Guest Blogging

Hi, I’m Steven Moynier author of Alize in Wonderland and I’m your host for this stop in the Hunt.

If you would like to find out more about the Hunt, please click here - http://vfcscavengerhunt.weebly.com/

Somewhere on this page is a hidden number. Collect all the numbers from all the authors’ posts, and then add them up. Once you’ve added all the numbers, and if I am your last author, please head to the official website and click on the ENTER HERE page to find the entry form. Only entries will the correct number will qualify to win.

The author I’m pleased to be hosting for Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt today is E.C. Jarvis, author of both Steampunk and Erotic Fantasy.

E.C. Jarvis is a British author working mainly in speculative and fantasy fiction genres. For the last thirteen years, Jarvis has been working her way through the ranks of the accountancy profession in various industries. During ten of those years she has also been writing.

Since two thousand and fifteen, she has independently published five books spanning two different genres and series. The Machine, The Pirate, and The War in The Blood and Destiny series - a steampunk adventure. Desire and Duty, and Lust and Lies in The Consort's Chronicles series - an erotic fantasy.

She was born in Surrey, England in 1982. She now resides in Hampshire, England with her daughter and husband.

Check out her work here

http://www.amazon.com/E.C.-Jarvis/e/B0154YOIGI

The Machine (Book one in The Blood and Destiny series)

Larissa Markus is a humble clerk in a clothing shop with a hidden past when she is swept off her feet by the charismatic Professor. Their whirlwind romance explodes in her face and leads her down a tumultuous path of adventure, intrigue, love and violence. Airships, pirates, corsets, torture, murder, and more a wait in the first novel of the Blood and Destiny Series from E.C. Jarvis. The Machine is an adult steampunk fantasy book. Possible triggers are present within the book including but not limited to sex, murder, torture, and violence.

The Pirate (Book two in The Blood and Destiny series)

Larissa’s new role as Captain of a pirate airship was never going to be simple. The mess of events that lead to her change of career don’t seem to be abating. Can she convince her crew to stick around through all the unusual and dangerous events? Or will she succumb to the mounting pressure and grief that others impose on her at every turn? The unravelling mysteries from her past mingle perilously with airships, fights, and explosions galore. 

The Pirate is book two of the Blood and Destiny Series, following on directly from the events of The Machine. 

The War (Book two in The Blood and Destiny series)

When your day begins with an escape from a volcanic eruption and a plane crash leaving you stranded in the desert, you’d be forgiven for giving up all hope. Larissa and Cid have survived the journey to the hostile land of Eptora, having experienced an incredible number of bizarre events. Can their luck hold out on the journey home? Larissa and Holt both believe each other dead, and with good reason. 

As she learns more unsettling details of her father’s past, and his devious plans for the future, Larissa once again finds herself in the middle of a mess. With two nations on the verge of a war fabricated for one reason, it’s up to the unlikely crew under Larissa’s command to put a stop to the inevitable. 

Fights, airships and explosions keep readers of this fast paced action adventure on their toes once more. 

The War is book three of the Blood and Destiny Series. 

Book One, The Machine, 
Book Two, The Pirate, 
Book Three, The War, 
Book Four, The Destiny (future release) 

**25**

Desire and Duty (Book one in The Consort’s Chronicles series)

Set in a fantasy world, Desire and Duty is the first erotic romance in The Consort’s Chronicles series. The Emperor of Kienia is expecting his wife to provide him with a son. After twelve months of waiting, he’s growing impatient and Lenora realises her life may be forfeit if she can’t make good on her purpose. What follows is a tale of passion, intrigue, and sexual awakening. 

In a world dominated by men, where a woman has only her body and her wits to rely on, Lenora will risk everything to protect her position and survive. 

(This book features M/M scenes)

Lust and Lies (Book two in The Consort’s Chronicles series)

Set in a fantasy world, Lust and Lies is the second book in The Consort’s Chronicles series. 

Lenora is standing on thin ice. Her illegitimate child is obviously not the Emperor’s daughter. Her dangerous affair with the handsome assassin is both her greatest joy and deadliest game. No matter how much she longs for a simple life, things just keep getting more complicated. To top it all off, the Emperor still wants a son. 

