A Quickshot for #PrideMonth #scifirom

As it's Pride Month and I'm busy both in real life and fiction right now, I thought I'd follow suit with my fellow crewmembers at Spacefreighters. So here's an excerpt from my SFR Galaxy Award winning scifi romance short Quickshot, featuring my trigger-happy, bi heroine Sal...

Sal stared at the multi-colored data streaming across her status display, using one foot to rock herself in her seat.

“Hey.”

Sal spun, double-barreled blasters in both hands. The dark-skinned beauty leaning through the hatch threw up both hands in surrender. “Whoa, t’hani!”

Damn. Sal sucked in a breath, lifting her fingers from the triggers and pointing her guns upward. “Sorry. Guess I’m still twitchy.”

“That’s more than twitchy.” Dela scowled, wrapping her shaking arms around herself. “One day you’ll blow someone’s head off. And I don’t want it to be me.”

“It won’t.” Sal forced herself to holster the guns even though every instinct in her body wanted her to keep hold of them. She slid from her chair, and had Dela in her arms faster than the woman could raise an objection. Dela’s heart pounded against Sal’s chest, a perfect match to the racing of her own pulse. She’d almost shot her lover, damn it. Why couldn’t she stop the automatic response to grab her weapon when startled? She held Dela tight as if clinging to her last hope.

Dela sighed. “Sal, I’m not Ehi. If you keep pulling weapons on me, more than my pride will get hurt.”

She’s right. “I know. I just—”

“Forgot I was onboard?”

“Yeah. I mean no. I mean—”

“Forget it.” Dela shoved away and stalked off, Sal in pursuit.

“Deh...” She caught her arm and turned the slight woman toward her. Away from the lights of the control room, Dela was almost invisible, except for the luminous amber eyes currently glaring at Sal fit to scorch her.

“Dela.” Sal softened and lowered her voice in the way she knew made Dela weak at the knees, and her lover quivered in response. Sal smiled and brushed her fingers lightly along Dela’s arms, feeling the goosebumps rise on the flawless skin. “Let me make it up to you, t’hani.”

For an instant the woman wavered, and Sal’s pulse quickened, an ache already spreading from her groin. Then Dela shook off her hand.

“No. You’ve pulled those pistols on me once too often, and there aren’t enough orgasms in the universe worth being shot in the head for.” Dela walked away.

Frustrated, angry at herself and now horny as Hades, Sal slouched back into the control room. She groaned as she slid into her pilot’s seat, considering some self-maintenance to ease the ache in her lower regions.

“Approaching drop out.” The soft voice of the ship’s computer stalled even that release.

Sal groaned again. “Let Dela know.” Once they hit port Sal could heal the breach by plying Dela with whatever she wanted. Maybe a bolt of those bright fabrics Dela adored, or a crate of her favorite tea that was so frigging hard to get hold of. Sal had contacts who could find those kind of things. She might even get lucky in bed tonight...

Find your retailer: Books2Read

Sal, a legal carrier (just about) of whatever comes her way, puts her trust in just two things: her guns.

Keeping out from under Imperium eyes—especially those belonging to a certain Ehi Wahu—while making a living, and trying to keep a lover who can tolerate her twitchy trigger fingers, are the extent of her ambitions. 

Then a kiss from a passing stranger, and a promise of the biggest score in a long time, tempt her. Devin fulfils more than one need, but he comes with more trouble than one woman can handle. And this time it'll take more than her guns to save her. She'll have to trust a man again.

WARNING: for over 18s only. Adult content including sex, bad language, & implied extreme violence.
A SFR Galaxy Award winner for Grittiest Hot & Fast Story. Buy now for just 99 cents!

Happy Beltane, Marvellous May & #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2 #scifi #romance

Today marks Beltane, halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, when the beginning of summer is marked by burning fires. While I don't believe in astrology, I'm a fire sign myself and certainly had an obsession with lighting fires as a child (though very carefully so I didn't become an arsonist, even accidentally!).

The elements of fire and water often show up in my writing too. In the Christmas story I wrote for Keir and Quin, Keir mentions a tradition of keeping a candle burning throughout the winter to encourage the sun to come back after the months of darkness, or homes decorated with fire symbols or red, yellow and orange ribbons to represent flames.

For me it marks another change in the year - the coming of summer, of longer days, and when I was a child the endless summer holiday between July and September where I would essentially run free for seven weeks in the fields behind our house or along the country lanes. Now it marks seven weeks of trying to find entertainment for my three monsters (though not so much for the older two now, in their teens or approaching them and with a social life way more complex and busy than mine), and hubs taking a couple of weeks off work to join us, and birthdays for myself and oldest. But until then, it's another point of expected change in the yearly calendar.

