First Fun Friday...try saying that three times fast.
Any-who. My first Fun Friday post at Sandi Sookoo's blog, Seeing is Believing. Stop by and learn why I wanted to participate in this Fun Friday business.
http://sandrasookoo.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/fun-friday-me-funny-no-not-really-by-a-r-norris
Friday, January 13, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
2012 Great SFR Pitch Tournament
Yay! The SFR Pitch contest has started on SFR Bridage. Stop by and vote for 3 pitches in 3 heats. My new release, Revelations of Tomorrow, is up in Heat 3 if you want to vote for it.
Here's the link: http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-sfr-pitch-tournament-weekend.html
And here's the official contest details:
"We have three Tournament heats of eight pitches each. Readers can vote for three pitches per heat through Sunday at 6 PM Pacific Time. The two pitches receiving the most votes in each heat will advance to the final round (which we hope to kick off Monday).
Readers who leave comments with feedback about what they liked will be entered in a drawing for an Amazon e-Gift Card. I hope this results in some valuable feedback as well as interest in all the stories!"
Here's the link: http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-sfr-pitch-tournament-weekend.html
And here's the official contest details:
"We have three Tournament heats of eight pitches each. Readers can vote for three pitches per heat through Sunday at 6 PM Pacific Time. The two pitches receiving the most votes in each heat will advance to the final round (which we hope to kick off Monday).
Readers who leave comments with feedback about what they liked will be entered in a drawing for an Amazon e-Gift Card. I hope this results in some valuable feedback as well as interest in all the stories!"
Monday, January 2, 2012
2012: Crystal Ball or Maybe 8 Ball
Hmm...crystal ball or 8 ball? That is the question.
I'm scanning over my blogger buddies and seeing everyone listing their 2012 goals. I wasn't going to, but you know, what the hell.
2011 had me outlining tons of ambitious goals. Reality (at least as we perceive it) and medical issues put a damper on most of them.
I did not take over the world, but I did edit the second Telomere book and get it to my publisher. I did outline the first two books of a new series and start the first one. I almost finished the third Telomere book. All the other goals went to the crapper. (Shh...if you press your ear to the speakers, you can hear the faint sound of flushing.)
Okay, so I'm not really going to make "goals". I have a lot of deadlines that aren't goals, but expectations and commitments. I don't think I'll have time for goals above them.
So, here are a couple exciting things I am for sure doing in 2012. I'm participating in a couple blogs. The second "Fun Friday" of the month, I'll be hanging over at author Sandra Sookoo's blog, Seeing is Believing. Once a week I'll be posting on the new blog endeavor, The Writer Limits (actual day still TBD).
There's also the SFR Brigade Pitch Tournament coming up, I believe it officially kicks off on the 7th, but you can read author-submitted pitches HERE. I'll keep you posted on this once it gets started.
*Rubs hands* Let's see...what else is there?
Oh, yeah, I've got some books releasing this year: ECHOES OF REGRET (April) and ENDING OF ETERNITY (October), Books 2 and 3 of the Telomere Trilogy. I also have the first Interstellar Intelligence Agency book, CASE OF THE SENSHI PEARL coming out in December.
I'm flirting with the idea of self-publishing a short novella I've had tucked away in the electronic "closet". It's not romance, so wouldn't fit with my awesome publisher, Desert Breeze. Yet, it also wouldn't really fit in straight SF. The story is a SF Mystery with a 1940s type feel. Right now me and self-publishing are just making oogle eyes at each other. I'll let you know when I make up my mind. There's a lot of work to self-publishing and I'm not sure if I'll have the time to properly dedicate to it all.
What do you all have planned for 2012?
I'm scanning over my blogger buddies and seeing everyone listing their 2012 goals. I wasn't going to, but you know, what the hell.
2011 had me outlining tons of ambitious goals. Reality (at least as we perceive it) and medical issues put a damper on most of them.
I did not take over the world, but I did edit the second Telomere book and get it to my publisher. I did outline the first two books of a new series and start the first one. I almost finished the third Telomere book. All the other goals went to the crapper. (Shh...if you press your ear to the speakers, you can hear the faint sound of flushing.)
Okay, so I'm not really going to make "goals". I have a lot of deadlines that aren't goals, but expectations and commitments. I don't think I'll have time for goals above them.
So, here are a couple exciting things I am for sure doing in 2012. I'm participating in a couple blogs. The second "Fun Friday" of the month, I'll be hanging over at author Sandra Sookoo's blog, Seeing is Believing. Once a week I'll be posting on the new blog endeavor, The Writer Limits (actual day still TBD).
There's also the SFR Brigade Pitch Tournament coming up, I believe it officially kicks off on the 7th, but you can read author-submitted pitches HERE. I'll keep you posted on this once it gets started.
