Science fiction writers meet here.

[Christopher Hunter]

Thank you for creating this thread, Charles!
My name is Chris, and I am in the middle of completing the final book of my trilogy. Hope to have it out by early July. In the meanwhile, the first two books are on sale for .99 each. And I'm starving to get that first review.

Best of luck,

CJH

[Susan MacDonald]

Hi, I've just joined Kindleboards today.   I've published my first book in paperback and kindle, got my first review on Goodreads, and am now wondering what to do next!  There's lots of good advice on this site and I'd like to participate, so am trying to create a signature and dive in.  All advice welcome. 

[Grady Hendrix]

I'm going to chime in. I write mostly funny stuff, but it's usually fantasy or sci fi-ish. I attended the Clarion workshop back in 2009 and have published some stories via Strange Horizons and Pseudopod and have a short story (called "Mofongo Knows") in John Joseph Adam's upcoming mad scientist anthology.

I write for a living (mostly YA and journalism - if you can call it that. Puff pieces?) and have my very own ebook up now on Amazon. It's called SATAN LOVES YOU:
http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B004XQWLLI

It just got its first review from Red Adept, and I'm really psyched about it:
http://redadeptreviews.com/?p=5339

Would love to hear how people have been promoting their books. And, also, any tips on cleaning up HTML! I'm just learning and I really want to get my stronger with my HTML kung fu. (I did SATAN in HTML and uploaded that to Amazon.)

[Colin Taber]

I got my proof copy today of my second book, Ossard's Hope. Just checking over the formatting before letting it go live and then organising the Kindle file to be formatted.

It's all go go go!

[cfmillhouse]

I'm toying around with the idea of putting together a network of independent science fiction writers.  Much like the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, but unlike the SFWA who only allow mainstream published writers, our group would before self-published writers only.  So what does everyone think of that Idea?  Suggestions anyone -

[Patty Jansen]

I'm a writer of SF (hard SF and space opera, plus some other stuff on the side).

I take the approach to work on all sides and all avenues open to emerging writers. I have worked hard at my short fiction, on the basis of which I've been able to join SFWA. I think it's worth working hard to improve your fiction so that you can get professional recognition. If nothing else, different doors open for you.

I've chosen to self publish a number of works. There are some re-publications of short stories that have been published elsewhere, and two novels. Despite the fact that I got good responses to both, neither sold in the end (but I walked away from a contract for one of the novels). Since I wrote those novels, my focus has shifted, and what I'm writing now is in a different subgenre.

I am still sending material to traditional publishers. I have consciously chosen to do so without an agent for the time being, for the reason mentioned above (a less-than-keen agent won't market yourwork, but you will be contractuallt tied up for years while the agents is not shopping your work). Most publishers in SF are open for non-agented submissions.

[Steverino]

Hi Charles and all you SFers,

I jumped onto the Kindle in March with Outrageous Fortunes, an alternate history novel that tries to push that sub-genre about as far as it can go.

Thanks for this thread!

[LDS]

@cfmillhouse - make it so, captain. I'd love to be a part of it.

[Betsy the Quilter]

Hi, I've just joined Kindleboards today.   I've published my first book in paperback and kindle, got my first review on Goodreads, and am now wondering what to do next!  There's lots of good advice on this site and I'd like to participate, so am trying to create a signature and dive in.  All advice welcome. 

Welcome to KindleBoards!  Good job creating your signature.  You can have your own book thread in the Bazaar, which will earn you one of the coveted KB Welcome Letters and allow you to be listed in Jeff's Master lists pinned to the top of the Bazaar.  And you'll want to hang out in the Writers' Cafe to discuss author stuff, and check out the rest of KindleBoards to discuss books, tea, coffee, movies, music and much, much more!

Betsy

[cfmillhouse]

@LDS
I've been working on it and I'll contact you here on kindle boards when it goes live on the net.

[jnfr]

Science Fiction or Fantasy? I had an interesting experience with my novel-in-progress when I realized I could write it either way. My protagonist is visiting another world. I got her there through magic, but doing the world-building and alien races I realized I could have put her in a spaceship and called it science fiction. Different requirements for writing that, somewhat, but many requirements are similar. I usually end up with fantasy because I enjoy thinking out magic systems that have both logic and wonder behind them. I don't read as much hard sci-fi as I do fantasy, either, though I've read a ton of both over the years.

Nice to meet you all

[Colin Taber]

It's an interesting genre, that's for sure. There is so much flexibility in it and all of its subs.

[cfmillhouse]

You could call it Science Fantasy.  That's what I tend to write, since most of my science is made up.

[J.R.Mooneyham]

Although nowadays I'm heavy into 'hard' sci fi (and have engineering training and lots of personal research to back it up), as a teen I also liked the fantasy stuff, such as Lord of the Rings, and as a kid did some considerable LOTR-type stuff myself in my notebooks.

When I finally got around to writing my own science fiction epic, I couldn't resist including one book in the series with a considerable amount of LOTR style fantasy in it.