Lenora finds herself in a position of power and begins to uncover a mess of deception at the heart of the throne. Lenora will do whatever it takes to survive once more. This tale of passion, intrigue and sexual awakening continues leading into the third and final book in the series. 

Connect with E.C. Jarvis

Website

Amazon Author Page

Goodreads Author Page

Facebook Page

Twitter

Did you find the number? If you did, then click E.C. Jarvis’ link – www.ecjarvis.com/blog to continue Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt.

On politics and voting in the 2016 election

I try fairly hard to leave politics at the door, but lately all I see is how Trump is amazing, no he's not he's a loudmouth, nuh uh he's going to build a wall, no he's going to tear this country apart! Well, that and Hillary is a crook, I mean the only main party candidate qualified to be president, I mean a brainless idiot who left classified emails on a private server, I mean the first female president you misogynist! As you can imagine, I am more or less thoroughly fed up with Republicans and Democrats alike. Look folks, I have been a registered Republican since I hit the big one eight and became eligible to vote. I didn't know what a Libertarian was at that time and, I have come to learn, how much closer I am to just right of center on the political spectrum than not. So I'm going to talk about my views on politics. I'm also going to talk to you about voting. Feel free to listen, or don't, that's on you.

Before I give you lot a brief overview on my political beliefs, as well as my basic reasoning, I want to address my biggest complaint with both main party candidates. At the beginning of their town hall meetings, the very first thing both mainstream candidates started doing was trashing the other mainstream candidate. Now we expect Trump to open his mouth and spew garbage, but even my Democratic friends are disappointed in Hillary bad mouthing Trump's kids. Hey, if you hate each other, that's fine, but leave the families out of it. Only, here's the thing... Neither side has figured that out. Trump has talked trash about Bill, Hillary has talked trash about Trump's wife and children. I expect the mud slinging to escalate even further. This isn't politics anymore: this is a really shitty soap opera, or even Reality TV: the Washingtonian edition.

So what do I believe? Wow, so many ways to answer this. Bearing in mind that I'm not about to cover everything, not to mention the fact that my ideas actually evolve as I research the facts for myself, let's look at some big issues on both side. First, LGBT rights: I believe everyone has the right to marry whom they will under the law and that ALL American citizens deserve the right to pursue happiness in any way they choose, so long as they do not infringe on the rights of other citizens in their pursuit. This is far more than just the LGBT community in that blanket belief, but it is the start. Religious groups tell us that gay marriage is wrong, yet they cannot actually tell us it is illegal. Why not? Religious groups claim that marriage is a spiritual affair and thus dictated by the church. However, the government defines marriage as a civil union between two adults. In fact, were we to change the name from gay marriage to a gay civil union, or even hand-fasting, I expect there would be less outrage from religious sorts. Disagree? Well how about you love your neighbor and try not to judge other people you sanctimonious p...person, you.

Or how about Abortion? Capital A on that on because it's a Big Button Issue. O.o There are people who say that Abortion is wrong, it is murder, regardless of the circumstances. My question for you is straight forward. If a woman is raped, who are you to tell that woman she should be forced to have that child? If carrying the child(ren) to term will more than likely result in the death of the mother or both the mother and the child, how should she not abort the fetus? What about a teenager who is the victim of statutory rape, or who succumbs to peer pressure, and ends up pregnant? What about those who cannot look after themselves, let alone a child? I grew up so poor that me and my family lived in a van. We lost everything shortly after my kid sister was born. Would I wish she'd never come about? No. I love her, glad she's with us. But having lived in a situation where we could only flush the toilet once a day because we couldn't afford gas to get to town to pump water into a tank just to flush it, where showers were a one a week thing, where kids were raped by adults and their parents were given that money they needed to survive... No, my kids will never know a life like that. Oh, and no... My parents never took money for me. Did stuff happen to me? I won't talk about it, don't even like thinking about it, and that's that. So yeah, on Abortion I stand pro-choice.

