Six Sentence Sunday

Time for another Six Sentence Sunday post–it’s been great fun participating and getting your feedback on such short snippets! Here’s another one from my romance novella, Maya’s Vacation.

“Where are we going?” she asked after a few minutes of silent walking. She stopped to catch her breath, not knowing if the pace, the wine, or the proximity of Dean were responsible for her short‑windedness.

“Just a little spot I saw earlier today–itʹs on the other side of the bed cabins, and I think youʹll love it.”

“Okay, but slow down a little? Iʹm not exactly nineteen anymore.”

“No,” he agreed while lessening his speed, “youʹre better.”

Synposis of Maya’s Vacation:

Twenty-year-old Maya knew, as she watched Dean walk away from her front door, distraught at her silence and her father’s threats, that she would never love anyone with the intensity that she loved him. He was her painter, her artist, her soul mate and being apart from him hurt too much. She tucked those feelings away, determined to enjoy the safe and secure life her parents approved of: business school and a marriage to Chuck, a successful real estate agent.

Thirty years later, Chuck has cheated on and divorced her. But when he comes back, begging for reconciliation, Maya follows her intuition and takes a vacation to think it over. Her love of art, food, and wine combine at this retreat in the woods, and she prepares for a week of making new friends, tasting exquisite wines, and learning to paint again. What she hasn’t prepared for is the familiar voice she hears the first morning at camp . . . a voice that makes her skin tingle and brings back memories of who she used to be before Chuck. Has Maya buried her passion too deep to find love with Dean again?


Maya’s Vacation is published by
Astraea Press for $2.99. It’s also available at Amazon, and Barnes and Nobles for $3.99.

Six Sentence Sunday

For Six Sentence Sunday this week, I’m venturing into my recently published urban fantasy short story called Bother. Let’s just dive right in, shall we?

The sound of crunching bones came next, like nuts cracking but louder, so much louder. It went on for what seemed like ages, but it could only have been a few minutes. She knew it didn’t take the beast long to finish a meal. The shaking died down, and the smell of sulfur grew weaker, but the creature had to be nearby. She would have to risk it; she had to get up, to go see for herself. She had to know.

Intrigued? Here’s a synopsis of Bother:

The apartment is taking dingy to a new level. Air quality is suffering. Trees keep falling down, and there are piles of refuse all over the neighborhood. Yet Jonah’s more concerned about his awesome day at work than he is about the dragon that’s taken up residence outside his home. His wife, Susan, isn’t so apathetic; she spends every waking moment with a vigilante force, trying to rid the district of the dreaded creature. Can they figure out what’s worth fighting for together, or will this couple be yet another casualty of the dragon.

Bother, along with a bunch of other wonderful fantasy and sci fi short stories, is available  in Bull Spec, Issue #5.

You can purchase a year’s subscription to Bull Spec here for $15 + shipping and handling, or you can order Issue #5 on its own in either print or PDF forms. Or head over to my blog on its release for a full listing of stores you can find it at.

Thanks for dropping by!

 

Six Sentence Sunday


It’s time for my second Six Sentence Sunday post! Six Sentence Sunday is a challenge to authors to put out six sentences from any of their works, published or not, that should excite readers to read more, and it is organized by the fine folks over at the Six Sentence Sunday blog. I thought I’d continue with Maya’s Vacation for now, though I may include my fantasy work in the future! Here are my six:

He pulled away. “But you shouldn’t be. You know that, don’t you? He left you, Maya! How could anyone ever leave you willingly?” His voice was raspy now, how it used to sound if he’d stayed up all night, unable to stop painting.

 

Maya’s Vacation is sweet, contemporary romance published by Astraea Press and available at their website (and Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and Smashwords) in all e-book formats.

Six Sentence Sunday

I’m participating in something new today! It’s called Six Sentence Sunday, which is organized by the fine folks over at the Six Sentence Sunday blog. As you may be able to guess, Six Sentence Sunday is a challenge to authors to put out six sentences from any of their works, published or not, that should excite readers to read more. These six sentences are from my romance novella, Maya’s Vacation, which is published by Astraea Press and available at their website (and Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and Smashwords) in all e-book formats. Here we go:

“Dean Mitchell. Nice to meet you too, Cliff.” He spoke fast and with a nervous catch in his voice, but each syllable cracked her concentration until it shattered like a boulder hitting a car windshield. She went to look, and her heart nearly stopped. It was him.

It was him.

Here’s the cover art for Maya’s Vacation.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Character Interview Scavenger Hunt!

