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?
