Wow. As many problems as I had with Shadow Harvest, I somewhat expected to have some with Alien Savvy. But hmm. This one looks semi-decent after only an hour’s putzing around. Wow.
Tag Archives: writer promo dance
Con report: Orycon 2014
The tl:dr version? You know it’s been a good con when you’ve been so busy that the time just flies by. That’s what Orycon 2014 was like for me. Lots of panels, lots of meeting up with folks, not enough meeting up with folks and just waving at people I would have liked to spend more time with, and so on.
There are several happy advantages to not teaching these days which really made this con. First of all, I was able to meet up with friends on Thursday night. There were some glitches, mostly due to the train that Alma was on running out of fuel. On the Columbia River bridge. Sitting there for two and a half hours. Would anyone really believe that this happened? But it did.
Not working meant I had time to do a quick run to the barn before the con on Friday to get Mocha out and lunge her, so that she only went two days without a work (important when you are rehabbing a horse from a long-term injury). Then I met up with a friend for whom Orycon 2014 was her first sf con ever…and got to experience Friday through her eyes. She took some good pictures of me at my first panel (as well as–urm–some rather–um–interesting expressions). Then we did some shopping, including getting her fitted for a corset, which looked ravishingly glorious on her. Later on, I participated in a critique session with friends Frog and Esther Jones for a lovely person in her early phase of writer development, and as always learned a few things for my own writing in the critique. Since she is a local to me, we’re keeping in touch.
Saturday was a blur of readings, panels, and then a rousing good time with rowdy friends at dinner. It was such a blur and busy time that I had to go home and collapse before the Jay Lake memorial. I regret missing it, but there was no way I could hold on until 10 pm. OTOH, I wouldn’t have passed on the double grand entrance that Bob Brown and I made into several parties. One of the features of Radcon in past years was that at least once Bob would scoop me up and carry me around. All part of good fun, and every piece of it was well within my personal boundaries (trust me, if someone crosses a boundary with me, they KNOW). Bob and I haven’t done this for YEARS, and it felt good to be joking and playing in that way again.
Sunday was another flying blur with good panels. The only fly in the ointment is that I discovered this morning that I left a bag of books at one of the booths that my books were placed in. However, I’m hoping to get those books back and have talked to those people.
But there was oh so much more. Good professional conversations about the business of writing, running into old friends who I haven’t seen for years, and having a great time with my people. Another set of pleasant convention memories for the books.
And now I’ve gotta finish putting stuff away, go to the barn and deal with horse, then come back and put some words down. Deadlines are looming on two stories. Time to get back to work.
Comments Off on Con report: Orycon 2014
Filed under science fiction conventions
Orycon Week Specials!
Because it’s Orycon week, I’m offering a special on my two most recent works, Winter Shadows and Shadow Harvest. They’re parts two and three of an occasional series about Diana Landreth, her husband Will, and their development of wireless implant technology which eventually leads to uploaded personalities. With politics and weird weaponry, as well.
Anyway. From November 6th through 14th, you can get Winter Shadows for .99 (down from 1.99) and Shadow Harvest for 2.99 (down from 5.99) at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo (I think?!). Shadow Harvest is available for 2.99 at Smashwords.
What are they about? Here’s Winter Shadows:
Diana Andrews wasn’t expecting trouble when she came home on winter vacation from a difficult bioremediation assignment. But the imprisonment in a hostile country of her lover, Will Landreth, puts not just Diana and Will at risk but possibly her business and her family as well. Can Diana find the help she needs to rescue Will while protecting him from those–including his father–who would see Will silenced?
And then Shadow Harvest:
Diana Landreth encounters a witch’s brew of personal, professional, and political problems when she returns home for a quick visit. Her dying father’s ranch has been poisoned by an unknown radiological and/or biological agent. The Third Force’s Relocation Affairs office has given him a low buyout bid insufficient to support Diana’s stepmother and young half-sister after her father’s death. Her husband Will continues to struggle with PTSD in the aftermath of his imprisonment in the Petroleum Autonomous Zone. Her mother, Sarah Stephens, and Will’s father, Parker Landreth, engage in a shadow war where Will and Diana may be no more than proxies for higher stakes in a battle for corporate dominance. Can Diana discover the truth about what’s been done to her father’s ranch? Can she and Will enhance their own bioremediation company’s reputation by rehabilitating the ranch while supporting her stepmother and sister? And can they finally overcome the shadows of the past to earn their freedom from their families’ desires?
I promise that Shadow Harvest is the last of the “Diana comes home to problems” stories.
Comments Off on Orycon Week Specials!
Filed under writer promo stuff
A short story review here
So I got an interesting review on my Trust and Treachery story, “Live Free or Die.” The reviewer considered the story to stick too close to a couple of traditional tropes, but…she did comment that elements in the story reminded her of Ann Leckie’s writing in Ancillary Justice. Kind of a back-handed compliment…but you know what? I’ll take it, with a note to myself that yeah, I missed the theme I was really trying to hit with that story. Not bad, though. Any review where you even tangentally (no, I did NOT mean that as a pun ;->) earn a comparison to a Hugo winner is nice.
Comments Off on A short story review here
Filed under writer squeeee!
First round on Shadow Harvest Cover
So I’ve just been playing around in Gimp, trying to get this:
to look something like an SF Western cover.
Well, this is what I’ve got so far.
It fits the mood, at least. But I’m not as excited by this cover as I was by the Winter Shadows cover. I want to convey the desolation that is a factor in Shadow Harvest, as well as the chill mood. This does that, I suppose…but it’s kind of meh.
Ah well, I suppose it will work for e-book. I do have other pictures similar to the Winter Shadows cover–for reference, below.