So how did I reconcile the fantasy world within my hard sci fi story? Via virtual reality: a massive V.R. to which people were hooked up, and experiencing it all with the same sense of reality that our most vivid natural dreams can offer. But of course, many of the people connected so were hooked up against their will, and physically restrained, and never allowed to know the truth of what was happening to them. So even if they managed to break into a lucid state within the dream, they could rarely gain advantage from that.

(And no, I didn't develop this story line after seeing the Matrix film; I had it fixed by around 1992; or some seven years before the Matrix was released. But yes, I failed to publish it until later on my web site, and only recently began publishing the whole series as ebooks. But the general idea is an old one anyway, having appeared in at least dozens if not hundreds of older sci fi books over the decades; and I'd read roughly 1000 total sci fi and fantasy books by college.)

This particular story forms the core of the third book in my sci fi series, which I'm presently in process of proofing/editing/converting to Kindle. Its two predecessors are already available (although only one of those would fit in my signature below).

[rdavidking]

I just got a nice 5 star review for my book Nanomech http://bit.ly/k4FRb7. I hope it helps some, because trying to sell your self-published work is hard. Really hard. Any ideas from the folks on this discussion thread about how to market your books without having to spend hours a day posting over and over again in the Kindle forums?

[Patty Jansen]

Wow, JR, a fellow hard SF nut. I do write other stuff, but at the moment most of my new writing is hard SF.

[J.R.Mooneyham]

rdavidking, I've been picking Kboards' best minds for good marketing intel for maybe a month or two now, and am presently working to implement the best techniques I've found. Once I have sufficient results from those efforts to add them to the info, I'll probably write up a guide and post it online, just as I already did about creating Kindle ebooks.

I've been slowed up some in this process due to getting struck by a tornado a month ago, which has added lots of new chores atop my already existing backlog (darn it!), such as trying to get my house repaired. But yeah, I agree with you it'd be nice to have a more straightforward guide to practical marketing than seems presently available.

Hi Patty! I've only got two of my sci fi on Amazon so far, with two more to go in that series. But I've got a lot more to put out there if those four books do well. As for my dedication to 'hard' sci fi, I've got a web site speculating about the next 4000 years of human history, which I did in the 1990s as prep for my novels-- since following acts like those of Heinlein, Niven, Vinge, and other famous future world creators is daunting! Ha, ha. Folks like Charlie Stross too have impressed me more recently when I came upon their works.

An illustrated speculative timeline of future technology and social change
http://www.jrmooneyham.com/future_history_timeline.html

Of course, I had to know the likelihood of alien contact too for any writing about the far future. And if it did happen, what those aliens were probably going to look and act like. So I researched that too.

The rise and fall of star faring civilizations in our own galaxy
http://www.rise-and-fall-of-alien-civilizations-in-our-own-galaxy.com/index.html

I made these things available years ago to help not only myself but any other science fiction writers who might wish to have a consistent and plausible foundation on which to base their own stories.

[R. M. Reed]

I haven't attempted a science fiction novel, but I write short stories. Mostly I concentrate on what happens to the people and don't try to explain the tech.

[Neil_Plakcy]

I thought I was writing a romance novel with a paranormal element, but I've been told that because there's an explanation for what's going on (plausible or not) that makes it a science fiction touch rather than a paranormal one.

When seventeen-year-old Melissa Torani falls for cute but nerdy newcomer Daniel Florez, she has no idea that meeting him, and sharing a deep soul kiss, will change her life forever. No longer an ordinary girl, she’s plunged into a world of gang-bangers, Cuban exiles, and FBI agents. And what’s going on with her brain? How come she’s suddenly so much smarter than she used to be?

Just one kiss from Daniel plunges Melissa into a science fiction world-- have Daniel’s brain cells been leaking into her? How can that be possible? And yet she’s reading faster than she ever has before, scoring higher on school tests, and even helping her parents understand what’s wrong with her brother, the Big Mistake.

Melissa’s wry, funny take on adolescence, falling love and getting out from under her parents will draw you in. Fans of Richelle Mead and Stephenie Meyer will fall in love with Melissa and Daniel as they depend on their brains and their deep emotional connection to survive-- and maybe even graduate from high school along the way.

I've read a lot of fantasy and some science fiction (love Neal Stephenson) and I'm interested to hear whether this distinction I've made is the right one.

http://www.tinuyurl.com/soulkiss

[R. M. Reed]

What's the explanation? It sounds most likely to be SF to me, if you have used DNA or reading minds or a virus or something like that. If it's a soul transfer or a ghost or reincarnation it's paranormal. These things definitely overlap.

[Neil_Plakcy]

The explanation is that the boy's mother received mysterious injections from a mad scientist doctor when she was pregnant in Cuba seventeen years before, and somehow those injections have made him smart-- and given him the ability to transfer that brain power to someone he has a strong emotional connection to.

Neil Plakcy
writing as Scarlett Jacobs
http://www.tinyurl.com/soulkiss

[LeonardDHilleyII]

Hi all,

Great to see all the sci-fi authors connecting here.  I'm the author of a dark suspense sci-fi series that begins with Predators of Darkness: Aftermath ($2.99).  My series deals with cloning, genetic super soldiers, and conspiracies.  I've always loved writing and biology, so I suppose it was inevitable that I should combine the two.  I look forward to learning more about all of you!

