About the Big Damn Story Arc in My Space Opera Series I recently appeared on a writer’s panel at the 2019 Denver Pop Culture Con. The panel’s goal was to give the audience tips and tricks on how to write a bingeable series. My esteemed co-panelists, Trai Cartwright and Marin Lepore, are both screenwriters and […]
More Ice Age Shifters This Summer Yes, in answer to several recent reader queries, there will be more Ice Age Shifters this summer. 🌞 First, though, on 6 June, I’ll be releasing the first four books in the series at all major booksellers. They were formerly exclusive with Amazon, but now they’re going wide and […]
Ancient Horses, New Horses Humans (and some dogs) love digging around in the dirt. We never know what we’ll find—roots, rocks, earthworms, buried treasure, a 42,000-year-old foal from an ancient horse species… In Siberia, scientists found a foal preserved in the permafrost. Under the right conditions, cold can preserve a lot of things, including humans, […]
Geeky Fairy Light Addiction Hello. My name is Carol, and I am addicted to geeky fairy lights. This is my story. Perhaps it can save others from a geeky fairy light addiction. Or not. As addictions go, it’s cheap and harmless. It all started when LED lights began replacing the short-lived incandescent light bulbs and […]
Places I Write (Author in Space) I enjoy seeing—and am sometimes envious of—the lovely spaces my author friends have created for their writing. I’ve always said that if I win the lottery, I’ll decorate my office to look like a starship bridge. Until that day, these are some of the places I write. Like all […]
Things I Learned at Whimsy Con Whimsy Con in Denver was a delight. It’s the second year for the convention, which is an inheritor of the equally delightful but no-longer extant Anomaly Con. These are some things I learned at Whimsy Con. It’s All About the Corset It’s billed as a steampunk and costuming convention, […]
2019 Themes for the Year My author friend S.J. Pajonas, who writes excellent Japanese-themed science fiction romance and cozy mysteries, asserts that new-year themes are better than resolutions. I agree. I find resolutions easy to make and hard to keep. For one, I lose the list. For another, I have a contrary streak, and “for […]
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 […]
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 […]
Reading Recommendations for the Holidays (2017) — Books I Love, and Hope You Will, Too I love to read. Books are my boon companions and the chance to visit worlds that aren’t my own. However, I tank at writing reviews, because I know exactly how much work goes into writing a book, so I can’t […]
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 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 […]
What the Heck is an Author Street Team? Back in the days of yore, before the internet, savvy advertisers wanting to go beyond mass media in a particular market hired people to promote the product, service, or brand. The benefit for the “street team” was being the first to know something, or get free samples […]
Authors in the Wild Admit it: “Authors in the wild” sounds more thrilling that “authors at a convention,” which is what really happened. Science fiction and fantasy romance author Melisse Aires and I attended the 2016 Fort Collins Comic Convention. More below. But first… Weekend 99¢ Sale It’s a long weekend for folks in the […]
Fort Collins Comic Con Science fiction and fantasy romance authors Carol Van Natta* and Melisse Aires** will be appearing as authors at the Fort Collins Comic Con, 27-28 August 2016, at the Northside Aztlan Center in Fort Collins. There will be photos. 😉 Schedule Saturday, 27 August – VENDOR ROOM (Northside Aztlan Center) 2:00 -4:00 […]