Vampires and Robots

I am pleased to announce that The Princess Rebellion, the second book in The Kyroibi Trilogy, has been published to Amazon and the Kindle Edition is now available for pre-order ! Which of course, brings us to the cover! Once again, I was fortunate enough to have original art by Missy Sheldrake. This time around, Missy had three leading ladies to contend with and I think she did a great job of portraying them all. So without further ado, here is the Kindle Edition cover for The Princess Rebellion, along with the synopsis: Although Ellie always wanted to save the world, she never wanted to rule it. But as the true master of the Kyroibi and heir to the Korghetian throne, she’s now expected to do both. Worse, she’s also expected to play nice with the other leaders of the Ghowrn Alliance, including the overbearing Prince Gevandar, who sees her as nothing more than a weapon to unleash upon the Huptsovian Empire. When imperial ships are discovered lurking in Ghowrn space, war b...

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've introduced you all to a fabulous indie author, so let's rectify that by dragging one of my Twitter sisters over to the hot seat! That's Twitter sister, not twisted sister, though really, I'm not sure there's much of a difference when it comes to the authors I proudly claim as my second family. Shannon Reber is family. You may recall that I reviewed Shannon's first novella , The Seer last year as part of my Write On! review segment. Well, in the year since, this gal has penned a total of eighteen books. Yeah, let that sink in! Eighteen books! AND she'll be offering five of them for free this Friday, January 13th as part of our SIA Showcase event . Which is why we're here today, Shannon's lucky eighteenth book, Friends and Foes , just launched today. To celebrate, I sat down with Shannon to discuss the new book, her other books, life as an Indie author, and which Twitter sibling is the best (spoiler al...

As I've discussed in previous posts, I have a little issue I like to call summer brain. This year has been particularly difficult in that I ended up scrapping two projects because my brain didn't want to attempt to make sense of them while the rest of me was melting under the Texas sun. I even made a post here, talking about my last attempt to write something that would steer me back in the direction of serious author and well, about two dys after I wrote that blog, I had a flash of inspiration. Two months later, I have a book. And like the last six items I've written, it may be of the sci-fi/fantasy variety, but it is firmly planted in the humor category as well. Specifically, satire. Shameless Cover Plug Naturally, as I started writing what I had hoped was a one off summer brain tale of a second banana to a supervillain, ideas began to pop into my head for a second and third book, with the possibility of many more to come. This... this would not do. I'm an au...

Okay, not really. Vampires are on the outs again right? I can't keep up with popular culture and what 'the hep kids' are into these days. Heck, I can barely keep up with this blog! But I got to thinking about vampires again recently. I would say that is partially due to the fact that I am coming to the end of my second supernatural fantasy series (that is, if I haven't fried my computer, but that's another story for another time) and more than a lot to do with my own ways of dealing with aging. Not that I'm terribly old, but let's face it, whenever the badass female vampire is described, whether she's just turned or thousands of years old, she has the face and body of a fitness obsessed co-ed. Ageist and sexist! I'm only half joking and I'm well aware that my own beloved Lucy was a healthy and attractive twenty-something.  But Lucy wasn't the only badass female vamp from my debut vampire series. There was also Dara. True confession tim...

Hello and welcome to another round of Write On! My one stop shop for Indie book recommendations. Today, we're bringing it back to the fabulous women who break genre boundaries and do it well. This time we're talking fantasy. Fantasy, without the word "urban" in front of it, has always been a tough genre for me to get into. Something about epic quests, world building, and hundreds of mythical creatures running about only holds my interest in video games. But fantasy isn't all talking trees and Turkish Delight. The following authors have put their own spin on the genre to bring us worlds that even the most fickle of fantasy fans can fall in love with. So without further ado, let's meet our authors and learn more about their books: Ann Livi Andrews The Two Lands Return If you've been keeping up with this blog, you know Ann. For those who have not been keeping up, Ann is the founder and Supreme Overlord of Support Indie Authors, which began in January...

First off, no, this is not the post in which I reveal that I'm taking the plunge into erotica authorship. That's not going to happen until I am in need of an organ transplant and at that time, I'll be smart enough to use a pen name, thank you very much. This is going to be something of a feminist rant, so you have been warned. Let's talk about the title of this post. Aside from perfectly fitting my quirk for using song lyrics to title my blog posts, the song in this title is relevant for another reason. Back in the late eighties-early nineties, the AIDS epidemic was spreading and suddenly people were becoming aware that this was not simply a 'gay' disease. Safe sex was a brand new concept. Groups like Salt n' Peppa and TLC were breaking new ground by bringing to the forefront the fact that women have sex and not just with their husbands for the purpose of making babies. They introduced to a wide audience the idea that discussing sex as a mature and rational...

