Winter
It’s a very busy time of year for me. There are only 18 school days left, and we’ve got a lot going on at work. We are converting to an International Baccalaureate Program School and a Magnet School as well. I am on the leadership team in this process. At the same time, I’m taking the last college classes I will ever take. It’s a six course program for 18 college credits. I finish the second class tomorrow, having started the third last week. You might think that all this means I haven’t had time to write, but I’ve actually been writing more than every.
I was working on Astrid Maxxim and the Electric Racecar Challenge and was cruising along okay through that draft, but suddenly I needed to write about Senta and the Steel Dragon, so I started on the draft of Book 7 in that series. Only 36 days later, and I’m on chapter 10. I can’t wait until summer, when I can write all day. When I finish chapter 13, I’ll announce the title and show off the cover.
I would really like to publish a total of five books this year. I already have His Robot Girlfriend: Charity out. It’s doing pretty well, by the way. I want to finish Astrid Maxxim. I may or may not take a short rest from her, depending on how I feel later. I want to finish the Senta book I’m working on now. Finally, I need to finish the first book of the 82 Eridani series. Lastly, but certainly not least, I have plans for a BIG His Robot Wife book, that will advance the story of Mike and Patience and tie it into Charity’s.
Watch this space for more info, as I make it up.
Ruth is one of the four musician characters in Tesla’s Stepdaughters. What was her inspiration?
In as far as the Ladybugs is an alternate world analogy of the Beatles…
Ruth is Ringo. She’s the drummer. She’s written one really famous song, although she sings some written by her bandmates. Everyone thinks she’s nice.
Ruth is a native of the Virgin Islands.
Read about her and the other Ladybugs in Tesla’s Stepdaughters.
Steffie Sin is one of the four musician characters in Tesla’s Stepdaughters. What was her inspiration?In as far as the Ladybugs is an alternate world analogy of the Beatles…
Steffie is a mixture of Harrison and McCartney. Like Harrison, she has her songs pushed aside on albums because of the prolific songwriting of Piffy and Penny. Like McCartney, she can play just about any instrument. She spends her off time in seclusion.
She has a little boy.
Read about her and the other Ladybugs in Tesla’s Stepdaughters.
Penny Dreadful is one of the four musician characters in Tesla’s Stepdaughters. What was her inspiration?
In as far as the Ladybugs is an alternate world analogy of the Beatles…
Penny is a mixture of Lennon and McCartney, with a bit of Harrison. She’s a hard rocker and a large woman, a bit like Ann Wilson of Heart.
She’s the greatest guitar player of all time, and oh yeah, she’s a clone.
Read about her and the other Ladybugs in Tesla’s Stepdaughters.
Ep!phanee (pronounced Epiphany) or Piffy is one of the four musician characters in Tesla’s Stepdaughters. What was her inspiration?
In as far as the Ladybugs is an alternate world analogy of the Beatles…
Piffy is a mixture of Lennon and McCartney. Song writing style, she’s more Lennon. Management put her at odds with the other three band members: ala McCartney. And like McCartney, she’s always looking to “do it in the road.”
She’s a wild chick with a bit of Joan Jett in her and stylewise she’s a bit Lady Gaga too.
Read about her and the other Ladybugs in Tesla’s Stepdaughters.
The Voyage of the Minotaur is the story of a group of settlers founding a colony in a distant mysterious continent. It is a fantasy world and I could name the continents and countries anything that I wanted. I really don’t remember where some of the names came from now. Mallon is the continent in which the story takes place. I think of it geographically as Asia. The colony is set up in the country of Birmisia and there is another distant colony in Mallontah. I think of them as China and India, respectively. Physically, culturally, and socially, these lands are not anything like Asia, India, or China, but putting them in that frame helped me imagine how settlers from a continent similar to Europe might see them.
The series of books Senta and the Steel Dragon has a great many characters (something over 250), but it’s no surprise that the most important is character is Senta Bly. The series is really the story of her life, growing from a small child to become a powerful sorceress.
The Voyage of the Minotaur (Book 1) Senta begins the story as an eight year old orphan living in the great city of Brech. She is adopted by the mysterious sorceress Zurfina the Magnificent and is taken with her on a voyage to the distant land of Birmisia.
The Dark and Forbidding Land (Book 2) Senta and Zurfina have been living in Birmisia for almost two years as this book starts. She struggles to understand the magic that Zurfina tries to teach her, as she must face the terrors of their forest home.
The Sorceress’s Apprentice (Book 3) As a twelve year old apprentice sorceress, Senta has become well-known and, by some, feared. She struggles with the problems of adolescence along with her friends Hero and Hertzel and her boyfriend Graham.
The Young Sorceress (Book 4) On the eve of her fifteenth birthday, Senta finds herself being pulled in four different directions. Will she really have to split herself into four to deal with all her problems? And she may have a rival for Graham’s affections.
The Two Dragons (Book 5) War comes to Birmisia and Senta is right in the middle of it. As Freedonian forces and murderous lizzies threaten the city of Port Dechantagne, Senta must make a journey into the heart of unexplored territory to the lizzie city-state of Tsahloose.
The Sorceress and her Lovers (Book 6) Twenty-two year old sorceress Senta finishes her tour of Sumir and prepares to return to Birmisia with a new love interest and a new baby. Meanwhile an old acquaintance plans to use the sorceress’s magic for her own selfish purposes.
Tall and thin, with blond hair and blue eyes, Senta is intelligent and witty. As a child she is precocious. As an adult, she is clever and sharp tongued.
City of Amathar 