Aliens are Human, Too

Guest posting over at JL Campbell's blog today. Hope to see you there. :)

So, to alleviate my astronomy withdrawal, I went out last Tuesday with one of my fellow star guides. We met at the bottom of the mountain and set up down there where the hang gliders usually turn off to go up to the other peak. We toughed it out for about 90 minutes. Considering how cold it was, that's amazing.

Although I had bundled up, my fingers and toes protested their numbing experience for two days. No photos. For one, there was no Moon. For two, I didn't even change eyepieces after the first 10 minutes. It was too damn cold to expose my fingers. I thought about snapping a few of Jupiter, but not for long. I couldn't feel my fingers enough to have taken a decent photo.

The sky was amazing. So, clear. The Milky Way just sparkled. Viewed some star clusters in constellations I've never viewed up at the observatory [because they aren't visible up there during the season].

How do you know you really love doing something? The willingness to suffer. I suffered the cold -- it was in the 20's -- to watch stars. And I will again.

I hope the sky is clear December 10th to watch the lunar eclipse. I plan on filming it this year if the sky does cooperate.

47North

Earlier this month at BookExpo America, Amazon announced 47North, a science fiction and fantasy imprint. Yes, that's right. Amazon is getting into the traditional publishing game.

It already has several imprints: AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Powered by Amazon, Montlake Romance, and Thomas & Mercer.

47North will launch with established science fiction and fantasy writers and some new voices. The imprint name comes from Amazon's hometown, Seattle. Makes sense. In Oregon here, I sit at the 45th Parallel.

Rife with Hugo and Nebula award winners, 47North launches with some big splashes.

Amazon has positioned itself as a giant with the potential to grow even bigger in the publishing world. It's hard to know which way is up these days. All I know is, the future is here in cyberspace. The good news, we're all already here working our little fingers and butts off.

Yes, Amazon is now signing authors and getting into the publishing game. Sure, it already has been in the game through Kindle Direct and Createspace. But now it's shaking things up even more.

What are all your thoughts on these new developments in the publishing world?

Added note, I wanted to let you know of Ciara Knight's release:

Love's Long Shadow

Sammy Lorre was cast from Heaven for conduct unbecoming an angel. Living in a demon-infested small town with no memory of her previous life, she faces never-ending purgatory until Boon saunters into her life with a promise of angelic love. But is he an angel from Heaven or a minion from the underworld preying on her human emotions? To discover his true identity, she must risk eternal damnation and her heart.

Amazon: ~ Smashwords:

Ciara's website is at http://www.ciaraknight.com/

Jon Mac has a new FREE read out. On Smashwords. 99 cents on Amazon. But should be free on Amazon soon, too.

It wasn't just any other night in the unlife of Ned The Undead, it was Halloween! But the world had changed a lot lately, and nothing seemed to turn out the way he expected. Find out why Zombies are people too, in "The Human Ate My Pumpkin!"

Jon blogs at Mythik Imagination.



And thank you to Madeleine of Scribble and Edit for the Friendly blogger award.

Everybody have a great weekend!

Doings on Planet M. Pax

What's happening on planet M. Pax:

1) Blogging. Here comes the split. Beginning this week, I split the blog on my website off from this blog. The website is geared more toward readers, so the blog there will be geared toward readers and fans. When I get some. Yesterday's post is on things to consider when choosing a telescope. Photos of Saturn, the Moon and Jupiter are included.

On Tuesdays I will publish an article there on science fiction, astronomy or things to do with my books/stories. www.mpaxauthor.com  I made some changes over on the website ... again. I dropped Spacedock 19, as that will now be covered in the blog. I added a 'Coming in 2012' tab between the MPaxWorks (published work) and WritersDesk (finished work still searching for a home). Eventually the stories in WritersDesk will get published in short story collections for econsumption, or expanded into longer pieces for epublication as novels or novellas.

2) Revisions on Stopover at the Backworlds' Edge are moving along. The once was novella has blossomed into a novel. I should be done with the polished draft by end of November. Hope to have it through my crit partners before Christmas ... then off to an editor. I anticipate the release to be February 2012.

In the far future humanity, bioengineered humanity created to deal with different environments, has spread out to other stars and planets in the galaxy, called the Backworlds. Craze’s Tavern sits on the fringes of expansion. Last stop for one hundred fifteen light years, Pardeep Station is a heap of dust and little more.
 
