Category Archives: Uncategorized

So here’s where I’ll be at Orycon and who I’ll be with. I admit to a snicker at the location of “The Suburban Survivalist” in the Alaska room. And if you want to listen to me rant about education, Friday night’s your time. Oh heck, this panel lineup argues for a lot of rantage. Grin.

Meanwhile, what to read, what to read? I’m reading Sunday morning, so turnout may be…abysmal. I’m hoping not, but we will see.

Moderator indicated by (*)

The Space Race: have we disqualified ourselves? Idaho Fri Nov 8 3:00pm-4:00pm. Can we still maintain an edge in space technology without heavy lift capability of our own? Will private industry pick up the baton? (*)Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Melinda Hutson, Arthur Bozlee

Education Today. Madison Fri Nov 8 5:00pm-6:00pm. Common Core Standards, Proficiency, High Stakes Testing…what’s going on in education today? Is our education system really that bad? Are today’s students dumber? Discussion by people who know what they’re talking about. Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Rory Miller, Sheila Simonson, Patrick Swenson, Roy Torley, (*)Joan Gaustad

The Death of the Stand-Alone Book. Madison Fri Nov 8 6:00pm-7:00pm. Trilogies, tetralogies–we’re not even sure of the right names for five, six, seven-book series! Where does the madness end? Is there no market any more for non-series books? Dave Smeds, Alma Alexander, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Jean Lamb

The Suburban Survivalist. Alaska Sat Nov 9 2:00pm-3:00pm. With solar cells, satellite comm, compost piles, high tech vegetable gardens, 3D printers, and so on, how long before an ordinary tract home can go “off grid” in ways that would make the 70’s era survivalist recluse envious. How far will some people go to pull the plug? How many will do so? What difference will it make to society? (*)G. David Nordley, Dan Dubrick, Mary Rosenblum/Mary Freeman, Joyce Reynolds-Ward

Female Villains. Morrison Sat Nov 9 3:00pm-4:00pm. We often speak of writing strong female characters, but what about strong female villains that aren’t just caricatures? An examination of characterization that moves beyond the ever popular rape scenario that is often given as a primary motivation for women seeking revenge. Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Liz Gorinsky, S. A. Bolich, (*)Rhiannon Louve

Science Fiction as a Tool for Social Change. Hamilton Sat Nov 9 4:00pm-5:00pm. Many writers have put their ideals into their writing. Some have even tried to get people to follow those ideas. Elton Elliott, (*)Steven Barnes, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Donna McMahon, Rhiannon Louve

Joyce Reynolds-Ward Reading. Grant Sun Nov 10 10:30am-11:00am. Joyce Reynolds-Ward reads from own works

If it Matters to Oregonians, it’s in a Tweet. Lincoln Sun Nov 10 12:00pm-1:00pm. Is traditional media dead and do we want it to be? Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Ann Gimpel, Donna McMahon, (*)Jack Skillingstead

Religion in Genre Fiction. Morrison Sun Nov 10 3:00pm-4:00pm. Depictions of actual, ‘modernized’ or adapted religions in genre fiction–the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. What’s been done and what could be done better with religion in fiction. Is the future atheistic? (*)Dave Bara, Guy Letourneau, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Kier Salmon

It’s the first Monday of October, and time for another Netwalk Foundations piece!

Who Protects the Protectors is a closer look at the relationship of Angela Garcia and Nik Morley, the heads of Melanie Fielding’s Do It Right Security team.

Here’s a taste:

Where’s Nik?

Empty bed next to her. Angela Garcia flung her right hand over to Nik’s side of the bed. Barely warm. He’d been gone for a while.

Damn it. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes and drew in a deep, calming breath, trying to summon up enough energy to investigate further. Nik shouldn’t be alone so soon after this last solo assignment. She needed to find him and make sure he wasn’t sleepwalking or having flashbacks from his long virtual exposure. He’d pleaded fatigue to their usual post-mission debrief and decompression. She’d let it slide this time.

Obviously she shouldn’t have.

Kindle version here, epub version here, PDF version here.

Ulp. A few glitches yesterday, so it’s Netwalk Foundations Tuesday.

When Francis Stewart discloses to Sarah Stephens that he knows something about the causes of the Disruptions terrorizing the world, she has to make a hard choice–follow Francis’s vague, drunken hints–or ignore him as a sloshed sot? And just what is the source of his intoxicated, apocalyptic ramblings–the Old Testament or another, more chilling foundation?

As usual, go here for Kindle, epub or PDF versions.

Whew! Sorry for the long delay in getting back to posting your twice-monthly FREE dose of Netwalk Foundations, but a web hosting change and other stuff kind of got in the way. But here we are, “Of Boyfriends and Mothers and Daughters, Oh My! Take Three.”

Go here for Kindle, epub and PDF versions

Further business note: The three Daughters stories will be published and sold under one cover in December as Netwalk Foundations: The Daughters Cycle. Additionally, I am working on a long-form Foundations story, Problems at the Andrews Ranch, which will come in at novella length. It will go up for sale in December as well, and be serialized in three parts starting in December.

