It's official! Solstice is obscure!

Who would have thought? Solstice was voted the Top Obscure Feminist SF Novel at Feminist SF – The Blog!

I wanted to take this chance to thank everyone who voted for my novel. Thank you so much! The surprising success Solstice has managed would never have been possible without the help and support of you, my friends, family, and readers. And a special thanks to the folks over at Feminist SF for holding this vote.

So what’s next? Well, hopefully this will give Solstice some much-needed exposure, now that things have been kind of quiet for it for a while. Regardless, I think making it to this Top 10 list will only help down the road, especially when contacting an agent regarding Inventing Vazquez.

Speaking of which, I’m about 20 percent through the next re-write, and pleased with the progress and results. I’m focusing now on making the writing as tight and descriptive as possible, and am confident I’ll have an agent-ready draft within a couple of months. That’s the hope, anyway.

Unfortunately, I seem to have a real knack for distracting myself with other fun stuff. Aside from now writing for Urban Molecule, I’ve officially joined another band. Well, it’s the same line-up I was in with last year at the blues competition, but this time we’re under a new name and a new direction. And, if that weren’t enough, I’ve finally figured out the wonders of recording music on Garageband on my Mac, and have started recording my own songs. It’s amazing what you can do with a little laptop and a $90 pre-amp… I’m really excited about this, because one of my goals for 2008 was to record my own ‘album’, and I think now I have the motivation and gear to do so. Plus, I relish the challenge of self-recording an album and playing all the instruments myself. Since I’m nowhere near as good a guitarist or drummer as I am a bassist, I’m sure it’ll sound like crap, but I’m not too worried. It’s not like I’m going to make a career out of it ^_^;

Anyway, thank you all again for helping to give Solstice this humble recognition.

Something new

I mentioned a while back that I would start writing for a new e-zine, Urban Molecule. In case you haven’t checked out the site, you should. It’s a very hip, very edgy publication that aims to give voice to invisible artists and give exposure to art, literature, and issues we normally won’t hear about in mainstream media. The core writers are an intelligent, observant, and culturally savvy group, and all of them come from different walks of life and perspectives to bring a real diversity of thought to the publication. The editor-in-chief, Christopher De La Torre, is an astounding individual who brings his artistic and scientific backgrounds to bear, and who is working tirelessly to nurture his young but wonderful e-zine.

Which leaves me at a loss as to why I was asked to write for it ^_^; Regardless, I consider it a real honor to be able to take part in this endeavor.

Christopher asked me to write a monthly column, Verbatim, and my first piece was published in two parts yesterday and today. It’s not as hip or trendy as the rest of the zine, but it’s snarky and sarcastic and maybe just a bit volatile. I hope you’ll stop by and check them and the web site out.

Solstice is a Finalist! But we need your help!

The last round of voting is underway over at Feminist SF – The Blog! And Solstice is among the final list of 24 books, from 104 nominated titles. Thanks to everyone to who voted!

But, to get Solstice to the final Top 10 Obscure SF Feminist Novels, we’ll need your help one more time! If you can head over to Feminist SF and vote one more time for Solstice, we might do it! The books are listed in no order, but Solstice is there on the poll. I hope you’ll help out one more time!

Thank you for your votes!