2016 April Reading List

The Iron King by Maurice Druon – Typical French court schemes and plotting. It felt like an installment of a bigger piece so good thing I bought the entire series. The Romanian edition has all the notes at the end and by the time I got to them I had forgotten what they were about so I didn’t bother to read them. 4/5 stars

The Strangled Queen by Maurice Druon – While I had some trouble adjusting to the writing style of the first book in the Accursed Kings series, this one read better and it had a tighter plot. 4/5 stars

The Poisoned Crown by Maurice Druon – I enjoyed the previous book more. There’s nothing to like about the MC in this one, and the plot seemed to wander and drag. 4/5 stars

The Royal Succession by Maurice Druon – Another good one with a strong plot and enjoyable and, most important, smart MC. 4/5 stars

Galaxis. Noua opera spatiala - Table of Contents

Here is the Galaxis. Noua opera spatiala table of contents (source), and it looks like the book has a new cover, too.

Niciun port din galaxie by Ioana Vişan
Solitudine by Daniel Haiduc
WW0 by George Lazăr
Desprindere lentă by Silviu Genescu
La început au fost serviciile de calitate by Alexandru Lamba
Scriitor by Liviu Radu
Evangelion by Liviu Surugiu

Niciun port din galaxie is the Romanian version of No Port to Land and it was written for this anthology. Did I tell you I really, really like this story? :)

New Story: Suprafete de contact

Never in a million years did I imagine my stories would be featured in a magazine with Iron Man and Captain America on the cover. I mean how cool is that? 

When you're invited to write for a magazine as prestigious as Stiinta & Tehnica, you drop everything and write it. I had three weeks to get the story done, one to come up with an idea (it fully crystallized during the last two days before actually writing it, but this is how it usually happens), one to write it, and one to polish it. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.

"Suprafete de contact" (Contact Surfaces) is included in issue no. 55 of Stiinta & Tehnica from April, 2016. The story deals with parallel universes, something I haven't played with before. The issue already made it to Iasi so you can check the local stores and get it.


Oh, and check out the illustrations that accompany the story. They were specially drawn for it.

Here is a video presentation of the April issue. My story is mentioned at 48:21.

New Story, Review, and Interview in Revista de Suspans

The April issue, no. 25, of Revista de Suspans is out, and it includes several goodies among which:

- a short story - "Înlănţuiţi" (this is the Romanian version of Breaking the Chains, initially included in "Efectul de nautil" short story collection, Millennium Books, 2013.)

- a review of "Secvenţă de zbor" short story collection (Millennium Books, 2016); this is the first review of the book as far as I know since it was just released earlier this month.

- an interview with yours truly in which I'm talking about the new book and also about self-publishing.

Thank you, Cezarina, for inviting me to be part of this great issue!

P.S. If you want to read more about angels and demons, the second installment in The Devil You Know series, The Night between Heaven and Hell, is out on Amazon.

Cover Reveal: Galaxis: Noua operă spaţială

Galaxis: Noua operă spaţială

Ioana Vișan, Daniel Haiduc, George Lazăr, Silviu Genescu, 

Alexandru Lamba, Liviu Radu, Liviu Surugiu

Coordonatoare Antuza Genescu

Editura Eagle

2016   

În curând, „Galaxis: Noua operă spaţială” – o nouă antologie marca Societăţii Române de Science Fiction &Fantasy!

În acest al șaselea volum, autori consacraţi (Silviu Genescu, George Lazăr, Ioana Vișan, Liviu Surugiu, Alexandru Lamba, Daniel Haiduc) publică alături de prietenul și colegul nostru, cel care a fost Maestrul Liviu Radu, povestiri pe o temă generoasă și incitantă: space opera.

Noi, membrii SRSFF îi dedicăm această antologie, în semn de omagiu lui Liviu Radu!

Care nu a mai avut răbdare să aștepte volumul tipărit și a plecat să scrie și să publice într-o galaxie îndepărtată.

Ne lipsești și ne vei lipsi, Liviu!

