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StarDog is Live...and it's #FREE!

During my July 24th post, I unveiled the new cover for my novella, StarDog, which was originally part of the popular Pets in Space collection that is no longer available.

At that time, I mentioned StarDog would be offered as a standalone freebie for readers via a link in the upcoming Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 collection. Since the story is a prequel to both Inherit the Stars and my new story--Courting Disaster: StarDog2--I think it will make a great bonus.

But you can get it now!

StarDog is live on InstaFreebie and I've offered it to my newsletter subscribers, so I'm now going to extend the same offer to my blog readers.

If you'd like to grab a copy, it's available in .mobi, .epub, and PDF. Click the caption at right to open the InstaFreebie link.

It'll make a wonderful refresher for those who've already read the story, plus Courting Disaster is a sequel to StarDog with references to that adventure, as well as being a great introduction for those who are new to the Inherited Stars Universe.

My Farewell Andromeda giveaway has now ended and nearly 900 copies were claimed. That's wonderful, but my goal for StarDog is to break that record by having 1,000 or more copies snapped up. With nearly 200 copies claimed in just the first couple of days, it's well on the way. Go, StarDog, go!

The Outer Planets Lives!

My edits are back on my second novel and I'm hoping to get this one sewn up and available for sale as soon as possible. This book is a whopper--roughly 20% longer than my full-length 110,000-word Inherit the Stars, so final edits will take some time.

Though I'd love to get it out before my cut-off date of September 10th, it's probably more realistic that it will launch sometime before Christmas.

I'm excited about this next novel, because it's the first in a brand new, Near Future timeline in the saga. This story takes place in the early 2040s, just a few decades from now.

Because of this, The Outer Planets can be read before, during or after previous books released, which in story-chronological order are--StarDog, Inherit the Stars, and Courting Disaster: StarDog 2 (releases October 10th) with Farewell Andromeda being a book in a future timeline of the series.

Here's the blurb for The Outer Planets:

What Lissa Bruce knows could kill her.

A female video reporter with an altered identity and a damning secret joins the crew of a research mission bound for Jupiter, only to find the past she wants to escape is already onboard.

Lieutenant Mitchell Coe, the loyal aide de camp to a murdered general–and Lissa’s late spouse–is the one man with the power to blow her cover…or salvage her heart. But after a series of mishaps threatens the mission, Lissa suspects she’s not the only one aboard with a dangerous secret.

The Outer Planets is an action/adventure/suspense sci-fi romance with a military hero, set on a planetary research vessel with a combined military and civilian crew.

Awards: The Outer Planets was a 2011 RWA Golden Heart finalist, and won First Place in the 2013 Launching a Star, 2011 The Write Stuff, 2010 Heart of the West, 2010 Ignite the Flame, 2010 First and Ten, and placed in the 2010 RWA FF&P On the Far Side, 2010 Great Expectations, and 2010 Toronto Gold competitions.

My Vocabulary is most like...

 

I regularly sharpen my skills with the online Lumosity training games, and the site recently introduced a new insight into my vocabulary skills. By analyzing the words I use in some of the vocabulary drills, it developed a list of six famous people my vocabulary is most like.

Here's the list:

Person                         Score

Agatha Christie.............199

Stephen Covey..............196

Martin Luther King, Jr..196

J.K. Rowling.................186

William Shakespeare....177

Stephen Hawking..........168

 

Though all the names raised my eyebrows, two really jumped out at me.

The comparison to the amazing and brilliant Stephen Hawking was a bit humbling. It's probably because I tend to use a lot of science fiction-y words like trajectory, quantum, plasma, exosphere, holograph, radius, micron, electromagnetic, etc. in my vocabulary tests.

And Martin Luther King, Jr.! If you've followed my blogs you know how much I admire and respect the late social activist. I love that he's also very high (tied for the #2 score) on the list.

I was also delighted to see three influential and diverse authors in the mix. (Or four if you consider MLK Jr. an influential author, which I do.) Agatha Christine? J.K. Rowling? William Shakespeare? What author wouldn't want to be compared to any of them, vocabulary-wise!

But Stephen Covey is up there, too. Hmmm. I've certainly scouted The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, but I seem to have some real issues putting those habits to good use. Maybe I should brush up on the plan. After all, we seem to share the same vocabulary.