The lepper opens, bringing in a ship that should no longer exist. Stamped with the Foreworlds’ mark as if spoiling for a fight yet the war ended two generations ago. The vessel drops off a Water-breather, a type of Backworlder thought to be extinct. She brings rumors and subterfuge, danger and troubles. Craze knows he has stepped into her trap the moment she walks into his bar. His only hope is that it isn’t too late to find a way out.

Video Gal is hard at work on a new video for Stopover. Hope to unveil it soon.

I'm working on a free story to go out before Stopover, which will be the story of how Craze and the other characters in the novel get to Pardeep Station. It'll be called The Backworlds and I should have the book cover and blurb ready later this week. I also started the second novel in this series, Boomtown Craze. My ideas on it are still a little fuzzy. When I have more time to devote to developing the first draft, I'm sure they'll get clearer.

3) The Augmentation of Hetty Locklear. This was my previously untitled work based on the popularity of Plantgirl [my free read]. Thank you to the Husband Unit for coming up with the awesome title. It now has a cover, and chapter one has come back from all my crit partners. I'll be attaching chapter one to the end of Plantgirl, and I'll let you know when it's up. That'll be one way to get chapter one early. The other is to sign up for my newsletter.

So, I'm really excited about this cover. Video gal and I got smarter and pick out stockart before I finish a first draft now. We pick models and art that have multiple selections. Video Gal gets annoyed if she only has one photo to create a whole video from. I do what I can to keep her happy. Anyway, we had picked our model for Hetty Locklear, and when I went to purchase one of the images to create the cover, there were a bunch of new photos. One of which was the most perfect photo for the cover ever. I was so excited. Because that never happens -- the perfect artwork.

Hetty Locklear somehow passed the initial screenings and assessment tests to land an interview. Finally. She desperately needs this job. Her internet is about to get cut off. The interview starts off terrible and never gets better yet it never occurs to her to question why she's hired. Not until it's too late.

A loner who spends most of her time in cyberspace, the new job at Willamette Research Dynamics transforms Hetty's life. No longer alone, she gains a hot boyfriend and a stalker. Some things at the new job are kind of strange though, and she finds something at work she shouldn't. A hellish experiment. She won't ever be the same.

Hetty Locklear is the first novel in a second series. Contemporary sci-fi. I will begin its polished draft when I'm done with Stopover's and have The Backworlds first draft done.

The plan is to then get a sequel out in each series by the end of 2012. Hetty Locklear is planned as a trilogy. The Backworlds series has no limits


Sometime in 2012 The Tumbas will be out in the Wandering Weeds Anthology, too.

Found two new outlets for free reads. Scribd and Feedbooks. Feedbooks has been great. Almost 200 downloads a piece for Translations and Small Graces in two weeks. Scribd is slower, but I'm still reaching new people. The more hands I can get the free reads into, the better. I updated Translations and Small Graces, attaching the first four chapters of Semper Audacia to the end. Hoping it will help generate some sales. Haven't uploaded Plantgirl yet. Waiting to attach chapter one of Hetty Locklear, then I'll upload it.

So, yes, my summer job may be over, but my schedule hasn't slowed down at all. How are things on your planet?

Giving Authors a Hand

I'm on the lovely Damyanti's blog today: Daily (w)rite

Would love to see you there if you're so inclined. :)

PMO Closed

So, yes, the observatory season ended, Saturday, October 1st. It was such a crappy day all day Saturday, we were all pretty bummed that we might not get any sky. It looked pretty darn hopeless, honestly.

The sign says closed. :-(

We got some glimpses of the Moon, and I jokingly said I'd try my Hogwarts spell [which worked once earlier in the season]. It's pretty simple. I flick the fingers of my left hand at the sky and say, "Clouds go away."

We laughed, not expecting it to work. I packed Orson Bradbury up in the car before total dark. Two of the volunteers and I shared 'Cannon', our name for the University of Oregon's 10" dobsonian telescope. Our newest volunteer entertained us with a story of a cattle mutilation he had witnessed -- which I'll tell you sometime soon -- when he was down in Arizona. He just moved up here from there and spent many years working for the National Parks. Yes, we like science, but we also share a like for weird.