*Rubs hands* Let's see...what else is there?
Oh, yeah, I've got some books releasing this year: ECHOES OF REGRET (April) and ENDING OF ETERNITY (October), Books 2 and 3 of the Telomere Trilogy. I also have the first Interstellar Intelligence Agency book, CASE OF THE SENSHI PEARL coming out in December.
I'm flirting with the idea of self-publishing a short novella I've had tucked away in the electronic "closet". It's not romance, so wouldn't fit with my awesome publisher, Desert Breeze. Yet, it also wouldn't really fit in straight SF. The story is a SF Mystery with a 1940s type feel. Right now me and self-publishing are just making oogle eyes at each other. I'll let you know when I make up my mind. There's a lot of work to self-publishing and I'm not sure if I'll have the time to properly dedicate to it all.
What do you all have planned for 2012?
Friday, December 30, 2011
The Writer Limits
I am so super duper, uber, freakin' excited to announce the kick off of a group blog that I get to hang out at! (I resisted the multiple exclamation points...it was an effort, but I did it.)
"Say hello to my little friend..." Okay, technically not little and not a friend. It's the new blog:
These are some pretty groovy contributing authors. Here, let me lay it down for you all. We got Gail Delaney, J. Morgan, Jennifer Hartz, PI Barrington, Stephanie Burkhart, Tami Dee -- and yours truly.
Our genres cover everything SF, paranormal, fantasy and time travel... and of course everything has a spice of romance. 'Cause, let's face it, what fun would human existence be without romance? No fun, that's what.
Stop by for J. Morgan's intro post today breaking down further who we are and what we'll be showcasing over there and when/how often. http://thewriterlimitsauthors.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Some Girls Love Diamonds
I'm over at SFR Brigade talking about diamonds versus SF.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Rude is Still Rude No Matter the Dressing
*AR pulls soapbox from closet, dusts it off, and stands on it -- pretending she didn’t just almost fall over*
I’ve been seeing, and having to deal with, a lot of rudeness in the disguise of “honest” and “candid”. It drives me crazy. I'm pretty thick-skinned, but even I’m taken aback by the acute case of rudeness going around.
Just because you start the sentence with “I’m just being honest...”, “I’m your friend...”, or “In my opinion...” doesn’t change a rude comment into a candid or honest one. It’s still rude, just with a false qualifier. They almost always are the start of the “I’m about to say a jerk comment and because I start with this stupid phrase you can’t tell me I’m being a jackass” sentence.
Let’s quickly go over the differences:
Candid: Frank, outspoken, open and sincere, free from reservation, disguise, or subterfuge, straightforward, unposed, honest, impartial.
Rude: Discourteous, impolite in a deliberate way, without culture/learning/refinement, rough in manners or behavior, unmannerly, uncouth, harsh, ungentle, crude, unkind
Both approaches are used to say what you think or feel, but the difference boils down to intent and delivery.
Is the intent of what you’re about to say in the right place? Is it being said for the right reasons and purposes? Is what you're going to say well thought out, will be helpful to the person or in the discussion, and is it necessary?
Most often I see rude behavior in situations where one person doesn’t take the other person’s opinion into full consideration before replying. You can tell because their 4-paragraph response was posted only minutes later. Or they wait forever and then lash out like a poisonous snake.
When you reply to the email or talk with the receiver, are you forming the response in the way the he/she will best appreciate it? Is your word selection matching the tone of your intent? Or are you finding the most arrogant word phrases to use and putting in a lot of bolding, italics and IMO’s?
In the end, though, there is nothing you can do about rude people under the disguise of honest/candid. Truthfully, those who need to “hear” this most will not understand it’s about them. Those who do have a tingling bit of self-recognition will claw back with the “I can’t help it if you’re too sensitive...” responses.
All one can control is their own reaction to rudeness, and the best response is none at all. Replying is only feeding the drama and who has time for that? Me personally, I use up all my drama hours with my family and in my fictional world.
I’ve been seeing, and having to deal with, a lot of rudeness in the disguise of “honest” and “candid”. It drives me crazy. I'm pretty thick-skinned, but even I’m taken aback by the acute case of rudeness going around.
Just because you start the sentence with “I’m just being honest...”, “I’m your friend...”, or “In my opinion...” doesn’t change a rude comment into a candid or honest one. It’s still rude, just with a false qualifier. They almost always are the start of the “I’m about to say a jerk comment and because I start with this stupid phrase you can’t tell me I’m being a jackass” sentence.
Let’s quickly go over the differences:
Candid: Frank, outspoken, open and sincere, free from reservation, disguise, or subterfuge, straightforward, unposed, honest, impartial.
