Giving thanks for readers

This fall, my debut sci-fi romance, GHOST PLANET, turned 5. As a big thank you to the SFR reading community, I'm offering it free for the first time ever. My talented cover artist even created a sweet anniversary badge just for the occasion. The sale ends today, so if you haven't yet read it, now is your chance!

At the same time, I have a Kindle countdown deal going on my other two sci-fi romances, THE OPHELIA PROPHECY and ECHO 8. It's a great time to stock up on reading material for your holiday season.

For all of those who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a lovely and safe holiday weekend. Below I'm sharing my family's favorite pumpkin pie recipe. I've never had one I liked better, and it's very easy. It was created by a friend of mine who blended a couple of her favorite recipes.

What can make this recipe even more special is taking the time to use real pumpkin. Pick up a sugar pumpkin (also called a pie pumpkin) at your local market. Halve it (and clean out seeds), and place the halves skin side up in a pyrex baking dish with some water in the bottom to keep it from drying out. Bake at 350 until tender (how long will depend on size). Then mash it with a fork and you are good to go! I do this part the day before Thanksgiving and store the pumpkin in the fridge until I'm ready to make the pie.

Lisa's Pumpkin Pie

2 cups pumpkin puree*
1 cup cream
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
3 eggs

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a deep-dish pie shell. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes, and then 325 for 40-45 minutes (until a knife inserted just off center comes out almost clean). Cool to room temperature, and serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream (I use maple syrup)!

*NOTE: If you use fresh baked pumpkin, AND you plan to make the pie in a blender, you can just mash the pumpkin with a fork before putting it in the blender. If you plan to use a mixer to make the pie instead, you'll want to puree the fresh pumpkin first, or it will be a bit stringy. (The canned kind will be ready to go either way.)

I also shared this recipe in my newsletter, The Cozy Read, where every month I include recipes and other recommendations for creating cozy reading experiences. You can check out the newsletter and sign up here.

ECHO 8 reboots with new cover and 99-cent deal

It's a bittersweet moment in my publishing career, for sure. ECHO 8, my third book published by Tor, is available as an indie title for the first time today. That means all of the rights for my first three sci-fi romances have now reverted back to me. Which is a great thing, because I can lower the price and experiment with promotions and Kindle-exclusive benefits. But I do miss my Tor people, and I'll always be grateful to my editor for giving me my first break.

If you haven't read the book, it's a great time to pick it up, as it's temporarily available for 99 cents—its lowest price ever—and has a beautiful new cover by Danielle Fine. RT Book Reviews has been kind to all of my SFRs, and of this one they said:

With her crisp storytelling, Fisher hooks readers from the very first page. Echo 8 boasts a well-crafted, intricate and innovative plot, and Fisher effectively immerses readers in the psi world that Tess inhabits. For her part, Tess is strong and sympathetic, and her passionate connection with Ross is appealing and romantic.

The book won 1st place in the RWA FF&P chapter's On the Far Side Contest, and 2nd place in their Prism contest. I'll include the blurb at the bottom of the post if you're interested in learning more about the story.

ECHO 8 is actually the second book I wrote, and it was the favorite of many of my beta readers. (Spacefreighters founder Laurie Green even named one of her race horse babies after it!) It got the least attention of my three books, I suspect because it launched right when the book market exploded, and I have to admit it bruised my heart a little. Of all my heroines, I think I identified with Seattle parapsychologist Tess Caufield the most. I am very pleased to be able to repackage it and make it more affordable, which will hopefully help it to reach a wider audience.

As for current authorly pursuits, I'm trying to get my head around promo, and I'm writing my fifth book. (My fourth was BEFORE SHE WAKES, an erotic fairy tale collection for Penguin Random House. It includes post-apocalyptic, steampunk, and fantasy tales.) My agency and I haven't decided yet whether to go traditional or indie with the WIP. I'm flexible about that decision, as I think it's good to keep your offerings diverse. The new book is an alternate-history fantasy romance with steampunk elements (and pirates!). It's set in Ireland.

