J.C. Nelson's Blog

So, I’ve been damn near silent for quite a long while, because I’ve been waiting to get the rights to my Grimm Agency series back. And…I did. Even my UF Zombie story, The Reburialists, is now mine to do what I want with.

And what do I want?

I want to make them better. Free Agent doesn’t match my standards anymore. Marissa is occasionally cruel and downright mean in a few cases, and it’s often unclear what experiences drive that. Nothing is ever explained. There’s not nearly enough description. It’s the sort of book I would write eight years ago, but not up to what I write now.

So…there will be a revision and a re-release. The meat of the story won’t change. If you remember the plot, there won’t be a huge difference there. The motivations? The descriptions? All of those will be re-considered sentence by sentence, to give clarity. To reshape.

And there’s a few things I won’t be tolerating. They’ll be out-and-out changed.

So, let the re-writing begin. First up will be all three Grimm Agency books and Soul Ink, along with the Christmas short “Special Delivery.” Then I’ll turn the same way on The Reburialists. Happy Holidays to all of you.

The thing about wordpress sites is…you have to keep them running. And for the last few years, I’ve been super busy with the work life. You know, doing the 9-5 job that keeps the power on and health insurance current.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing.

There is an old adage that says “Don’t write just for yourself,” and boy, did I ever break that. I have (finished) five different books in an Urban Fantasy series called “Soulbreaker,” and a full fantasy novel tentatively called “Daughter of Shadows” and I’ve gotten the rights back to the first book in my Grimm Agency series.

But until I have the rights to all three, I’m not rereleasing them.

Back to wordpress – I left it running and mostly ignored it. And in that time, the spammers found a way to loading thousands of comments offering me:

A bigger penis.

A longer penis

Russian Girls Looking for Love

Viagra (presumably useful if I bought the first two)

Thai Girl Wants To Meet You

and exactly one comment asking what I wanted for Pitchwars 2020…

These comments had the effect of filling my WP’s database to the point where WP itself could no longer function. Cue a long, long call to the Helpdesk, several days worth of waiting, a WP add-in that nuked all the spam comments, plus some help from Ionos admin to compact the SQL database…and we’re functioning.

The theme ain’t what I’d prefer.

The colors are ugly.

But it’s running. And soon, I’ll start posting some “for fun” stories.

It’s good to be back.

There are few things that make my day more than being invited to read an advance copy of a book by authors whose work I know and love, so the day I got an email inviting me to read and review The Triangle, by Dan Koboldt, Mindy McGinnis and Sylvia Wrigley, it wasn’t even a question.

I was in.

I was in for a treat.

I’m going to make an effort to keep this review spoiler-free. I’ve read all of The Triangle. You can’t do that yet, since it’s in serial format, but you’ll be wishing you could. I swear, I would hit the end of the chapter and think “This had better not be the end, I need to know what…”

What did I need to know?

I needed to know what happened to a navy ship, lost in the Triangle?

What happened to a plane full of passengers?

What was the mysterious glow?

Who was a little girl alone at the controls of a Cessna talking to?

And from there, the mysteries only got deeper. Each time I thought I understood who was doing what, some new piece of the puzzle would be revealed, leaving me to say “Damn you, Triangle. Next chapter.” Pacing in a serial is a hard thing to get right. Every piece needs to leave you needing to know what happens next, and The Triangle delivers on this. With out a doubt, some members of the cast and crew will appeal more to readers than others, but each voice is distinct, each person has their own motives, and those motives change and evolve. My personal favorite was Segarra, but fans of CSI style shows will love Dumont.

That’s the other great thing. At times in this book, you’ll probably be delighted, frustrated, or infuriated by different character’s decisions, because they are all in one way or another flawed. This works in the context of The Triangle because rather than get “The Grizzled War Veteran” or “The Hacker” or the “Dr. House, Female Edition” you get individuals.

SerialBox is new to me, I hadn’t encountered it before, but in essence you can either purchase a season outright and listen/read the whole thing as it arrives, or buy it in chunks, stopping where you want. I don’t think you’ll want to stop The Triangle, so I’ll recommend you save yourself the trouble and just buy it.

I had a few quibbles with the book in that by the end, I was certain that at least one character was either lying or being lied to, and that particular person is just too smart to not know. There was one mystery we don’t see the end of and that made me cry little tears of “there’s not a sequel to explain it and I wanted an answer, damn it.” As I said, there’s a few spots where I simply want to smack characters. Not because they’re failing the “Lick this Power Wire” test, but because you’re rooting for them to do better, change. Despite these quibbles, I’m watching for any signs of The Triangle II. I don’t have any proof it exists.