This May marks my fifth year as a published author and a fifth book anniversary for my debut novel Keir. It feels like a very long time but doesn't sound it so much, especially as not too long ago five years could be a mere blip in traditional publishing. I struck exceptionally lucky in only taking two years from completing my novel to its first publication, and with my debut too.

So this year I'm going to celebrate the landmark with a special giveaway in collaboration with Hoot and Luna. It'll open on the 7th of May and run until the end of the month. And what can you win? A pair of custom made dragonscale gloves, in Keir blue. :P To be notified of the contest opening, you could sign up to my email HERE, or for a bonus book you can enter my new Instafreebie giveaway HERE (which requires a sign up to my newsletter to enter).

There will also be two Instafreebie events in May, which will also be in my newsletter and posted here, plus a Solstice SFR Sale in June. That should give you lots of opportunities to stock up your ereaders with yummy SFR for your summer reads!

Guardians of the Galaxy 2
I didn't realize until I'd already seen it last Friday that the US isn't getting Guardians 2 until the 5th of May. I'm so sorry! But rest assured you won't get any spoilers from me. I can tell you that it is totally AWSOME! I wasn't expecting too much since sequels have a hard time being up to the standard of the first, but film 2 rocks. You will laugh. You will cry. You will be somewhat horrified and still laughing. You will die of the cute. And if you're lucky, you'll have a crowd like the one in my cinema, who cheered and applauded at the end like it was a party. Tip: watch the credits until the very, very end - I mean right up to the final logo! And don't just watch - read. There are all kinds of little treats all the way through. Take tissues. And don't feel bad at laughing at some of the horrifying bits. If taking kids under ten, be warned - though the violence and humour is about the same level as the first, there are a lot of body parts mentioned that you might not want your younger offspring repeating in the playground next day, and if they're particularly sensitive to death you might want to check the film beforehand to decide if they can handle it. And that's all I'm saying!

Status Update

I won Camp NaNo! Although I ended up having to include my revisions on Keir's Shadow to make up the word count, the edits on Reunion and Revived are complete. Well, ish. There's still some tweaking required but the bulk of them is done and they aren't due to my editor until June, so I still have time. However, I have a third novella that needs completing to get to my other editor by the same point in time, so there's no room for slacking!
I also completed the Tauriel cosplay, but I won't/can't be posting the details at my Tumblr blog as I still have a redesign to finish. So here's a piccie of it in its full glory.

This now means moving onto the Witch-King costume for my 12yo, including some complicated fake metalwork. Fun!
Here in the UK, it's a Bank Holiday today for May Day, so I'll be off out with my monsters. In the meantime, a few pics of our latest walk, through some bluebell woods. No chooks this week as the chilly weather has left them tucked away in their coop, sorry!

A Blast From Quickshot #spaceopera #excerpt

Happy Valentine's Day! It's Spring half term holiday in the UK (already!) which means I'm taking a week out with my monsters. So just a quick excerpt from my recent SFR Galaxy Award winner Quickshot to entertain you this week: and in contrast to celebrating a day for lovers, this particular blind dinner date is not going well. Enjoy!

Dinner was the best she’d had in forever. She hadn’t eaten seafood since leaving her home planet. True, it wasn’t as good as the fish gumbo her adoptive parents had made, but the shrimp still tasted of the sea, and Cheery’s hot sauce hid the aftertaste typical of space-shipped food. And with her second triple shot already half consumed, it was looking like a good evening.

Then a man slid into her booth, put one arm around her shoulder and ran his other hand up her thigh while whispering desperately in her ear. “Please. Pretend you know me for the next five minutes.”

Rage hotter than Cheery’s sauce exploded inside her, along with the overwhelming relief of finally having an outlet for her fury.

The next instant, the interloper had the separate barrels of one double blaster either side of his throat so that her fist rested hard against his Adams apple.

“Um.” The not quite a word came out like a whimper as he put his hands in the air.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t spatter your feeble sack of brains against the wall behind you?” she growled. She felt him gulp, his throat moving against her knuckles.

“Because I’ll...pay you? Lots?” Large, semi-translucent shades curved to fit his face hid the color of his eyes, but she saw him blink rapidly as she pushed the gun a little harder into his flesh. “Or, if you wait a few seconds, the local authorities can save you the bother.”

His eyes flicked to the right, and she warily followed suit, leaning ever so slightly around the edge of her booth. Not Imperium rezzers as she’d feared, but the local patroni were indeed at the door, and she didn’t owe them any favors. Mind you, she owed this feck more than a slap after he’d touched her without permission or even an introduction. But she was cargo-less right now, badly in need of the work, and he’d mentioned payment.

She eased off a fraction. “How much to not kill you?”