Lo and behold, my spell worked. The sky cleared to almost perfection. We looked at all our favorite objects and shared them with the visitors. Our guests went home. I went into the 24 to hang and look through the big telescope the rest of the night. I fought the sleepies to stay up to see Orion and all its splendors. Well, ten minutes before it rose high enough to look at, the clouds came rolling back in. Like a huge black curtain, saying, "Good night and adieu until next May." Siiigh.

Just as sad, I had to return the magic eyepiece [the 11mm Nagler] to the kind volunteer who lent it to me for the summer. I've got to get my hands on one of those. It gave me views through my 8" dob which rivaled the 24". No lie.

At any rate, I did capture some photos of Jupiter through the 24. We didn't have a filter on, like we should have, so the glare made the pictures a bit blurrier than they otherwise might have been. Still, they're not bad. You can see Europa peeking up over Jupiter, a little left of center, looking a bit like a pimple. The red spot is also visible in the large band of red closest to Europa and just above center.

Can you believe I already miss it? I can't. I was so ready for the break, and have been going 200 mph since. Yesterday I had convinced Husband to go out with me last night, but the clear day turned into a cloudy mess. So, we didn't go out. He was able to fix my telrad, and rumor has it the holiday season could bring me a magic eyepiece of my very own. :D

Have a great weekend everybody!

Who Would Want to Write a Memoir?

In my blog travels, I stumbled upon Lisa Vaughn and her inspiring story, which she put down into a book to share with the rest of us. Bold voices and compelling stories attract me no matter what the genre. So, I begged asked Lisa to come over to Wistful Nebula for a guest post.

Who Would Want To Write A Memoir?
by Lisa Vaughn

I know what you're thinking...A narcissist? Well, maybe perhaps, but sometimes it's much more than that.

As a reader, I have always enjoyed biographies and memoirs over any other genre, I just think reality is more interesting than fiction. But before I wrote my own memoir, I never really thought, "Why"? Why would someone - who is not known in the public spotlight - want to expose their most private thoughts and intimate details of their lives? And really, who would care?

Well, now that I am added to that list of 'narcissist', I can tell you - sometimes it's not about 'you' so much as a person, as it is about 'you and the healing process', at least in my case.

I never set out to write a book, in fact it's the last thing I ever imagined. After my mother's death in 2005, I found myself dealing with a lot of 'unfinished business' that I still carried with me. In fact, I was shocked at just how much baggage I still carried! Through many long 'therapy walks' on the beach - with just me and my pent up thoughts - I started to make sense of the scattered puzzle pieces. And equally surprised to find there were more pieces in that puzzle as well,  not just my mother.  Then one random afternoon I decided to confide my story to a friend - the super secret story I held locked inside my head for so long.  Why I decided to tell her at that time, I have no idea...but I'd like to think fate, once again, nudged me. She convinced me, through a tear-soaked face, that I had a story the world needed to hear. Huh? Who...ME?

Yes, I knew my story was unique in many ways, but I hadn't hinted a word of my experiences in thirty plus years...where would I even start? Well, I started at the beginning, as they say. And once I jumped in, I swear the keyboard smoked! In less than two weeks I had my first (very rough) draft. Not only was it a chance to put all my random thoughts in black and white, turns out it was  very cathartic - and a very necessary part of my healing process. Not until I saw those words staring back at me did I realize the 'why' of it all.  And that's when I finally 'got it', which in turn allowed me to forgive and let it go...for good!  Freeing my soul of resentment and anger, allowing me to see exactly why things happened the way they did, and the reasons - but most importantly, making me realize ALL my experiences - good, bad or indifferent - actually made me the person I see standing in the mirror today. And you know what? I truly like that person...now.

So there I sat with close to 300 pages of self-discovery...what next? Actually, it was a no-brainer.  I knew it was my mission - my purpose - to get the message out there. And what better way than to publish a book?  My message? Acceptance. If I can help someone going through the same thing, or make a parent realize the damage they may be doing to their children unknowingly, then it's worth it for me to have my face behind that message, in fact I'm proud to be that messenger.  Like they say, if I can help one person, it was more than worth the trip.

So, I believe THAT is why people write memoirs, or at least it's why I wrote mine. Narcissist? Perhaps a tad, but hey, I'm a Leo, so I blame that before my memoir!