Coordonatoarea antologiei este Antuza Genescu, binecunoscută traducătoare, autoare, președinta Societăţii H.G.Wells (Timișoara), membră a SRSFF, iar editorul este Mugur Cornilă (Editura Eagle&Editura Virtuală), membru SRSFF.

Imaginea copertei aparţine artistului digital George Muntean, unul dintre cei mai valoroși tineri creatori români de artă a imaginarului (http://horheart.blogspot.ro)

The Stolen Wings #2 and Broken People #2 Print Editions

 

While I was busy with the launch of the new book, two new print editions became available:

Broken Hearts (Broken People #2) - Createspace, Amazon

The Strength of a Heart (The Stolen Wings #2) - Createspace, Amazon

Secventa de zbor - Table of Contents

Secvenţă de zbor Table of Contents

Plimbarea de dimineaţă a Domnişoarei Vu
Adevărul din privire
Punct de rendez-vous la +3000
Ucigaşul de dragoni
Defazaj
Sufletele arborilor
Noapte bună, Mihai!
Dacă aerul n-ar avea miros
Secvenţă de zbor
Arde-mi-ar sufletul in iad, Doamne!
Iluminare
Jumatătea lipsă
Visul broscoiului
Niciun port din galaxie


Secventa de zbor (Flight Sequence) - 14 stories published or submitted to Romanian anthologies, including various themes and genres like sci fi, fantasy, steampunk, time travel, dragons, mind control, zombies, parallel universes, aliens, cyberpunk, and space opera.

The book is available on Millennium Books website.

New Release: Secvenţă de zbor

Back in March 2013, I debuted in print with my Romanian short story collection Efectul de nautil (The Nautilus Effect). It included a selection of short stories published in various on-line magazines since my debut as a writer in 2008, plus a few new ones. Later on, Efectul de nautil was nominated for the Colin Awards in the Best Sci Fi Short Story Collection category.

In the summer of 2015, it occurred to me I had enough stories published in anthologies or submitted for publication to put together another short story collection. I wrote a message on Facebook about it, and the same day, the book found a publisher. This is how Secvenţă de zbor (Flight Sequence) came to be.

This time, the stories are longer, breaching into novella territory, because I tend to write longer stories when I write for anthologies. The themes weren't my choice since I usually wrote when a submission call was put out, so they're all over the map in the sci fi and fantasy genre. I confess a couple I didn't care for and I initially considered I had nothing to say in those genres, but then I took it as a challenge and proved myself I could write stories to match those requests, stories that I enjoyed. Obviously, the editors agreed with me since they accepted the texts. In the end, it turned out to be an interesting exercise that broadened my horizon as a writer.

Under the broad umbrella of sci fi and fantasy, you'll read a mix of action, adventure, romance, mystery, and horror, featuring steampunk, time travel, dragons, mind control, zombies, parallel universes, aliens, cyberpunk, and space opera. These are all stories I enjoyed writing and I still enjoyed re-reading them during the process of putting the book together. Some of the anthologies they've been written for haven't been published yet, so those texts are technically new.

Out of all of them, my favorite stories are Adevărul din privire (The Truth in their Sights), Punct de rendez-vous la +3000 (Rendez-vous Point at +3,000), Dacă aerul n-ar avea miros (If the Air had no Smell), Jumătatea lipsă (The Missing Half), Niciun port din galaxie (No Port to Land - the prequel to Law and Crucible saga), and of course the story that gives the title of the book, Secvenţă de zbor (Flight Sequence). That one is probably the more atypical for my writing style. You'll have to read it to figure out why. I thought the title was fitting for the book because it illustrates my trajectory as a writer. We all need a flightplan. Visul broscoiului (A Toad's Dream) gets a special mention because, unlike the others, it wasn't written for an anthology, but it's set in the Broken People universe.

The book is available at Final Frontier book fair in Bucharest this weekend, with the official book launch scheduled for Sunday at 12:30 (I won't be there).

You can also order Secvenţă de zbor on Millennium Books website. Add it to your Goodreads to read list, read it, and let me know what you think!

Visul broscoiului – Fragment

— Prinde-o că iar pleacă! strigă Spinner, ocupat să repare proteza care înlocuia genunchiul bărbatului din scaunul de operaţie.

