Where are the Aliens?

Happy soon-to-be Fourth of July.

A few announcements first :

I was listed in the top fifty science fiction blogs (#29 to be exact) So that’s nice.
https://blog.feedspot.com/science_fiction_blogs/

Also, I wanted to mention my author’s website https:/sheronwoodmccartha.com. It goes into more detail about my life and books. Check it out.

I encountered an article on the Live Science website that offered nine more reasons (in addition to Fermi’s from my previous June blog) on why were haven’t found aliens. So, I thought I’d share.

1. Aliens are all under the ice where we can’t see them. We know several moons where ice covers the planet, but water exists under it. If in our solar system, then possibly it’s a prevalent condition throughout other parts of the Milky Way.

2. Aliens are trapped on super planets. Super planets have ten times the mass of Earth along with 2.5 times the escape velocity. Aliens may just be stuck on their own world without the technology to reach their escape velocity just yet.

3. We’re looking in the wrong places because the aliens are robots. We ‘re looking for analogues of ourself, but maybe the aliens have evolved to intelligent machines and live in places inhospitable to humans.

4. We’ve already found aliens but we’re to distracted to realize it. Maybe we have let our preconceived notions of aliens prevent us from recognizing them.

5. Humans will kill life or already have. The thinking here is that humans bulldoze their way through the galaxy, not noticing smaller in-the-way organisms… Much like a construction worker bulldozing through ants.

6. The aliens triggered climate change and died. So, maybe we should take care.

7. The aliens couldn’t evolve fast enough to survive planetary change and died.

8. Dark energy is creating increasing distances between us and none of us has the technology to span the widening gulf.

9. We are the aliens. This is a popular theme for science fiction. I used it. Earth is a seeded colony from meteors carrying bacteria from other worlds. Scientist call this the Panspermia theory. I went with Alysia being an earlier and forgotten Earth colony.

You got a theory? Just let me know. It’s all good fodder for science fiction stories.

For the complete article, go to:
https://www.livescience.com/63208-alien-life-excuses.html

For this blog I’m discussing Sideris Gate: Paradisi Exodus: book 1 by Cheri Lasota.

This is one of the books in the Paradisi collection where various authors are writing books within the same universe. I previously read Faces of Janus and The Janus Challenge by Andy McKell. Andy presents a different viewpoint on the escape from Earth for the last ship, the SS Challenge.

Between Mountain and Sea by Louisa Loci was also an enjoyable story that I reviewed earlier. That adventure takes place on the colony planet and describes the founding families that arrived there first, and the conflicts they encountered.

Paradisi Exodus describes the frantic escape from an Earth on the verge of nuclear winter. The SS Challenge is the last ship out of eleven and contains the families and friends of the builders and scientists who constructed and developed the fleet. They had a contract that if they would build the ships, their families would earn a place on the last ship out. Days before lift off, one of the leaders, Solomon Reach, of the group called Reachers, discovers a plan to replace them with some remaining founding families and associates who didn’t qualify (illness or age) for the previous ten ships.

Thousands of founding families’ associates still remaining behind are smuggled onto the space station into the Serica section with a plan to evacuate the Reachers and replace them. But Solomon Reach gets word of the betrayal and gathers a small band to prevent the takeover. Violence erupts in the corridors, Reach is tortured in order to discover his sabotage plans, while nuclear weapons are let loose down below on Earth. In the midst of all the commotion is a romance between Reach and the daughter of a founding member who wants his people off the ship.

I feel Lasota leans a bit heavily on emotional elements of the story. Everyone has a back story of lost lovers, sisters, family ties and left behind wives. The angst gets to be a bit much as each one feels they should have a place on board. Lasota explores this ethical question of who has a right to decide which person stays behind to face sure death, and who gets a place on the ship for a possible new life.

There are many more offerings by authors in this exciting and interesting collection. Reading the same event or visiting the same location and experiencing it through different authors brings new levels of understanding to the total story.

Throw Away Your Marketing Plan

Want to sell more books?

Get lucky.

I often write about marketing and how difficult it is… And then I read JA Konrath’s blog, Your Book Marketing Plan Won’t Work.

How did he know?

It was an eye opener. For the complete blog:
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2019/06/your-marketing-plan-wont-work.html

He says social media won’t sell your books. How often do you buy books due to social media? However, he does go on to say you should have a social media presence. He suggests commenting on Facebook and writing a newsletter which mentions upcoming books, ways to pre-orders, and general information on your writing. He also endorses commenting on Twitter, but cautions that your time would be better spent on writing than desperately and endlessly engaging in every sort of social media.

Advertising also should be judiciously employed. He admits to throwing tons of money at advertising of all kinds and barely getting a return on his investment. Still, it does get the word out to those readers who might not know about you. But budget time and effort wisely.

How to Market books get a sneer. He has a good point. If an author knows how to write a best seller, why are they writing a marketing book, and not another best seller? He suggests you investigate the ranking of the author’s other books. If they aren’t in the top one thousand, the advice isn’t worth your time and money.

