Blog

My observations as a reader, news about current and future novels, guest posts, independent author adventures, and more.

Reader Favorite Characters, Pet Trade, and Whimsy Con (Podcast)

Reader Favorite Characters, Pet Trade, and Whimsy Con Carol Van Natta’s Video Podcast #3 This is my author podcast number 3, about reader favorite characters, Pet Trade, and Whimsy Con. Authoring may seem serious, but I’m mostly silly, at least on video. Astute readers will note the number above and deduce there are two previous…

SFR Galaxy Awards, Medical Care in Space Opera, and a Dinosaur (Podcast)

SFR Galaxy Awards, Medical Care in Space Opera, and a Dinosaur Carol Van Natta’s Video Podcast #2 This is podcast number 2 in my quest to share more silliness with the world, this time, about the SFR Galaxy Awards, space opera, and more. If you missed the first one, watch it here. Because I once…

Future Frontier Planets

Future Frontier Planets in the Central Galactic Concordance Several of my stories (Last Ship Off Polaris-G, Pet Trade, Minder Rising) deal with future frontier planets. In my series, they are an important part of the economy, and a good way to make use of our human drive to explore. Like most predators, humans find that…

First Annual Reader Survey

First Annual Reader Survey

First Annual Reader Survey Why you should take my first annual reader survey: I think you’re fascinating. No, really, and that’s more than a cheezy pickup line. I think we have some things in common (we like to read space opera, for one), and I’d like to know more about you. So, I’ve come up…

Telling Time in the Future

Telling Time in the Future We’ll need a system for telling time in the future that works on more than just one planet, or we’ll always be late for our birthday own parties. Our most accurate timekeeping system today is based on frequency of electrons in certain atoms (e.g., cesium) to behave with extreme predictability…

The Year of Having a Plan

The Year of Having a Plan This will be my year of having a plan. I’m more of a look-forward kind of person, so I’ll recap 2017 briefly and tell you about my author-related plans for 2018. I’m a look-forward kind of person. (Good thing I write science fiction, eh?) I’m lamentably bad about remembering…

Cosplay for My Cat

Cosplay for My Cat, or, Authors Are Daft To promote Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2, I decided to come up with a cosplay for my cat. This is a cautionary tale for those of you planning similar endeavors. In my novella, “Pet Trade,” one of the twelve stories in the Pets in Space…

A Dire Wolf at the Door

A Dire Wolf at the Door in Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 Cross-posted at author Cara Bristol’s blog on 18 October 2017 I’ve always been fascinated by paleontology, and love seeing artist’s depictions of what long-extinct creatures might have looked like based on the sometimes sparse fossil record we’ve discovered. We know some…

The Future of Pets

The Future of Pets in Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 Humans love pets. We’ll domesticate anything that will sit still long enough, provide a useful service or food source, or give us companionship. What if you could, for a price, have creatures from history, mythology, or fantasy, such as a Tasmanian tiger, a…