Best,

Leonard D. Hilley II

[J.R.Mooneyham]

Neil, first off your URL sent me awry twice when I clicked it; definitely NOT to a book page of any kind. On the third try though, it worked.

Although a 'supernatural' explanation for something is usually possible for just about any circumstance (being so fluid), your story does sound like it could easily have a sci fi explanation instead. For instance, Larry Niven in some of his books wrote about special injections of RNA possibly being used to transfer memories from one person to another. Today, there's much talk about various stem cell procedures being used to repair or improve organs (including the brain). There's also various drugs with the potential to improve brain function.

Heck: they've even found that a form of natural genetic engineering goes on in us almost all the time, with various circumstances turning on or off some of our genes, or else fine tuning some. These circumstances include things like infections, exposure to toxins, diet, stress-- maybe even learning itself at times. All sorts of things could change our DNA-- and once our DNA is changed, various aspects of our mental and physical being can undergo relatively rapid change as well.

It probably wouldn't be too far out to say that merely being intimate with a certain person might tweak your DNA in some way...

[MoonglowNovel]

Hi, Charles -- from a fellow-Charles! :p But I go by Charlie. Nice to meet you!

Your work sounds an interesting mix of history and sci-fi! How did you come up with the idea for "In Memory Alone"?

My personal approach to sci-fi is more atmospheric than "hard science" content or anything like that. I have a sizzle for Earthbound sci-fi that is the foundation for my debut self-published novel, "MOONGLOW." Basically, it's a sci-fi lesbian romance set in a future fashion world. Curious potpourri of genres, I know, but that's the vision I've dreamed  for close to 8 years now.

My long description is:

"If anyone had told super model Rena Hilst she would find true love and happiness with someone twice her age, she would have laughed them out a window. Yet, there she was, at 22, living her dream as one of the fashion industry's top talents, in passionate love with her 43-year-old manager at Moonglow Model Management, Shell Dawes. From the outside, no cracks in the crystal of their relationship were apparent save for something on Rena's part:

Other women.

Rena never really hunted for people to cheat with but being far away from home on jobs with the most beautiful and interesting people on the planet occasionally led her to party too much and end up in another girl's bed. In fact, Rena repeatedly promised herself to stop straying on Shell. Then, at a fashion & celebrity elite gala, she meets Koko Dean and Lilly Morgan, 18-year-old best friends on the path to stardom in their own rights; Koko, an up-and-coming fashion model and Lilly, a musician with a knack for fashion design. Koko and Rena hit it off right away, which puts a damper on Lilly's plans of finally telling her best friend she loves her beyond the boundaries of friendship.

Rena finds herself wedged between an inclination to get to know Koko better or finally stay true to Shell. Feeling it's about time to change her ways, she opts for the latter but temptation won't let her off the hook that easily. Booze-fueled circumstances put her in line to stray yet again; this time, with her childhood best friend, Shannon Sadoveanu, a socialite who recently lost the love of her life by tragic means.

Shell had always put Rena's flings aside, chalking it up to necessary life experience for someone so young and free-spirited. She rationalized them as indiscretions of youth, fully believing that nothing -- especially a few meaningless affairs -- could rupture their love and bond. However, when she finds out what happened with Shannon, the crystal cracks. Something about it doesn't seem so meaningless. She feels the loss of Shannon's girlfriend may have opened the door to a hibernated love with Rena. Not sure how to deal, Shell wonders if she is to blame for tolerating Rena's occasional bouts of horseplay. For the first time in their four-year relationship, Shell questions the promise of "happily ever after." Together, they must finally confront the skeletons that have hung in their closet for far too long.

Set against the eclectic fictional cities of Moonglow, USA, and Utsukushisa, Japan, MOONGLOW will titillate your imagination, strum your heartstrings and prove that -- no matter what era we live in -- love is our strongest ally."

Sorry to bomb this thread with such a thing but I like to think the best way to get to know an artist is to know their art. Everyone can check out my novel's website at http://moonglownovel.wordpress.com/ and my purchase page from Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/62372 . Also! If anyone has time, please have a look at my book's Official Facebook and -- if you're so inclined -- toss me a Like? https://www.facebook.com/MoonglowRomance .

-----

My FAVOURITE sci-fi author is Dr. Isaac Asimov. Nothing beats the grandfather of sci-fi for me! :p I have read the Foundation Saga a million times! In cinema, Bladerunner: The Final Cut is my favourite sci-fi film of all time, (and one of my fav films ever!)

Personally, I'm a new novelist, a private chef, photographer and artist from San Antonio, Texas.

It's DELIGHTFUL to meet everyone here. I look forward to lots and lots of fun, insightful chitter-chatter with all of you!

[Neil_Plakcy]

Thanks, JR! I'll have to look up the Larry Niven. Always interested in what else can happen in a sequel!

Neil