Forget publicity. The right kind is difficult to get… But if you can, then the pop in sales is normally fleeting.

I have found that he’s pretty close to the mark and refreshingly honest about this business of writing.

So, what works?

Luck. Right time, right place. And write books.

Oh, great. We have to depend on the whimsy of Lady Luck?

He admits that when Amazon came out with the Kindle, he had ten shelf books, rejected by publishers, ready to self publish. At the cheaper price for e-books, they were popular and sold well. So, he got more of his backlist from his publishers and was soon making over eight hundred thousand a year.

Nice!

Then, Kindle Unlimited came along and cut that income in half.

Still, he had traction with Amazon and that, along with writing more books, kept sales going.

So bottomline?

Write more books. Do a once a month newsletter. Chat in an informative manner on Twitter and Facebook and not in an annoying buy-my-book tone. Be consistent. Write in one genre with one name, and write five 75,000 word novels a year. That’s a more efficient use of your time and effort. Make sure they’re interesting, well-edited, and have attractive covers. Do some advertising and…

Your luck might improve.

So, good luck everyone.

****

For this blog, I’m going to suggest a book and author who has followed these guidelines with amazing success. She has written over seventy books in the science fiction genre, winning three Hugos and numerous other awards—one being the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.

I’m talking about one of my favorite authors C.J. Cherryh. I have mentioned other books of hers in previous blogs, so check them out. She lives in the Northwest in Washington State, not too far from me. Alliance Rising takes place in the Alliance-Union Universe and is a prequel to many of the Alliance Universe stories. It’s been a long time since a book in that series has come out, and I eagerly awaited it.

Cherryh co-authors with Jane S. Fancher for this story. The partnership follows the same intense introverted style, retaining Cherryh’s familiar cadence of writing.

At first, I liked it, but eventually, I got impatient with all the nuanced, dense, introspection concerning an approaching Pell ship that has come to investigate an Earth Company ship, Rights of Man, docked at Alpha station and shrouded in ominous mystery.

We get an early peek at James Robert Neihart, captain of Finity’s End as his younger self and the developments that lead to the Alliance-Union-Earth war of the later novels. In fact, Captain Neihart is instrumental in putting together the alliance of merchanter ships that try to band to gather to protect their interests against the dominating Earth companies. Hence the title: Alliance Rising.

A story, not as good as some of the others, but well worth a read if you’re a fan.

Science Fiction Selections for 2019

Marketing your book—some people love to do it.

But no one I know.

As my blog readers know, I just published my third book in the Terran Trilogy, Weight of Gravity.
I tried to cover the obvious marketing essentials :

An exciting book cover. Check.
Editing as thorough as my writers’ group, several editors, Beta readers, and I could do. Check.
A compelling blurb. Check.
A cohesive story. Check.

Those items are under my control and are the first steps of marketing my book. Then, I need to get the word out. Here’s where I have difficulties. Unfortunately, I don’t have millions of Twitter readers or Facebook followers. After all the privacy revelations, I’m afraid to put anything on Facebook. I want the right sort of people to know me, not the chirping automated voice of Becky who says she’s been trying to call me to offer a free vacation, health monitor, heating system, computer diagnosis, or credit card rate. You can fill in the blank. You’ve probably heard from her already, or her sister, or her Indian cousin.

To get the word out to readers, I returned to my favorite ad site, Freebooksy, and offered the second in the Terran Trilogy series for free. I had already placed A World Too Far last year when it first came out and was happy with the downloads, but I needed reviews for Somewhat Alien (it’s feeling lonely) and wanted to see how a promotion would do with that book.

So, free on Amazon or through Freebooksy, the second in the Trilogy, Somewhat Alien, will be free, free, free March 5 through 7. And please… On bended knee… leave a review. Doesn’t have to be fancy, and hopefully, it will make me smile. Deep thanks.

Yey!

Then you might like to continue the story with my latest book, Weight of Gravity.

This book has an adventure in a Ching T’Karre harem with an attempted rescue of kidnapped Terran women, an involvement with an obstreperous lompir named Matilda (very camel like), an unexpected meeting of human-appearing robots, lots of secret clones milling about, and a wild space battle to name just a few of the things you might encounter.

Finally, I’ve been honored to be invited to talk to a Portland book club in April. This is the best part in a marketing program, and I look forward to meeting new friends.

Meanwhile, I’m pursuing other venues and will keep you informed to give you ideas for your own book marketing endeavors. Comment below on what has worked best for you in your marketing experiences. We’ll share.

Each year in January, I select ten books to read for the coming year.

Oops … you say it’s already heading into March? Where does the time go?

Well, I better get to it then. Here are the suggestions for books that you may find interesting in the science fiction or fantasy world that I have put on my to-be-read pile for 2019. I will add in others as they crop up.

1. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill. Well, robots are in fashion, thanks to Anne Leckie and Martha Wells. Like their stories, this is also told from the point of view of a robot but is rather a Mad Maxx meets Asimov’s I-robot. Should be interesting.

2. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence You may have read Mark Lawrence and his First Law Trilogy (The Blade Itself...) or his Broken Empire Series (Prince of Thorns... ) or his Red Queen’s War Series (Prince of Fools…) I have mentioned several of them in my blogs. They are gritty and violent with main characters that you’re not sure you would want as friends … but, oh what reads they are. So, I put this on my list. Grey Sister, book two, is also out with Holy Sister arriving in April 2019.

3. Getting away from the developing red color theme above, I plan to read Stone Sky by Jemisin, the first in her Broken Earth series. (another broken theme) So much acclaim has been offered her for her writing in the last couple of years, (winning a Hugo for the last three years, and more). I need to see what she is all about, even though I normally don’t like apocalyptic fiction. I’m always hoping for a better future for my descendents.

4. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness is next. This has been mentioned by several people, and I was given the sequel, Time’s Convert, at my Powell’s book club meeting, so, of course, I have to read the first one first.

5. And finally, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. This was also given to me. Peter, the science fiction expert at Powell’s, saw that I had it under my arm and gave me an enigmatic grin. He said, “I would be interested in what you think about that one.” I’m not sure what he meant, and now, I’m worried. But, we’ll see.

So that’s the final selection for my 2019 list. I will add in books as I go along. I follow up with comments, opinions, and sage wisdom on the books I think are worth mentioning in an effort to bring what I consider interesting science fiction to you, my readers.

Ps: Don’t forget this Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, March 5-7 and download Somewhat Alien … and possibly check out the others too.

Then, enjoy.

Spring is coming and no snow this weekend!

Black Holes as Gentle Portals?

At last!

Pop the cork and pour the champagne. The last book in the Terran Trilogy is published.

Weight of Gravity.  By me.

Now I just how to figure out the marketing and letting my readers know about it. Spread the word.

A lot of advisors urge authors to begin marketing months in advance, but it worked out better that no firm date was set and no program was in place. That would have been embarrassing because the Beta readers delayed, my cover artist had life setbacks, and the holiday interrupted my work. Then the editing began.

And now, the final publishing date has been made all the sweeter.  YEA.

In this final Terran version, Elise lands on the planet Alysia, but her start there is a struggle. Terrans and Alysians clash. The Alysians abduct several female invaders to sell into a slave ring, and Richard Steele is called upon to find them and get them back … two from the harem of Khalib Allfyre.

I love a desert adventure.

But that is the least of his problems. Time-traveling daughter Tempest shows up from the future to warn him of a probable attack from hostile aliens. He scrambles to once again set up a defense for Alysia.

This time, the ships are identified as part of the Fleet of the Fallen, the ships that attacked both Elise’s fleet and Braden Steele’s ships. Definitely hostile, they are searching to take over Alysia and make it their own.

I love this story and there’s a lot of action and character interaction in it.

But I do want to stand on my soapbox and rant a bit. Because when you have a blog, you can … judiciously.

When an author writes science fiction, he or she deals a lot in imagination mixed with science. Some of that science, such as wormholes, faster than light travel, and other stuff is accepted in the science fiction circles while not fully proven in the real realm.

One thing I hear constantly repeated in the many documentaries I view is the scientists saying that what they found was not what they expected. I’m amazed at how new discoveries are radically changing our knowledge and vision of the universe since my days of studying astronomy in high school.

Even worse, my father earnestly said that we would never leave the Earth because we didn’t have enough power to get the velocity to escape Earth’s gravity.

Well … that proved to be false. Ask a few astronauts,

And, our knowledge continues to expand as we send out more and more probes and craft such as the Voyager 1 and now Voyager 2, which just left our solar system for interstellar space.

We’re finally getting out there for a better look, but the going is slow due to the vast distances we have to travel. Until we see up close, then, we can’t know for certain what a black hole is or how it reacts. In fact, not many years ago, they were considered merely theoretical, and non-existent by some.

Now we accept them, and in fact, scientists are saying there is one at the center of most solar systems. They also add that there are several types of black holes, each with different behaviors. After reading the following report, I decided to include a black hole in my first book, A World Too Far, because, it was just too juicy an item to leave out of a spacefaring story. Because this genre is called science fiction, I wove the known science and my imagination together to serve the story.

Ask Ray Bradbury if that can work.

But a few readers protested the scene.

What I want to say is that we know very little about black holes, even now. In fact in the following link, Gauray Khanna, Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and his Ph.D. student Caroline Mallary built a computer model in 2016 that captured the essential physical effects on a spacecraft, or any large object, falling into a large rotating black hole like Sagittarius A. Professors Khanna and Lior Burko have been investigating the physics of black holes for over two decades, so they are not novices to the subject.

What Mallary discovered was that “under all conditions an object falling into a rotating black hole would not experience infinitely large effects upon passage through the hole’s so-called inner horizon singularity.”
Not only that, … “under the right circumstances, these effects may be negligibly small, allowing for a rather comfortable passage through the singularity.”

In the film, Interstellar, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey’s character) survived his fall into a supermassive rotating black hole.

