Ice Age Shifters, Pets in Space 3, and Author Reading (Podcast)
Ice Age Shifters, Pets in Space 3, and Author Reading
Carol Van Natta's Video Podcast #7
This is my author podcast number 7, wherein I talk about my new series, Ice Age Shifters, Pets in Space 3, and read to you. Oh, and I talk about Fort Collins Comic Con's benefit event, the Kessel Run.
Astute readers will note the number above and deduce there are previous videos:
Podcast #1 ~ Podcast #2 ~ Podcast #3 ~ Podcast #4 ~ Podcast #5 ~ Podcast #6
This podcast is a recorded Facebook Live session from Friday, 4 May 2018. See https://youtu.be/TA3b4xRLc48
For those who won't watch a 12-minute of video of anyone who isn't a woman dealing with baby pandas (not that I blame you), here's the TL;DW (too long; didn't watch) synopsis.
Fort Collins Comic Con – the Kessel Run (May the Fourth)
Fort Collins Comic Con, who are having their May the 4th Kessel Run this evening. It's at the downtown Fort Collins library and registration starts at 5:00p. People wear appropriate costumes and walk or run around the block at the library. They have outdoor and indoor activities, and it all benefits the Fort Collins Comic Con in August. Which, in turn benefits the Fort Collins Library, in a neat bit of synchronicity. I'll be at the Comic Con, but I can't go to the Kessel Run this year. Next year, I hope to entice the resident mad scientist out for the evening, because he has this really cool Dr. Doom mask. That's close to Darth Vader, right?
Ice Age Shifters
When I first came up with the concept for the Ice Age Shifters™ series, the first thing all my friends said was “Cool concept, but you hate being cold — why the Ice Age?”
The most famous place to see fossils of Ice Age megafauna in North America is the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. A hidden subterranean oil seep created treacherous ground that trapped prey animals, which in turn snared predators, which in turn snared carrion eaters. Prehistoric lions, tigers, and bears all met their unpleasant end. The gooey tar preserved their bones for us to find.
The excellent life-sized exhibits proved to me that I definitely would NOT want to be hunted by an American lion (Panthera atrox), dire wolves (Canis dirus), or a prehistoric bear (Arctotherium). They all towered over their modern counterparts, had big teeth and claws, and were built for cold (unlike me).
I’ve always wanted to write a paranormal romance shifters series with humor and heart, so when I came across an article about paleontologists excavating an extinct type of bear in South America, inspiration struck. What if, in the right circumstances, shifters are born as throwbacks to that earlier time, when the animals were really, really big and dangerous? From that spark, my series was born. Ice Age shifters don't fit in with modern shifter clans, packs, and prides, who don’t know what to do with the megafauna in their midst.
Fortunately, their true mates do.
Pets in Space 3
So, I've mentioned once or twice, or maybe a billion times, I'm writing a story for this year's Pets in Space 3 science fiction romance anthology.
The title of my story is CATS OF WAR. I know, you're shocked—shocked!—that my story involves cats. You may blame mine. They pile into my lap while I'm writing, walk on my keyboard, test gravity with stuff from my desk, and absolutely insist that all space opera is vastly improved by the presence of cats.
This year's anthology is called Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3. My story in it will be another standalone novella set in my Central Galactic Concordance space opera universe. I got carried away in Pet Trade (from Embrace the with seventeen(!) pets, so there are only two pets in CATS OF WAR.
Last year, I dressed my cat in a homemade dinosaur costume and took pictures. Fortunately, my cat is a good sport, so I might do something similar this year. (Not the podcast producer cat — the cosplaying cat is a different cat.) Besides, if they insist that all space opera is improved with the addition of cats, then they're going to have to help me promote the stories.
Author Reading from Shifter Mate Magic
In the podcast, I read an excerpt from Shifter Mate Magic, which is book 1 in the IAS series. You could skip to that part in the podcast, or if spoken words don't work for you, here's an excerpt you can a read quietly for yourself.
Release date: 15 May 2018
In my next podcast, I'll talk about the next books in the series.
If you're so inclined, you can watch me live on Facebook on an upcoming Friday.
