of group is critical. Congratulations on finding ones that work for you.
And finally... Who is your favourite literary villain and why?
I think Zabulon of the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko ranks pretty high on my list. Manipulative and cunning, he is certainly skilled at stirring doubt among the good guys. Definitely a villain to check out if you're into urban fantasy. Especially urban fantasy set in other countries aside from the USA.
Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I wish you well with your work, and good luck getting an agent for Uncertain Heirs.
Ash Litton is a writer and lover of sci-fi, fantasy, and all things fictional. She is the author of No Signal, Thoroughbred, Evening Hallow, and Comeuppance, and works on other Appalachian Dream Tales between her ongoing novel projects.
When she's not writing, she's drawing, and when she's not doing either of those, she's dreaming up new projects to work on. Born and raised in rural West Virginia, Ash has always wondered what things lay hidden in the hills around her. She attended West Virginia University, where she studied the English language before returning home to her family in rural West Virginia.
You can follow her on her website, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
So, shamefaced plug out of the way, to the interview... This month I'm talking to Ash Litton, author of the Appalachian Dream series.First off, any tips on what to do and what not to do when writing?
Don't get bogged down by "rules" when writing. If you're sitting down to write: write. There's no sense in stopping every few lines to go back and edit out a verb arrangement or passive voice. Just write the story. Worry about editing later once you have the big, completed picture of the manuscript in front of you.
That's interesting, because it is the complete opposite to my approach. I find I cannot ignore the editing until I've finished. Anything I spot, I need to change then. If I don't, it will bug me until I do it, stopping me getting on with anything else.
Are you traditionally published or self-published?
I have one novel, Uncertain Heirs, that I keep querying to agents. In the meanwhile, I've got my other manuscripts and short stories that I'm self-publishing.
What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of each route?
While Uncertain Heirs has not been picked up by an agent, yet, I am able to use the process to fine-tune my skills at pitch, query, and summary writing; stay relatively well-informed with what the current market trend is for my genre based upon agent query requirements; and, perhaps most important, learn to accept rejection. The latter is so very important, because any author who hopes to be successful should always be ready for a bad review, but also to take said review with grace.
Unfortunately, the downside of pursuing traditional publishing is that there can be a LOT, and I mean a LOT, of waiting. Uncertain Heirs has been finished since June 2014. It's still being queried.
Conversely, self-publishing has been fantastic for me. I've got material on the market, I'm building my fanbase, I'm establishing my name in the industry. And I'm making a profit while doing so, which at least helps me to keep up the "rent" on my author site. It's taught me how to make connections with others, so that we can exchange skills and ideas, as well as set personal due dates and meet them. I've learned to be thorough, putting each story through as many peer reviews as necessary until it's in the best shape possible to be published.
The downside of self-publishing is that I'm alone in my own corner, managing every aspect of my platform. Website, marketing, story covers, editing, revising, etc. are all under my purview. I have no one that I can dictate duties to, because, quite simply, as a self-published author, I don't have the means to employ others to help. So my turnaround is slow, but you can guarantee that I'm doing my best to put out the most quality work possible.
How much research do you do?
A lot. I post articles every Thursday to my Facebook page that give the faintest taste of how involved my research can be.
Yeah. I love your Theory Thursdays.
Is there any marketing technique you used that had an immediate impact on your sales figures?
Facebook groups.
That's quite a contentious topic. I know some authors who swear by them, and others who say they're only populated by other authors posting their work and never reading anyone else's posts. What makes you come down on the pro side?
I didn't see the sales I do now until I started going to specific, indie-author Facebook groups and promoting my stories there each month.
I guess that the choice of group is critical. Congratulations on finding ones that work for you.
And finally... Who is your favourite literary villain and why?
I think Zabulon of the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko ranks pretty high on my list. Manipulative and cunning, he is certainly skilled at stirring doubt among the good guys. Definitely a villain to check out if you're into urban fantasy. Especially urban fantasy set in other countries aside from the USA.
Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I wish you well with your work, and good luck getting an agent for Uncertain Heirs.
Ash Litton is a writer and lover of sci-fi, fantasy, and all things fictional. She is the author of No Signal, Thoroughbred, Evening Hallow, and Comeuppance, and works on other Appalachian Dream Tales between her ongoing novel projects.
When she's not writing, she's drawing, and when she's not doing either of those, she's dreaming up new projects to work on. Born and raised in rural West Virginia, Ash has always wondered what things lay hidden in the hills around her. She attended West Virginia University, where she studied the English language before returning home to her family in rural West Virginia.
You can follow her on her website, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
February 27, 2017
The February Round-up of Scifi Books
Today I want to start with an appeal. Normally, I would avoid this kind of thing, but this is such a good cause and it is a friend of mine raising money for it.
St Margaret's Hospice is committed to providing specialist palliative care, advice, support and respite to patients and their families living in Somerset and parts of neighbouring counties. Their care is available for those who have a terminal or life-limiting illness, for example cancer, motor neurone disease and chronic lung disease, and all care is free of charge.
My friend Ali is running the London marathon this year to raise money for the Hospice after they looked after her mother in her final days. If you could see your way to supporting this, you can donate at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/themarathonsisters.
Of course, I understand if you don't ahve nything to spare, or you support other charities. Perhaps you could share the link on Facebook?
Thank you for reading through that appeal, and sorry if it brought up any unpleasant memories. I know I struggled with thoughts of my own father, but that made me more determined to share.
1960s London. Kathy is a seductive singer. But she’s also human. Light knows his passion for her is reckless but he’s enchanted. Yet such a romance is forbidden. When the two worlds collide, it could mean the end. For both species.
When Light discovers his ruthless family’s horrifying experiments, he questions whether he should be slaying or saving the humans he’s always feared. What dark revelations will Light reveal at the heart of the experiments? Will he be able to stop them in time? The consequences of failure are unimaginable. Unless Light plays the part of hero, he risks losing everything. Including the two women he loves.
Strong-willed Kelsey Reed must escape tonight or tomorrow her government will take her kidney and give it to someone else.
She’ll need the help of her true love, Luke, to make this dangerous escape. This dystopian future Kelsey lives in was forged by survivors of pandemics that wiped out 80 percent of the world's population. Here, life is valued above all else. The mentally ill are sterilized, abortions are illegal and those who refuse to donate an organ when told are sentenced to death.
Determined not to give up her kidney or die, Kelsey and Luke enlists the help of a dodgy doctor to escape. The trio must disable the electronic tracking chip in Kelsey's arm for her to flee undetected. If they fail, Kelsey could be stripped of Luke, her kidney and everything else she holds dear.
Jo Mason believes that creativity, spontaneity, and faith exist as definable words, but not actionable items. Negative consequences always follow the rare positive outcomes. It seems her destiny is surviving a chaotic world she can't control. Hearing her own voice where she shouldn’t have leaves her wondering about her place in time.