No one blinked. No one ranted. The response was…science fiction… how interesting.

At least as far as I’m aware.

So, believe it or not, I do a lot of research for my stories, and then add in imagination that serves the story. In fact, for Weight of Gravity, I used an actual transcript from a shuttle launch at NASA to try to get the dialogue right.

Okay, I’m going to step down. But I want to point out that there is a lot we still have to learn about our universe and possible other universes out there, and no one has all the answers yet.

But isn’t it fun to speculate?

Here’s the link for the whole story:https://theconversation.com/rotating-black-holes-may-serve-as-gentle-portals-for-hyperspace-travel-107062

Spring is on its way. Unfortunately, this weekend, so is possible snow.

Stay warm and read a good book. I’ve got a good suggestion. (see above)

Authors Behaving Badly

 

Over the years I have been blogging, I have included marketing ideas for my reader/authors. I have heard about the importance of search optimization for algorithms that boost books up the best seller list, and how many authors are putting together boxed sets either with other authors or as a solo collection. Many authors were exchanging reviews to build their best seller presence and qualify for choice promotions. (read Bookbub) I figured there was a secret marketing formula only certain publishers knew, but I would share what worked for me, and what didn’t, because it was a hard game at best.

But recently, an interesting blog came out concerning the marketing machinations of romance writers in an attempt to game the system. Lately there has been an uproar over what is being called Cockygate. Sarah Jeong from the Verge explains the details in her blog and various other questionable marketing strategies employed by a group of romance writers. They skirted the edge of legitimacy using Kindle Unlimited in an attempt to make big bucks.

And make the big bucks they did… at readers’ expense.

Here’s the Link : Sarah Jeong’s article in Verge titled “Bad Romance.”

Does it seem that lately a vomiting of bad behavior has dominated the headlines of the day? Yes, journalists know that exposés make for more readers and, in the past, the news pandered to sensationalism; but recently, I’ve been appalled and exhausted by the constant stream of humans behaving badly. And now, a group of romance writers has given genre authors a bad name.

As Kris Rusch says, we should write our books to tell the story we have to tell, not because a particular story is in vogue or other writers in your genre dictate a certain storyline.

This summer seems to be a round of cleaning up messes: whether it’s Facebook and Twitter taking down bot and fake accounts, or women outing sex offenders, or Amazon cleaning up reviews–and more. I own a Tesla and love it. I am incensed at the flagrant lies being bandied about by short sellers, and maybe oil interests shills, on a company trying to do some good for this world. Besides, the car is a…a…awesome.

Okay. Sounding like a soapbox? Sorry. I get worked up in my advancing age at stupid, self-serving antics.

However, along these lines, and because of bad behavior, we now have to include some statement concerning privacy in our blogs. I’m a bit confused about it. It pertains mostly to the EUROPEAN countries and a new law they have there, but since a lot of my readers come from there, here it goes. The secret here is that I’m not someone who wants or even knows how to sell others’ personal information. I’m daily fighting off unsolicited trick phone calls and email scams of my own that are very clever at deception in order to gain information and steal my identity. They finally arrested some of those IRS callers who threatened to send out the cops if I didn’t give them money for alleged debts owed. (Yikes!)    I need a kitten picture… Thanks.   

Okay, back on track… the statement :

Privacy Policy

The following is an attempt to comply with the currently unclear requirements of the European Union’s GDPR regulation.
This new law became effective on 25th May 2018.
“GDPR” means the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).

1. Data Collection
All signups and subscriptions to my publications including, but not exclusively, blog posts and newsletters are voluntary.
1.1. Blog Posts: subscribers choose to click the “Follow Me” link on my posts.
1.2. Website: subscribers choose to sign up via links in my novels, on social media, on my email footer, or as part of a giveaway or promotion or contest.
I never have and never will use addresses purchased from or shared by any sources other than sharing updates on my work if given permission.

2. Information Collected
1.1. When you choose to sign-up to follow my blog posts at https://www.scifibookreview.com my blog hosting provider collects for me:
Email address.
1.3. When you choose to apply to be a beta reader or advance reviewer my mailing list provider collects for me information used to assess your eligibility such as, but not exclusively:-
Given name and family name.
Email address.
Which of my books you have read or liked best.
Which other books you have been a beta reader for and/or reviewer of.

3. Privacy Guarantee
I never have and never will sell or voluntarily make available to anyone else the details you provide to me.

4. Unsubscribing and Right of Removal
The unsubscription is instant and automatic. You will not hear from me again, except to receive a “Confirmation of Unsubscription” email.
At the foot of every newsletter and blog post notification I send out is an Unsubscribe link.
WordPress users are able to Unsubscribe from my blog posts via https://wordpress.com/following/manage/.
Other subscribers to my blog can Unsubscribe via https://subscribe.wordpress.com/.
If you have any queries or contributions to make, please address them to me at shmccartha@gmail.com.

