Kick-butt heroines of Romantic Sci-Fi - by Vijaya Schartz

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The wonderful thing about writing science fiction heroines, is that they can truly be whatever I want them to be. They don’t even need to be human. They take charge and operate beyond petty gender discrimination, wielding the power of true freedom... unless, of course, I blast an alien grenade into their sophisticated advanced society. That’s always fun to do. After all, without conflict, there would be no story.

But not all futuristic societies are advanced. Sometimes civilization goes backward, my heroine is whisked into a parallel universe (SNATCHED), alien intervention or human warfare destroys dreams of freedom. Then my heroines must restore balance to their world.

Sometimes they are hard core military by choice, like Tia in Anaz-voohri or Zania in Snatched. Sometimes I like to throw them into the fray against their will and watch them flounder and cope, as I imagine the worst possible situations to defeat them. Of course, among all these great qualities of strength and courage, they also have flaws and weaknesses. They usually perform well under pressure... until I find their breaking point. Even then, I still want to be them.

I love my kick-butt heroines. Whether they wield a sword, a blaster, or a bazooka, like in the ANCIENT ENEMY series, they confront their fears with courage, and after much suffering, they usually save the day... or the man they love, like in ALIEN LOCKDOWN.

Fiction reveals the writer’s soul. We usually write about what we know. Like my futuristic heroines, I’m a meditator, a fighter, a former gymnast, a skydiver, and a Martial Arts black belt (Aikido). I love Japanese swords and learned how to use them. I believe that even in future warfare, there will be a place for sharp blades. If an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) or a solar flare renders all electronics useless, say goodbye to your fancy weaponry. My heroines can still rely on a length of good steel.

No sniggering, erotica readers. The blade is meant to slay whatever soldier, tiger, or alien demon wants to ruin the day. Of course, there are sizzling love scenes in my books as well. My heroines do deserve their rewards. But I prefer to avoid dubious metaphors.

You can find all my titles in eBooks mostly everywhere in most formats. I also have a few available in print. Some are out of print and only available used. More print books are coming out soon. Find my titles on: AMAZON  -  Barnes& Noble – Smashwords – All Romance eBooks

 

KICKING BOTS - Ancient Enemy Book Three

http://amzn.com/B004NEW1HO

Dr. Melissa Campbell, head researcher at the San Francisco Center for Disease Control, asks an eminent colleague for help to protect her precious vaccine, one that could end the deadly alien plague. She didn't expect to get a crazy renegade like Bennett Sevastian for a bodyguard. She hates military types, and this genetically enhanced super-soldier is pure testosterone, hot-headed, quick-tempered, impulsive, impatient, and downright impossible. But these are dangerous times with riots in the streets, and rumors of alien invasion. In a breathless race against time, experience the decisive battle for humankind, one that will decide whether Earth belongs to humanity, or to a powerful alien race...

“As always, Ms. Schartz's dialogue is believable and authentic and her characters hero-worthy. I loved Melissa's smarts, compassion, and daring... a veritable thrill-ride, with some twists and turns... exciting, suspense… an unpredictable path that so engrossed me, I found it hard to put the book down. Great ending to a great series!" Two Lips Reviews.

Vijaya Schartz

Blasters, Swords, Romance with a Kick

http://www.vijayaschartz.com

http://bookswelove.net/authors/schartz-vijaya/  

I love my bed- Tricia McGill.

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Winter is drawing in in my part of the world and as I snuggle down beneath my nice warm sheets and blankets I appreciate, once again, how lucky I am. There have only been a few nights in my life when I have not slept in the comfort of my own bed. On a cold winter’s night when I am snug and warm under my blankets I think of all the people out there in the world who do not have a bed to climb into, but are forced to spend their nights huddled up on cold footpaths or park benches. To my mind it is a roaring disgrace that in countries like mine where we are supposed to be civilized and care for the less fortunate in our society, that there are far too many homeless living on the streets of the cities.

I’ve just been out to my letter box which contained a flyer from The Salvation Army. It states that 44,000 young Australians are homeless this year, and 53% have diagnosed mental health conditions. Thank God there are charitable organisations doing their best to provide hot meals and a warm place to sleep to these unfortunate folk.

What I find disgraceful is to hear that some of these homeless people are Veterans of one war or another. Destitute and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder most are unable to settle into normal lives after the horrors they lived through while fighting for their country.

Beds have played a large part in most of our lives. I can recall how I pulled the sheet over my head as a child knowing this rendered me safe from ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night. I can remember my first night of marriage as if it was yesterday. Full of the joys and happiness of a young new bride, unaware of what life held. Then there was the horror of waking up in the middle of the night in a hospital recovery ward with a mask over my face as I came out of the anaesthetic induced sleep.

All things considered I have not really had many bad experiences in my bed—well to be honest—practically none. My bed has always been a place of warmth in winter, and comfort in times of sickness.

