Coming up for air

I just finished round three edits of Nancy Marie Segovia’s Come Hell or High Water and Jody Kessler’s A Witch’s Fate. Wonderful books, wonderful authors, and both well worth the read – and you really can’t go wrong poking about in their backlist of books on Amazon for extras to read, either.

The fact that it’s five in the morning does not actually escape me. The feeling that my eyelids are made of coarse-grit sandpaper tells me the time better than the clock does.

I’m honestly wracking my brain for ways to promote Smuggler’s Justice, because I absolutely swear I have no idea how to market a book to save my life. I think it’s a great story, but trying to explain it in ad copy just to share in Facebook groups is much harder than it looks! I was just looking at ads on Amazon, and wouldn’t it just show to go ya? The smallest budget they’ll allow is $100. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a spare $100 laying around. Try as I might, I didn’t make that much in royalties in all of 2016. Glamorous jet-setting business this authoring is, ain’t it?

My Patreon is still at 2 patrons – I adore my patrons, both of them! I’ll be adding a short story just for them within the next week or so, once I’ve finished writing Siren’s Call. If you’d like to get in on the patron-exclusive stories becoming a patron is easy, and I’m offering some fun perks, too.

Speaking of Siren’s Call, I’m considering whether or not Madeleine’s beau-to-be should be a lion shifter, considering that she’s holding a small grudge against all lion shifters because her douche canoe ex-boyfriend was one.

Getting Organized

I love software. I have more programs and apps to organize myself and my writing than any human being actually needs. I have so many programs that I may need a program to organize my programs.

That said, I like Scapple better than MindMap, even though I was highly unappreciative of having to pay for software. I haven’t used it to its full potential yet, and I do still have plenty of use for MindMap so I can’t possibly get rid of that, but I do like the way Scapple doesn’t limit you on the number of ideas that you can associate with a central idea.

I like Scrivener for almost all of my own writing. Now, considering that I like both Scapple and Scrivener you’ll likely think that I’m a Literature and Latte addict, but that’s not quite so. I also use Snowflake Pro and I can’t think of anything better for expanding a core idea into a full-blown outline. Word, on the other hand, is what I use for editing because I haven’t found anything else fairly universally used with a decent ‘track changes’ feature. Even with all that said, I still wind up using NotePad to jot down any number of things, and Excel instead of an address book like a normal person.

No matter how easy Scrivener is to use for organizing a single project, I haven’t found it to be all that great at organizing series, particularly when you’ll have dozens of books in a series and you need a ‘Bible’ to keep the series world facts organized so you don’t break your own canon by accident. I just started using PBworks to organize the ‘Bibles’ for my three series and several stand-alone books. It’s just easier to keep it all in one place. Considering that The Arcane Line series and Murphy’s Law series both take place in the same ‘universe’ – though at very different times – I definitely needed somewhere to ‘world build’. Smuggler at Large (yes, that series finally got a name for the series as a whole) takes place over extremely long periods of time and vast distances, so it’s probably a good idea to keep all those details in one place too. I’m not sure how PBworks will help with my stand-alone novels, but having all my notes in one place certainly can’t hurt.

Now if only I could get the rest of my life organized… That would be nice.

 

The Grave Winner cover reveal

Today I have the great pleasure of having Lindsey Loucks over to my virtual kitchen for an interview about the cover reveal for her fantastic book – The Grave Winner. I’ll admit to being very slightly biased, since I did edit The Grave Winner for Crescent Moon Press and I completely fell in love with the book. Ms. Loucks herself is enormously entertaining and a delight to work with. She really worked her tail feathers off to make sure that her book was polished up! Of course, like all of “my” authors, Ms. Loucks is entirely too pretty (why do I get all the pretty people? why can’t I get a homely cuss so I don’t feel quite so dowdy? *sniffle*)…

Author Lindsey Loucks

What a brat – she even has good hair! Sigh. Well, enough of my whining, right? She also happens to have a completely awesome cover for her book, The Grave Winner, which will be coming out on May 15th. I have to say that the artist really captured what I thought the main character would look like – absolutely a fantastic job, no questions!

The Grave Winner – Cover Art Revealed!

Fabulous, isn’t it? I love this cover!

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…  the interview!

MR: Hi Lindsey! Come on in! It’s finally nice out, but I don’t dare set out lawn chairs, they’d just sink. Mud season in Vermont. It’ll get worse before it gets better, of course. Would you like some tea? Nothing fancy, just Irish Breakfast Tea…. Or… What is this? Peppermint Ginseng? Yerk. Must be Himself’s. Ah. Plain Peppermint too… Coffee? Oh, don’t mind Himself. He wanders through whenever he hears the magic word–‘tea’.

LL: Hi Melissa! I would love some Irish Breakfast Tea. You have a gorgeous kitchen. Hi Himself! *waves*

MR: Okay, your cover reveal for The Grave Winner is today, and I’m pretty excited! I loved editing your book, and can’t wait to get my mitts on the final product. You must be much more excited than I am!

LL: I am excited and more than a little nervous! I’ve started losing sleep about the whole thing. But sleep is silly, anyway.

MR: I understand that you wrote The Grave Winner in 2010 – it’s been a long process. What did the process look like from your end?

LL: Yep, I started writing it in May 2010. I was working on a YA Sci-Fi (which needs a major rewrite) when the title The Grave Winner leaped inside my head. I had no idea why someone would win a grave, so I scratched my head and thought about it for a while. Then Leigh, my main character, started whispering to me and would. Not. Leave. Me. Alone! Surprising, huh?

So, I started writing her story. It took about six months to finish the first draft and then another year of editing before I felt confident enough in the story to test the query waters. Several requests and even more rejections later, I had three offers from small presses. Crescent Moon Press was the obvious choice for me because 1. they publish e-copies and print, 2. they have amazing covers, and 3. they used the most exclamation points in their offering email, which proved they were the most excited about my story. I haven’t regretted my decision to go with CMP at all. Plus, they have awesome editors! *points at me and grins*

MR: *Blushes* Do you have more books in the works? Like a sequel to The Grave Winner? Hint! Hint! Seriously – I can’t wait to see what else you’re doing!

LL: Well, after what Leigh went through, she stopped talking to me for a while. I can’t say I blame her. But there’s much more to tell, and she knows it, so she’s gradually speaking to me again. I’m about a third of the way through the typed version of the sequel, but there’s more of it scattered through my notebooks. I just have to piece it all together, but I wish I had more time to do it!