“Whatever you want. Anything at all.” He said it with such sincerity, his breathing so ragged, that, for an instant, Sal imagined him under her, tied to her bed, naked. The light tan skin at the unbuttoned collar of his shirt was sheened in sweat.

###

Sal, a legal carrier (just about) of whatever comes her way, puts her trust in just two things: her guns.

Keeping out from under Imperium eyes—especially those belonging to a certain Ehi Wahu—while making a living, and trying to keep a lover who can tolerate her twitchy trigger fingers, are the extent of her ambitions. 

Then a kiss from a passing stranger, and a promise of the biggest score in a long time, tempt her. Devin fulfils more than one need, but he comes with more trouble than one woman can handle. And this time it'll take more than her guns to save her. She'll have to trust a man again.

WARNING: for over 18s only. Adult content including sex, bad language, & implied extreme violence.

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon | Smashwords
iBooks | Kobo | B&N

I Like Big Guns & I Cannot Lie - Quickshot Teaser #spaceopera

While the thought of actual, real life guns scares me, the same cannot be said for scifi and fantasy weapons. Gimme those by the box full! I have a small, ornamental metal sword that served as a full size version when I was a child. I have the Special FX Luke's Lightsabre on display in my bedroom, and at Christmas hubs bought me Starlord's Quad Blaster from Guardians of the Galaxy (the NERF version, which I regularly use it to zap my little monsters. They, too, have several NERF Star Wars guns, while eldest has a NERF Rebelle bow and giant SF blaster with a multitude of loud sound effects).
And it was partly Starlord that inspired my character Sal for Quickshot (which released last Thursday. Woot!). Sal loves her guns. They're the only things she feels she can rely on, having been betrayed big style by her former lover and let down by subsequent ones. She's also a bit trigger-happy. Well, more than a bit...

Several weapons clicked off safety and whined into pre-blast life.

“Well,” Sal drawled, “isn’t this fun?” She had her gun to the head of the patroni who’d been foolish enough to touch her, while his two companions had firearms aimed at her. To her surprise, her new friend grabbed her spare gun and covered one of them. The odds were still against them, but only by one weapon. And the patroni only had stunners. Hers were the instant death kind. No second chances. She was that kind of a girl.

“Put down your weapons,” ordered the guy who’d grabbed her.

“You first.”

“Stop this at once.” A patroni standing further back out of the line of fire spoke, and Sal picked up the tone of authority. He had a silent air of command that Sal recognized. This man was ex-military, and either drafted into the local patroni unwillingly or just eking out his time until retirement.

Sal took a gamble and holstered her gun. Her new companion followed, but with a slowness stating he wasn’t happy about putting his weapon away.

The boss patroni nodded approval and gestured at his crew to stand down.

“Sir, she pulled a weapon on us first.”

“She also put it down first. Don’t make this more than it is, Senet.”

Grumbling, the man obeyed with a glare that said he’d be more than willing to make a bigger deal of it if Sal just gave him an excuse. She stared back, a deliberate smirk on her face. I’m not that stupid...

***

Quickshot is now available to download in multiple digital formats at reputable online retailers.

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon | ARe | Smashwords
iTunes | Kobo | B&N

Sal, a legal carrier (just about) of whatever comes her way, puts her trust in just two things: her guns. 

Keeping out from under Imperium eyes—especially those belonging to a certain Ehi Wahu—while making a living, and trying to keep a lover who can tolerate her twitchy trigger fingers, are the extent of her ambitions.

Then a kiss from a passing stranger, and a promise of the biggest score in a long time, tempt her. Devin fulfils more than one need, but he comes with more trouble than one woman can handle. And this time it'll take more than her guns to save her. She'll have to trust a man again.

***

Status Update

It's the second week of my now traditional school holiday break from the internet. See you next week!

Fast and Dangerous - A Quickshot Teaser #spaceopera #scifi #romance

I'm taking my now traditional break from social media while my monsters are on their school holiday...and I chose this time to release a new title. Crazy, huh? Anyway, Quickshot releases in just two days so I thought I'd share an excerpt this week and next to celebrate, and to cover my time away. In this snippet, Sal's newest passenger is somewhat disappointed by his first view of the transportation. Guess he should have checked before booking, right? Enjoy!

“This is your ship?” The disgust in his voice irritated her. Yeah, the Barony Bitch was ugly but it was all she’d been able to afford after losing all her assets. And the ship was fast and dangerous. Just like Sal.

“Problem?”

“I just thought she’d be prettier. Like her captain.”

Sal resisted the urge to shove him up against the bulkhead and beat some manners into him. “That’s fucking patronizing. What kind of idiot judges on looks alone?”

“The kind of idiot who will pay a stranger anything she wants for safe passage?”

He has a point.

“She’s faster than she looks,” Sal muttered as they walked up the entry ramp and boarded.