   You already know that I love looking back at what people in the past thought the future would look like. Of course. It's fun to see the mylar space suits we are supposed to be wearing while we fly our cars and talk to our televisions. But inevitably, there are some 1950s sensibilities that rather jarringly remind me that progress wasn't exactly progressive. The family of the future was always, without fail, portrayed as white and middle class. Women of the future are always featured using the latest in high tech gadgetry. Well... Kitchen gadgetry. Silly women didn't care about computers. Heck, Jane Jetson was a homemaker with a robot housekeeper, yet what was her role? Oh, that's right, homemaker and paycheck spender.    As much as I talk about my love for the golden age sci-fi novels, it's tough to look past the blatant sexism that persisted throughout the era. Even my beloved Martian Chronicles has a "funny" story about a lonely man who finally h...

Well okay, I'm the one who is out of touch, in case the choice of a 30 year old Hall and Oates song as the title of this post didn't clue you in. I noticed that somewhere around my mid-thirties I began using the phrase "I'm old" as an automatic response to anyone who balked at the fact that I didn't keep up with what's cool with the kids these days. Recently, a friend's tweenage niece looked at me in abject horror and exclaimed, "Have you been living under a rock?" when I mistakenly asked her what One Direction was. For other old folks, it's a band that 13 year old girls can talk about at length. But honestly, I'm not old. Sure, 40 is looming around the corner, but 40 hasn't been old since we stopped working 12 hour shifts in the fields, had babies at 14, and created antibiotics. I figure once they start replacing vital organs with titanium robot parts, I've got another 100 years to kick around. But I am woefully out of tou...

I'm finding an annoying trend in young adult fiction: A book introduces us to the young female protagonist. She meets a dreamy dude and you are led to believe that the universe aligned in such a way that they were made for each other. Then in the second book, the young female protagonist meets some other dude. Maybe he's a badboy, maybe he's the quiet introvert, maybe he's just a normal dude (this never happens). Girl gets squishy feelings and suddenly she's torn between two hunky love machines (bonus points if she describes herself as plain). It would be easy to point the finger at Twilight, but this trend is older than Jane Austen. What's up with that? Is it too much to think that a young female protagonist can be happy with her contrived soulmate and blissfully ignore every other guy who rips his shirt off in her presence? Am I missing something? Tell me reader, if you're out there, does this appeal to you? Am I just a prude? I admit, I've been in...

The Feels will be the first of a reoccurring theme that I'll post from time to time, featuring books, movies, or other stuff that has had a profound emotional impact on me. Why am I calling it The Feels? Because the internet is fond of taking perfectly normal words and slashing them into pidgen-English for the sake of humor and I am known as one of those cool cats who is hip to the jibber-jabber of the cyberwebs. Or something like that. So without further ado, grab your tissues and read on: To preface this post, I have never seen Up and I refuse to watch Marley and Me for a very good reason: I was born a woman with a man's sense of machismo. Tearing up at a movie embarrasses the crap out of me, yet I'm hormonally predisposed to doing just that. I remember being so incredibly pms'd when I went to see A League of Thier Own that I was bawling before the previews were over. Additionally, I'm not the kind of person who reads books or watches movies more than a hand...

Being both a nerd and a girl in the 1980s was tough. There was a delicate balance between Sweet Valley High and Star Wars, Madonna and The Martian Chronicles, and Star Trek's Holodeck vs Jem and the Holograms. Whether I was sitting in bed, flashlight in hand, reading about spaceships or first dates, I remember thinking that I could not wait to be old enough to do either. Well, fast forward a few decades and no, I haven't made it to space yet, but I've had enough first dates to know that Francine Pascal and her ilk lied to me about how awesome teenage romance is. But the future? The future I'm living in is pretty awesome. Which brings us to the title of this blog. Three decades later, I'm still an awkward nerd girl, obsessed with, well duh, vampires and robots. But I'm owning it, awkwardness and all. In this future, I'm broadcasting my nerd ramblings from my backyard, using a magical five inch long box that I keep in my pocket. I'm the proud author of t...