As a writer of historicals and time-travels, different types of sleeping arrangements have played a large part in my stories.

In my Wild Heather series where they travel back to Scotland in the 1050s I have them sleeping on a bed of straw covered by animal hides. Quite primitive, but cosy enough beneath the sheepskins. In those times only the Laird or his close family would have separate sleeping quarters. The rest of his clan slept in the main hall, which didn’t leave a lot of room for privacy.

  

In my Settlers series set in Australia of the early 1800s they weren’t so bad off and by then probably had proper beds to sleep on, although these would still have been furnished roughly with animal hides and rudimentary bedding. But imagine the plight of the convicts transported from England. The conditions on those early sailing ships would have been horrendous. It’s no wonder a lot of those transported didn’t make it, especially the children

 

Viking beds were probably lined with straw. An interpretation of an open bed at Eiríksstaðir is shown to the left. It's lined with straw and covered with an animal skin. 

On either side of the central corridor (between the roof support columns and the walls) in the Viking longhouse, raised wooden benches topped with wooden planks ran the length of the longhouse. They provided a surface for sitting, eating, working, and sleeping.

Taken from this site: 

 

http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/longhouse.htm

The following information on medieval sleeping arrangements is taken from this site:

http://www.oldandinteresting.com/medieval-renaissance-beds.aspx

In the 14th century the poorest people slept on a straw mattress on the floor with whatever warm covering they could get. The richest houses had large elaborate beds, with ornamented canopies, richly-embroidered hangings, and soft featherbeds under the fine linen sheets. They were among the most splendid pieces of furniture in a large house, and noblemen often had their emblems embroidered on the hangings. They were a comfortable place to meet for a chat, or receive guests, while displaying an abundance of fine textiles. They could be social gathering places at night too, as visitors of high status would be invited to sleep in a bed even if they had to share.
(Imagine inviting your guests to share your bed)

The picture from 14th or 15th century France shows a canopied, curtained bed with a head sheet laid over the pillow resting on a sheet-draped bolster. Head sheets were gradually replaced by pillowcases and are not usually mentioned after 1500. A pillowcase was always called a pillow bere (bearer) until about the 16th century, but this could mean various kinds of pillow cover, not necessarily a linen pillowcase matching the sheets.




So all in all, beds have played a large part in everyone’s life since the cavemen I guess. But I am so glad I have my nice cosy bed to climb into every night.

You can find information on all my books on my Books We Love page here:

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Rules, Rules, Rules by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

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Ever since I began writing I have been told how to do it. There are rules on how to begin the story, what to have in the story, how to end the story. So I have listed some of the rules I have found.

Here are a few Don’ts.

Don’t assume there is any single path or playbook writers need to follow. Don’t try to write like your favorite writer. Don’t worry about whether you should outline or not, whether you should write what you know, whether you should edit as you go along or at the end. Don’t ever get complacent about the basics: good spelling, healthy mechanics, sound grammar. Don’t ever write to satisfy a market trend or make a quick buck. By the time such a book is ready to go, the trend will likely have passed. Don't try to follow some set plot formula. Don't put in a lot of fluffy, unimportant stuff that the reader is going to skip. Don’t ever assume it will be easy. Don’t ever stop reading. Don’t be afraid to give up … on your present manuscript. Sometimes, a story just doesn’t work. But, don’t ever give up writing. Writers write. It’s what we do. It’s what we have to do.

Here are some Do's.

Do grab the reader's attention at the beginning by establishing the protagonist, the setting, and the mood. Do have everything in a story caused by the action or event that precedes it. Do have the story about a person who wants something but cannot get it. Do have a vulnerable character, the right setting, and meaningful choices. Tension is at the heart of story and unmet desire is at the heart of tension. Do create more and more tension as the story continues by having setbacks, crises, and antagonism. You won't have a story until something goes wrong. Do have the protagonist making a discovery that will change his life by the end of the story. Do the writing first then worry about inserting breaks and chapters.

Here are some rules on the personal side.

Don’t spend your time waiting to hear back from an agent or publisher. Get to work on your next book or idea while you’re querying. Don’t get mad at someone for the feedback they give you. No piece of writing is perfect. Don’t forget to get out once in a while and enjoy the other parts of your life.

Here are a few dubious rules, which I have seen broken in many best sellers.

Don't open your book with weather. Don’t have a prologue. Don’t use any other word other than said to carry dialogue. (I personally find it very boring to read said all the time. How does the reader know if the character is angry if he says 'said' instead of 'shouted'? "Get out of here." can be said softly, said through clenched teeth, said angrily, shouted). You need to show emotion. Don’t use an adverb to modify the word said. (see last statement) Keep exclamation points to a minimum. (Again see above). Avoid detailed description of characters, settings and objects.

And now some quotes about writing from famous writers.