 THE SPARK by David Drake

Have I gotten you stirred up enough? Maybe you just need to find a good book and immerse yourself in another world and escape this for a bit. Now if you want a world of medieval magic with a King Arthur flavor, then try The Spark by David Drake.

Ages ago, the universe was united, but now the world is broken, chopped up into small town enclaves with pockets of wilderness holding evil humans and hostile alien monsters. A leader called Dun Add is trying to bring back civilization through his Champions that travel on roads of reality throughout the world where they dispense law and justice.

In the many wastelands of this world, artifacts leftover from an ancient civilization are found that certain men called makers can fix so they work again. Pal is a young country boy who has the gift, but he dreams of becoming a Champion. He travels to the capital city intent on his bright dream where he meets a very Merlin-like wizard who is a powerful maker. They become friends, yet Pal insists on pursuing his goal of being a Champion for Dun Add and fighting for justice and law.

To be a Champion, one must pass grueling physical tests and wield weapons skillfully. So gear up for some swashbuckling episodes with electronic swords.

For any reader who likes the King Arthur legend with a science fiction twist, I recommend this book.

And escape the irritations of our current reality for an adventure of swashbuckling fantasy combined with a science fiction mystery.

Current Female Authors in Science Fiction

Women. Hooray!
Mumble, grumble… “There they go again.”

Okay guys, what would you do without us? Life would be really boring. So, as promised, I’m giving you five current female science fiction/ fantasy authors who I  think should be mentioned. Yes, yes, there are oodles more, but here’s my five. Deal with it. Feel free to add your own in the comment section.

 

First, Anne Leckie.

Ann Leckie won a Hugo in 2014 with her debut book Ancillary Justice. Her novels are interesting because the narrator’s point of view comes from an A-I who once ran the computers on a large military ship. Unfortunately, it confuses the reader by its utter disregard for gender, and you’re not sure if the human it is speaking about is male or female. That certainly pointed out to me what a gendered society we live in. There was also some confusion with clones in Ancillary Mercy as the leaders of several worlds are clones who are at war with one another, so, of course things get confusing.
Now Anne’s back with another Hugo nomination from that series with Provenance. It’s on my TBR list.

Next, Jacqueline Carey

Jacqueline Carey has a fantasy series, Kushiel’s Legacy that I read and enjoyed. The main character was a spy working undercover in a house of pleasure. So fair warning that some of the scenes are a bit pornographic. Okay, really pornographic. Her new series that starts with the Starless Sky, so far is not, but I’m still in the early stages of the story, and really enjoying it.

It balances on the edge of science fiction with an overhead sky devoid of stars and hints of ancient ones who walked their world. The story follows Kai, destined from birth to protect the princess Zariya. Childhood training on how to kill and employ stealth takes place in the deep desert as Kai prepares to face a startling destiny. True to form, Carey portrays a rich world with interesting characters and non stop action.

Thirdly, N.K. Jeminsin.

I could hardly overlook Jeminsin who won the Hugo in 2016 for her novel The Fifth Season, the 2017 Hugo for The Obelisk Gate, and now she’s nominated for the 2018 Hugo with The Stone Sky. All are in her Broken Earth Series. I started her first book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and couldn’t finish it. Gods come to Earth to wrangle with humans wasn’t my cup of tea. But with so much acclaim, I’m going to have to try again with her new series. I would be interested to hear any opinions from readers who have already read it.

How about Becky Chambers?

A strong science fiction novel, Chambers charms with her series, starting with a A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. This is a light-hearted adventure of a human female, Rosemary Harper, who, in running away from a mysterious past, joins the crew of the patched-up ship the Wayfarer. On board is a zany crew who adopts the distant young woman and makes her part of their family. From Sissex, the reptilian pilot, to the chatty duo of Lizzy and Jenks, engineers who keep the ship running, to the noble Captain, Ashby, Rosemary finds love and adventure. Her next in the series, A Closed and Common Orbit is on my list to read this year.

And last, but not least, is Mur Lafferty with her exciting novel Six Wakes. This is a debut novel already nominated for the 2018 Hugo and was also nominated for the Nebula. I was ready for a strong science fiction adventure and Lafferty delivered.

Six humans crew a ship of selected Earth citizens, now in cryo, who expect to settle a new world and start over. The six awake from their replicator chamber to be confronted with a bloody massacre of their previous clones. Billed as a fresh start, no one’s past is recorded, but this time even personal memories of events and personalities are erased. The clones try to unravel the mystery of the murders to discover who among them is guilty … and why he or she is attempting to hunt and kill the crew. In the process, they uncover shocking information about who they are and what they have done.

Be prepared for twists and turns, flashbacks that offer clues, and a satisfying story of what makes for human behavior and personality.

In summary:

Jacqueline Carey. Starless
Anne Leckie. Provenance
N.K. Jeminsin. The Stone Sky
Mur Lafferty. Six Wakes
Becky Chambers A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

p.s.  I’ll be offering my first book in the Terran Trilogy, A World Too Far this Friday July 13 (12 a.m. PDT), July 14 to Sunday, July 15 (11:59 PDT) for free, free, free on Amazon or through Book Barbarian. This is a nail-biting journey of forty ships, lost in the Galaxy, trying to find a planet to call home. Space is dangerous, but humans can also be deadly if driven too far.

Sexuality and gender in Science Fiction

Recently, a TOR blog by Liz Burke posed an interesting discussion on: Where are the SFF stories about pregnancy and childbirth?

I’m not a feminist, but I believe in the humane treatment of all individuals. What I object to is others dictating who I should like or associate with based on their criteria. Let me make the friends I want regardless of race, color, or creed. Let my fellow humans make their own. Let us all treat each other with respect.

I was criticized at a conference by an editor who read only a small sample of my work. He indicated that my female characters were too compliant. I wanted to tell him that I felt that we were getting too many stories of ass-kicking females with bad attitudes, and great bodies. We need to think about what role models we put up for our children, females and males alike. As in real life, I have an enormous range of female characters from the kickass Commander Elise Fujeint to the compliant females of a Sunglast harem… and every flavor in between.

Sex is pervasive in science fiction, but actual childbirth and parenting, I’ll have to admit the content is sparse. Lois Bujold is most mentioned in Burke’s blog with her Vorksigan series that deals with Mile’s birth, the Betan replicators that replace pregnancy, and the parenting of Mile’s own children briefly glimpsed in Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.

The recently late and deeply missed Ursula LeGuinn explored sexuality and gender bending with her Left Hand of Darkness and child rearing is addressed in The Dispossessed.

Also mentioned that deals with pregnancy and child rearing is Octavia Butlers Lilith’s Brood. There are others, but the list is short.

Can you think of any other science fiction that focuses on or even mentions pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting?

Why did this topic catch my attention? Two reasons made it immediate.

The first is that once my character of Elise got pregnant, I had to deal with the consequences of her pregnancy, namely Tempest, her daughter. As once Commander of the Fleet, she was made to come to terms with her new role of wife and mother. It’s tricky to write about children, and yet, they can’t be ignored. After all the exciting sex, there’s diapers and bottles in the aftermath. But it’s the children that keep the species going.

The second reason this topic struck me was that I had just finished Remnants of Trust by Elizabeth Bonesteel. In this story was a secondary character who was very pregnant. As captain of a generation space ship with many children on board, the pregnancy highlighted a cultural difference between the Earth military culture and the PSI. In addition, Captain Guanyin Shiang agrees to take her ship into a battle to help save a dubious ally. The main male character, captain of an Earth military ship, needs her help in saving a sister ship under attack but is very much flummoxed by her condition and the vulnerability of her children when he asks her ship to help him save the ship under attack. In the Earth’s military rank and file, pregnancy is a reason for a female to be discharged. Medical and physical protection against pregnancy is mandatory. In military science fiction, rarely are pregnancy, childbirth or child rearing a focus of the story.

So with all the commotion about #Metoo, the topic was current. Not only was I dealing with the issue of pregnancy and child rearing in my writing, but the book I had just read also highlighted this aspect of the female struggle.

Since this is a current social issue, we may see an influx of books in the science fiction field address this issue that had long since been a topic in general literature.

Now you know that my book for this blog is Remnants of Trust by Elizabeth Bonesteel. This is the second book in the series. I blogged not long ago that I liked her first book, The Cold Between and recommended it.

Due to events in the first book, engineer Elena Shaw and Captain Greg Foster are court-marshaled. But instead of a dishonorable discharge or prison, they are sent back out on the Galileo to patrol supposedly empty space in the Third Sector. Not soon after, they receive a distress call from the Exeter, a sister ship, claiming they are under attack by raiders there. A PSI generation ship in the area agrees to help, and the two drive off the attackers but leave ninety-seven dead.

Investigation into the attack points to sabotage and, indeed, both the Galileo and the PSI generation ship, Orunmila, experience sabotage attempts on their ships. Someone wants them dead.

The Raiders are tracked to an Earth colony that has been ravaged by an environment gone rogue. In an attempt to terraform the planet, the machines have destroyed the planet’s environment, and the colony is left to suffer. Cover up activities and mistakes reach high up into the military’s brass and involve a prior mission from Elena’s past.

I enjoyed this book because of the rich characters and emotional interplay. Along with a battle, politics and mystery, Bonesteel brings to life the struggles of military life in space.

It’s a quality military science fiction read I would recommend.

Persistence: a Good trait for Authors

Persistence can be very powerful.

Over twenty-five years ago, I began writing a book. At times I had a day job, at times I was a busy mother, but on weekends and during odd moments, I would write. And when I wasn’t writing, I was imagining. Occasionally, I would submit my story, but as I kept on writing, I built a body of work that I hoped someday might be published. Nonetheless, having the stories was reward enough at the time.

It’s often easy to quit. As they say, “I’ve done it many times.” But the lure of a story would eventually bring me back to my writing. I also had a number of fans who encouraged me… so that helped.