Jeff has always been a part of her life, offering encouragements, wise words when she needed them, and many other things she can never completely thank him for. She knows he replaced her cousin who died saving his life. When she questions why he didn't get to stay with his family, Jeff replies that without fixing the timeline everything she knows would be different.
When Jeff’s twin brother Randy falls into her lap, both literally and figuratively, Jo hopes he can give her a better answer. There is only one slight problem… He doesn’t remember anything about himself or his life and what he does, doesn’t help.
Together, the three of them learn that life isn’t about who or what you know, but who and what you care for.
Despite his reputation as a brilliant and dedicated space engineer, John Rees is certain he is not the man everyone thinks he is. Haunted by the death of his father and one fatal decision that questions his morality, he doubts he will have a chance to redeem himself for a past he cannot escape.
But when 100 colonists go missing on an alien planet, John sees his chance to prove once and for all that one decision doesn’t create a monster. John and the crew of the Atlas struggle to survive the near-total malfunction of their power and navigation systems, evidence that a strange alien race intercepted the colonists, and even a near-impossible jump through hundreds of meters of solid rock.
Can John and the crew make use of limited resources and save the lives of their companions? Or will the challenges prove once and for all that John will never be able to find the peace that he seeks?
The core worlds of settled space enjoy a tenuous peace, unaware and ill prepared for the threat building beyond the furthest reaches of humanity. The star kingdom of Albion stands as a shining light of justice and mercy in a harsh galaxy, and they will be the first to suffer the Daegon's fury.
Defying his low born status, and despite his self-doubt, Commodore Thomas Gage has risen through the ranks by sheer grit and determination, defending Albion from brutal pirate clans.
And when the onslaught comes, Gage and his fleet may be Albion's last hope for freedom.
Esther Lysander, the driven, professional Marine ever conscious of the heavy weight of her father’s legacy, is selected to become an officer. She has high goals for her career—very high goals—and she believes the best method to achieve success is to be a complete hard-ass, keeping emotions at bay. This outlook has resulted in some notable achievements, but at the cost of friends and her relationship with her twin brother Noah, a price she is willing to pay.
First as an infantry platoon commander, then as a Recon Marine, Esther develops as a tactical commander, all the time putting her career first and foremost. As she grows into her billets, however, she begins to realize there is more to being a leader of Marines than simply the mission at hand. A true leader cannot consider her subordinates as mere chess pieces in her rise to the top, and a true Marine has to put the needs of the Corps and Federation above her own.
Ajax answers the call of duty and becomes an Einherjar space marine, charged with defending humanity against hideous alien monsters in furious combat across the galaxy.
The Garm, as they came to be called, emerged from the deepest parts of uncharted space, devouring all that lay before them, a great swarm that scoured entire star systems of all organic life. This space borne hive, this extinction fleet, made no attempts to communicate and offered no mercy.
Humanity has always been a deadly organism, and we would not so easily be made the prey. Unified against a common enemy, we fought back, meeting the swarm with soldiers upon every front.
We were resplendent in our fury, and yet, despite the terrible slaughter we visited upon the enemy, world after world still fell beneath ravenous tooth and wicked claw. For every beast slain in the field, another was swiftly hatched to take its place and humanity was faced with a grim war of attrition.
After a decade of bitter galactic conflict, it was all humanity could to do slow the advance of the swarm and with each passing year we came closer to extinction.
The grinding cost of war mounted. The realization set in that without a radical shift in tactics and technology the forces of humanity would run out of soldiers before it ran out of bullets.
In desperate response to the real threat of total annihilation, humanity created the Einherjar. Fearless new warriors with frightening new weapons who were sent to fight the wolves at the gate.
Nothing will stand in the way of Tiger Lily's dream of escaping the subterranean slums of Terra and visiting the stars. She enters the fierce competition for a place in the scout team on the next spaceship to the remote planet of Delta, where an earlier colony disappeared. Before the ship departs, the arrival of a mysterious message from Delta suggests that the descendants of the first colonists may have survived.
A risky mission to seek the lost colony exposes the team to unexpected dangers, and they encounter a grim warrior in the isolated valley. Has Tiger Lily met her match in the tortured man? Where is he leading them? And who are the real rulers of this strange world?
Cast adrift from old ties, Rei and the crew prepare to start a new chapter.
They were never designed to be heroes.
Hurricane. Ember. Aurora. Danger. State-sponsored superhumans known as Augments. Weapons created to end a war.
With the war over, their creators couldn't surrender the power and sought to hide it in the shadows. They forged ahead with covert operations and proxy wars despite growing condemnation. But one by one, Augments begin to ignore their handlers or disappear altogether. The quiver emptied.
A space fleet with seven thousand artificial human marines hurtles through space at near-light-speed to an interstellar war...
Doctor Charlotte West, the neuro-technologist responsible for the soldiers’ artificial brains, travels in the support fleet. Two months before the arrival at the war site, the marines start fighting each other and disobeying commands.
When they are brought in for tests, Charlotte finds that someone has made a disastrous mistake that endangers the entire space fleet.
Carrie is a low-achieving daydreamer. After providing a good home for her butt-ugly dog and psychotic cat, her biggest challenge in life is to avoid being fired, again.
But a strange green mist sucks her beneath her kitchen sink, and an unusual clerical error leads to an offer she foolishly doesn’t refuse.
The Transgalactic Council hire her to settle a conflict between the mechanical placktoids and the mysterious oootoon. Carrie must overcome her personal weaknesses and, for the first time in her life, succeed in her job, to uncover a threat to the entire galaxy.
She thought she was nothing. Until she became everything.
Susan Forrester's life was on a downward spiral. She had zero friends, a too small apartment, and a soul draining job. But, when she hears the sound of a horn, and the world falls into chaos around her, Susan must make a desperate attempt to survive. Armed with only her wits and an unfamiliar voice that has taken up residence in her mind, Susan tries to flee the city's destruction all while keeping her sanity in tact.
But she can't leave alone. A small, orphaned boy with eyes the color of four leaf clovers needs her help too. And what's worse, strange men in dark suites are pursing them both.
Can she survive the destruction of the city and save the boy? Or will she be captured, and doomed to a fate worse than death?
Fallon’s back, and ready to settle things with Blackout once and for all. If she and her team can’t take control, the PAC will splinter and massive intergalactic war will decimate the populace.
Can one little rebellion save an empire? Avian Unit—and their friends—are sure as hell going to try.
On the outer rim of the galaxy, in a century old battle, a heinous adversary is carrying out a religious calling to exterminate all other sentient species.
At 105 years of age, Millie Helgren knows her days are numbered when she enters a government-operated nursing home. Only instead of withering away from old age, Millie becomes entangled in a conspiracy to covertly supply Earth’s senior citizens to an imperial military in a distant part of the galaxy.
