Review: Turn Left at the Mooncrow skeleton by Linda Raedisch

 The Book:

"Welcome to Planet 5372, a uniquely dystopian world where the unlikely heroes include a handful of shambolic university students and their taciturn landlord. Raedisch's layered writing and photographic attention to detail make this slice-of-life archaeological adventure entirely believable." ---Clarissa Simmens, author of Parallel Universe Cafe and Other Poems

For the past two hundred years, the colonists marooned on Planet 5372 have been confined to a volcanic basin the size of New Jersey. Outside the Basin lie the uninhabitable (some say haunted) ruins known as the Outer Cities. Bored with campus life at the colony’s only university, twenty-year-old Numi rents a room from Kelda, an uneducated, thirty-something carpenter whose movements are closely monitored by the “shingles” or neighborhood deputies. Numi doesn’t mind running interference between the reserved Kelda and his rambunctious tenants, but the two can never be more than friends. Numi’s an up-and-coming academic, and Kelda’s a Tyrrhenian, a descendant of the manual laborers who cleared the toxic vegetation from the Basin.

As Halloween approaches, Numi is still summoning the courage to confront Kelda with her suspicion that he’s mixed up in the black market trade in “magical paraphernalia,” mysterious carved objects left behind by the planet’s indigenous, supposedly extinct inhabitants. Time runs out on Mischief Night when Kelda disappears, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

Numi faces a decision. She can report her suspicions to the shingles, or she can follow her landlord to the one place she thought she could never go: the Outer Cities.

My Thoughts:

This book is a fellow contender in SPSFC4 (The Self Published Science Fiction Competition) and it caught my eye because it involves a population of people called Tyrrhenians, which is also the case with my entry into this contest, The Arid Lands.

Needless to say our Tyrrhenians are all very different.

But on to the book.

This is a delightful read, well written with vivid worldbuilding. It’s a slow burn of a book and I very much enjoyed immersing myself into the world the author has created. At its heart is an archaeological mystery through which the history of this planet is gradually revealed, but I also loved the characters that inhabit this world. I found Numi particularly relatable and the undercurrent of simmering attraction between her and Kelda was skillfully done.

All in all a very enjoyable read.

I hope this books goes far in SPSFC4. It deserves to.

Marketing Red Rock – a plan for promotion

I don’t intend doing a great deal of marketing and promotion for Red Rock. This is a re-release and in my mind it’s already had its day. But rather than simply press publish and leave it there to gather dust, I’ve decided to do a few things to give it a boost. It will be interesting to see which, if any of these, result in an uptick in sales.

1. Author social media accounts, twitter, Instagram, other? In the end I decided to set up an author Instagram account. I then generated a set of promotional graphics using Midjourney and Canva which I will publish to this account at regular intervals.

2. Run a giveaway. (Unfortunately Goodreads only allows this for US authors so I will run it from my author IG account and try to boost on Twitter) The giveaway will be for an e-copy – that way I can run it internationally. It might be good though to have some additional swag or a prize to make it more interesting. The easiest thing for me to offer is a chapter critique.

3. Countdown deals on Kindle Unlimited. I could offer it free or at 99p  to coincide with a special event such Earth day.

4. Review copies. Offer review copies in various ‘groups’ I belong to in the hope that they will enjoy it and give it a boost.

5. Participate in indie author events eg #indieapril on twitter

I will report back on these and what effects they have, which appear to be the most useful, and which don’t appear to make any difference to sales. This will be useful for me when I come to self publish my next book, which won’t be a re-release. The next one will be something new.

Formatting for Kindle and Print: A very simple guide.

 

Here is a very simple checklist for formatting your book for publication using Amazon. This is for both kindle and print. Make sure that before you start this stage that your novel had been fully edited and proofed.

Formatting for Kindle:

•         Clean document:  Ctrl A to select all. Set to ‘normal’ from headings section.

•         Set up title page, copyright etc format to centre set book title to Title, other text to normal.

•         Insert hyperlinks.

