THE NEXT BIG THING BLOG HOP

What is a blog hop? Basically, it’s a way for readers to discover authors new to them. I hope you'll find new-to-you authors whose works you enjoy. On this stop on the blog hop, you'll find a bit of information on me and one of my books and links to three other authors you can explore!

My gratitude to fellow author Rissa Watkins for inviting me to participate in this event. You can click the following link to learn more about her work. Website: www.rissawatkins.com

In this blog hop, I and my fellow authors answer ten questions about our book or work-in-progress (giving you a sneak peek). We've also included some behind-the-scenes information about how and why we write what we write--the characters, inspirations, plotting and other choices we make. I hope you enjoy it!

Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts and questions. Here is my Next Big Thing!



1: What is the working title of your book?

Karma of Kalpana

2. What genre does your book come under?

I write primarily in Science Fiction, with elements of other genre, in this case romance.

I've loved Science Fiction since high school and can't imagine writing anything else. However, I think mixing the genre is inevitable. While most of my stories take place in space, my characters don't live in a vacuum, figuratively speaking. They love and suffer loss, it just has to be incorporated as part of the story, not as a distraction to it.

You won't find Victorian corset's in my stories, but if my character is wearing anything resembling one, I'm going to have her sexy lover/alien taking it off her, after an appropriate ass-kicking of a gang of bad guys.

3: Where did the idea come from for the book?

A friend gave me a idea for a short story, but it refused to be told in a few thousand words.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Oh, no, can't answer that question! You'll have to read the book to understand why. (brahahahahaha)

Visualize her as capable of flying space ships, shooting down her enemies and getting the boys wanting more than the cargo.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Kalpana (Kali) was named after the goddess of destruction and if karma has its way she'll live up to her name, but at what price?

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?


I am represented by a wonderfully supportive and responsive agent. I have two books currently under publisher reviews, two more being written, first drafts of a serial (vol.1 under review) and ideas on the back-burners impatiently waiting their turn. Stay tuned for publishing news.


7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

How long for a first draft? I'd like to say 'Oh, I had it drafted in only a few weeks', but we all know that's not true. Since it started as a short story, then morphed into a full novel, that took time. My main character morphs too and needed to reflect her different personalities. I will tell you the 2nd and subsequent edits took longer than the writing, but were worth it.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Another tough question. My agent answered it best, saying Karma was something she'd never seen before, so she HAD to take it on. That was a WAY better response than I expected. Now I have to live up to that bar with subsequent novels.

I hope your visit to my blog helped you get to know me a bit better. Visit my website: www.tlsmithbooks.com.

Check out my current Science Fiction/Horror, THE THING DOWN THE ROAD, released Feb 2012 by Musa Publishing.

Drop me an email to receive updates, announcements and future blog contests.

Who’s next on the NEXT BIG THING BLOG HOP?

So glad you asked!

Below you will find authors who will be joining me by blog, next Wednesday. Do be sure to bookmark and add them to your calendars for updates on Works in Progress and New Releases!

Happy Writing and Reading!

Peter Lukes blog: peterlukes.blogspot.com

Karen Kennedy Samoranos blog: www.saraville.com

Andrea Rittschof blog: andrearittschof.blogspot.com

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during the Spectrum of Speculative Fiction Blog Hop. It was great to read about the other participants and the comments of our hoppers.

Now, for the winner...ROSIE

Rosie wins a copy of The Thing Down the Road, as well as additional swag. Please PM me through my website and I'll get that to you. www.tlsmithbooks.com or www.shootingstarsandbadguys.com

Spectrum Blog Hop

Welcome to the Spectrum of Speculative Fiction Blog Hop, where you’ll get to meet a spectrum of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction Authors.

Many of us are offering giveaways for visiting our blogs. I will be offering a free e-copy of my novelette, The Thing Down the Road, to one lucky winner (with the possibility of additional swag). To win, please leave a comment to my blog. At the end of the hop, a winner will be announced.

My novelette, The Thing Down the Road was published in February 2012 by Musa Publishing (www.musapublishing.com). It is a mixed genre of science fiction/horror. Normally I don’t write in the horror genre, but writers go where the story takes us. In this case into the psychological darkness of a character driven too far.

People ask why I write science fiction. Well, when I started writing I experimented with different genres, but science fiction has been my passion since high school. I can still remember my first introduction. It was a typical Phoenix summer, too hot for even a trip to the pool. I’d never been much of a reader prior to that weekend, but I was so bored I asked my older brother for something to read. He handed me The Hobbit. Two days later I asked for more and he moved me into the Lord of the Rings. These were my gateway drug. His library was never safe again.

Tolkien and Heinlein have always held a special place in my heart. Kind of like sex, one author was my first, while the other taught me how it was really done. As a sophomore in high school I’d tried to read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but couldn’t grasp the concepts. After a stint in the Air Force as a radar technician and several courses in computer programming, I gave it another try, the book that is. Suddenly the science was real. The concept of Artificial Intelligence wasn’t unfathomable. It was the moment I knew I’d come of age.

Science fiction is what I read, what I watch, so of course what I want to write. In this genre almost anything imaginable is possible, somewhere, some when. I can’t recall the author, but I remember his story that in history class he was caught reading a science fiction. When the teacher called him on it, his response was that he WAS reading history. It just hadn’t happened yet.

All we have to do is reach into our pockets or purses to find technology that at one point was only conceived of in the mind of a science fiction writer. Cell phones, tablets, biomedical devices… the list grows daily. Private companies are developing space tourism. Just in this last year FTL is no longer considered impossible.

I’m not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have an imagination. I see us out among the stars one day, traveling faster than light, and maybe finally meeting others with the same insatiable drive to reach further than ourselves. As I see it, if we are all made of stardust, then our attempts to reach the stars are not efforts to escape our home, but endeavors to return to it.

Thanks for visiting my blog. I pose this question to you and look forward to your responses:
What discovery in the last ten years impacts your life, or your imagination most.

You can visit my website at www.tlsmithbooks.com to see what I’m working on. I currently have two novels making their way around publishers in New York, so keep checking my blog, website or Facebook page for announcements.

HAVE FUN