Breaking News & Random Musings on Space, Technology, Sci-Fi & the View From A Writer’s Window
One of the tools us indie authors use to help in marketing has added a reverse lookup feature. You input a book's Amazon ASIN number, and it tells you what searches the book ranks highest in.
For fun and research, I input Starshine. One of its highest searches?
“wild heroine space opera romance”
They've got Alex's number good, lol.
THERE. Now it’s a first draft!
Netflix's 3 Body Problem exceeded my expectations. It managed to stick fairly closely to the book's fascinating plot, while westernizing the story, crafting engaging characters and adding the kind of human drama TV viewers expect.
The novel makes for excellent science fiction, but like too many scifi novels, the characters are not its strength. The show fixed that weakness. Benedict Wong was a standout, and Liam Cunningham is always fantastic.
Book Two (The Dark Forest) features a significant time jump, and I'll be interested to see how well the show's creators handle the shift in setting and characters.
P.S.: I've heard that Netflix is throwing money at Seasons 2 and 3, which may be filmed together. Not sure that will entirely solve the challenges of adapting the books for TV, but it should make for some gorgeous space scifi visuals!
A collage of the many adaptations of Ghost in the Shell over the years: manga, anime and film.
I deeply appreciate the 1995 movie as a genuine work of art, but I'll always be a 2002 girl. IMO, Stand Alone Complex was the pinnacle of episodic anime. I rewatched it for the millionth time just a few weeks ago, in fact (such a shame that it’s only 2 seasons + a movie). I’m always excited about another new adaptation on the way, but it’ll be difficult to top SAC.
Just sitting over here hanging with my buddy Peter.
...kidding. We're not buddies. But I am always available for buddying if he's ever interested. ;)
Many thanks to BookBub for featuring The Universe Within on Friday - and welcome to all the new Amaranthe readers!
Did you catch the Murderbot trailer yet? (If you don’t know, the upcoming Murderbot show on Apple TV+ is based on Martha Well’s hugely popular series of sci-fi novellas featuring, well, Murderbot).
I’ll be honest: they’re leaning into the humor a lot more than I expected. Yes, the books *are* humorous, but with a darker tone woven into MB's internal monologue. This is practically slapstick in its over-the-top comedy. That being said, I hope it's great!
Direct link in case the embed doesn’t work for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw7DfayGSIA
Now, now, "frenzy and hysteria" is such a negative characterization. I prefer "a cackle of diabolical glee," myself. ;)
Via Raconteur Press
It's my once a year reminder that I have a fun Buy Me A Coffee program you can subscribe to if you like (think Patreon, without all the heavy-handed rules and fees). It comes with different tiers, so you can subscribe to exactly what you want and nothing more!
- monthly wallpaper downloads from my book covers and other art
- montly livestream chats, where we cover space news, tech advancements, scifi media, my books and whatever else you inquire about...oh, and I read excerpts from my current WIP
- you get every new ebook 10 days early
- you get to listen to the new audiobook as Pyper is recording it
Check out the program here: https://buymeacoffee.com/gsjennsen
Finished Silo S2 last night. I have quibbles, and the pacing was uneven, but it was quality TV. But what I most appreciate is that despite what I imagine was fairly significant Hollywood pressure to do so, they continue to NOT force Juliette into the standard "heroine" archetype. Instead, she remains entirely what she is: an engineer.
When she turned to Solo and said, "I need something to draw on," then ran for the chalkboard, I laughed out loud. Being married to an engineer, I recognize this behavior all too well.
Not going to lie, she reminds me a fair bit of Alex, too. Cranky, at times rude, oblivious to common social cues and manners, determined to pursue what she knows to be true no matter what.
At various times in the last 10 years, key parts of Aurora Renegades, Aurora Resonant, Asterion Noir, and Riven Worlds have all been brainstormed in this notebook on long drives.
When I initially posted this pic on social media, in real time, I said, “Wonder what I'll write in it today?”
Now, of course, I know what I wrote in it. And that’s all I’ll say about that. For now. ;)
It's a historic day for private space exploration. Early Sunday morning, Firefly Space's Blue Ghost stuck the landing, making it the first fully successful private, commercial moon landing!
On a tiny nanofiche onboard Blue Ghost reside two of my short stories, "Apogee" and "Solatium," as part of the Lunar Codex. All the thanks to Samuel Peralta for making so many writers' and artists' dream come true.
Blue Ghost is ALSO carrying a bucketload of science. Instruments will investigate the structure and composition of the moon’s mantle, the heat flow at different depths beneath the lunar surface, the interaction of solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field, and the impact of solar radiation on the lunar surface.
The lander also carries the Lunar PlanetVac, which is designed to collect regolith from the lunar surface that could be returned to Earth as part of a separate mission, and the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment, which will test the ability to use GPS signals at lunar distances.
Blue Ghost will operate for about 14 Earth days on the lunar surface. On March 14, Firefly expects to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse when the Earth blocks the sun above the moon’s horizon. How amazing is that going to be?
That’s one heck of a selfie, Athena!
This image is from the Intuitive Machines Nova-C “Athena” lunar craft, which is currently headed toward the moon for a scheduled March 6 landing.*
* Wholly incidentially, with a digital recording of three of my short stories, Venatoris, Re/Genesis and Chrysalis, on board (along with hundreds of other stories, novels and art). I am super excited!
I'll have more to say about * this * in a few weeks, after more people have finished The Universe Within and I've caught my breath from many goings-on. But over here, we're getting this party started.
P.S.: For those of you who haven’t seen this kind of image from me before, this is a storyboard outline of the next book, created in an app called Plottr. Each row/color corresponds to a character or related set of characters. I won’t give them all away, but blue is Alex and Caleb. The content of the blocks is strategically blurred out so you don’t get spoiled way, way early - but maybe it gets you thinking about what those blocks could involve. :D
The Murderbot TV show will start streaming on Apple TV+ May 16, with Alexander Skarsgård in the lead role. We don’t have a trailer yet, though, only these two stills.
Who’s excited for this?
It's their motto. They should emblazon it over the entryway of the house on Akeso.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the reason we have 22 books.
Writing heroes who demand to shake up the world can at times be like the Chinese proverb of riding the tiger - except instead of being afraid to dismount, I just hang on and enjoy the ride.
9 days until THE UNIVERSE WITHIN gets here!
What a heady experience it must be to get rescued by these two....
* rubs hands together *
Who's ready for a final proofread?
P.S.: I'm absolutely loving the Colorsoft. It's beautiful and fast, and the text is super-crisp.
No, we can't expect any such thing.
So Valkyrie and Akeso have to, for the most part, sit this adventure out. This gave me a chance to right Alex without Valkyrie and especially Caleb without Akeso. I think you all will enjoy how this plays out for them. In some ways, it's like the old days...but not in every way, for they've experienced so much since then.
It's been a banger of a month for THE THIEF. It's just been named a Quarterfinalist in this year's Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, a huge contest celebrating indie science fiction founded by Hugh Howey in 2021. https://thespsfc.org/
The competition lasts for many months, as 6 review teams read through hundreds of entries. Next up, after much more reading, the semifinalists will be announced in March.
I'm so proud of this book - though its success is less my doing and more Eren's innate ability to bring flair, style, wit and heart...and explosions...to every room he walks into.