In the world of author promo, I've found a way to actually have fun writing an author newsletter. (What?!?!?) My agency suggested I pick a theme and make it sort of like a magazine, so that's what I did. The newsletter that came out today is all about the launch, but in months I don't have big news to share, I send out The Cozy Read. It includes recommendations for reading as well as for relaxing and cozifying your space. These days I think we can all use more of that! You can see the first issue here.

Quincy knows how to chillax. 

I've also recently gotten into Instagram (@sharonlynnfisherauthor). Yeah, I need another social media distraction like I need a hole in the head. But I enjoy taking photos around our farm, and it's also supposed to be a good medium for book promo, though those posts are a bit more time consuming. Here's a post I created for the ECHO 8 reboot, using Canva design tools (free):

I think that about catches you up! I don't blog often simply because I struggle to find the time, with writing, promo, taking care of a house that's twice the size we need, scooping up chicken poop...

Does this look like a butt that poops? Trust me, it does. 

...and taking riding lessons so I know something about taking care of the horse we just bought our two girls...

Lulu Lemon. We didn't name her, but we love our Lulu.

How all of this happened to this city girl I'm not exactly sure.

I hope you will excuse the rambling post, and if you're interested in hearing more about ECHO 8, here's the blurb:

Three lives. Two worlds. One chance to save them all.

As a parapsychologist working for Seattle Psi, Tess has devoted her life to studying psychic phenomena. But when doppelgangers begin appearing from a parallel world that's been struck by an asteroid, nothing in her training will help her survive what's to come.

After dislocating to Seattle Psi from the other Earth, Jake is confined by a special task force for study. But when he drains life energy from Tess, almost killing her, it causes a ripple effect across two worlds—and creates a bond neither of them expected.

Ross is an FBI agent ordered to protect Tess while she studies Jake. His assignment is not random—he and Tess have a history, and a connection the Bureau hopes to use to its own advantage. By the time Ross realizes his mission could be compromised, it's already too late—he'll have to choose between his love for Tess and his duty to protect the people of his own Earth.

The book will be available in paper format soon. I'll gift up to three digital copies of the book to randomly selected commenters! (Fine print: Kindle only at this time)

Do you believe in psi?

Like a lot of authors, I imagine, I'm sort of this half-and-half mashup of critical thinker (hello, internal editor) and open-minded creative free spirit. Born and raised in Oklahoma, I got a healthy dose of superstition from my Granny. My pulse always jumps to find I've got an important appointment on Friday the 13th, though my common-sense half knows better. And I still eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. 

My photo of the old Colman School in Seattle.
Home to Seattle Psi Training Institute in my novel Echo 8. 

I can roll my eyes with the best of them when it comes to anything in the woo-woo category. I write sci-fi, and I believe in the power of scientific minds and scientific explanation. And yet ... 

I've lost count of how many times I've dreamed about something before it happened. In fact, just this morning I was woken from a dream by my phone ringing. The dream was about a truck that my ex-husband had apparently (only in the dream) left in front of our house. Big truck, like the ones that haul cars. He'd left it parked far from the curb and I had to move it. But each time I moved it and got out, I found it was still far from the curb. 

So back to that phone call. It was my landlord upstairs reminding me the garbage collectors were coming today. We live in a cul-de-sac and are supposed to park elsewhere on garbage day, but both my partner and I had forgotten. I scrambled into my clothes and flew out with both sets of keys (he was in the shower). My partner drives a truck that was broken into recently, and the thieves messed up the ignition, so first I struggled with the key. Also, it has an old camper on it, and you can hardly see out the camper window, so then I struggled to back up a hill looking only through the rearview mirrors. 

The Edgefield Hotel, formerly a poor farm.
By Ian Poellet (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)],
via Wikimedia Commons

You probably see where I'm going with this. And this happens at least every couple of months. Some dreams are more striking than others, like the time I dreamed about a ghost while staying in a hotel outside Portland. (Turned out the ghost had been seen by many guests.) 

So I have this history, but also I think there's just a part of me that wants to believe that we don't have all the answers yet. In fact we know we don't. Take quantum physics.   