•         Inset page break at end of section

•         Set chapter titles to Heading, set text to normal,

•         Put page break at end of each chapter: On the Paragraph screen, under Indentation > Special: select First Line, and indent it by 0.38”

•         Remove spacing before and after

•         Click on normal and update normal to match selection

•         Edit title and heading style in the same way so they do not indent.

•         Generate epub/MOBI files (I use Draft2Dignital for this stage but I don’t press ‘publish’ as I’m only after the files.

I find it useful at this stage to send the novel to my kindle to check it is displaying correctly and also to pick up any last minute errors that may have crept in.

Formatting for print:

•         Use your clean kindle file as your starting point.

•         Set book size 6x9 (or 15.24: 22.86)

•         Ensure that you have no clickable hyperlinks in your book.

•         Add page numbers at bottom of page in the centre.

•         Select different first page to remove the page 1 number.

•         Check page breaks are where you want them

•         Export to pdf

Red Rock (new) Cover Reveal

 Today I am delighted to share with you - the new cover for Red Rock!

A few tips for generating book cover and promotional artwork on MidJourney

Using MidJourney to generate artwork in support of my forthcoming self-publishing adventures has been a lot of fun. I’ve learned a lot along the way and I’m going to share a few tips with you. I hope, if you’re going to give MidJourney a try, that you find them useful.

1.    Discord channel: Set up your own Discord Channel and then invite the bot to it. This will enable you to keep all your images in one place and to easily find earlier prompts if you decide to generate further variations or upscales. The feed in the Midjourney channels moves far too fast!

2.    Aspect ratio: Midjourney defaults to a square image format. But you can change this. The aspect ratio’s I found most useful were 16:9 for a widescreen format, and 1600:1256 which is the ratio I used for book covers. You can use whatever you like but the algorithm responds to some better than others. The command to set aspect ratio is --ar 16:9

3.    Test algorithms: These are fun to play around with. More keep coming on line but the two I’ve tried are --testp and --v 4. Of these v 4 gave the results I liked best, however it does not allow you to set aspect ratio. So keep an eye out for whatever is new. You might find something you like.

4.    Lighting effects: You can influence the mood of you image by adding commands such as dramatic lighting, cinematic lighting, or octane render. Play around and see what works.

5.    Time of day: Moonlight, night-time, sunset, dusk. These all change the colours in your image and can dramatically change the outcome. I particularly like moonlight! Why not also try snowy landscape or stormy skies. And anything else your imagination suggests!

6.    Mood and style: You can make your image fit with a particular mood or genre. I’ve tried post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk and fantasy, all of which were very effective and created some interesting results

This however has only skimmed the surface of what you can do. If you have a hunt online you will find many more useful guides. Here is one I found particularly handy. Midjourney Prompt Database - A.E. Alexander (aealexander.com)

 

Artwork for Red Rock using MidJourney

 The self-publishing journey for red Rock continues.

Since Red Rock has already been professionally edited my first major task is to generate artwork and create a cover. There are two cover formats required. One is a simple cover for the kindle edition and the other is the full wrap around cover for the print edition. I also need to generate supporting artwork for use in promotional activities.

To do this I took out a subscription to MidJourney, the AI art generator that runs on Discord. When you sign up you get 25 free credits after which a month’s subscription costs £12 for 200 credits. I let my subscription run for two months before cancelling it. This has given me plenty of images to work with.

To generate an image, you enter a text prompt. For example, one of the prompts I used to generate images for Red Rock is: “A girl walking through flooded city ruins at sunset.” I used variations on this theme as well as specific instructions such as changing aspect ratio, lighting effects, and which algorithm I wanted to use (there are constantly new test ones coming available. Some work for me and others don’t.)

Now I’ve generated images that I’m happy with I will turn to Canva to add text and turn the image into a book cover. I can also use Canva to generate various promotion graphics as well as videos which I will be using on social media to try to get the word out.

But I will talk in more depth about these in future posts. In the meantime, here are a couple of images to whet your appetite.

Melting Ice and Rising Seas

My first piece for the Climate Fiction Writers League is now live over on their blog. You can find it here: Melting Ice and Rising Seas. Do check it out. The League is a wonderful resource for all things CliFi related!

