ECHO 8: We have lift-off! (And a giveaway!)

Echo 8, from Tor Books. Action, suspense,
science, and romance!

In a way, it feels like any other day. Maybe it's all the buildup to Seattle's second consecutive Super Bowl, and the collective sob that went up in those closing seconds. Maybe it's all the media coverage I've been following on the demise of the Kalakala, a historic ferry boat that features prominently in ECHO 8. Maybe it's because I wrote this book like five years ago, and wasn't sure it would ever make it into print.

But it did. And I'm thrilled, because this one holds a special place in my heart, and it's the favorite of my beta readers.

If you read Laurie's post last week, you know there have been some interesting synchronicities, to say the least. The most poignant of which, perhaps, is the dismantling of the Kalakala coinciding with the release of ECHO 8. She sat for more than a decade in the Port of Tacoma, taking on water and threatening to disrupt shipping in an important waterway. Then just over a week ago she made her final voyage, and they've been taking her apart piece by piece ever since.

I was sad to see her go after spending so much time researching her for the book. She'd begun to feel like a friend, and she had some really hard luck over her lifetime. But the man who finally put her out of her misery did it with compassion, even arranging a special ceremony when the dismantling began. And the old girl put up a fight to the end! There is some great footage of cranes trying to knock her over in dry dock.

I think part of the reason I empathized with her is that sometimes being an author (especially an author in a niche genre) feels exactly like that. Sometimes it seems like there's every reason in the world we should keel over and give up. But deep down we know we're made of better stuff than that.

By R. M. Calamar (Flickr: Mural of the Kalakala in Port Angeles)
[CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

The Kalakala did pass though, and she did it with dignity. The fellow who basically ended up with her by default (after two separate, failed attempts by other parties to raise funds to restore her) grew just as attached as I did. But he believed she was ready to go and was asking for his help, and he didn't refuse. He spent something like half a million dollars just stabilizing her for that final journey to dry dock.

And out of her ashes (pardon me while I melodramatically mix metaphors) rises ECHO 8. A story about parallel Earths, and on one of them Kalakala lives on.

(But lest things get TOO serious, check out this sci-fi interpretation of the Kalakala's last stand.)

Happy release day, ECHO 8! (And happy birthday to baby ECHO 8 - see Laurie's post yesterday to see who I mean!)

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See You Next Week!

The Spacefreighters crew
is off to the Big Apple for the
2011 RWA National Conference.

See you there...or see you here next week!

Donna's Journal


Congratulations Laurie and Sharon!

Welcome to the Golden Heart nominations, or, to paraphrase Bob Hope, as it’s known at my house “Passover”. Yes, that’s right. My two brilliant blog partners were both nominated for the Golden Heart this year, Sharon Lynn Fisher for the third time in a row (for her paranormal/SFR Echo 8) and Laurie A. Green twice in the same year (is that even allowed?) for her SFR’s P2PC and Outer Planets. While my phone stubbornly refused to ring. Maybe the lines were down in Virginia. Or maybe I shouldn’t have killed off my heroine’s kids in the Prologue. I think I lost points with the judges there.

Actually I think it’s all a big mistake. The board member assigned to call me probably had to take the dog to the vet or something and is just now getting back to the house. I’m sure the phone will ring any minute. Or maybe that dog ate my phone number. Yeah, that’s it. Last time I looked (two seconds ago) there were only six titles listed under the paranormal nominations. They just haven’t gotten to me yet. They still have twenty minutes . . .

All jokes aside, I want to offer BIG congratulations to Laurie and Sharon for their well-deserved honors. They’ve worked hard, their work is terrific and the path lies straight and shining before them both. The RWA conference in June promises to be a lovefest for SFR, thanks to them, and I can’t wait to share the moment with them, even if it is just a vicarious thrill!

Cheers, Donna

Live RWA results: A good year for SFR

Our very own LAURIE GREEN has finaled with not one, but TWO sci-fi romance manuscripts!

THE OUTER PLANETS
P2PC

Congratulations, Laurie!!!

Also just found out my sci-fi/paranormal blend ECHO 8 finaled in the paranormal category. A good year for sci-fi romance!