In quantum physics, to the best of our understanding, observers affect (you might even say effect) outcomes. So of course there's been lots of talk about quantum physics from a "power of the mind" perspective. The lead researcher of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California recently published a paper in Physics Essays about how groups of meditators affected the outcomes of double-slit experiments. The researcher, Dean Radin, wrote the book Entangled Minds about how quantum physics may enhance our understanding of psi phenomenon. (This book was critical to the development of parapsychologist Tess Caufield, heroine in my recent sci-fi romance release Echo 8.) It's a compelling read about a marginalized branch of science, and it contains a fascinating history of parapsychology. 

One note Dr. Radin sounds often in the book is how even scientists can be prejudiced and refuse to accept facts if the implications of those facts don't fit with the scientist's worldview. The guy who first suggested the idea of our circulatory system was laughed at by his peers. One went so far as to say (paraphrase), "If he thinks he can actually hear this in the body, he's deranged."

I guess my conclusion here, if there is one, is there's plenty of room for a thinking person -- even one who reads lots of science books -- to question conventional beliefs about psi. In Entangled Minds Radin cites studies that have shown folks who indicate some level of belief in psi tend to be well-educated (while the opposite is true for superstitious beliefs). 

Certainly plenty of sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal authors include elements of psi in their stories. But what do they actually believe about it? What do you believe? Have you experienced psi phenomena (or anything you couldn't explain) first-hand? Do you have a psychic Granny (or Auntie, or sibling)? If you do believe in psi are you out of the closet about it? 

The "Buck Rogers" Ferry, Final Chapter

By IMLS DCC (http://www.flickr.com/photos/imlsdcc/)
[CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

On Feb. 3 of this year, my third sci-fi romance from Tor Books (ECHO 8) released, and I posted about the story's connection to (and inclusion of) the historic ferry Kalakala. Here's a description from the Seattle PI, which I also included as the opening quote in the chapter called "Derelict."

The Kalakala began life as the Peralta, a 1927 San Francisco Bay steam ferry that was towed north in ruins after a fire destroyed its wooden superstructure. At the old Lake Washington Shipyards in Kirkland, workers grafted a daring new aluminum top on the salvaged iron hull, and the Kalakala debuted on Seattle's waterfront on July 3, 1935. It soon became a world-famous, state-of the-art attraction, synonymous with Seattle long before the Space Needle became a landmark. Billed as the world's first streamlined ferry, it excited imaginations about the future with its Buck Rogers rocket-ship lines and art deco style. 
- “Kalakala’s table set for unseen guest,” Seattle PI, February 13, 2002

Coincidentally the boat, which has had a long and storied past (and no small amount of bad luck), ended up being scrapped at the time of ECHO 8's release.

Wheelhouse

People in and around Seattle followed the final events closely -- turned out lots of folks besides me had a soft spot for the rusty old thing. Different parties tried for a couple of decades to raise the money to restore her, but no joy.

However, she did receive some TLC in the end. The owner-by-default at the time of scrapping was Karl Anderson, the businessman who owned the moorage where she'd been docked (and sinking) for the past decade. He stated in interviews he felt the boat had reached out to him for help, and it was important to him to give her a death with dignity. If you read some of the coverage from that time, you'll see she got exactly that, complete with farewell ceremony.

View from side of wheelhouse

Heaven knows she deserved it, after burning, running into docks, hosting a suicide in the ladies lounge, getting hauled to Alaska to be used as a fish-processing facility, being the subject of two failed fundraising attempts, and finally ending up moored in the Hybelos Waterway in Tacoma, where she was slowly sinking and represented a major threat to shipping traffic.

But I'm happy to report there was a bright note at the end of this final chapter. A Seattle restaurant owner (Salty's on Alki Beach) made sure the Kalakala wouldn't be forgotten, or entirely gone. He purchased the wheelhouse, rudder, and enormous piston, all of which you can see outside his restaurant, and in the photos I've posted here.

Rudder

Salty's owner Robert Gerald Kingen plans to incorporate the parts into a sculpture park that will tell the ferry's story. Kingen too developed a fondness for Kalakala, as you can read for yourself in the restaurant's news release about the acquisition:

This is a love story. It's the story of the Queen of Puget Sound — the Kalakala — and the men who were smitten by her Art Deco glory and wouldn't let her be forgotten.