I don't know how useful these comparisons truly are, but they were certainly fun and inspiring.

Patio Garden Update--Hail Yes!

It's been over a month now since my patio garden was nearly annihilated by a monster hail storm on June 26th. Though I was heartbroken at the time, some of you commented to take heart, because many of the plants would recover. And you wise peeps were right, because many have, much to my delight. Though some will never be the same as they were before the hail-hammer fell, I thought I'd share a few photos of the then-and-now success stories.

Unfortunately, the flower we deemed "Sloth Flower" (Allium) was a total loss.
That one couldn't recover after being severed in two by hail.

Pansy planter after the June 26th hail storm

Pansy planter yesterday

White Petunias after hail storm

White Petunias yesterday

Various potted plants after hail storm.

The Deep Pinks (Calibrachoa) in nearest pot yesterday.

Garden Sage and Rosemary herbs after hail storm.

Garden Sage and Rosemary (with a random Marigold) yesterday.

The fancy Petunias in the hanging baskets have recovered quite well.

 

The white Alyssum and Lavender Pink Nemesia are now flourishing.



Not only did the Violas recover, but a Black Locust tree sprung up in their pot.
The tree will be moved to a new location in the yard this week.
Black Locusts grow very fast and it will be tree height in about 5-7 years.



 

So yes, Mother Nature has a way of bouncing back even after the worst pummeling. Though some of the flowers never recovered, many came back even better than they were before the storm.

 

There may be a lesson for writers in that. *grin*

That's it for this week. Hope you have a great one!

TAKING A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

No long post this week. I'm off on a kind of family history tour of the tiny West Virginia community of Squire where my parents were born and raised. My older brother wanted his adult daughter to see the "home place" and get a sense of where we all came from, so I'm tagging along. Since he's the family historian, I expect to learn a few interesting tidbits I haven't heard before.

My kin are a colorful bunch, distantly related to the Hatfields of Hatfield-McCoy feud fame. My second cousin was the Miss Riley who taught the "rocket boys" of OCTOBER SKY. And my grandfather was part of the last armed insurrection against the Federal government of the United States--a union-organized coal strike in McDowell County WV in 1920. (He also delivered moonshine through the mountains during the strike to make ends meet.)

So, though the picture below may or may not have any of my relatives, it is, well, symbolic of my mountain clan.

Devil Anse Hatfield (center) and the boys.

See you next week.

Cheers, Donna

All that matters is the story (in the first draft, anyway)

I'm in the process of responding to my editor's comments on my latest WIP, and re-learned a lesson I had clearly forgotten. And that is, when it comes down to it all that matters is the story.

I quite often read blog articles about writing. After all, I'm a writer. When I worked in IT I read articles about IT. It's important to keep up with what's happening, and there is always room for improvement.  But there's an important difference. In IT, technology changes rapidly. If you don't keep on top of the wave, it moves on without you. That's not really true of writing. Sure, there are some changes in expectation to take into account. One example is the need for description. In the book Moby Dick apparently Herman Melville went into tedious detail describing a whale – because most readers would not have seen one. That's no longer an issue these days. If you haven't seen a real one, there are plenty of pictures, so too much explanation is tedious and boring

There are changes in reader expectations and taste that may merit consideration. I've heard it said that The Lord of the Rings would not have been published if it had been offered to a publishing house today. Too long, too rambling (Tom Bombadil and the Old Forest) and a bit archaic in style. Readers generally are more accepting of graphic sex. But really, all of that is a nonsense. It's a matter of taste. Many people still don't appreciate erotic stories, or even those with coarse language or blasphemy. But many readers love Charles Dickens, even more love LOTR and even more loved Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Most writing advice on blogs is about 'how to do it better'. Many of them repeat the dogma everyone else has offered about self-editing, words to watch, avoid adjectives and adverbs etc etc. One blog I read recently was about writing in what's known as 'deep third' – you describe what your point of view character sees and feels so the reader can be involved in the experience. It's the difference between saying something like an example from this blog. There are plenty of others - just google 'deep POV'.

Out of Deep POV

'At last the tremors subsided and the earth stilled. Maggie wondered how bad the earthquake had been. She looked around and saw the deep black gashes in the ground where the pavement of the road had cracked. She knew that it must have been at least a 7.0.'

