Tag Archives: science fantasy

April 18th, Northern Hemisphere.

I was hoping to go rake the thatch out of the grass today. I was thinking about putting some of my outside plants, you know, actually outside on the deck. I was going to cut some pussy willow branches off one of my trees for an inside flower arrangement over Easter. But no. In the hours of darkness a shroud of white did fall upon the land. (AKA snow on all horizontal surfaces. About three inches of it.)

This is April in Alberta, a landlocked Province that merges into the Rocky Mountains to the west. We are at a high elevation, about 300ft above sea level, so yes, this is not unusual. What it is is flocking annoying when a person is antsy to get on their yard and has actually seen the brown stuff that will become grass with a bit of sunlight and encouragement. 

Yes, I know full well that I will not be putting out any bedding plants until the last week in May. There are too many night frosts to risk anything before then. However, I was hoping to put out my sprouted roses in containers. House temperatures and heating are very dehydrating for them and I want them to have a good start in my new, (when I can get a fork in the ground, and don’t need a jack hammer), rose garden. 

What I shall do, aside from a big spring clean of the house, is plant my begonias in containers. They should be sprouted nicely by the time I am able to plant them outside. I could also sew some seeds in containers on windowsills. Yes, that sounds like a plan. I can pretend it is spring.

Dreams.

I fully admit I get my best book ideas from dreams, but not this latest one. This was a no no from the get go.

Imagine a very nasty resort in a very swampy region with very unclean water. Now add nasty ‘things’ just below the surface with bodies like giant slugs that are dangerous and will eat people. Add to that filthy, dirty cabins and no fun things to do for tiny kiddies. This would be us and our daughters and they would be five to months old at the time. For some strange reason, only logical in dreams, we had taken the baby’s wooden cot with us. Now add a black, mist like presence to haunt the cabin and us trying to get the aforesaid cot out of the cabin so we could pack the car to leave early from this nightmare vacation. 

Nope, not one I will be using. It fails, not from the yuk factor, but because it has no ongoing plot or structure, aside from the factoid that I never write about real people. 

On the flip side, as there always is one, my next dream, after I woke from the nightmare and drifted off again, gave me the plot for the fourth book in my Shadow series. I have the main character and all the whys and wherefors. I have these written down now. 

Nope, I will not be working on this any time soon. I have the finishing touches to put to the third Shadow book and also I have Serpent of the Shangrove to finish as a sequel to Darkspire Reaches. Added to that, I am working on a very dark science fiction stand alone book I would like to finish before I start on any new projects. Shadow three, probably entitled ‘Chalice of the Shadows’, although that does depend on what my publisher thinks as to the title, and Serpent of the Shangrove, ditto,  are high priority. I am working on the three at the same time as I can get more wordage out.

 The good news is I am told Sword of Shadows is set for release in September of this year. Yay!!!!!

Busy, busy, busy.

I will be looking in to social media sites first thing in the morning, when I answer my emails, and last thing at night, when I am on my laptop. I am fully committed in the next two months with things I have promised to do, my own work and marketing. I don’t have the physical time to take on anything new. Sorry about that. It is what it is. 

My ongoing commitments include helping with the debut launch of an awesome Sci Fi book written by a BFF, Rhonda Garcia. Lex Talionis is one of those special books that occur once in a lifetime. I can’t reiterate how awesome this book is. There are plot layers, fantastic characters, incredible setting … I could wax lyrical until the sun rises and sets again. Please look out for this one. 

Decisions, decisions.

Alrighty then, I have the stats in from Wattpad. I already know my contractual obligations and I will be working on those, which are not posted on that site. I wanted a third runner to work with alongside those. Angelus it is. This is a pure sci fi and is a tad different. No surprises there, coming from me. LOL. 

For some obscure reason, I need to work on three at once. Three is the magic number as it is the maximum I can load on my wide screen monitor and still have a good view. I find the need to jump from one story to another and I get a lot more wordage written in that way instead of concentrating on just one. My goal is to get two finished into first draft by the end of March. I am so serious about this that I will be limiting my time on social media until this is accomplished. 

Shadow Over Avalon

I have just found out how to get my trailer for Shadow Over Avalon on to my website. It wasn’t working before as I have a full site here and not just a blog. Now it works. Yay!

Shadow Over Avalon.

 

links.http://www.amazon.com/…/B00GAN…/ref=la_B00DJS9QP0_1_1…
http://www.amazon.ca/Shadow…/dp/B00GAN6HMG/ref=sr_1_1…
http://www.amazon.com.au/Shad…/dp/B00GAN6HMG/ref=sr_1_1…
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/…/shadow…/1117299037…
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/shadow-over-avalon
https://itunes.apple.com/…/shadow-over…/id735615772..

Work day.

Editing and writing are intensive, so I tend to space them out with none cerebral activities to make sure my concentration is at the maximum when I need it. My non-writerly projects? I am redecorating my office, something that is about ten years overdue. Unfortunately, this involves painting the ceiling, which is popcorn. Yes, I know. So retro, but I am not about to scrape it off. First, I don’t do heights well and scraping it off would involve a lot of ladder work. This is not going to happen. I have to steel myself to getting on a two-step. Second, I have no idea what messes it might be covering up. That is a can of worms best left unopened, so paint it is. I don’t have a problem with the walls as I have an extension stick for my roller and edger.

Project #2 is a picture of a Green Man made of leaves I collected and pressed from a vacation in the Rocky Mountains. I used the eyes I had drawn with chalk pastels as a teaching exercise for the kids way back when. I have them in digital format now, so printing them off was easy. The general shape of the head is there, but I now need to paint a background before I put on his beard. For this, I need elusive daylight. A blizzard today didn’t help in either project. Four hours of decent daylight? Stroll on. Still, both projects are going ahead in between work sessions. I shall wait until after xmas before I start ripping out nasty rug and underlay. Have box knife: will happen.

Homework.

One of the most important things a writer needs to do is read. Sometimes a book can demonstrate what not to do. I have just read one like that and it had a saggy middle. The beginning and end were stellar, but the middle? Not so much. I waded through as I had bought the book, but I was skimming heavily. No, I will not be reviewing this on any site. For one thing, this is not fair to the author. For another, my take is purely my taste as should not reflect on a story.

Nope, this was not a book written by anyone that I know. All the people I know write masterpieces.

In the meantime, Darkspire Reaches is on offer at the Amazons for a very reduced sum. For the price of a fast food meal, a person could have both Darkspire Reaches and Shadow Over Avalon. Now there is a thought as we approach Black Friday.