How about the Right, then? Let's start with guns. Look folks, do not let the media tell pull the wool over your eyes on this one. The guns that politicians are most desperately trying to ban are the ones used in the least number of crimes. In fact, statistically, hand guns are used to commit more violent crimes than all other gun types combined. This is true even after you eliminate criminal on criminal gun violence, which is the vast majority of crime committed with a gun present. Do the research, then the math, somebody has lied to you. So let's go further into it. The AR-15, or rather the Armalite model 15, was designed as a civilian use weapon. The talk you hear about this being a 'military' weapon is pure and utter rubbish. In point of fact, there are pistols with more stopping power than this particular weapon. If you convert one of those particular pistols into a rifle, which is actually quite doable, the get a rifle that is more deadly than the antiquated AR-15. It's amusing that there are pistols with higher capacity magazines than this rifle the media hates so much, not to mention that fact that almost every gun on the planet is semi-automatic. The president made a point of telling us about 'military grade semi-automatic' rifles available on the market. Wow, the lie in that! The military uses selective fire, which means either semi, three round, or fully automatic firing. The military uses one semi-auto rifle... and that's for snipers. But President Obama didn't get on the television to tell us the horrors of the fifty-cal Barrett stealth rifle with it's terrible semi-automatic evilness and it's ten round magazine. It's hilarious to me since this particular rifle has a confirmed kill at over a mile and a half (and that's when I looked at it two years ago)!

Here's a big one: The Death Penalty. I find it amusing that the Left tends to vilify the Right, stating that all they want to do is make money off of imprisoning criminals, yet they are opposed to killing off the worst criminal elements. Look, if we kill off the worst elements after a set amount of time is up for appeals then we will reduce the crimes. For some criminals, it's better to live in prison than out, as at least in prison they get three meals a day and the opportunity for an education. Some people quite literally kill to get into prison. However, if prisoners are going to have to face tougher punishment for their crimes, will it not help deter the crime itself? I know that there will be innocents who are caught in the cracks, but the more people who are sentenced to death as opposed to life in prison, the less prisoners living off the taxpayer. Is it possible I'm wrong in this? Quite! Unlike some, I admit to my failings.

So lets look back at the presidential candidates. It turns out we have two other possibilities, Johnson and Stein. The way Johnson's campaign is going, he could actually stand a chance to actually be president. I agree with his stance on legalizing marijuana and doing further research into it. I agree with quite a bit that he's said and done. Yes, Trump is a Republican this year and swears all those Democrats he supported over the years was just a wild coincidence. Yes, Hillary didn't really mean to let those soldiers in Benghazi die rather than deal with it, nor did she intend to leak sensitive information to her friends out of country via an unsecured personal email server. At least Johnson is actually talking about the issues, not going crazy slinging mud at his opponents. Hell, even his criticisms have been clean. And this has gotten long enough. I might respond to comments or edit more into this later, but I don't exactly have a large readership. Vote your conscience this year folks, whomever you support, and I will see you at the polls.

Where are you?

Hello! I know that you lot are wondering: What the heck is going on with Steve? Where is he? What is he doing? Aren't you? Ah, that's because I have the best readers. Worrying about me, I'm exceedingly touched. Okay, Erin might say I'm touched in the head, but touched is touched! I've been a wee bit busy living life, which is hilarious in its way. I've also been writing. I should be writing here more, though, and maybe I'll just have to make it up to you. I now declare this the month of excessive blogging! Not that I expect to beat my earlier combined blogs, but I have plenty of time to do so. 23 total since December and I want to say the first two or three months were the big ones! Well then, let's get to it.

As you all know, I have this habit of writing a little. It's not that I can't type fast (because I can), nor that I don't know what to write, I have an idea... I just hadn't been as active about it as I could have. Well, that's changed. I've got a double short story almost ready to go up, and I'm working on some other stuff. Like 25 other short stories. Okay, maybe not quite that many, but quite a hop! I'll tell you a little about each, just a general idea. Are you as excited as I am? I knew it!

So you already know about my short story in that zombie anthology, Once Upon A Zombietale, where I pitted "Alize" against her old antagonists, the people of Wonderland. To be fair, there was little violence. I gave her a gun and barely let her use it. She's tough. Well, that's not my only fantasy-thriller. Another notion I have, one I've been toying with again in recent times, is a mirror version of Earth where all the dark creatures of our imagination hold power. Not only do they live, they rule, and all humanity can do is survive... sometimes. Sometimes we die. It's one heck of a place and it makes even me wonder: Is that what happens to some of our missing people? Who knows.