At first it’s a mystery why would a group of advanced species be interested in elderly humans with dietary restrictions and physical ailments. But what if they happened to possess the medical tech to give someone like Millie a new lease on life as an imperial soldier?
Through intense training Millie discovers a level of strength and tenacity she thought was long lost. Soon she is thrust into a rank and file that she knows nothing about, aboard an imperial warship, reporting to a tough captain who has little respect for humans. To make matters worse, the imperial military is outnumbered, outgunned, and facing certain defeat.
As Millie endures the hardships of a grim future, will her training, restored youth, sharp wit, and determination to defend Earth be enough to survive?
When the world falls apart, when civilization collapses, when life as we know it ends, our greatest terrors becomes real. Perhaps it's nuclear war with its poisonous radiation, hideous plagues or chemical contamination, rogue artificial intelligences controlling killer robots, or zombies that turn our friends and neighbors into inhuman monsters. What can the common man or woman do in the face of apocalyptic fears?
Ebola, one of the most feared of the hemorrhagic diseases, begins spreading across the borders of countries in West Africa. Soon after, the disease mutates into the "Z" or Zombie Virus. Journalist Hunter Morgan uncovers a disturbing connection between Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals and this mutation. Further investigation reveals a web of sinister intrigue connecting the pharmaceutical company to a treatment and research camp in West Africa, U.S. government officials, the CDC and the World Health Organization. Racing against time to find a cure, Hunter and several scientists go underground in order to hide from powerful forces trying to silence them forever.
St Margaret's Hospice is committed to providing specialist palliative care, advice, support and respite to patients and their families living in Somerset and parts of neighbouring counties. Their care is available for those who have a terminal or life-limiting illness, for example cancer, motor neurone disease and chronic lung disease, and all care is free of charge.
My friend Ali is running the London marathon this year to raise money for the Hospice after they looked after her mother in her final days. If you could see your way to supporting this, you can donate at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/themarathonsisters.
Of course, I understand if you don't ahve nything to spare, or you support other charities. Perhaps you could share the link on Facebook?
Thank you for reading through that appeal, and sorry if it brought up any unpleasant memories. I know I struggled with thoughts of my own father, but that made me more determined to share.
1960s London. Kathy is a seductive singer. But she’s also human. Light knows his passion for her is reckless but he’s enchanted. Yet such a romance is forbidden. When the two worlds collide, it could mean the end. For both species.
When Light discovers his ruthless family’s horrifying experiments, he questions whether he should be slaying or saving the humans he’s always feared. What dark revelations will Light reveal at the heart of the experiments? Will he be able to stop them in time? The consequences of failure are unimaginable. Unless Light plays the part of hero, he risks losing everything. Including the two women he loves.
Strong-willed Kelsey Reed must escape tonight or tomorrow her government will take her kidney and give it to someone else.
She’ll need the help of her true love, Luke, to make this dangerous escape. This dystopian future Kelsey lives in was forged by survivors of pandemics that wiped out 80 percent of the world's population. Here, life is valued above all else. The mentally ill are sterilized, abortions are illegal and those who refuse to donate an organ when told are sentenced to death.
Determined not to give up her kidney or die, Kelsey and Luke enlists the help of a dodgy doctor to escape. The trio must disable the electronic tracking chip in Kelsey's arm for her to flee undetected. If they fail, Kelsey could be stripped of Luke, her kidney and everything else she holds dear.
Jo Mason believes that creativity, spontaneity, and faith exist as definable words, but not actionable items. Negative consequences always follow the rare positive outcomes. It seems her destiny is surviving a chaotic world she can't control. Hearing her own voice where she shouldn’t have leaves her wondering about her place in time.
Jeff has always been a part of her life, offering encouragements, wise words when she needed them, and many other things she can never completely thank him for. She knows he replaced her cousin who died saving his life. When she questions why he didn't get to stay with his family, Jeff replies that without fixing the timeline everything she knows would be different.
When Jeff’s twin brother Randy falls into her lap, both literally and figuratively, Jo hopes he can give her a better answer. There is only one slight problem… He doesn’t remember anything about himself or his life and what he does, doesn’t help.
Together, the three of them learn that life isn’t about who or what you know, but who and what you care for.
Despite his reputation as a brilliant and dedicated space engineer, John Rees is certain he is not the man everyone thinks he is. Haunted by the death of his father and one fatal decision that questions his morality, he doubts he will have a chance to redeem himself for a past he cannot escape.
But when 100 colonists go missing on an alien planet, John sees his chance to prove once and for all that one decision doesn’t create a monster. John and the crew of the Atlas struggle to survive the near-total malfunction of their power and navigation systems, evidence that a strange alien race intercepted the colonists, and even a near-impossible jump through hundreds of meters of solid rock.
Can John and the crew make use of limited resources and save the lives of their companions? Or will the challenges prove once and for all that John will never be able to find the peace that he seeks?
The core worlds of settled space enjoy a tenuous peace, unaware and ill prepared for the threat building beyond the furthest reaches of humanity. The star kingdom of Albion stands as a shining light of justice and mercy in a harsh galaxy, and they will be the first to suffer the Daegon's fury.
Defying his low born status, and despite his self-doubt, Commodore Thomas Gage has risen through the ranks by sheer grit and determination, defending Albion from brutal pirate clans.
And when the onslaught comes, Gage and his fleet may be Albion's last hope for freedom.
Esther Lysander, the driven, professional Marine ever conscious of the heavy weight of her father’s legacy, is selected to become an officer. She has high goals for her career—very high goals—and she believes the best method to achieve success is to be a complete hard-ass, keeping emotions at bay. This outlook has resulted in some notable achievements, but at the cost of friends and her relationship with her twin brother Noah, a price she is willing to pay.
First as an infantry platoon commander, then as a Recon Marine, Esther develops as a tactical commander, all the time putting her career first and foremost. As she grows into her billets, however, she begins to realize there is more to being a leader of Marines than simply the mission at hand. A true leader cannot consider her subordinates as mere chess pieces in her rise to the top, and a true Marine has to put the needs of the Corps and Federation above her own.
Ajax answers the call of duty and becomes an Einherjar space marine, charged with defending humanity against hideous alien monsters in furious combat across the galaxy.
The Garm, as they came to be called, emerged from the deepest parts of uncharted space, devouring all that lay before them, a great swarm that scoured entire star systems of all organic life. This space borne hive, this extinction fleet, made no attempts to communicate and offered no mercy.
Humanity has always been a deadly organism, and we would not so easily be made the prey. Unified against a common enemy, we fought back, meeting the swarm with soldiers upon every front.
