One To Go

This is the last weekend the observatory will be open until next Memorial Day.

Last Friday was so perfect. Absolutely perfect. Warm. Cloudless. Moonless. Dark. Manageable crowd. The sky just took my breath away. I stared at old friends, knowing I might not see them again until May, and spent hours roaming around the sky, just roaming. It was perfect.

Managed to get some shots of Jupiter. Knowing the weather here and turn on the head of a pin, I savored it, knowing another ideal night was not likely to come along this season.

Sunset from the bottom of Pine Mountain looking across Millican Valley toward the Cascades.

Sunset from the summit. Smoke from wildfires made for a terrible sunset Friday night. It didn't effect viewing at all though. Thank goodness.

Jupiter through 11 mm Nagler, blue filter on. Zoom.

All four Galilean moons lined up perfectly Friday night. Not sure of the order, but Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This was taken through a 25 mm eye piece, no filter.

Saturday was still warm, but the wind howled, driving in a cold front and a parade of clouds. Viewing was hit or miss, the clouds having a fun game of hide 'n seek with us. Still managed to get a glimpse at most objects, but it wasn't as clean of a view as Friday night. By the time we got everyone through to see Jupiter and the summit had cleared for me to think about snapping some photos, the clouds socked us in. Good night, Mary, they said, drawing a thick black curtain over the stars.

Lots and lots of clouds. Boo. Pretty, but boo. Tonight is supposed to be clear and it's supposed to get up into the 80's. So maybe I won't freeze too badly. Tomorrow, the weather says rain. So, tonight may be it.

Thanks to Kathy McKendry of Imagine Today and Tara Tyler of Tara Tyler Talks for the versatile blogger award. Two very awesome bloggers. Check them out.

PS, anybody else having trouble following people? I can from the top, but not by hitting the sidebar widget. Google won't sign me in. Another fun blogger glitch? Annoying if someone has the google connect follow, but isn't on blogger.

Come back Monday for a Semper Audacia party, and enjoy your weekend. What plans do you have?

One More Week

One more week until Semper Audacia's release. :D

Alone. Leda is the last living member of the brigade, the sole defender of her world. War took everyone she knew, leaving her in the company of memories and ghosts. Or is it madness?

The siren blares. The enemy is coming. Or is it? The approaching vessel isn't a friendly design, but it answers with the correct code. Leda must figure out whether the arrival is reinforcements or the final assault. In an aging flyer, she ventures out to meet her world's fate, the last stand.

I'm working on a press kit today and some guest posts, getting all ready for next week and the big day. I'll have the links posted up next Monday. I'm really pleased with how this story turned out and with how the next release, Stopover at the Backworlds' Edge, is shaping up.

Tomorrow I go back to writing, getting Backworlds #2 [working title: Boomtown Craze] and The Augmentation of Hetty Locklear [previously untitled, thank you Husband Unit] farther along. Next week I start polishing the rest of Stopover at the Backworlds' Edge, so that I can get it to the editor's. I need to keep working on the WIPs while I do so and promote Semper. Thank goodness the observatory closes after this weekend. It'll give me more time.

Here's some new releases by bloggyland friends to check out:

Francine Howarth has a new ebook out: The Highwayman's Mistress

The novella is set in 1792 - 1793 respectively: the era of the French Revolution.

Richard Courtenay Viscount Somerton, gallant as heroes come, has agreed to see Miss Diamonta Whitaker, safely delivered to the Palace of Versailles. Half French by birth and daughter of a French countess, Diamonta has more than one reason for accepting a gracious invite to stay at the Royal Court at Versailles. Her heart lies at court, with Francois de Boviere, Count of Saint Mont Marche.

Unfortunately, tide of revolution has swept from Paris to Versailles and heads of French aristocrats are seriously under threat of Madame Guillotine. With Diamonta's coche still en route to Versailles, strange as it seems a highwayman delivers a message by way of robbery to save her life. Can she, upon return to England, ever recover from her mother's wrath once her relationship with a highwayman is discovered, and can he survive a duel to the death?