But I want to believe.

You can listen to a sneak peak of The Triangle, buy the whole season (do it!) or just take a taste test of the first episode at https://www.serialbox.com/serials/the...

First things first, go and order it.

No, you haven’t read the review yet, but go and order it now to save you the trouble after you read the review, because, odds are, you will want to order it.  At the end of The Lord of the Rings, the hobbits come home and cleanse the shire of the taint that’s taken over there.

Imagine if Frodo was a vicious bastard, a mobster, a murderer, a business man, soldier and priest. Now imagine that he left the shire in good standing, went away to war, and came home to find out that all his whore houses, gambling dens, and drinking bars have been taken over by those goddamned Sackville-Bagginses.

Thomas Piety isn’t a good man, but he doesn’t have to be, because the city where Thomas lives is built on the bones of good men. Thomas is a business man first and foremost, and when he comes home to find his neighborhood gone to rot, his Aunt in the nunnery, and all his businesses taken, he proceeds to wage a war for the homefront that’s every bit as vicious as the one he’s just escaped.

Priest of Bones is built on the voice of Thomas Piety, and from the very get-go you know the kind of man he is. Profane and violent, measured and careful, lawless criminal and man of his word, king of the underworld, and queen’s-pocket man all in one, all in turns.

The book barrels along as Thomas goes from simple gruntery to the work of actually rebuilding, and that’s where the supporting characters shine. Some of them are only there to get killed, but some of them shine in ways that make you want to see how they’ll react to each situation as much as Thomas himself. In particular, if you don’t like Bloody Anne and Billy…you’ve probably got a decent survival instinct. Thomas is a businessman, but he’s caught up in business that’s not his own, and therein come another set of supporting characters able to hold their own and keep Thomas from settling for just a slice of his town back.

If violence and planning, honor among thieves and treachery among lawmen, blood and profanity and spies and explosions are your thing, Priest of Bones is the book for you.

Get it. Read it. Wait impatiently for the sequel, because I have it on good authority there will be a sequel. Unlike Thomas I don’t have a pair of swords or a gang of Pious Men or a What-The-Hell-is-Billy, but I wouldn’t be adverse to a little skullduggery to get me a copy of it.

I suspect Thomas would approve.

This post is my mentor wish-list for Brenda Drake’s pitchwars contest. In it you’ll find a little about me, what I’m like, and what I’m looking for:

About Me:

I’m a native Texan but I’ve lived so long in the Pacific Northwest, I melt at temperatures past 85 degrees.  I’m a caffeine addict in the recovery stages (as I’m recovering from a lack of caffeine this morning nicely), a fan of white mochas, and a belief that coffee is proof that god loves us and wants us to be productive.  I write fantasy of several flavors, but mostly urban fantasy. My most recent book is The Reburialists, from Ace. If you prefer lighter humor, my Grimm Agency series from Ace books is lots of fun. Writing as Jaycee Nelson, I’ve even published a rom-com, Toys, and am currently editing a romance. If you want to know my writing style, check them out. Those books got their start in Pitchwars. Yours could be next.

What I’m Looking For:

Age Range: Adult. Don’t even bring NA this time to lay at my doorstep – I’m not the right person for it, and if you have a heartwarming YA middle grade erotic picture book, feel free to look at the other mentors. I’m here for the big boys and girls and looking for a story aimed at them.
Genre: This year, I’m primarily looking for science fiction of all scales of hardness. One big lie? Bring it. Sci-fantasy? You bet. When it comes to SF, I am particularly interested in the type that makes me question what it means to be human, or what effect technology has on society as a whole. Think Ghost in the Shell (original, not whitewashed, Japanese version with the ending that defies our desire for satisfaction). That

Doesn’t

mean I don’t also love fantasy, but this year I’m looking for SF Primarily and Fantasy second. If you send me fantasy, it has to knock my socks off, and I am very attached to my socks. If you’ve got quirky, funny, downright strange in your manuscript, regardless of genre, look me up.  And more than anything, I’m looking for that story telling voice that makes me lose myself in the piece so that I get to the end of the sample pages and whisper dark curses on you, your descendants, and your meter-man for not having more of the story.
Things I detest:

Love triangles where one leg of the triangle is obviously not equal to the others:

“Biff is a strong neurosurgeon with the body of a male swimsuit model, who rescues ducklings as a hobby and volunteers at the Children’s hospital when he isn’t flying across the world to do life saving brain transplants. But Scuz? He’s the bad-boy meth addict with no teeth who pawned my phone to get high. He’s stolen my heart–and my wallet, several times. Sure, he has syphillis and breath that would stop a garbage truck in its tracks, but when he gives me that toothless grin, my heart melts even as my stomach turns. How ever can I choose between them?”