Welcome to the Climate Fiction Writers League

I have recently joined the Climate Fiction Writers League, an exciting new venture set up by author Lauren James.

The league has members from all over the world who have one thing in common – we have all seen the perils that climate change poses to our planet and have used this threat in our fiction.

From picture books through to YA, adult SF and contemporary fiction you can find books that explore a wide range of scenarios and environmental issues, any of which could be our future.

The books may carry a message, but not at expense of story, so do pop over to the website and see who is involved, sign up to the newsletter, and discover some wonderful books.

Visit the Climate Fiction Writers League here: Climate Fiction Writers League

And read more from Lauren about why she has set up the League over at Tor: Lauren James Launches Climate Fiction Writers League

The Guardian – Eco week and twitter chat

It’s Eco-Week over on the Guardian’s Children’s site, and a variety of authors have been contributing articles on all sorts of eco-related themes, from Piers Torday talking about why Cli-Fi isn’t Sci-Fi to Helen Skelton talking about how her kayaking expedition up the Amazon inspired her new book.

I was also fortunate enough to be invited to take part and today my top tips for writing an eco-adventure story goes live.

So do head over there and take a look – Here’s the link - and tonight why not join all the authors for a twitter chat #GdnEcoChat between 7 – 8 pm (UK time). I’ll be there and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may like to ask

Holding back the Sea

Last weekend we headed over to Portland and looked down from the heights at the waves crashing against Chesil Beach. This was a calm spell between the storms, but the sea was still a churning whiteness. At the height of the storms the waves have been overtopping the bank, the beach road flooded, the island cut off.

A huge quantity of shingle and pebbles on the seaward side of the bank has been scooped away and the army were moving in with their diggers, shoring up the defences and clearing the storm drains in readiness for the next onslaught. More gales are forecast, and these will coincide with a spring tide - never a good combination.

The waves have been massive, close to 8m in height, and this little graph shows so well the sort of battering out coastline is getting as a succession of storms sweep through. (You can check out the data near you here) http://www.channelcoast.org/data_management/real_time_data/charts/

As an island nation our coasts are always going to be vulnerable to the effects of the sea, more so as sea levels rise, and this has been illustrated all too well by recent events – the undermined railway at Dawlish, the flooded coastal towns. There is even talk of a managed retreat from some coastal areas in Wales.

Suddenly the world of Red Rock doesn’t feel so fictional after all.

A Watery World

I wrote about a flooded world. I imagined the rising seas. I also envisioned high rainfall and flooded river valleys. But this wasn’t meant to be today. My book is set in the future – a future beset by climate change – a Cli_Fi story where flooding is the norm.

 

I talked to my readers at signings and talks about the areas most at risk. I talked about the fenlands around Cambridge where some of the action in Red Rock is set – a future flooded Cambridge of tidal mudflats and buildings that become as islands. I also talked about another wetland region, closer to my home – the Somerset Levels - about the island that Glastonbury could once again become.

 

But for those poor people who inhabit that region all my talk of floods could well be hitting a bit of a raw nerve. For weeks now many roads have been impassable, whole communities cut off. A “major incident” has been declared. For the people who live there – this is no fantasy. This is very real, and very unwelcome.

 



I walked down the lane that led to through the village where I live not long after the rain had stopped – a brief window before the next front moved in. The fields were seeping, ditches overflowing, water streaming across the road.

Further on water was bubbling up through the drains, or from newly formed cracks in the tarmac – too much groundwater for the earth to hold, and the road and the river were indistinguishable. The fields to either side had become lakes, a welcome find for a flock of geese and a few ducks.

Soon we were wading, too deep for out wellingtons, and we turned back to higher ground.

Is what we are seeing the first indications of an overall trend towards more rainfall and more extreme weather, or is it just part of a natural cycle? Only time will tell.

Let’s Talk about Cli-Fi

In recent months there’s been quite a buzz developing about Cli-Fi. The term Cli-Fi – short for Climate Fiction, was first coined in 2007 by the journalist and blogger, Daniel Bloom to describe a sub-genre of fiction which has the climate as its focus.

Although I didn’t deliberately set out to write a book about climate change it is certainly one of the main themes in Red Rock – the ice caps are melting, sea levels are starting to rise. It doesn’t need much of a sea level rise for the effects to be devastating – just look at countries like the Netherlands where large areas are below sea level – reclaimed land, the sea held back by dikes, or northern Germany – only a few metres above sea level. It doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to imagine a world where this has already happened.

And I’m not the only author thinking this way. There has been a recent upsurge in Cli-Fi themed books hitting the shelves, and I’ve been watching this trend with interest.

Something exciting is going on here and it’s wonderful to be a part of it.

So do check out my post over at SFX magazine on the Rise of Cli Fi, my guest post over at the Scottish Book Trust on Cli-Fi in teen fiction, and, also at the Scottish Book Trust, my list of 9 Cli-Fi novels for teens.

So what Cli-Fi books have you read recently?

Red Rock is Published!

Today is the day – it’s Red Rock publication day! Red Rock is now available from Amazon and from all good bookshops – Waterstone’s, Foyles, Blackwells, Smiths…. So no excuses for not picking up a copy. It is also available as an e-book if you prefer that format.

To celebrate I am over at 14kidlit and AuthorAllsorts answering questions about the book, and I also have a guest post up at SFX magazine on the rise of cli-fi – do check it out and tell us what you think about the topic.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be guesting on a number of blogs - I’ll keep you posted – and do keep a special eye out for the giveaway over at Girls Heart Books!

Comino Caves

Over at the Allsorts blog we've discussing our favourite character or place from our books, and I've picked Comino - that tiny rocky island in the Malta archipelago, between mainland Malta and Gozo.

That's me in the pink mask at Comino Caves, feeding the fishes.

Ah - but how does Comino feature in Red Rock - and what is the significance of those caves?

You're just going to have to read it to find out!

Festivals and Story Slams

There are a couple of exciting events coming up this autumn, both of which I’m delighted to say I’ll be participating in.

The first of these is the Yeovil Literary Festival which will be taking place from the 19th – 22nd September this year. The brochure has just been made available and there are some very exciting events in the line-up. I’ve already booked my tickets to see Michael Morpurgo and if you are a budding writer yourself I can strongly recommend Margaret Graham’s writing workshops.

I’ve been booked up for three events. The first is on Friday 20th at 11am where I will be on a panel of past Yeovil Prize winners. We will be reading from our books and talking about how the Yeovil Prize has helped us on our journey to publication. This is particularly timely for me since Red Rock won the Western Gazette Award in 2010 and at the time of the festival will be in its first week as a published book!

The second and third events both take place on Sunday 22nd and will both be events for children. The first will be an interactive workshop at 11am – The First Manned Mission to Mars, when I will be taking the audience on an adventure to the Red Planet, and in the afternoon at 2pm I will be giving a talk on Cli-Fi – (Climate Change in kids fiction) and how my own experiences in the Arctic inspired the world I created in Red Rock.

You can find the brochure online here: http://app.southsomerset.gov.uk/pageflip/YLF/

I’m really excited by this – it will be my first Literary Festival as a published author. I can’t wait.

The second event is the Bridport Story Slam, taking place on Wednesday 16th October as part of the Bridport Open Book Festival. I’ve been invited to be one of the judges and I’m really looking forward to meeting other local authors and listening to the contenders stories. It sounds like it’s going to be a great evening of literature. More details and information on how to book a slot are available here: http://dorsetwritersnetwork.co.uk/events.htm

And in other nail biting news advance copies of Red Rock are now being sent out to reviewers. Danni, Gracie and Isaac are no longer just mine – they belong to everyone. And that is quite an overwhelming thought!

People of the Green Mounds

We raced to the top of the hill – to be the first to stand on top of the fairy mounds.

They say that if you listen carefully on a calm summer’s evening you can hear the fairy music playing.

They also say that should you fall asleep on the mounds the fairly folk will steal you away and you will never be able to return to your own world.

But we know it’s a tumulus – one of the many Iron Age burial mounds that line the hills in this region; the last resting place of someone who once lived and roamed this land – but is now forgotten.

Yet they were deemed worthy of a memorial to last millennia. And I can’t help wondering who they were.