Available on AmazonUK Kindle. Francine blogs HERE.


And the lovely, JL Campbell, blogging at The Character Depot, has two releases up on Smashwords.

Giving up the Dream, Free Read

Love, honour and obey. In a perfect life, these promises are easy to keep. When faced with spousal betrayal, idealistic oaths take a back seat. Justine Charles made the ultimate sacrifice for her dying husband. Will she rally after his death or be forced to give up a final chance at happiness?


Download in any format from Smashwords.

Now also available for 99 cents on Amazon.

Don't Get Mad Get Even

What choices do you have when you are abused, cheated on and left with a trail of broken promises? Don’t Get Mad…Get Even. Take an inside look at Jamaican culture and lifestyle through a collection of award-winning stories. You will laugh, cry and commiserate with a compelling cast of characters, who conquer their challenges in unique ways.

A bargain at 99 cents from Smashwords. 

Now also available on Amazon. 


I have failed in finishing Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, the Wistful Read for the book club, before the end of September. Sorry, China. I've been enjoying it and am about halfway through. Should get to posting about it sometime in October.

Terra Nova, Life on Mars

Terra Nova starts tonight on Fox, 9/26, 8:00 p.m. Eureka's season ended just in time. I have high hopes for this show. Let's hope Fox doesn't fubar it. You can find out more than you want to know about the show at the official website: http://www.fox.com/terranova/

TERRA NOVA follows an ordinary family on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past.

When scientists unexpectedly discovered a fracture in time that made it possible to construct a portal into primeval history, the bold notion was born to resettle humanity in the past – a second chance to rebuild civilization and get it right this time.

The series centers on the Shannon family as they join the Tenth Pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova, the first colony established in this beautiful yet foreboding land. JIM SHANNON (Jason O’Mara), a devoted father with a checkered past, guides his family through this new world of limitless beauty, mystery and terror. Jim’s wife, ELISABETH (Shelley Conn), is a trauma surgeon and the newest addition to Terra Nova’s medical team. JOSH (Landon Liboiron) is their 17-year-old son who is torn to leave life as he knows it behind; upon arriving at the settlement, he finds himself instantly drawn to the beautiful and rule-breaking SKYE (Allison Miller). MADDY (Naomi Scott), Josh’s endearingly awkward 15-year-old sister, hopes Terra Nova will give her a chance to reinvent herself. Although Elisabeth’s medical training secured the family a spot on the pilgrimage, a secret involving their five-year-old daughter, ZOE (Alana Mansour), soon endangers their place in this utopia.

I've always said any show could be improved by the addition of giant, man-eating reptiles. I just hope I won't be disappointed.

I like Jason O'Mara in the lead. He was also the lead in Life on Mars. Have you ever seen this? I watched in on dvd recently and it really is a fabulous show. Jason - Sam Tyler somehow ends up back in 1973. I commend their attention to detail. The culture, the feel, the attitudes, it took me back to that decade without a stumble. Peppered with the 1970's cop show are trippy scenes as the audience tries to figure out with Sam Tyler what the heck is going on. If you haven't seen Life on Mars, I highly recommend it. It originally aired on ABC. I see the UK did a remake, but I haven't seen that one, so can't say whether it's as good.

The season ender of Eureka was great. I'm glad to see we get a 'final' season before all science fiction disappears from Syfy. Warehouse 13 had zombies in it, so I couldn't watch it. Why would they do that to me? It's just wrong to put zombies in any show not about zombies that I watch.

I get inspiration from TV, so I like to watch some. Except for Terra Nova, there's not anything on I want to see though. I've been watching Lexx on Netflix, which is interesting. Dark, but interesting. Definite Mad Maxxish, Blade Runnerish vibe.

Anything have you excited this season? Besides my upcoming release of Semper Audacia? :) See anything good on dvd or Netflix?