Rude: Discourteous, impolite in a deliberate way, without culture/learning/refinement, rough in manners or behavior, unmannerly, uncouth, harsh, ungentle, crude, unkind
Both approaches are used to say what you think or feel, but the difference boils down to intent and delivery.
Is the intent of what you’re about to say in the right place? Is it being said for the right reasons and purposes? Is what you're going to say well thought out, will be helpful to the person or in the discussion, and is it necessary?
Most often I see rude behavior in situations where one person doesn’t take the other person’s opinion into full consideration before replying. You can tell because their 4-paragraph response was posted only minutes later. Or they wait forever and then lash out like a poisonous snake.
When you reply to the email or talk with the receiver, are you forming the response in the way the he/she will best appreciate it? Is your word selection matching the tone of your intent? Or are you finding the most arrogant word phrases to use and putting in a lot of bolding, italics and IMO’s?
In the end, though, there is nothing you can do about rude people under the disguise of honest/candid. Truthfully, those who need to “hear” this most will not understand it’s about them. Those who do have a tingling bit of self-recognition will claw back with the “I can’t help it if you’re too sensitive...” responses.
All one can control is their own reaction to rudeness, and the best response is none at all. Replying is only feeding the drama and who has time for that? Me personally, I use up all my drama hours with my family and in my fictional world.
The only people they'll ultimately hurt is themselves, when they run out of people who stick around to hear/read their "honesty".
Monday, December 19, 2011
Guest Blogger: Krista Talks Space Stations
I'm super excited to have blogger buddy, Krista D. Ball on today to talk about one of my favorite aspects of SF and the possibilities of the future... space stations.
When I was a little girl, I wanted to go into space. I didn’t want to be an astronaut, though. I wanted to move to a space port, or an asteroid drilling complex, or a planetary research facility. (Thank the spirits my parents were too poor to send me into therapy and instead just let me watch Twilight Zone reruns.)
A significant portion of science fiction cannon is set on space ships, soaring through the black. Reading about aliens, scary space nebulas, and weird and wondrous space fungi is rather cool, I admit. But for me, I like to also read about how people working together get on; how they live their lives, interact with each other – and how they get their supplies!
In Road to Hell, I imagined my military space port to be somewhere between an airport and a hospital. Lots of businesses, offices, people coming and going. I did let people live there; I want the future to solve the daily commute issue, not make it worse by shuttling people to and from a planet!
Perhaps it’s my distaste for big box stores, but I want my future space ports to be filled with specialized shops – homemade candies, non-chain restaurants, hat stores. I don’t want a giant DIY store taking up half of my space port’s strip mall. I want specialty items and goodies.
Also, in space I think we’ll be falling back to the mail order catalogue. Sure, we’ll always have the general items available, but sometimes you’ll just want to order jeans from Earth and no local brand will do. And what about food? A girl can only eat reconstituted protein powder before she snaps. Imported Jiffy-brand peanut butter might become the cure for deep space dementia.
When you think about the future, what do you want to see on your space stations? Do you want austere décor, a place fit for battle. Or, do you want a local mall? Or, do you want it turned into a nudist colony?
Perhaps it’s my distaste for big box stores, but I want my future space ports to be filled with specialized shops – homemade candies, non-chain restaurants, hat stores. I don’t want a giant DIY store taking up half of my space port’s strip mall. I want specialty items and goodies.
Also, in space I think we’ll be falling back to the mail order catalogue. Sure, we’ll always have the general items available, but sometimes you’ll just want to order jeans from Earth and no local brand will do. And what about food? A girl can only eat reconstituted protein powder before she snaps. Imported Jiffy-brand peanut butter might become the cure for deep space dementia.
When you think about the future, what do you want to see on your space stations? Do you want austere décor, a place fit for battle. Or, do you want a local mall? Or, do you want it turned into a nudist colony?
About Road to Hell:
Captain Katherine Francis is about to disobey every Ethics Law the Union of Planets throws at her. After the Union's enemy destroys her home planet and murders her family, she makes the decision to bring an end to the war--whatever it takes.
When an opportunity arises to ally with the neutral Alliance and turn the tide of war, Katherine throws aside her moral code, partners with a known spy, and risks sacrificing the very core of who she is.
And when faced with choosing between her conscience and stopping the bloodshed, she realizes that, either way, she'll lose.
When an opportunity arises to ally with the neutral Alliance and turn the tide of war, Katherine throws aside her moral code, partners with a known spy, and risks sacrificing the very core of who she is.
And when faced with choosing between her conscience and stopping the bloodshed, she realizes that, either way, she'll lose.
Chapters 1-3
About the Author:
Krista D. Ball is a Canadian speculative fiction author who is currently hiding from necromancers. Better safe than undead.
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