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One more day, then it’s over
Yes, folks, you can download my novel Starheart for free for 3 whole days.
You’ll never get a better price.
It’s damn good Sci-Fi Two lips reviews says “The twists and turns develop at a good pace, with Ms. Van der Rol’s characters wrapping me up in their plight to such an extent that I hated to let the book go when it ended.” more…
Starheart’s got everything I need for a good time “a strong, sexy, vulnerable female protagonist in the form of the alluring and stressed out, multitasking Jess; a tall take charge and handsome admiral, conflicted about her and her shady doings; a mystery, an adventure, and a believable warp drive.” more… from Toby Neal
I really enjoyed this book. A lot! AB Shepherd says “This book is a fun action/adventure, a murder mystery, a crime novel and a romance all wrapped up in one neat package!” more…
She’s lost her husband, her best friend is missing. What else has she got to lose?
Slightly shady freighter captain, Jess Sondijk, thought she had her life under control until Admiral Hudson’s Confederacy battle cruiser stops her ship to search for contraband. His questions reopen matters she had thought resolved. What if her husband’s death on his way back from Tabora wasn’t accidental? Jess decides to investigate, while keeping Hudson at arms’ length.
While he’s attracted to the lovely Jess, Hudson is also concerned about what might be happening on Tabora and how that may involve the Confederacy’s enemies.
Jess and Hudson’s interests collide in more ways than one. But while Jess is more than willing to put her life on the line to protect what’s hers, Hudson must balance the risk of inter-species war at worst and the end of his career at best, in a deadly game of political intrigue, murder and greed. At the end of the day, how much is he willing to lose for the woman he has come to love?
Photographing Brahmani Kites
Pictures of this majestic raptor always brings oohs, aahs and wows from people. Yet in many respects, they’re the easiest of my targets. The reason is two fold.
1) I know where to find them
2) They’re not shy
Our part of the bay supports a pair of Brahmani Kites. I’ll often find them on the tidal flat near Tooan-tooan Creek, where they’ll perch on driftwood or an exposed rock – anything where their tail is clear of the ground. Unlike the sand pipers and the white egret, they’ll let me get reasonably close. As they’ve got to know me, that’s increasingly close.
They’ll fly off if I intrude too much – especially if they’re protecting dinner.
If they’re not on the tidal flats, they may be at a favourite roost in the mangroves above the creek.
Or they may be up the other end of the beach, where a line of rocks is exposed at low tide. In fact, I got my bestest pictures of the pair together at that spot. You can see them here and here. If you want those you’ll have to pay for them.
And because they’re so big, they flap their wings slowly and glide so the camera can stop the motion. It’s much harder to get a clear picture of a small bird or an insect in flight because they move so fast and their wings move so fast. For flying shots, the camera is set to ‘sports’ mode, which means maximum shutter speed. That means you sacrifice the amount of light you get in the camera, and depth of field, so for the best shots, I need a bright day.
Share the pictures on this post by all means – just credit me the copyright.
When the universe tugs at your lead…
I hadn’t intended to write a photography blog so soon after my debut yesterday. But sometimes the universe jerks your lead and you just have to go along with the tug.
I went to the beach this morning, my trusty camera in hand. It looked like a nice day and I hoped I might catch up with a few of my feathered friends. Some of them have become friends, although I’ll forgive you for not believing me. Some, I swear, love to have their picture taken and seek me out when I arrive.
Today the Brahmani Kite was out on the tidal flat at Tooan-tooan creek but he’d caught a sea snake for dinner and was soon off to a safer haunt, no doubt to a perch above the creek where he often goes.
So I wandered on, up the beach. In the distance a bird bathing in the shallows caught my eye so I went to see. It was another friend, one of the pair of ospreys, a largish sea eagle. I’d been hoping to catch up with it this morning but I hadn’t anticipated the treat I had in store.
He flapped around in the shallows just like any duck, getting the water through his feathers, preening between dousing.
When he’d had enough, he set about drying his wings, flapping them about while he stood in the water
Then he was off. A mighty leap into the air with a massive down beat of those powerful wings
He swept away, over the beach and around the bay to search for lunch, I guess.
