Scattered Seasons Thunderclap Campaign

The Thunderclap campaign for Scattered Seasons I mentioned yesterday has been approved. If you're not familiar with Thunderclap, it's a type of promotion in which you ask a specified number of supporters to donate a tweet or Facebook status to help you spread the word about your event. It's similar to Kickstarter in that you must reach your goal (or number of supporters) for the campaign to launch. Anyway, here's the beautiful banner Maria Zannini at Book Cover Diva designed for Scattered Seasons:

And here's the link to the Thunderclap itself: http://thndr.it/1F9wXxO

I'd appreciate your support. If you have a Thunderclap campaign of your own, please share the link in the comments so I can return the favor. 

Reading and Writing Updates

The A-Z Blogging Challenge starts on Wednesday! I'll have to sneak in a few posts about Scattered Seasons during April, but for now I can report that I'm just waiting for the paper cover before I order the proof. You can pre-order the eBook on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iTunes. I have most of the promo ads lined up and am also going to start a Thunderclap campaign to announce the release. More details will be coming out when that's launched.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to work on the first draft of Chaos Season, Book Three in the Season Avatars series. I'm also planning to prepare a mini story collection featuring the four Season Avatars before the events in Scattered Seasons. This would be a permafreebie to introduce the series to readers (in addition to Seasons' Beginnings, of course.) Two stories are already written, so I'm working on the other two. After I get one of these projects finished, I'll have more time to work on the next story in the Catalyst Chronicles series, which will feature a minor character from Twinned Universes and be a bridge between that book and Book Three, Catalyst in the Crucible. Short stories are harder for me in some ways than novels, but I would like to get more written so I can put them in a collection and prepare a print edition.

Do you remember the reading challenge issued back in February to stop reading books by a certain type of author for (straight white males) a year? I've been mulling it over and decided I would find that challenge frustrating, even if I shortened it to a month. (I could read twelve books in a month, which would be equivalent to reading one book a month for a year.) I read for entertainment and education, and I generally don't research an author before deciding to read a book. I also don't like being forced to read only a certain type of author, as that would give me reason to resent their work. I already read a lot of women authors, though I don't exclude men either. What I think is more sustainable in the long run is to be more open to reading authors whose background differs from mine in some significant way, such as racial, ethnic, nationality, or class. I could try to read at least one book a month from an author that fits that description while continuing my normal reading. I've already done one for March; now I have to pick one for April.

So, how are your projects going? Feel free to share in the comments.

Science of the Week, 3/27/15

This will be the last Science of the Week post until May, as the A-Z Blogging Challenge starts next week and I need to spend extra time visiting other blogs. I have to admit that when I don't prepare this feature, I miss reading the articles. Hopefully you enjoy reading them too.

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Brain tumor cells decimated by mitochondrial "smart bomb"

Quantum experiment verifies Einstein's "spooky action at a distance"

Our solar system may have once harbored super-Earths

Landmark study proves that magnets can control heat and sound

Real "skinny water"? Special microbes make anti-obesity molecule in the gut

Large Hadron Collider scientists hope to make contact with parallel universe

Scientists recover T. rex soft tissue
(This is an older article, but it's still pretty incredible.)

Thousands of atoms entangled with a single photon

Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday.

Scattered Seasons Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Available!

Yesterday, I received the final front cover of Scattered Seasons from Maria Zannini of Book Cover Diva. Ready to feast your eyes on it?

 Here's the description:

Lady Gwendolyn lo Havil is an Ava Spring, born to heal others and lead the Season Avatars of her generation. Season Avatars with divine magic must work in groups of four to save the country of Challen from Chaos Season, times when all of the seasons appear at once. When the current Ava Spring dies in a riding accident, Gwen must find the other three Season Avatars she will link with.  But two of them are missing, and with Gwen's own magic crippled by a cursed pottery shard, she will have to use all of her skills to find the Avatars scattered across the country of Challen. During her journey, she meets a stranger who claims to know the shard's origin. Is he truly an ally of the Season Avatars, or is he trying to stop them from uniting?

I have officially made this available as a pre-order on Amazon and on other channels through Draft2Digital. (Links will be posted here and on my website as soon as they are available.) Scattered Seasons will go live on April 28, 2015. (I figure it will be my birthday gift to the world.) From now through May 6, 2015, you can buy it for $0.99. After that, the price goes up to $2.99.

eBook Prices

Last week, a book from one of the authors I follow on Goodreads came out. The announcement said the eBook was available for a “special introductory price,” so I checked it out on Amazon. Do you think the price was 99 cents? $4.99? No, it was $9.99. I closed the tab without even downloading the sample and headed over to my library’s website to put the book on hold.

