Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Nitpicking - venting about things or thinking about the value of attention to detail.
Personally me, I’m not much
of a nitpicker. I tend to be live and let live and select my battles, you know?
As far as editing for tiny details, the worst situation I ever had was once when a new-to-me-copy editor went through one of my ancient Egyptian paranormal romances and ‘corrected’ almost everything. When I write a story set in 1550 BCE Egypt, I have a style and a voice that fits the epoch and the way the ancient Egyptians thought about the world. It’s one of things readers and reviewers compliment (not to be boasty). As one reviewer said, “These are not 21st century people in kilts.” Right. I do a ton of research and have a huge library of reference materials in order to achieve my desired effect of taking the reader to that ancient world. I like to joke I’m getting my informal degree in Egyptology with all this studying. So I was irate and the copy edit was useless to me.
Have you ever dealt with
real nits by the way? Our family went through several rounds of that activity
when the children were little, especially one year when the day care was allowing
children back in without being diligent enough on checking they were actually
nit free. I’ll spare you the gory details but nits are tiny and tenacious and
there’s nothing fun at all about searching through an entire head of hair to
find and detach them.
Gave me a whole new
appreciation for the term, let me tell you!
Hopefully I haven’t grossed
you out…
I did have to watch the
details on my new release of the past week, STAR CRUISE: RETURN VOYAGE, which is in the Pets
in Space® 5 scifi romance anthology. The events take place on a ship called the
Nebula Zephyr but a lot of the plot
is anchored in a tragedy set decades earlier, in The Wreck of the Nebula Dream. I had to be so careful and triple
check myself every time I referred to either ship to be sure I was getting it
right. Dream was destroyed, Zephyr sails on.
Speaking of details, we did
hit #1 in several categories on Amazon and got that little orange flag appended
to the listing for a while and we were a Nook Best Seller…but then to balance
that, Kobo had a technical glitch on their end and were delivering four pages
of gibberish to people versus the humungous anthology they expected. Details,
details. Kobo admitted it was a problem on their end and took quick action so
all is good.
PETS IN SPACE® 5 ANTHOLOGY BLURB:
It’s time for an escape! Pets
in Space® 5 is back for the fifth amazing year! Escape to new worlds with
twelve of today’s top Science Fiction Romance authors. They have written 12
original, never-before-released stories filled with action, adventure,
suspense, humor, and romance that will take you out of this world. The giving
doesn’t stop there. For the fifth year, Pets in Space® will be donating a
portion of the first month proceeds to Hero-Dogs.org, a non-profit charity that
supports our veterans and First Responders. If you are ready to forget the
world around you and make a difference while you are having fun, grab your copy
before it’s gone!
STAR CRUISE RETURN VOYAGE: Gianna Nadenoft is a reclusive survivor of one
of the worst interstellar cruise ship disasters in the history of the Sectors.
Now a renowned artist, she hasn’t left her home planet in decades, not since
returning there after the wreck as a traumatized three-year-old. With her
service animal at her side, she’s going to attempt to travel across the star
systems to attend her brother’s wedding and reunite with her fellow survivors.
Trevor Hanson is a security
officer aboard the cruise liner Nebula
Zephyr with his own traumatic past as a former Special Forces soldier and
prisoner of war. He’s assigned to provide personal protection to Gianna during
her time aboard the ship but soon finds his interest turning from professional
to romantic.
Onboard the Nebula Zephyr, powerful enemies are
watching Gianna and making plans to seize this rare opportunity to gain access to
her and the secrets they believe she’s still keeping about the wreck. Can
Trevor overcome his personal demons and rise to the occasion to save Gianna
from the danger waiting on his ship, or will she slip through his fingers and
suffer a terrible fate deferred from her last disastrous voyage?
Amazon Apple Books Nook Kobo
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Note: Image from DepositPhoto
