Felicity Harley – update on a new novel

Felicity Harley is a fellow Bequian author who has been featured previously on Reading Recommendations here and on my main blog, here and here. I had the great privilege to offer to beta-read and polish-edit this manuscript for Felicity, and am very pleased now to announce the publication of her new novel on a very important subject that should be of interest – and concern – to everyone!

The Burning Years
Until This Last Quartet: Book 1
by Felicity Harley
Published by Double Dragon Publishing
Genre: Literary Science Fiction

In the year, 2060, Sophie, a top female scientist, dismantles the government weather modification program and steals the male and female trans-humans who hold the promise of extended life.

While the remaining inhabitants of Earth are forced to design new underground habitats in order to survive a harsh, overheated world, Captain Rachel Chen, takes the worldship Persephone to Proxima Centauri, hoping this new star system will provide a refuge for the survivors of the human race.

Advance Reviews
“I LOVED this book. Even more than my just “loving it,” though, I feel very strongly that it critically bridges and transcends audiences and the timing is beyond perfect. I believe what you’ve written is incredibly important.

“Your science, both current and future, is sound and far-reaching. You tap into so many levels of what’s going on, and what can possibly go on (travel beyond our planet). I really like the “voice” throughout the book, regardless of which scenario you’ve dropped the reader into. All are equally engaging and the character development is even and (almost) clinically objective. I think this will really (also) appeal to a sci-fi audience, which is awesome and very “in line” with today’s readers.

“Additionally, I have to admit that I was haunted by your descriptions of the plutocracy and their reckless disregard for the vast majority of living things on Earth. What OTHER possible explanation can there even BE than yours (that they consider everyone but themselves to be “takers”)? Your descriptions of the political elite align perfectly with real-time scenes playing out across America right now.

“The mix and “balance” of gloom and despair vs. incredible scientific achievements removed what might have become an almost claustrophobic effect. Example: The US population goes from 318 million to 10 million VS Rachel’s living, breathing personal space on Persephone which made me think of the vividness and aching beauty of the forests in the movie, “Avatar.” Very hard to achieve this effect.

“[Side bar: VERY nice weaving of string theory, parallel universes, quantum entanglement, Maslow, and the heliosphere’s foam zone in the book! Also, excellent timing with “Stranger Things” making the US Department of Energy out to potentially be devastating in the future– and you’ve got DARPA. Perfect!]

“After I finished the book, I again visited your website for The Burning Years. As I scrolled down to the pictures at the bottom, seeing them for the first time, it was SO NEAT. I advise anyone who reads the book to do the same thing.

“Here’s a fiction that’s not afraid to tackle some of the biggest topics of our time.”

Bill McKibben, author, The End of Nature and numerous environmental books, and founder of 350.org

“… the journey through a different way of inhabiting our solar system based on the latest technologies, developments, and beliefs about who we are and our relationship to living, life, and space … It’s wonderful―”

Rachel Armstrong, TED Senior Fellow, Professor and Pioneer of “Living Architecture”

To read an excerpt of the novel, please click here and scroll down.

The Burning Years Website
And for more information about Climate Change, please read this article, We Asked Sci-Fi Writers About The Future Of Climate Change

Where to purchase Felicity’s book:
Double Dragon Publishing

Robert Eggleton

Robert Eggleton

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Rarity from the Hollow is an adult literary novel, science fiction.

Quick description: Lacy Dawn’s father relives the Gulf War, her mother’s teeth are rotting out, and her best friend is murdered by the meanest daddy on Earth. Life in the hollow is hard. She has one advantage — an android was inserted into her life and is working with her to cure her parents. But, he wants something in exchange. It’s up to her to save the Universe. Lacy Dawn doesn’t mind saving the universe, but her family and friends come first.

Rarity from the Hollow is adult literary science fiction filled with tragedy, comedy and satire. A Children’s Story. For Adults.

Brief biography:
Robert Eggleton has served as a children’s advocate in an impoverished state for over forty years. He is best known for his investigative reports about children’s programs, most of which were published by the West Virginia Supreme Court where he worked from 1982 through 1997, and which also included publication of models of serving disadvantaged and homeless children in the community instead of in large institutions, research into foster care drift involving children bouncing from one home to the next — never finding a permanent loving family, and statistical reports on the occurrence and correlates of child abuse and delinquency.

Today, he is a recently retired children’s psychotherapist from the mental health center in Charleston, West Virginia, where he specialized in helping victims cope with and overcome physical and sexual abuse, and other mental health concerns. Rarity from the Hollow is his debut novel. Its release followed publication of three short Lacy Dawn Adventures in magazines: Wingspan Quarterly, Beyond Centauri, and Atomjack Science Fiction. The second edition of Rarity from the Hollow was released on November 3, 2016. Author proceeds have been donated to a child abuse prevention program operated by Children’s Home Society of West Virginia. Robert continues to write fiction with new adventures based on a protagonist that is a composite character of children he met when delivering group therapy services. The overall theme of his stories remains victimization to empowerment.

Links to buy Robert’s book:
Lulu
Amazon
Dog Horn Publishing

Robert’s promo links:
Website
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
LinkedIn

What are you working on now?
The next full-length Lacy Dawn Adventure is Ivy, also within the speculative fiction genre. How far will a child go to save a parent from addiction? Stopping an alien invasion was merely a rest area on the side road of this almost forgotten town.

Robert’s reading recommendation:
For anybody experiencing serious medical concerns, or as a gift to a loved one who is, I recommend The Warrior Patient by Temple Williams. It’s an amazing book about the importance of assertiveness in our health care delivery system.

J.A. Stinger

My name is Jennifer Stinger. However, I write under J.A. Stinger.

What is your latest release and what genre is it? My latest release is called Generations Beyond. It’s a military sci-fi book with elements of romance.

Quick description: There were secret human experiments conducted on military personnel and civilians without their knowledge. The last recorded name of this initiative was MKUltra. It was thought to be a failure since none of the test subjects displayed traits that the scientists were aiming for. When the project came to light in the early 1970s, it was shut down and most of the official documentation was destroyed.

Descendants of the test subjects have begun to appear with abilities similar to what was in the MKUltra files. The military is now scrambling to find them, labeled Generations, before their secret is out. Keeping in the fine military tradition, those that will not join them are labeled a threat and are treated as such.

Brief biography:
I was born in Vero Beach, FL. My co-author is my husband, who I met through an online writing forum. We started writing seriously after I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and needed a creative outlet. I’m a wife, mother, and Army veteran. We lived in the Midwest before relocating to the Greater Atlanta Metro area.

Links to buy J.A. Stinger book:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Kobo
Scribd
Intera
24 Symbols

J.A. Stinger promo links:
My Blog
FaceBook
Twitter

What are you working on now?
Right now, my husband and I are working on the third book in the series, Generations Gone. Generations Beyond is the first book. Generations Unbound is the second and is currently being edited.

J.A. Stinger reading recommendation:
I would strongly recommend the novel I Hero: The Beginning by Jason Zandri. I met Jason through an online book club where we help promote, and sometimes inspire, each other.

Maria Savva Recommends Maria Haskins

Odin’s Eye
by Maria Haskins

Genre: Science Fiction/Literary Fiction

Imaginative, skillfully crafted short stories that will transport you through time to different worlds.

Why I recommend this book: The stories are so well written. I’d recommend it even if you don’t usually read science fiction. It’s not a genre I would normally go out of my way to seek out, but I really enjoyed this book. These twelve stories will make you think about what could happen if science became so advanced that we were able to travel easily through time and space. The stories show a deep understanding of the human condition.

 

Links for people to buy the book:
Amazon UK
Amazon US

Guest reviewer’s latest title or project: My new collection of short stories, Lost and Found, is almost ready for publication. I am having the cover designed by Aeternum Designs because I was so impressed by their design for A Time to Tell and also Book 4 in the Mind’s Eye Series, Tales From The Cacao Tree, available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Maria Savva has been previously promoted on Reading Recommendations.

M T McGuire – an update on a new novel

M T McGuire was previously featured on Reading Recommendations in July 2014. She’s back now to update us on a new release!

Escape From B-Movie Hell – First contact in films was never like this!

If you asked Andi Turbot whether she had anything in common with Flash Gordon she’d say no, emphatically. Saving the world is for dynamic, go-ahead, leaders of men and while it would be nice to see a woman getting involved for a change, she believes she could be the least well-equipped being in her galaxy for the job.

Then her best friend, Eric, reveals that he is an extraterrestrial. He’s not just any ET either. He’s Gamalian: seven-foot, lobster-shaped and covered in Marmite-scented goo. Just when Andi’s getting used to that he tells her about the Apocalypse and really ruins her day.

The human race will perish unless Eric’s Gamalian superiors step in. Abducted and trapped on an alien ship, Andi must convince the Gamalians her world is worth saving. Or escape from their clutches and save it herself.

The book is available on all major retail outlets you can find them from my website.

Matt Mayr

Matt Mayr

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Bad City – post-apocalyptic science fiction

Quick description: In the violent world of post-apocalyptic South Town, Eli Baxter is king, ruling from the thirteenth floor of his building while henchman do his bidding. Simon Gray, a talented young thief, now disillusioned with South Town, is desperate to escape with the woman he loves. As he plots their journey north, glimpses of his childhood in South India and Northern Ontario reveal the world as it once was, fueling his desire to break away. But when he’s handed a new job, one that will make Eli untouchable, Simon realizes that escape – and transcendence to love and a peaceful way of life – might be harder than he thought.

Dark, atmospheric, and gritty, Bad City is the debut novel by Matt Mayr and was a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.

Brief biography:
Matt Mayr grew up in a small mining community north of Lake Superior, where he learned to hunt and fish from a very young age. He holds an Honours English Degree from York University, and attended the Humber School for Writers mentorship program twice. He has traveled extensively in India, Nepal, and South America, trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp, and paddling deep into the Amazon Basin. He lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter where he is working on his next novel.

Links to buy Matt’s book:
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
Amazon
Kobo
iTunes

Matt’s promo links:
Facebook
Twitter
EDGE

What are you working on now?
I am about half way through the first draft of a literary fiction that takes place in a Northern Ontario logging town. If all goes well, I’ll have it ready to submit to my agent by spring.

Matt’s reading recommendation:
Milky Way Repo by Michael Prelee is a blue-collar science fiction story, also available from EDGE Publishing, under the EDGE Lite Imprint.

Jack Eason

Jack Eason

What is your latest release and what genre is it? It’s entitled Cataclysm and is science fiction, time travel.

Quick description: It is a tale about forbidden love, time travel, ancient gods and danger.

Brief biography:
Jack Eason lived in New Zealand for forty-two years until 2000 when he returned to his birthplace in England. As far as he is concerned he will always consider himself to be a Kiwi. After military service in the 1960’s, he travelled the world, visiting exotic lands and making many friends. Now in his mid-sixties he is content to write and travel via the Internet. Besides writing novels and short stories, he contributes to his own blog “Have We Had Help?” His literary interests include science fiction, history, both ancient and modern, and humorous tales like those written by his fellow writer Derek Haines, such as HAL. Now retired, he lives in his home town surrounded by his favourite books, ranging from historical fact to science fiction. His literary icons are J.R.R Tolkien, George Orwell, Arthur C Clarke and John Wyndham.

Links to buy Jack’s book:
Kindle
Paperback

Jack’s promo links:
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

What are you working on now?
At the moment I’m working on my latest science fiction novel, or novella – The Guardian, set on Mars.

Jack’s reading recommendation:
Dangerous Obsessions by Bob Van Laerhoven

Leah Petersen

Leah Petersen

What is your latest release and what genre is it? My latest release is called Impact Velocity (The Physics of Falling, Book 3) and it’s a science fiction novel.

Quick description: Jake has finally found peace and a family with the man he loves. But when the unimaginable happens, Jake finds himself on the run with his greatest enemy and the man who betrayed them both. If he can’t find a way to bring down the man who now wields the power of an emperor, he’ll lose not just his own life, but his daughter’s as well.

Brief biography:
Leah Petersen lives in North Carolina manipulating numbers by day and the universe by night. She prides herself on being able to hold a book with her feet so she can knit while reading. She’s still working on knitting while writing.

Links to buy Leah’s book:
Amazon US
Amazon CA
Barnes and Noble
Chapters/Indigo

Leah’s promo links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Google+

What are you working on now?
What a great question. I wish I knew. Ok, that’s not exactly true, but I spent a lot of November & December plotting out an epic fantasy novel, and I’ve been attacking it all of January so far. It’s a much bigger scope than anything I’ve tried before, but the world I’m building is so much fun, and the research has been fascinating. It’s set in an ancient civilization vaguely reminiscent of various cultures in central Africa.

Leah’s reading recommendation:
I’m in the middle of The Deaths of Tao, the awesome sequel to Wesley Chu’s The Lives of Tao. It’s the story of an ordinary man who gets sucked into an alien race’s war that they’ve been waging on Earth for thousands of years. It’s not the sort of thing I’d normally pick up, but it’s funny and so creative and smart. The author clearly knows his stuff.

Robert Runté – update on a new publication

Dr. Robert Runté was previously featured on Reading Recommendations in Oct. 2014, and was a contributor to another anthology also featured on Reading Recommendations in Oct.

The Canadian Fantastic in Focus: New Perspectives
Allan Weiss, Editor
Literary Criticism: Canadian Speculative Fiction

Bringing together papers presented at the Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy from 2005 to 2013, this collection of essays includes Veronica Hollinger’s keynote address, “The Body on the Slab,” and Robert Runté’s Aurora Award-winning paper, “Why I Read Canadian Speculative Fiction: The Social Dimension of Reading” along with 15 other contributions on science fiction and fantasy literature, television and music by Canadian creators.

Authors discussed include Charles de Lint, Nalo Hopkinson, Tanya Huff, Esther Rochon, Peter Watts and Robert Charles Wilson. Essays on the television show Supernatural and the Scott Pilgrim comics series are also included.