Everyone has different price ranges they’re comfortable with. For me, I have no problem with prices of $4.99 and below for fiction and nonfiction, though I generally read the sample first before deciding to buy. (I may buy the book outright if it’s a nonfiction book on sale or if I’m familiar with the author’s work.) If I’d read the author before and consider myself a fan, I’m willing to go a little higher, maybe up to $7.99. 

Any price that’s higher than a paperback for a novel, however, is more than I’m willing to pay. At the speed I read (more than 200 books a year), I can’t afford to read $9.99 eBooks. They’re not a good value for me, especially if I’m going to read the book once and remove it from my Kindle to conserve space. Even $7.99 may be daunting if the book is part of a long series and I would have to pay over $100 to read the entire series. At that point, I will borrow the book from the library if possible, look for cheap secondhand paperbacks if the book has been out for a while, or simply skip the book and quietly rejoice at being able to shrink my immense TBR list.

I’m willing to spend over $10 on non-fiction eBooks, particularly if I think it will be useful for writing. Since non-fiction is only about 20-25% of my reading, and not all my non-fiction costs that much, I can manage the occasional splurge. 

If you read eBooks, what price ranges are you comfortable with? Does the subject matter or familiarity matter?

Science of the Week, 3/20/15

Happy Spring Equinox! In the world of my fantasy Season Avatars series, each Season Avatar is born on the equinox or solstice of his/her season. Today, therefore, would be the birthday of my character Gwendolyn lo Havil, the Spring Avatar and protagonist of my forthcoming Scattered Seasons. I wish I could time each book to come out in the appropriate season, but that might mean holding them back for longer.

Anyway, here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Almost 150 of our genes may come from microbes
(bacteria, viruses, and other organisms can transfer genes directly to humans--and the process is still ongoing)

Oncologists reveal reasons for high cost of cancer drugs in the US

Scientists discover gecko's cleanliness secret (They have special small, hair-like spines that cause water drops to collect and roll off the gecko's body. This technique could be applied by humans to protect electronics.)

Nearly 70 percent of evangelicals do not view religion, science as being in conflict

Cyborg beetle research allows free-flight study of insects

Moral decisions can be manipulated by tracking eye gaze

Scientists discover how to change cancer cells into harmless immune cells

Iron rain fell on early Earth

Have a good weekend, everyone, and see you on Monday!

Facts for Fiction: The Copernicus Complex

Yesterday I finished reading The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities. Long ago, people used to think the Earth was the center of the universe until Copernicus showed the Earth revolved around the sun. These days, it seems obvious that we're just a Johnny-come-lately species stuck on an infinitesimal rock going around an average star in an average solar system...or are we?

This book attempts to help humanity figure out its place in the universe by looking at everything from the formation of solar systems to the beginning of life.  Among other things I learned from this book is that our solar system is unusual compared to others that have been found around other stars, the inner planets of our solar system may not have stable orbits (Mercury could crash into the sun, or Venus into us), and megaviruses may have devolved from other life forms. Altogether, the evidence suggests that we do occupy a special niche in the universe, but our ultimate significance to the universe depends on how much we explore the universe, even if we have to do it by machine instead of in person.

Although this was an interesting book to read, it's not a research book full of information I can use in my own stories. It is useful to step back every now and then to look at the big picture--and you can't get a much bigger picture than this.

Do we dare disturb the universe? Feel free to comment below.

Project Updates

I'm back from my much-needed blogging break. I did miss blogging, especially reading science articles for my Science of the Week posts, but I did need the time to catch up on various things. Here's a quick update:

A-Z: My posts are done, and I've created tinyURLs for all of them. Now I just have to prepare the daily tweets and brace myself for visiting a lot of blogs in April.

Scattered Seasons: I've heard back from four of my beta readers and revised according to three of their comments. The final one hasn't gotten back to me yet, so I should follow up with her soon. In the meantime, the cover is in progress, and I'll reveal it when it's ready. In the meantime, you can add it on Goodreads if you so choose.

Chaos Season: I've written about 26,000 words so far and estimate I'm about a third of the way through. Hopefully I haven't just jinxed myself to bog down in the middle. I'd like to get the first draft done by June, though April and May will be busy for me.

How are your projects going? Feel free to share in the comments.