I once took a test for a job where we had a set of written instructions to follow (simple stuff, like turn to page 93 and copy the first sentence in this blank) while a recording played that interrupted us at random intervals, giving us oral instructions. The key was, the second you heard the recording start, you had to pause and give it your attention. You had to do what it said, then you could return to the written instructions. It must have been difficult for many people. Out of about a dozen in the class, only two of us passed.
I dislike being interrupted. I have friends who can write in five or ten minute windows throughout the day whilst herding children and placating the cat. I admire this, but I’m not sure it’s something I’ll ever be able to do.
Although I have spreadsheets with well-organized details and documents with not-as-well-organized notes, there is simply too much stuff that goes into a story. Much of it needs to live in my head. Which of the little bits of info I dropped are going to be red herrings? Which will be important later? What has to happen before something else can happen? What info must be revealed sooner, and what must be withheld until the right time?
When I sit down to write, I start letting all this info come into the front of my mind. I have my notes, I know where I was, and I know where I’m going. It takes a while to get into productive mode. If I’m interrupted, it is not a loss of a few minutes while I address whatever it is that has stolen my attention. The loss is exponential. Think of it as bicycling up a hill… if you have momentum, you need to keep it. If you are made to stop while going uphill, it takes more energy to get started again, even if the stop was only a brief moment.
I may be able to grow out of this. I may be able to cultivate the skill over time. I can do a blog post while being interrupted (I’m popping up every now and then to do the next task in fixing dinner) and other organizational stuff is possible. It’s the story creation for which I need uninterrupted time. As a teacher and a mother, I’ve seen too many students insist “I must learn this way and only this way.” Although it is true that some methods are better for different people, it is also true that using multiple methods always strengthens the learning process. It is often detrimental for a teacher to insist a student only use one particular method of figuring something out, however it is even more detrimental for the student to reject a method just because it isn’t comfortable at first. I remember when I was in fifth grade, and Mr. Grimm was teaching me how to hold the bow for my cello. It was uncomfortable. I wanted to hold it a different way. But after a while, not only did I get used to holding the bow, but I realized that if I’d insisted on doing it “my way”, I would have had a hand cramp and I wouldn’t have the necessary control to make music. Then again, I also had a piano teacher who got mad at me because I couldn’t stretch my fingers enough to reach an entire octave. I was around six or seven. It simply wasn’t possible.
So…GOALS! This is the beginning of Round Four in A Round of Words in Eighty Days! This is the round with NaNoWriMo. It also marks the one year point where my life changed in dedication to the transition of our family from Vermont to Colorado. We’ve been here for just over six months now, but we’re still kinda in transition, getting our feet under us.
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I need to acknowledge that I’ve struggled (and often failed) to meet my weekly goals for the last couple of rounds. Life at the moment isn’t exactly writing-time-friendly, but it’s getting better. I need to put more of a priority on writing time instead of fitting it in after everything else.
Write at least five days a week
Less than 1k is poor, but better than nothing
1k-3k is good
More than 3k is a great writing day!
Do a content post on the blog every Friday
Work ahead in The Cities of Luna so the next story is completely ready every time I publish (every 28 days…with the full moon.)
Post a new chapter in The Flip of a Coin every week until it’s done, hopefully mid November.
Write an outline for the next story in Tumbleweed for NaNoWriMo before Halloween.
Other tabs, such as Ghost-Trappers, are optional, but must be kept to the right of the others.
I live with OCD. So do millions of other people. For some, it is a minor inconvenience. They prefer to do things a certain way, and joke about their OCD tendencies. For others, it is a disorder that drives them to repeat behaviors a certain number of times, or repeat them indefinitely. I am in the group where OCD affects my daily life and ability to do work. Most of the time, I have my life organized in a way that minimizes the likelihood of going into shut-down mode. Having a few things here and there go awry is not a danger, but it is like taking away a spoon. Cumulatively, it makes a difference.
I manage.
Speaking of managing… I’m going to alter my Friday posts from just interviews to being a “content post” that is an interview, a SciFi Question of the Day, or some other interesting content. I’m also going to change up the way I do interviews, giving myself some more freedom as well as being able to simply toss out an interview if any problems develop.
I still have not decided what I’m going to work on for NaNoWriMo this year. I definitely want to do it, and this will be my first one in Colorado, but all the reasons I listed last week still apply. I have the month of October to figure it out, however I should also be outlining and preparing in October so when November first arrives I can hit the ground running.
I’ll keep you informed.
