Want to Book Con?

Book Conventions: love them or leave them?

When you read a book you love what’s one of the first things you want to do? Talk about it with someone else who loves it too! And that’s how book conventions came to be.

At least in my mind. 

But as an author conventions become more than being a fan, they also become work. If you’re new to the book/author convention world maybe you’re wondering which ones are worth the money. Or maybe you’re wondering which ones will give your shiny new book the most exposure. Or maybe you want to meet other writers who might end up becoming writing buddies, or critique partners, or mentors. 

All of those reasons and more are why attending one might be right for you. But every con is different and you’ll need to research to find out which ones match with your goals. And no matter what goal you’ve got, attending a con will cost you $$. So, let’s take a look at what’s out there!

This list is by no means comprehensive. There are cons of all sizes that cater to all genres. The easiest ones to quickly look up are the ones connected to professional writing groups and associations. SFWA holds the Nebulas. Worldcon has the Hugos. If you’re looking for a fantasy specific con check out FantasyCons.com. They list these smaller conventions by date and show the location.  

If you’re looking for general fiction ones, check out the list The Write Life put together. Select by genre or location, they’re all on the same page. Or maybe you’re looking for something local to do a signing at or rub elbows with authors within driving distance of you. In that case, check out Writer’s Digest’s list of book fairs and festivals. 

There are also plenty of writing conventions aimed at teaching you how to put together a novel, how to format, how to pitch, how to self-publish, etc. Watch out for those. Some have useful information, but sometimes it’s packaged at a steep price or the information could’ve been gleaned by reading some free online resources. Some offer pitch appointments with agents if you're on the traditional publishing pathway, which can be the highlight of attending this type.

Attending a book/author convention can be energizing! Meeting people in the same writing stage as you can be uplifting. And making connections with industry professionals can be beneficial. Weigh your pros and cons after doing your research. Hopefully you’ll find one that’s easy to get to that you’ll enjoy!

Do you have any cons on your wishlist or ones you’ve been to that you’d recommend?

Cons: Better for Fans than Authors

This Week's Topic: Conventions (Cons): They're Morphing, But Do They Provide What Authors and/or Readers Want and Need?

Four years after the lockdowns of Covid, Cons are in full swing...though they might look a little different from their pre-Covid formats. Some are embracing virtual formats, either in their entirety or as special breakout sessions for those who can't attend in person. Some are scaling back their size to control costs, while others are expanding to lure more diverse audiences. 

Not being a Con girl, I don't have first-hand experience of the post-Covid landscape. The Cons I attended were all before the Great Plague. 'Bout the only advice I can give as an author is that unless you're a Big Name with a large fan base in the area where you're signing, don't expect to make a profit by attending in person. In fact, you're most likely to have a notable net loss when you factor in costs for transportation, lodging, staging, product, etc. Now, that loss may be deductible depending on your tax situation. If you're attending as a virtual panelist (from the comfort of your office), then your out-of-pocket costs are obviously less but don't dismiss the opportunity costs. Also, remember that "exposure" is not payment, particularly if you've been invited by a for-profit host. If you have to pay-to-play, don't go, then be realistic in your expectations and honest with your budget. Donating your time to a non-profit Con as a marketing tactic won't measurably move your sales and revenue, but it might fill a personal desire to contribute to your community (check with your tax professional to know if any costs are tax deductible).

If you're attending a Con as an author, do so because you love meeting new people or because you're really going as a fan of other attending artists. Heck, some authors attend because, for them, it's a vacation with their besties. 

Exciting New Book Deal - NEVER THE ROSES

Sharing the OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL super exciting news today on NEVER THE ROSES, the book I sold to Tor. I'm explaining the Publisher's Marketplace lingo, how foreign sales work, and why creatives can't be thick-skinned.

I burble about this on my podcast, First Cup of Coffee.

How do you stop overthinking your writing?

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

Everyone does it. Your thoughts circle in an endless loop – anxiety and doubt overtake your ability to move forward. Unfortunately, it's common. I don’t know how to eliminate it, but I can share ways I’ve found helpful to move past it.