Then there's my Institute set. The Culhanian Institute of Magic and Technology.  It's the modern day, magic is real, the supernatural exists, and magically animated corpses are assaulting the Institute! The only problem is, our hero is already dead. Still, for a ghost, he tells a lively story. This one is going up in the next few weeks, or it will as soon as I finish with editing. Then there's a dystopian Terra, a thousand years or so in the future. Humanity was all but destroyed by a weaponized virus and our young hero, a woman named Erin, is on a hunt to discover the history of her world. She takes us all along for the ride, though, which is awfully nice of her!

And then there's Captain Gabrial Scott, a young ship's captain who is forced to turn pirate. He doesn't have the temperament for it, alas, and becomes more of an anti-pirate. His enemy, Admiral Bruce Allen, is hunting him across the galaxy, and the pirate Christopher Alexander is just as determined to see young Captain Scott dead. It's a tough galaxy, and aside from a few loyal friends he is alone in the universe. I'm excited to see how he survives!

Short Story vs Novella vs Novel

Hello everybody, glad to see you again. So there's a few thoughts on indie-author work. What's the best thing to go for? Is it better to write a short story, or a novelette? Is a Novella the better deal? Or should you go right for the novel, giving your fans what they want: more story for their buck? I'm of two minds on the matter, and I'll be happy to tell you about it. After all, that's what I do!

So first, let's look at the monetary aspect. Writers want to get paid, whether they are indie or traditionally published. While the quality, and quantity, of your work should determine the price, that doesn't always happen. Personally, I'm of the mind that a short story should go for a dollar or two, same for a novelette. Novella should go for a bit more, say three to four, and a novel for five dollars. As it gets older, start lowering the price. So, after a year or so, cut that price back by a dollar! What do you think, are my price points reasonable for a self-published affair?

But that leads us to content. I like the idea of having a few short stories available, so people can get a taste of my writing style without having to go for the whole novel. Then again, there's kindle unlimited these days, so more pages mean I'll get paid more per viewing. Not sure how I feel about Kindle Unlimited, but it's a neat concept. I like the idea of a digital library, mind, but... yeah

So I've got a short story released, available as part of an anthology being released on the 1st. Maybe I'd better get my book done, huh? Eandyil Nathar made a guest appearance in my short, it's only fitting I get back to him. And my loyal fandom deserves to know I've not forgotten him. So, see you all soon!

A new adventure

I know, I make this sound like a sexy new book, or even a good action movie. We are now in Nebraska, hanging out with the Zombie Queen herself! That's got to be good for morale! We hit a few state capitals on our list, too. YAY Bucketlist! So, Kentucky down, West Virginia down, and Missouri down. We didn't go near Illinois capital for the obvious reasons, but we plan to eventually. First words we heard when we got here? Welcome home! So, yeah!

Plans from here are straightforward. Finish that book, job acquired, and selling tickets to see The Hobbit. Okay, that last one is a joke. Hobbit doesn't leave the dungeon. I mean, wait, what? Right, so we have the Burglar, we need a crazy old man for the Wizard. Casting starts with you. This is a short update, but that's life. Cheers, folks! We'll see you again, soon!

My thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, and some alternatives.

With the recent changes in Facebook's policy, especially right on the heels of the twitter controversy, it would be very easy for me to start ranting and raving. I will rise above such base impulses, however, and we'll chat about it. There's no guarantee that things will not get heated, alas, but you wouldn't want this to get too boring, now would you? Yeah, me neither.

The Tweet That Was

Twitter has gone completely 1984 on us. In this particular instance, Big Brother is actually a team of men and women on the "Trust and Safety Council." My problems with them are legion, but I'll try and keep it simple. I'm going to break this up a little bit. I'll tell you the way I think they should have done this, and then what they actually did. I'm even going to try to keep the name calling down. Aren't I nice?

What they should have done is appointed their 40 people from a variety of different views, both conservative and liberal, libertarian as well as authoritarian. While a government doesn't work so well as a committee, suppressing free speech (even on a privately owned platform) that will lead to people hating your dying business should only be done as a last resort. If a user spends a great deal of time tweeting about killing all white people, then delete those posts and issue a warning about racist comments. They get three chances, third strike and bring down the ban hammer.