This special Sunday blog is coming to you courtesy of the Character Interview Scavenger Hunt! What’s that, you ask? Why it’s a great excuse to discover the websites of a bunch of intriguing authors from Astraea Press, Whimsical Publications, and Purple Sword. Basically, you need to find the character interview on each site and answer a question based on each interview at some point during the month of May. There will be three winners pulled at random from the pool of participants who submit the correct answers to each question. Each winner will receive a different prize basket of goodies from us authors — what’s a scavenger hunt without prizes? All you need to do is have fun browsing some new blogs! There are 18 blogs to visit, but you have all month to do it — just make sure you have your answers in before the end of the month. To participate, e-mail Robyn at promorobyn@gmail.com to let her know you want in. She’ll send you the list of questions to answer and the links to the blogs.

And now, here’s my interview of Maya Holden, the main character in my novelette, Maya’s Vacation.

Me: Maya, you seem like such a down-to-Earth woman, but tell me, how did you end up with a litter of ferrets?

Maya: Oh, that. [She waves it away with a giggle]. My husband — ex-husband, now, of course, but he was my husband  then — he never let me live that one down. What happened was that Meredith Viera one day on the Today Show had these long, furry animals I’d never seen before. They were so cute, I just had to get one. So I headed to the pet store that very afternoon, and what did I find but a mother ferret with a new litter of four babies! They were all so cute, no longer than my index finger, and I just couldn’t separate them. It felt like the right thing to do, taking them all home! Chuck turned bright red when he saw them, but he never did complain, not really. He’d been married to me too long! You might say I’m a creature of instinct.

The Adventure of Parachuting Ninja

The Adventure of Parachuting Ninja

When my sister was in town a few weeks ago, we went to Wilmington and found ourselves with a pile of tickets from an afternoon at the boardwalk arcade. For our prize, we chose the parachuting ninja.

Awesomeness personified, am I right? And thus, I present to you the adventures of the Parachuting Ninja, a story told in photographs.

The adventure begins deep in the forest of mint, as Parachuting Ninja makes his way through the woods.

Once past the treacherous herbal forest, he finds his next obstacle, the giant Zygo Cactus. It’s a prickly enemy for any Parachuting Ninja, no matter how highly trained.

Watch me read from Bother!

Hello there, fine blog readers! Last week, I did my first reading as part of Bull Spec’s Issue #5 launch. My short story, Bother, is featured on the cover, and I got the pimp spot of the evening–by which I mean, I read after 7 other fabulous speculative fiction writers and editors did their things that I wish I had recorded to share with you, too! I didn’t expect a recording at all, but that dastardly husband of mine pulled out his cell phone camera and . . . it wasn’t that bad! So I’m sharing it with you today, and I hope you enjoy hearing the first few pages of the story. If you do, pick up a copy of Bull Spec now! If you’re local, it’s at the Regulator and both Durham Barnes & Nobles this week and will be expanding to the locations listed below the video in the next few weeks. If you’re not, then order it here.

Becca Gomez Farrell at Quail Ridge Bookstore from ben farrell on Vimeo.

Tips for polishing up my reading presentation are very welcome. Hope you enjoyed it!

Locations where Bull Spec #5 is or soon will be available:

The Regulator Bookshop (Durham, 9th Street)
Sci-Fi Genre Comics & Games (Durham, 3215 Old Chapel Hill Rd between University Dr and MLK Blvd)
Quail Ridge Books & Music (Raleigh, 3522 Wade Ave at Ridge Rd)
Internationalist Books & Community Center (Chapel Hill, 405 W Franklin St)
Chapel Hill Comics (Chapel Hill, 316 W Franklin St)
Foundation’s Edge (Raleigh, 2526 Hillsborough St)
Storyteller’s Books (Wake Forest, 100 E. Roosevelt Ave)
Capitol Comics (Raleigh, 3027 Hillsborough St)
Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill, 752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd)
All Fun & Games (Apex, 958 US Highway 64)
Ultimate Comics (Durham: 9th St; Chapel Hill: Farrington Rd)
Barnes & Noble of Cary (760 SE Maynard, Cary Commons)
Barnes & Noble of Durham – The Streets at Southpoint (8030 Renaissance Parkway)
Barnes & Noble of Durham – New Hope Commons (5400 New Hope Commons)
All Booked Up (Apex, 104-B North Salem St)
Northgate Books (Durham: Northgate Mall)
North Carolina:
Barnes & Noble of Greenville, NC (3040 Evans Street)
New York:
Forbidden Planet NYC (NYC, NY)
Pennsylvania:
Golden Eagle Comics (Reading, PA)

Bull Spec #5 Launch and NC Speculative Fiction Night

My short story, Bother, is now available online! Bull Spec’s PDF version is up, a couple of days before the official publication of issue #5 on Friday, 4/15. You can find the full contents list and order a print or PDF version here. I may be biased, but I think you’ll want the print version because of this gorgeous cover.