Lisa Vaughn, a self-proclamined 'hippie-chick' and freelance artist, has taken her creative voice to a whole new medium, with her memoir, The Gifted Ones. A true story of resilience that sends a strong message of acceptance and the power of love - told in a raw, honest format, much like talking to an old friend. Everyone has a story...this just happens to be hers. Lisa currently resides in Florida along with her loving husband and four cats, where she continues to create her visions of self-expression.

Author Blog-Page ~ Author Website

The Gifted Ones. Conservatively raised Catholic,Lisa,at age thirteen,would suddenly find herself on a totally different path. Through an unlikely chance meeting of a fellow classmate,she would soon find herself innocently taking their relationship to a foreign level neither saw coming...finding out what they are made of as they face the consequences and struggles that come along with going against the grain.

Available for sale at  
Amazon: Print & Kindle Version
Smashwords: All Ebook Versions


Thank you, Lisa, for stopping by and informing us on the process that goes into writing a memoir. It takes a lot of courage to write one. I have The Gifted Ones on my Nook. There's a lot we can learn about creating fictional stories from writers who share with us stories from their lives.

Cats in Space

Guest posting on the fabulous, Julie Flanders blog today, What Else Is Possible? Come over for a visit. Discussing travels with Makayla and Nini.

Susan Kaye Quinn's Open Minds launches on November 1st. If you'd like to help her out with her launch party, pop over and sign up. HERE

Also, the Husband Unit is on vacation this week, so I might not be around as much. The posts will still go off, but I might actually take a few days off. Maybe. :) If the weather's nice, I expect to explore more of the wilds of Oregon. Maybe get in some star gazing. Maybe not. I broke the telrad when unloading my telescope from the car a few weeks back, bringing it home from the observatory. The telrad is how I aim the telescope. Husband Unit is trying to fix it. I'll probably have to order a new one. I still have the original finder scope and can maybe limp along with that through the off season. We'll see.

Semper Audacia is now available on iTunes and B&N.

What's up with you guys?

Pay It Forward, Semper Audacia Winners

Paying it forward bloghop. Sponsored by Matthew MacNish and Alex J. Cavanaugh.

It's tough to pick only three. So many of you have helped give me a boost on this journey. Special thanks to Reka Sang and Loretta Stephenson for the lovely reviews. Thanks to Alex for his multiple shoutouts on his blog.

1. Lindsay Buroker
2. Francine Howarth, Romancing the Blog, Indie Book List
3. Julie Flanders

Thanks to Alex, Libby Heily, Christine Raines, Madeleine, Miranda Hardy, Nicki Elson, Jon Mac, Allan Douglas, Nancy Thompson, Reka Sang, Damyanti for roping me into a great group on Triberr, JL Campbell, Ciara Knight, Lynda R. Young, Jarrak,  Diego, and Laura Eno. The support by other writers in cyberspace is so tremendous and so appreciated. I know there are more people I need to thank, and I will by visiting your blog.

I've said before and I mean it, we are in this together. To make it on our own in any endeavor is a rare thing, even more so in this one. We need each other and each other's support. I thank each and all of you for yours.

The five winners of the free ecopies of Semper Audacia are:

1.  Melissa Bradley
2.  Madeleine of Scribble & Edit
3.  Christine Rains
4.  Shallee
5.  Tara Tyler

Are sales off the charts? Hell, no. I didn't expect them to be. I did make a start and I've made some fans. I read on a blog somewhere about how we build a beach a grain of sand at a time. So, I've started mine. I came up with some plans and have been working hard.

You all keep up building your beaches. I'll be one of your grains of sand.

COMING OF AGE AND THE QUEST TO BELONG

By Bryan Thomas Schmidt

How important is it to you to belong? The coming of age story is an age old trope that continues to fascinate. There’s something about the comfort of certainty that creates an urge in us to be certain about ourselves. Perhaps it’s because the world around us is so beyond our control and full of uncertainties, we desire a place to feel safe and in control. This also may explain why the key years of discovery in people’s lives—the teens and early twenties—are often so tumultuous, filled with experimenting, pushing boundaries, and reevaluating values and identity time and again.