I think my idea sounds reasonable, I'm sure there are thousands of people with a better idea. That's awesome! But here is what the 'wise' folks in charge of twitter decided to do instead. The filled their 40-person team with Leftists with a Cause. We're talking about the kind of Leftists that most Democrats are embarrassed to admit share the same party ticket. The majority of them are known ONLY for their anti-harassment work, the ban first and ask questions if they get in trouble types.

People such as Anita Sarkeesian, who's first act upon becoming a member was to BAN a person who tended to pick on her favorite subject, in this case feminism. I've tried to be polite, but this woman needs to put on her big girl panties and grow up. Want to run a fun experiment? Try using #FreeStacy and see how long your post stays up. If you are conservative, or even if you tend to post positive thoughts on anything that is felt to be a Right Wing Issue, then you've probably noticed that your posts have been disappearing, or that your followers aren't SEEING them. TaSC seems to feel like it's their task to censor the Right, because they are Evil and Wrong and they do not follow The Way. I mean, really, censorship is un-American!

Which leads to a conclusion, of sorts. Why doesn't Twitter's leadership do something about this? Is it because they don't care? Or are they actively supporting this behavior? Several popular conservative, and even moderate, Twitter users are actively leaving the sight. What else can we do? When even people with huge followings, like Adam Baldwin, or even large followings like Larry Correia, are being shadow-banned and censored it feels like it's time to leave Twitter. My account is active only in the sense that I'm posting links to my blog and various ads. I've deleted the vast majority of my tweets in protest, not that I think The Leadership of Twitter cares in the slightest about me. If things continue to digress, I'll quit. Quite a few have done so already.

Which Brings Us To Facebook

Look, those of us who remembered Facebook when it was young remember how cool it seemed. It had so much potential! Yes, there have been some good changes since those days, but there is a limit to that. Now it is all about "Facebook Games" which are nothing more than an annoying time sink, at best, and click-bait/malware waiting to happen at worst. Then there's all the advertisements, and the fact that you can have a thousand people who like your page, follow you, really want to know more about you and your books yet they never SEE your stuff because Facebook wants you to PAY for that privilege.

Excuse me? Even if a HUNDRED of that thousand chooses to share a post, less than half of your page's "likers" will ever see it. I posted a link the other day and didn't share, like, or anything to it. Two people saw it, one of them was my girl. Alright, so my page was just a little inactive! I also manage a new page, just over find hundred folks, and at LEAST ten of us are sharing and liking the posts. Of the five hundred and twelve people who like our page, only 86 people saw it. Many that saw it didn't like the page until they saw our reposts, So even with a highly active page, with people actively sharing and talking about it, less than twenty percent of our page's viewers actually see our posts. This is a problem!

But this isn't even my main problem with the social media outlet. This is just the beginning. Fortunately, there isn't enough alcohol or drugs in the world to make me get into all of it. The above about pages applies to your personal wall as well, only you have a slightly higher reach. I've got less than four hundred friends, but more than 300. Let's round it down, call it the even three oh, oh.... Of that lot, I see about a dozen people's posts regularly, then maybe a few of the more 'popular' pages and a bunch of "sponsored" posts I could care less about. So I've tried a few experiments. I went through my friends list, posting stuff on their walls, just saying hey. Did you know that over half of my wall has NEVER seen a single one of my posts? Quite a few asked me who I was? I didn't even hit everyone, some! Forgive me, but that is RUBBISH! That's not even getting into Zuckerberg's "I don't care if black people post racist stuff, they are cool, don't block them. But them white folks, you block that stuff HARD." Not an exact quote, but it's what came out of a few articles on the subject. Racism is racism, it doesn't matter what skin color the person has, or the culture they come from. But I'm moving past it.

Which Leads Us To Alternatives

Granted this is one of my more verbose blog articles written to date, I'm pretty sure "the most" is accurate, but I am not a hundred and twenty characters kind of guy. It is a bit hard to take a Tweet seriously when you don't have enough sentence options to argue a case, and it leads to dropping punctuation almost altogether. I make mistakes, who doesn't? I don't like when I have to do it willfully, however. So when I went looking for alternative social media sites, I wanted something my friends would actually use. For that reason, Google+ is out. I love it, myself, but it's kind of too little, too late for many. Then the author, Stephanie Osborn, who gave us the Displaced Detectives series, introduced me to MeWe.

