Book Brouhaha

.... and I forgot my own writing anniversary. But that's ok.  I don't think that's a bad thing.  I've stopped thinking about writing milestones, to be honest.  Writing is now something that I do as part of my day, no questions asked. This is interesting because it's the same for music, I've found.  When first learning a musical instrument we are very goal-oriented.  I'm on "the next" piece in a book.  But if you tough it out long enough you lose track of how many pieces you know and it just becomes a thing. Over the past two writing years I've noticed that I've become less profit-driven with writing.  Getting more sales was highly motivating to me when I first started on this publishing journey.  But I noticed that my mindset has switched from needing  to get sales to "Oh, look at that I got a sale.  How nice." My mindset right now I think would have frustrated freshly-published me a few years ago.  But something I've ...

So after a loooooong hiatus I finally resurrected the Calen Natari Saga with a second installment.  I admit that I had a bit of writer's block when it came to Calen's character.  I created her because I liked the initial, shallow idea of a bounty hunter/assassin.  That profession is always romanticized in science fiction because, let's be honest, it's ripe for adventures.  The scenario possibilities that the character can be placed in are literally endless. But that is what caused the block.  I was fixated scenarios, which was the focus of book one.  I realized that scenarios are quickly going to become redundant if I don't go deeper.  I started to question who Calen really was as a character other than just a killing machine. Tempered Flight was the result of those pondering.  Calen's weaknesses are delved into more.  She has flaws.  I'm liking the way this particular saga is headed.  It will be interesting to see he...

If you find out about this story through this post, mention it in an email and the first five people will receive a complementary copy from an e-store of their choice. This is the fifth book and conclusion to this particular Uxel story arc.  It's funny because as I wrote my way through the series I was dead set on five books.  I planned for five, I mapped out five and that was going to be it.  Other series would involve other characters. But by the end of this book I realized that Uxel's story had only really begun.  I had told the story of how she becomes a full-fledged tuner but that's only the beginning of her career.  She has a long way to go. So my plan is to do at least another five book series set several years after Awakening .  The adventure continues!

So I'm going to try something new with these "concept" blog posts.  If you find out about the story through this post, mention it in an email and the first five people will receive a complementary copy from an e-store of their choice. Anyway... the adventure continues with Uxel!  Uxel continues to realize her true character in being captured by the Imperium and forced to design a set of special tuned ships.  The task is way beyond her but her but in doing so she learns what she truly values. Originally I planned on this story arc spanning five books and it still will be.  But I've really be liking how Uxel's character is developing.  So I'm thinking of continuing her "saga" by later making another five book story arc that takes place several years after this one.

This particular story takes place two years after the last.  I considered spending some time delving into Uxel's training on Kortholt (might make some short stories on the blog about it later).  The thing was that I really wanted these books to be more about her developing and maturing.  So book 3 starts with her already more confident.  She may have stuff to learn still but she also has a few tricks up her sleeve.  This has really unleashed her need for recognition and power.   One of the most interesting things about learning is that it's not always just a steady climb upward.  Sometimes we can plateau or even get worse and something before we get better.  In Uxel's case, she is certainly changing but she's not quite sure if it's for the better just yet.   

The adventure continues with Uxel's second book!  I'll be honest: this series has my inner geek feeling all warm and fuzzy.  I focused more on the world-building elements of Muzik Chronicles with this installment.  This is something I've toyed around with on the blog but I've yet to really flesh out and put into use until now. Book 2 continues Uxel's training as a tuner which has been a ton of fun to write.  I had to really mentally explore what  a tuner was and how she could use these powers in a "real world" application.  Like it's one thing to say that you're a wizard but the coolness factor really all boils down to the nuts and bolts of a wizard fight scene.  How do tuners do battle? Well, Uxel has to figure out the answer to that question as well....

For a couple of years now I've been writing stories for a serial-style blog called Muzik Chronicles .  It's nerdy and my mother comprises 30% of my audience but I enjoy writing it.  It's a nice change of pace and it gives me a chance to world build in a way a story won't allow.  All this world building has finally led to me branching out into longer story ideas.  "Longer" meaning it's a novelette and not a 200 word blog post. And so... I give you Uxel Herum! I've invented a system of powers called the Tuning System.  The Tuning System is to Muzik Chronicles as the force is to Star Wars.  Tuning powers are kind of a combination of music, acoustics and martial arts.  It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself.  Uxel is a tuner in training.  This five book series will follow her as she goes from an overlooked fruit merchant to a hardcore chick.

