Reasons & Excuses & Distractions

Greetings, awesome humans!

Today, I’m going to start out by telling you all the reasons you should check out my upcoming Kickstarter and hit that “Notify on launch” button right now:

• because you love fun, cute, loveable robots

• because you want to learn about The Robot Galaxy Series

• because you've read and loved The Robot Galaxy Series and now you want to be among the first to read the T-set

• because you support real human narrators

• because you haven't had enough coffee yet

• because you've over done it with the coffee and are clickity-clicking on everything!

• because you're my mom

Hit that notify link before I keep coming up with more reasons...!

Okay, I have one more reason… I want to accumulate a certain number of pre-launch followers before I do launch. I’m ready to launch the second I hit that number!!

Before I go any deeper into the rest of today’s newsletter, of course I need to remind you of ALL THE THINGS. “THINGS” being the books and short stories I have out there for you to read.

So first, let me remind you about the rest of my books and stories if you haven’t grabbed your copies yet:

Links: Lunar Logic | Robot Galaxy Series | Final Orbit | Objective Reality

One of the more challenging things about being an Indie author and publisher is figuring out all the ways and places to sell your books. I do have my own “direct” store — where you’re buying the books directly from me instead of a third party like Amazon, B&N, Kobo, etc — and I’ve recently shown it some love. Check it out, even if you don’t buy anything today, and let me know what you think! It’s here:

• https://crazyrobot.myshopify.com/

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Now for the less than stellar news. A.k.a. the excuses I have for no flash fiction today. First, the good news. I had an idea; I was motivated to start a story! I simply need more time to finish it.

This next story will be about Venus. I was recently inspired by some news articles like this one that reported on how China wants to do a sample return mission to Venus. A sample of the atmosphere, that is!

Unfortunately, there are no details, so I’m forced to, at least for story purposes, come up with my own. For the story, that’s great — I can invent whatever I’d like! I know at least a few of you, when you read that last sentence, said to yourselves: “no, you can’t! You can’t make it *wrong*!”

As it sped away from Venus, NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft captured this seemingly peaceful view of a planet the size of Earth, wrapped in a dense, global cloud layer. But, contrary to its serene appearance, the clouded globe of Venus is a world of intense heat, crushing atmospheric pressure and clouds of corrosive acid. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

And I don’t entirely disagree… I have rolled my eyes and groaned plenty of times myself at science fiction that got things *wrong*. But to me, “wrong” means it didn’t follow the laws of the story universe. We do a lot of things “wrong” in science fiction, simply because we are inventing entirely new universes. How else could I have sentient alien robots (in The Robot Galaxy Series)?

I find it much more important that a story be self-consistent, even if it gets things wrong. And the story still has to have compelling characters, a good story, etc. (This is why I can enjoy movies like Gravity that gets a few details wrong, and loathe a movie like Moonfall. Here’s the podcast episode where my co-host made us watch Moonfall and then we discussed it. Don’t watch the movie. Listen to our episode instead!)

In short fiction, particularly flash fiction, it’s a fun challenge to establish the “rules” of the universe because you have just a few sentences, tops, to do it in.

I’ve written a lot about a story I haven’t written, right? I’ll get this one done by the next newsletter. I could have pushed it to have it done for today, but I’ve had a few distractions…

I’m a crafter. I haven’t been crafting much this last year, and I think that made me susceptible to learning about a new craft. The other thing to know about me is that embrace the “reduce/reuse/recycle” mantra. Especially the second two bits of that. I’m a recycling fiend (although I can be even fiend-ier if I want to be) and I see so many things as a “reuse” possibility. Yes, I will save that pretty box ‘cause I think I’ll find a use for it. Someday. Maybe.

(And then every now and then I’ll see a video or article on decluttering and the stuff at the top of the list: those pretty boxes.)

All is this to say I stumbled my way into a series of YouTube videos on… glue books and junk journals! And by a series of videos I mean… I watched a lot. And then I started gathering the materials I’ll use all in one place. (WARNING: Don’t click that link unless you want to blink and lose and hour. Although if you do click that link because you’re curious about what this is all about, try to just watch the one or two at the top by Margarete Miller. )

And then I went on a hunt for some pretty boxes… that I was SURE I saved… except that I am now convinced I probably did get rid of them on one of my little decluttering sprees.

Materials I’m collecting for my glue book/junk journal.

Now — to be fair… this didn’t interrupt my core writing time which is at 5am. But that’s not when I write flash fiction for this newsletter. I usually write the meat or draft of the story at random times when I get inspired. That happens any other time. But it usually doesn’t happen when I’ve got other projects on the brain…

I haven’t started assembling my first journal yet, but I’ll include pics when I do. They are destined to be space and sci-fi themed. They might even include the covers and pages from my book proofs that I’ve saved and have had no idea — before now — of what to do with them.

One of the proof copies of Lunar Logic.

And then I’ll get back to that flash fiction. Promise! So meet me back here in two weeks…

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There’s more to read and listen to…

I routinely participate in newsletter swaps with other Indie Authors. This is one of the ways we help each other get the word our about our books. So please — check these folks out and see if they’re for you!

You might enjoy this short story in the Two Democracies: Revolution Series from author Alasdair Shaw, who I’m participating in a newsletter swap with:

Is the strange new warship they were fighting still out there? Will it come back for them? [continue reading…]

I also participate in Group Promos as well. Here are the ones I’m in that you should definitely check out and see what other stories and authors you might enjoy!

On The BIG Sci-Fi podcast, my co-hosts and I recently spoke with author Robb Pearlman and then had a chat about Spaceballs!

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Beyond…

Today, I have a few things to say about my recent writing process… or changes to that process. And a very brief update on the Kickstarter.

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