In Deep POV

'At last the tremors subsided and the earth stilled. How bad had this one been? All around, wide gashes cut into the pavement as though it were soft as flesh. Maggie shivered despite the heat. A 7.0 at least, perhaps even higher.'

The basic idea is to take out the 'filter' words (wondered, looked, knew) and show what Maggie feels to offer description of what's happened.

But you see, it isn't as easy as it looks. I do try to write in this way, but unless you're careful, you can end up confusing your reader (or yourself). In a first draft the most important task is to get the story down. There's time to add the deep POV detail in the second or third draft. And that is what I didn't do. In my draft I spent too much time on method and not enough time on story.Confusing your editor isn't a good look. Sorry, Di.

Now I'm paying the price, fixing up the inevitable plot holes. When I sent it to my editor, I knew in my heart it wasn't really finished. Trust your heart, writers. It KNOWS stuff.

And now for some pictures.

Flying butterfly (because I like taking picture of flying things

A noisy miner bird - a little Aussie honeyeater

What I said earlier

It can get a bit chaotic at afternoon tea time - rainbow lorikeets

Gettin' My Geek On #comicon2017 #londonfilmandcomiccon #alantudyk

And again, not a post I was expecting to write...
Late Friday, hubs was reading his paper.
"Benedict Cumberbatch is at the London Film and Comic Con," he said.
I shrugged. I'm not really into the whole thing with him and Sherlock. I was expecting to take my monsters to the MCM Comic Con at the end of August.
"It's this weekend," he continued, then goes on to list guests. Several classic Who actors. minor Star Wars ones, and the not so minor actors who played Jyn Erso's parents in Rogue One. I can feel my geek heart sink at the awesomeness I'll be missing.
"And Alan Tudyk," says hubs.
Now he's just twisting the knife.
"I'd love to see Alan," I sigh.
Silence.
"How expensive do you think it would be to get his photo or autograph?"
I'm not sure I want to look. I remember how much it was to see Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill at SWCE, although I wish now I'd found some way to get the money together to get my photo taken with Carrie. Regret is so bitter.
But I look and tell him. It wasn't as expensive as Carrie.
"I could buy a ticket for your birthday," hubs suggests.
"Really?!" But he's already bought me a present which I can't talk about yet.
"If you really want to meet him."
And so on Sunday, we all went to London Comic Con. And it was fabulous!
There wasn't as much cosplay as I'd expected, and no, I didn't take many photos. The organized photo sessions were frighteningly fast and efficient - a literal hi, shoot, and bye! I felt a little twinge about whether the celebrities are actually happy about doing these, but Alan seemed to be genuinely smiling. For what it's worth, he's very nice to hug. :P
I'm glad I invested in the bonus photo frames on offer - it even came with an extra photo to swap with one of the two character shots and I'll tell you now I put in the K2SO shot over the Firefly one (sorry, Browncoats, but that wasn't where I first saw him and I haven't forgiven Whedon for Wash dying in Serenity (which I saw long before Firefly). The other picture is his foul-mouthed character Wat from A Knight's Tale with the late Heath Ledger, for those interested).

My eldest had her photo taken with Alyson Hannigan (Willow from Buffy), and she doesn't look a day older despite nearly being my age (while Alan Tudyk is exactly my age). Sigh.
I'll finish with some more shots from the con though I didn't take many - sorry. Too busy enjoying the experience, but I promise I'll do better with Nor-Con later this year.

Louise Jameson (Leela, companion to the 4th Doctor)

Sarah Douglas, Ursa in Superman 2

Nicola Bryant (Peri, companion to the 6th Doctor)

Status Update
Unexpected is currently with my proof reader. I've not had time to work on anything else book related - today is the first quiet day I've had since the summer holidays began and I still have too much real life stuff to catch up with before my birthday on Thursday. Wow, is this year going fast!

Chook Update
The chicks are now looking more like mini chickens as they lose the last of their fluff and approach four weeks old (just as I turn 46). We've also started discussing proper names for them though we still don't know their genders for now. They're so much bigger!

I don't know if I'll get a chance to post again before September, so have a good summer.