Once in a Blue Muse: Dreadnought and Shuttle

Showing posts with label Dreadnought and Shuttle. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

The Art of Halcyone Space

About a month ago, I revealed an earlier draft of this cover art for A STAR IN THE VOID for subscribers of my newsletter. Now, I'm sharing it widely in advance of the June 2018 publishing date of the novel.

Chris Howard has created original art for all 5 of the Halcyone Space novels.

Finally I can display all of these amazing covers together and talk about how each of the images captures the heart and soul of the novel it graces.

Derelict

While all of the stories center around an ensemble cast, each story has a single character whose arc stands out to me as primary. In DERELICT, that character was Rosalen Maldonado. At the start of the story, Ro is isolated. As a result of being moved from post to post by her emotionally abusive father, she doesn't have the emotional skills or experience in trusting other people.

The plot revolves around a derelict space ship and its damaged AI, but the story revolves around Ro learning to trust herself and trust others.

I love the way Chris depicts Ro as dwarfed by the cosmos, yet looking up and out as if hoping for a better future.

Ithaka Rising

This is Barre Durbin. The story of ITHAKA RISING is the story of brothers, loyalty, and sacrifice. Children of the space station's physicians, Barre and his little brother Jem have always been under pressure to excel. But ever since Jem outstripped him academically, Barre has felt like a failure. His relationship is particularly strained with his mother who can't appreciate Barre's musical genius.

The main storyline borrows from the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Barre, like Orpheus, relies on his musical skills to enter the Underworld and rescue a loved one.

I love the look of quiet determination on Barre's face in Chris's image.

Dreadnought and Shuttle

Devorah Martingale Morningstar (Dev, and she would be the first to mention how ridiculous her name is) enters the world of Halcyone Space in DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE. She is a character who emerged as simply a minor player but after her first scene, I bent to the wisdom of my subconscious and let her be who she needed to be for the story.

She is a materials science student at the University Micah Rotherwood escapes to. She gets abducted in his stead and taken aboard a stolen ship by her captor. But she is far from a powerless pawn and uses her knowledge and skills to sabotage the ship.

Chris created her with an intensity that matches her character. The image conveys her strength, capability, and focus.

Parallax

In the 4th novel, PARALLAX, the cover features Emmaline Gutierrez. In all the other covers, the character shown is a viewpoint character. While we never see Gutierrez's point of view, she is a major mover of the story and we see her interacting with almost all the other viewpoint characters.

She is an old soldier whose loyalties are put to the test in this story. In a very real way, she is the last soldier standing from a conflict that she had already sacrificed body and soul to forty years earlier.

While she appears a bit younger than I see her, Chris nailed her expression, her body language, and her prosthetic arm. There is both amazing strength and vulnerability here. She may be my favorite non-viewpoint character in the series.

A Star in the Void

For the 5th and final book in the Halcyone Space series, A STAR IN THE VOID, I asked Chris to use Ada May as the cover character.

While she is only a viewpoint character for a brief epilogue in book 4, she is the character around whom the entire narrative of 5 novels centers around. She was there at the start of the hostilities over 40 years prior. It was her genius that created the first true AIs that made space travel possible. She created the hidden world of Ithaka and its quiet rebellion against the Commonwealth. And her actions at the end of book 4 are the catalyst for the entire plot of book 5.

One of the strengths of Chris's work is that he understands that the power of a cover comes not from depicting a specific scene, but from bringing forth the heart of the story. It should be no surprise that his is a writer in addition to an artist.

Here he depicts Ada's loneliness along with her determination. The title refers to many elements in the story: what it looks like to an observer when a ship takes a wormhole jump, the character Dev Morningstar putting herself at risk in the void for the sake of her companions, the hope Ada holds to for change, among others.

Taken together, these five striking images have helped me tell five individual stories as well as a sixth overarching narrative that spans the entire series. Chris has made magic here and I am grateful for his talent, vision, and time.

If these images and my commentary have piqued your interest, the first four books of the series are available at all online retailers. Links can be found: http://www.ljcohen.net

Book 5 is forthcoming in June 2018.

Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Happy Book Birthday

I have done everything I can to give PARALLAX its best chance for success. The rest is not up to me.

So I have a book coming out tomorrow. It's a solid book. I'm proud of it. Now it's out of my hands & will have to find its readers. 1/
— LJ Cohen (@lisajanicecohen) June 6, 2017

Last night on twitter, I posted a bit about this - how by the time a book is out, it no longer belongs to the author. And let me tell you, that lack of control is terrifying.

Think about it: For the time it takes to draft a novel, the author is the Supreme Being On High. We create worlds out of our imaginations. We literally put words into our characters' mouths and thoughts into their heads.

So forgive me if I find this phase of the process enormously nerve-wracking.

I wrestle with the hope that PARALLAX will find its readership and be a big success along with the dread that it might not earn out its production expenses. Realistically, I understand that later books in a series never sell as many as the initial books. I just hope I'm in that sweet spot where it will sell enough to keep the series going and perhaps reignite interest in the first books.

There are some wonderful opportunities on the horizon including a partnership with the folks who brought you HerStoryArc in their new F-BOM (Feminist Book of the Month) project. I'm very excited at the prospect of bringing the Halcyone Space books to a new readership.

But, still I worry. It's the natural habitat of the writer. I'll be anxious about PARALLAX for some time to come, through it's first few weeks of sales, its first reviews. I'll worry that someone doesn't like it. Then I'll worry that no one's talking about it.

While I hate to say this part of it hasn't gotten any easier for me, despite the fact that PARALLAX is my 7th published novel, at least I'm in familiar territory. And that means I can acknowledge the intense emotions and keep moving forward.

I'm already immersed in a new world with new characters on a new project. That's the only antidote I've found to writer's anxiety.

And while I have your attention, let me remind you that PARALLAX is book 4 of Halcyone Space and all 4 books are available widely, wherever ebooks are sold. They are also available in trade paperback editions. You can find links to all purchase venues at www.ljcohen.net.

The novels of Halcyone Space

DERELICT (Halcyone Space, book 1): A group of teens stranded on a sentient spaceship must work together or risk being killed when the ship's AI wakes believing it's still fighting the war that damaged it decades ago.

ITHAKA RISING (Halcyone Space, book 2): A young computer genius struggling to function with a grievous head injury is willing to risk his life to get a black market neural implant, but what he finds is a planet that shouldn't exist and a rebellion that threatens the stability of the Commonwealth.

DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE (Halcyone Space, book 3): When a materials science student gets kidnapped, she's drawn into a conflict between the young crew of a sentient spaceship, a weapons smuggling ring, and a Commonwealth-wide conspiracy and must escape before her usefulness as a hostage expires.

PARALLAX (Halcyone Space, book 4): Halcyone's crew is drawn into a conspiracy threatening to reignite a galactic war when they discover the hidden power brokers who have been quietly manipulating the Commonwealth for decades.

#SFWApro

Friday, July 29, 2016

Where I am now

First, the physical. As in where I am literally. That would be in Canada. In Mt. Tremblant to be precise. We've traveled up here for a few days so my husband can drive like a maniac on the racetrack while I enjoy the solitude and a rented house with wifi. And, of course, the croissants.

Next, an update as to the state of my publishing life. 3 years ago, I co-edited a passion project - an anthology of SF&F stories written by fellow graduates of Jeff Carver and Craig Shaw Gardner's Ultimate Science Fiction Writing Workshop. Pen-Ultimate was a wonderful collection to work on and we chose a workshop model to produce it and decided to donate the proceeds to the SFWA emergency medical fund.

About a year after it was published, we decided to produce a follow up. Pen-Ultimate II took longer than I had anticipated, partly because of some chaotic and stressful personal life events during its development, partly because I was so busy with my personal writing. But, at long last, my co-editor (Talib S. Hussain) was able to keep me on track and we completed the manuscript.

Pen-Ultimate II contains stories by 12 authors, spanning the gamut from fantasy to science fiction to the just plain weird and as with the prior volume, all proceeds will be donated to the SFWA emergency medical fund.

You can purchase it in any of these venues (BN, iBooks, and print forthcoming):
Amazon
Kobo
Google Play

The novels of Halcyone Space

And finally, an update on my own writing. Just about 2 months ago, DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE was released. Not only has it been selling well, sales of all three books in the series have been selling consistently as well - enough so that this latest book has earned back its production expenses in about 6 weeks and enough so that all three books have remained on the top 10 best sellers on one of Amazon's sub-categories of SF books.

As of this week, it's time to get some serious writing done on the as yet unnamed book 4 in the Halcyone Space series.

It is actually fitting that I am here in Mt. Tremblant, starting a new project. It was here, in 2004, where I started my first novel - also while on family holiday. While that one is (and will remain!) safely 'trunked', there is something comforting about the cycle of my writing life. Nearly all my novels have started in the summer. Last year, DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE came into being on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont at a dear friend's summer home.

As I type this, a cup of coffee is cooling next to my laptop. The house is silent. I have nothing to distract me. The last time I sat down to draft words on a shiny, new project was quite some months ago. I have been in editing and production mode for what feels like a long while. I feel 'out of writing shape.' My mind is far too cluttered.

Even as I crave the focus of new words and new story, I fear I have forgotten how to begin. I have to remind myself that this, too, is familiar. And I am not starting with nothing. The characters of Halcyone Space are old friends. Old friends who have been patiently (and not so patiently) waiting for me to return.

#SFWApro

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

There will be a test later. . .

Time to get to work!

So on June 1, 2016, DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE, Halcyone Space book 3 was released into the world. I am so grateful for the early readers who have bought it and loved it. It's also been exciting to see a new group of readers joining the world of Halcyone Space, starting with book 1.

For much of the past 6 weeks, I've been appearing here and there, hither and yon, on the blogs of writers and colleagues. Here is a complete list of all of my gracious hosts and the posts I wrote for their online homes.

And yes, there will be a test.

Rather, a scavenger hunt of sorts.

With prizes.

Stay tuned!

5/31/16 http://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/favorite-bit-lj-cohen-talks-dreadnought-shuttle/

6/3/16 https://dtrasler.com/2016/06/03/spotlight-on-the-author-l-j-cohen/

6/3/16 https://amybethinverness.com/2016/06/03/interview-with-l-j-cohen/

6/6/16 https://samanthadunawaybryant.blogspot.com/2016/06/whose-story-is-it-anyway-guest-post.html

6/7/16 https://mashadutoit.com/2016/06/07/meet-science-fiction-writer-l-j-cohen

6/8/16 http://www.randeedawn.com/6-8-16-guest-author-l-j-cohen-integrating-her-past-with-a-novel-future/

6/10/16 https://prcreative.ca/ryan/?p=844

6/13/16 http://ejfrost.co/2016/06/13/following-the-ripples

6/13/16 https://www.melanietomlin.com/author-interview-lj-cohen/

6/15/16 http://ulbrichalmazan.blogspot.com/2016/06/guest-post-lj-cohen-and-importance-of.html

6/17/16 http://grammargeddon.com/?p=1331

6/21/16 http://thescriptors.com/dreadnought-and-shuttle-anatomy-of-a-book-launch/

6/22/16 https://rickwayneauthor.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/from-the-author-of-dreadnought-shuttle-writer-know-thyself/

6/23/16 https://justinegraykin.wordpress.com/2016/06/23/guest-blog-writer-l-j-cohen

6/24/16 http://www.susanspann.com/worldbuilding-or-down-the-rabbit-hole-by-l-j-cohen

6/28/16 http://www.tamara-jones.net/i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-writing-and-networking

7/2/16 http://www.pktyler.com/womenofscifi-interview-with-lj-cohen-sciencefiction-amreading/

7/5/16 http://www.katieliwriter.com/read/journal/2016/7/1/writers-on-writing-lj-cohen

Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Back to the Garden: Introversion and the Writer

Circa 2005: Dog and child, reading

There are two phases in the process of creation. And I'm not talking about terror and despair.

(Though those are definitely phases any creator will recognize all too well.)

No, I'm talking about the introvert phase and the extrovert phase of the creative process.

Is it any wonder that creating — and writing in my case — calls to the introverted? During the drafting process, I get to withdraw into a world of my own creation. Where the rules make sense. When I was a child, I spent much of my waking life immersed in the universe of one story or another. When you become the author of that story, it is so much sweeter than that. And while I still function in the external world, its demands are somehow less strident, less intrusive because of the internal world — a beautiful secret garden that belongs to me and me alone.

That incredible nurturing phase can't last forever. Not if you want your work to be enjoyed by others. And so the introverted creator must open the gates to her secret garden and let strangers in. Some will carefully walk the winding path she has laid out among the flowers. Others will trample their way across it. That is what the extrovert phase feels like. The part of the process when the work becomes public. And not only do you need to let strangers in, you need to seek them out and convince them to enter. For the career introvert, this is extremely difficult and draining.

I hadn't thought about it in that way until this morning, when I woke up soaked in sweat and in full-on anxiety mode. It's been a little over a month since the release of DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE and for most of the past 3 months, I've been focused on the launch. And while I'm not someone who is very comfortable with self-promotion, I've been able to complete a 6 week long blog tour and in the process write nearly 20,000 words of unique posts and interview answers.

What I haven't done is focus on any fiction.

I was managing to stay (mostly) focused and stay (mostly) positive—despite the fact that publication is the extrovert phase of the creative process and I am most decidedly an introvert—until my dog became ill. Even then, I created a new routine, fitting in her meds and cooking meals for her around writing blogposts and boosting the signal about them on social media.

And then the cancer got the better of her and she couldn't breathe, despite the meds, despite the care. On Friday evening, we made the wrenching choice to take her to the vet to be euthanized. It was then I crashed. Hard.

All weekend, I drifted, both physically and emotionally. My reservoir of spoons is depleted. And tomorrow I will start 3 1/2 days of extreme extroversion during my participation at Readercon.

What I really want to do is barricade myself into a new garden until the world makes sense to me again. I feel the pull of needing to write something new and something that belongs (for now) to me, alone. That won't happen this week and maybe not in the next few weeks, but it will happen.

For now, I will hold to the hope and knowledge that the garden is waiting for me.

#SFWApro

Friday, July 01, 2016

Where to find me - virtually (part 3)

And we're still working hard!

The blog tour in support of DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE continues. If you've missed any of my guest posts, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

I've estimated that I've written close to 20,000 words of non-fiction for these posts in the past month or so. It's definitely been a challenge to keep it interesting and keep it from being the same old same old answers. Remember, stay tuned because there will be a ~~test~~ scavenger hunt where the prize is some of my recent ceramics goodies.

From my last show - some recent work

I'll start out this group of posts with one I wrote for The Scriptors, a group of Indie Writers I'm a part of. In the post, I shared some real numbers of books sold and earnings from DREADNOUGHT's launch and from my first 4 years as an author-publisher. There isn't a lot of hard data on earning - we tend to hear the stories of the superstar outliers, but not a whole lot from average-Joe-writer.

~~~~~

Rick Wayne is a writer whose work I adore and who I've become friends with through the magic of google plus. He and I share a lot of the same ethos when it comes to writing and sometime later in the year, we will be working on a co-written novel. There aren't many people I think I could relax my control-freak ways with to embark on a project like this. Rick is in that very short list. He invited me to his blog where I talked about my strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

Rick writes kick ass genre-blending specfic/cyberpunk/thriller . . . it's good shit. Just read it. Okay?

~~~~~

Justine Graykin is another fellow 'broad' from Broad Universe. I met her at either Arisia or Boskone a few years back and was immediately captivated by how well she read her work aloud. And it was hard not to notice the large dragon she had wrapped around her neck and shoulders! She gave me space on her blog to talk about my philosophy and the themes that emerge in my writing.

~~~~~

Susan Spann is a writer, lawyer, and keeper of an amazing home reef (Calling it a fish tank does not do it justice!) Her Shinobi mystery series is a favorite of mine and combines ancient Japan, mysteries, and a buddy-cop-like partnership between a ninja and a Portuguese Jesuit. If you want to see some of the strange and off-beat things I've had to research for the Halcyone Space books, take a look!.

~~~~~

And last, but certainly not least in today's round up is my guest post on Tamara Jones's blog. I initially 'met' Tamara over twelve years ago on an online writing message board called Forward Motion for Writers. Since then, we've become friends. Not only is she a wonderful writer, she's also a skilled quilter. And she can kill off characters like nobody's business. Stop by her blog, where I chat about networking for writers.

~~~~~

That's all for this group of posts! Stay tuned for the final round up and announcement of the scavenger hunt.

#SFWApro

Friday, June 17, 2016

Where to find me - virtually (part 2)

Dev and I are still hard at work!

The blog tour in support of DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE continues! I've been hither and yon and my fellow bloggers continue to host my rambling - for which I am grateful. If you've missed any of the guest posts (and you definitely shouldn't miss any of them . . . there will be a test later. Okay, not actually a test, but a scavenger hunt. With prizes), you can find part 1 here.

Masha DuToit, whose fantasy/magical realism novels CROOKS AND STRAIGHTS and WOLF LOGIC rocked my world in 2015, (seriously - have you read them yet? Why not????) invited me over to her blog for a lovely interview. Want to know what book I hated and why? Head on over.

Randee Dawn is an absolutely lovely human being and talented writer who I have met through Broad Universe. Randee's brand new agent is shopping her fabulous urban fantasy book. I know it's fabulous because I got to read it last summer. All you mere mortals will have to wait until some lucky publisher snatches it up. Here's my guest post about integrating my medical/rehabilitation background with my writing life.

Spec Fic writer, geek dad, and fellow-in-the-trenches indie publisher, Ryan Toxopeus, was kind enough to interview me on his blog also. He asked me some wonderful and thought provoking questions - it's definitely not your generic author interview! His fantasy books are still on my TBR list. My only excuse is that I've been reading mainly SF these days.

Another fellow Broad Universe broad (EJ Frost) hosted me to talk more about writing injuries and disabilities realistically - a topic that is near and dear to my heart from my physical therapy past. My main point? Don't use an injury or disability as a plot device, especially not to engender false sympathy for a character or to motivate one either.

Another day, another interview! Phew! I know you're all dying to know everything there is to know about me and this interview gets us at least part of the way there! Thank you to Melanie Tomlin for allowing me space on her blog.

Hey - look - it's another of my Broad Universe colleagues! This time Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, fellow SF&F writer, who invited me to her internet home to talk about the importance of speculative fiction. You can read about why I think it is subversive and wonderful. And what I wanted to be when I grew up.

And last for this round up, but certainly NOT least, a post on Karen Conlin's blog about how it feels to work with an editor. Karen has edited three of my novels in the past two years and I lovingly say she is brutal in all the right ways.

Stay tuned for more posts next week!

And a reminder, if you are new to the novels of Halcyone Space, you can start with where it all began. DERELICT (book 1) is only 0.99 for kindle.

A group of teens stranded on a sentient spaceship must work together or risk being killed when the ship's AI wakes believing it's still fighting the war that damaged it decades ago.

#SFWApro

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Confused thoughts on representation

We all live at the intersections of multiple identities. Most of mine happen to be privileged or relatively so in our society. Some are not. Some vary, depending on context. It's confusing, messy, like all things pertaining to people.

Some of my identities include (in no particular order and certainly not an exhaustive list): white, cis-female, heterosexual, Jewish, American, feminist, neuro-atypical, and writer.

I include writer here because it's not just what I do, it's interwoven with the way I process the world. If I want to understand how I think about something, I write.

This post is an attempt to work my way through an enormously important issue that pertains both to myself as a writer, but also as any of my identities; that of representation in fiction.

Once upon a time, a white, cis-het, female writer wrote a space opera series.

That series contains an ensemble cast of a half-dozen principal characters, each of whom gets 'screen time' as a point of view (POV) character. Unless that cast consists of clones of some version of the writer, that means said writer is creating characters outside of her own direct experience. Not only are there male characters in the cast, but also characters from non-white backgrounds. There are also characters who are not heterosexual.

The writer did not create this cast as an exercise of filling out some kind of diversity bingo sheet. She grew up on the original Star Trek (albeit in syndication) and imprinted on the message (albeit somewhat flawed in the show) that the future was for everyone. And when she grew up, those were the kind of stories she wanted to tell.

Speaking for one, not for all

So, it's pretty obvious that writer is me. And in crafting the series and its characters, I worked hard to balance honoring the (not) diverse (enough), (not) inclusive (enough) world I live in with my vision/hope of a future that is more so. I was aware the identities that bring me privilege also put me at risk for drowning out writers with less. I was also aware it was not my place to speak for someone else's experience, especially when someone from an identity different than mine could speak with their own voice. And yet, I also knew that creating a future with a cast of characters who were all cis-het and white would be erasing the reality of the majority of people on the planet.

Imagination can only take you so far

I chose to create a cast of individuals who came from different backgrounds and who lived at the intersections of their own specific identities. Each of these characters are uniquely themselves. They represent, not a race or a creed or a belief system in any way, but a richness of individualities. They are each, based in part, on pieces of people I know who are themselves living at the intersections of many identities. I also draw on personal history and experience of simultaneously being privileged for some of my identities and disadvantaged in others.

But you're not . . .

Fill in the blank: gay, Black, Latino, Japanese, etc. There are characters in the Halcyone Space book who have those as part of their identities. By far, the most criticism I get is why I chose to make Ro (Rosalen Maldonado) and Nomi (Konomi Nakamura) gay. I have been accused of "ruining" my space opera with some sort of homosexual agenda. Never mind that their relationship is primarily a deep emotional one, with little overt physicality. (The novels are SF, not SF/Romance.)

My answer is something along the lines of 'because you're still asking the question.' I live in a world where I joyfully attended the wedding of my sister-in-law and her wife. Where my dear friends Alan and Paul used to tease me that I was their token 'breeder' friend. Where my son carries the name of my husband's former boss and mentor, who passed away while I was pregnant and whose family had disowned him for coming out.

Because when I introduced Nomi to the story, she was everything Ro needed, but didn't know it yet. Because I couldn't imagine a future where love between two women would be anything to remark about. They are simply two people who care for one another. That is neither revolutionary nor particularly worthy of praise.

And yet, and yet, and yet. . .

I'm somewhat dismayed that it has become something to notice - that there is a gay couple in a space opera series.

This is a screen shot from this afternoon. DERELICT is the 2nd highest selling book in the LGBT SF category on Amazon. When I took this screen shot ITHAKA RISING was 7 and DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE 8. (It also made the hot new release category.)

On one level, I'm thrilled. I've worked hard on these novels. They are good stories.

On one level, I'm dismayed. First, that the bar is so damned low that a series with 2 woman in love as a very tangential part of the plot is enough to have the books rank this well in the subcategory. Second, that 3 of my books are in the top 10 of this list and I very well may be drowning out the voices of queer writers of SF in the process.

I don't know if I am or not. I do know I never marketed these books as LGBT SF. And yet, here they are. I can't pull them from the category and I wouldn't want to. I do know that I am proud of each of my characters and their individuality.

And I will continue to do my best to honor that little girl who grew up to believe that the future was for everyone.

#SFWApro

Monday, June 06, 2016

Where to find me - virtually (part 1)

Like Dev (seen in the cover art above) I am busy at work, but while she is attempting to sabotage a spaceship, I'm talking about DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE and various and sundry details about writing and science fiction.

Over the course of June, I'll be guest posting in blogs all over the 'net. Please visit my gracious hosts and leave a comment while you're there.

Mary Robinette Kowal, Hugo-award winning writer, puppeteer, and all around lovely human, featured me on "My Favorite Bit", where I got to talk about why I loved writing Dev's character.

And here's not one, but TWO interviews with me, both published yesterday:

Damion Trassler's blog

Damian is a playwright and a writer and has written a very funny, self-deprecating piece about how not to cosplay.

Amy Beth Inverness's blog

Amy Beth is a SF writer and fellow Broad Universe broad. She is the writer of The Cities of Luna stories, that she describes as "Stories about people, not blowing up spaceships."

Last but not least, today I'm talking about balancing characters and points of view on Samantha Dunaway Bryant's blog. Samantha writes about menopausal super heroes. I thoroughly enjoyed "Going Through The Change" and am looking forward to reading "Change of Life."

(And definitely check out the guest posts - some include giveaways of one of my novels - winner's choice.)

#SFWApro

Friday, June 03, 2016

Elation and Despair

This week has brought both emotional highs and lows in my life. The high point? The publication of DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE, my 6th novel to date and book 3 of my SF/Space Opera series.


Halcyone Space, books 1,2, and 3!

While there is always an inevitable let-down after a book is published, this week was made significantly more difficult by getting sad news about Tigger, the pup pictured below.

She was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer after several weeks of her not seeming well and multiple trips to the local animal hospital. It is not treatable and we will face the loss of our sweet friend in the near future.


The day we brought Tigger home, April 2005

A dog and her boy

Tigger was part of my writing career from the start. She was there in 2005 when I finished my first novel. She has had her place in my office for every book since. I'd like to say she loves to inspire me when I'm at the computer, but the truth is, the room has radiant heat in the flooring, so I suspect that's the more likely reason.

"Good dog" and "other dog" keeping me company in my office

For 11 1/2 years, she has been part of our family and for as long as she has left, we will make sure she is loved and spoiled and comfortable. She has brought so much love - not just to us, but to hundreds of others: Tigger and I spent years visiting hospitals, nursing homes, pre-schools, and psychiatric facilities as a visiting therapy-dog team with Caring Canines. She seemed to have an instinctive understanding when someone needed her comforting presence. She still does.

We have no idea how long she has, but maybe that's not important. Dogs seem to innately understand that we have the now. And now is always a good time to chase a ball, or go for a walk, or get petted.

So my wish for you, on behalf of Tigger, is to celebrate your 'now', with those that you love.

p.s. If you're wondering what kind of dog Tigger is, her mother was a black lab. She was the only one of the litter to be brindled. We suspect dad was a Plott hound. We consider her an American Shelter Hound. :)

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Hello World! Meet Dreadnought And Shuttle!

You'd think that after publishing five novels over the course of four years, that number six would be no big deal, but the reality is every time I release a book, it feels like a risk. I worry that the book won't find its readers. That I haven't done a good enough job with the story. That even if I did, it was a fluke and I won't be able to write the next one.

I know that much of this is just release-day jitters. Not only do I get them every time, but so does every other writer I know.

So here's DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE, my sixth published full-length work, and third book of my SF series, Halcyone Space.

You can follow the link to my website or purchase venues and read the marketing synopsis (and I hope you will!) but I wanted to share the very brief description - also called an 'elevator pitch' here:

When a materials science student gets kidnapped, she's drawn into a conflict between the crew of a sentient spaceship, a weapons smuggling ring, and a Commonwealth-wide conspiracy and must escape before her usefulness as a hostage expires.

Or you could just say "MacGyver in space" and that would capture a lot of the story of Dev, the woman depicted on the cover.

So, if you'd like to read about conspiracies, sabotage, space travel, political intrigue, a recovering spaceship and her bold crew, give DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE a try. And if you're new to the series, book 1 (DERELICT) is on sale for kindle (0.99) during book 3's release.

Amazon kindle
GoogleBooks
BN (nook)
Kobo
Print (forthcoming)

If DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE is a book you think you would enjoy and you are planning on purchasing it, would you consider buying it during its first two weeks? (From now - June 15th) With even a small number of sales clustered together, the book will get noticed and promoted by Amazon's algorithms.

Even if you aren't planning on purchasing the book, simply putting it on your wishlist can give it a visibility boost. Would you be willing to place DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE on your Amazon wishlist?

Many thanks!

#SFWApro

Friday, May 13, 2016

Creating full characters, not strong ones

I write science fiction and fantasy stories. And in those stories are characters. They interact with other characters, move through settings, and deal with conflicts. They act and they react.

This is basic storytelling '101', regardless of genre.

Everywhere I look, I see articles talking about writing 'strong female characters', or praising them in TV shows or movies. It makes me wonder about the definition of strong and how media has limited the scope and range of ALL characters in elevating strength over all other aspects.

I understand where this push comes from. Looking at female characterization in popular media over the past few decades, for every Ripley or Sarah Connor or Peggy Carter are dozens and dozens of passive, poorly written female props, victims, and plot devices. And in an effort to change this, strength has come to mean the ability to fight against terrible odds and win.

But if you look closely at the three iconic female characters I named (and there are more, thankfully!), their power doesn't come solely from their ability to kick ass, but from their ability to be fully human and express both their strength and their vulnerability.

What made Agent Carter so compelling to me (and to many fans; just not to the networks, apparently) is that she is intensely real. She expresses a full range of emotions, including fear and uncertainty, and thrives within a context of solid relationships with the other characters around her. We see her vulnerability and root for her to survive, even as we recognize the sometimes outlandish plots and situations that the series placed her in.

Because she is so fully real, we are willing to suspend disbelief and enter into her world.

That is the difference in writing full characters rather than strong ones.

The character of Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movie was strong, but not full. I enjoyed the movie for what it was: superficial action, but never had any sort of emotional connection to it.

This created dichotomy between strong and full characters is not limited to the depiction of women on screen or in written work. The characters who stay with me, who resonate for long after I've closed the book or turned off the screen are ones who have a reality far beyond their story. Captain America in The Winter Soldier. Morgan in The Riddlemaster trilogy, Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings.

It's this resonance and reality I strive for in all of my writing. In my Halcyone Space books, I have an ensemble cast roughly split between male and female characters. They all have moments of strength and moments of vulnerability. They all make imperfect choices and have to contend with the results. It makes for a much richer experience for me as a writer. I have to believe it does the same for the reader.

Dev, pictured in the artwork above, is a new addition to the series. She is smart and resourceful, but she is also hamstrung by her upbringing in the Settlements. She feels the sting of class prejudice very keenly and it colors her interactions. That makes her far more interesting to me than if she had had a privileged life. In fact, she would not be the character she is had she been raised otherwise. We see her vulnerabilities and want her to succeed. She is strong in the ways that matter, rather than in a purely cliched sense.

Strength that does not come from the fullness of the human experience is not true strength.

Who are your favorite characters who exemplify this kind of larger, truer strength?

#SFWApro

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Waiting, on hold

"Hold the line, please" Photo by Muffet, used with permission, cc license

As I type this, I am literally on hold, listening to artificially cheerful and utterly generic music, punctuated by a recorded message about how all the representatives are busy, blah, blah blah.

That is actually an easier 'hold' to deal with then the more abstract issue of waiting for answers.

I feel like I'm in an endless holding pattern in my life and on multiple fronts.

Waiting for word on my submission to Angry Robot's open fantasy call. The novel I submitted had been requested during their last submission period, and the editor who read it had asked me to revise and resubmit. When I had finished the revision, the editor had left the publisher, so I sent it for their call that ended in January. I have high hopes, but tempered by the knowledge that so much in this business is subjective and what one editor loved, another might be tepid about.
Waiting for the final cover art for DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE. Chris Howard is an extremely talented artist and writer, who also has a stressful day job, along with his own writing career to manage. I've worked with him before and know what he sends me will rock. I'm just impatient and excited. (And here, take a look at the concept sketch! Love it!)


This is Dev. She's working on sabotaging the spaceship she's being held captive on.

Waiting to hear about an idea I had to create a choose-your-own-adventure type text game from the fantasy world of my Changeling's Choice novels.
Waiting/hoping to see improvement from a medical treatment a family member is undergoing. It's not something I can talk about without betraying confidences, but it's something that's been weighing heavily on my mind and heart, and something I have absolutely no control over.