Foundations will also go to once a month for the months of November and December to allow for holiday distractions.

But we’ve got some good stuff on tap for you to read–a vignette with Sarah, Francis Stewart, and Anne Whitman illustrating that triangle at the end of Sarah and Francis’s relationship; an early-early segment with Will and Diana that I wrote during the 2013 Columbia Center for the Arts Plein Air Write Out in Hood River; and a short piece between Netwalk: Expanded Edition and Netwalker Uprising featuring Angela and Nik.

I am also starting work on Netwalk’s Children in a few days and hope to have the first draft completed and to the editor by December. So good things are coming.

Testing, testing….

It’s the third Monday of July and you know what that means…More Netwalk Foundations!

Remember that ALL Netwalk foundations pieces are FREE. Go here to get your Kindle, ePub or PDF version.

From the Author’s Notes:

As before, the last part of this series story throws me some huge new things I didn’t know about the Netwalk Sequence world. This piece with Alex and Bess definitely is canon, laying the foundation for the book after NETWALK’S CHILDREN. Now I don’t think that NETWALKING MARS is the title, but NETWALKING SPACE might be.

 I didn’t expect this story to be so heavy about Gizmo, but Gizmo is definitely something I am thinking very hard about these days, as I prepare to fix up NETWALK: THE EXPANDED EDITION and lay down the plot for NETWALK’S CHILDREN.

 Next up will be “Of Boyfriends and Mothers and Daughters, Oh My! Take Three.” And that one promises to be interesting in its own way….

A little late, but here it is…

Of Mothers and Daughters and Boyfriends, Oh My! Take One is a little bit different from past stories. There’ll be two more in this mini-series…I’m playing with interlocking tales.

Enjoy! And remember, as Tom Petersen would say…”Free…is a Very Good Price!”

Go here for links to read this for FREE

for Kindle, Nook and PDF versions.

Not much in words, more in pictures. Okay, I lied. There’ll be words. I also plan to put up more pix in Facebook to spare folks on my friends lists.

It was a bittersweet party simply because we don’t know what will happen next year. While that could be true for any of us, in Jay’s case we know there’s a shortening of the time we have this lovely and brilliant person left with us. I’ve been through this experience of walking down the days with family and friends before, so any more for me it is about seizing the time as best as one can while the person unwinding the threads of their life is still able. Doesn’t make the process any easier and simpler while it occurs. It does make me angry that once again, I’m going through this with someone far too soon. It happened with my parents and in-laws (all four dead by the time I was 40), it’s happened with another friend just last year. Sure brings one’s own mortality home hard.

Enough morbid, more par-TAY!

The star of the show with the Princess balloon:

Other assorted folks:

For mercy of various linkages, that’s it for pix. More words!

Amongst the raffle giveaway items were foam-backed posters of Jay’s Green trilogy covers and his Mainspring trilogy covers. I wasn’t particularly interested in the Mainspring covers because while they’re gorgeous, they’re not my thing. The Green series, though? I liked the first cover, kinda liked the second cover, but really, really liked the third cover (Kalimpura). Bob Brown gave me some tickets for the raffle but I never win stuff so while I was hoping, I didn’t figure I’d get anything, right?

Mike Moscoe got the Green cover, and said he was interested in Kalimpura and would trade. I just kept hoping. And then…I got the Endurance cover. Not my first choice, but hey, still good. I figured, no way would lightning strike twice and I never, ever win this stuff, right? Right?

Riii-iiight.

The next ticket number was the number RIGHT AFTER the ticket that won me Endurance. I couldn’t believe it. Such things NEVER happen to me. Mike asked for a Green/Kalimpura trade and I turned him down, offering Endurance instead. He didn’t want it.

So. Two posters. I knew I could find room for one, but two? I gave Endurance to Bob because, hey, after all, those were the tickets he gave me. I think it was the poster he really wanted, anyway.

So now Kalimpura leans against the wall behind me. It will go up this afternoon, where I can look up from my computer screen and see it when I’m contemplating what to write next. It sums up so much of an underlying theme that resonates with me that I can’t begin to explain it, except to say that this aspect of Green could well reflect the perspective of several of my heroines.

Anyway, after noshing down at Flying Pie on dairy-free, gluten-free pizza (royal pig girl, OMG it’s been a while), I joined the procession to the Barley Mill for more nibbles and time with Jay and a host of other wonderful folk. Then I wended on home.

Bittersweet, but still good. That’s my hope for more days with Jay.

I can walk this walk. I’ve done it before with family and friends.

I just hate having to do it so soon.

IIt’s another Netwalk Foundations Monday–which means free content about the world of NETWALK! This Foundations piece is worldbuilding for NETWALK’S CHILDREN, and it’s starting to lay the foundation for the novel. It happens shortly before CHILDREN opens.

Go here to download this story in Kindle, Nook/ePub devices, and PDF formats.

And did I say it was FREE? To quote the old Portlandia sage Tom Petersen,
“Free–is a VERY good price!”