Posts Tagged ‘science fiction’
tweeting about writing
Every day, I write. Today I worked on the story for Book Six in the Meniscus Series — Meniscus:Encounter with the Emenpod. I also did some editing of an upcoming mystery novel I refer to as HHGG. Tomorrow I will be writing poetry for a series about abandoned communities and what happens to plants in abandoned gardens.
~
~
Working back and forth like this between projects at various stages of completion is a great strategy for me. I never get bored, I never get writers’ block and I think shifting projects keeps my writing brain refreshed.
~
~
Besides blogging, I participate in Twitter, sending a tweet almost every day to #amwriting … if you’d like to find out what my writing life is like, follow me at @TimsJane … I report on what I am doing and share a bit of writing wisdom. I’d love it if you would follow along!
~
A little about the mystery novel since I tweet most often about it. HHGG is one I wrote in 1997. I have learned a lot since then, so editing makes me laugh. HHGG is about a woman and her two kids who seek summer solace at her old family home. She never dreams she is walking into a village rife with mysteries, some of them stretching back more than a century. I have a few human antagonists, but one who is anything but human!
~
~
Hope you are enjoying your summer and your own writing life!
~
All the best,
Jane.
what would a home look like on a fictional planet?
You may not be aware – I keep two blogs, one to consider subjects about real places and one to explore my ideas about science-fiction. If you are interested, click on over to www.offplanet.blog. This week’s post is about the homes the characters use in my planet Meniscus stories. You wouldn’t trade your home for any of these! Lots of illustrations too!
Best wishes!
Jane
five ways to prepare for reading from your work
I love to read aloud and my work as a writer gives me lots of reading opportunities.
~
Reading at Westminster Books, Fredericton
~
Readings take lots of preparation:
- Practice. Stand, read and time your readings. Keeping to the allotted time respects the audience and keeps the reader calm, particularly near the end of the reading. No last minute timing revisions. No being ‘hooked’ off the stage!
- Prepare any remarks not in the reading itself. I usually give a little background to my reading and make a few remarks between poems. These words will be delivered more smoothly if they are composed, written down and practiced.
- Include a give-away. I sometimes raffle one of my paintings or another associated item during my book launches and readings. Everyone likes bookmarks. Business cards should always be available.
- Use props. Once I gave a talk to a group of high school students about career development. I took an old pair of hiking boots with me to talk about my time in the field. The boots make the presentation funny and gave the audience an image to focus on. I often bring my cardboard stand-up aliens when I read from my Meniscus books.
- Involve your audience. Always leave time for questions. Consider adding some interactive components to your reading: ask the audience mid-reading questions, pass a book around, include a quick show of hands.
~
my stand-up aliens at a New Maryland market
~
I have two readings and a book fair in the next weeks:
WordsSpring, WFNB
7 PM, May 11, 2018 (Friday) at Quality Inn & Suites Amsterdam, Quispamsis for WordSpring (Writers Federation of New Brunswick) – I will be reading from my two newest books: Meniscus: One Point Five – Forty Missing Days, and Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill. Copies of all my books, including ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ will be for sale.
Book Launch, Westminster Books
7 PM, May 25, 2018 (Friday) at Westminster Books in Fredericton. I will be launching my book Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill. Cary Caffrey (a.k.a. Terry Armstrong) will also be reading from his Girls from Alcyone Science Fiction Series. Everyone is welcome!
2018 Metro Moncton Book Festival
I will be selling my books at the 2018 Metro Moncton Book Festival, June 9, 2018 (Saturday), 10 AM to 3 PM at the Moncton Lions Community Centre (473 St. George Street
Moncton, NB).
Reading at The Attic Owl, Moncton
~
Plan your readings and your audience will appreciate the time you have taken.
~
If you are in the area, please come to one of my readings. I would love to see you there!
~
all my best,
Jane
Available now – Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill
For those who are reading my Meniscus science fiction series, my new book Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill is now available at Westminster Books in Fredericton and from Amazon, in paperback and Kindle formats here.
I will be launching this new book at Westminster Books on May 25, 2018 at 7:00, so mark your calendars!
~
Humans on the planet Meniscus have had it hard. Used as slaves by the Dock-winders and Gel-heads, they live without hope, deprived of family and community. A few Humans have escaped and band together to build the first Human community on the planet. Odymn and the Slain are part of the community of Themble Hill but can they escape interference from the Dock-winders?
~
~
You will enjoy the continuing adventures of Odymn and the Slain, as Odymn tries to recover from a parkour accident and cope with the Slain’s former girlfriend.
~
Find out who is lighting a line of purple gettle-shells (the Meniscus version of the Jack-o-lantern) on the heights of The Fault where the Dock-winders can see them!
~
For more information and an excerpt from Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill, click here.
~
Celebrating bookstores and reading – Canadian Independent Bookstore Day
On Saturday, April 28, 2018, I will be participating in Canadian Independent Bookstore Day at Westminster Books in Fredericton. I will be there to talk with you about my books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series and sign copies. I will be at the bookstore from 11:00 AM to noon. Hope to see you there!!!
Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is a day to celebrate the amazing independent bookstores in communities across Canada that develop and maintain a thriving book industry across the country. It is a day to go out into your community and enjoy the unique intersection of art, culture, business and opportunity that bookstores provide. Thanks to your participation, this event can continue to grow and thrive in the years to come. The purpose of Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is to show off the unique community spaces that bookstores create and was born from Authors For Indies.
Authors for Indies was a national grassroots movement in support of independent bookstores. It’s a day when authors take time to give back to the bookstores who support authors every day of the year by volunteering as guest booksellers. We meet and greet customers, recommend books, tell our friends and relatives to come to the store where we are working. Hundreds of authors across Canada have done this for the past three years. It’s been a national phenomenon.
Jane
Now available … fourth in the Meniscus Series: The Village at Themble Hill
The new book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series is now available. In The Town at Themble Hill, humans on the alien planet Meniscus continue to search for freedom and a safe place to live.
My heroine Odymn, who is expert at the art of parkour, sometimes also called free-running, navigates the landscape with runs, leaps and vaults. She never falls. Or does she? Find out how Odymn copes with a loss of her independence.
~
Meniscus: The Town at Themble Hill
~
… On the alien planet Meniscus, against all odds, a small group of Humans works to forge a new life together. When a Dock-winder drone pays them a visit, Odymn and the Slain trek along the heights of The Fault, to make certain the community is not in danger of invasion. They find a new way to scale The Fault and a perfect location for building a new village. Matters are complicated when Odymn is injured on a parkour run and the Slain’s former girlfriend joins the group. Faced with a dangerous journey through the Themble Wood and the hardships of building a new community, are the Humans in more danger from themselves, the alien landscape, or their Doc-winder overlords?
… In the fourth book of the Meniscus series, The Village at Themble Hill chronicles the first days of community life on a planet where Humans are not allowed to associate and freedom is always at risk.
~
home is the safest place … so build a home …
~
Get the paperback version of Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill here. The Kindle version will be available soon. For readers in the Fredericton area, Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill will be available at Westminster Books after May 1st.
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2018
Kindle Countdown Deal – Meniscus: South from Sintha
From March 8 to March 15, 2018, you can buy the Kindle version of Meniscus: South from Sintha at a reduced price. In the Kindle Countdown Deal, the price begins at $.99 and is increased by $1.00 increments during the deal promotion. Buy now and get a great read for a bargain!
Meniscus: South from Sintha is the second in the Meniscus Series. It is illustrated, written as a long poem. Science fiction, romance and adventure.
Just click here.
~
Follow the continuing adventures of Odymn and the Slain as they try to undo the past wrongs of the Slain.
Together, they will try to:
break an evil Gel-head out of jail and return him to his home
release a captive, wolf-like kotildi to his pack
rescue a cook from her bondage in Sintha
take an eight-year old Dock-winder child back to her family
~
You can try to mend the broken, to right the wrongs of the past, but sometimes you can`t go back.