This is what fascinates me about lost civilisations – a handful of artefacts and the rest is guesswork. And for a civilisation like that of the ancient Celts who had no writing but an oral tradition instead – when they were gone their words were lost.

What other civilisations have come and gone without our knowing?

The Once and Future Island

I stood, looking up at Glastonbury Tor from the Somerset levels. This flat coastal plain has been drained since the Middle Ages – a patchwork of water meadows and drainage canals, which, before, was a fenland landscape of reed swamp and willow.

Glastonbury itself has been inhabited since the iron age, and the tor is believed by many to be the Isle of Avalon of Arthurian legend, rising from the wetlands in the days before the fenlands were drained.

But being so low lying these meadows are vulnerable to flood. The whole region is only slightly above sea level and, in the past, frequently flooded during high tides. Sea defences, built in the early 20th Century have stopped these floods – but for how long? How much will the sea level have to rise before these defences are breached? I fear it may not need much.

3000 people drowned during the flood of January 1607. Farmland was destroyed and livestock swept away. In the world of Red Rock this whole region would be under several metres of water, and Glastonbury Tor would once more be an island.

The Greenland Vikings

We think of Greenland as an inhospitable place – a land of ice and rock. The only inhabitants are the Inuit (their lifestyle finely tuned to their environment), men who plunder the land for valuable resources such as rare minerals, and explorers and scientists braving those icy wastes for the greater good.

But once there were settlements and farms. And these settlers were Vikings.

Greenland was discovered by Eric the Red back in the 10th century. He named the place Greenland to make it sound lush and encouraged his countrymen to move there and settle. There were a number of settlements, all located in the South.

It seems strange now, to think that anyone could survive there, let alone make a living from farming. But this was a time when the climate was warmer than it is now. This was known as the Medieval Warm Period. In Britain vines flourished, and here in Greenland farming was feasible. The settlements thrived and the population grew to 3,000 - 5,000 people.

But it was not to last.

The Medieval Warm Period gave way to the Little Ice Age. In Britain the Thames froze solid. Here in Greenland the crops failed and the trade routes were cut off by ice. In the 14th century the colony went into decline. The last written record is a wedding solemnised in 1408, but after that – nothing.

And so the Greenland Vikings became victims of climate change.

My Top Ten Martian Tales

Sticking with the Martian theme I thought I'd share my top ten Martian tales. So there they are - in reverse order:

(10) The Martian Way by Isaac Azimov  - No SF list would be complete without Azimov, so here he is.

(9) Voyage by Stephen Baxter - an excellent alternate history where mankind is already out exploring space.

(8) The Outward Urge by John Wyndham - Not a writer normally associated with hard SF but this is an exception to the rule.

(7) Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - okay, so this is really three books, but they deserve a slot of their own - Martian terraforming in all its glory!

(6) We can remember it for you Wholesale by Philip K Dick,  which you probably know as the film Total Recall - the first one that is - the latest one isn't set on Mars, which I think spoils it.

(5) Captain Scarlett and the Mysterons - I just had to include this - well, just - because :-)

(4) The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut - because he's one of my all time favourite writers!

(3) Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein - an all time classic in my opinion - that stayed with me long after I'd finished the last page!

(2) War of the Worlds by HG Wells - The original Martians and probably the best!! (And I have to mention here the Jeff Wade album by the same name which I love)

(1) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury - Both the book and the TV series - I loved these stories! Really original Martians too.

So what would be on your list?

The Real Mars Mission

 

My novel, Red Rock, is set just after the return of the first manned mission to mars; a mission with a special connection for Danni, because her aunt was one of the astronauts.

Mankind may not yet have set foot on the red planet, but there have been regular missions to mars over the years.

It is a world full of surprises. The first images of ancient river channels sent back by Mariner 9 set the world ablaze, and since then the search for water and for evidence that there may once have been life on that barren world continues.

At the moment the Curiosity rover is up there, sending back data, revealing more secrets and raising even more questions with every day that passes.

I was lucky enough to see it in Florida, a few days before the launch.

Who knows – maybe one of my readers will become the first man, or woman, to set foot on Mars.