“Like her owner. Tell me, do you always draw first? You’ve never thought about conversation?”

“I find that guns are a simpler solution. Cuts out a lot of unnecessary small talk.” Sal put emphasis on the last couple of words in the hope he’d take the hint.

“So I guess sparkling conversation is off the menu for our trip.”

“Yep. Other than about what you’re paying me.” They reached the control deck and Sal slid into the pilot’s seat with a sigh. It would be good to get out into the quiet emptiness of space.

Her passenger took the spare seat. “Like I said, name your price. You saved my neck, and I kinda value that.”

Sal eyed him up. He was well dressed in leatherine leggings, a pale cream shirt down to mid hip and a long jacket in a mid-weight black fabric. None of it brand new, but not worn or dirty. The leather boots covering his lower legs to his knees had some wear, so either he wore them all the time or he walked a lot. His physique said walking, being as he had none of the flabbiness from soft living. If she was honest, he was kind of on the skinny side for her tastes. She preferred her men broad and packed with muscle, and her women full bodied with generous curves. His accent and attitude said money. His smooth face said laser treatment or a daily de-follicle wash. No scent enhancers, but he didn’t stink either. No calluses or scarring on his hands, so combat or hard manual labor were unlikely. She didn’t much like the fact he’d still kept his shades up. How much to ask for?

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon | ARe | Smashwords
iTunes | Kobo | B&N

Sal, a legal carrier (just about) of whatever comes her way, puts her trust in just two things: her guns. 

Keeping out from under Imperium eyes—especially those belonging to a certain Ehi Wahu—while making a living, and trying to keep a lover who can tolerate her twitchy trigger fingers, are the extent of her ambitions.

Then a kiss from a passing stranger, and a promise of the biggest score in a long time, tempt her. Devin fulfils more than one need, but he comes with more trouble than one woman can handle. And this time it'll take more than her guns to save her. She'll have to trust a man again.

***

Status Update

Quickshot releases in just two days. Woot! In the meantime, I'm taking a nice break with my monsters and hopefully catching up on my TBR pile. See you in two weeks!

The #Kobo #Review Fail

Although Amazon is the big cheese in book publishing/selling, I'll say right off it isn't perfect. It is not the author's best friend. The recent scandal about Kindle Unlimited (go HERE and HERE, but keep an eye on your blood pressure if you get through both AND the comments) and the top new releases show how scammers are taking as yet unpunished advantage of Amazon, and the continually diminishing payments in KU with its demand for exclusivity have put my hackles up. That said, it is still the marketplace that pays me most.

And let's face it, there's no serious competition. Other retailers have been slow to adopt the often groundbreaking methods of Zon to provide an exceptional service to readersr. 1-Click purchasing to get a book straight on your Kindle, a loaning system that works for readers (but not necessarily so great for authors these days), a straight forward, easy option for authors to publish ebooks and print (it's the one platform where I NEVER have an issue with uploading or formatting) - yep, Amazon has a lot to offer. B&N have clearly given up, with their latest decision to withdraw from the UK. The Smashwords interface and Meatgrinder continues to suck. I've pulled my books from Google Play because of their random, unexplained and no-warning price changes that can affect my book prices elsewhere. I don't understand the All Romance eBook rebate thing, and I don't sell anything there. I only get sales from iTunes via D2D - not having a Mac or an Apple account makes them unfathomable to me.

The only real alternative I see to Amazon right now is Kobo, and I do still have my issues there as an author. At this moment I also have an issue with Kobo as a reader, and it's one that affects authors too. Authors love and want reviews, right? But what happens when Kobo rejects your review and won't tell you why?

I don't know about most people (when I posted about the problem on Facebook most didn't even know you could post reviews on Kobo. Now that's another problem for a start) but I've now wasted a lot of time on this issue and made zip progress. So I'm about to give up. I've wasted precious time, and an author whose book I enjoyed is missing out on a review. This has been ongoing for over two weeks now.

So, my issue with Kobo?
1. Their 'guidelines' - listed as review writing tips - are vague and no help in identifying exactly what triggered the rejection. Plus you can only find those when actually writing a review (at least, after searching Help and looking around their website, that's the only way I could find them. Please point out my blindness if that's wrong).
2. When I finally got someone to talk to me via email (after several auto responses and invitations to 'chat' - no. I don't chat. I want email) they gave me their more specific but internal review guidelines...which still didn't tell me what the actual issue was.
3. After removing three things I thought might be triggering the rejection, resubmitting, and hearing nothing for over a week, another rejection. Bearing in mind I've posted other similar reviews before and since, AND at all the other retailers (including Amazon who can be temperamental and random with review deletions) without ANY issues.
4. Their appalling lack of a decent 'contact us'. A form for reporting ereader faults only is...unhelpful.
5. Their Twitter account @KoboHelp was way more responsive...but after discussing it up to and including sending them my actual review, they went silent. I've messaged them again twice. I got one reassurance that they were looking into it the first time. Then nothing.