We were resplendent in our fury, and yet, despite the terrible slaughter we visited upon the enemy, world after world still fell beneath ravenous tooth and wicked claw. For every beast slain in the field, another was swiftly hatched to take its place and humanity was faced with a grim war of attrition.
After a decade of bitter galactic conflict, it was all humanity could to do slow the advance of the swarm and with each passing year we came closer to extinction.
The grinding cost of war mounted. The realization set in that without a radical shift in tactics and technology the forces of humanity would run out of soldiers before it ran out of bullets.
In desperate response to the real threat of total annihilation, humanity created the Einherjar. Fearless new warriors with frightening new weapons who were sent to fight the wolves at the gate.
Nothing will stand in the way of Tiger Lily's dream of escaping the subterranean slums of Terra and visiting the stars. She enters the fierce competition for a place in the scout team on the next spaceship to the remote planet of Delta, where an earlier colony disappeared. Before the ship departs, the arrival of a mysterious message from Delta suggests that the descendants of the first colonists may have survived.
A risky mission to seek the lost colony exposes the team to unexpected dangers, and they encounter a grim warrior in the isolated valley. Has Tiger Lily met her match in the tortured man? Where is he leading them? And who are the real rulers of this strange world?
Cast adrift from old ties, Rei and the crew prepare to start a new chapter.
They were never designed to be heroes.
Hurricane. Ember. Aurora. Danger. State-sponsored superhumans known as Augments. Weapons created to end a war.
With the war over, their creators couldn't surrender the power and sought to hide it in the shadows. They forged ahead with covert operations and proxy wars despite growing condemnation. But one by one, Augments begin to ignore their handlers or disappear altogether. The quiver emptied.
A space fleet with seven thousand artificial human marines hurtles through space at near-light-speed to an interstellar war...
Doctor Charlotte West, the neuro-technologist responsible for the soldiers’ artificial brains, travels in the support fleet. Two months before the arrival at the war site, the marines start fighting each other and disobeying commands.
When they are brought in for tests, Charlotte finds that someone has made a disastrous mistake that endangers the entire space fleet.
Carrie is a low-achieving daydreamer. After providing a good home for her butt-ugly dog and psychotic cat, her biggest challenge in life is to avoid being fired, again.
But a strange green mist sucks her beneath her kitchen sink, and an unusual clerical error leads to an offer she foolishly doesn’t refuse.
The Transgalactic Council hire her to settle a conflict between the mechanical placktoids and the mysterious oootoon. Carrie must overcome her personal weaknesses and, for the first time in her life, succeed in her job, to uncover a threat to the entire galaxy.
She thought she was nothing. Until she became everything.
Susan Forrester's life was on a downward spiral. She had zero friends, a too small apartment, and a soul draining job. But, when she hears the sound of a horn, and the world falls into chaos around her, Susan must make a desperate attempt to survive. Armed with only her wits and an unfamiliar voice that has taken up residence in her mind, Susan tries to flee the city's destruction all while keeping her sanity in tact.
But she can't leave alone. A small, orphaned boy with eyes the color of four leaf clovers needs her help too. And what's worse, strange men in dark suites are pursing them both.
Can she survive the destruction of the city and save the boy? Or will she be captured, and doomed to a fate worse than death?
Fallon’s back, and ready to settle things with Blackout once and for all. If she and her team can’t take control, the PAC will splinter and massive intergalactic war will decimate the populace.
Can one little rebellion save an empire? Avian Unit—and their friends—are sure as hell going to try.
On the outer rim of the galaxy, in a century old battle, a heinous adversary is carrying out a religious calling to exterminate all other sentient species.
At 105 years of age, Millie Helgren knows her days are numbered when she enters a government-operated nursing home. Only instead of withering away from old age, Millie becomes entangled in a conspiracy to covertly supply Earth’s senior citizens to an imperial military in a distant part of the galaxy.
At first it’s a mystery why would a group of advanced species be interested in elderly humans with dietary restrictions and physical ailments. But what if they happened to possess the medical tech to give someone like Millie a new lease on life as an imperial soldier?
Through intense training Millie discovers a level of strength and tenacity she thought was long lost. Soon she is thrust into a rank and file that she knows nothing about, aboard an imperial warship, reporting to a tough captain who has little respect for humans. To make matters worse, the imperial military is outnumbered, outgunned, and facing certain defeat.
As Millie endures the hardships of a grim future, will her training, restored youth, sharp wit, and determination to defend Earth be enough to survive?
When the world falls apart, when civilization collapses, when life as we know it ends, our greatest terrors becomes real. Perhaps it's nuclear war with its poisonous radiation, hideous plagues or chemical contamination, rogue artificial intelligences controlling killer robots, or zombies that turn our friends and neighbors into inhuman monsters. What can the common man or woman do in the face of apocalyptic fears?
Ebola, one of the most feared of the hemorrhagic diseases, begins spreading across the borders of countries in West Africa. Soon after, the disease mutates into the "Z" or Zombie Virus. Journalist Hunter Morgan uncovers a disturbing connection between Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals and this mutation. Further investigation reveals a web of sinister intrigue connecting the pharmaceutical company to a treatment and research camp in West Africa, U.S. government officials, the CDC and the World Health Organization. Racing against time to find a cure, Hunter and several scientists go underground in order to hide from powerful forces trying to silence them forever.
February 17, 2017
Science Fiction Instafreebie Group Giveaway
Here are a collection of science fiction books available for free on Instafreebie. They should all be available from 18 - 22 February 2017, though many will remain free long after that.Most will ask you to sign up to the author's mailing list to get the free ebook. You can, of course, instantly unsubscribe. However, in my experience it is worth giving them a few weeks as many have interesting things to say. If you join mine, for instance, you get a bonus piece of flash fiction, interviews with other science fiction authors and myself, monthly round-ups of science fiction ebooks, and many other goodies.
If you like Independence, the book I've got on Instafreebie, you might want to check out the rest of the series...
February 3, 2017
An Interview with H T Lyon
Greetings, and welcome back to my monthly science fiction author interview slot. Today I am talking to H T Lyon, creator of the Vampires with Guns series.
What are you currently working on and what is it about? I'm working on a number of books currently and I do switch between them which helps to keep me fresh. One of them is a military paranormal series. This was promoted from a discussion online which essentially proposed why vampires wouldn't arm themselves with modern weapons. It's become my vampires with guns story. At the heart of it is questioning what it means to be human. From a writing perspective it's fun, a bit light hearted in places and has a heap of characters and quite a complex series of storylines. The challenge of keeping all that in order is part of the attraction of writing it. The second piece is a matriarchal dystopia with explores gender roles. This is way more serious, deep and revealing. It's been on the go a lot longer and has required a lot of thought creating a believable setting. I do have the odd short story that I crank out as a rest from the heavier works.