Female Screaming Furniture: If I can replace your female characters with an avocado-green ottoman that occasionally screams, and the book otherwise reads perfectly well, you’ve failed and I’m going to be miffed. If it’s fantasy with dragons, why not throw in some agency with the rest of it?Rape scenes: Do you really, really need to have yet another woman getting reduced to the sum of her genitals, to either give her an emotional wound, or drive a male character’s motivation? You want to give your character a wound, you know what works? Molten copper. And if you are having your FMC get raped just to motivate your MMC, don’t even bother. If that’s what it takes to get your main character interested in taking down the bad guy, your main character is an oxygen thief who should be in a love triangle with Scuz the meth addict.

I’m perfectly fine with dark. Twisted. Morbid. Awful. This ain’t a taboo that says “You include any of this crap and I’ll print out your manuscript, burn it, pee on the ashes, grow a tree in the ashes, burn the tree that grows from them, and flush the ashes of the tree.” It’s just to say that if you want to play with fire, you’d better do so very, very well.

I have female characters who treat sex as a power tool to get what they want, male characters who have left a trail of bodies in their wake, and flesh-eating crab-spiders who are the single most beloved part of one book.  Yes, you read that right. The eight-legged, eight-eyed, ravenous razor-sharp flesh-eating venomous crab-spiders who literally devour people are reader favorites.  So do dark, morbid, twisted, awful, but damnit, do it well.

Why You Want to work with Me:

I’m brutally honest, and yet your biggest fan. I believe in stories that deliver endings which make you say “Of course.  That’s how it had to end.”  See here for an entire post on endings. I will snark at you, write “Really?” or spin lengthy scenes in my comments to illustrate why you might want to be more specific. I’ll read your baby and treat it like my own (which does not mean dropping it on its head). I won’t be nice to shield your feelings, because an agent or editor won’t be either, but I’ll support you through the process of doing the hard work of taking good to great.

How to enter:

Go to Brenda Drake’s website. There’s an online submission form.

Caveats:

I won’t accept critique partners or folks I’ve beta read for. I’m sorry, but I’ve already helped you as much as I can. Pick someone else and I’ll root for you, too!

Why I am awesome: I kept bees for years. Have you ever picked up a swarm of bees with your bare hands? I have.  Also, I have four children and all of them are somewhat socially adjusted. I write fantasy that you may love and am going to hell for laughing at things that should not be funny (but are!).

 

To help you find your way onward, here’s a linky.  Enjoy!
http://wp.me/p3YLhv-7Yc

I’ve always been a fan of the reprap project. I’ve tried to build one at various stages, and had to face the fact time and again that I’m lousy at building electronics from scratch. However, in the last few years, 3d printers have not only become simpler, they’ve become near commodity items, with kits as low as $150 on different sites.

A few months ago I won a drawing at work for a gift card, and decided to splurge on something I would never buy otherwise: A 3d printer.

For my first one, I selected (based on price) the Monoprice Mini Select.

Why?

Amazon had it as an open box special.

Now, to go ahead and spoil things, the mini is fantastic little printer for PLA (the softer plastic which melts at 185 degrees celsius, and frankly will deform if you leave it in a hot car). PLA is the starter plastic everyone should print with, because right now, printing is as much art as it is science, and if you buy a printer, you need to be comfortable adjusting, cleaning, and maintaining it.

In a few years we’ll laugh and say “remember when you had to do X to your printer?”

That is not right now.

Also, to note, you can get the V1 and the V2 of the mini. I’ve owned both. There is no viable reason to get a V2 if the V1 is significantly cheaper, since all the upgrades the V2 has (cooling fan, standard hot-end) can be done yourself with some time.

The downside of the mini? Print area. Print area is 120mm, which is both huge compare to how the photos make it look and tiny compared to other printers. The mini has a huge community developing mods for it, and it’s pretty much exactly what a new-to-3d-printing person would want.

Then Came Trouble.