So here's the review that posted everywhere else, and the crossed out bits are what I cut from the edited review that I submitted (and that also got rejected), with the new sections in blue. Can anyone tell me what's getting it booted? (PS, this is taken from the Goodreads version where the spoiler is hidden-for the retailers, the hide option is not available so the spoiler is in full).

Please excuse the peculiar phrasing which is due to Kobo's oversensitive review algorithms.
What I liked:
Grab some tissues and hold on tight! This final installment packs some serious emotional punch (one reason I generally go for SFR over straight SF, but here you get it without the romance), as well as a real adrenaline-laced ride through violence, more betrayal, sacrifice, and emotional awakenings. Basically all hell breaks loose. I finally forgave Caleb for being such a jerk as this a-hole twat of a reluctant hero has finally turned himself around from someone I hoped would die long before the end of the series to one I could cheer and feel for. Clean, crisp and gritty writing, with a couple of good twists towards the end, plus a satisfactory conclusion that wraps up the four books but leaves intriguing openings for more. Frankly I would love more of One's adventures, but could let Caleb fly off into the sunset because I can only see him reverting after all the character growth in the four books (and I don't want to see that).

What I didn't like:
*spoiler alert! Don't read this section if you don't want the ending given away* 

[Well. It's a minor niggle, but the ending didn't sit entirely right with me. I think it's more because I'm perfectly willing to kill all my characters at the end of a non-romance, so maybe I expect other authors to do it (and there's really no reason why they should!). And the vague hints of romance/light romantic elements throughout weren't exactly resolved either - there's still an opening there for potential future books. Maybe I'm just too set into the SciFi romance groove to accept a non-romance ending when I felt the story was heading that way. That said, it wasn't enough to even justify taking off a half star, and didn't spoil my overall enjoyment.]

In conclusion:

I feel like One ripped out my heart and squished it, before giving me a hug! This was a seriously good conclusion to the series, and a real tear-jerker, as well as providing some dark, acidic humor and high-adrenaline action. Those hoping for a romantic ending might be disappointed, but for fans of scifi action adventure who aren't offended by the sex explicit bedroom scenes and foul language, this is perfection. Recommended for those who like Firefly/Farscape certain space opera series starting with F.

Full disclosure: I received a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

###

Any ideas? Maybe the full disclosure thing? IDK.

Update: I received this via Twitter -

"Thank you for your continued patience. We have reached out to our web team and it would seem that this is currently a known issue. Unfortunately, until this is resolved you may continue to have issues submitting your review without it being denied. This is a system issue but please note that we are working adamantly to resolve it."

I'm guessing that means there's a problem with their automated system and perhaps not the review itself after all, but I'm not really all that much the wiser so I said so -

"It seems that quite a few reviews are being automatically rejected by the system. We are looking into this matter and working to resolve it. We apologize that you believed our team was rejecting your post..."

So there you go. I've still waiting for two further Kobo reviews to go live (I uploaded them before the second rejection) but they could get caught in this problem, and repeatedly rejected too. I'll let you know. But your best option if you want to talk to Kobo is very clearly the Twitter account.

Status Update

I'm pushing to get the revisions done on Reunion by the end of this week as my monsters break up for the spring holiday on Thursday and I'll be taking my usual social media/work respite. The release date is still 21st May, but the sheer amount of words I've had to add so far (almost 10K) is starting to scare me!

I'm also signed up to edit my June project for this April's Camp NaNoWrimo. I need deadlines! Another downside of being indie is I don't work well to deadlines I set myself, not even release dates. If anyone would like to volunteer to stand over me with a cattle-prod to get things done, I can pay in cookies...

Quickshot releases in just 9 days! If you haven't pre-ordered it, you can find it at all the links below the cover. With the scandal over KU I decided to pull it from Amazon exclusivity and go wide, and finished uploading it to other retailers last week (phew!).

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon | ARe | Smashwords
iTunes | Kobo | B&N

Restless In Peaceville (my YA paranormal with zombies) and When Dark Falls (my dieselpunk superhero romance) are now both out of KU and back up at most retailers (I think I'm just waiting on B&N for Restless. As per usual). This means you can't borrow my books anywhere at this point in time. I'm sorry about that. The KU system sucks for me, and nowhere else is currently offering a subscription service that works. If you want to read my books for free, I can only suggest signing up as a reviewer at Manic Readers or The Romance Reviews site - I'm currently updating and reloading my titles there and added Quickshot and Keir's Fall - or my YA works (currently excluding Gethyon) are available at YA Insider.

