Hey awesome,

A little delayed this week as we had a small tropical storm. Turns out I'm less chill about weather while living in an RV...I pretty much sit around like this until it gets back to normal:

We're safe and people go through worse with less, but I get a liiitle paranoid about the wind. And the tornado watches. Oof.

But despite (because of?) the weather, I've been writing, and following my schedule pretty well. In the last week, I added 20k to my Secret Project (I'll be telling you all about it soooon). The Spider (with the fabulous William Alan Webb) is progressing, and that means the kickoff Valkyries novel is also in progress. Because who am I if I'm not working on three-ish projects I'm absurdly pumped about all at once?

I've also run away to the beach a few times - I mean, the beach is 15 minutes away. And it has tiny shark teeth, so how can I possible resist?

Aaand, we've started our winter workamping - last night we learned about running the carousel, which basically fills that childhood dream of running off to join the carnival, no? The whole park is extra lovely, so you can expect a lot of pictures from the Holiday Festival of Lights to go with my beach pictures this winter...

Right before the tropical storm rolled in, I got to join the awesome folks at SuperGeeked Up, along with three other kickass authors. All six of us (the hosts and four guests) have stories in the fab upcoming anthology Tales of Monstrosity: Monsters, Myths, and Miscreants (you can see the fully-funded-now-it's-cool-stretch-goals kickstarter at the link) so we got to talk a lot about our stories in addition to all the hilarious shenanigans.

One of the other authors, Jeannie Davide Rivera, joined the show while my tropical storm was her hurricane, and she was still a delight! If you're in the mood for another fully funded (but-more-money-equals-more-books-donated-to-awesome-kids) kickstarter, she's got a fabulous one for an awesome middle grade book:

Eleven-year-old, Frederick Moody is on a mission to win his best friend back, and all he has to do is prove Bigfoot is real! When the class bully goes missing, and the evidence points to the creature, Fred gets his chance. Only—the clues don’t add up. So Fred and former best friend, Cindy, must try to get along and discover the truth before it’s to late.

In more new book news from other fantastic authors, I've got two for you this week that you can get your hands on immediately. One I have been waiting for foreverrrrrrrr:

Blood in the Water! Sequel to my favoritest of 4HU books (a high bar), Black and White, by the stupendous Mark Wandrey. From the copy:

Five years ago, a group of human researchers and their mercenary friends helped evacuate 26 cetaceans from Earth just ahead of their arrest. The world government didn’t approve of their giving the cetaceans pinplants, and it wanted to euthanize the dolphins and orcas in their care.

After finding a home on the distant ice-covered ocean world of Hoarfrost, the humans and cetaceans settled in. Less than a year later, they were attacked when the planet’s previous owners, the aquatic Selroth, tried to regain possession of it. During the battle, Terry Clark was responsible for inadvertently uplifting the cetaceans, who then came to the aid of the Humans and helped defeat the Selroth.

The BotSha and KilSha, as they are now known, have lived a quiet life on Hoarfrost for the last four years, learning what it means to be an intelligent species, while Terry has learned the life of a mercenary.

But when they’re forced to give up Hoarfrost, Terry and his mercenary company will have to determine where they’re going to go and how they’re going to get the massive cetaceans to their new home. Unfortunately for them, they aren’t being forced to leave the planet so much as they’re being targeted for elimination. Ancient, infinitely wise, and powerful forces have discovered them, and they are out for blood.

As soon as I get 10,000 more words across my projects, I get to dig into it. Yay reward books!!

And the second, also worth a reward because Kevin Ikenberry writes the sorts of books that allllways keep you up late to finish them (fair warning):

Eminence Protocol is the conclusion to Kevin's Protocol War series (first book is riiight here), and from the copy:

The line between man and machine no longer exists.

Through grief and loss, Kieran Roark is finally ready to do what he was brought back to do. Reaction Squadron One is called to defend the allied Styrahi against a threat in the Outer Rim. Roark’s squad of exospheric aircraft, paired with a human regiment of armor under the command of his friend Colonel Quinn Whelan, arrives at Carantan to set their defense along with a regiment of Styrahi infantry. Roark believes everything is ready…

On Earth, all hell has broken loose. An incursion into the private files of deceased Council Chairwoman Penelope Neige sets off a firestorm. The Prelate is threatened, and a young council candidate is the first to lose herself to Neige’s protocol, who has one goal: vengeance. Her target? General Adam Crowley.

But Crawley has a plan. On the brink of combat, Kieran is ordered home. Lieutenant Commander Ayumi Nakamura, the first completely integrated protocol/human, takes charge of the defense of Carantan as Kieran learns how far a long-dead enemy is willing to go to destroy everything and everyone tied to the sleeper program.

With familiar friends facing new, shocking enemies, the struggle for Earth’s future begins.

So while I earn my fun reading time, you might be not obligated to a word count and are therefore looking for new awesome, free reads? Well! Here are some terrific ones:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/free-fantasy-sciencefiction-ebooks/nkhigqs91t

https://books.bookfunnel.com/free-fantasy-ebooks/17x66sf06w

Now seriously, I need to get to my reward books, so back to work with me.

Til next time,

Marisa