Want to keep discussing Terra Nova? Join me on my website, Spacedock 19 is continuing talk on Terra Nova.

iPhoning in the 1980's

Guest post by Nicki Elson. She blogs at Nicki Elson's Not-So-Deep Thoughts. If you haven't met Nicki yet, you should. She's very entertaining and funny. I'm enjoying her Three Daves, which is on my Nook. She suckered me in with the 1980's. That was my decade.

Thanks, M.Pax, for so graciously inviting me to your place for my Blog Blitz to celebrate the brand new book cover for my novel, Three Daves, and to let everyone know about the big September-only 99 cent eBook sale of this 1980s chick lit/romance (Kindle, Nook, eBook and ePub).  

           

We’ve been to some amazing places here at Wistful Nebulae—adventures in space, across incredible vistas, and into the future.  But now we’re going somewhere…else.   I couldn’t find an affordable DeLorean, so climb into this choice (boat-sized) Bonneville, and we’ll book-it back to the 80s!  Are you totally stoked?

           

You see, I refuse to get an iPhone or anything of the like.  I survived the 80s without one, and I certainly don’t need one now.  So our mission today is to prove that anything the iPhone does, we were already doing in the 80s.  Oh hey, there’s Gordon Gecko—somebody grab that thing out of his hand.  No, it’s not a mini-refrigerator!  It’s a cell phone, you dweeb. 

           

Okay now, see that guy who looks like he’s jammin’ to tunes over there?  What?  Yes, I know it’s not winter…earmuffs?  Oh, like, I’m so sure!  Those are Walkman headphones.  Grab ’em.  Yeah, that box clipped to his waistband too.  Awesome, now to my old boyfriend’s house for the Betamax!  Well, no doy VCRs took over, but his dad didn’t know that was going to happen, and his family has a mondo collection of movies in Beta.

           

Cool beans, looks like we have everything.  Huh?  The iPhone can record movies too?  Wait, I think there’s a basketball game at the high school tonight—my dad’ll be there video taping my pom-pom routine.  We totally rocked Madonna’s “Material Girl,” by the way.  There he is, the guy in the crew cut holding the ginormo camera.  Be careful of the gnarly handle on that thing.  Should we grab the duffel bag too?             

           

Okay, we’ve finally got everything and can return to 2011 to veg out with all the electronic entertainment we could possibly ever want.  Wh-what’s that you say?  Internet access?  Dude, you’re just spazzin’ cuz of all this time travel; the internet’s a myth.  It’ll never happen…

 Thanks, Nicki for such a great adventure. Come back any time.

Interested in guest posting for Wistful Nebulae? Email me: mpaxauthor@gmail.com

So were you around in the 80's? That was my decade. Any memories to share? I remember Members Only jackets and the music video. Do they even make videos any more?

Shooting the Moon

The past few weeks up at the observatory were obscured by full Moon then by very cold nights the following week and clouds.

Full Moon weekend was warm. I didn't even have to zipper my coat. We were bombarded by moths outside. My car is still covered in moth guts. There wasn't much to see besides the Moon and Jupiter that weekend. I couldn't even find the brightest guide stars to point my telescope to where another object would be. Those I could find were severely washed out. To add insult on Saturday night, clouds rolled in. Between those and all the smoke in the air, Jupiter rose a bright orange. I'd never seen it that color before. My photos of it didn't turn out so great. But I did get some Moon shots.

Autumn in the high desert doesn't bring a lot of color in the form of trees, but the brush changes color, bursting with yellow. Juniper and cedar are evergreens, and the deciduous kind of tree doesn't really grow here.

Almost full Moon before the clouds swallowed it up.

Here's a video of the clouds covering the moon.



Last weekend was frigid. I managed a few shots between shivers on Friday night.

Saturday night was completely socked in. :-( No star gazing.

Only two more weekends before we shut down until next May. :-( I hope the weather cooperates so I can savor these next few weeks. The Moon will be out of the way if the clouds stay away.

Two Thumbs Down

Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for hosting the Worst Movies Blogfest.

This was actually hard for me, as I have a tendency not to remember movies. Most of them fall into a huge blackhole in my memory. But I do remember some I've hated, or didn't care for.

1.  Dune. The version with Sting. Sting looked great and the sand worms were cool, the rest of it was a huge mess. I'm a big fan of the books, so this movie was a huge disappointment.

2.  Jurassic Park II. Another case of being very disappointed. The original is one of my all-time favorite movies and I was so looking forward to this. It was such a letdown. I wanted to throw my popcorn at the screen. It captured none of the magic of the first.

3.  AI - has to be one of the most depressing movies ever made. There wasn't even an inkling of hope in this story.

4.  Highlander II. Left everyone saying, wtf ???

5.  Terminator III. I kept falling asleep during this movie. Was there a plot? Seemed like just a lot of running about and explosions. To be fair, my husband liked it. He can get me to vacate a room quick by pulling that piece of trash out of the dvd cabinet.

6.  Borat. I know some people liked it. I'm not one of those who did. I gave it to Goodwill.

7.  Day the Earth Stood Still, the remake. The original was great.

8.  A sci-fi collection of 15 movies. These were newer D level movies. There was one with Mark Hamill and Bill Paxton in it, flying about. Another with Brandon Lee. One with one of the Wrestler dudes. Not Hulk Hogan. Possible they were lower than D. I love a good, bad movie, but these were just bad. Really bad. After ten minutes we'd be looking at the clock saying, "Why isn't it over yet?" Husband and I were too afraid to watch any more after the first five. That went off to Goodwill, too. Maybe I should have burned it instead of torturing some other soul.

9.  Star Trek Generations. I hated the way Kirk died. Just hated it. I pretend this movie does not exist.

10. He Man. My brothers, sister and I still have fun with this movie. We do the 'good journey' thing, since we've all gone our separate ways. It does have some entertainment value. Some.

Alex said we couldn't use Syfy movies, but I just have to say their version of Thor was really, really terrible and my eyes still burn from Category 7. My eyes! My eyes! Avoid those two at all costs.

Well, that's all I've got. How about you? Any movies you pretend don't exist?

PS, I've created a FB fan page, HERE. If you care to stop by, I can quit talking to myself. :) I'll be posting photos from the observatory there on a regular basis.

Coming Attractions

I'm over at Wicked Writers today, talking about my upcoming career plans. Come on over for a visit: WICKED WRITERS

The countdown to Semper Audacia's release has begun



Speaking of coming attractions ... sometimes we can't see the consequences of what lies ahead from what we do. Sometimes, something marvelous happens though. A seed brings something unexpected. What treasured days those are.

The husband unit and I put a bird feeder in the backyard, and a whole forest of sunflowers sprang up.

I've begun posting a daily moon / observatory photo on Twitter. Another seed with unexpected results.

In other news, RIP Andy Whitfield. What a damned shame. Condolences to his wife and family. I was so saddened to hear he lost his battle with lymphoma. I lost a sister-in-law to it about five years ago and a good high school friend to Hodgkins. Andy was the star of Spartacus.

Adventures in Self Publishing

My Adventures In Self Publishing by Libby Heily

Writing is a game of inches.  It's a celebration of small victories and a constant struggle against setbacks.  I've always found writing to be challenging.  Stories do not spring forth from my pen.  I grind them out over time with sweat, tears and fear.  When I think I'm done, I submit them to friends and fellow writers who tell me I can do better.  I then go back and do better.

Maybe it's because writing has always been difficult for me that I thought publishing would be easy, or at least easier.  I was wrong.  It happens often.  The actual formatting and uploading of the novel isn't too difficult.  That's all following rules and experiencing a predictable outcome.  The rest of publishing is completely different.  You know what I'm referring to, the marketing part of it.

I started building my platform at the end of February 2011.  I started a blog, started tweeting and joined a few forums.  I tried to differentiate my blog by releasing original flash fiction every Friday.  I figured readers would want to see what type of stuff I write.  I got a few new readers that way, which was wonderful, but I wasn't hitting a broader audience.

That's when I decided to steal borrow an idea from M. Pax.  I published a collection of flash fiction on Smashwords and offered it to readers for free.  I was pretty happy with the immediate result, over eighty downloads in two weeks.  I figured that was eighty people who would have never known I existed otherwise.  I listed the book on several websites that featured free books and saw my downloads jump to over one thousand.  Hey, not bad. 

The next step in building an audience was to put together a collection of short stories and release it on Amazon and other outlets.  I priced the ebook at 99 cents.  I posted on the blog, my facebook, and I tweeted about it.  Other bloggers were kind enough to mention it.  I had a few sales right off the bat but things slowed down pretty quickly.

The game plan now?  I want to reach new readers.  I want to grow my audience.  At this stage in my career, I want to be read.  In order to do that, I'm approaching book bloggers for reviews.  I've approached thirty book bloggers via email and will approach more every week for months to come.   I have six reviews scheduled and one interview.  Will this ultimately help me be successful?  I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty positive it won't hurt.  Right now it's about exposure, not sales.  Sales will come over time after people know who I am and what I write.

I wish I could tell you I have all the answers.  I wish I could say I'm successful like John Locke and Amanda Hocking.  What I am is a writer with stories to yell and the determination to be heard. 

What is your strategy for getting your stories in the hands of readers? 

Thanks to the talented Libby Heily for penning this post for us. She has two ebooks out.

Twist, Turn and Burn. A collection of twelve flash fiction pieces. The stories range from character studies to exploding bodies to tree eating humans to a day in the life of a piece of gum. Twist Turn and Burn is a quick read that allows you to explore different genres in only minutes. Available from SMASHWORDS.

Fourth Degree Freedom. Explores the best of humanity and the worst. The stories range from hopeful realism to the dystopian side of speculative fiction. Each story twists and turns through darkness and light, settling somewhere in the shadowy area of day to day life. Available from AMAZON.

Libby blogs at Libby Heily. 

I've enjoyed both of Libby's ebooks. Her writing is fresh, original and exciting. It makes me think, which is something I gravitate toward in literature. I look forward to her future books.

If you'd like to do a guest post, contact me at mpaxauthor@gmail.com 

I Went Nook

After a lot of thought and research, I decided to purchase B&N's Nook. I got the simple touch reader, and I lurves it. Even better, it's currently filled with reads from so many lovely authors out in bloggyland: Brondt Kamffer, Peggy Bechko, Libby Heily, Me, Lindsay Buroker, Melissa Bradley, N.R. Williams, Laura Eno, Alexander Zoltai, Brian Hutchinson, Jon Mac, Dale Mayer, Carolyn Arnold, Nomar Knight, Frances Pauli, Nicki Elson and Jaleta Clegg. Fabulous.

I debated between Nook and Kindle for quite awhile. The touch screen swayed me. The lack of bells and whistles and crap I don't need swayed me. The simplicity of adding files to the Nook swayed me. We don't have wifi at home, but I can download to my PC, plug the Nook in like a thumb drive and transfer the files over.

The Nook is lighter than a paperback and uses the eInk technology. Now I can catch up on my backlog of ereading. Well, most of it. Some of the publications I already had wouldn't convert. Pity. It takes me eons to get through anything on the PC. When I read, I like to go relax. The ereader is just like a book, but it's a whole library in one.

I found this free software called Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/ which will convert files from one ereader type to another. Some of the Kindle files it wouldn't convert and a couple of the others. Boo!

I read Translations end of August and I had downloaded my own story from B&N, then read it off my Nook. Cool. Rad cool. It was my best reading ever. I did voices and hand gestures and all that. Maybe because I was so thrilled to have downloaded my own stuff from a bookstore. Maybe all the previous practice paid off.

Anyway, there's a B&N less than two minutes from my house, and I meet my local crit group there every couple of weeks. I can read books for free in the store on my Nook while I wait for them to show up. It'll be an incentive to get there early. :) Plus, I can read library books on the Nook, and even lend other Nook readers one of my books for a few weeks, or borrow one.

Will this replace all my book buying? Probably not, (I just purchased book 2 in George RR Martin's series on sale at Target and preordered Tanya Huff's 5th book in the Valor/Confederation series -- if I'm going to pay as much or more for an ebook, I'll opt for the regular book) but it may lessen that growing pile in the corner over there ... I think it's about to eat me.

I love that I have so many of you on my Nook. I carry you around and show you off, say how I know almost every author on it. I love the touch technology ... almost like turning a page, but a little more fun.

So, do you have an ereader? I'm definitely a convert.

Smoke in the Desert

Some of you've seen me tweet or FB about the smoke out this way the past few weeks. There's a wildfire up at Warm Springs, a good 60 or more miles away, but the wind is just right to make it smokey all the way down here. Thank you, wind [that was facetious, in case you missed it].

So here's my Pine Mountain Observatory photo journal from last weekend. Clicking on any photo will enlarge the view.

Here's proof of the smoke. I took this photo last Friday at Pine Mountain Observatory.

So we begin our final month of the observatory season. Four more weeks to go then I get a little wiggle room ... maybe. Probably not as I push on with my epublishing endeavors.

Friday night was cold. I wasn't sorry I had dug all my thermals out and put them on. I was sorry I didn't opt for a sweater over a long sleeved shirt, and I really must invent knee warmers. Once my knees get cold, I'm done, done, done. Or I need to invent some sort of down igloo contraption that's wearable. Here's some moon shots I took Friday night.

The Moon is just to the right of that tallest tree

Had a lot of great visitors, as usual. One little guy on Saturday had a great imagination. He looked at the Moon through my telescope for a really long time and started having a conversation with the astronauts he imagined up there. Then he was telling me about the dinosaurs there, too. I was so amused and entertained, I asked him whether the dinosaurs had spaceships. To which he said, yes. We then had a very interesting conversation about spacefaring dinosaurs. Sparked a few story ideas for me. Thanks, cool little dude.

Here's photos of the Moon from Saturday.

And some of Jupiter. I learned that using a blue filter cuts the glare and lets the red stripes pop out. I'll play more with it next week, attempting to get better shots than this.

Without a filter - can see three of the Galilean moons -- Callisto, Ganymede & Europa

With the filter -- not as bright, but you can make out some of the red stripes

Here's some extra shots.

I found this shadow very interesting Saturday evening. There were no clouds, so it was the low sun and the contours of the mountain making that shape. Took this on Saturday. You can see there was a lot less smoke. Thank goodness. I'm getting tired of smelling burning trees.

These are highland cattle at a farm on the way out to PMO.

Ran into some deer. Baby. Center of photo.

Here's Momma below me, who was getting ready to kick my ass if I didn't get out from between her and baby.

There was a coyote in the middle of the road on my way home Saturday night. Had to make a screeching stop to miss him. It was pitch black, so no photo. No cougar spottings yet, but as one visitor put it, that doesn't mean they aren't watching me. It'd be very interesting if cougars had telescopes.

The Russians had trouble with their rockets last week, so the space station may be abandoned come November if they can't fix the problem. We grounded the shuttle, so no help from us. At least, there are still the spacefaring dinosaurs on the Moon.

In sci-fi TV news, I heard that Syfy already scrapped Blood & Chrome. So, there will be no BSG series this fall, except maybe on the internet. What has a girl got to do for some space opera? Sigh. Maybe an internet space opera channel is the way to go. And, Happy Star Trek Day, one day late. Sept 8, 1966: Star Trek premiered on television. TV boldly went where it had never gone before. What a legacy.

Have a great weekend.

What Made a Difference Recently

It's easy to get down now and then. We're in a tough industry and have to deal with a lot of rejection and judgement. It can take it's toll.

Somehow we have to pick ourselves back up and keep going. Somehow we have to find a way to make the stings not matter so much. Is it easy? No.

Usually I call up my list of successes. Most aren't tangible, but I have fond memories of winning over excited fans at readings and I have received some nice rejections. I thumb through it all when I need to.

Recently, I read John Locke's book, How I sold One Million eBooks in Five Months. Although the techniques and tips are why I purchased the book, what made it worth the purchase was the boost in confidence the pages gave me. The whole world doesn't have to love us, and they're not going to.