Thanks to Kingen, I was able to visit Kalakala in person for the first time last Friday. She was moored on Seattle's Lake Union when I first moved here, and I remember wondering every time I drove over the University of Washington cut, "What is that great, rusted beast? There must be a story there."

There surely was, and as I began to research her, I knew I had to add to that story. In ECHO 8, a book about parallel universes, she lives on in all her former glory.

By the time I began researching the ferry, she had been moved to Tacoma. I tried to arrange a tour, but it didn't work out. So I'd never stepped foot onboard until last Friday, when I drove to Salty's to visit the wheelhouse and snap these photos. It was a long time coming.

The Kalakala's view of Seattle

Author in PJs Series

Back in January I attended Digital Book World in New York with my SilkWords partner, Keri. The most valuable thing that came out of it was an understanding of what is and isn't working in book marketing. The emphasis has shifted from pimping your books via blogs, social media, etc., to connecting with readers.

Here's a memorable quote I tweeted from a panel I attended: "One of the biggest challenges in book marketing today is how to sell books without saying the word 'book'" (Entangled Publishing founder Liz Pelletier). Readers are burned out on promo. And hey, it's no news that authors never liked doing it in the first place.

This was supported by an article I read in a business magazine when I got home (Forbes, I think it was). The piece talked about the new reality for authors, and while it did focus a lot on promotion, they emphasized in particular the need for authors to interface with readers. They talked about how this can be challenging for authors because we tend to be most comfortable sitting alone at our desks.

A stereotype, but for good reason. Out of this the idea for Author in PJ's was born. Yeah, we do like sitting at our desks! And many of us do it in PJs, because ... "I love working at home dressed business casual!" said no one ever. Authors joke about this all the time, and I thought it was a fun, insider fact to leverage for the series.

I chose YouTube because it's more personal and visual than a blog post. Also, my hair dresser had recently made the suggestion I do some readings on YouTube. Uh, brilliant! Publishers don't pay for book tours anymore if you're midlist. Book stores don't really like doing readings unless you're a big name. We do our book tours online now, why not readings?

YouTube's also a great way for readers to get a glimpse of you in your environment. A few years ago I would have thought no one on earth could possibly take an interest in what my office looks like. Then I did three blog tours and discovered people do, inexplicably, care. What books do you have on your shelves? Where do you work? For one post they even wanted a photo of my desk.

So that's where I started. I posted one video of me reading from my new sci-fi romance from Tor (Echo 8), and for the second I did an office tour (below).



Then I had the thought, "Wouldn't this be more fun with friends?" So I issued invitations for other authors to do the same. Author Margaret Dilloway, who is represented by my literary agency, has also posted an Author in PJs office tour, which I link to from my channel. (Any SFR authors interested in doing the same please let me know in the comments! All I ask is that you put Author in PJs in the title and tags, and mention where you got the idea. I'll link to your video, or if you don't have a channel I can upload it to mine.)

I've added links to both videos on appropriate pages on my web site. It's early days yet to know whether something like this can help to expand my readership, but at the very least it's a fun experiment and a nice little bonus for superfans. And I'm not going to toss out Twitter or Facebook completely, though I have really cut back. I now use those primarily for supporting bloggers (sharing their posts about my work), and sharing content from other sources that I think my readers might enjoy.

As an author and/or reader, what's your current position on promotion? Any fun ideas you'd care to share?

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!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

February Triple Launch and Fifteen Fun Facts!

February is going to be one busy month here on Spacefreighters Lounge as we celebrate the launch of THREE brand new Science Fiction Romance novels from three of our co-bloggers, one from Sharon Lynn Fisher, a rising star in the SFR universe, and two debut novels from Donna S. Frelick and Laurie A. Green, both of which are the lead book in an upcoming series.

As a special preview for each of these upcoming releases and an introduction to our Fabulous February Triple Launch, we put together a list of Five Fun Facts about each of these novels, and a little more about what went into them.

Ready? Here we go...

First up is Sharon Lynn Fisher's Echo 8, which will release on February 3rd. (It's almost here!)