I’m so lucky to see these things. Share by all means – but acknowledge my copyright.
A frozen moment of time
Those of you who know a little about me know I enjoy taking photos. My subjects tend to be creatures that fly and maybe I’ll talk about them another time. This time, I want to talk about sunsets. You might think sunsets and flying birds don’t have much in common but there is one thing. With a camera, a photographer can capture one moment in time, an event which will never happen in quite the same way ever again. Oh, a bird will fly, a sun will set but the chances of ALL the circumstances being exactly the same – you’d have a far better chance of winning the lottery.
So share with me this wondrous sunset on the shores of Hervey Bay.
I went to a spot I frequent, where a creek flows into the bay. We have large tidal rise and fall and there is a vast tidal flat exposed here at low tide. I arrived before sundown and watched the people and the dogs – and a few birds – enjoy the ambience.
Then the sun set in the West (as it does). It’s just above the tops of the trees. Notice the high cirrus cloud, hardly affected by the sun.
So intent was I on the sun sinking in the west, I ignored what was behind me. A short time later, I looked over my shoulder and saw this. I’m looking at the eastern sky, with the sun just set behind me.
And then I turned around again. And captured a river of light reflected in a river of water. A truly amazing sight that it is my privilege to share with you. Three incomparable, never to be repeated, moments in time.
Please enjoy – and if you wish to share these, be my guest but I ask that you acknowledge my copyright by attributing me.
Editing is full of doubt
#amediting #amstruggling
Yes, I’m struggling as I edit this story, the one that needs more romance. I sit here at the laptop and gaze at the words on the page and wonder if I’m trying to do something I shouldn’t be doing. So then I go out in the garden and hope a butterfly will slow down long enough for me to take a good picture. Or I go shopping and – gosh, where has the morning gone and I don’t feel like it any more.
Sit down, concentrate, this has to happen. Why is it so hard? Get into her head. She’s smitten but she’s wary. Get into his head. He’s besotted but he can’t. She’s not the right one. She can’t be the right one. How does that feel? Hot, sweaty, horny, uncomfortable. And her? Tight nipples, wetness, heat, all tingly, all aware of scents.
Write more words.
Can I do this? Should I do this?
Yes, I should and yes, I can. Remember when I had to add a lot more romance to ‘The Iron Admiral’? It was hard, as hard as this. Maybe not quite so hard because I wasn’t writing a romance. Not really. Was I? But I rewrote and rewrote and I must have got it fairly right because people said things like “Chaka Saahran is one sexy dude: a military man (imagine him in uniform) fully capable of killing when necessary, commanding an enormous battleship, and presiding over thousands of soldiers, while behind the scenes arranging for a bolt of exquisite green material shot with details of gold to be crafted into a magical dress for the woman he loves. Made me sigh more than once.”
Okay, that worked. I know I can I know I can I know I can… A caterpillar turns into a butterfly.
But even so, I’m open to suggestions. Anyone?
The Rules of Romance
I’m in the throes of editing. I’ve written a good story but it needs some restructure and it needs a lot more romance. That last is a skill I have yet to properly master but I know and understand it must be done. Apparently I was quite successful in my Iron Admiral books, but not so much in Morgan’s Choice and Starheart, which are principally action-adventure stories with romance as a side dish. (See books for more info)
Many people scoff at romance. Sure, there are pot-boilers – as there are in every other genre, but it isn’t necessarily an easy genre to write well, as I have discovered. I’ve also learned there are Rules. You know me and rules, know ‘em so you can break ‘em. The one that really, really bothers me about romance is the one that says ‘when the hero and heroine first set eyes on each other, they shall have no eyes for anybody else’.
I kind of understand the reasoning, here. It isn’t about reality, it’s about an ideal, if you like. But it comes down to male versus female needs/wants/desires. Alan and Barbara Pease, who wrote an iconic book about body language, also wrote another book entitled “Why men want sex and women need love“. To me, the argument they give is compelling and they could easily have used ‘males’ for men and ‘females’ for women in the title because the behaviour is found in many, if not most, species. (I know some species form a monogamous relationship – but even the fabled swan mating has been shown to be not quite so monogamous as we’ve been led to believe.) Males spread their sperm around to father offspring. Females are usually shouldered with the job of raising said offspring. They need the support of a loving male to help them do so. Fair enough.
Now back to our mythical couple. It’s love at first sight. But there are problems and setbacks and she knocks him back. We have a frustrated male. Yet when I suggest he would go and find consolation in the arms of an acquaintance, friend, or hooker, this is deemed wrong. I’ll bet it’s realistic, though. Men’s urges and motivations aren’t the same as a woman’s. Is it just that (as a friend told me) women read romance to escape reality?
Any thoughts on all of this, people?
Suspending disbelief
Whenever you read a book, something rides shotgun on your shoulder, an internal filter, if you like. Its purpose is to check for things that don’t work – be it because you know that’s not true or you don’t believe that could happen. I’m sure you can think of examples – the idiot who insists on checking that creak on the stair, alone, in the dark, when two of her friends have already died a gruesome death. Or the hero miraculously appears from somewhere, just in time. Or the way all the planets out there seem to have the same gravity as Earth with breathable atmosphere.
It’s up to the author to ensure that filter in people’s brains is never activated. Or if it is, it doesn’t override the impulse to read the book. This is particularly true in genre fiction like science fiction and fantasy because of the world building aspects. You don’t ever want somebody reading your work to sit back and say ‘I don’t believe that’.
And yet.
A reader/watcher can become so engrossed in the story that the filter doesn’t work at all. Let me give you an example. I fell in love with Star Wars went I went to see The Empire Strikes Back. Sure, I have a history degree, but astronomy and cosmology have fascinated me for years. I read about stars, I was familiar with the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, I had my own astronomical telescope. I giggled in Star Wars episode 4 (A New Hope) when Han Solo purported to have done ‘the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs*’. And yet, even after watching TESB a dozen times, I had to read in an article somewhere, the story’s biggest flaw. Want to guess? Or do you already know? The Millenium Falcon’s hyperdrive failed. And yet the ship made it to Bespin (pretty far) without either Han or Leia collecting a grey hair. Let’s put that into perspective. The nearest star to us (apart from Sol) is over four light years away. Even travelling at light speed that’s a four year trip. So my in-built belief-suspender was glued to the seat, watching the movie.
On the other hand, when I watched the movie ‘The Rock’ (Sean Connery – they had to break INTO Alcatraz) there’s this scene where the guys have to get underneath a thing rather like a piston. Sean had done it many years ago, when he was the only person to escape the famous prison. So we’re watching this sequence. I sat back, turned to the OH and said, ‘OK, he had to do that to get out. But why don’t they just use that door over there?’
FAIL
That was the end of that movie for me.
What about you? Care to share some examples?
*parsec is a measure of distance, not time. Definition here
My Cheeky Angel (1st book in the Angels with Attitudes series)
Today I’m hosting Mimi Barbour, who is doing a blog tour with a difference for her book My Cheeky Angel
Annie is naïve and love-starved, she’ll soon to be celebrating her big 3-0. Something needs to be done! Celi, her ‘down-to-earth’ guardian angel appears to help kick-start Annie’s big change—her looks, her job, her whole life. By taking a managerial position with a sophisticated shoe manufacturer, Annie becomes embroiled with her new associates and hooked on the power of big business. Unfortunately, her exhaustion from overwork forces her to ignore old friends, and her lapse places someone she cares about in terrible danger.
Tyler, a Social Worker and a woman-hater previously hurt in two relationships, only wants Annie in his life as a good buddy. Oh yeah! And to help with his mixed-up street kids. Perversely, once her life alters, he misses her like hell. In one sweet night of loving everything changes. But, due to an overabundance of nightcaps, she doesn’t remember the night he can’t forget.
Excerpt:
Within seconds the smooth prick spoke. “Anna had a bit too much to drink. I was seeing her safely home.”
“Not a problem. I’ll take her up,” he growled. By this time, Tyler had a supportive arm around the wobbly woman. He looked down at her. “Say bye-bye to your date…Anna.” His spitting out her newly chosen name would have set worry bells ringing, if she’d been in her normal state of mind. Blitzed out of her head, she just jiggled her fingers and said, “Bye-bye, date.”
With everything happening so fast, Tyler knew Annie hadn’t had a chance to fully appreciate the change in her situation. One minute she was leaning drunkenly against the slimy character whose hands were all over her body, while her unfocused eyes gazed at him adoringly. The next minute, Tyler had taken over.
As the elevator doors closed, leaving Sergio shrugging off his disappointment, a fuming Tyler lifted Annie into his arms.
At ease, Annie wrapped her arms around him, snuggled her face into his neck, and then sighed. His familiar expensive cologne, one of her gifts that he regularly used, seemed to soothe her. “I love how you smell.”
His anger fled the moment he became aware that she sniffed at him like a small kitten. His legs almost buckled when he felt the tip of her tongue lick him, and then press a tiny kiss over the wet spot.
The groan started deep, frustration forcing it out, chasing away his righteous snit. At her door, he lowered her to her unsteady feet, but she refused to unwind her arms from around his neck. They clung, her body glued to his.
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Starheart is released on the Kindle Select program – and for March 13 and 14 you can download the book for FREE.
Once again, my good friend Kevin Radthorne has created an image which is perfect for Jess, heroine of Starheart. Here she is, dressed in her ‘invisible’ suit, ready for a little bit of break-and-enter. Find this picture, and more of Kevin’s wonderful art here. And here’s a little snippet of Starheart to go with the picture.
Dressed in the ‘invisible’ suit, currently set to black, she caught the lift down to the basement and fired up Troy’s in-line skimmer. Looking at the machine brought back memories. They’d ridden klicks on this thing, him driving, her behind, zooming along the back tracks of the mountains back in the days before Tenna was born. They’d gone away for weekends in the woods, camping up near Lake Maribou. She hadn’t thrown a leg over since he died.
Settled in the seat she activated the sensor to open the basement door. It clicked and rose into the ceiling, allowing access to the street. She overrode the skimmer’s auto-drive function. No point in sneaking out at night and leaving the evidence of where she’d been on the machine’s system.
She pushed the throttle on. The nose lifted, flinging her back in the saddle. Shit. Too fast. She throttled back, only just avoiding a scrape along the wall. Relax, let yourself remember. She juggled the balance until she had it right, then let the skimmer glide up the ramp into the road, the door dropping into place behind her. At this time of night residential Orham City slept, at least for the most part. An automated cleaner bot rounded a corner up ahead but the road was free of traffic. Jess drove easily, enjoying the throb of the beast beneath her. She had clipped the sensor detection pen on her shirt and her Calvin C40 light laser pistol sat in its holster at her hip.
Don’t forget – to read more, take a look at Starheart. Action, adventure, spaceships, aliens – and a dollop of romance.
It’s hard to read for pleasure
Earlier today I read somebody’s post about omniscient point of view and how it has gone out of favour. These days we’re all urged not to head-hop and to use ‘deep third’ so our readers can really identify with our characters. These observations resonated with some other thoughts I’ve been having along those lines.
I’m re-reading Zahn’s ‘Outbound Flight’ because I like the Thrawn character and it’s a fun book. Now, when I first bought the novel I read it once, then immediately read it again – which is what I always do with books that really take my fancy. This was a few years ago. Since then, I’ve had a few books published myself. And Mr Zahn, who is a well-respected author, is guilty of so many things which would have him up before the Tribunal for Writing Rules. He uses a few too many adverbs. He uses (often) words other than ‘said’ as dialogue tags. Growled, snarled, ranted, snapped. I certainly didn’t notice any of these ‘flaws’ when I first read the book.
I think I have been educated to expect writing of a particular type. I admit, these days I don’t like head-hopping. I like to identify with a character and know what’s going through their heads. Too many adverbs and adjectives make me wince.
I really do wonder if I’d be hung up like this if I’d never done the writing courses, never received the crits from writers groups? In a way, it’s a shame because I’ve lost the simple pleasure of reading for the hell of it.
What about you, all you writers out there? Can you still just read for pleasure?