~
A Free eBook – Winter by the Water-climb
Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb, the third book in my sci-fi romance/adventure series, is available free from March 3 to March 7, 2018 in Kindle format. Just click and you will be taken to Amazon to get your book free of charge.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1544818068
Meniscus: Winter at the Water-climb
~
Winter on the planet Meniscus is brutal — the plenty of other seasons gives way to scarcity and desperation. Unprepared for the months ahead, Odymn and the Slain find shelter with the generous Argenops, friendly furry creatures. When Odymn has to survive without the help of the Slain, she must depend on her own wits and her skill at parkour to survive the alien landscape of the Themble. But she is not prepared for new arrivals, group of survivors of a transport ship crash. On a planet where Human relationships are not allowed, ten people and an alien child take the first steps toward building a community.
~
In the third book of the Meniscus series, Winter by the Water-climb, Odymn and the Slain must survive a winter apart from one another’s help and protection.
~
~
I hope you enjoy reading this and other books in the series!
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2018
Meniscus: One Point Five – Forty Missing Days
Yesterday, a courier knocked at my door and left my box of new books – Meniscus: One Point Five – Forty Missing Days, the new book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series.
~
~
The first book in the series (Meniscus: Crossing The Churn) describes the meeting between Odymn and the silent Slain and the beginning of their love story. By the second book (Meniscus: South From Sintha), they are committed to one another. Meniscus: One Point Five tells the story of the forty missing days in Meniscus: Crossing The Churn (between the time when the Slain is shot and the time when he and Odymn release her lock of hair to the wind).
~
~
When the Slain bails on his contract to sell Odymn to the Dock-winders, he is shot trying to escape. Odymn, who loves the Slain, cannot abandon him and recruits Wen-le-gone, an Argenop elder and healer, to help her nurse the Slain back to good health. As they make their way toward the relative safety of the Themble, the trio must forage for food, save Odymn when she encounters a poisonous foe, and get to know and trust one-another. When Wen-le-gone leaves for his home, Odymn decides to stay with the Slain. As they continue on their journey, they work together to survive the dangers of the Themble Wood but in the end, memories of the past may be their biggest obstacle to building a life together.
~
You can get Meniscus: One Point Five free of charge on Wattpad here. If searching Wattpad, use @AlexandraJTims since there are a couple of Alexandra’s listed!
If you would like a free copy of the paperback version (for the price of postage) contact me at timstims@nbnet.nb.ca
The paperback version of Meniscus: One Point Five is also available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978407564
~
Odymn and the Slain
~
~
Copyright 2018 Jane Tims
where we read
I am a reader. There are stacks of read and unread books wherever you go in my house. There is a Kindle by my living-room chair and a Kobo by my bedside. Since I read multiple books at once, most are marked ‘last-page-read’. I read the books a bit at a time, choosing whatever I think will suit me on a particular day.
~
~
So where do I read? Anywhere!
~
When I was young, I read in my bedroom. I’d take a flashlight to bed and hide under the covers to read. Mom was not fooled! When we went to Nova Scotia for summer vacation, I read in my grandfather’s orchard. There was a tree-limb perfect for sitting!
~
~
During my university days, I read like a mad-woman, as much mystery/romance as I could absorb. I think I wanted solace from my steady diet of science texts and journal articles! My preferred reading place was my car – also a rest from the lab where I did most of my university studies.
~
I still favour mysteries, especially detective series. Science fiction too. And poetry, always poetry!
A few series I’d recommend:
Chuck Bowie -“Donovan: Thief for Hire”
Ann Cleeves – “Sheltland Island Mysteries”
Ann Granger – I like her older “Fran Varady Crime Novels”
~
Through the years, I have been constant in my reading spaces:
- the car … for years I drove to a park on my lunch hour and cheerfully read the time away. When my son was in his early university days, I never minded waiting for him because I could read while I waited.
- in bed … as the years go by, reading puts me to sleep faster and faster. It sometimes takes me months to read a particular book!
- in my accustomed chair in the living room … experience with decades of public service work means I can read with any distraction.
- in our camp at our table. No distractions, just good company.
- but never in my planned reading space … when I retired I bought a comfy chair and designed a perfect reading corner. It is a great space to store stuff – books for my next signing, the shower head we haven’t yet installed, two throw pillows no-one wants to sit with and recent purchases not put away. When the chair is empty of stuff, it is filled with Zoë. I never read there …. never, ever.
~
~
Where do you read? If you had a special reading spot, do you think you would use it?
~
Copyright 2018 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 