ECHO 8 FUN FACTS

1

Part of ECHO 8 is set on the old Seattle ferry Kalakala (most recognizable symbol of Seattle until the Space Needle), which has a very colorful history. Coincidentally, after a decade sitting in the Port of Tacoma rusting while waiting for someone to decide what to do with her, she was this past week towed to dry dock for scrapping (which will take place next week, just prior to the release of ECHO 8 on Feb. 3). 

2

This book is about parallel Earths. The same year I started writing it, a Seattle musician named Serena Tideman released a recording of original cello compositions that she performed and recorded aboard the Kalakala while it was moored in Seattle. The name of the recording is "Kalakala: Songs from a Parallel Universe."

3

The hero of ECHO 8 is FBI Special Agent Ross McGinnis. Shortly after I started working on the book, I heard about a real hero, Army Specialist Ross McGinnis, who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for dying to save fellow soldiers from a grenade explosion in Iraq.

4

The heroine of ECHO 8 is Dr. Tess Caufield, a parapsychologist who studied quantum physics. As part of my research, I read a fascinating book about the intersection of psi abilities and quantum physics (ENTANGLE MINDS: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality). The author, Dr. Dean Radin (senior researcher at the Institute of Noetic sciences in California), reviewed parts of ECHO 8 to help ensure my portrayal of the heroine and her work was realistic. 

5

ECHO 8 is hands-down my beta readers' favorite of my books. 

______________________________

Next up is Donna S. Frelick's Unchained Memory which releases on February 24th. It's the first book in the Interstellar Rescue series. Here are the Fun Facts.

UNCHAINED MEMORY FUN FACTS

1

The book begins in Nashville, TN.

2
The book's climactic scene is set in Towson MD, home of Shore Leave, the nation's largest fan-run STAR TREK convention.

3
Asia Burdette, the heroine of the story, likes to run for exercise in Nashville's Centennial Park, which boasts a full-size replica of Athens' ancient Parthenon.  On one of her customary runs, she is stalked by an agent of the black ops bad guys who later try to kidnap her.

4
Ethan Roberts, the hero of the story, gets his exercise at an old-school boxing gym.  It's much safer.

5
Not all of the story takes place on Earth.  This is SFR, after all!

______________________________

The third novel in the February line-up is Laurie A. Green's Inherit the Stars, which has a tentative release date of February 22nd. It's the first book in the Inherited Stars series.

INHERIT THE STARS FUN FACTS

1
The hero, Sair, is an fugitive slave who's wanted by a galactic superpower. The story is told entirely from the hero's point of view. (There's a blog about Laurie's decision to craft the story in this way on The SFR Brigade blog.)

2
Captain Drea Mennelsohn, the heroine, is a professional P2PC--Planet-to-Planet Courier--in other words, she's a futuristic FedEx driver to the stars. (That's her story and she's sticking to it!)

3
The novel has several aliases. The manuscript had alternate titles of Once Upon a Starship and Specter (the name of Drea's ship), and it was a finalist in the 2011 RWA Golden Heart Awards under the title P2PC. The published title--Inherit the Stars--comes directly from a line of dialogue between Sair and Drea.

4
The setting is a distant corner of the Milky Way Galaxy that's rich in Goldilocks planets, and it happens in an era when Earth is just a dimly remembered legend. 

5
The story puts a whole new spin on the term "sexual freedom."


So there's our list of Fun Facts along with a little taste of each of these stories. Watch for more about our Fabulous February Triple Launch in the days and weeks ahead.

~~*~~

Mission Success: Crossroads

Laurie's Journal

Writing Process Blog Hop
Thanks to my Donna and Pippa for participating in the Writing Process Blog Hop last week. It was a fun exercise and I learned things about my co-bloggers that I never knew. If readers missed our blogs, you can catch up here:

Pippa's Writing Process
Donna's Writing Process
Laurie's Writing Process

Reassignment in the Works?
A factor in every writer's career is what goes on in other areas of their life. Well, after 19 years of managing our military agency's budget at my day job, I'm in the process of requesting reassignment to another position that I think will be good for both my agency and for my stress level and creative energy. If we can reach an agreement, this promises to be a great thing all around. Please cross your fingers with me for a good outcome.