“This place makes absolutely no sense.” “Tell me about it. And I have no idea who we could even talk to for directions.” “Pull our options up on the screen. We need to figure out who would be the best representative.” “Just a moment… hmm… all right here’s a complete list… I think.” “What about Russia? They seem to have the most land.” “But not the most people.” “Good point. Why do they need so much land then?” “Beats me.” “Ok it looks like this place called China has the most people and the biggest military.” “But not the most militaristic. Look at this number here. Korea has fewer people but more of those people are signed up to be soldiers.” “Is that important?” “Maybe? This species is always always fighting. Maybe we need to find the best warrior among them?” “That sort of makes sense. However, they must not be very good warriors. Not one of them has managed to conquer the entire planet. Earth isn’t that big.” “Fairly small, actually. Do you reme...

For those who do not yet know, I have banded together with three other short fiction writers to form a group called the Short Fiction Writers Guild .  The purpose of the group is to promote short fiction to new readers and provide opportunities such as contests for those that write it.  Think of it like a short fiction club. Something that we thought worth exploring is the publication of anthologies.  And it seemed only fitting that our first anthology should feature those that founded the club!  Volume one is all speculative fiction but there's a nice variety inside.  Everything from young adult scifi action to epic fantasy. I'm pretty excited about this whole thing.  Writing is, in general, a lonely profession so it's nice to have some "coworkers" to chat with and discuss what our next "company direction" is going to be.  In a couple of years I see this being a really valuable resource for people.  Especially considering...

The city was enormous.  Bigger than anything she had ever seen.  Her tribe lived mostly in tents made of animal skin.  In the cold season they would have makeshift mud huts. But this... This was beyond anything she could have imagined.  There were beings everywhere.   Merchants  lined the street selling goods.  Crowds flowed through the street like blood through veins. Where should she even begin?  Who should she talk to about the invaders she had found? Calen shifted her pack slightly to a more comfortable spot.  The blood had already drained from the severed heads of the Imperium  soldiers  that she had killed.  Still, they were heavy.  Taking a calming breath she decided to trust The Spirits to guide her and pushed her way forward in the crowd. She wandered for what seemed like an hour.  The streets grew more crowded.  Calen started to look around for a place where she might rest when a voice cut th...

This particular story is a standalone I have available on Amazon, BN, etc. that takes place in my Muzik Chronicles universe.  Muzik Chronicles is my serial sci-fi blog I started it a little over six months ago.  It's kind of like a weekly comic strip only blog-style.  The goal is to eventually have it be a place where people could submit their own little mini adventures. On the blog, all adventures are flash fiction in that they are under 1,000 words.  In an effort to help attract a wider audience, I created this longer short story featuring one of my reoccurring characters, Calen Natari.  I really enjoy writing these stories.  They're just... fun ... to create.  I guess they let me relive my Star Wars fandom from when I was little?  It helps me to unleash the geek within?  I dunno.  What I do know is that I hated it when the Star Wars books got really serious.  To me, that totally defeats the purpose.  Ther...

I've always thought the concept of time an interesting subject.  I know next to nothing about physics but I think it's safe to assume that at this point, even expert physicists are in the dark about time as well.  I mean, we really have no way of knowing how time travel would affect things unless we actually tried it (IF we could even try it).  It's like speculating about the afterlife or something.  No one is truly an expert. The concept behind Cure came from my interest in time and my second favorite speculative subject: toying with the moment of death.  I truly believe that when it's your time to go, that's it.  You can't cheat death.  It's like the line from the Emily Dickinson poem: "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me." I've only sold a handful of copies of this story thus far but so far it's been one of my more favorite ones to write.  Basically the whole premis is about a guy preparing to go into cry...

The idea for this story came from a friend who had recently gone on a trip and visited the local museums.  She showed me this whole series of pictures she took of these small, blue Egyptian statues called shabti.  They're really fascinating to look at.  It kind of makes you wonder how the ancient Egyptians got the statues to be that  blue.  I mean, the statues are thousands of years old. Mysterious blue statues practically scream "short story."  So I caved in.  There were a lot of directions I considered taking but ended up deciding on creating an unusual romance.  When I first traveled over to Europe, I very clearly remember having my concept of time change.  I remember standing in Barcelona staring at a cathedral that had been under construction for almost as long as my own country had existed.   I imagine that it would have been similar for some of the British when they first started traveling to places like India ...