Meanwhile, I need to write another chapter of Tumbleweed…
V.R. Craft always heard you should write about what you know, so she decided to write a book called Stupid Humans, drawing on her previous experience working in retail and her subsequent desire to get away from planet Earth. She has also worked in marketing, advertising, and public relations, where she found even more material for Stupid Humans. Now self-employed, she enjoys the contact sport of shopping at clearance sales, slamming on the brakes for yard sale signs, and wasting time on social media, where she finds inspiration for a sequel to Stupid Humans every day.
What the path to publication for Stupid Humans?
I started writing Stupid Humans in November of 2012. I had this crazy idea it was going to be my Nanowrimo novel, and it was…sort of. I mean, I started writing it in November of 2012, and I finished writing it in November…of 2014. (Hey, they never said it had to be November of the same year.)
In between the two Novembers, I worked on it off and on. I’d write a chapter or two, forget about it for two months, then write another chapter or two. In November of 2014, the store I worked for closed, and I decided that if I didn’t finish it while I was unemployed and had the time, I probably never would, so I was determined to finish it. As luck would have it, I made the mistake of going on a trip to see relatives with my parents, so I was trapped in a car with them. When we talk, we tend to argue, and it’s a long drive back from Chicago, so I put on my headset, turned on some music to drown them out, and just wrote all day. I finished the first draft in a really crummy hotel room in Rolla, Missouri. (Seriously, don’t stay in a hotel room in that city. There was this rust-colored stain in the bathtub that made me think someone had been murdered in it and lay there for a week before housekeeping found them, and then I started thinking about other book ideas…then I remembered I just finished the last one, and that stopped my imagination from running away with me.)
I had always thought I would publish Stupid Humans on Amazon. I think that was a better idea when I started writing it than it was by the time I finished. The Amazon market was a lot less crowded with self-published books in 2012 than it was two years later, let alone now. I also realized I wasn’t visually creative enough to design my own cover, and I didn’t have the patience for formatting.
So I ended up talking with an indie publisher, Oghma Creative Media. At first I was reluctant to give up on self-publishing, because I really hated the idea of a publisher taking my book and turning it into something unrecognizable. That was probably my biggest concern. As it turned out, that wasn’t the case at all. My editor did a great job of editing the book without turning it into something completely different, and the creative team designed a great cover. It was important to me to make my own decisions about my book, and I have, but it’s been nice to have such a supportive team helping me.
What tags does Stupid Humans have for the search engines?
I use “spaceship” and “planet Earth” in my social media descriptions as much as I can.
Of the various jobs you’ve held, which provided the best inspiration for Stupid Humans?
Definitely retail. If you want to know about stupid humans, get a job working in retail. It was after a long, hard day of dealing with dumb people, otherwise known as customers, that I had the idea for the setting of Stupid Humans. I’d had this one customer that day who didn’t believe me that a six-pack of boxes had six boxes in it. That got me thinking about how I wanted to take all the idiots and move them to another planet somewhere that I’d never have to deal with them.
Then I realized that logistically it would make more sense to leave the idiots here, because there are so many more of them. It would be easier to just move the halfway intelligent humans to another planet, and let the idiots have Earth. Then I thought, that would make a great world for a story, and that was how I came up with the concept of the world.
How extensive is your world-building?
I’m a pantser, so I make everything up as I go. I didn’t spend a huge amount of time specifically thinking about “How am I going to build a world?” That doesn’t mean I don’t think about it. I tend to build the world to suit the story. What do I need in this world for the plot of my story to work? The wormhole was very important plot-wise. Certain technological advances—or the lack of them—were also important.
I did spend a lot of time thinking about what a society without dumb people would be like. Would we need warning labels telling people coffee is hot? Probably not. Would there be downsides? Would there be things they couldn’t deal with because they never had to?
Which is more fun to write? Novels or short stories?
Probably short stories, because they’re shorter. Novels take a long time.
What’s next on your writing agenda?
I have written several short stories, and I’m working on a couple novel-length projects. I also have a blog, vrcraftauthor.wordpress.com. I’m doing a thing right now where people can message me about an annoying person they know who they think should be abducted by aliens. Then I write a piece of flash fiction in which this person (whose name has been changed) gets abducted by aliens. I got the idea because I’m always writing stories where annoying people I know get abducted by aliens.
What’s the biggest item on your author bucket list?
I have no idea. Selling a lot of books?
Who are your favorite authors?
I read a lot of different authors in different genres. I like Stephen King, John Grisham, Ben Boa, Jack McDevitt.
What is your ideal writing environment?
A nice beach on my own private island somewhere, with staff who take care of my house, I mean mansion, so I never have to stop to do laundry dishes or vacuum or anything. Not that I vacuum now. Well, maybe once a year when the dog hair gets so thick the black carpet in my room starts to look gray.