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day? I have managed 1,667 words per day for a whole month but that is punishing. My real target is 200. A low target means that when I am tired, I don't feel that I am approaching the massive unachievable cliff that I need to climb. For an author who has a day job, 200 words is a good number and they do add up, especially if you get into the groove and one day 200 becomes 2,000. For those struggling, one of the best pieces of advice is to write for five minutes per day no matter what. The main issue is starting and that five minutes almost never stays five minutes!
I certainly know the feeling of writing feeling like a failure because you have too much on with your day job to write.
Do you write on a typewriter, computer, dictate or longhand? I use electronic devices - any electronic devices including phones, computers and tablets. This way, I have the best chance of writing anywhere. It have tried various mechanisms to sync the work, at one stage even using Wattpad. One Note was a huge improvement but nothing beats the performance of Google Docs! Yeah. I used Google Drive for this for ages, but then moved to OneDrive after my Surface got the sync wrong and lost two evenings' work. I don't find I can write without a proper keyboard, though. I do make notes on my 'phone when out and about, then write them up later.
What do you find the easiest thing about writing? The imagination bit is the easiest. I create scenes when driving or walking the dog or at the gym. Really, when there are a few spare cycles for thinking, then I can usually find a way to enhance my work in progress or dream up something new. It's especially rewarding to come up with a premise after reading something in the news. I love the ability to explore our society and comment on it through fiction and some of the ideas simply hit me unbidden. I read about the prison population problem in the States and this inspired a short story that commented on whether prison was now crueller than old style corporal punishment. I have an idea in mind inspired by the survivalist movement and gun culture in the States where economics researchers identify that society is doomed and the first the rest of us find out about it is when they steal all the guns and hole up in the woods!
What do you think of video trailers for books, and do you have a trailer/will you create one for your own work? I have been tempted to produce a trailer for the Vampires with Guns series. I produced what I thought was a very powerful prologue and I put it through a text to speech engine (so it was someone else's voice reading it) and it sounds good in audio format. As a paranormal/fantasy work though the visuals would be expensive to produce - more than I can afford so it's something I will keep in mind down the track. Yeah. I'm going through the same thought process with my Two Democracies: Revolution series at the moment. There are some decent stock spaceship clips out there, and I love your idea of the text to speech engine.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. Good luck.
H T Lyon is an aspiring writer of science fiction. A futurist with a keen interest in where our society is heading, he tends to focus most of his attention on stories that examine the direction our society is taking or that shows where we could end up. Optimistic by nature, he believes that one day we will look to settle the Solar System as we outgrow our planet and some of his stories examine how this could look. Currently, he has a number of novels underway and some short stories. His aim is to get one of these up and published before the end of the year around the other commitments that exist in his life.
You can read his blog at https://beyondescapevelocity.wordpress.com.
What are you currently working on and what is it about? I'm working on a number of books currently and I do switch between them which helps to keep me fresh. One of them is a military paranormal series. This was promoted from a discussion online which essentially proposed why vampires wouldn't arm themselves with modern weapons. It's become my vampires with guns story. At the heart of it is questioning what it means to be human. From a writing perspective it's fun, a bit light hearted in places and has a heap of characters and quite a complex series of storylines. The challenge of keeping all that in order is part of the attraction of writing it. The second piece is a matriarchal dystopia with explores gender roles. This is way more serious, deep and revealing. It's been on the go a lot longer and has required a lot of thought creating a believable setting. I do have the odd short story that I crank out as a rest from the heavier works.
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day? I have managed 1,667 words per day for a whole month but that is punishing. My real target is 200. A low target means that when I am tired, I don't feel that I am approaching the massive unachievable cliff that I need to climb. For an author who has a day job, 200 words is a good number and they do add up, especially if you get into the groove and one day 200 becomes 2,000. For those struggling, one of the best pieces of advice is to write for five minutes per day no matter what. The main issue is starting and that five minutes almost never stays five minutes!
I certainly know the feeling of writing feeling like a failure because you have too much on with your day job to write.
Do you write on a typewriter, computer, dictate or longhand? I use electronic devices - any electronic devices including phones, computers and tablets. This way, I have the best chance of writing anywhere. It have tried various mechanisms to sync the work, at one stage even using Wattpad. One Note was a huge improvement but nothing beats the performance of Google Docs! Yeah. I used Google Drive for this for ages, but then moved to OneDrive after my Surface got the sync wrong and lost two evenings' work. I don't find I can write without a proper keyboard, though. I do make notes on my 'phone when out and about, then write them up later.
What do you find the easiest thing about writing? The imagination bit is the easiest. I create scenes when driving or walking the dog or at the gym. Really, when there are a few spare cycles for thinking, then I can usually find a way to enhance my work in progress or dream up something new. It's especially rewarding to come up with a premise after reading something in the news. I love the ability to explore our society and comment on it through fiction and some of the ideas simply hit me unbidden. I read about the prison population problem in the States and this inspired a short story that commented on whether prison was now crueller than old style corporal punishment. I have an idea in mind inspired by the survivalist movement and gun culture in the States where economics researchers identify that society is doomed and the first the rest of us find out about it is when they steal all the guns and hole up in the woods!
What do you think of video trailers for books, and do you have a trailer/will you create one for your own work? I have been tempted to produce a trailer for the Vampires with Guns series. I produced what I thought was a very powerful prologue and I put it through a text to speech engine (so it was someone else's voice reading it) and it sounds good in audio format. As a paranormal/fantasy work though the visuals would be expensive to produce - more than I can afford so it's something I will keep in mind down the track. Yeah. I'm going through the same thought process with my Two Democracies: Revolution series at the moment. There are some decent stock spaceship clips out there, and I love your idea of the text to speech engine.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. Good luck.
H T Lyon is an aspiring writer of science fiction. A futurist with a keen interest in where our society is heading, he tends to focus most of his attention on stories that examine the direction our society is taking or that shows where we could end up. Optimistic by nature, he believes that one day we will look to settle the Solar System as we outgrow our planet and some of his stories examine how this could look. Currently, he has a number of novels underway and some short stories. His aim is to get one of these up and published before the end of the year around the other commitments that exist in his life.
You can read his blog at https://beyondescapevelocity.wordpress.com.
January 27, 2017
January Round-up of Scifi Books
Today I am spending a lot of time clicking refresh as my latest book was released yesterday. The Perception of Prejudice is the third story in the Two Democracies: Revolution series.
Anyway, enough of a plug for my book. On to the month's round-up...
There is somewhat of a mixture of choices in this month's collection. Of course there are the usual military SF and space opera books, but also a couple of examples of the wider scifi genre.
As last month, I have created books2read links where possible. These give you a choice of stores for those books that are widely available. If you wish to do so, you can nominate a store as your preferred one and books2read will automatically take you straight to that one in the future.