AND Keir's Fall is currently up at NetGalley to read and review for free HERE. Working for a review site is a fantastic way to get books for free without using pirate sites, harming authors and opening your computer to viruses or getting your financial info hacked.

Happenings

The Little Things Blog Hop is in full swing until the end of March. Over 100 participating authors and over 50 prized to be won! Click the banner to visit my post on the hop and find the link to the next.

From next week I'm taking a two week break as my monsters are on holiday, so my next two posts will be on automatic as I share some info and excerpts from Quickshot. Enjoy!

Another Change Of Plans #KindleUnlimited #publishing #scifi #romance

Last week I posted about why I was leaving Kindle Unlimited, although I still planned to launch my upcoming release via KU and was considering leaving When Dark Falls in it as the one and only title that actually get borrows.

And then another explosion. Word on how KU is being exploited big style by some authors broke on the internet. Worse still, they aren't the ones that Amazon is targeting. Authors who've done nothing more than put their ToC at the back of their books were being threatened with removal while those who are artificially inflating their page count and pages read to rip off the KU system are untouched. For those curious you can go read the comprehensive post by David Gaughran HERE. Honestly, I can't bring myself to read any more about it.

So this weekend I pulled Quickshot from KU. I'm sorry if you planned to borrow it on release at the end of this month, but I've totally had it. Everything is going wide, and will stay there until I hear something about Amazon fixing this latest issue (and maybe not even then for the reasons mentioned in my previous post). Restless In Peaceville and When Dark Falls will come out of KU by the end of next weekend and go wide again.

Publishing is soooo much fun. :P In brighter news...

Happenings

On Thursday I'm taking part in the Little Things Blog Hop Giveaway.

Keir's Fall is currently up at NetGalley to read and review for free HERE.

I'm at Romancing the Genres on Friday with a post about my real life hero that has inspired all of those in my books. Bet you can't guess who!

Status Update
Do you need me to say it? Reunion is still in revisions. The June project is in first round edits but as in I'm actually doing some rather than it just sitting on my laptop. I've now got to get Quickshot up for pre-order at other retailers since I've pulled it from KU.

Chook Update
The four new girls are settling in and not allowing the odd peck from the originals to put them off taking full advantage of the coop and run now.

Fizzgig

Kyru

Effie

Front to back: Rush, Pitch, Spaghetti and Fizzgig

And on a related topic, we have our first frogspawn in the pond! I've also fished some out and put it in a tank indoors for my monsters to watch the transformation. They've done it at school before, but this is our own pond, and frankly even at my age I still find it fascinating.

Have a good week!

The #KindleUnlimited Conundrum (again)

And here we are, March already. The year is whizzing past (no complaint from me just yet as we speed into spring and say goodbye to the cold weather and shorter days). And as we go into March, those titles I had in Kindle Unlimited are coming back out (in fact, one already is as of 20th February).

A Superhero Romance Novella
Goodreads | Amazon inc KU
Print edition:
Amazon | CreateSpace | B&N
The Book Depository

A YA Zombie Novella
Goodreads | Available from...
Amazon inc. KU

                                                                                             

I have had such mixed feelings over KU, and mixed experiences. Last June I blogged about why I was taking my short stories out of it for good. Shortly after I put two of my novellas previously with Breathless Press into KU because they just weren't selling. Out of the two, one is regularly borrowed but not in significant numbers. It also doesn't seem to have got my work any more visible.

So this year I decided I was going to take my remaining titles out of KU, though initially so that I could put them all back in together in March to tie in with my next release - hot space opera short Quickshot - which I'd decided to start off as an Amazon exclusive. I wanted everything scheduled to be on the same time scale for KU. But then Amazon made more changes. Every month the payment fund for KU pages read has been going down. And last month they changed the page count for Kindle books, mostly cutting them. So now not only do I get less per page read, but according to Amazon I now have less pages in those books. It sucks.

I've never liked the whole exclusivity thing, which is why I've kept some titles wide. I know Amazon punishes those NOT exclusive by making their titles less visible. But when the terms for KU are constantly paying less and less for borrows, I no longer see any benefit in it. Quickshot is going Amazon exclusive for its launch as an experiment, but it'll go wide when the 90 days are up. My series books will always go wide. While Amazon accounts for about 90% of my sales and going wide will mean them making me less visible, I refuse to be paid less and less for my books. I'm not anti-Amazon, but I can see where this is heading, and I'm not playing any more.

Even though being exclusively self published means I now earn more per month than with a publisher, it's still not a basic wage. For those curious, I currently get about $40 a month (instead of per quarter, which was the most I ever earned with a publisher). That's not even a living wage, just a dollar a day. Certainly not a good return on the hours I put into each book, or the edits and cover art that's done for them! So I am job hunting later this year with the hope of being back to work in 2017. If working six hours a day, five days a week during term time isn't paying me a basic wage, then it's time to leave. Writing will go back to being a hobby as and when I can fit it in. I think I came into publishing about a decade too late.