But mostly, I’ve got to get up to speed on Gimp. Grrr. Just one more thing to do. Feh. Oh well, I need to not muck around too much and get into turning out the books.
Comments Off on First round on Shadow Harvest Cover
Filed under writer promo stuff
New story live..JC the Ski Bum
Issue Two of Fantasy Scroll Magazine is out, and with it….one of my stories!
http://fantasyscrollmag.com/article/jc-the-ski-bum-joyce-reynolds-ward/
Enjoy. I had fun writing it, and it’s based on a throwaway line that happened during one of the epic Welches Ski Nights from a few years back. 😉
Comments Off on New story live..JC the Ski Bum
Filed under writer promo stuff
RWIP…a snippet
Here’s a snippet from the Andrews Ranch (Netwalk Sequence) rewrite. Should go live in mid-to-late April.
******************
Diana pressed her lips tightly together. “There’s no way you could advance a partial payment?” Oh, she understood what was going on, all right. No surprise that the Third Force was having problems collecting taxes. Diana had to wonder just how much of the relocation waiver funds were being siphoned off into private accounts.
“Not tonight, I’m afraid.” Her mother’s tone was polite but firm. Still, it held a tiny note of hesitation that hinted more negotiation might find a solution.
“I’d settle for quarterly payments.” Was that a smirk on Peter’s face? Diana resolutely refused to be distracted by her brother, focusing instead on her mother.
“I’d have to check.” Still that faint hesitant tone.
Damnit. She wants me to beg. No. I won’t beg.
And then Diana thought of little Rita practicing the barrels on her ancient pony in the old arena back at the ranch.
For Rita’s sake…I might have to beg.
“I’d appreciate it if you could get back to me tomorrow,” Diana said. She deliberately let her voice waver on the word “tomorrow.”
Sarah arched one brow. “Still, it’s more than last year. Do you need a business loan against what I owe you? Your collateral’s good for that.” Sarah’s mouth quirked in one corner and she looked down, but not quickly enough to hide the predatory sharpening of her gaze.
She took the bait. Now for more delicate maneuvering. Diana shook her head. “That amount’s enough for business purposes.”
Comments Off on RWIP…a snippet
Filed under Netwalk Sequence
Announcements of a writerly sort…..
So things have not exactly been idle in Casa Reynolds-Ward of late….
First of all, I have a short story coming out in Trust and Treachery, due out in April from Dark Quest Books.
Secondly, I just signed the contract for “J.C. the Ski Bum,” to be coming out in Fantasy Scroll Magazine soon.
Thirdly, Winter Shadows should be going live by tomorrow on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, and Google Play.
And other stuff is in the works….
Comments Off on Announcements of a writerly sort…..
Filed under writer promo stuff
Dahlia is now live!
So I’m doing something new this holiday season. I’m putting up a few short stories, novelettes, and novellas in the Netwalk Sequence for sale, as I get them finished and I’m able to get them loaded.
The short stories (and, hopefully, the novelettes and novellas) are going to be somewhat different from what I’ve put up before. Basically, I’m adding pictures that are somewhat related to the story, either by topic or location. It won’t be a perfect set of illustrations, because, since I’m taking them myself, I won’t be able to put people in those illustrations (well, maybe yet). So a short story that I wrote for the Plein Air Exhibition, Dahlia, is now live on Amazon for the Kindle here.
I’m billing it as primarily a romantic relationship story, because, well…that’s what it is. A complicated romance in a science fictional setting.
Other pieces I’ll be putting up soon include a sequel to Dahlia, Winter Shadows, which deals with further complications of the relationship between Will and Diana. That one will be a short story. I also plan to issue a novelette/novella about Diana and Will, Problems at the Andrews Ranch, which deals with one of the events which affects the early development of Diana and Will’s company, Do It Right. Then I’ll republish the complete and updated edition of The Daughters Cycle, including all three of the episodic, intertwined, stylistically experimental (for me) short stories I published this summer (Of Mothers and Daughters and Boyfriends; Of Daughters and Boyfriends and Mothers, Of Boyfriends and Mothers and Daughters). Andrews Ranch and Daughters may or may not have pictures included. We’ll see.
Comments Off on Dahlia is now live!
Filed under writer promo stuff
Plein Air 2 and 3
Things got busy last week with the start of school, plus roofers and medical and vet stuff, oh my. So I never did wrap up my Plein Air posts, and then last night was the reading.
So. Day two was at a gorgeous private residence near Parkdale. As I showed up, I found two horses grazing on the front lawn. Drool. Drool. This place also had a lovely, lovely arena set up not just for work but with a rudimentary kitchen clearly designed for small horse shows/clinics/parties. There was also one gentlemanly equine retiree who, after grazing on the lawn and crunching windfall apples, had decided he’d had enough and ambled over to his free choice hay pile by the arena.
I wrote one piece there, “The Stone Bowl,” a short from my Rust and Flame world and the probable climax of the Rust and Flame book I want to write someday. It’ll come out in October as part of the Plein Air anthology.
Then I went to downtown Hood River and spent several hours there wandering around, seeking inspiration. And lo, it came–and I wrote a little short piece about vampire hunters on vacation, “Masks,” which will also come out as part of the Plein Air anthology. “Masks” will get significantly reworked for an upcoming anthology call as well.
Last night was the public reading of works we’d written during the Plein Air sessions. We heard excellent stories, essays, and poems. I read “The Dahlia,” which will be out in an extended form as part of the Netwalk Foundations sequence in October, and “Masks.”
Picture (taken by my lovely husband):
And now to finishing off that damned novella. I have books to write.
Comments Off on Plein Air 2 and 3
Filed under writer life
