Indie Sci-fi to enjoy

The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) is well underway in its fifth year. I've been judging for SPSFC#4 and #5 after winning it with Kenai in year #3. My team has sampled our 25 entries and narrowed them down to six quarterfinalists for which we're doing full reads. I'm really enjoying Black Sails to Sunward, a kind of a steampunk Victorian space navy adventure and romance - hard to categorize, but very cool and creative, kind of Master and Commander but with Martian colonies with a little Bridgerton thrown in. If you're into indie sci fi, check out our team's quarterfinalists here:

You can see the whole competition's books here. We'll have our full reviews up soon, and we need to narrow these six to two semifinalists by early May.

A writing update

My project last month was mostly my play, called A Light Reign, a farce about a medieval kingdom that is running very low on population. I got great feedback from my writing partner Sarah Estow and from my wife Christina and made a lot of revisions and added some polish. Now, I have it out to four different friends, all with theatre experience, and I'm excited to see what they think. I've also found a local playwright's group which I'm going to check out this coming month. They stage plays from local playwrights, although mostly shorter ones than mine, which is two acts, probably about 80-90 minutes with an intermission. There are also a couple of community theatres that do table reads or staged readings, so I might have that as an option too. I don't know if it will ever get staged or produced, but it's really fun to be working on something new. I couldn't do stupid chapter titles, but never fear - the play is chock full of terribly corny jokes.

We've also heard back from Sarah's agent about Best, our romantic comedy set on a fictitious small college campus. Although the agent declined to take our project on to try to sell, that frees us up to look at publication in other ways. We'll work on that some at our next monthly meeting of our tiny literary society (where the two of us go to a local cheesecake place and talk about books and writing and small college campuses for a couple hours). If we decide to go indie, it might be ready to release within a month or two, or we also might try some other route or strategy. Watch this space for more news.

Some stories to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. Here are some new books I have to share this month:

First, I have A Lady of Scales and Smoke by Kelsie Engen, who is wisely joining the A ____ of ____ and ____ fantasy book naming train popularized by George R.R. Martin and Sarah J. Maas. A young girl gifted with magic is forced into an engagement and sent away to a school, but the school is run by evil goobers more interested in conducting research on their students than helping them. Sounds like great stuff!

Next, I have Return to the Galaxy by B.A. Gillies, the first book of his seven-part series about a dying SAS soldier transformed into a supersoldier just in time to defend Earth against an alien threat that's not unrelated to humanity's surprise origin on another world. A lot going on there! A 4.3-star average on over a thousand reviews, and free if you have Amazon Prime as part of their Prime reading program.

Next, I have Unclaimed Throne by Rowan Ashborne. I couldn't help but think of a throne sadly orbiting the baggage claim conveyor at the airport, but this is actually an epic fantasy story about a man who refuses to be a king, leading to danger, mayhem, prophecy, and all kinds of scary stuff. Check it out!

Next, I have The Shard Born by Laurie Bowler, which is not about a very difficult obstetric procedure, but instead about an orphan girl sent to live with her enigmatic aunt, where she attends a mysterious school. That would be cool enough, but there's also a race of immortal guardians fighting magical monsters plus prophecy, family secrets, and hidden powers. Great stuff, and only $1.99.

Next, I have The Void by writing team Luna Fox, and F. Lowberry. This is a 100% free prequel to their series about politics, dark magic, and evil warlocks. Grab a copy today!

Finally, I have a set of nine mystery audiobooks you can explore, all with different themes, genres, and authors.

Thanks

Thanks so much for signing up for my newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for upcoming books! I love hearing from people. If you've read one of my books and wouldn't mind leaving a review anywhere (Amazon, Goodreads, Bookbub, LibraryThing) I'd really appreciate it! Each review helps me reach more readers. 

I hope you and your friends and family are having a safe and rewarding year!

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave