A Look At M. Pax & 'Precipice' @mpax1 @GoddessFish #SciFi #spaceopera

Today we have author M. Pax visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* M. Pax is author of the space adventure series The Backworlds and the contemporary science fiction series The Rifters, plus other novels and short stories. Fantasy, science fiction, and the weird beckons to her, and she blames Oregon, a source of endless inspiration. She docents at Pine Mountain Observatory in the summers as a star guide, has a cat with a crush on Mr. Spock, and is slightly obsessed with Jane Austen.

Today M. Pax will be talking about...
Five Steps to Balancing Life and Writing
1. Make a list of priorities and times they take place.
2. Where can you squeeze in writing/writing related activities?
3. Make a schedule of writing times/activities.
4. Stick to the schedule.
5. Adjust where necessary.
* It sounds so simple, right? Yeah, way easier than it is to do. No matter if an author writes full time or in her/his spare time, life loves to creep in and steal the writing time.
* The less distractions I have, the better I do at hitting my goals. I rarely succeed at turning away from the internet, so require myself to get to a certain point before I check in with social media. It helps. There are programs you can purchase to temporarily turn the internet off. Google “program to temporarily disable internet”.
* Like anything else, finding balance is about figuring out how to work with yourself instead of against yourself. If writing time is scheduled during a conflicting with another priority, it’s never going to work.
* I know many writers who get up before dawn or stay up extra late to get some coveted time for their manuscripts. I write in the mornings. It’s my most creative time, and I have the most energy. So I’m working with myself.
* Setting manageable goals helps keep projects on track. Just be sure to make them ‘manageable’. If the set goals are unrealistic, frustration and disappointment will soon be on the desk with the manuscript gathering dust.
* In the end, there are always bits of life that come along to throw everything out of whack. Let the balance be out of whack. We’re only human, and can only do what we can do. It’s OK.
* There are places chunks of time can be stolen. For instance, at a kid’s sports practice or waiting to pick up the kid from school. Little bits of work add up to a whole manuscript over time. A look into the story

~ Blurb ~ * In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendants to survive in a harsh universe. This is the sixth book in the science fiction series, The Backworlds. A space opera adventure.
* The Backworlds hang by a Quantum string, a thread about to snap. Annihilation is coming if Craze can’t stop it.
* The genocidal alien he had trapped breaks free, destroying a ship belonging to the Backworlds’ oldest enemy, the Fo’wo’s. The murderous alien wants to overtake the galaxy. The Fo’wo’s want another war.
* The Backworlds’ best chance to survive is to overcome a century of hate and forge an alliance with the Fo’wo’s. Because of his history with the alien, Craze is recruited to represent his people. Now he’s the most hated man in the galaxy.
* The looming war will be a holocaust unless he can stop it, knowing salvation comes at a price.
* Boing Boing gives The Backworlds 5 stars! "This is a fun, fast paced novel that reminded me a bit of early Heinlein". ~ Excerpt ~ * Engaging the thrusters on the jetpack strapped to her back, Rainly steered herself through space. Its vastness terrified her. Her skin prickled. The man in the white robe jabbering in her head overwhelmed her, blocking out all until she found herself back on the Sequi opening the box she had retrieved. She had hoped answering the man’s summons would end her blackouts.
* “I don’t want to know what I did,” she whispered, her teeth chattering and limbs quaking. She couldn’t take much more of this.
* The size and dimensions of a coffin, the box was also a ship. One more sophisticated than the Sequi. Using a control paddle, Rainly maneuvered a dolly under the box, then she wheeled it into the living quarters. Her sister had moved the couches, creating ample space.
* Her hands clapping, her sister beamed. “Let’s meet our master.”
* Together they pried open the chamber per instructions pulsing in Rainly’s head. The flood of data had to be making a clamor in her sister’s mind too, because she moved in the same ways.
* Inside the box lay a brain in a sac of goo. Nothing like Rainly expected. “Is it a Fo’wo?” she asked her sister.
* “Not yet. We have to reboot him first.”
* Rainly had to wonder whether she and her sister had gone insane. Buy Precipice here... Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords | the-backworlds-series Find M. Pax here... Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Website Thank you for joining us here today, M. Pax! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! M. Pax is giving away a $40 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use the Rafflecopter below. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!

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A Look At Christopher Gray & 'Dark Nights' ~ @GoddessFish #SciFi

Today we have author Christopher Gray visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Christopher A. Gray is a professional freelance writer living in Toronto. He has been a sales agent, project manager, actor, filmmaker, comedy writer & performer and world traveler.

What are you going to tell us about today?
* My story Dark Nights and its background.
* Dark Nights grew out of what was originally going to be a shorter novella about the ramifications of another planet suddenly appearing in opposite orbit to us on the other side of the sun. I might have kept the first novella as a stand-alone, but I quickly realized that there was a much bigger story here. In other words, the story couldn’t end with meeting the people from the other planet. I had to explore the political and scientific ramifications introduced by such a major event. The full-length finished book is divided into three main chapters, each titled according to the shorter planned novellas: Mercy, Revenge, and Sacrifice.
* The two scientific theories that have always fascinated me the most in my lifetime are the multiverse theory, and the concept of artificial intelligence. The idea that there may be an infinite number of universes in existence, some similar or even identical to our own, has always remained an unprovable theory. Recently there has been more and more evidence to strongly suggest that the multiverse does indeed exist.
* The other concept, artificial intelligence, is closer than ever to becoming reality. Historically, the prediction of when we might construct a true AI has always stated it as been about twenty years off, whether the question was asked fifty years ago or ten years ago. Thus, it has always remained just out of reach. Although Dark Nights takes place in the present day, in reality the most recent advancements in quantum mechanics and quantum computing may finally give the traditional prediction of “twenty years off” a schedule we can stick to.
* For the book cover I worked closely with my designer Tom Edwards to produce a cover that gave a hint of Dark Nights' key plot point of the multiverse, while at the same time remaining mysterious. Two similar planets in close proximity, with a halo that implies that one just arrived.

A look into the story

~ Blurb ~ * The machine believed it knew best how to save humanity... even if doing so meant destroying half the population.
* Astrophysicist Doug Lockwood's unusual discovery during his observation of the sun kicks off a chain of events that nobody could have foreseen. The powerful political and military influences that compete to deal with his discovery set Lockwood on a course which will carry him across worlds, and into the grasp of a formidable new intelligence bent on accomplishing its goal at any cost. With Earth itself at stake and time running out, Lockwood and his team must find a way to counter this unprecedented threat before the powerful new enemy completes its plan. Two civilizations are pitted against each other in a desperate struggle for survival. ~ Excerpt ~ * Meyer shut the door after the last person left and sat down in the nearest chair, directly across from Doug, rather than his usual spot at the head of the table. Doug waited for him to speak.
* “It’s a planet,” Meyer said finally. “And it’s in an orbit directly opposite ours, at a distance of approximately one AU.”
* Doug didn’t reply. The implications were massive, as were the questions. After a few seconds, Meyer rose from his seat and walked to the window, looking outside at the sloping volcanic Hawaiian landscape as he talked.
* “Nobody knows where it came from, but it’s there, verified by NASA.”
* “Using their STEREO satellites?”
* “Yes, a few hours ago. But you and Foley at Atacama saw it first. STEREO was trained on another star when you logged the object. It took some time to reposition STEREO’s lenses. Because of their orbital distance ahead and behind us, together they will be able to keep tabs on the object at all times. We’re expecting some images soon, which will be free of the sun’s coronal interference.”
* “So we’ll have a better view and can determine if its orbit is stable.”
* “Correct.”
* “But that doesn’t explain how it got there.”
* “Correct again. But thanks to your discovery, and your reputation, you’ve been invited to an emergency conference in Washington. You’ll be meeting your plane at Pearl Harbor in two hours. Don’t bother to pack, there’s a helicopter on its way here, courtesy of the White House Chief Science Advisor.”

Buy Dark Nights here...
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Thank you for joining us here today, Christopher Gray! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Christopher Gray will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN GC! So be sure to leave your name and email with your comment & use the Rafflecopter to enter the contest. Visit the other tour stops (find them here: goddessfishpromotions-virtual-book-tour-dark-nights) for a greater chance of winning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway