Where to Find Me: Book release edition

Photo of me with one of my fellow readers, Donald Maass at Brooklyn Booze and Books

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Two weeks from today, LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD will be released. (!!!!!) It's been a long road from original idea to finished novel and it doesn't quite feel real to me yet. 

The work of being an author isn't only in writing the book. It also includes doing what you can to help it find its readership. But authors are notoriously shy creatures (many of us, anyway) and self-promotion is a terrifying process. 

So we do what we can, hoping that the readings, the interviews, the cover art reveal, the convention panel appearances all conspire to pique a reader's curiosity. 

To that end, I was a guest participant at Arisia in Boston last weekend, then took a train to NYC Tuesday morning to participate in a group reading at Barrow's Intense tasting room in Industry City in Brooklyn. The reading was to celebrate an anthology series (Of Gods and Globes) that the readers had contributed to. I had the opportunity to show off the ARC of Litany (yay!) and read a short story from volume 1 of the anthology series that I hadn't ever read aloud to an audience before. ("Perpetual Silence"). 

It's a story I wrote B-C (Before Covid) and one that I haven't really looked at in quite some time. I was happy to see that it held up and for 20 minutes, I was able to capture the attention of everyone in the room. (It's a powerful story. I'm so glad Past-LJ wrote it.)

I was recently a guest on Max Bowen's CityWide Bytes YouTube interviews. You can watch the short video here, where we talk about Litany and its influences. 

An early review of Litany is up here, as well. 

If you're going to be at Boskone this February, I'll be reading from Litany during the Broad Universe Rapid-fire Reading and participating in the Boskone Book Release party, where you can snag a copy/get your copy signed. 

As a reminder, ebook pre-orders are live and print orders will be open on release day (Feb 10). If you are considering buying the book, pre-orders are really helpful for a book's visibility. If buying the book isn't in your budget, spreading the word about it and marking it as 'want to read' on Goodreads can be the boost a book needs to get noticed.

 Many thanks!

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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

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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

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email:

• Free eBook
• Free/DRM-free short fiction
• publication news

Sightings in the Wild

I've been busy, here and there, hither and yon. Which is to say, there are four guest posts of mine out there on the great wide web from the past few weeks.

Why is a raven like a writing desk? Guest post for fellow word-smith, Julianne Douglas, writer of historical fiction, on how my poetry informs my fiction.  (From my intro to the post:)

Having been a poet for a far longer time than I have been a writer of fiction, I maintain that poetry - or at least the tools of poetry - underlies all effective writing. Not only that, but in writing speculative fiction, those tools can enhance world building and reader immersion in fundamental and crucial ways.

The poetic tools I'm going to focus on are specificity, musicality, and comparisons. All three can heighten the reading experience of your novel, especially novels of speculative fiction.

Interview on Addicted to Words, by crit partner and YA writer, Candie Campbell.

In which I answer questions about my favorite characters, books (mine and others), and show off some of my pottery.

My post on The Scriptors blog, Ithaka Rising: By the numbers, where I detail the sales/earnings in the first few weeks of my newest release. 

And, last, but not least, a long and detailed post for Susan Spann's blog, Spann of Time on the tasks involved in being a writer-publisher. Susan is both a writer (her Shinobi Mystery series is EXCELLENT) and an intellectual property lawyer, who runs the excellent twitter chat #publaw. (From my intro to the post:)

. . . I have just published my 5^th novel. One of my books has sold nearly 10,000 copies and spent much of last summer on the Amazon best seller lists. So am I a breakout success? That entirely depends on what you consider a success.

By the ‘can you support your family on your art’ metric, no. But very few writers can reach that high bar. I measure my success on a very different metric: Have I learned to put out a product that is indistinguishable from what you would find from any small or large publisher? Yes. Do those books sell in the open marketplace? Yes. Do those books get favorably compared to traditionally published books in similar genres? Yes.

Plenty of news and views of yours truly, along with some (I hope) useful information about the world of indie-publishing and the writing life. 

#SFWApro

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Hey! That's me!

Last night, I appeared on Buddy Gott's Writing Show, where he regularly interviews writers (wow - I bet that was a surprise!) on a live video stream which is then archived on his youtube channel.

 

I have to admit, I was initially nervous at the thought of being interviewed 'live'. I'm a writer. I rely on the ability to edit, rethink, and rewrite my words. It's the ultimate 6 second delay. Having to speak 'off the cuff' is something I'm not practiced at.

My one experience prior to this, where I had to speak to an 'invisible' audience, was from over 30 years ago. When I was in college, I worked at our college radio station, doing advertisement and public relations. In the interest of trying out other aspects of the station, I tried a stint as an AM radio DJ. I figured it would be a low pressure gig, as the signal was basically just strong enough to reach the student union. (Shout out to the University of Rochester and WRUR!)

It was a nightmare.

I was so nervous about filling silence and not messing up the segues between songs - this was in the days of turntables, remember! I felt like Lucille Ball in the chocolate factory episode! (Only less fun, because you couldn't eat the music. . . )

2 hours later, and I swore never to be near a live mic again.

But Buddy made our conversation an enjoyable and effortless experience, making sure the questions and conversation flowed smoothly.

If you want to see some of my Doctor Who loot (I have a wall in my office liberally decorated with it), hear about my travels through Kyrgyzstan, learn about my accidental poetry collection, or just put a voice and face to the words, take a look see.


Oh, and I also talk a little about my books. My husband has already told me that I sat too close to the laptop, and if I was a little bit back, it would be in better focus. Ahh, live and learn. Also, it was a good thing that the camera only showed my shoulders and up - I spent a good chunk of yesterday in the ceramics studio and there is dried clay all over my clothes. :)