The artwork is by Richard Case, a Hillsborough resident and comic book artist who’s done a lot of work for the DC label. He picked Bother to illustrate for the cover, and I love how it came out! I think it captures the feel of it quite well, and—it must be said—there be dragons! Okay, just one dragon, but it’s a beauty!

If you can’t wait to get a copy in your hands to read any of the fabulous fiction within its pages (including Absinthe Fish by M. David Blake, which just received a Recommended from Lois Tilton, the Locus Magazine short fiction reviewer!) then join us at Quail Ridge Books , 3522 Wade Avenue, Raleigh, on Friday night (4/15)! At 7:30, a bunch of North Carolinian speculative fiction authors and industry folks, including me, will be convening for readings, probable panel discussions, and more. Bull Spec #5 will be hot off the presses and available for purchase then. They will likely be an after party at Crowley’s also. . .

Let me know if you’re planning to go so I can say hello!

And Bull Spec’s publisher just referred me to his list of where you can find the magazine locally, and in a few other states, too, though they likely won’t be on the shelves until sometime next week.

The Regulator Bookshop (Durham, 9th Street)

Sci-Fi Genre Comics & Games (Durham, 3215 Old Chapel Hill Rd between University Dr and MLK Blvd)

Quail Ridge Books & Music (Raleigh, 3522 Wade Ave at Ridge Rd)

Internationalist Books & Community Center (Chapel Hill, 405 W Franklin St)

Chapel Hill Comics (Chapel Hill, 316 W Franklin St)

Foundation’s Edge (Raleigh, 2526 Hillsborough St)

Storyteller’s Books (Wake Forest, 100 E. Roosevelt Ave)

Capitol Comics (Raleigh, 3027 Hillsborough St)

Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill, 752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd)

All Fun & Games (Apex, 958 US Highway 64)

Ultimate Comics (Durham: 9th St; Chapel Hill: Farrington Rd)

Barnes & Noble of Cary (760 SE Maynard, Cary Commons)

Barnes & Noble of Durham – The Streets at Southpoint (8030 Renaissance Parkway)

Barnes & Noble of Durham – New Hope Commons (5400 New Hope Commons)

All Booked Up (Apex, 104-B North Salem St)

Northgate Books (Durham: Northgate Mall)

North Carolina:

Barnes & Noble of Greenville, NC (3040 Evans Street)

New York:

Forbidden Planet NYC (NYC, NY)

Pennsylvania:

Golden Eagle Comics (Reading, PA)

Stellarcon 2011 and High Point, NC

View over the tracks

I am way behind on all my travel posts, but I’m hoping to get that taken care of in the next few weeks. Here’s one on a trip the husband and I took to High Point, NC, for the 35th Stellarcon. “Now old enough to run for president!” was the unofficial slogan. This was my third speculative fiction convention, and Ben’s first.

What did I think? It was fun! Stellarcon convinced me to sign up in large part because I was amazed that such a small conference offered so much programming. As an author, I’m most drawn to the panels on writing-related aspects that I need more guidance on, but I also really enjoyed the fan-based panels, though I only attended two. One was on love for New Who and the other was a celebration of that glorious genre called B-movies.

A sci-fi/fantasy convention, you say? Where are the crazy pictures? Well, since you asked . . .

Klingon Karaoke!

Apparently, this is a Stellarcon tradition, with a Klingon and an Enterprise crewwoman hosting the event. I sang a little No Doubt—pretty badly since I didn’t remember the verses to Spiderwebs. Sigh. Other singers had more success.

An airship captain with a nice, deep voice.

The esteemed Klingon MC singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Raven, the captain, and his girlfriend dancing along.

On Day 2, Ben and I went for a walk around High Point, as I’d never been there beyond stopping to take a picture there during the Giant Furniture Adventure. I was surprised by many of the awesome buildings High Point has that are definitely worthy of a shot or two.

Maya’s Vacation Reading #2

Here’s the second clip! This one takes place later that same evening, after Dean and Maya have spent the afternoon and evening reconnecting.

[audio:https://www.rebeccagomezfarrell.com/audio/mvexcerpt2.mp3]

Maya’s Vacation is available for purchase (e-books only) at Astraea Press, Amazon, and Barnes and Nobles.

Don’t forget to head out to my book launch party at City Beverage tonight if you’re local! I’ll just be chilling from 6:30 to 8:30 with a pile of bookmarks, family, friends, and libations. Come by and say hello, and you might be one of 5 people to win a free download of the book!

I also have two interviews posted on other blogs today about Maya’s Vacation. Take a stroll over to the Astraea Press blog and Kim Bowman’s blog to read my answers to questions about my writing style and the book. What inspired the book? Who would I cast as the main characters? Take a gander!