I’m also about a fourth of the way through a sexy ghost story in space. I love blending different genres!

MR: You have another book coming with another publisher, don’t you?

LL: I do! It’s called Salt in the Cupboard, which will release soon from Entangled Publishing. It’s actually only a novella, and I’m nearly finished with the editing stage.

When Leigh would only give me her middle finger, I saw an open call for romantic horror novellas on Entangled’s website. Since that’s right up my alley, I had to do it! That may be why Leigh started talking to me again. I think she was a little jealous I was talking to other characters!

MR: I have to say I’m really excited to see such a talented author’s work taking off like this, Lindsey. Of course, I’m also wildly jealous, but I’ll keep that mostly to myself! *grin* How long have you been writing, would you say?

LL: Since I was eight? That sounds about right. My parents bought me my very own desk, and I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. Sitting down at it filled me with such excitement! Blank paper and pencils piled on top of it put me in a happiness coma. The desk is long gone but the urge to write isn’t.

MR: I’ve noticed that a lot of “my” authors started writing pretty young. About when did you decide to go from writing for fun and relaxation to working towards writing with getting a book published in mind?

LL: Not until I finished that YA Sci-Fi book that needs a major rewrite. I wrote it the summer before The Grave Winner. I knew very little about writing “rules” and I knew even less about publishing, but I thought that YA book was ready to be published yesterday. Looking back at that story reminds me that it really wasn’t. But it sure did teach me A LOT! One thing that it taught me was that I could do better, and if I did, signing a publishing contract would put me into another happiness coma. I had to try!

MR: Did you get a lot of encouragement and support for your writing from friends and family?

LL: Some of them, yes. Others, no. Some are more supportive now that it’s actually happening. One of my forever best friends gave me the courage to write that YA Sci-Fi book. She even suffered through reading the whole thing! If I didn’t write that book, I wouldn’t be here today. So I owe her a lot. Another of my forever best friends went to the graveyard with me so I could get the setting just right. I love these people.

Another person I know, upon hearing that I wanted to be a published author, said, “Good luck with that.” I’m not even kidding.

My BF couldn’t even get through the Sci-Fi book because the main character annoyed him to no end. He used to always tell me that I should write literary fiction or picture books or funny books or anything other than what I wanted to write. Now he just tells me, “You’re doing so good.”

MR: Oooh, speaking of which, this is my ‘Coming through, I’m a nosy person!’ moment – how did you and your significant other meet? I love these stories *so* much I can’t help asking.

LL: It’s a drama-filled soap opera that fueled the idea for a play I wrote in high school! Okay, this is how it went down. My best friend and I had an epic crush on my BF’s best friend. I put anonymous Valentine’s Day gifts on his front porch to declare my secret love. My friend would slip notes through the slits in his locker. He thought he had some kind of crazy stalkers, and it didn’t take him long to find out who it was. Yay. I was totally embarrassed, of course, but that didn’t stop us to continue tormenting him with the zeal of a Justin Bieber fan girl.

Through some weird turn of events, we were both invited to his birthday party. Smart move on his part. How do you stop stalking behavior? Befriend the stalkers! So my best friend and I were beyond excited, but we had to play it cool.

At the party, I sat next to a guy from out of town who I’d never met before. He was the drummer in my crush’s band, but that was all I knew. As we sat there, he kept showing me pictures of recent concerts he’d gone to and cracking me up with every bizarre thing that fell out of his mouth. He was strange in a just-like-me sort of way, and he had the prettiest green eyes I’d ever seen. And that smile…wow.

A new girl moved to town shortly after the party and stole my crush’s heart. I was super sad and more than a little confused about my feelings for the drummer boy on the couch. I’d just met him, but there was obviously something there. I hung up my stalker gear and decided to pursue that possibility like a mature high school student. We’ve been together for almost two decades. Oh, and I found out that he ate my anonymous Valentine’s Day gift I left for his best friend all those years ago!

MR: I just love the beginnings of a romance! I absolutely love Leigh’s love life in The Grave Winner, by the way. Of course, I love a lot about Leigh. I love her kickass attitude and her fashion sense and her taste in music, too! How much of Leigh’s character reflects your own likes and dislikes?

LL: There’s quite a bit of Leigh in me. We listen to the same music, we both like the gothic/punk look (though Leigh has the courage to take it much further than I do), and we love with all our hearts. The big difference between us is that Leigh says what’s on her mind and she’s not afraid to push people around when they need to be pushed. I don’t like conflict at all and will do most anything to avoid it.

MR: Leigh goes through some seriously creepy adventures. I have a few I’m pleading the fifth on, but do you have any of your own that you’d be willing to share?

LL: Well, take a look at the gorgeous cover. See that spider web? It’s there for a reason. I haaaaaate spiders with a passion, so naturally they had to crawl through this story.

MR: Leigh’s story plays out in a town she not-so-affectionately refers to as Krapper, Kansas. Other than being completely flat, Krapper sounds a good bit like small towns all over the place, including Hardwick, Vermont! How much of your own home town shines through into Leigh’s town?

LL: A great deal of it. The town where I grew up is Krapper, right down to the graveyard down the street from the video store. That store isn’t there anymore, though. Leigh’s house is structured just like the house I grew up in, minus the basement. I needed a traditional town where untraditional people, such as Leigh and her best friend Jo, would feel like outcasts. My home town was perfect for that.

MR: Hey, that’s another thing you share with Leigh – learning to play the electric guitar! Those are mine over on the wall. I’m trying to learn ‘rock’ guitar after teaching myself TAB so I could play Moonlight Sonata and such for Little Man. Yes, yes, I mentioned you. He says ‘hi’ and is trying to cadge a smooch from ‘pretty lady’, so don’t mind him too much. *grin* How far along have you gotten with learning to play the guitar?

LL: I will happily give Little Man a kiss! *smooch* That’s so awesome that you taught yourself TAB! I’m learning to play through a Playstation game called Rocksmith. *hangs head in shame* I haven’t played since last summer, though. Why can’t there be thirty-six hours in a day instead of a measly twenty-four?!

MR: We tend to be a pretty musical bunch around here. When I’m writing it can be pretty noisy in here because my writing playlist tends to be a bit wild – a driving beat keeps me typing fast! What kind of music did you listen to while you were writing The Grave Winner, or do you listen to music while you write?

LL: I envy those who can listen to music while they write since I love music, but I have to have absolute quiet. Even if my cat complains that his belly is empty, it takes me from my train of thought. My cat hasn’t learned that my writing time equals his nap time, not hungry time!

