Valentine Vignette
Valentine's day updates, book stuff, and a romantic Z-Tech vignette to set the mood.
❤️ Happy Valentine's Day! ❤️
Doing anything special? My wife and I will probably go for a nice walk in the hills, then maybe treat ourselves to tea and scones at Lovey's Tea Shop down the hill. We're low-key like that.
But characters in speculative fiction rarely are. They'll go out to get flowers for their significant other, only to be kidnapped by aliens, attacked by a dragon, or be sucked into a plot to overthrow the government by the flower shop clerk / international spy. To celebrate Valentine's Day the Author Way™️, please enjoy a little vignette below that I created just for the occasion.
In other writing news, Angels Adrift (The Z-Tech Chronicles Book 5) is now scheduled to sail at the end of this month. Sad news, but the publisher is doing their best to move it along as soon as possible. I'll let you know the moment it's available.
I'm halfway through the second draft of New Denver (Timeless Keeper Saga Book 2), which means it will be in beta hands soon, and ARC reader hands soon after. Yay!
Lastly, you may have noticed that my newsletter looks different. I recently switched platforms from Wix Ascend to Ghost ("Switched" is an understatement. "Madly rushed to deploy and configure the platform, import data from the old platform, and learn the tool" is closer to the truth.) If things look a little strange, that's because I'm still dialing in the format and such. Please bear with me; I'll continue to improve the design with each subsequent newsletter. 😄
In this newsletter:
- Valentine Vignette: A Rare Gift
- Free Books, Sales, and Events
- Currently Reading
- Other Authors You Might Like
Valentine Vignette
A Rare Gift
Confession time: I had no idea what a "vignette" was until I sat down to write one for this newsletter. This my first, but hopefully not last, so please bear that in mind while you read. 😊
The following vignette is a moment that could have been, snapped sometime in the first book in the halls of Z-Tech. I hope it captures their feelings for each other, their precarious situation, and how strange everything is for them in that moment. Hope you enjoy!
Charlie holds the roses that aren’t roses out to Anne. Red petals shimmer with unnatural beauty. Too dense to be stirred by a breeze, they move to their own rhythm. Soft, just like the auburn-haired woman standing across from him, whose beautiful brown eyes stare at the unexpected gift. At this unanticipated remembrance that February 14th is more than just a day, even when struggles and uncertainty fill every minute of their life, making it difficult to justify trivial gestures of affection, endearment, and normalcy. Her smile says she misses those days, too, if ever she had them.
Free Books, Sales, and Events
- February – Sci fi Romance February. Celebrate Valentine's Day with a romantic science fiction book. (Yes, many titles on this list feature shirtless alien hunks, but others fit into the classic, tamer "romance" category. At least one does, anyway, because One Man's Trash in on there. See what you think.)
- February – Imagination Unleashed: A Fantasy & Science Fiction Giveaway. Over 100 quality fantasy and science fiction titles, free through the end of this month. (No shirtless guys. I checked.)
- February / March – The publish date for Angels Adrift (The Z-Tech Chronicles Book 5) has drifted to the end of February. It may slip a tad more, but keep your spyglass at the ready. It's coming soon!
Currently Reading
Magus by Morgan Chalut
Finished! Chalut really delivers with this last book of the series, wrapping up Donovan and Ruben's epic struggles in a memorable finale that kept me turning pages into the night. Magus continues to expand on the unique magic system outlaid in the previous books, answering every question I had. 5 out of 5 stars, for sure.
I hope to see more books set in the Unwoven Tapestries universe in the future!
Other Authors You Might Like
A Wreck of Dragons
Teens and their giant robots search for a new home for mankind, but the planet they discover belongs to the dragons.
Two hundred years after the Climate Wars left Earth uninhabitable, Johari and his giant robot companion lead a squad of scouts on a quest for a new Goldilocks planet to settle the remnants of the human race.
When one of the scouts and his bot go down in a hostile wilderness, Johari's fight to save them reveals complex behavior in the dragon-like dominant species. The scout team fragments as Johari strives to rescue his friends and discover the truth about the aliens.
If he's right, mankind will lose its best hope for a home — or sacrifice its own humanity.
My Books
The Z-Tech Chronicles
In the face of a rising, ancient evil, a traumatized San Francisco waitress may be the only thing standing between humanity and oblivion.
The Z-Tech Chronicles is a science fiction / urban fantasy saga that follows Anne Perrin on her journey from a traumatized waitress to becoming more than she ever imagined.
Other Books
One Man's Trash – a cozy science fiction romance in the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy universe.
Holtondome (Timeless Keeper Saga Book 1) – A farmer-to-hero science fiction / dystopian adventure set 500 years in the future. Book 2 coming soon!
Dragon Assassin – A steamy contemporary shifter romance adventure. With dragons!