Waiting to hear back from the sellers of a farm/farmhouse in Western Mass. We're looking to 'buy the farm' (don't worry - that's literally, not figuratively!) as the next step in our pre-retirement life. I've seen the property and it's wonderful. My husband has not been able to get out there b/c of work and travel, but we're hoping to schedule a time to see it the weekend of April 23/24 and keeping fingers crossed that it's still available.

This is where I want to write all the words!

Waiting to hear back from several authors I've contacted about reading/blurbing DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE. These are all writers I have some connection with and I did my best to craft a polite and compelling request, but everyone's time is limited, and I know what I'm asking is a large favor in terms of time and commitment.

I'm not someone who does well with ambiguity. Honestly, I'd prefer a 'no' to silence, so having all these things up in the air makes for a very discomfited Lisa. I am doing the best I can to stay focused and positive and spent a good chunk of yesterday brainstorming for the choose-your-own-adventure game as well as the final copyedits for DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE. Today, I'm actually feeling more grounded and settled. Work is definitely my antidote to anxiety.

I'm definitely hanging in there and keeping the faith in writer-land.

#SFWApro

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Editing out Loud

The joy of watching your editor read and react to your manuscript on twitter:

"The irony was thicker than the pollution that swirled overhead and just as choking."

YES. #Dreadnought&Shuttle #amediting @lisajanicecohen
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 16, 2016

I spend a lot of time crafting individual metaphors that carry the world through the characters' points of view. To me, that is the power of deep POV, where the author's voice fades into the background, even in the narration. I don't always achieve it, but it's one of my primary goals.

"The orange of worry streaked through her voice." Neural implant. Nanoemitters. Synesthesia to the Nth degree. Love this boy. #amediting
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 16, 2016

Writing a character who acquires synesthesia was a challenge and one that I really enjoyed. I have a touch of synesthesia, in that things I process through my eyes and ears also often have a kinesthetic impact. e.g., loud voices can hurt my skin. And when I get the words right in something I'm writing, I feel them fit with the sense of jigsaw pieces snicking together. It's weird, but it's always been that way for me.

"She had as much respect for containment as a nuclear meltdown." ZING. Micah's not impressed. #amediting #DreadnoughtAndShuttle
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 16, 2016

"Even if everything else was venting atmosphere, at least he'd found a friend." I love how @lisajanicecohen recasts sayings. #amediting
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 16, 2016

Just a few changed words to fit the setting, and it's a new saying entirely -- but it's not, because we know it. From before. LOVE it.
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 16, 2016

"Out of the wormhole and into the supernova."

Familiar, but new. #amediting @lisajanicecohen #DreadnoughtAndShuttle
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 17, 2016

It's so gratifying to see Karen pick out those turns of phrase that I crafted for the characters and their world. She also noticed that the one character who'd spent her whole life on Earth doesn't use space-based sayings. A perceptive editor is a thing of beauty!

OMG The way Greek mythology ties into this YA SF story is AAAAHHHHHH! SO COOL! It was there before, but just now OH MY GOD #amediting
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 17, 2016

Believe me when i tell you THAT was a much-needed spot of levity in a VERY tense spot in the story. The pacing KILLS. #amediting
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 17, 2016

Pacing is one of those issues I nearly always get wrong in the first draft. In particular, I accelerate as I'm working through a novel, so my ending half seems to abrupt. Because it's something I know about at the outset, it's something I spend a lot of time on in the revision before it gets to the editor.

LOVE this. Not merely "bring him up to speed."

"Bring him up to cruising velocity."#amediting @lisajanicecohen #DreadnoughtAndShuttle
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 18, 2016

Also, not merely "we're so screwed."

"We are so spaced."

If it's REALLY bad, "we are so spaced without air."

Little tweaks, BIG results.
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 18, 2016

#HappyAuthorIsHappy

The words have appeared before (it's a children's game), but this time they really resonated for me. YAY. #DreadnoughtAndShuttle
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 18, 2016

This book is the first of mine that had a title long before the first words appeared. It emerged from something I created in book 1 - I needed a game that kids in a spacefaring society would play that was less generic than Hide and Go Seek, and more relevant to their world than Rock/Paper/Sissors, and have greater connection to their culture than using 'Cat and Mouse' as an expression.

"Don't underestimate the power of adrenaline and stupidity, soldier."

For me, that encapsulates this character's world view. #amediting
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 22, 2016

Folks don't get thrown under the bus in the HALCYONE SPACE series.

They get thrown under the afterburners. #DreadnoughtAndShuttle
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 22, 2016

Oooh, now Ro and Emma are going head to head.

"It's not about whose plasma rifle is the longest."

BOOM. #amediting #DreadnoughtAndShuttle
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 22, 2016

Folks don't "cross that bridge when they come to it" in HALCYONE SPACE.

They traverse that wormhole.

Little touches are so important!
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 22, 2016

"No reverse in a wormhole."

Ain't that the truth. I see @lisajanicecohen has started brainstorming Book 4. GOOD. #DreadnoughtAndShuttle
— Karen S. Conlin (@GramrgednAngel) March 22, 2016

It's not necessary that your editor like your story to do a good job in the editing, but I'm not going to lie - seeing her reaction really thrilled me and took a lot of my writerly insecurity off the table. And let me tell you, it doesn't matter how many books you've written, you get to a place where you think everything is crap somewhere in the process. Objectivity? Yeah, right. What objectivity?

So having an outside source enjoy the story helps to keep those particular devils at bay.

DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE is on track to be out in the world summer of 2016. Stay tuned!