What is your favorite electronic writing tool?
Open Office. I’m way too cheap to pay for MS Word.
What is your favorite non-electronic writing tool?
My writing groups, which are great for getting feedback on my writing. I go to a couple local groups, and I’m also in an online group that does online write-ins.
If you could go on a game show or reality TV show to promote your stories, which would you choose?
You know, I’ve noticed there’s no Writer Idol show. Why is that? Probably because watching someone type isn’t exciting or likely to result in two contestants punching each other out.
I guess I could go on America’s Got Talent and do a stand-up routine where I ask the audience to name people who should be abducted by aliens.
A selection of covers, some mock-ups some as published.
ROW80 goals? Cruising by on the minimum. Preparing to ramp up for the fourth round.
My eyes are bigger than my stomach. I’ve learned to deal with this, and I’m now OK with throwing away food instead of stuffing it in my face. I have a similar problem with writing; I am fortunate to have more story ideas than I know what to do with. When this blog was centered on being an aspiring writer, I created pages for The Kingdom Come Novels, which are polyamorous SciFi Romance, Victoria Pontifex, which is Steampunk Romance, Pangalactic Sojourners, which is inspirational LGBTQ romance, the Incorporeum, which is weird SciFi, and The Cities of Luna which is SciFi. I later added Lillie Lane when I published The House on Paladin Court. I may add a page for Tumbleweed or combine it with The Cities of Luna.
Generally speaking, the Spec Fic is published, the Romance is not.
Instead of throwing away the stories I don’t have time for, they go on the shelf. They can stay there indefinitely until I decide to put my time and energy into them.
I will make time in November, as I do every year for NaNoWriMo. Since 2010, I’ve succeeded four times and failed twice. The failures both came when something else in life intervened and I decided to set aside my NaNo novel. Last year, it was the move to Colorado.
I’m still struggling with schedules and transitions. Although I’m carving out time for writing (and everything that goes with it) I need to escalate that in order to turn this into a reasonable career instead of an expensive hobby. I’m on the cusp of making that happen…I just need to put my energy in the right place.
Energy is a rare and valuable commodity.
Success at NaNoWriMo means more than diving in. It means prep work, which I need to start in October. It means organizing my writing commitments such as interviews and guest blog posts (both of which suffered recently when I wasn’t feeling well) as well as the monthly short stories in The Cities of Lunaand the weekly chapters inTumbleweed. It means making arrangements in the mundane aspects of life so that meals are easy to fix and childcare is adequate.
The first step is to decide what to work on this year. I have succeeded in doing Kingdom Come novels for NaNo, and I love writing them. I have a duology that I’ve queried to good reception but no acceptance. However, I think these need to stay on the shelf for a little longer… I would like to release them in sets, similar to what Netflix does by releasing an entire season of a series all at once, so people can bingewatch it. It is doubtful that I’ll find a publisher willing to do this unless I already have something sufficiently profitable attached to my name. I may self-pub these so I have the control to do something non-traditional.
I like the idea of picking up the Steampunk series again. That’s what I put aside last year during NaNoWriMo when I found out we had to move. The five books have an overall arc, and I need to make sure nothing has to change regarding that arc in book one when I finish book five. That doesn’t mean I have to have all the books finished before I query, but I should at least have them strongly outlined or in rough draft form. This would be a good series to query to an agent for traditional publishing, which is one of my goals.
It would be prudent to keep my brain in the same universe as The Cities of Luna and Tumbleweed, since I’m actively publishing those at the moment. I could do a full-length novel in Tumbleweed and self-pub it. That would require an investment in editing and cover art, but it’s a worthwhile project and fits in well with what I’m already doing.
There’s also the Pangalactic Sojourners which, like Victoria Pontifex is a five book set. The arc in these is simply a loose connection of characters, though, like many sets of regency romances where there are five sisters and each gets her own book. I have a particular publisher in mind who may like these, so they are worth working on.
I have three Incorporeum short stories published in the Biblical Legends Anthology Series. I have a longer story that could be a novel or novella that I’d like to send to the same publisher, but it needs a lot of work. I could do the prep work during October, then write it for NaNo.
Besides these, there’s always that new something shiny to tempt me. I love creating new worlds, but as fun as it is, it’s a lot of work. Even doing Tumbleweed, which is the same world as The Cities of Luna, took a lot of energy. (The setting is different in place and time even though the universe is the same.) Although the idea of thinking up something brand new is attractive, and could help shake out the cobwebs in my head, it would not be a prudent choice.
I still don’t know what I’ll choose. It will most likely be something that already exists in some form, which is not true to NaNo where the idea is to start and finish in one month, not pick up a half-finished project. We’ll see.