MR: I love the cover, by the way – that’s just like I imagined Leigh! What was your first reaction to the cover of The Grave Winner? Who’s the cover artist?

LL: When I saw the email from Crescent Moon Press with a subject line that said ‘Grave Winner cover art,’ I stopped breathing. What if I hated it? What if I liked it?  What if I loved it so much I started crying? I’d been waiting for that moment for a long time, after all. I was at work in the school library at the time, and I quickly glanced around to make sure no one would see me open it in case I did cry. Then I opened the email and gasped. There was Leigh, just like I’d imagined her, sitting on tree roots in a graveyard. It was absolutely perfect. I didn’t cry, probably because I repeated to myself over and over, “Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.” I replied back in all capital letters how much I loved it.

The cover designer is Liliana Sanches, aka the Princess of Shadows. She’s a genius and a wizard. I sent her a gushing thank you through Facebook when I got home from work that day.

MR: When will The Grave Winner be available and where will we be able to find it online?

LL: Release day is May 15th. It will be available as an ebook and in print from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and probably other places that I don’t know about yet.

MR: Are you planning on paperbacks too? Will you be having book signings? Will there be signed copies available online too?

LL: It will be available in paperback! I’ll probably have book signings at some point. I should probably look into that. There will be signed copies floating around during contests and other fun book release events, like my blog tour which starts May 20^th.

MR: How can people keep up with developments? 

LL: My website is here. My blog is there, too. I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

MR: I’m so glad you took the time to stop by and have a chat with me, Lindsey! Really, I’m delighted to have played even the small part of editing The Grave Winner, and I can’t wait ’till it’s available for sale so I can “keep” Leigh nearby and go back to reading about her adventures when I need a Leigh fix! You did an excellent job of painting her character with words, and it has been a true pleasure to get to know you as well. I have to say that I’ve been delighted to brag to family, friends, colleagues and the unsuspecting blog browsing public that you’re one of “my” authors.

LL: That’s so sweet, Melissa! You played a huge part in making The Grave Winner all shiny and readable. Thank you so much for inviting me to your lovely virtual kitchen!

That was such a fun interview! I really do like doing interviews, so expect more of them folks! *grin* And, for being such good folks and reading this far I’ll even take pity on you all and give you The Grave Winner‘s blurb so you’ll have an idea of what I’m so excited about!

Leigh Baxton is terrified her mom will come back from the dead — just like the prom queen did.

While the town goes beehive over the news, Leigh bikes to the local cemetery and buries some of her mom’s things in her grave to keep her there. When the hot and mysterious caretaker warns her not to give gifts to the dead, Leigh cranks up her punk music and keeps digging.

She should have listened.

Two dead sorceresses evicted the prom queen from her grave to bury someone who offered certain gifts. Bury them alive, that is, then resurrect them to create a trio of undead powerful enough to free the darkest sorceress ever from her prison inside the earth.

With help from the caretaker and the dead prom queen, Leigh must find out what’s so special about the gifts she gave, and why the sorceresses are stalking her and her little sister. If she doesn’t, she’ll either lose another loved one or have to give the ultimate gift to the dead – herself.

Alternative Booker Awards

Seumas Gallacher went and did it again – he has graciously honored me by tagging me for an Alternative Booker Award. Personally, I think this is a ploy to get a peep at my personal bookshelves, but… at least as far as books go, I’m a bit of an exhibitionist, so he’s in luck. The idea is to mention five of your favorite books – preferably without going all literati and pretentious – and then tag 5 other bloggers with this delightful award. Now, choosing only five books is going to be completely impossible for me, so bear with me, you’ll just have to cope with several series!

My newest favorite series on my ‘keepers’ list is by Sean T. Poindexter, and because it’s new and I haven’t mentioned it before I’m going to natter on about it, because I tend to be a little enthusiastic about finding a new favorite. The Dragon’s Blood Chronicles – thus far I’ve read books 1 and 2 – The Shadow of Tiamat and The Will of the Darkest  respectively, are simply wonderful. I would seriously go all fan girl on this poor fellow, so it’s probably good that he’s far, far away. No, I don’t go in for going fan girl because an author is ‘cute’ (although… he is kinda cute), I go fan girl for authors who can write a damned good story. Nothing’s sexier than brains, good vocabulary, and creativity. I’ve already started pestering the poor man about when book 3 is coming out and was treated to the news that there’s a spin-off series coming along as well, which delights the hell out of me. Brains, vocabulary, creativity, and productivity too? What? Oh. You want to know what the books are about? Silly you.

The books center around Megan, a young woman who is entirely average – which I love. She’s fairly pretty but not fall-all-over-yourself gorgeous. She’s got a job she cares about that she’s actually qualified to hold… That’s a pet peeve of mine – characters with jobs their degree wouldn’t qualify them to get. She’s not rich. She doesn’t drive a faboo car. She has realistic insecurities about her appearance but doesn’t hate herself. She thinks her roommate is prettier – or at least hotter – than she is. She’s had past relationships that were lousy, and past experiences that were awful, but she’s not completely destroyed by them. She has a boss she thinks is cute but she hasn’t asked him out. She has a friend who is a complete bitch (oh, come on, we all have at least one). In short, she’s ordinary. I love that because that lets the reader identify with the character even when she’s thrown into extraordinary circumstances.

One of those extraordinary circumstances is hitting a motorcyclist with her car. She’s banged up, but he ought to be dead – and isn’t harmed in the least. He’s rich as Croesus, tall, dark, handsome… and a dragon. What I love about Garrett is that for all those wonderful things he isn’t the least bit charming. He isn’t ‘smooth’ with words, and he doesn’t know how to express his feelings. For me, that’s just about perfect – I, for one, can’t stand a hero who is “perfect” and romantic and all that. Love, in my opinion, isn’t about smooth talk, flowers, candlelight, and dancing. I find “romance” a silly thing for the most part. Love is about how you really feel – and how you continue to feel – when ‘the chips are down’. If your love doesn’t survive all hell breaking loose in your lives it wasn’t really love to start with.