In my novel, The Worker Prince, I deal with a unique kind of coming of age crisis, when the main character, raised a prince, discovers he was secretly adopted and born a worker—the people enslaved by his own. For Davi Rhii that discovery brings huge revelations. For one thing, his status as a Boralian Royal is called into question. Will his family and friends still love him when they know the truth? Even more telling, what does it mean to be a worker? Davi’s quest to answer the second questions leads to great trials and tribulations. Life for the workers is worse than he’d ever imagined. In defending them, he finds himself outcast and on the run, and is forced to reevaluate who he is and what matters to him. Will he joins their fight for freedom? The decisions he makes will change his life and the lives of others forever.

Most teens wrestling with coming of age don’t face such dramatic consequences as Davi does. But still the questions he seeks to answer and the emotions he experiences are familiar to all of us. It’s why the coming of age story remains so popular in literature of all genres. Have you ever stopped to think about who you are and how you go to be there? Have you ever asked yourself what would have happened if you’d made different decisions or gone in different directions? If so, then Davi Rhii’s journey in The Worker Prince will be familiar for you.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the newly released space opera novel The Worker Prince, the collection The North Star Serial, and has several short stories forthcoming in anthologies and magazines. He’s also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter. He can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Excerpts from The Worker Prince can be found on his blog.

The Worker Prince can be purchased HERE.
Thanks to Bryan for this great post. It is intriguing to contemplate where in life I could have decided differently. Tomorrow, Bryan and his Worker Prince tour will be at Gene Doucette http://genedoucette.me/ 

It's Monday I'm in Love

I'm guest posting over at J.D. Brown's today, talking about love as an essential element in all fiction and all characters. Come on over and join me. An Author's Blog About Writing.

Thanks to all of you helping me launch Semper Audacia. You're all so fabulous. It was just accepted into the premium catalog by Smashwords, so will be showing up at iTunes and B&N shortly.

Thanks to The Capillary for the Versatile Blogger Award.

And here's Nini reading Julie Flanders' article in Cat Fancy. Yea, Julie! Makayla ran away before I could make her pose, too. Julie blogs at What Else is Possible and The Pet Parent Diaries.

To FREE, or not to FREE, that is the question

Today, I'm pleased to feature an article by Mark Souza. A fellow Pacific Northwest writer and a great Twitter pal.

To FREE, or not to FREE, that is the question.

 by Mark Souza

Whether ‘tis nobler..., eh, far enough with that analogy. I, as a writer, reached that point thousands of others have before me, and thousands more will soon. I put my first work up for sale in the ever broadening veldt of ePublishing. I floundered at first, as most will, trying to learn the ins and outs of ePublishing and eBook formatting. I learned much and made mistakes along the way others can learn from.

The initial successes of my relatively short writing career have centered on short stories. During the last two years, I sold over two dozen that have appeared in various anthologies. While I have been toiling away on a novel, the rights to some of these stories have reverted back to me, and I made the decision to market them as singles as a way to introduce myself to readers before my novel releases in 2012. I started with the first short story I ever sold for print, Cupid’s Maze, with another five stories to follow shortly after.

This was good practice to learn a thing or two about eBook formatting and how to work with the major eBook retailers. I figured the experience would benefit my novel. I concentrated my initial efforts on the biggest eBook retailer, Amazon. That was my first mistake. How, you might ask? Though I learned how to create an HTML version that renders fairly well on the Kindle (could never get photos or graphics to render), and learned some of the formatting bugaboos that can kill an eBook, when I was ready to launch, up popped the question about what the price of my book would be. Amazon requires a minimum price of 99 cents, so that’s what I selected. My objective at this point is to get my work into as many hands as possible and win fans.

Over the weeks, I watched sales trickle in - no, trickle is too generous. It implies flow. There was no flow. There were a couple sales right away - droplets. Then nothing. A week later, another. Then nothing. Perhaps casting a broader net was the answer. I next uploaded Cupid’s Maze to Barnes & Noble, or tried to. Its release status is still pending weeks later.

Smashwords was another outlet I was familiar with. I always thought of them as the goofy second cousin everyone has heard about but never met; another of my mistakes. But still, the goal was to cast as broad a net as possible and Smashwords was another outlet. While I researched how to upload my work there, I came across their style guide. What a gem that is. If you plan to sell an eBook, go to Smashwords and download their style guide now - unless you’re a masochist and like avoidable pain. Not only does it cost nothing, it tells you how to avoid formatting gremlins that will ruin the appearance of your eBook, it gives great advice on making the reading experience better for your readers, and advice how to better market yourself within your book. GET THE SMASHWORDS STYLE GUIDE.