The first two books in the Biblical Legends Anthology series came out in paperback!
The nice thing about a career as a writer is that I manage my own time. If the family needs me, or I have functions to attend, I can rearrange my schedule to accommodate it.
The downside is that, if I’m sick or too many things pile up, all my responsibilities and deadlines are still there. It’s all waiting for me when I get back to work.
I once worked for a craft store where the bosses were very flexible and understanding. I came down with a flu-like thing that wiped me out for a couple of weeks. I still wasn’t feeling completely better, but I went back to work. The bosses rearranged my schedule so that I could work shorter shifts. I wasn’t getting as many hours in, but at least I was getting something.
Another job I had was completely different. I was answering phones in a large call center, with my every minute tracked. We learned during training that, if we were sick, it was better to stay out for a couple of days to make sure we were feeling better before returning to work. If we were out sick one day, then came to work the next, but then sick again, it counted as two occurrences. If we just stayed out all three days, it only counted as one occurrence. A man once had a heart attack at work, and his wife, who also worked for the company, went to the hospital with him. They both earned occurrences for the incident.
At the moment, the IRS considers my writing to be an expensive hobby, not a career. Hopefully someday soon that will change. I am definitely moving in the right direction.
Goals? Actually, I did a fair amount of writing, thanks to my serialized novella. Being sick this week has put me behind in a lot of things, including uploading Sheepless in Seattle which comes out Friday. There won’t be an interview this week.
Here are some nice things that are happening:
The first two books in the Biblical Legends Anthology Series are out in paperback! Both of these have my incorporeum stories.
The Immersion of the Incorporeum appears in Deluge.
The Remorse of the Incorporeum appears in Sulfurings, which is available in e-format and hopefully will soon be in paperback.
A new story in The Cities of Luna comes out with every full moon! This Friday’s story is Sheepless in Seattle.
I’m pantsing serializing a novella on the All For Science Website. You can read chapter one If Bubbles Had Bones and chapter two The Windshield and the Bug now, and the third chapter The Lack of a Doorbell will be up on Sunday.
Ulyana’s infatuation with nature started at a very young age. At 6 years old, she saw mountains for the first time – the Swiss Alps – and was hooked. At age 12, she started dabbling in science fair projects, studying everything from junk mail accumulation, to UV radiation effects on t-shirt materials, to how to travel in space without fuel, using solar sails instead. Ulyana was able to mesh her interests in the outdoors and science as a geology major at Rice University. By the time she turned 23, she had traveled to and worked on all 7 continents. Through her twenties, Ulyana worked with National Geographic Student Expeditions as a geology/climate change instructor in Iceland, and the Girls on Ice program, as a glaciology/volcanology instructor on Mt. Baker, Washington and the Gulkana glacier, Alaska.
Ulyana crafted her PhD project on glacial lakes in the Himalaya through the guidance of Everest IMAX film director, Mr. David Breashears, and geophysicist, Dr. Roger Bilham. She funded her work through a combination of small grants and crowd fundraisers. During a Fulbright to Nepal, she was able to immerse herself in the culture and countryside, as well as grow a Sherpa-Scientist Initiative, to educate the locals on their changing climate. During her expeditions, Ulyana met many citizens interested in the science, who volunteered their time to aid her efforts. She enjoyed immersing the public in her work with fun events in the field, such as a glacier river rubber duck race and Glacier Olympics competition. Ulyana looks forward to bringing citizens along on expeditions in the Himalaya and beyond for truly immersive experiences!
1) When and why did you found Science in the Wild?
I officially founded Science in the Wild on January 1, 2016. The idea actually dates back to 2010, when I moved to Boulder, Colorado for graduate school. I wanted to create an outdoor adventure science school to bring science to the masses, but felt I needed more skills in research, the outdoors, and leadership. Going through graduate school for a Masters and PhD; co-leading student expeditions for National Geographic and Girls on Ice; living in Nepal for 10 months; leading multiple expeditions in the Himalaya; crowd-fundraising for my fieldwork; and earning my wilderness first responder certification gave me the confidence and solid foundation I needed to finally launch Science in the Wild.
2) What happens to the data you collect on your expeditions?
Some of the data get published in reports for the lay person; the majority will be used in peer-reviewed open-source publications. These are works-in-progress from the last two expeditions (Arctic and Himalaya in April – June 2016). We also are currently working on developing an online database presence for those who cannot join our expeditions so they can still explore the datasets, photos, and our field sites virtually. Again, a work-in-progress, but an important end goal for us.
3) What makes Boulder, Colorado the perfect base for Science in the Wild?