Why am I blogging about this? Because recently I noticed that Andy McKell frequently posts a “like” on my blog. The notice would show up in my e-mail, I’d see his smiling, rugged face, and after a time, I would say to myself, “Ah, there’s Andy again.” He didn’t hype his work, he didn’t push for me to review him, he just put a like on my blog.

More than a year went by, and one day I saw somewhere, I think on an ad site, a book by Andy McKell. By now you may have realized I catch on slowly, but I eventually get there. So, I downloaded Faces of Janus by Andy McKell onto my Kindle library. The blurb made it sound interesting.

And there it sat.

Why? Because I had eagerly started out reading various Indie scifi books and soon became discouraged by the poor formatting, awful grammar, and rambling storylines that I too often found. I got caught in the dilemma of helping out new writers while offering an honest opinion to my bloggers. For you see, I wanted to suggest books in science fiction on my blog that excited me, that I knew others would want to read, but hey, I didn’t want to reject a sensitive new writer. Our stories are our children. We care what people say. We’re vulnerable to criticism. I didn’t want to be that person.

So I announced that I would no longer do review requests. Many new authors are under the impression that because they offer their work free, readers will do backflips of joy and be thrilled to receive their free and wonderful book. But it takes time to read and then write a review… lots of precious time. And often the books were lacking.

So Andy’s book languished in my library while I read hot new books from those top ten lists often promoted by traditional publishers. To be fair, many turned out great.

And then there was his smiling face again… persistence. Another “like” showed up.

Another one that led me over to his website, which had become even more interesting since my last visit. I decided to open his book and give it a try.

Lo and behold, I’m enjoying it. I’m glad—because without us exchanging a word, I think of Andy as a friend now.

Persistence.

So here’s the first of his current two of a series: Faces of Janus: (Paradisi Trilogy) by Andy McKell. His second is: Janus Challenge (Paradisi Trilogy)

Corporate power. Corporate betrayal. In the last decades of the twenty-first Century, the wealthiest, most powerful families on Earth are constructing ten vast space ships. Their stated mission is to travel to Mars to escape a failing Earth.

But everyone carries a secret. Jason Janus, son and now living heir of the original founder of J Corp, leaves on a multitude of unknown trips. One of his top executives and reluctant lover, Angel Flores, takes on a side lover due to JJ’s many absences. Meanwhile, Zag Bishop, her new love interest, hires Katya from a work auction to be a Guardian at J Corp due to her fighting skills and tough attitude. But she has a secret background she must hide and lives in fear of being found out.

Angel and Zag begin to put together leaked and stolen information that suggests the ships’ true destination may be altogether different than announced. The plot thickens as the ships leave and the world wakes up to the fact that they are not headed to Mars, but somewhere totally different.

A near future story of corporate espionage, secret lives, and desperate lies make this one I should have investigated sooner.

But, persistence paid off, and I’m enjoying it now.

Comments on Mark Coker’s Smashword Survey

Mark Coker’s Smashwords survey is in. Smashwords is a distribution service for ebooks. You download a Word document and their famous meat grinder formats and distribute your work to a wide variety of vendors. IBooks, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords are the bigger names. Smashwords is in competition with Amazon so they distribute very little there. The author gets an 85% royalty. 127,000 authors with 437,200 ebooks comprise the current Smashwords catalog.

Sales of 87.5% make up up the fiction category and of that 45% are romance writers. So, romance dominates Smashword’s sales. Only 3% of the top 200 bestsellers are science fiction while 73% are romance.

Pre-orders appear to be a new marketing tool to use to launch a new book. However, only 12.23% of books released during the survey were born of preorders. In the top 1,000 sellers, 61% used preorders, so this is a marketing tool to consider.

Box sets are also becoming popular. 90% are single author box sets. Multi-author sets are also being used, but I wonder how the royalties are divided out. You can expand your readers through other authors’ promotions, but don’t expect to reap a rich monetary reward. And taxes could be a headache.

When studying pricing, free still gets the most downloads by a wide margin, but $3.99, $9.99 and $4.99 yields the most earnings. It was interesting that $3.99 and $4.99 got more downloads by a slim margin over $.99.

The average word count for the top 70 best selling romance books was 113,803. So the longer book is still popular. That surprised me. This may depend on genre.

Having a series helps sales. Top best sellers show they are likely to come from a series. A series with a free starter book boosts sales of the whole series. In the top 100, a free starter book increased sale of the series by 80%.

Data on title length once again urged authors to keep it fairly short. Twenty-four characters titles are in the top 100 while 37.11 characters were in the wider top 1000 range. So those with less sales had longer titles on average. There are always outliers.

And where did Smashwords sell the most? The United States garnered 69% of the sales, far out-distancing all other countries. Lesser sales were in Great Britain (8%), Canada (11%) and Australia (5%). This jives with my numbers, except that I have a strong Australian contingency.

Hi Ya Mates!

All of this is interesting to me as an author, but I write science fiction. For years, I tried to sell on Smashwords (they call it “going wide”), but I don’t sell there. To be eligible for Amazon Select, you cannot list on Smashwords, or any other platform. This has created tension between Amazon and Smashwords, but I decided to go where I can sell well, and that is Amazon. Amazon helps with innovative marketing and has a bigger pool of readers. The bottomline is that I sell so much better there.