Sharon's Next Novel Releases Tomorrow!
Co-blogger and RITA finalist Sharon Lynn Fisher's second novel -- The Ophelia Prophecy -- releases on Tuesday, April 1st. No April Foolin'! Be sure to stop back here at Spacefreighters Lounge tomorrow to learn more about this very exciting new Science Fiction Romance title from Tor! I don't want to steal Sharon's thunder, but I will say this is a fabulous, imaginative story you won't want to miss!

I think Pippa Jay mentioned she also has a release coming out tomorrow! And with Donna now being an expectant author (with her first book due next February) it's a very exciting time for the Spacefreighters crew!

A December Deadline
All of this moving and shaking by my co-bloggers had me doing some mental sorting and reassessing of my own career. I had a chat with my agent to get her thoughts on possibly pursuing the agent-as-publisher option that Donna is following. (Read her big announcement here.) After kicking it around a bit, we decided that with my first novel still out to two big publishers and a dynamic smaller one, that we're content, at least for now, to await the outcome. But it's time to start formulating other strategies, so I've set December as the point-in-the-future where I'll start pursuing other publishing options if we haven't yet had a sale. Either way, come December I'll have good news...or good news! This is an exciting time to be a pre-publshed author!

Meet Echo 8
I have a fun announcement to make. In addition to my day job and writing career, I have yet a third endeavor. My husband and I raise Thoroughbred horses.

A fun and sometimes boggling part of that pursuit is finding an unique name for each of our babies that no other living, registered Thoroughbred of the same sex in North America has already claimed. With somewhere between 19,000 and 30,000 Thoroughbreds born every year on this continent, that can be a very tall order.

Ideally, we like to choose a name that says something about the foal's parents or prominent bloodlines. On February 2nd, we welcomed our first foal of the year, a fiesty little chestnut colt with a tiny white star and one white sock. That little star is more of a streak than a spot. Kind of reminds me of a shooting star, really. Like a comet. Or an asteroid.

His parents are Diabolical (sire) and Soulful (dam). His famous grandsire is the fabulous Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.

Having just finished a beta read of Sharon's third novel, Golden Heart finalist ECHO 8, things clicked into place. How so?

Here's the advance blurb of Echo 8:

The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance as three lives entangle: Jake, a man shifted to an alternate Earth, where he must drain energy from others to survive. Tess, the parapsychologist trying to save him. Ross, the FBI agent torn between duty and his love for Tess.

I absolutely loved this story the first time I read it in a much earlier draft, but this latest pre-published version of ECHO 8 is one fantastic, Soulful, Diabolical SFR story, that's set in Seattle. (See where I'm going with this?)

Add the unique "falling asteroid" marking on our colt's forehead and the fact that Jake's world was destroyed by an asteroid, and *dingdingding* I think we have a winner! After getting Sharon's okay, we'll be submitting Echo 8 as the first name choice for our colt.

So world...meet the other Echo 8. And here's to a very successful future for both of them!

~~~~ * ~~~~

Tor Books to publish ECHO 8

Big news today! I'm so pleased to announce that my publisher for GHOST PLANET and THE OPHELIA PROPHECY is also going to publish ECHO 8.

The old Coleman School in Seattle, setting for ECHO 8

ECHO 8 is an earlier novel of mine, written while GHOST PLANET was on submission. It has long been a darling of my beta readers.

The book is romance with a sci-fi premise and lots of paranormal elements. I think it has a sort of noir-ish feel as well. It was a 2011 RWA Golden Heart Finalist, and won the 2009 RWA FF&P chapter On the Far Side contest (sci-fi/futuristic category).

Here's a quick plot summary:

The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance as three lives entangle: Jake, a man shifted to an alternate Earth, where he must drain energy from others to survive. Tess, the parapsychologist trying to save him. Ross, the FBI agent torn between duty and his love for Tess.

I'll keep you posted about release dates and such. Meanwhile, THE OPHELIA PROPHECY is scheduled for release March 4!