Boulder lies at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, around 5,400 ft. Peaks in my backyard climb up to nearly 9,000 ft. They are perfect training grounds for me to keep fit for leading expeditions and to host citizen-scientist participants for pre-expedition training. Boulder is also home to a powerhouse of research institutes and labs, which is great for building collaborations.
4) Are any expeditions relevant to space exploration?
Indeed, we have an upcoming trip to the Atacama desert in Chile – a great analog to Mars given the plethora of arid alien landscapes. We’ll be working with cool gadgets (you have to join the trip to find out!), spacesuit gloves, and doing some stargazing out in the remotes. If interested in joining, the dates are February 1 – 15, 2017, with more trip details posted on http://www.scienceinthewild.com/ojos-del-salado
5) Why were you trying on spacesuits this July?
I’m a scientist-astronaut candidate for Project PoSSUM, which stands for ‘Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere.’ This is a citizen science campaign to involve the public in research in the seldom-studied region of our atmosphere called the mesosphere. Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere found at over 50 miles above the surface. They are too high to be reached by aircraft or balloon but too low for orbiting spacecraft to measure. Hence the need for sub-orbital craft, capable of reaching supersonic speed to collect the necessary data to understand what role these clouds play in the global circulation of air. As climate has changed in recent years, these clouds have gotten brighter and can be seen closer to the equator – signs that all is not well in our upper atmosphere.
6) How many countries have you visited? How many peaks have you climbed?
I’ve been to 35 countries thus far and all 7 continents. As far as peaks, I’ve climbed dozens. The most memorable for me was Kilimanjaro in 2009, as it was my first of the 7 Summits and Africa was my final continent to visit.
In Colorado, I like to climb the less popular and less crowded 13ers (mountains above 13,000 ft.). They’re not the coveted 14ers (14,000 ft. peaks), but often times they’re more challenging, so I’m more interested in them.
7) I’ve heard that Mount Everest is becoming immensely popular, even for people who don’t climb. How touristy is the area now? How close can a non-climber get, and what might they do while waiting for the climbers in their party?
Indeed, the Khumbu Valley of Nepal is quite a popular trekking destination. There are teahouses to stay in – even coffee shops and pizza places. As a trekker, you can make it up to Everest base camp at 17,600 ft. In the off-season, there’s not much to see. But there’s definitely an energy to the place that you can feel. You can imagine that during the climbing season, it’s quite vibrant. What can you do while waiting? There are small hills around that you can climb to get better views of Everest (you can’t actually see the top of the peak from base camp). And I can take you in an inflatable kayak to explore glacial lakes. J
8) What are the top places you want to visit but haven’t yet?
Three M’s: Mongolia, Madagascar, and Malaysia. And Kyrgyzstan. I can’t wait to lead an epic Science in the Wild trip there!
9) Would you go to the moon or Mars if presented with the opportunity?
I love the Earth – its oceans, forests, and mountains. But I’m also constantly drawn to new places and new adventures. Exploration flows through my veins. So, yes, absolutely, I would go.
The ultimate places to visit in the outer Solar System though? That would be Europa and Pluto. I’m a bit obsessed with ice.
10) How does high altitude affect people? Are the Colorado Rockies different than other mountain ranges in this regard?
High altitude affects everyone differently. Some people acclimatize really well, others take longer. You can be really fit and still suffer from altitude sickness. My first time to Everest base camp, I was 22 years old. I was young, strong, fit and still felt the effects – rather potently since I ascended too quickly. Your body simply needs time to acclimatize (get used to the lower levels of oxygen) and you cannot rush it.
Since that initial experience, I’ve spent a lot of time at high altitude, including living at 15,000 ft. for week- and month-long stretches. Part of my training with Project PoSSUM last year included hypoxia awareness up to 22,000 feet in a high-altitude chamber. Despite “climbing” to this altitude within 20 minutes, I was still lucid and communicating with the crew, flying the simulated plane – perhaps from all the time I’ve spent up high or something genetic? The human body is truly incredible!
The Colorado Rockies are home to nearly 60 peaks over 14,000 ft. But they’re not significantly glaciated or as high as other mountain regions in the world (e.g., Himalaya, Andes, Alps). Comparatively, they’re easier to climb, but still demand respect.
11) What strange or interesting things have you experienced at high altitude?
Altitude does strange things to your mind. Never have I had such vivid and lucid dreams as I have up there. I’ve woken to nebulous dark figures standing over me; figures disappearing into walls; as well as experienced very calming presences while on difficult routes on peaks.
12) Would you ever take a vacation and just relax in man-made luxury for a week? Or must your travel all include nature and adventure?
