Category Archives: Writing

I probably should post something here, hey

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Anthologies, Cats, Personal, Writing

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The reason why I haven’t posted anything since I pretty much moved everything over to WordPress is simple — I now have four different WP website/blogs that I maintain, and logging in and out is a PITA so I tend to stay logged into one and keep it that way.

That being said, it’s ridiculous that I’m paying for a blog over here and not using it, so, hello. New publishing stuff since April — I’ve published another Nicola paranormal romance novella, Shifter Woods: Roar,  I have two short stories out in the new Future Classics anthology A Lone Star in the Sky, I’m thisclose to finishing book three in Nicola’s Two Thrones series, and I’ve submitted works to Carina Press and an agent.

New arting stuff — I now have 33 covers under my belt, which pleases me as a graphic artist, and I’ll be adding at least three more covers to that number before the end of the year. I knew buying that Wacom drawing tablet was going to be a good investment.

New personal stuff — this past summer in the clavicle of Texas has been remarkably mild, and according to the battery of medical tests I’ve had due to turning 50 and being eligible for ALL kinds of free screenings I’m relatively healthy and should continue to kick around for another twenty years or so, barring accident, murder, or incoming asteroid. The J Crew continue on their merry feline ways, the Bodacious Brit is both British and bodacious as always, and while I rather liked Episode 1 of Star Trek: Discovery I doubt that we’ll be paying for CBS Access because that way lies madness.

Oh, and apparently as of October 18th the Department of Homeland Security will start collecting social media information on all immigrants and their families/associates, so as the wife of a green card holder I presume that I’ll be watched by DC. Hello, boys!

Busy, busy, busy…

30 Sunday Apr 2017

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Man, it’s been a hectic ten days or so, hence my lack of posting. Incoming house guest and associated house cleaning + unexpected trip back to the UK for the Bodacious Brit + two book covers + one character doll + getting the car safety inspection and new registration sticker = Mellie running around like a headless chicken. But right now the house is clean, I had a lovely dinner, the cats are snoozing, and there’s nothing nagging at me to be done. So that makes for a nice Saturday night.

Mind you, I still need to finish that character doll tomorrow, pay the bills, vacuum the stairs, and put in some more wordage on Cross Current. But that’s a lazy Sunday for me. Hell, I may even kick back with a hard cider or two.

Holy CRAP. I just went national

21 Friday Apr 2017

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A few nights ago, if you were on Twitter you might have noticed the hashtag #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear trending. Since I am 1) a woman writer and 2) have heard some astounding shit which has tempted me on more than one occasion to take the action shown above (I’ve managed to abstain by reminding myself that I’m a redhead and orange isn’t my power color), I posted a couple of tweets.

One of them, “Well, it’s not like it’s real work, right?” could in fact be applied to all sexes of writers, something I later acknowledged (although one male writer did say that women probably heard it more often than men). The other, “Wait, you write science fiction? But you’re a woman” was something that a then-new doctor actually said to me after asking me what I did. Since I needed a refill on my Synthroid scrip I just gave him a thin smile at the time (sometimes you have to pick your battles). I was very surprised to find my tweets liked and retweeted time and time again, but I didn’t really think anything about it other than, “Yeah, obviously I wasn’t the only one to get this.”

A few hours ago, I learned that 27 of the most relatable tweets in this hashtag had been collected for an article at The Tempest, and in fact my first tweet was used as the lede. The article itself included tweets from such literary lights as S.E. Hinton, Joanne Harris, Kate Elliott, and a host of other brilliant writers who have many, many more followers than I do. I have no idea how I wound up with these amazing women, but I’m proud as hell that I was included.

Pondering the issue of reaching people

21 Tuesday Mar 2017

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As you know (Bob), I not only write SF and fantasy as Melanie Fletcher, but I also write specfic romance as Nicola Cameron. I’ve had quite the enjoyable ride as Nicola, and I’ve even become a hybrid author thanks to her so that’s all good.

Except I’m running into some curious issues of promotion with my latest Nicola book, Degree of Resistance. DoR is the first book in a planned 6-book series called Pacifica Rising, and is classified as science fiction romance, specifically cyborg romance. In reality, it’s so precisely balanced on the border between SF and romance that I think I may be scaring off readers in both camps. There is undoubtedly a romance at the center of the story — in a 2048 that’s seen the dissolution of the United States into a loose conglomeration of protectorates, Evie Contreras is an unlicensed cybernetic engineer working as a PA for a rich quadriplegic in the Pacifica Protectorate. When she learns that her fiancé Ben didn’t die twelve years ago in a jumpship crash as she’d been told, she moves heaven and earth to find him, and romantic hijinks ensue (complete with explicit sex scenes because, frankly, I enjoy writing them).

So that’s the romance. The SF is the future tech and the protectorate’s sequestration of cyborg technology to hide a secret — that after a disastrous android uprising, low-caste protectorate citizens have been converted into controllable cyborgs and used for black ops projects and expendable “entertainment” at luxurious resorts. Plus there’s a snarky AI named Lilith who works with a group that offers to help Evie rescue Ben if she’ll get Lilith’s server out of Pacifica in one piece. Oh, and there’s the question of the remaining Adamantine line of androids that fomented the rebellion in the first place — Lilith uses one as a peripheral to interact with humans more easily, but there may be one more in existence, something that won’t make the Pacifica authorities happy.

And did I mention there’s a comet on the way that’s about to sterilize the surface of the earth? Because there’s nothing like raising the stakes to global annihilation

Like I said, it’s balanced pretty much on the border between SF and romance. Everyone who’s read it really loves it (and has left great reviews, bless their hearts), but it’s just not selling all that well because, despite buying ads and talking it up all over social media, I’ve had the devil’s own time trying to get romance reviewers to review it and get the word out about it. I think I’m going to try pitching it to SF reviewers as well and hope that the sex scenes don’t throw them.