Rake îşi aşeză cizma grea pe grămăjoara de particule argintii. Se târâse până lângă prag. De când se încălzise şi lucrau cu uşa de la vagonul-fabrică deschisă, fosta mască tot încerca să fugă.

— Ţi-am spus că ar fi trebuit s-o distrugem, mormăi Rake, încruntându-se la mască.

I se răsucise în jurul cizmei, înnodându-se la capăt cu o fundă, asemeni unei eşarfe. De unde naiba ştia de moda apărută în oraş?

— Nah, las-o până plecăm în turneu, gesticulă Spinner cu şurubelniţa. Abia a învăţat să numere. Să vedem ce altceva mai poate să facă.

Clătinând din cap, Rake apucă masca de margine şi trase cu degetele brăzdate de cicatrice, obişnuite să manipuleze cuţite şi unelte şi nu lucruri atât de fine. Masca se întinse ca un voal, refuzând să-i dea drumul la picior, dar când câmpul electrostatic ajunse la limită, se înmuie cu un bâzâit şi reveni la forma pe care o lua cel mai adesea, un pătrat cu latura de un metru, plin de sclipici.

Aşa îl găsi Cielo, cu masca în mână şi pregătindu-se s-o închidă în cuşca menzataxorului. Măcar de acolo n-avea cum să scape, deoarece pereţii erau din sticlă ranforsată.

— Oooh, da’ ce ţi-a făcut? îi luă Cielo masca din mână şi o strânse la piept.

(Visul broscoiului – Secvenţă de zbor, Millennium Books, 2016)

Indie Friday: Maddox Files: Back to Business

Guest post by R. J. Davies Mornix

Maddox Files: Back to Business is about a 26-year-old woman who has had enough, she was working a dead-end job and living with her fiancé who cheated on her but it all changes when she catches him in the act the second time. Dice quits her job, kicks her fiancé out and opens up her own business, Maddox Investigations. Her first client is Ryan Winters never been married before but after a weird car accident finds himself married to the very beautiful Lily Winters. As Dice digs into this case to figure out what is going on, she soon discovers that Lily is not who she says she is but it’s worst. Who is Lily Winters? A demon? An alien?

This book was for me to test out the self-publishing market, I didn’t want the normal things that I saw out there.  I checked online and noticed there weren't many female private investigators who were in their 20s, I knew it had to have a strong female character and I grew up watching detective shows. I wanted her to be dealing with strange cases with a slice of science fiction flavor to them.

It’s based in Toronto a place where I use to live. I started off with her parents. Her mother was a nurse and her father a professional gambler. Her mother lost the bet for naming their daughter and this is how she got the first name, Dice. Dice Maddox was born, she has a few characters she has to deal with and a couple exes. A new guy who she likes more than she is willing to admit.

Dice discovers she that her uncle has a secret he was keeping from her.  Finding out about it makes her feel a little closer to him and it opens her mind to the world around her.

This book is about Dice Maddox opening with her in an unsatisfying situation and it progresses with her discovering new things about herself and the people she thought she knew. Her ex Chris who she was engaged to just doesn’t disappear out of Dice’s life; he sticks around and wants another chance with her. Getting back into the business she meets up with another ex who is on the police force. There are some other characters that she meets along the way that shows up in future books.

I didn’t find any struggles writing this book, in fact, it practically wrote itself. It was like I had Dice Maddox pacing behind me saying yes to this and no to that. I had completed the first draft in 22 days at Nano Camp. It’s been through a series of rewrites and edits but it’s stuck very close to the original manuscript.

The most satisfying moment was when I got my author copy in the mail and saw my book in print.  I had always considered myself an Author but now I was a Published Author. Thanks to my husband he kept pushing me forward with this or I would still be editing this book to death. This book is the first in a series, so far I have seven books lined up, the first four are already written. I would love for everyone to know Dice Maddox. 

~~~~
 

Maddox Files: Back to Business by R. J. Davies Mornix

 
Available on: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble

Official website: http://www.rjdaviesmornix.ca 

Like the Author on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/R-J-Davies-Mornix-Author-253530731521799/ 

Follow the Author on Twitter: @rmornix