Now, I’m not going to spoil the story for you, except to say that loving a dragon may very well be the definition of all hell breaking loose. Meg is targeted by vampires, as is Garrett, and Meg’s considerably more special than she appears to be. I will say that the plot is exceptionally well done; the ‘minor’ characters and their sub-plots are absolutely essential to the story and Mr. Poindexter develops their characters extremely well. The sex scenes are hot without being disgusting and tawdry or heavily laden with purple prose and ridiculous euphemisms. Better yet, they’re accurate for sex with a… um… well-endowed fellow. I’m sorry, folks, this may be blush-inducing, but unrealistic sex scenes in which the man is well-endowed and they go ‘all night’ are insanely stupid – there’s some wear and tear involved and you’re going to be walking funny and sore as hell the next day, plainly put. The fight scenes are dead-on accurate in choreography and physics (given that there are dragons involved, of course). That’s another pet peeve of mine – fight scenes that just couldn’t possibly work that way make me skim and roll my eyes at an author’s lack of research.

Next on my list is David Eddings’ Belgariad and Mallorean  series. I adore epic fantasy and these series are an excellent example of how it should be done.  Of course, Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series is also exceptionally well-done epic fantasy.  For both authors, however, I really only like these series and I’ve never been able to get “into” their other work.

I love funny fantasy, so competing for the ‘funny’ slot are Piers Anthony’s Xanth series and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Of the two series, Discworld is considerably cleaner – I begin to worry that Mr. Anthony’s just a touch pervy. Mr. Anthony has, of course, produced several other series, most of which are even more ‘questionable’ than Xanth;  sex is fine by me, pedophilia isn’t, so I’m not going to recommend any of his other series.

I love science fiction, particularly space opera, and again I have competing favorite series. Lois McMaster-Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga and Sharon Lee & Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe are my picks, and both have gotten Hugo nominations for the 2012 installments of their series – at least on my ballot. Yes, I get to vote on the Hugos this year. Much as I love Lois’s Vorkosigans, I really can’t get into her other books like Spirit Ring; they’re just not as well done and not as engaging.

My last category of absolute keepers are “my” authors. I’m probably biased, but I think that Justin Macumber (A Minor Magic), Lindsey Loucks (Grave Winner), Shawna Romkey (Speak of the Devil), Cindy Young-Turner (Thief of Hope and Journey to Hope), Jody A. Kessler (Death Lies Between Us), Diane M. Haynes (Rift Healer and Sirocco), Rusty Fischer (Reanimation Reform School among others), Denna Holm (Soul of a Warrior), and Wendy Russo (January Black) are putting out some of the best new books out there. Better yet, most of those books are either going to be series or already part of a series, which means there’s more to read! 🙂 Now, you may over-rate my bias here and think that I love them just because I’ve edited some of their work, but the truth of the matter is – that makes me that much more certain that these are really good books! Think about it; I’ve read these books several times over and I absolutely adore them and will read them again and again. That says something, right?

And, because it’s my blog, I’m also going to mention that I adore Neil Gaiman, David Weber, Larry Correia, and Eric Flint. Just because I can. 🙂 I read a lot, okay?

The five people I’m tagging with Alternative Booker Awards of their own – mostly because I want a peep at their bookshelves:

Shawna Romkey

Lindsey Loucks

Wendy Russo

Jody A. Kessler

Cindy Young-Turner

Just can’t wait to see their favorite books!

 

Submitting the Novel

On the Writing Front:

I don’t know if it’s an adrenaline rush or a hot flash. Some people get an adrenaline rush from base jumping, high diving, driving very fast, or running away from angry police officers. I’ve only done one of those, none of them today, and no, I’m not going to tell you which one. Today I submitted Smuggler’s Justice to Snow Books – the folks who brought us the Burton and Swinburne books that I adore. Just a few days ago I submitted Smuggler’s Justice to TOR UK during their open submission period. That’s three publishers to which I’ve submitted ‘my baby’. Considering I went straight to self-publishing for my first two books, I think that’s commendable bravery.

For me, it honestly takes less bravery to submit to a publisher than it does to submit to an agent. I have no idea why that would be. I’ve quite deliberately decided not to go to two writer’s conferences that I could, with some stretching, afford to go to simply because three-quarters of the point of these gatherings seems to be gaining the attention of an agent. I don’t know why, but agents terrify me. That, and they want, what, 15% of what little I might earn in royalties?  Nuh-uh. Money is my money… if I ever get any.

In other writing matters, I’ve been ogling male models on facebook (Milly is a bad influence!) and thinking of who might fit the bill for Eddie Williams in F.A.E.: Bitten , the first book in the F.A.E. series. Please note that I’m completely remiss in not looking for Mahrial DiSilva, but I’m fairly unrepentant. Eye candy is a good thing.  Of course, that led to an internal debate as to the suitability of David Faustino or Seth Green for Sophocles. My casting efforts are wavering! Terrible stuff.

I’ve sent off interview questions to the redoubtable Seumas Gallacher, and I’m waiting to hear back from him. In his defense, there were rather a lot of questions! I plan on posting that interview from my “virtual kitchen” as soon as possible. Seumas is a hoot!

On the Editing Front:

I’m still working on Denna Holm’s Soul of a Warrior. I’m loving the book, I just want to make sure I’ve got 99% of the typos along with the broad sweeps that way there are fewer passes back and forth – no sense harassing the author, right? She might be busy writing the next book… Seriously, Denna, I hope you’re writing the next book because I want it. I’m also working with the charming author of Pet Shop (still a working title, it may change) on somewhat more radical changes to expand the plot and the length of the book.

Other hobbies:

As if I didn’t have enough already, right? I’ve actually recorded a couple of songs to start putting together a CD of songs for Little Man to listen to at bedtime when I have to work. ‘What’ll I Do’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ are up on Soundcloud if anyone’s actually curious. I got Avid and a really good microphone and I have quite a list of songs (with lyrics all printed out) that Little Man loves. He’s a little freaked out by the ‘two Mommies’ effect of ‘Amazing Grace’, mind you, but so far he likes the music quite a bit.

On the home front:

Himself’s blood pressure is down quite nicely now, so I’m not constantly worried about that. Teenager is ‘enjoying being single’. Yeah, like I’m enjoying being fat. I think, like my lamentable circumference, he finds changing his status to be too much work. He did join that MeetMe thing, which posts on his facebook timeline – and therefore I get to see the girls he’s attempting to flirt with. Strange, but at least he’s doing something in the direction of not becoming the Forever Alone meme. Little Man is in terrible distress. Very Best Friend didn’t go to the farm with him on Wednesday, and didn’t come to school at all today. Why two days, and not even full days, of being separated from his Very Best Friend (who may or may not be his ‘Princess’ eventually) would be such an enormous deal I’m not sure – he manages the weekends all right, after all. Of course, she’s got the ‘flu, poor dear, so it may be that he heard someone say she’s sick and he’s worried about her.  Personally, I’m a bit worried because there’s a monster storm headed for New England and it’s supposed to be getting particularly nasty at just about the time I need to be commuting to work. sigh It’s a good thing I have good snow tires, but I’m still going to have to leave early.

On a New Manuscript High

I’ve just finished my first read-through of Denna Holm’s Soul of a Warrior, and I’m working on the first round of editing. I have to say that Ms. Holm has done an excellent job with the story. No, no spoilers, I promise, I’m not that cruel. However, I will say that it’s quite a good speculative fiction romance and Ms. Holm is a talented writer. I’m also working on the  temporarily named Pet Shop for another author who expects to use a yet-to-be selected pen name. Being busy makes me happy, so I’m quite delighted with myself.

I also just finished having a good time with Wendy S. Russo’s author interview for her January Black release blog tour. I had actually forgotten how much fun interviews can be. I’ll definitely be doing more of them; I’ve actually got one scheduled for April 7th with Shawna Romkey for her Speak of the Devil release blog tour. I’ll have to see if I can do more, though. No sense not doing something I find enjoyable, right? I’ll have to pester author friends – though I can’t imagine very much pestering will be required. All publicity is good publicity, right?

On the writing front –

I’m still working on Smuggler’s Pursuit plotting. I’ve got everything down to brass tacks except for the last… call it two chapters. I may just start writing already and let the denouement happen as it most naturally ‘wants’ to. I find that I don’t care to do that, though. I really enjoyed writing Smuggler’s Justice knowing most of what would need to happen on the way to getting the ending to fall together as it should.

On the home front –

Himself has had his beard officially trimmed before heading back to work after the Winter break over at the college. Little Man has decided that night is day and vice versa just when I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights off and could sleep at night. Yeah. That went well. Of course, I’m officially The Meanest Mommy Ever because I gave him a shower. I swear, you’d think he was auditioning for the role of the Wicked Witch of the West the way he squalls over getting (gasp) water put on him, then I added insult to injury by adding (oh the shuddering horror) soap, then I compounded it all by putting more water on him! Yes, there is much bathing melodrama with Little Man. Teenager is still single…  I will go all Yenta on him if he doesn’t find himself a girlfriend soon. Seriously.

Wendy S. Russo and January Black

I have with me today, in my virtual kitchen, the very talented Wendy S. Russo, author of January Black, which was released January 15th. Those of you who follow my blog already know that I had the very great pleasure of editing this book for Wendy and for Crescent Moon Press, her publisher. From that perspective, I can certainly say that this is an excellent book well worth not only one read, but several. Wendy’s giving away one $10 gift card and one delightful LiberTea mug just like mine each day of her book’s blog tour – names to be drawn from comments on that day’s blog tour posts, so be sure to post comments on all of them if you’re really hankering for an awesome mug or extra book-buying budget! Additionally, I’ve been very sneaky and hidden a link to a special bonus excerpt of January Black. If you find it and click on it, the password is “matty”. Comment there and you’ll be in the running for an autographed paperback copy of January Black. I’ll post my interview with Wendy first, then pictures, so that my earnest readers won’t be distracted by either the gorgeous cover or lovely author.

MR: Hi Wendy! Good to see you. Just scrape the worse of the snow off on that bristle thing on the porch. You look chilly, let me get you that cup of tea I promised. Sorry about the weather. You’re a transplant like me, but you had the good sense to move south. How do you like Louisiana?

Wendy: Yes, I’m a transplant from Wyoming. I miss the mountains, but I love Louisiana. The weather. The people. The food. I’ve been all over America and I can say that there’s…  As Wendy tracks Mr. Robitille as he walks through the room, her voice trails off. …nowhere quite like Louisiana.

MR: Don’t mind Himself. He wanders through whenever there’s tea on. I met him here in Vermont. Where did you meet your husband, Robert?

Wendy: Powell, Wyoming. Robert and I were in a few classes together at Northwest College…Magazine Production and Drugs and Human Behavior. He was a Creative Writing major, and I was graphic design, so having those two classes together was a sign, if you believe in signs, which I really don’t. But it gets a little stranger. Rob is from Long Island. His best friend from high school, Dave, just happened to have an aunt who teaches psychology at NWC. Robert was on his way to UC-Berkeley, but hadn’t established residency yet. Dave says, “Hey, Powell’s a fun place,” so Rob stopped to get his general education credits out of the way. So, it was that tenuous connection that led us to meeting at all. And I’m not done yet. NWC is a two year college. I changed majors after my first year, so when I met Rob during my third year there.

And yeah, no. After all that, I’m still not a “signs” person.

The next question people usually ask is “how did you end up in Louisiana?” Rob’s cousin Jeff was an LSU student. He said, “Come down. Nice weather. Friendly people. Awesome food.” And he wasn’t lying.

MR: Your blurb says you’ve been writing for quite some time. When did you decide that you wanted to ‘get serious’ about writing? 

Wendy: By serious, do you mean committed enough to complete novels? Or masochistic enough to put myself through the arduous process of writing query letters/blurbs/synopses, researching and contacting agents/publishers, enduring 18-months of rejection by form letters and non-response before finally catching an acquiring editor’s attention?

I wrote mostly poetry before 1997, when I completed my first novel. It was the first of a Star Wars fan fiction trilogy and in hindsight, it’s bad. Well, my friends will tell you that the story is good, but the craft is sloppy.

January Black was the first story that I felt sure enough to pursue publishing, and it wasn’t until three separate beta readers came back and said, “You need to send this to a publisher.”

MR: Do you have other books in the works?

Wendy: I have 2 series, one with a companion book so that’s seven books and no real timeline for completion.

First, there’s Nick Jackson’s error. It’s New Adult Science Fiction with elements of alternate timeline and nanotechnology. The subject of the story is a 19-year-old DJ with Asperger’s Syndrome and stolen tech in her brain. The narrator character is her best friend Sam, who endures her abuse and hides her from various bad guys who are willing to kill her to get the tech from her.

That story has a Paranormal companion featuring Fenghuang, a Chinese fire god, who in this story has taken up residence in the nearby Wind River canyon and has been tampering with history.

The second series is The Choir Boys, which is New Adult Paranormal. It was started as a sort of Three Musketeers meets the Matrix with Angels as the bad guys. It’s evolved somewhat, but there are Angels, Fallen, ghosts, and humans, and hopefully I can take it somewhere interesting.

MR: I have to say that I really enjoyed editing January Black. You write a good story, and I love science fiction that has a well-done political ‘what if’. What brought you to explore the theme of what liberty really is? 

Wendy: The banking collapse in September 2008. I was thinking at the time that there’s nowhere to go. A few hundred years ago, when our ancestors were unhappy with the state of affairs in northern Europe, they left. They boarded boats and they started over. Now, I have Native American ancestry, so I don’t mean to ignore that their colonization destroyed a way of life on this continent. But… those people did something, went somewhere, to escape the cycle of tyranny of the European empires. And as the financial system crumbled, looked at a map of the world and wondered, where could you do that today?

The American consumer accounts for 20% of the global economy. Think about that. We represent only  4.5% of the population on this earth, but when our economy falters, the world’s economy takes a hit. Industries all over the world see less business, production goes down, employment goes down. The whole world is connected now. Unless you take yourself completely out of civilization, endear yourself to a primitive tribe and leave behind ties and conveniences, there’s no place on this earth left to go.

Anyhow, I was working on another story entirely when NaNoWriMo rolled around. I took an image from another WIP, a boy standing in an overgrown garden, and wrote a story about a kingdom where liberty was so taken for granted, the people didn’t even know they lacked it.

MR: I like that you explore how the government can control what the populace knows by controlling what is taught in schools. How concerned are you about revisionism in modern textbooks? 

Wendy: It concerns me, but my husband and I view it as a teaching opportunity for our son. It’s one thing to teach a child to read, to teach him how to separate the pieces and understand what’s being said, but skepticism of what he reads and the compulsion to research more and form his own opinion, that’s much harder and much more important. If, by the time that he’s in high school, he knows the difference between an answer that is “right” and an answer that is “correct,” I’ll be very happy. The question and answers won’t matter so much.

MR: I also like the romance between Matty and Iris. Matty strikes me as a decent boy and a gentleman, the kind of boy I’d hope my daughter would fall in love with. Do you know any boys like Matty? 

Wendy: Matty reminds me of my cousin Zach. Very smart. Independent. Loving, polite, and perhaps a bit socially awkward. In writing Matty, I wanted to present the teenage boy honestly.  I was terrified that I got teenage boys all wrong, but my husband put that down quickly. He also flatly told me not to touch Matty’s errant libido or the hints at masturbation, no matter who wanted me to change it. Matty really is the kind of boy I hope my son becomes.

MR: I recently posted pictures of actors and actresses who might fill the roles of characters in the book I just finished. Do you have any actors and actresses in mind when you think of your characters?

Wendy: There’s a scene in Blade 3 where Hannibal King, played by Ryan Reynolds, chucks a vampire pomeranian out of a high rise and it lands somewhere in the lower levels of the building. When Triple H’s character asks where his dog is, Hannibal responds,” Have you tried the lobby?” THAT Ryan Reynolds sparked King Hadrian.

When I started writing, Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” was being overplayed on the radio, and Matty’s frantic girlfriend took the form of a girl with curly blonde hair.

Matty actually doesn’t have a specific face attached to him. If I were to thrown a name out…Jesse Eisenberg?

MR: Writers tend to be readers too – what do you like to read? Any favorite authors?

Wendy: I {heart} Neal Stephenson, but he’s a tough act to aspire to be like someday. I also love Kate Evangelista, Marie Sexton, Hildie McQueen, Christine Ashworth, and Sean Poindexter. It’s an honor to be associated with them.

MR: What kind of reactions have you had to your writing from your friends and family?

Wendy: The response from friends and family has been incredibly positive, but they’re friends and family. *shrug*

I was blown away to learn that my husband finished reading it. Like I said, he used to be a Creative Writing major, and he’s got a very critical eye when it comes to literature. The first “final” draft he couldn’t get even three chapters into because of the errors in the manuscript. So, when he told me a few months ago that he finished it, and that he liked it, I was completely stunned. And felt like I won the lottery.

MR: I listen to a great deal of music when I’m writing. What are your favorite songs to write to? 

Wendy: It depends on the story I’m writing. With January Black, there was a lot of Taylor Swift, Dream Theater, Glee Soundtrack, and some stuff that my then 2-year-old son insisted we listen to. He’s got good taste in music. His playlist included The Who’s Baba O’Reilly and Sam Tsui’s “Lady Gaga Medley.”

Virgo’s playlist has Kesha and Lady Gaga, and lots of drum machine. The Choir Boys’ list has Breaking Benjamin, All American Rejects, and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

MR: Now, I understand that you’re giving away some lovely gifts for folks who comment. A branded coffee cup just like this one – without the tea in it, obviously! – and a $10 gift card are up for grabs, and I’ve sneakily hidden a link here in your interview to an excerpt of January Black – you’ll be giving an autographed paperback to one of the people who comment there as well, correct? 

Wendy: That is correct. There will be daily drawings, so more than one opportunity to win as long as you keep leaving comments on the tour’s posts.

MR: It’s been wonderful having you here, Wendy! I hope that when you do write another book I’ll get to edit that as well.

Wendy: Thank you, Melissa. And if I get another book accepted by CMP, I’m going to insist that you be my editor. I’ll wait in line if I have to.

First, the gorgeous cover:

Just so everyone can stop taking my word for it; “my” authors are entirely and unfairly attractive people – a picture of the gorgeous Wendy S. Russo herself:

I still claim it’s unfair that all my authors (not just the ladies – even the guys are, for cryin’ out sakes) to be better looking than I am, but that’s life, isn’t it? Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without a sneak peak at the awesome LiberTea mug you might win:

Being an honest person by nature I’ll admit that I cropped this out of Wendy’s photo – my own LiberTea mug is currently in need of a wash due to having been emptied just now over the course of our delightful chat… and my kitchen, while homey and comfortable, isn’t nearly so pretty as the lovely counter this mug is sitting on. I’m leaving out the quiche because it’s making my stomach grumble and I’m trying to lose weight. I figure it’s a good thing Wendy didn’t picture it with a delectable pastry or I’d be ringing a peal over her head for tempting my poor self beyond the bounds of self-constraint.

January Black blurb:

Sixteen-year-old genius Matty Ducayn has never fit in on The Hill, an ordered place seriously lacking a sense of humor. After his school’s headmaster expels him for a small act of mischief, Matty’s future looks grim until King Hadrian comes to his rescue with a challenge: answer a question for a master’s diploma.

More than a second chance, this means freedom. Masters can choose where they work, a rarity among Regents, and the question is simple.

What was January Black?

It’s a ship. Everyone knows that. Hadrian rejects that answer, though, and Matty becomes compelled by curiosity and pride to solve the puzzle. When his search for an answer turns up long-buried state secrets, Matty’s journey becomes a collision course with a deadly royal decree. He’s been set up to fail, which forces him to choose. Run for his life with the challenge lost…or call the king’s bluff.

Wendy Russo’s Bio:

Wendy S. Russo got her start writing in the sixth grade. That story involved a talisman with crystals that had to be found and assembled before bad things happened, and dialog that read like classroom roll call. Since then, she’s majored in journalism (for one semester), published poetry, taken a course on short novels, and watched most everything ever filmed by Quentin Tarantino. A Wyoming native transplanted in Baton Rouge, Wendy works for Louisiana State University as an IT analyst. She’s a wife, a mom, a Tiger, a Who Dat, and she falls asleep on her couch at 8:30 on weeknights.

The January Black book trailer can be found by following the link – it’s gorgeous, of course. Now… Did you find my sneaky link to that excerpt? I hope you did! Remember, the password is “matty” – without the quotes, of course. Post a comment here, post a comment there, and check out the other blog tour posts for today and comment there too! Good luck to you, and particularly good luck to Wendy as well as my heartfelt congratulations on the publication of her wonderful novel.

You can find her book on Amazon  as a Kindle ebook, and she’s currently discussing a print run with Crescent Moon Press, her publisher.

You can also find Wendy through all sorts of social media…

On her blog, on Facebook, on Google+, on Twitter, and of course on Goodreads.

Dreaming Up a Series

I was just chatting back and forth with Shawna Romkey, author of Speak of the Devil, which I edited for her and Crescent Moon Press. Since Speak of the Devil is the first book in a planned trilogy, she’s found herself needing a name for the whole series.

This, of course, led me to the realization that while I have titles for several of the books in my series I don’t know how long the series will be, and I don’t have a name for it! As far as I’m concerned I’ve got enough material to compete for length with Piers Anthony’s extremely long-running Xanth series, so that’s a thorny problem all by itself. Added to that is the problem of a series title. I could just call it Smuggler’s Universe, a la Sharon Lee & Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe, or Smuggler’s Saga a la Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga, but that seems a bit… done. While either would work with the titles of the books, I’d really prefer not to be quite so derivative. I’m much more seriously considering Smuggler’s Journey, since the overall story arc fits that much more neatly and I’m not likely to be writing short stories about other places and people in the story universe like Lee & Miller or McMaster-Bujold have done. I have to admit that when I write a story, short pretty much never describes it. Heck, when I write anything short never describes it.

So far the story lines for Smuggler’s Pursuit, Smuggler’s ‘Flu, and Smuggler’s Necessity, with some thought put towards Smuggler’s Gamble, Smuggler’s Pardon, and Smuggler’s War. Smuggler’s Justice is done, so that’s seven already, and definitely in need of a series title. Of them, Smuggler’s Pursuit and Smuggler’s ‘Flu are best developed, particularly since I’ve spent the last 5 years or so messing around with Smuggler’s ‘Flu before I realized that Smuggler’s Justice and Smuggler’s Pursuit were necessary in order to refrain from confusing the reader with an annoying lack of background.

The series is bringing itself to life in my dreams. I was reading a blog kindly recommended by Seumas Gallacher in his ongoing Blog Scratcher’s Union efforts ( #TBSU – yes, there’s even a hashtag!). The fellow’s name is Donovan and in his blog post titled ‘Casting the novel…’ he posts pictures of actors and actresses who come closest to the characters he envisions for his novel. This gave me the fun idea of doing the same so that perhaps everyone else can see what I’m thinking when I’m talking about my characters, particularly when I’m talking about them as if they’re real people.

So, for Sophocles I’m thinking David Faustino – not prettied up, though, scruffy like this picture I grabbed from Wikipedia, taken by Gage Skidmore:

David Faustino by Gage Skidmore

Just the right age to show a little life battering, right hair color, right blend of homely to be handsome (I can’t stand a ‘pretty’ man – a man should look like a man, not a woman with potential for growing a beard!), and fit enough to withstand the rigors of being Sophocles. He’s good at playing the smartass little jerk, which is the front that Sophocles puts out much of the time when he’s not being dead-serious and competent. Personally, I think Mr. Faustino could manage the role admirably.

For Magdalene May, I propose Zooey Deschanel:

I think that Miss Deschanel is good at playing the innocent, but has enough tartness and spunk about it to be a convincing Maggie. The only problem I have with the young lady is that I don’t know how convincing she’d be at playing a girl so scary-smart that the government would Imprint her mind and personality into crystal, then kill her so as to not have to deal with the costs of upkeep. Yeah, the government that produced the partnership between Sophocles and Maggie was pretty damned evil. I think her appearance of shining innocence would point that out without having to do too much extra explaining about how it’s just plain not okay to kill people off for governmental convenience.

For Melia, on the other hand, I’m thinking Gwendoline Christie:

Gwendoline Christie

Because she can look like a lawyer, but she can also look like a complete badass:

Gwendoline Christie in Game of Thrones

As amply demonstrated by her acting in Game of Thrones. Naturally, something much different would need to be done with her hair, since Melia has a thick braid of dark auburn hair, eventually with the trinkets won in battle woven into it in the style of an Amazon Warrior. She’s an inch shorter than Melia should be, but David Faustino’s an inch shorter than Sophocles should be, so the height difference is preserved.

I’m considering Dot Jones for Barbara, Kim Blacklock for Hippolyta (even if she would have to play much older than she actually is), Suzie Plakson for Susan, Lindsay Hayward for Sonya (again, the hair issue), Jodie Kidd ( with a lot of padding, possibly even a ‘fat suit’) for Carrie Filbert…  The casting for the Amazon women from Smuggler’s Justice is mostly taken from the IMDb Tallest Actresses listing since they’re all very tall women.