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.”—Philip Roth

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” —George Orwell

 “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”—Ernest Hemingway

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”—Virginia Woolf

 “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”—Samuel Johnson

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”—Elmore Leonard

“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.”—Larry L. King

 “There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”—Doris Lessing

“Style means the right word. The rest matters little.”—Jules Renard

“Style is to forget all styles.”—Jules Renard

“I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.”—Tom Clancy

 “Don’t expect the puppets of your mind to become the people of your story. If they are not realities in your own mind, there is no mysterious alchemy in ink and paper that will turn wooden figures into flesh and blood.”—Leslie Gordon Barnard

 “Plot is people. Human emotions and desires founded on the realities of life, working at cross purposes, getting hotter and fiercer as they strike against each other until finally there’s an explosion—that’s Plot.”—Leigh Brackett, WD

“The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written.”—Joyce Carol Oates

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”—Stephen King

 “You do not have to explain every single drop of water contained in a rain barrel. You have to explain one drop—H₂O. The reader will get it.”—George Singleton

“When I say work I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.”—Margaret Laurence

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”—Mark Twain

“People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.”—R.L. Stine

  “Beware of advice—even this.”—Carl Sandburg

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 http://thetravellingdetectiveseries.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/writingsbyjoan

 https://www.amazon.com/author/joandonaldsonyarmey

Buy West To The Bay

West to the bay

 Gold Fever

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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PEOSJR8

The Travelling Detective Series boxed set:

Illegally Dead

The Only Shadow In The House

Whistler's Murder

http://amzn.com/B00KF07FQM

The rise of reading for pleasure, especially for women, in Georgian England, by Diane Scott Lewis

Women, deemed not worth educating, except for sewing and cooking, came into their own with reading in the eighteenth century (though many men still thought it disordered their feeble little minds) This century witnessed a huge boom in book reading. Between the 1500’s and the mid-eighteenth century, male literacy grew from ten to sixty per cent. Women, naturally with less opportunity, lagged behind, ranging from one to forty percent, but still an improvement. Female literacy grew the fastest in London, probably with the rise of the middle, merchant, class.

The elite—the aristocratic, noble and rich merchant males—were almost totally literate by 1600.

Obviously, as literacy grew so did the desire for books. A spurt in publishing—due to the relaxation of the crown and conservatism—started in the late seventeenth century to meet those needs.

Books in the past were rare, usually of a religious bent, and treated as sacred. Cookery and herbal books were found in many households. Sermons and poetry were the most widely published literary forms in this era. History books were national or Eurocentric, with an emphasis on understanding France (and do we yet understand the French?).

But now the populace wanted to read for pleasure as well as learning.

Books became widely available from lending libraries, booksellers, and even itinerant peddlers sold abbreviated versions of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, or Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones.

Periodicals, such as the Gentleman’s Magazine, advertised what new novels were available to order and purchase from the booksellers. These books could also be borrowed for a nominal fee.

Library at Margate

The large circulating libraries offered places where patrons could browse, gossip, flirt, or actually read a book. These establishments promoted learning and leisure. Novels, tales, and romances were the most checked-out books. History remained popular, such as Captain Cook’s voyages, and William Robertson’s History of the Americas in two volumes (1777). Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and Dr. Johnson’s Lives of the Poets were also well-borrowed.

The fee of three shillings a quarter, kept the poorer people at bay. But libraries were still a bargain because books weren’t cheap. By the third quarter of the century one novel could cost three shillings.

Unfortunately, libraries earned the reputation as places full of fictional pap served up for rich ladies with nothing better to do than read romantic nonsense. Though men remained the majority subscribers, visiting to read or discuss religious and political controversy.

Church libraries offered books to the poorer in the parish, though probably not the variety.

Coffee houses maintained collections of books for their patrons, which had to be read on the premises. Any man, merchant or laborer, could wander in, order a glass of punch, and read a newspaper—a sign of English liberty.

Even the illiterate were encouraged to buy books so their more literate friends could read to them. People read aloud in taverns for the enjoyment of the less educated.

Well-appointed homes had private libraries for the use of family and guests. In 1650 few country houses had a room set aside for books and reading, while in the late eighteenth century a house without a library was unthinkable.

Books became icons. In paintings, the depiction of a man with books became as common as with his spouse or dog. And though men would never admit it, the frivolous novel reader was as much male as female.

With this wider reading public, more women romantic writers emerged, such as Fanny Burney (Evelina, 1778; Cecilia, 1782) and Ann Radcliffe (The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1794). But men also wrote romantic novels: Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, 1749; Amelia by Henry Fielding, 1751.

Nevertheless, women read critically to lift the mind from sensation to intellect as well as their male counterparts.

Everyone profited from increased literacy, education and the availability of the written word to broaden the mind in the sciences, philosophy, history, and of course, those romantic novels for pleasure.

　

Source: The Pleasures of the Imagination, by John Brewer, 1997

Diane Scott Lewis writes historical fiction with romantic elements. Visit her website:

http://www.dianescottlewis.org