We must discard the haters, as they're not our target audience. Obviously. We should write to the people who love us. And, some will. Those are the people we're to pay attention to.

A few days later, most of my crit group was at our monthly Guild meeting (where I read Translations). I had sent them the first three chapters of the novella I plan to publish after Semper Audacia, and they said to me that they didn't think I needed them any more. It was a nice thing to hear, but I won't attempt writing without garnering their opinions.

So my advice is, hang onto the golden moments like a vice and never let go. Replay them as often as you need to. We will all grow and improve and sometimes hit home runs. We tend to ignore those moments and concentrate on the darker ones. Well, at least I do. My husband will tell you how I obsess over those, which is why he thinks spouses of writers need a support group, too. Thanks to him for listening, ad nausea, to all my obsessing.

And, thanks to all you lovely bloggy people. You make this journey easier, too. Couldn't do it without you :) Major thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting this group.

Those to Follow and 7x7

It's a holiday weekend in the US. I'm out in the wilds of Oregon somewhere ...

Here are some great blogs you should pop in on and follow:

Libby Heily - Libby recently published two books of short stories, which I love. They're fresh and different, like she is. She's adjusting to a new schedule, but she's worth a follow.

Suze, The Girl Wizard - Many provoking and thoughtful posts that transform everyday life into an art form. Suze is a great read and a great follow

Christine Rains - Fun and fresh writer with a bold streak. I've enjoyed following her adventures.

Tonja, Tonja's Musings - Her journey has been wonderful to follow. She's genuine and writes about her life in tidbits that are relateable.

L.G. Smith, Of Bards and Prophets - Another wonderful follow. Inspiring and insightful posts.

Thank you to C. Lee McKenzie of The Write Game for bestowing the One to Follow Award on Me. It makes me happy to pass it on.


From L. G. Smith of Bards and Prophets I received the 7x7 award.

Most Beautiful -- Every post featuring other writers and their work. They deserve more accolades than they get. Whether Indie or otherwise, writing a book takes the same amount of work. Everybody works hard at it.

Most Popular - Lost in Space from the AtoZ challenge. It went viral and continues to get the most views every week. Guess I should do more old sci-fi TV show posts.

Most Helpful - Story Trailers on a Shoestring Budget. This was one of the first posts I wrote for this blog. Way back when ... when crickets sang. :) This will have to be updated sometime in the future as my video gal is searching out new software as the new version of moviemaker is not as good as the old XP version. Hope she finds one soon. Stopover is going to need a new trailer since the rewrite.

Most Controversial -- I really don't post anything controversial, unless you want to count discussions on epublishing. But i don't. So instead, I present my first post on Gangsta cows. Meet the Gangsta Cows.

Most Surprisingly Successful - At the Keyboard. Why this post continues to get views every week is beyond my understanding. It was a run-of-the-mill progress post. Shrug.

Most Underrated - All my posts featuring photos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Click on 'Met' under labels. The reason I got to go there last fall still makes me sad, but it was good to be in Manhattan again. It'd been 20 years since I moved away.

Most Pride Worthy - I loved writing this post. It was a blast. It's been getting a lot of hits this week. Don't know why. Local Astronomers Presumed Missing.

To:

C. Lee McKenzie
Madeleine, Scribble & Edit
Golden Eagle
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Michael Offutt, SLC Kismet
Miranda Hardy
Tara Tyler, Tara Tyler Talks

To everyone who stops by and reads my blog, thanks for the support. This ride is progressing beautifully because of all of you. To you I present the "You Rock" award.

Give yourselves a round of applause. :) I'm giving you a standing ovation.

Valor is My Choice

I read and write in many subgenres of science fiction, including fantasy. There is one space opera series which really stands out to me and which I claim is my favorite. It has many things going for it including a strong female lead and her ability to overcome impossible situations. As I've said, I really enjoy a story where the main character keeps seeking and never gives up.


Visit me over at Wicked Writers to find out what it is. HERE