Now, when I bought the mini I actually considered buying an Anet A8





The A8 is a cheap Chinese clone of a Reprap Prusa V2. Why would I do this?

It comes as a kit. I like building things.
While the quality of the A8 out of the box is low, you can print almost every upgrade the printer needs..on the printer.
I’m a tinkerer. What can I say? I do things because I can, not because they’re practical
There’s a huge community, and almost everything you can hate about the A8, there’s a mod for.

So…for my birthday, I splurged and spent $150 on a kit that took weeks to arrive from China. The A in “A8” stands for “All Assembly.” To assemble more, I’d need to fly to China and help manufacture it.

It took ~6 hours to build from a kit (they say 10, and I don’t doubt it for some builds). It takes even longer to calibrate. This is NOT a “working straight out of the box” machine. This is more like a kit you can assemble to build something you then use to make a good 3d printer.

Incidentally, the thing the A8 needs the most (an E3d hotend) you cannot print, but you can order it for $10 bucks from China. I suggest ordering several, along with replacement belts.

Thus far, the A8 is exactly what I expected – a kit I tinker with off and on and modify, which, in the next couple weeks, will blossom into a real workhorse printer with a build area 220x220x240mm. The biggest problem I see with it is that wiring in mosfets to control the heater and extruder are, in my opinion, absolutely required for safety, so the $153 printer is at least $173.

And what do I print? All sorts of things. Prototypes for a nutrient control system I’m designing. Pump pieces for the same.

Lots of toys, which I print and then paint.

So…if you are interested in 3d printing, the mini is a fantastic starter printer. The V1 is rock solid, the V2 is good (but is louder). The Anet (and similar Tronxy or unbranded clones) are good machines, but you really need another 3d printer to build the parts to upgrade them.

I also played with/owned for a day a Micro3D printer (the mini). I can’t recommend that printer to anyone. It’s more expensive than the mini and the print quality is poorer, the hardware feels like it came from a happy meal, and the software blows chunks. I printed a few things on a davinci Jr, and other than the filament lockin, it was a decent machine.

Own a printer? Share me links to your favorite items you’ve made.

Thinking about it? Tell me what kind!

Wordpress work underway..

I confess to being a kitchen gadget addict. By gadget, I don’t mean apple-peeler-corer-slicer, or quesadilla maker (I have one of those, it’s called a ‘pan’).

I mean, I own a slow-cooker.

A sous-vide.

An Instant-Pot.

And the great grand-daddy of them all, a pellet smoker.

I love using every single one of them. During the week, I’ll rarely do more than toss a chicken in the slow cooker and cook it for the next day.

On the weekends? I put 200lbs of brisket on the smoker, bag a roast and put it in the sous-vide for 20+ hours, and slice up mirepoix to make chicken stock.

Cooking is, for me, a creative expression much like writing. I create. I enjoy. I move on to something new.

My newest toy, the Instant-Pot, for those of you living under a rock, is an electric pressure cooker. Which is to say, it’s like the old-style pressure cookers but less likely to blow the safety valve through the sheetrock of your kitchen ceiling (yes, this is a real thing).

Here’s the instant-pot I’m using (click to view on amazon):

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Now, there are a zillion sites with recipes for “instant-pot potatoes” and that sort of thing, so I’m going to tell you my favorite things, then share one:

I can cook a whole chicken frozen solid without defrosting. Hell yes, I can. Come home and need dinner and your meat’s a rock-solid chunk? Toss it in the instant pot.
Every meal makes at least two. When I cook the chicken whole, I make broth, which I freeze into a bullet if not cooking immediately. That broth becomes the basis of a chicken and rice soup (or chicken and noodle) soup.
I don’t have to hover over it. Set and forget is the rule.

So, what’s our favorite thing to cook?

Chicken + Chicken stock.

I start with a whole chicken (giblets included? Hooray).

Next, I make the mirepoix – that’s a fancy word for chopping up an onion, some carrots and celery. You want twice as much onion as carrots or celery, usually. I dice a whole white onion, two carrots, and two sticks of celery. I’m a heathen who leaves my aromatics in the broth. Sue me.

Wash the chicken, dump it in the pot.

Add the mirepoix.

Salt and fresh ground peppercorns go in next.

Parsley if you like it (I do!)

Fresh thyme to taste!

Add just enough water to cover most of the chicken – remember, there’s going to be chicken juice soon enough. When in doubt, an little less water is better than more. Lock that lid on, set the vent to seal.

Now, here’s where things go a little off the rails (for anyone who hasn’t cooked much). The Instant Pot has lots of great settings, but for this one, we want to press the manual button, then increase the time to 60 minutes.  Me? I do it *way* longer, like 120 minutes, if I have time, but the chicken will be done in 60 minutes.

The pot starts automatically if the lid is on, and when it’s done, the chicken meat itself is good with vegetables, but what’s in the pot is even better…fresh chicken stock. I usually do a second pass on this by deboning the chicken, giving the bones a whack with a mallet to crack them open, and then tossing them back in the instant pot for another 60 minute round.

Why?

Cracking the bones opens the marrow up.

Cooking again extracts it.

The result is a chicken broth which you can strain and freeze. I bought some cheap plastic dishes that are the same size and shape as my pans, so my frozen broth comes out the right shape to thaw in a pan.

Today, I’m delighted to host a friend, Laurel Wanrow, and celebrate the release of her Sci-Fi Romance, Passages.  Check out the cover, read about what makes her world different, and read an excerpt of this excellent book!

Lacuna, a bit of realism, a bit of magic

 

I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman. I love his book Stardust, and the movie as well. I was delighted to discover its extras included a behind-the-scenes interview with Neilhimself. He talks about how he came up with the idea for the story: He’d been playing with using a wall, on which one side the world was mundane and the other magic. On a drive one night, he saw a shooting star and wondered what would become of the star if it landed on the other side of the wall. Stardust was born.

Fantasy authors take normal ideas and twist them onto their sides. I have a concept I’ve done that with in Passages—lacuna.

 

Lacuna is a real thing—it’s a gap or an unfilled space. The word is most widely used for bones, but it can be a gap in anything. By letting my hero Quinn be able to use lacuna, Passages becomes a science fantasy—a world where both science and magic work. In fact, J. C., my gracious host for this post and one of my fabulous critique partners, first pointed out to me that I had combined the two.

 

Readers have their preferences and so do writers—I can’t imagine a story without some magical aspect. Perhaps Maya Angelou says it best:

“If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”

 

 

Excerpt from Quinn’s point of view:

 

“Keep going. Do the cross-leap,” she gasped, “even if I black out.”

Hell. What else could I do? With the guard cursing behind us, I flung an arm around her shoulder and trotted along the corridor. We dissolved.

Fully immersed in the accelerator’s energy, I could make connections to any destination once I visualized it…but my mind jumbled. No image came. Do the cross-leap. I mind-linked with Graen. Her trips appeared and I snatched the vision of the island. West of here at fifteen degrees longitude. North, sixty degrees latitude. No direct course between this Conducer and another, but that made it harder to trace. I merged two segments…shortened another, and in a split second my mind cranked out the jumps. Our molecules flew apart.

We hurtled through space on a trajectory manipulated from a map’s coordinates, and I held to the transference as if our lives depended on it—because, judging from the Blackguard’s shouts, they did.

The tingling in my body ebbed. I collapsed with Graen into the leaves at the edge of a wood. Frigid air surrounded us under a sky speckled with starlight. Aarde’s golden moon, Roamer, hung on the horizon, about to set. Behind a rocky outcrop on the adjacent hilltop, the faint glow of pink meant Misha, the red moon, was rising. It was at least an hour before the dawn we’d left behind on the mainland.

Graen hadn’t moved, but neither had I. I tightened my arm around her and applied pressure to her bleeding neck. Her steady breathing comforted me as I listened to the stillness. Had the ’torg guard followed? We’d never had witnesses to what I could do before. According to Graen, our people’s way of rearranging particles for movement—into the near space gaps of Lacuna, or far space travel like cross-leaping—marked us as aliens on this well-secured planet.

And Aarde banned outsiders. If the Docga’s ’torg minions discovered us, it’d land us beds in jail until we could be deported to an off-planet detention center.

 

Follow the Passages Blog Tour to read more science & fantasy tidbits!

 

Blurb:

 

“Find someone you can trust.”

For decades, Eve and her fellow electorgs—part human, part machine—have worked on the quiet planet of Aarde, beating back toxic spores that threaten to poison the native people. When the new commander halts work right before a deadly spore release, Eve frantically plots to protect the villagers she considers friends and family.

On the run after an ambush, Quinn holds a secret that nearly got him killed. If only he knew what it was. Though the attack scrambled his memories, Quinn is sure of one thing—he can’t trust the electorgs. But they know information he desperately needs to puzzle out who wants him dead, and why.

With the fate of life on Aarde in the balance, the logic of joining forces with Eve overrides Quinn’s fears…and erupts into an attraction that could prove fatal for both of them.

Because the planet’s commander might just be Quinn himself.

Passages is on preorder & sale for .99 through February 5th.

Amazon | Kobo | iBooks

Add Passages to your Goodreads shelf!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N1ZDIHC

 

Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/passages-18

 

iBooks:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/passages/id1192779904?mt=11

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33805801-passages

 

Author bio:

Before kids, Laurel Wanrow studied and worked as a naturalist—someone who leads wildflower walks and answers calls about the snake that wandered into your garage. During a stint of homeschooling, she turned her writing skills to fiction to share her love of the land, magical characters and fantastical settings.

 

When not living in her fantasy worlds, Laurel camps, hunts fossils and argues with her husband and two new adult kids over whose turn it is to clean house. Though they live on the East Coast, a cherished family cabin in the Colorado Rockies holds Laurel’s heart.

 

Find Laurel at:

Website| Twitter| Facebook | Pinterest| Goodreads

 

Website: www.laurelwanrow.com

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurelwanrow

 

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/laurelwanrowauthor

 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/laurelwanrow/

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/laurelwanrow

 

 

 

Below are the bloggers participating in the Blog Tour for Passages. Each stop will have excerpts and tidbits about the science & fantasy, and a chance to win the tour prizes: a $10 Amazon eGC or a sign paperback of Passages. (Giveaway open to US/CAN)

 

Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

And visit the other bloggers as well:

Jan 26: Travel to a Mineral Hot Springs on Vicki Batman’s Handbags, Books, Whatever…

http://vickibatman.blogspot.com/2017/01/handbag-and-book-w-laurel-wanrow-author.html

 

Jan 27: Goudrogen Crystals on Jessica E. Subject’s Happily Ever Afters Across the Universe

http://www.markofthestars.com/wp/passages-laurel-wanrow/

 

Jan 27: Hornworts on C. D. Hersh’s Two Hearts Creating Everlasting Love Stories

http://wp.me/p1tsn7-1i9

 

Jan 29-31: Thermophiles on The Multiverses of Liza O’Connor

http://multiuniversesoflizao.blogspot.com/2017/01/laurel-wanrow-shares-thermophiles-and.html

 

Jan 29: Author Interview with Mia Jo Celeste on Other World Diner

http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2017/01/an-interview-with-laurel-wanrow-author.html

 

Jan 30: Moons and Rising Waters with Laurie A. Green on Spacefreighters Lounge

http://spacefreighters.blogspot.com

 

Jan 31: Creating a Character’s Home Planet—in a Red Dwarf Star System on Pippa Jay’s Adventures in Scifi

http://ow.ly/cRIk3089mQI

 

Jan 31: What kind of a book is it? With Kira Decker on Toni Decker Books

https://tonideckerbooks.wordpress.com/blog/

 

Jan 31: Lacuna, a Bit of Realism, a Bit of Magic on Author J. C. Nelson’s Urban Fantasy and More

http://authorjcnelson.com

 

Feb 1: Resolving your story problems…including knocking out a pesky spore? on Riley Moreland’s Whiskey With My Book

http://wp.me/p75xNx-B1

 

Feb 3: What do you think of when I say “cyborg”? on Veronica Scott’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog

https://veronicascott.wordpress.com

 

Feb 4: The Mystery of Transporters on Heather Massey’s The Galaxy Express

http://tge.scifiromancequarterly.org/?p=512&preview=true

Not too long ago, I met with a friend for coffee, and while I was talking with her, I described how I’d once experienced a thunderstorm from high in the mountains, and how the storm felt like something alive and moving just outside.

That idea crystalized together with one about a young woman living in a deeply haunted house.

Why would anyone choose to live there?

And the answer came to me–Because she had nowhere else to go.

The woman’s name was all I knew at first – Sarah Kincaid. From there, the story grew and grew, and by the time it finished, I realized I’d opened the door to a world I wanted to explore more. Soulbreaker was done, but Sarah’s adventures were just opening up. It also felt good to explore the world from the point of view of someone who’s had it much worse, and yet still sees the world with hope and optimism.

One way or another, I’m going to introduce the world to Sarah, a young woman whose touch destroys the dead–and drives her insane in the process.

Death is not the end. Sarah Kincaid is.

Soubreaker.