New Review of AFTER HOURS!

I've been away for a little over a week (grading the high school AP Calculus exams in Kansas City, MO), but I'm back now and ready to catch up on things! And while I was away, a new review of AFTER HOURS: TALES FROM THE UR-BAR was posted on www.tangentonline.com. Check it out here. And then, if you haven't already, grab a copy of the book! This review does a little spin on each story, with Ian Tregillis' and Jackie Kessler's stories chosen as the reviewer's top picks.

Book Discussion for WELL OF SORROWS

The book discussion for my novel Well of Sorrows has just been posted over at the DAW Books blog, dawbooks. Head on over and check it out, and leave a comment if you so desire.

Talk in Albany, NY in March 2012

I've been invited by the Capital Area RWA chapter in Albany, NY, to give a talk on worldbuilding. The event will be held in March 2012, so you have plenty of time to plan on attending. The short description of the event, along with some of their other upcoming talks, are at this link, so check them out and if you're in the Albany area, plan on attending the talk! (I know you've already started your 2012 calendar of events.)

Book Review: "Alien Tango" by Gini Koch

Finished Alien Tango recently and have just gotten a chance to write it's review. I really loved the first book in the Alien series, Touched By an Alien, so I was looking forward to this book and had hoped to get to it much sooner. Life interrupted, but it was worth the wait.





The main idea here is that humanity has finally gotten to a prototype ship for long distance space travel . . . but on its launch it runs into serious problems when something hits it in flight. The suspicion is that something alien entered the ship, took it over, and brought it back to its launching pad in Florida. All this happens off stage. The book begins when Kitty Katt and the rest of Centaurion Division is called to Florida to figure out exactly what happened and chaos ensues.

This second novel isn't as frenetic as the first one, with a little slower pace and a few less explosions, but it was certainly an enjoyable read. We get to see Kitty taking charge and barreling into situations she really has no experience with . . . and coming up with some bizarre solutions. Along the way, we get some personal elements, with the advancement of her relationship with Martini--such as meeting his parents and family--and discovering a little more about Kitty and her past with her class reunion. All of this was highly entertaining, especially the plot revolving around the space shuttle and its crew and the unraveling mystery there. Once again, the cover of the book is a perfect representation of what the book reads like: blatant fun over-the-top chaos.

We also have the romance elements. I commented in my review of the first book that, as a reader, I'm not drawn to this genre, so in my opinion the romance parts were distracting. And here I'm speaking about the heavy-duty romance tropes, not elements related to characters having a relationship. I'm certain that most of Gini Koch's main segment of readers would disagree with my assessment of the romance being "distracting" though. *grin*

I brought the book up with a friend of mine while reading it, who told me she couldn't get into the first book and didn't understand why I enjoyed it so much. I think the answer is that Gini Koch is writing the SF version of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series . . . except Gini Koch is a much better writer in my opinion. So if that's the stuff you like to read, I'd highly recommend diving into Gini Koch's world. I'll be hitting the already released third book, Alien in the Family, as soon as I get the chance.

Online Writing Workshops

Some of you know that I've been a member of the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Online Writing Workshop (OWW for short) since well before I got published. I learned quite a bit there. They recently asked me to write a quick article on one of the ways to effectively use the workshop, which I titled "Capturing Good Critters". You can view that article even if you aren't a member of the workshop by going here and then clicking on the "Our Current Newsletter" on the left hand side of the page. It might give you a little taste of the site and a way to use it. And if you're interested, the first month when you join is free, with no obligation to continue after that. So why not try it out? It couldn't hurt, and maybe you'll get some good feedback from other fellow writers.