Before I talk about this funny sounding social media site, I do want to take a minute to expand on the person who told me about it. I met her at a science fiction convention and found her to be a great person. We don't always agree on a subject, but she doesn't hold being a rocket scientist over my head. Unlike some friends, she will actually take the time to explain why she feels the way she does on a subject, and she isn't condescending about it. For that reason alone I bought her first Omnibus. If you haven't read it, I'll give you one little spoiler. It's a modern day story with Sherlock Holmes. There's a couple of people, whom I often refer to as fools or ignorant jackasses, who started trolling her store posts and trying to tell people that her books are crap. I'm sorry, but these people haven't even read the books. Having read the first four, I recommend them. Click my amazon link below, look up Stephanie Osborne, buy the omnibus. Now. GO! Read them for yourself and be the judge. I'll wait for you. Back? Let's continue then.

MeWe is the way Facebook should be. Are there ads? Adblocker is off at the moment and I don't see any. Am I blind? No, there could be an ad in there somewhere, but I don't see any. MeWe is the reason that Facebook now has five little emotes you can do now, instead of just a like. MeWe, however, has dozens of those little emoji/smiley things you can use on a post. Hate something AND it makes you laugh? Post a smiling imp and a thumbs down. Groups are easy to create and moderate, and while I am experimenting I have personally found I like it more than Facebook. Give it a shot, add me as a friend. This post has gone on long enough, so I'm going to call it here. I've obviously saved this and reworked parts of it, but any errors are my own. See you around, hey neighbor?

https://mewe.com/i/steve.moynier


UPDATE: So, I've been informed about another site, minds.com and... Well, I don't know yet. I'm @Eandyil there, so come find me.

A book idea - Space Opera

   I'm thinking of something kind of like a space opera, with an odd twist. I'm assuming it'll count under that genre, but let's talk about this some more first. There are varying degrees of science fiction, from Hard sci-fi such as Poul Anderson wrote to almost pure fiction like Star Trek. The difference is known science, or what we know to be likely as possible, to the made up science (I don't know how to stop them, Captain, but if we use the deflector dish somehow it MUST work!) found in some books. Les Johnson edited an anthology called Going Interstellar, worth reading if you haven't (I've got mine SIGNED!), that has several hard sci-fi stories followed by a science article on the science related to the short, if I remember properly. I haven't read it in a few years, but I may read it again.

   So what is the difference between Space Opera and various science fiction novels? Well, technically nothing. All Space Opera is sci-fi, though not all sci-fi is Space Opera. Who knew it was used in a negative fashion? Essentially, it's a grand adventure that takes place, for the most part, in space. Well, that's what I'm thinking about writing, so that works for me. I've decided to stay away from hard sci-fi. I'm just not that good at science. Oh, I'll research, but aside from that I've got nothing. Well, something, artificial gravity verses the whole spinning section of the ship to get a kind of gravity... I'll think about it.

   So, here is my idea. I'm going to create a good man, a captain, and he's going to be on patrol with the flagship of their fleet, their best vessel ever, designed to fight pirates. Only, the new ship has been sabotaged and will blow in the first fight, designed to leave the captain as a scape goat. He's going to either fix it or find another ship and will save his planet from an invasion force, then get kicked out of their system by the ungrateful government. I'm debating making him either a privateer/pirate, or a lone policeman. Thoughts?

BAEN Fantasy Contest!

It's another year, and Baen books is hosting another fantasy award contest. The rules are available in the link at the bottom of this post, just copy it from me and paste it in your browser. While I know the link to be safe, it is up to you to double check these things. Look, I know I'm honest, but you probably don't know me. I'm not asking you to cry stranger danger at me, only that you should always be wary of trusting strangers. In this case the link is legit, but good on you for googling "Baen Fantasy Award 2016" and finding the below link.

This is the year! I've got it ready, but there's a bloody CATCH! The word limit is 8K and I'm almost 3K words over. I think if I cut the prologue out completely, and do some editing, I can cut it down... After all the trouble of GETTING to 12K total words (I kept writing after the end, I want to see where it goes) I'm cutting it down. Ay de mi! But what can you do? Well, I'm going to get it done, and done right!