For Crandal? How do you cast a lizardman when you know that whoever the actor is will be covered in some serious makeup? I want someone tall and brawny, but excruciatingly dignified and noble-looking in a sort of Norman Invasion kind of way. At this point Dolph Lundgren is looking like the most likely candidate:

Dolph Lundgren

He isn’t really 100% ideal, he’s a bit too old to carry off the idealism convincingly, but he’s got the right look to carry off Crandal’s stiff almost-medieval formality, and he might be about right. I like Brad Garrett’s voice, but he’s too typecast as a comedic actor playing deadpan to pull off a role where the deadpan is “for real” rather than “straight man” to a more hyperactive “funny man”.  I’m thinking Crandal should remain quite human-like, rather than having some sort of alligator face, but not a human with bad tattoos like that Erik Sprague fellow.

There you have it, that’s the cast of characters that bicker and laugh and carry on all through my dreams. Now, for those of you familiar with my five years of prodding Smuggler’s ‘Flu,  you may be familiar with Calliope as well. For her, unfortunately, I haven’t had much success in finding an actress’s picture (and career/talent) that matches. I have yet to find someone with Marilyn Monroe’s general “look” (and curviness – what the hell is wrong with Hollywood that actual curves puts those poor girls on the ‘fat actress’ list? What the hell is sexy about looking at someone else’s skeleton through their skin?) and Eartha Kitt’s glorious purring voice and talent for being just plain evil – at least on the surface. Add to that the problem that she has to be a Pocket Aphrodite (little bit of a thing height-wise), and you’ll see my problem!

On the editing front –

I’ll be editing a new book for Crescent Moon Press – Soul of a Warrior by Denna Holm. I’m looking forward to getting the manuscript via email soon.

 

Helluva Bang

I started the new year by corralling all my menfolk and lecturing them for a couple of hours. My temper and patience went off like fireworks – with a helluva bang.

Speaking of explosions, I’ve been thinking about weapons systems on my swampy world from Smuggler’s Pursuit. First, it started off as a colony world, so thankfully they wouldn’t be stymied by trying to develop weapons systems from scratch. Naturally, gunpowder would be impractical on a very swampy world, but electric-based energy weapons, a standard in science fiction, would be even more so. A missed shot with a taser-type weapon in inch-deep water might well be disastrous. A flame-based weapon system would be significantly better than that, upon reflection. On the other hand, the weapons of the middle ages would be admirably suited for everyday use, despite the difficulties with metalworking.

Upon consideration, I may have to go with a plasma-based weapons system, though those are as standard sci-fi as electrically-based systems. That said, as in any feudal society, the truly effective weapons would be limited to the nobility and the overall government. It’s surprisingly difficult to successfully hold serfs (or slaves, for that matter) unless that population has no way of retaliating or otherwise rising up against the government, hence our own Second Amendment. Conversely, tyranny doesn’t work very well when the population is armed and can stand up for themselves. That said, men at arms for the varied nobility would be armed, if not so well as the nobility, otherwise the interminable little wars wouldn’t work. This is looking more and more like sword fighting in the street and a lot of oil for preventing rust, with occasional charging dragon knight with a plasma lance. As interesting as that is for a scene or two, it doesn’t work for a civil war that Melia and Sophocles would need to take seriously, but space traders, particularly the arms dealer my Smuggler’s Guild pair are hunting, would certainly take care of the level of technology available for both sides.

I’ve still got to figure out what the ‘bang’ was that set off the fireworks between the two sides of this civil war. Is it a disagreement about how far those genetic modification should go? Is it a normal feudal war about royal succession? I’m preferring a combination of the two. The House Saurian vs. the House Draconis, a War of the Roses, as it were. Now, will our Crandal be young Henry Tudor and Electra (book 3 or 4 in case you’re wondering) Elizabeth of York? I don’t know yet! In any case, if the Saurians are supporters of genetic modification only to the point of a lizardman appearance and the Draconis are in favor of much more extreme bipedal dragon-like modifications there would be an outward appearance differences by means of which adherents could determine sides.

On the editing front, the cover for Wendy S. Russo’s January Black has been revealed and it’s gorgeous and set to be released in January!

January Black Cover Revealed

Isn’t it pretty? I’m excited for her!

DNA and Trickle Down Economics

I’ve been thinking about the dynamics of self-modification, DNA, and genetic trickle down economics. We live in a society that encourages modification of one’s self. If those modifications were made on the genetic level, and those modifications happened to be dominant, what would the population look like in 100 years? 500? 1,000? For the sake of Smuggler’s Pursuit I’m taking a look at that. Granted that the world in question is hot and  swampy with large, nasty predators, what kind of modifications would be most popular in the wealthy segments of the population that would be able to afford to have them done?

Yes, I’m headed off in the lizard man direction. Mammalian apex predator-based modifications would still have fur and nasty dampness to cope with, and exoskeletons are impractical on a wet world.  On this world, considering the feudal system of government, it’s quite likely that only the Lords and their families would be able to afford to be directly modified, so the nobility would tend to be most reptilian, perhaps even to the extreme degrees that I’m positing for the civil war. However, if those modifications are genetic and dominant, we would run into the spread of those modifications through the serf population by means of lordly indiscretions, droit de seigneur, and youngest sons marrying higher-ranking serfs or skilled laborers in guilds.

Naturally, the nobility would keep the much more extreme levels of the modifications, but the genes would spread, particularly over an extended length of time on an isolated colony world. In some demesnes the serfs would be much closer to ‘pure’ unadulterated human, if the lords were particularly moral about taking advantage of them for many generations, in other demesnes the serfs might be nearly identical to the nobility in cases where the nobility’s depredations were pervasive for many generations.

Throwing Melia and Sophocles – 100% pure human Amazon and 100% pure antique human stock with a huge dash of metal enhancements – into this scaly society should prove interesting. Since Amazons are violently opposed to any enhancements or modifications whatsoever, what will Melia think of the relentless ‘self-improvement’ of the nobility and its spread to the serfs? What will Sophocles think of serfs at all, considering his views on the evils of government with too much power over the populace?

In other news –

I have at least one more Beta reader; thank God for volunteers! I may have another, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’m honestly surprised by the difficulty I’ve had in finding Beta readers. I’ve immersed myself in reading science fiction and fantasy since I was 7 or so and discovered J.R.R. Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov, so I’m pretty firmly attached to speculative fiction, which may explain why it never occurred to me that so many people don’t like the kind of fiction I like.  I really want informative reactions, though, so I’ll keep trying!

On the home front –

Little man pulled out another tooth, but he wasn’t upset about it this time. Now, Himself freaked out when Little Man was giggling happily while spitting out blood, but at least it wasn’t the huge trauma the last three teeth to come out were. We still haven’t found the tooth, though!