She places her hand in his. Fingers twine together. So many memories it makes them both smile. He closes his eyes one last time.

"End Behavior" is an an action serial designed to be completely ridiculous.  I'm co-authoring it with my good friend and lovely fellow reviewer here on Book Brouhaha, Aubrey Bennet.  Aubrey and I originally started this story back in college for our own personal amusement.  Both of us have a weakness for cheesy movies.  The goal was to create a story that kind of played up every single James Bond/Clive Cussler/Robery Ludlum stereotype. Lo and behold the e-book revolution came around years later.  So we decided to turn "End Behavior" into a campy serial with "Will our hero ever esacpe?!  Tune in next week!" types of endings.  As of right now, the plan is to do eight episodes in this series. I have no idea if the series will ever catch on but they're really  fun to write.  The general policy when putting together episodes is: subtle yet over-the-top.  Our main character never drives any car worth lesson that $150,000 an...

Dead in a Flash is a flash fiction collection that explores those last few seconds before death occurs.  I've had this idea rolling around in my head for years now but nothing ever came of it until now.  I was inspired when I visited London for the first time and took a tour of the Tower.  As a part of the tour, they show you where all the famous "traitors" (people like the wives of King Henry) of England were held and where they walked as they were led down to the chopping block. For some reason that little walk was very powerful to me.  This may have been due, in part, to the fact that I had been reading a lot of books about the Tudors at the time so a lot of the people they were talking about were fresh on my mind.  As they led us down the step I had this weird past/present feeling and it occurred to  me that if this were my  execution, those surroundings would be the last few things I would ever see and experience. That ...

The fifth and final installment to my Space Hotel Series.  It's about a brain.  In a jar.  I know I'm strange but I just find brains in jars to be so classic and creepy.  Though I never say the character's name outright, this story does follow the fate of the doctor I introduced in part one,  Celebrity Space .   The Hall of Immortals  is a little different from the others in the series.  It's more focused on the psychological rather than the action.  It kind of had to be.  What else can a brain do?  But it made for a very interesting writing project.  Since the brain is denied her senses, what defines her reality? Though the story approach was different, I think  The Hall of Immortals  keeps with the style of the whole series.  As with the other stories, it is standalone but also interconnected.  It also has that same kind of dark twist at the end.

This is my first flash fiction collection.  Some of the pieces I originally wrote here on Book Brouhaha.  But most of the stories are unique to the collection.  As a theme I was going for little every day occurrences or interactions.  Little tiny things that I find amusing but don't really warrant an entire book discussing them. I really liked putting together Flashes of Humor, Glimpses of Life .  It was very different from writing a short story.  It was kind of like writing poetry or something.  In order to gather ideas, I had to become hyper-aware of all the little things going on around me rather than just coming up with a single story idea. My next writing project that I've been working on is actually another flash fiction collection.  The to-be-announced collection is about death.  I think all this artsy stuff is making me morbid.

Those fools! They had no idea what they were getting themselves into.  The young knew nothing. Well, he would show them.  He didn’t care if they ignored the plan he had presented. A few hushed steps from behind. What’s this?  Had one of them come to say they had changed their minds? The cold metal slipped between his ribs and pushed into his lungs. If felt like hours had gone by before he finally realized what had happened. Blood seeped down his back. He felt out of breath. It was so much effort to stand.  Maybe dropping to his knees would make things a little better. Still hard to breathe. He would lie down on his side.  That would definitely make things better. Just a little sleep was all he needed to feel better in the morning.

Director of Human Resources  is part four of my five part Space Hotel Series.  It's also the first story in the series to be from the aliens' point of view rather than the humans'.  The purpose of this story was to finally reveal why all the human abductions and experiments were taking place in the previous stories.  Was it just a power trip?  Or is something deeper going on? I had a lot of fun writing this particular story.  It's very rare to see the flip side of the coin in the human vs. alien fight for survival.  Aliens invade, we usually assume they're up to no good and send in Will Smith to blow up their mothership.  I didn't necessarily want to rationalize the alien's motives, but I did want to reader to think about the fact that both sides are fighting for survival.  It's almost a lose-lose situation. Keep an eye out for part five of this series,  The Hall of Immortals.