Absolutely! Everyone needs to relax and recharge, and I’m no different. My favorite locale for this is Hawaii. Last time I was there I signed up to go snorkeling at night with the manta rays off the coast of Kona. It was an incredible experience. Ok, ok, and adventurous. I can’t help it!
13) Who shot first? Han or Greedo?
What kind of question is that? 😉 Han!
I met Ulyana through my Space Hipster friend Ron Sparkman. I caught up to her at The Space Foundation in Colorado Springs after Ulyana and Ron climbed the Manitou Incline. It also happened to be in the middle of a tornado watch! All in a day’s excitement.
She told me about her experience with attempted demon snuggling at high altitude in Nepal.
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We did the interview back in July, but now (September) Ulyana is off to Houston for NASA’s HERA program!
We’re almost to the end of Round Three in A Round of Words in 80 Days! Round Four includes NaNoWriMo, for those of us who partake. November, for me, also marks the one year anniversary of finding out that our house was being sold and we’d have to move. Last year, I ceased all work on my NaNo Novel and started prepping for the move.
My ROW80 updates during the last year have progressed from “Gotta Switch Gears to Getting Reading to Move” in the last round of 2015, to “This Round is Going to Be About Moving, Not Writing” in the First Round of 2016 to “Well, I Thought We’d Be Done Moving Now, But We’re Not” in Round Two and, now “We’re Still in Transition But I’m Trying!” in Round Three.
Round Four needs to be “Back on Track and Climbing Fast!” Moving to Colorado Springs has done wonderful things for my career in many ways. I’m self-pub’ing The Cities of Luna, and hoping to put out an omnibus of the stories in print sometime soon. Yet I still feel like we’re in transition, and in many ways, we are.
Tomorrow is the last day I have to get up before 5AM to drive hubby to work and get the girls to school. It’s the last official day of his training schedule and he’ll be moving to graveyards, which is a MUCH better schedule for him and the family as a whole. We won’t have to juggle the car as much, and three of the four of us are natural night owls. Hopefully I can do a lot more writing once the schedule is more regular.
I’ve been doing more writing in the same universe as The Cities of Luna, but set a hundred years earlier and on a space station. The station (and the series…I hope to write at least a few stories!) is called Tumbleweed. The first story, The Flip of a Coin, is being serialized on the All For Science website. A new chapter comes out every Sunday! You can read the first chapter, If Bubbles had Bones, here.
To summarize the goals: Barely scraping by for now, but ready to ramp things up.
Matt Bille is an author in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
He is also a naturalist, historian, science writer, and defense consultant. A former Air Force officer, he is the author of over 20 technical publications and articles on space-related topics. He is the lead author of the NASA-published history The First Space Race: Launching the World’s First Satellites (2004), a groundbreaking account of the early Space Age. He wrote two books on the world’s rarest and least-known animals, Rumors of Existence (1995) and Shadows of Existence (2004), and is working on his third, tentatively titled Seas, Sharks, and Serpents. He has been a freelance contributor to reference books including Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia and the Nature Yearbook of Science & Technology. He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and is a member of the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society. He appeared on two television programs on mystery animals and blogs on the latest science and technology news at Matt’s Sci/Tech Blog.
1. Have you ever been inside NORAD? Is it true there is a secret tunnel connecting the facility to the giraffe enclosure at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo?
I’ve not been there, but why the heck would you build a tunnel to the giraffe enclosure? Some kind of experiments to create a monster killer giraffe?
2. How much of your writing is about science and space?
About half the nonfiction is about is space. The other half is on zoology and cryptozoology. Most of my time these days is spent on novels.
3. What memories do you have of the Apollo Missions?
The two that stand out are being with my dad in a private plane to watch Apollo 11, and going up to the beach to the south of the Cape to watch Apollo 17, the night launch. I can still see that in my head. If was like the night was split open.
4. The word “dolmen” makes me think of monsters, but the word describes a certain type of ancient structure. What inspired you to use this as the center of a murder mystery?
I was thinking about what had NOT been done in horror fiction. I’d come across mentions of dolmens in my general reading on history and folklore, and how they were supposed to be haunted. The next question was, what haunted them? The connection between this type of creature and dolmens is a little vague, but it exists.
Matt and AmyBeth being attacked by a giant sloth at the Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park CO.
5. Besides being an author, you are also a naturalist, historian, science writer, and defense consultant. How much of your career came about through deliberate planning?
Not much. I was an Air Force officer and I hit a point where my career wasn’t progressing, so I looked in the private sector and found a consulting position. I originally wanted to write nonfiction, then fiction, then nonfiction… and a nonfiction book was the first one that sold.