This is not a call for sympathy or a rant. Just reality. Maybe I'm not doing enough to promote myself, but I've done what I can and it hasn't worked out. I love writing and I'd like to keep publishing, but I need to be contributing to my household and family, and writing ain't doing it. I'm proud of what I've achieved, so I have no regrets there. I just wish it was making me a decent wage.

So Quickshot will release Amazon exclusive at the end of this month, and stay there for 90 days to buy and to borrow. Then it'll go wide. My last scheduled release for this year will be Reunion in May, which will go wide right from the start. After that, the third book for Keir will release in 2017. I can't promise anything else...

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon inc KU 

Status Update

This is how I currently feel with my revisions and editing.


via GIPHY

Reunion is still in revision. I came down with a sore throat and earache at the end of last week, courtesy of the germs my little monsters bring home from school, and it's made me even less enthusiastic about working at the moment. I hope to finish this week though.
I have opened and begun edits on the June project, but only a handful of corrections at the moment, just as a break from Reunion. It's not top priority at the moment.
I also rewrote the ending to my Rebecca finalist Revived...for the third time. Or is it the fourth? I've lost track. I'm hoping I might be able to release it later this year, depending on finances and my editor's work schedule.

Chook Update
Our four new girls now all have names! From left to right we have Pitch, Fizzgig, Spaghetti, and Effie.

Ping Pong
Congrats to Laurie on becoming a full time author at last! Enjoy!

Pippa Jay signing off...

The Problem with POC Characters #amwriting #scifi #romance

Now, before you think this is some kind of complaint against POC characters, bear with me. It isn't. But it'll take me a while to get to the point.

Back in the summer of 2014, I went to see a film at the cinema a record three times (well, a record for me. I only saw Return of the Jedi twice because my local cinema did a special re-run of the whole trilogy when I was a teen - I was too young to see the first two at the cinema when they originally released). The film was Guardians of the Galaxy. I. LOVED IT! So it wasn't especially deep or thought provoking or hard scifi, but it was fun, spectacular, funny - for me, all round entertaining with explosions, spaceships, aliens, a kickass heroine looking for redemption and a reluctant, somewhat klutzy hero. Perfection! Aside from the problems with getting Gamora merchandise (oh, Disney, really...), I didn't have a single complaint about the entire thing (apart from that killer opening scene, which I now skip every time).

By Source, Fair use,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42775479

And it inspired me to write a story. I wanted to write a heroine based on Starlord, and what's more a POC heroine. At the time I'd planned to do it as a novel...eventually. But I was already busy preparing Keir for re-release in 2015, and was in the midst of a chaotic and demanding schedule of edits, tours and releases for five titles with my now ex-publishers Breathless and Lycaon. I just didn't have time to get sucked into a novel, so I tapped down a few notes that looked suspiciously like an outline (nope, not me, I'm a pantser, NO outlining!!) I put it aside and got back to work.

Then I spotted a scifi romance anothology call - Touch the Stars. I really wanted to submit to it, but I didn't have time to start something from scratch. What I did have was a 3K sketch of a potential novel.

Lightbulb! It wouldn't take much work to expand the 3K into a 10K short. Then if readers liked it, I could come back to the novel idea later, right? During the expansion, my heroine decided she didn't like much about Starlord other than his outfit and his guns and started nudging me toward Zoe from Firefly as character inspiration (at this point I'm going to admit I've only watched the Firefly series once and the film Serenity maybe five times, so in no way is my heroine claiming to be Zoe nor am I claiming her to be in any way an accurate representation!). The intended humorous play on a cheesy scifi name also wasn't going to work out in the space of 10K, so I dropped it.

Since the anthology hadn't yet found an editor, and Dani and I were already extremely busy with multiple editing projects, I turned to Diane Dooley who had edited my short story Imprint for the Tales from the SFR Brigade anthology. The two stories were similar in style and feel, and I felt Diane had done a fantastic job kicking my butt helping me get Imprint into excellent shape, so I had no doubts she could do the same for this short. At least that way no matter who eventually edited Touch the Stars, I was handing in a polished piece of work. She also helped me pick a better title for it now I'd thrown out the pulp scifi name for my character.

8 free SFR short stories in 1
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Available for FREE from...
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So Quickshot was submitted to the anthology by the December 2015 deadline. Then on the 10th January, I received the disappointing news that the anthology had been indefinitely postponed due to too few submissions.

Bummer. But as you know I'm not one to stay down even when knocked down. Dani and I were still working on edits for two projects, and I'd decided to re-release Zombie Girl, my last BP/LP title that I hadn't put back up, for which she did the cover, plus a robbery put a huge spanner in her workload. While I waited for a suitable breathing space to commission a cover, I went searching for stock photos myself.