One of the topics in Smashwords’ author resources is whether or not to give away free material. After reading the article, I determined that in my case, free was the perfect price. I am a relatively new author without a defined readership trying to introduce readers to my work. As my sales, or lack of them, on Amazon showed, even 99 cents can be an impediment for an unknown author. I want readers, not nickels and dimes. By the time my novel comes out, I want people to know who I am.

After reformatting the Cupid’s Maze.doc file per the style guide and uploading to Smashwords, 60 copies of Cupid’s Maze were downloaded in the first eight hours. Not only that, but the Smashwords’ Meat Grinder generated files in various formats compatible with every retailer and eReader device out there. When I downloaded the Cupid’s Maze.mobi file to my Kindle, lo and behold, it rendered my author’s photo perfectly, a feat I had never managed in my own formatting attempts.

After a little more researching, I discovered Smashwords is not the goofy second cousin of ePublishing, it’s the industry leader. For while more people may go to Amazon to download their eBooks, the eBook’s being downloaded may likely have come from Smashwords. You see, if you follow the Smashwords style guide and your book qualifies for the Smashwords Premium Package (free), Smashwords will distribute your eBook to the major retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple, Borders Australia, and many more. And that little minimum pricing issue with Amazon and Barnes & Noble? If you price your book at $0.00 (free) on Smashwords, it will be free when it hits the major eBook retailers. It’s the only way to this that I know of.

So back to that question: to FREE, or not to FREE? Go to the Smashwords site, peruse the information they make available to authors, and make your own decision based on what your objectives are. Smashwords will be there to support you either way. And while there, download your free copy of Cupid’s Maze (and the style guide).

About the Author

Mark Souza lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, two children, and mongrel beast-dog, Tater. When he’s not writing, he’s out among you trying to look and act normal (whatever that is), reminding himself that the monsters he’s created are all in his head, no more real than campaign promises.

Out There on a Tight Rope

So here it is, the day after my first big release on Amazon. Because of so many of you wonderful folks, I'm not as nervous or worried as much as I otherwise would be. So, thanks to all of you for that, and a million times over.

Some local writer friends were trying to convince me recently that blogs are a waste of time. They quoted some studies or whatnot. All, well and fine, and I understand their need to feel they're not missing out by not blogging. They are missing out though. This is a fabulous opportunity to network, help other writers who send out an SOS, make friends and learn. Where else is there an Insecure Writers group? Only here in bloggyland.

I confess to some feelings of anxiety and insecurity, despite my bluster above. My dream is to write stories and publish them. I want to keep doing it, and I hope I will. I hope some people will like what I do as much as I enjoy creating my works. So many, many hopes. Like submitting, it's hope mixed with trying not to expect too much. So, I chew on my lip and hold my breath. I took that leap and there's no going back. I must keep moving forward. Must. Anyone want to clutch hands?

What has your stomach in knots?

Major thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting this group.

Semper Audacia is Out!

Party! Today is a party. Celebrating my publication of the space opera novelette, Semper Audacia.

I am extremely proud of this story. It's about loneliness, fortitude, courage, overcoming insurmountable obstacles, love and heroism. It may be set in outer space, but the core of the story is very human.

And that's not all you get, attached to the end are the first three chapters of Stopover at the Backworlds' Edge. Also a space opera. It's the first in a series about engineered humans scraping out a living on the galactic frontier. I'm aiming to have it out by the end of 2011, early 2012 at the latest.

Available from Amazon, AmazonUK, AmazonDE and Smashwords. Coming soon to B&N and iTunes. A bargain at only 99 cents.

For coming to the party, I have favors. I'm giving away 5 copies of Semper Audacia. Leave a comment below. It's an ebook, so everyone can enter.

What you can do to help a struggling author make a start: Tweet the links on Amazon and/or Smashwords, talk about Semper on your blog, leave a review on Amazon, Smashwords, and/or Goodreads, hit the FB 'like' on Amazon and Smashwords, ask me to do a guest post, download the book.

No matter how a writer comes to this moment, the moment of publication, it is a thrilling one. And we sure don't get here alone, and we don't keep going alone. Sincere thanks to all of you. Couldn't do it without you.

Nini and Kayla [my cats, but probably really the Husband Unit] will draw the names and I'll announce the winners on Friday, October 14th.

Party!