Still, this data gives food for thought on several ways any author can market and provides a good snapshot of one section of the ebook market.

For you data geeks, here’s the link: http://blog.smashwords.com/2017/06/smashwords-survey-2017.html

This week I’m reporting on Babylon’s Ashes by James S. A. Corey. While I have been enjoying the Expanse Series, both the books and the television show, I kept waiting for something exciting to happen in this book.

A violent group of Belters called the Free Navy has cobbled together black market spaceships and reigned terror on Earth by throwing rocks that have seriously damaged the planet. In addition, they are attacking colony ships headed out through the gate to the new worlds and plundering their supplies to redistribute to Belter communities. So it is up to James Holden’s crew of the Rocinante to stop them. Politics make former enemies unite (Mars, Earth and others) in order to combat this threat. Be ready for several twists and turns.

In this book, the protomolecule takes a backseat to a Belters and inner system war. It felt like an interlude that cleaned up a problem brought out in the previous book. This was not my favorite book in the series, but still I consider it a good read, considering the dearth of good new science fiction out there. The usual characters appear and a number of other voices are given center stage. Marcos Inarcos, leader of the Free Navy, (and Naomi’s former lover) is seen as one who champions the oppressed Belters, but then turns strident and vicious, not caring who or how many get killed as he grasps for power. Naomi’s son, Carlos, also heads up several chapters. At first, he is his father’s right hand man and believes in the “cause,” but gradually as the losses accumulate, and Marco’s excuses for them sound lame, he begins to wonder if his father really has a plan or the Belter’s welfare at heart.

Orbit has bought three more books for the series, so it should be interesting how Corey (Abraham and Franck) continue the overall plot.

For those readers who want an update on my upcoming book, Somewhat Alien, it is in the works. I’m still waiting on a Beta reader and the delivery of a proof copy. Because of that, my publishing date has been pushed out a week or two. I want to make sure this one is polished and complete as it is one of my favorite stories. Lots of good stuff happens, and I want it to be an exciting adventure for you.

So stay tuned.

A Self-Publisher Markets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m accumulating lots of lovely ebooks in my library. I used to spend a lot of effort tracking down good science fiction or fantasy by asking friends, researching award lists, or cruising libraries. Now, due to various ad sites, I find lots of interesting ebooks. I stash them away, expecting to read them some day, and often I get around to them. I’m not alone in this behavior. I select them because I sincerely plan to read them.

Many of the books are from new authors who I have never heard of before or who are not on some award list. It’s like dating. You need to find interesting guys to date, but they don’t just show up on your front steps if they have no idea that you exist. You have to get out there where the guys are, but a bar is not the best place to find a good date, much less a life partner. So these various ad sites set certain standards such as requiring at least a 4.0 star review rating or a given amount of reviews. They curate the book for you by genre so you can hone right in on what you like, but still make it easy enough that a shy new book can qualify and be accepted to the dance.

Am I stretching the metaphor too much? You get the idea.

So to meet the readers who are compatible, I’m offering one of my books again via FreeBooksy, but this time
Past the Event Horizon is the book at the dance. There are 90,000 science fiction readers subscribed through Freebooksy, and Past the Event Horizon will be there waving “Hello” on Friday May 12th. However, not to be shy, I have also scheduled the book free through the KDP Select Platform starting TODAY and extending through Monday.

Past the Event Horizon is a thrill ride through space as the twelve person crew of the spaceship The Seeker follows an alien signal through a star gate onto an alien world. What they find and how it changes them makes for an exciting story.

It’s rare that I offer this one free, so grab it while you can.

This month I’m highlighting a few ad site books starting with Accord of Honor by Kevin McLaughlin. It’s been over three years since I noticed Kevin on the Linked-In chat boards. He offered expert advice to an ignorant author who was desperate to learn all she could. I appreciated his willingness to share information for free on self-publishing. So, when I saw his book Accord of Honor, and it was an interesting space opera, I snapped it up.

Accord of Honor is a fast-paced space military adventure. The Lunar Accord has banned all individuals or nations from arming space ships for war. But Ex-Admiral Nicholas Stein knows the peace will not last, and in secret, he exiles himself on Mars to build ships with on board weapons that could result in treason and execution if he were discovered.

Then, outof nowhere, armed ships appear, attacking vulnerable space freighters and kidnapping their crews. Soon they threaten a helpless Earth and call for its surrender. Only Admiral Stein and his son, Thomas, with their weaponized ships stand in the pirates’ way.

Accord of Honor carries political overtones similar to the Expanse Series with friction occurring between Mars, Earth and space.

It is the first book in the Accord Series followed by Accord of Mars and the recently published Accord of Valor.

While the women are out for Mothers’ Day, relax with two new space adventure series at great prices. Or… If she’s a science fiction enthusiast like me, sneak a few new books onto her ereader and watch her smile.