New Short Story “Samoa” in “Cosmic Contact” Anthology + New YouTube Content + Art Fair Announcement
Apologies for the long headline, but this update brings news about a lot of different subjects from a lot of different corners.
Coming soon, readers can find my new short story, Samoa, featured in Cosmic Contact by Indian publisher, Culture Cult. The collection features stories about humanity’s first contact with aliens. However, my story, Samoa, puts a spin on that concept by revealing that, on this world, humans are the aliens. In my story, humans left Earth to settle on a new planet. Generations have gone by and these humans forgot where they came from and therefore forgot that they were ever even from another world.
The cover art for Cosmic Contact is amazing! It is easily my favorite anthology cover that I have ever been apart of and that includes the two anthologies I published completely by myself. The vista is stunning. The colors pop. It evokes senses of wonder and intrigue. The title pops too and is extremely clear/legible. I’ll have to take some notes and incorporate some of these elements into my own future cover art.
What’s even more fun – and I did not know this until now – is that each short story in the collection also comes with its own unique illustration! That means, not only is this book full of unique stories, but also beautiful pictures! The illustration associated with Samoa is a space ship hovering above still water in a tropical setting. Seeing all this beautiful artwork inspires me to maybe release an illustrated book of my own one day.
Sound intriguing? You can find Cosmic Contact soon and read Samoa for yourself when it comes out in February!
Recently, there is new content on the Color of Water and Sky YouTube channel. Two new videos, both released within the last month, include a book review of Seas of the Red Star by Montenegrin reviewer, Tatiana and a more free-wheeling discussion of two science-fiction series I wrote from a book blogger, who I am not sure where she is from, though her accent makes it sound like she is from somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In general, I am trying to keep up with my YouTube channel and update it constantly with fresh content from not only myself, but from other reviewers and bloggers. You will see a number of different faces and voices on the channel as I try to take whatever relevant content I can find and put it on the channel. It has become quite international thanks to the various reviewers and bloggers I get content from! Of course, I always get proper permission to publish any content recorded by anyone other than myself, especially when they’ve published it on their own channels first.
Each spokesperson had different things to say about the books, but there were two consistent things I really appreciated. In both of these videos, the hosts comment on 1. How they liked the scientific elements in Seas of the Red Star and 2. That the books are available now on Amazon.com. I love that!
At the end of each video, I’ve started adding a tag from a spokesperson I hired and then an end-title screen with links to my page and more videos. By adding this tag and end-title page to each video, I hope to add consistency to the channel. Consistency is one thing I could see being an issue by having so many different people’s videos on the channel, so this is one way I am trying to rectify that. See the videos for yourself here:
The last news to share with you is that I will have a booth at the Brandywine Festival of the Arts in September! The event is located in downtown Wilmington, Delaware and features artists from across the region. This will be my first arts fair since after the COVID-19 pandemic and will hopefully be something that I do more of as time goes on. Getting into these kinds of events is a great way to get my products out there in front of people. I am excited for the event and already thinking about it with eager anticipation.
I will certainly have more information for you about the arts festival closer to the date, but that is the news for now.
Lots going on! Let’s hope the momentum continues!