6. Of course, I want Nessie to be real, but although I love her I have to admit there probably isn’t a plesiosaur in Loch Ness. What kind of creature might we find there?
I don’t think we will find anything. I WANT to find something, but decade after decade passes and the evidence doesn’t get better. If there still IS a creature, perhaps it’s the huge thick-bodied eel Dr. Roy Mackal postulated.
I probably should have asked Matt whether it’s plausible to find dragons on the moon…those wings aren’t for flight, they’re for air circulation. Flatulence, you know.
7. Of all the cryptozoological subjects you’ve studied, which creature is most likely to live up to the legends?
The orang pendek of Sumatra, and ape like a large upright gibbon (which may be exactly what it is) seems very real and is, I think, just one chance meeting away from being discovered and described. I think there’s a “monster” in Alaska’s Lake Iliamna – probably not a new species, but perhaps a population of sturgeon that got in there long ago and tend to large size.
8. What’s your favorite episode of X Files?
Hard to pick! Lake Heuvelmans was wonderful. The one about the inbred family was the most terrifying. Flukeman was a GREAT creature episode, as was the recent “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster.”
9. What is your favorite electronic writing tool? What is your favorite non-electronic writing tool?
I write mainly in MS Word. I have big hands and need a full-size ergonomic keyboard. I still write out a lot of thoughts in pen as they occur to me.
10. What would your ideal writing environment be like?
A little study crammed with books and silence.
11. What is your next fiction project? What is your next non-fiction project?
I’m currently pushing Apex Predator, a Michael Crichton-style thriller. Call is “Jaws meets Jurassic Park in Alaska,” although I like to think the characters elevate it above most novels in that genre. I have about three other novels in revision, submission, or development at any time.
12. What Colorado writers (besides me, of course) do you think more readers should discover?
Not to toot my agent’s horn, but Cicily Janus’ book on Jazz is interesting even to non-musicians like myself. Chris Mandeville’s recent novel SEEDS is a great dystopian thriller.
13. Who shot first? Han or Greedo?
HAN!
Do you have any idea how hard it is to look like a professional author when there’s a huge dinosaur breathing down your neck? I had a FANTASTIC time with Matt at the Dinosaur Resource Center!
I have the honor and pleasure of kicking off Maggie’s blog tour for the release of A Convenient Marriage, a paranormal romance coming in October!
The idea of two complete strangers getting hitched has always intrigued me, for one simple reason—why would they do such a thing? Could such a relationship succeed? By successful relationship, I understand not only the longevity of the marriage…but is it possible for the participants to actually fall in love with each other in such a strange arrangement? Love is found in the most unexpected places.
A Convenient Marriage grew over a number of years. The basic story was simple—a divorcee with two children, an ex-husband being difficult over visitation, as well as a fiancée unable to commit. Holly’s friends suggested that she needed a new husband, placing an advert in the paper for one behind her back. Joshua was struck by a simple plan when he saw the ad and responded to it.
Why would Holly marry a man she’d never met, and why would Joshua respond to an ad for a husband, then actually propose to a woman he had never clapped eyes on? So, in came the dawdling fiancée, Nicole. Both Holly and Joshua were justified in not planning the marriage to be a real one, because they each had an agenda of their own, but Nicole was the injured party. For their plan to succeed, they had to marry—the real kind, down to that all-important piece of paper married—and they had to seem to be totally in love with each other. That it is all a scam, only they would know.
And here comes the ‘but’. Holly and Joshua’s plans go awry from the moment they meet on the steps of the chapel where their fake marriage is to take place, when both recognize the immediate attraction. Back at Joshua’s wine estate—yes, he is a rich landowner where Holly expected him to be a pauper—Holly meets Joshua’s mother, his brother and sister-in-law, and Nicole, the fiancée, who found out about Joshua’s duplicity in a room full of people. No one can blame Nicole for being a tad upset. Or can they? To add to Holly’s woes, she seems to have acquired a ‘ghost’ demanding she tell a story.
Amidst Nicole’s shenanigans, Joshua’s mother’s disapproval, Holly’s ex’s aggression, and the ghost following Holly around, will these two accomplish what they set out to do? Or will life get in the way?
Joshua’s and Holly’s journey through the uncharted seas of a blind marriage, where no rules apply, is a stormy one. Place your order here:
Maggie Tideswell lives in Johannesburg—South Africa, with her husband, Gareth. She began writing when her kids were still very young, squeezing a few paragraphs at a time between the hectic schedule of raising three children, and working full time in the catering industry. She wrote many books before considering having them published. Now that the children have all made lives for themselves, there is more time for writing.