And here's where the reason for the title comes in. I see a huge number of complaints about lack of diversity in books. But the lack is everywhere, at every level of writing and publishing. Do you know how hard it is to find non-white model stock images, let alone ones that are dressed/posed/armed the way you'd like? And especially for speculative fiction? Bloody hard, that's what. I knew I had a pretty big ask for my heroine - I summed it up to Dani as Zoe from Firefly dressed and armed like Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy - but even just finding a headshot that would fit was tough going. Even a visit to Mosaic Stock, who specialize in POC models, didn't give me much. I came up with a grand total of five headshots and one potential full body shot that would actually take quite a bit of work to turn into my heroine as I saw her. And the hero was just as bad. I resigned myself in advance to not getting anything remotely close, especially when Dani confirmed the difficulty in getting suitable POC stock images.

But Dani is a miracle worker. As you can see, she came up with something that not only fulfilled my wishlist but surpassed all expectations, that I never thought I'd get (and now I'm sorry I didn't write the whole novel!). Isn't it glorious?! (BTW, you can check out all her work and services HERE.)

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon inc KU 

After investigating the interracial categories on Amazon, I realize I'm even more lucky than I thought. The lack of POC characters on the majority of the covers in that category was frankly depressing. It's not that the books aren't being written or published from the looks of things (though from conversations on Twitter, I believe they're still a minority when it comes to publishing). It would appear it's more the lack of stock images available, a problem I know Greta and Donna have also run into for their books. While I know Mosaic Stock are committed to their vision of providing a wider range of diversity in their stock photos, it's clearly going to take time. I wish the current stock image providers would do the same.

Blurb:
Sal, a legal carrier (just about) of whatever comes her way, puts her trust in just two things: her guns. 

Keeping out from under Imperium eyes—especially those belonging to a certain Ehi Wahu—while making a living, and trying to keep a lover who can tolerate her twitchy trigger fingers, are the extent of her ambitions.

Then a kiss from a passing stranger, and a promise of the biggest score in a long time, tempt her. Devin fulfils more than one need, but he comes with more trouble than one woman can handle. And this time it'll take more than her guns to save her. She'll have to trust a man again.

Quickshot is a space opera short, available for pre-order at Amazon only, with a release date of the 31st March. Warning: over 18s only. Adult content including explicit sex, bad language, and implied violence.

Happenings

You've got just six more days to get Keir for free to read and review from NetGalley HERE.
And six more days to enter the Goodreads giveaway for Keir's Fall.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Keir's Fall

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends February 29, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

From the 1st March you can get Keir's Fall from NetGalley HERE to read and review.
Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened is now available to buy from most online retailers, and you can find the links in the right hand side bar.
And lastly, Quickshot is available for pre-order exclusively at Amazon. In 90 days time I'll have to decide whether to go wide or stick with Amazon.
Chook update!
Sadly over holiday, we lost our Leghorn bantam Eowyn (my eldest's chicken, and the white one in the photo). It happened suddenly in the night, so at least she didn't suffer. We're not sure exactly how old she was and there's a huge variation in the predicted age of domestic chickens, so it could have been that - we just don't know.

However, we'd already been looking at more chooks, and this Sunday we picked up four new girls, bringing our total to eight. Mine is the dark brown one with the ruffled feathers (a chocolate frizzle), and I've named her Fizzgig. The 'ginger' one (a buff Pekin) belongs to youngest and got christened Spaghetti. The other two are yet to be named (my older two monsters are still trying to decide). Our original chooks go by the names of Scoop, Chiana, Kyru, and Rush, in case you hadn't been introduced before. :P

Status Update
Rather than reading over my nine days of no social media, I worked on revising and editing Reunion at Kasha-Asor. I really want to hit my deadlines on this one (unlike the last minute chaos of getting Keir out on time and releasing Keir's Fall a month late. Ugh). I am struggling with it. In fact, I've been struggling full stop. I've had another 'why am I doing this?!' phase because every day seems a battle with writing, publishing, and especially marketing. So I'll continue for now with blogging and tweeting, but cut anything else including Facebook. I'll continue writing, but I'll probably publish less. And I'm more set on job hunting. I hope to be back at a non-writing job by the end of this year.
The June project is in first round edits - I made a start on it last week as a break from Reunion, lol. I spend more time editing than anything else, and right now I'm looking at pretty much nonstop editing for the rest of the year. The June project may or may not release in June, but I hope to have print editions for BristolCon in October.
In the meantime, I'd love to know what you think of the cover and blurb for Quickshot. Or maybe you could help suggest some names for our two nameless chickens!
Pippa Jay signing off...