Okay, so what is it about? My fans know a bit about Eandyil Nathar, my elven name that I've used everywhere from Everquest to EVE Online to World of Warcraft. He's guiding a couple of troubled kids, Chase the son of a Guard and Rhian the daughter of a local noble, on a journey to save the world... only they don't know that part yet. For them, it's just about surviving. They don't want to suffer a fate worse than death. What can you do? Flee, of course, which brings us back to Ean and his mission. I'll tell you how I do.

Are you going to enter? I say, "Go for it!" It doesn't increase my chances if you do, and if you win (and I take second) I'll kick myself for it, but if you are that blamed good, or even if you are just curious, you owe it to yourself to try. I'll send well wishes and the best of luck to you! You get them tiger, you can do it! I'll meet you on the field of battle: I'll be the one wearing Elven Steel. Until then, ciao!

That link: https://www.baen.com/baenfantasyaward2016

I reject your reality! I'll substitute my own.

Reality can be a stone cold witch. So, what can we do about it? My instinctive response is "Not much," but to be fair that's not really true. Oh, we're not going to start shooting fireballs out of our fingertips, nor turning our hated foe-men into frogs, sheep, or goats, don't get me wrong there. What we can do, however, is change our circumstances. Right now I'm living in a big place, and lately there's getting to be far too many people here. So change it: we're working on getting into an RV and touring the country, it's a dream both Erin's father and my Aunt Lynn shared, despite the pair of them being from opposite ends of the country. But there are other options as well.

Okay, so I'm a little cheat in one regard: I do write, even if I've never published anything more than the occasional blog post. I can lose myself in my head, thinking about the worlds I've created and selfishly kept all to myself! Well... there are tidbits here and there, little teasers into my head, but mostly it's still kept here. Well, I am actively working on sharing one with the lot of you soon, so that's something. When it's done I'll publish on Amazon and see if any of you think it's worth reading.What can I say, I hope you'll enjoy it! But there are ways other than trapping yourselves in my head to escape this reality. Hmm... but how?

Here's an idea: Movies, television, books, and video games! Just about everyone in the country does at least one of these things, though some of us do them all, and it's a fine escape from reality for a short time. One idea I had for a book was a man in a coma. He wakes up to find himself in a steampunk world where science works, but the whole world went a different route to get there. Maybe more dieselpunk. As you get further into the book, he is temporarily awakened from his coma and you learn that he's still alive. But is what happens in the world of his dream no less a reality? It feels real to him, smells real, he can still be hurt there, at least it seems that way to him. If he dies there, will he die here? He spends as much time as he can escaping our world to live in his, and the ending is a kicker. Someday I really MUST share with you. Any ideas of your own? I love hearing about them. See you on Facebook or G+!

Writing and me

So, few of you know this but I've been 'working' on a book, off and on, for the past couple of years. I know all of the tips, I've given them out a few times. Set small goals, require yourself to do a little today, a little tomorrow. Keep going forward, don't stop in the middle of something to go back and edit. That's a great way to keep wasting time on it. When the book is finished, leave it alone for a week or so, then come back and read it. As you read, then you can edit. Just remember to finish, first. As you edit, you may find that one section looks better somewhere else. So you move it, then change your mind and move it back, or maybe you just don't like it at all and take it out. For reasons like this, I personally recommend the yWriter series. I've used yWriter 5 for years now, although I just upgraded to yWriter 6. It's free software, I'll leave a link below.

So, back to my book. From what I have let others read, I've gotten nothing less than encouragement. I've heard that it's great so far, what happens next? Shut up and take my money, that never ceases to make me grin. Realistic characters, with villains you can hate and protagonists that make you want to laugh, to cry, to scream at, and take home to protect. I really do need to finish this sometime, with praise like that it feels like a lot to live up to. Of course, I tend to jump around a bit, and then I need to go in and fill in the blanks. So much for following an outline, huh? I'll work on it!

The bright side is that I've found a few good folks for editing and proof reading. I know enough about converting from rtf to other formats, I'll be switching to epub and mobi files, but I didn't really trust myself to just finish it and publish without at least a few readers checking it over, first. They're good people, I've also left their link below as well. So, all of you out there looking to get a book written, I've got one other bit of advice for you. It doesn't matter if you think it's crap, or if you think it's the best work every written. Finish it, send it out for editing, and put it up on Amazon. You may be surprised by how many people like it.

yWriter site:
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter6.html

Editing/proof reading/author services site:
www.cmwauthorservices.com