Dr. Robert Runté with the 2014 Prix Aurora Award he won for this essay in the category of Best Fan Related Work.

From Robert Runté:
I grew up in an age when speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and so on) was still considered beneath the dignity of serious scholarly attention. Indeed, one of my early deans once told me that he considered “scifi” of lower literary value than Harlequin Romance (which to his mind was the worst comparison he could draw), and that he was more embarrassed by my interest in SF than if I had written porn. So I am pretty relieved to find that the new generation of scholars has dropped such pretensions and is eagerly and capably delving into Canadian science fiction and fantasy. Drawn from the most outstanding papers of the last seven years, this collection provides a representative cross-section of both this new generation of energetic, innovative and insightful Canadian academics, and of the brilliant Canadian authors they have chosen to review.

Allan Weiss’ introductory essay provides an excellent overview of the history of scholarship on the Canadian contribution to the genre, and I like to believe that my own essay provides an overview of the themes that have dominated Canadian speculative fiction and distinguish it from the American and British versions of the genre. I have also tried to explain the social dimension of reading: why we need to create spaces where our youth can explore what it means to be Canadian, to find their own voice by creating their own interpretations of popular tropes.

I confess to being particularly proud of my essay, not just because it represents a summation of everything I’ve been arguing for the past 35 years, but because the essay won a major award even while the book was still in press. My presentation at the 2013 Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy won a 2014
Aurora Award (Canada’s answer to the American Hugo Awards). Apparently, the suggestion that Canadian authors address themes that resonate particularly well with Canadian readers hit a responsive chord with the Award’s voters.

Links for people to buy it:
McFarland Publishing (publisher’s catalog)
Amazon – eBook and Paperback

Robert Runté is Senior Editor with Five Rivers Publishing, and a freelance development editor /writing coach at SFeditor.ca.

Dylan S Hearn – new novel update

Dylan S Hearn was previously featured on Reading Recommendations in Aug. 2014. He’s back now to tell us about the second book in his trilogy.

Dylan Hearn‘s new release is Absent Souls: The Transcendence Trilogy Book 2. It’s the sequel to his novel Second Chance, which was published in January 2014. It’s a thriller set in the near future, so while it’s classed as Science Fiction it’s really a character-led thriller – with a bit of prediction thrown in for fun.

Mick O’Driscoll has a problem. A man has died in the Scrambles, and nothing happens in the Scrambles without his permission, or so he thought. The death spells trouble and O’Driscoll knows it. The question is, who killed the Prime Delegate’s brother on his turf and why?
Set two years after the events of Second Chance, Absent Souls follows the story of four people struggling to deal with events in the present while tormented by events from the past: an Investigator, tortured by the memory of a man he couldn’t find and a crime he was unable solve; a crime lord, forced to live a life he inherited but never truly wanted; a Professor, using academic success to drown out his guilt; and a Global Governance opera-tive, slowly becoming the very thing she’s fighting against.
Forced to work with those they distrust in an effort to uncover the truth, it soon becomes clear that it’s not just their own lives they need to protect, but the very future of humanity that’s at stake.

Dylan S Hearn is a 43-year-old writer from Suffolk, England. A late bloomer who loved writing when younger and has read voraciously all his life, he started writing again a couple of years ago and now spends most of his time trying not to regret those wasted years.

Dylan also reviews books by Indie Authors on his blog, Suffolk Scribblings.

Links to buy Dylan’s book:
Absent Souls is available exclusively through Amazon as an ebook. To purchase, please click on the relevant link below:
US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, India

Twitter

What Dylan is working on now:
I’m working on the third and final part of the trilogy, Genesis Redux. For the first time I have a title before I’ve finished the book which is a novelty for me. I also write frequently in my blog where I like to talk about writing (or mostly about all the important activities which surround the writing process) as well as promote other self-published authors’ works I’ve enjoyed through my Recommended Reads section (and no, I didn’t steal Susan’s title!).

Dylan’s Reading Recommendation:
Since committing to Pay it Forward to other self-published writers by reading more self-published works and recommending those I’ve enjoyed, I’ve discovered many excellent writers.
I loved The Me You See by Shay Ray Stevens, a really great mystery which explores the death of a young woman through the eyes of those who knew her.

I also really enjoyed Yesterday Road by Kevin Brennan, a wonderfully warm book about a man in his latter years who decides to take a road trip, although he’s not sure where he is going or why. Kevin Brennan was previously featured on Reading Recommendations.

If you like Science Fiction, I recently read a great short-story collection called Moondust Memories by Vaughan Stanger, a mixture of pure science fiction and alternate history with each story exploring a specific theme.