Today is Anzac Day, when we in Australia pay respect to all those who served in Australia’s wars – or should I say, the wars where Australians joined in to support others. World War II was the only conflict where Australia was directly threatened. 25th April is the day in 1915 when Australian and New…
One aspect of writing a story that is often underestimated is coming up with suitable names for the characters. And that’s just as true of the pets in the Pets in Space stories. I could ask ChatGPT to come up with suggestions but I have a tendency to prefer names that mean something. After a…
Presenting the pets for this year’s Pets in Space 9. Can you match the pet to the story? R.J. Blain ~ USA TODAY Bestselling Author ~ “Failed Colony” Demelza Carlton* ~ “Daedalus” Leslie Chase ~ USA TODAY Bestselling Author ~ “Royal Cargo” Kenzie Kelly* ~ “Khanet” Evelyn Lederman* ~ “The Purrfect Trip” E.G. Manetti* ~…
At last I’m allowed to tell you! One of my stories has been accepted for this year’s Pets in Space collection. (Bounce bounce bounce) This is Pets in Space’s ninth year. Each limited-edition volume is a collection of about ten science fiction romance stories with a pet as one of the main characters. Over the…
One of the problems with writing a romance is that once the book is finished, the happy-ever-after or the happy-for-now ending is done. Time to move on to a new couple. And that can be disappointing for me, as a writer. Ever since I wrote Eye of the Mother, I had in mind that the…
A few years ago I wrote a story that appeared in Pets in Space 6 and has now been published as a stand-alone. But I didn’t write it specifically for the anthology. The inspiration came well before then. I was doing the writer’s equivalent of doodling, playing around with ideas, willing the Muse to come…
The first episode of the new Star Wars offering, The Acolyte, didn’t really do it for me, as I explained in a recent post. I wasn’t the only one not impressed. At the time of writing, there are thousands of one-star reviews for the series, with an overall rating of 1.2. Ouch. I looked at…
The whole idea of having a nice cover for a book is to entice people to pick it up (or tap on it in the current paradigm) and find out more about it with a view to actually forking out money to buy it. In order to do that, the cover must signal a few…
I write space opera because I find astronomy and cosmology fascinating. How was our planet created? How did the solar system come to be? How did the universe start? I’m not special in that respect. Humans have looked at the stars and asked questions since forever. For hundreds of years many people believed in astrology,…
I have been musing lately on how my books come across to others. I wrote them. Until they were published they were mine. Now, of course, they belong to whoever bought them and my opinion of what I wrote hardly matters anymore. But I still find it intriguing. Quite a few people have left reviews…