When Merlin encounters the derelict hulk of an old swallowship drifting in the middle of nowhere, he can't resist investigating. He soon finds himself involved in a situation that proves far more complex than he ever anticipated.
The Hundred Worlds have withstood invasion by the relentless Hok for decades. The human worlds are strong, but the Hok have the resources of a thousand planets behind them, and their fleets attack in endless waves.
The long war has transformed the Hundred Worlds into heavily fortified star systems. Their economies are geared for military output, and they raise specialized soldiers to save our species. Assault Captain Derek Straker is one such man among many. Genetically sculpted to drive a mech-suit as if he wears a second skin, he must find a path to victory.
It's a battle in which he'll never admit defeat, but not even Straker knows the dark truth behind this titanic struggle. With Lieutenant Carla Engels piloting, Starship Liberator explores enemy territory in search of answers.
The Second Interstellar War - pitting humans and their Tadpole allies against an enigmatic alien empire - appears to have stalemated. Neither side can push through to the other’s core systems without risking substantial losses, neither side can gain a decisive advantage. But when a brilliant human scientist invents a way to jump across the stars without a gravity tramline, an opportunity arises to strike the enemy in their undefended rear. It is an opportunity that cannot be allowed to pass.
Now, HMS Vanguard and her crew - and the largest fleet ever assembled by the nations of Earth - heads out on a do-or-die mission to challenge their enemies to one final battle ...
... And if they lose, they will never see home again.
The crew of the Replicade found peace after escaping the space pirate known as Crase Tuin. But the tranquility of an alien world has a hidden darkness that is brought to light when they encounter a young girl with special abilities. When Anki and Brendle intervene to help her, they are caught in the crosshairs of a secret, powerful organization intent to seize the girl or destroy them all. Faced with potential death, the crew must make a decision: give into the looming threat of the organization called CERCO, or die fighting to protect her.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Ilium Gyl has taken command of the Greshian scout ship Hamæråté. A breach in protocol brings questions of his loyalty to the Greshian Empire and leads to a power struggle as a rebellion sparks in a faraway sector of the Alorian Galaxy. Will his ambitions cripple the Greshian Fleet, or will he emerge a hero, a conqueror, a savior?
Chief Security Officer Jas Harrington must protect her shipmates from hostile aliens on new worlds. For the efficient if quick-tempered Jas, that hasn’t been too hard up till now. But her captain is drug-addled, and he’s hungry for the bonuses he gets from finding valuable resources.
When the captain won’t listen to Jas’ fears about a mysterious planet, he is compromised by contact with a strange life form—a life form that threatens to take over the entire ship and return to Earth, where it can spread its deadly infection.
Now Jas is in a race against time, struggling to quarantine the alien infection and prevent the aliens from achieving their goal: Generation. She doesn't realize it yet, but as she fights to save her crew, the future of all humanity hangs in the balance.
A collection of this highly-acclaimed writer's short works.
Includes Rainbows for Other Days, in which a cyborg ranger attempts to reconcile saving the planet and saving the people on it.
The first shot of a new war echoes through the galaxy. Craze has high hopes for what the alliance with an old enemy, the Foreworlds, will do to defeat a worse enemy, the Quassers.
The test of a highly-advanced weapon, created by the efforts of the alliance, pushes tensions over the brink and kills thousands. To make it worse, the Foreworld ambassador is keeping secrets.
Conventional warfare against the Quassers isn’t working, and if the alliance ends, Craze has become the most hated man in the galaxy for no reason.
With nothing left to lose, Craze sets in motion one last chance for survival.
The intrepid spy, Grey Kat, is escaping with key codes from the Emperor's Revenge when she is trapped by the notorious pirate, Black Hawk. He persuades her to assist in his next piracy attempt, and they are thrust into a series of mishaps while dodging pursuit by the Emperor's ships. At the same time, Kat strives to discover the secret hidden behind Black Hawk's mask before she suffers the fate of his unfortunate wife.
Cast adrift from old ties, Rei and the crew prepare to start a new chapter.
First, however, the old chapter must be closed. All the pieces of Rei's long search have come to this. The picture begins to complete, but the few missing pieces threaten to send her on another wild chase across the stars.
Meanwhile, the war between Nekose's rebels and the Dynasty heats up. Both sides need an advantage to win, and unfortunately for Rei both sides feel she has the answer to their problems.
Joanna Angeles is ready for anything. She has been dispatched to a frozen planet at the back end of nowhere, accompanied only by an advanced Artificial Intelligence known as Barbas. Her mission: to transform an unliveable frozen wasteland into a home for over a hundred-thousand colonists within ten years. Unbeknownst to her, the brutal glacier world is not as lifeless as she thought. When her planetfall is mistaken for the coming of a deity by a local ranger, Volistad, Joanna finds herself embroiled in an ancient war.
Can Joanna and Volistad find common ground, despite their vast differences?
Can they forge a connection to unite their two peoples? Or will the ice-bound world of Chalice claim them all?
Heir to one of the leading “Four Horsemen” mercenary companies, Jim Cartwright is having a bad year. Having failed his high school VOWS tests, he's just learned his mother bankrupted the family company before disappearing, robbing him of his Cavalier birthright.
But the Horsemen of eras past were smart—they left a legacy of equipment Jim can use to complete the next contract and resurrect the company. It’s up to Jim to find the people he needs to operate the machinery of war, train them, and lead them to victory. If he’s good enough, the company can still be salvaged.
But then again, he’s never been good enough.
The situation in the galaxy is growing desperate. Every day the Vorn are harvesting world after world to be used as food for their Queens. The Vorn ships are nearly indestructible and destroying every fleet that dares to oppose them.
Lakiam Fleet Commodore Dreen is trying to form an alliance to try to stop the Vorn, but he needs a victory to bring other Protector Worlds to his side.
Fleet Admiral Kurt Vickers undertakes a daring journey to the center of the galaxy seeking a half-mythical race that might just have the secret to stopping the Vorn. However, the mission goes horribly wrong, and he might never see Newton or Earth again.
Serus is a killer. As a policeman he was recruited to be a weapon at the Martian government's disposal. Brainwashed into compliance, he’s lost the life he once had, but his memories remain. When a hit is placed on his sister's life, Serus is faced with the dark reality that in order to save Kara, he must go rogue and doing so will put both of their lives in danger. Forced into an unlikely alliance to save Kara, Serus discovers a truth that could bring Mars to its knees, but what if it's too late?
Anyway, enough of a plug for my book. On to the month's round-up...
There is somewhat of a mixture of choices in this month's collection. Of course there are the usual military SF and space opera books, but also a couple of examples of the wider scifi genre.
As last month, I have created books2read links where possible. These give you a choice of stores for those books that are widely available. If you wish to do so, you can nominate a store as your preferred one and books2read will automatically take you straight to that one in the future.
When Merlin encounters the derelict hulk of an old swallowship drifting in the middle of nowhere, he can't resist investigating. He soon finds himself involved in a situation that proves far more complex than he ever anticipated.
The Hundred Worlds have withstood invasion by the relentless Hok for decades. The human worlds are strong, but the Hok have the resources of a thousand planets behind them, and their fleets attack in endless waves.
The long war has transformed the Hundred Worlds into heavily fortified star systems. Their economies are geared for military output, and they raise specialized soldiers to save our species. Assault Captain Derek Straker is one such man among many. Genetically sculpted to drive a mech-suit as if he wears a second skin, he must find a path to victory.
It's a battle in which he'll never admit defeat, but not even Straker knows the dark truth behind this titanic struggle. With Lieutenant Carla Engels piloting, Starship Liberator explores enemy territory in search of answers.
The Second Interstellar War - pitting humans and their Tadpole allies against an enigmatic alien empire - appears to have stalemated. Neither side can push through to the other’s core systems without risking substantial losses, neither side can gain a decisive advantage. But when a brilliant human scientist invents a way to jump across the stars without a gravity tramline, an opportunity arises to strike the enemy in their undefended rear. It is an opportunity that cannot be allowed to pass.
Now, HMS Vanguard and her crew - and the largest fleet ever assembled by the nations of Earth - heads out on a do-or-die mission to challenge their enemies to one final battle ...
... And if they lose, they will never see home again.
The crew of the Replicade found peace after escaping the space pirate known as Crase Tuin. But the tranquility of an alien world has a hidden darkness that is brought to light when they encounter a young girl with special abilities. When Anki and Brendle intervene to help her, they are caught in the crosshairs of a secret, powerful organization intent to seize the girl or destroy them all. Faced with potential death, the crew must make a decision: give into the looming threat of the organization called CERCO, or die fighting to protect her.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Ilium Gyl has taken command of the Greshian scout ship Hamæråté. A breach in protocol brings questions of his loyalty to the Greshian Empire and leads to a power struggle as a rebellion sparks in a faraway sector of the Alorian Galaxy. Will his ambitions cripple the Greshian Fleet, or will he emerge a hero, a conqueror, a savior?
Chief Security Officer Jas Harrington must protect her shipmates from hostile aliens on new worlds. For the efficient if quick-tempered Jas, that hasn’t been too hard up till now. But her captain is drug-addled, and he’s hungry for the bonuses he gets from finding valuable resources.
When the captain won’t listen to Jas’ fears about a mysterious planet, he is compromised by contact with a strange life form—a life form that threatens to take over the entire ship and return to Earth, where it can spread its deadly infection.
Now Jas is in a race against time, struggling to quarantine the alien infection and prevent the aliens from achieving their goal: Generation. She doesn't realize it yet, but as she fights to save her crew, the future of all humanity hangs in the balance.
A collection of this highly-acclaimed writer's short works.
Includes Rainbows for Other Days, in which a cyborg ranger attempts to reconcile saving the planet and saving the people on it.
The first shot of a new war echoes through the galaxy. Craze has high hopes for what the alliance with an old enemy, the Foreworlds, will do to defeat a worse enemy, the Quassers.
The test of a highly-advanced weapon, created by the efforts of the alliance, pushes tensions over the brink and kills thousands. To make it worse, the Foreworld ambassador is keeping secrets.
Conventional warfare against the Quassers isn’t working, and if the alliance ends, Craze has become the most hated man in the galaxy for no reason.
With nothing left to lose, Craze sets in motion one last chance for survival.
The intrepid spy, Grey Kat, is escaping with key codes from the Emperor's Revenge when she is trapped by the notorious pirate, Black Hawk. He persuades her to assist in his next piracy attempt, and they are thrust into a series of mishaps while dodging pursuit by the Emperor's ships. At the same time, Kat strives to discover the secret hidden behind Black Hawk's mask before she suffers the fate of his unfortunate wife.
Cast adrift from old ties, Rei and the crew prepare to start a new chapter.
First, however, the old chapter must be closed. All the pieces of Rei's long search have come to this. The picture begins to complete, but the few missing pieces threaten to send her on another wild chase across the stars.
Meanwhile, the war between Nekose's rebels and the Dynasty heats up. Both sides need an advantage to win, and unfortunately for Rei both sides feel she has the answer to their problems.
Joanna Angeles is ready for anything. She has been dispatched to a frozen planet at the back end of nowhere, accompanied only by an advanced Artificial Intelligence known as Barbas. Her mission: to transform an unliveable frozen wasteland into a home for over a hundred-thousand colonists within ten years. Unbeknownst to her, the brutal glacier world is not as lifeless as she thought. When her planetfall is mistaken for the coming of a deity by a local ranger, Volistad, Joanna finds herself embroiled in an ancient war.
Can Joanna and Volistad find common ground, despite their vast differences?
Can they forge a connection to unite their two peoples? Or will the ice-bound world of Chalice claim them all?
Heir to one of the leading “Four Horsemen” mercenary companies, Jim Cartwright is having a bad year. Having failed his high school VOWS tests, he's just learned his mother bankrupted the family company before disappearing, robbing him of his Cavalier birthright.
But the Horsemen of eras past were smart—they left a legacy of equipment Jim can use to complete the next contract and resurrect the company. It’s up to Jim to find the people he needs to operate the machinery of war, train them, and lead them to victory. If he’s good enough, the company can still be salvaged.
But then again, he’s never been good enough.
The situation in the galaxy is growing desperate. Every day the Vorn are harvesting world after world to be used as food for their Queens. The Vorn ships are nearly indestructible and destroying every fleet that dares to oppose them.
Lakiam Fleet Commodore Dreen is trying to form an alliance to try to stop the Vorn, but he needs a victory to bring other Protector Worlds to his side.
Fleet Admiral Kurt Vickers undertakes a daring journey to the center of the galaxy seeking a half-mythical race that might just have the secret to stopping the Vorn. However, the mission goes horribly wrong, and he might never see Newton or Earth again.
Serus is a killer. As a policeman he was recruited to be a weapon at the Martian government's disposal. Brainwashed into compliance, he’s lost the life he once had, but his memories remain. When a hit is placed on his sister's life, Serus is faced with the dark reality that in order to save Kara, he must go rogue and doing so will put both of their lives in danger. Forced into an unlikely alliance to save Kara, Serus discovers a truth that could bring Mars to its knees, but what if it's too late?
January 8, 2017
An Interview with Immy Keeper
This month I'm talking to Immy Keeper, author of The Bonding. She writes science fiction romance but be warned, her work is rather explicit!
So, Immy, what inspires you to write? Given the content of your book, many readers will be dying to know if it is from personal experience.Honestly, no idea. I've heard writers say they flip through the news, or they see something in the course of their day and leads to some logical progression of inspiration. This is not something I've ever experienced. For me, it comes in bed at night as I'm trying to shut my brain down to sleep, or more likely now, as I'm actively working at the keyboard. The words just flow out of me and the characters take on a life of their own. They really decide the story far more than any external objective from me.
Writing, editing, marketing. How do you fit it all into your day?With a crowbar. My days belong to my son, and my daughter will be born in a few weeks and I imagine, I'll have even less time then. I get two hours or so during nap time, which I guard jealously. Those two hours are strictly for writing. I avoid doing anything else like the plague. If I've got the energy and the inspiration, I work in the evenings as well once he's asleep. I look with longing for the days of school when I'll be able to snatch whole blocks of time to myself... oh the productivity!I have two daughters myself, so I know how that feels. Neither of them ever did naps, though - you are so lucky!
How do you define success for yourself?Can I take a mulligan on this question? Sorry, no dodging.Okay. I don't know. This question and its answer seem to shift with the wind. Two years ago, I'd have said finishing a single story would be enough. But then I did that, so I'd have said getting it published. But then I did that, and I just wanted someone to buy it with real money and read it. Just for fun. But that happened. And then I wanted more readers. Some days, I want to be a best seller, other days, I don't care about numbers. Just enough people to justify the time I spend on my bottom with my nose in a blue screen. Somewhere between a hundred readers and a thousand, I guess.Yeah, the thousand reader threshold is a very satisfying one to pass. Hopefully this blog post will introduce a few more people to your work.
Do you have a writing ritual?Not so much. I try to plan out what I'll write during a walk I take with my son before his nap. That way when I sit down, I already know what's coming so I don't waste any time deliberating. But aside from that... I edit the scene before, or give it a quick read over to remind myself of my characters goals, fears, concerns and voice, and just start typing away.Physical activity seems to a common theme with quite a few writers I've interviewed. It's the same for me too - a good walk or run seems to allow thoughts to coalesce. Its probably due to reducing the conscious thought put into planning.
Once you've finished your walk, what is your writing process like?Chaotic at best. I've become less disorganized. The more I work, and the more stories I complete, the more I'm learning to know myself. That was the hardest part, I think. Figuring out what worked for me. And what didn't. I work in order. Usually just write whatever comes out for the first act - the first five chapters or so - then sit down and do a bit of organizing and plotting. After that, just keep on going. I edit as I write, so the final editing process isn't too arduous. Each consecutive story gets easier. And faster. And hopefully better.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I'll let you get back to work on those sequels, and good luck with your daughter's birth
Imogen Keeper is from the East Coast, born and raised and back there now with her husband and son, who is a handful and a half.She discovered writing when her son was about six months old. It was something she'd always dabbled at in the past, but never really put on her serious hat. So, bored at home with a kid who truly took magnificent naps, she started studying up on the how-to’s and the how-not-to’s of writing. With about six active works in progress, she decided to knuckle down and focus on one.
It made her blush, and it made her sweat, and it made her cry a few times, but The Bonding came out. She had to get over the embarrassment of having people read sex that came out of her head, but get over it she did.Her first novel was published by Ellora's Cave, and she has to admit, she's proud of it.
There are quite a few 99c and free scifi ebook offers on at the moment. Here are a few...
And here's one for short stories that isn't exclusively scfi but I'm told there will be quite a few SF stories on it...
So, Immy, what inspires you to write? Given the content of your book, many readers will be dying to know if it is from personal experience.Honestly, no idea. I've heard writers say they flip through the news, or they see something in the course of their day and leads to some logical progression of inspiration. This is not something I've ever experienced. For me, it comes in bed at night as I'm trying to shut my brain down to sleep, or more likely now, as I'm actively working at the keyboard. The words just flow out of me and the characters take on a life of their own. They really decide the story far more than any external objective from me.
Writing, editing, marketing. How do you fit it all into your day?With a crowbar. My days belong to my son, and my daughter will be born in a few weeks and I imagine, I'll have even less time then. I get two hours or so during nap time, which I guard jealously. Those two hours are strictly for writing. I avoid doing anything else like the plague. If I've got the energy and the inspiration, I work in the evenings as well once he's asleep. I look with longing for the days of school when I'll be able to snatch whole blocks of time to myself... oh the productivity!I have two daughters myself, so I know how that feels. Neither of them ever did naps, though - you are so lucky!
How do you define success for yourself?Can I take a mulligan on this question? Sorry, no dodging.Okay. I don't know. This question and its answer seem to shift with the wind. Two years ago, I'd have said finishing a single story would be enough. But then I did that, so I'd have said getting it published. But then I did that, and I just wanted someone to buy it with real money and read it. Just for fun. But that happened. And then I wanted more readers. Some days, I want to be a best seller, other days, I don't care about numbers. Just enough people to justify the time I spend on my bottom with my nose in a blue screen. Somewhere between a hundred readers and a thousand, I guess.Yeah, the thousand reader threshold is a very satisfying one to pass. Hopefully this blog post will introduce a few more people to your work.
Do you have a writing ritual?Not so much. I try to plan out what I'll write during a walk I take with my son before his nap. That way when I sit down, I already know what's coming so I don't waste any time deliberating. But aside from that... I edit the scene before, or give it a quick read over to remind myself of my characters goals, fears, concerns and voice, and just start typing away.Physical activity seems to a common theme with quite a few writers I've interviewed. It's the same for me too - a good walk or run seems to allow thoughts to coalesce. Its probably due to reducing the conscious thought put into planning.
Once you've finished your walk, what is your writing process like?Chaotic at best. I've become less disorganized. The more I work, and the more stories I complete, the more I'm learning to know myself. That was the hardest part, I think. Figuring out what worked for me. And what didn't. I work in order. Usually just write whatever comes out for the first act - the first five chapters or so - then sit down and do a bit of organizing and plotting. After that, just keep on going. I edit as I write, so the final editing process isn't too arduous. Each consecutive story gets easier. And faster. And hopefully better.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I'll let you get back to work on those sequels, and good luck with your daughter's birth
Imogen Keeper is from the East Coast, born and raised and back there now with her husband and son, who is a handful and a half.She discovered writing when her son was about six months old. It was something she'd always dabbled at in the past, but never really put on her serious hat. So, bored at home with a kid who truly took magnificent naps, she started studying up on the how-to’s and the how-not-to’s of writing. With about six active works in progress, she decided to knuckle down and focus on one.
It made her blush, and it made her sweat, and it made her cry a few times, but The Bonding came out. She had to get over the embarrassment of having people read sex that came out of her head, but get over it she did.Her first novel was published by Ellora's Cave, and she has to admit, she's proud of it.
There are quite a few 99c and free scifi ebook offers on at the moment. Here are a few...
And here's one for short stories that isn't exclusively scfi but I'm told there will be quite a few SF stories on it...