After much experimentation, Maggie writes passionate paranormal romance, of varying levels of heat. The paranormal, things that happen for which there are no logical explanations and ghosts are of particular interest to Maggie. What events in a person’s life would prevent that person from ‘resting’ after death? The ‘Old Religion’ is another special interest. And love, of course. Why do people fall in love? What keeps them together for a lifetime when so many relationships fail?
Maggie’s advice to aspirant novelists is two-fold. Never give up, and write every day. Writing is a craft that has to be honed with practice. And the only way to practice writing is by doing it. And a bonus, never stop reading your favorite genre. Reading it and writing it is the only training for a writer.
“Maggie Tideswell’s latest novel, A Convenient Marriage, will have you turning pages as her characters cope with a marriage of convenience, well-meaning but nosy friends, a meddling ghost, jealous exes, and more. My advice: Make room on your Keepers shelf for this story!” (Loree Lough, best-selling author of 107 award-winning books, including Harlequin Heartwarming’s “Those Marshall Boys” series.)
♥
For a little lighthearted urban fantasy, check out this novella told in three parts.
The House on Paladin Court, the Bachelor on Paladin Court, and The Baby on Paladin Court by AmyBeth Inverness.
Jade, AKA The Shatterer, AKA Captain Haleola, AKA cool friend from high school back in the eighties!
My seventeen year old daughter has an intellectual disability. In some ways, she is a five-year-old. And a two-year-old. And a twelve-year-old. And, really, she is also a teenager with hormones and growth spurts and all the fun stuff that comes with adolescence.
For a while, I used to describe this aspect of her special needs by saying “when she does this, it’s like a four-year-old.” However, that description fails miserably. It can’t be broken down like that. She is simultaneously a child and a teen, in a way that defies description.
I have a tee shirt that says “Careful, or I’ll put you in my novel.” The joke is that writers take people they dislike, base a character on them, then kill them off. I don’t do them. I prefer Chaucer’s advice “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” I write in aspects of people whom I dislike, then I turn them into objects of ridicule.
I take bits and pieces from people I know, people I hear about, and people who exist only in my own mind and recreate completely new characters. An old friend asked me to kill her off in a spectacular fashion, so I wrote The Shattererfor her.
That same friend is going to pose for me tomorrow as the captain of a space station. We’ll take some fun pics I can use as inspiration for a story I’m working on. The Shatterer and the captain couldn’t be more different; they each embody aspects of my friend and of a dozen other influences. They are unique.
My ROW80 goals this week are… confusing. A large part of work was transcribing, which might count as “actual writing” but might not. A lot of time is going into the big picture of karmic everything, doing interviews and writing blog posts for the Pikes Peak Writers. Consider my kids went back to school last week and my sleep schedule has to be shaped around my duties as family chauffeur, it’s amazing how much I accomplished! Just… never enough real writing. It’s never enough.
The Squirrels Are Back in the Attic is the story I transcribed today. It’s off to the editor. Sheepless in Seattle just came back from the proofreader, and I’ll upload it soon for preorder. The full moon is September 16!
Question for the writerly-folk:
Would you rather kill off a character with aspects of someone you dislike? Or reform them? Or, like me, ridicule them?
Have you ever based a character almost completely on a single real person?
So…GOALS! This is the beginning of Round Four in A Round of Words in Eighty Days! This is the round with NaNoWriMo. It also marks the one year point where my life changed in dedication to the transition of our family from Vermont to Colorado. We’ve been here for just over six months now, but we’re still kinda in transition, getting our feet under us.
AmyBeth Inverness 
Tab Order
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I live with OCD. So do millions of other people. For some, it is a minor inconvenience. They prefer to do things a certain way, and joke about their OCD tendencies. For others, it is a disorder that drives them to repeat behaviors a certain number of times, or repeat them indefinitely. I am in the group where OCD affects my daily life and ability to do work. Most of the time, I have my life organized in a way that minimizes the likelihood of going into shut-down mode. Having a few things here and there go awry is not a danger, but it is like taking away a spoon. Cumulatively, it makes a difference.
I manage.
Speaking of managing… I’m going to alter my Friday posts from just interviews to being a “content post” that is an interview, a SciFi Question of the Day, or some other interesting content. I’m also going to change up the way I do interviews, giving myself some more freedom as well as being able to simply toss out an interview if any problems develop.
I still have not decided what I’m going to work on for NaNoWriMo this year. I definitely want to do it, and this will be my first one in Colorado, but all the reasons I listed last week still apply. I have the month of October to figure it out, however I should also be outlining and preparing in October so when November first arrives I can hit the ground running.
I’ll keep you informed.
Meanwhile, I need to write another chapter of Tumbleweed…