1. Find your process. Whether you’re just starting or have written dozens of books, find a process that works for you and use it. This may look a little different for each writer, but I’m talking about how you go from idea to done. I rely on the process I’ve built to help get out of the overthinking cycle. Overthinking hits hardest for me in the first draft and self-edits–before anyone else sees the story. I remind myself to trust the process. That my critique partners and editors will help me flesh out the areas that don’t quite make sense yet. We have dev editors, alpha and beta readers, and writing critique partners for a reason. We’ve selected them because we trust them to give us honest feedback. Especially if you’re struggling with overthinking an early draft, trust that you’ll work through the details, but you must get the story out first.

 

If you’re just starting and you don’t have people like this, whether they are fellow writers you can critique swap with or paid partners like dev editors or beta readers, I highly recommend finding them. Not everyone uses every type of partner. Find the ones that work for you.

 

2. Have a plan. This is not a stand between plotters and pantsers. How you get your words on paper is your own business. I find overthinking to be circuitous, a cycle of worry that isn’t really productive. One way I move forward is by revisiting my plan for publication. If you’re familiar with sales, this is like internal objection handling. Your brain might create reasons to get stuck in a cycle, and you get to sell it on why you want to move forward. It could look like this: 

 

Brain: this addition to the world-building would be great, but it needs to be in the beginning. 

Plan: Okay, Brain, I will write it down and address it in self-edits. Let's pretend that it has been there from the beginning for now. 

 

I’ll admit this is less helpful when your brain loops on self-doubt, but that is also an area of overthinking that writers must confront. Not every story is for every reader, and I have to be okay with that to create something and put it out in the world. In those cases, I anchor myself around why I’m doing this. I love writing, and I love sharing my stories. I want to find readers who enjoy my brand of storytelling.

 

3. Trust yourself. Cliche? Sure. But still fundamentally a way to unstick yourself from the overthinking cycle. I can’t prescribe what will work for you, but you’ll find the things that do. For me, pushing through a draft helps. I make changes as I go and clean up for consistency in self-edits. Each writer has to find their own ways to deal with overthinking because it is a common struggle, and I don’t think it goes away the more you write.

I hope it helps to know you’re not the only one overthinking your writing. Find the people and the process that works for you. Many think of writing as solitary, but storytelling inherently needs others. Find the people who will support you but give you constructive feedback.

Jillian Witt reads more romantic fantasy than is strictly necessary and writes books she would love to read. Her stories unleash powerful women into fantasy worlds, usually turn enemies into lovers, and always offer an escape from reality.

When not reading or writing, she’s enjoying all four seasons in Michigan with her partner and their dog, Loki.

TT and instagram @mythandmagicbookclub 

https://www.jillianwitt.com/

Overthinking Toolkit

When you look up overthinking in the dictionary, that's my picture beside the definition. Bet you didn't know that. I have a kind of love/hate relationship with overthinking. On the one hand, overthinking is the artistic drive to make a piece match a vision. I'll give that some respect. On the other hand, though, it's paralysis and there's a ton of slow going everyplace in between the two poles. 

I can't tell anyone how to stop overthinking. It's one of my biggest hurdles. I have amassed a toolbox around it, though, and you're welcome to rummage through for useful tidbits. 

1. Binaural beats - 40k in particular which has some bit of science behind showing it helps with focus, attention, and flow. The theory is that varied frequencies going in each ear regulate brainwaves in a particular way and invoke a state of some kind. These require stereo headphones and low volume - just at the edge of awareness. You can find pure pulse tones or you can find the beats integrated into music. Experiment. Your brain may, like mine, find the pure tones too dis-regulating but the musical ones to be just fine. 

2. Enforced speed - Twice a month, a group of writers gets together in a writing game. For two hours we run timed writing sprints against monsters. Each monster is worth a specific word count value. Everyone in the group pools their words against the critter. Each session is timed - if time runs out before we hit word count, the monster wins. If we hit word count before the clock runs out, the writers win. This practice is valuable for me because it forces me to just keep going - no don't go back to correct the typo. Leave the sentence fragment alone. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. I can't say I come away with usable scenes for a book from this exercise but what I do get are snippets of usable stuff. Writing that fast ends up being a lot of stream of consciousness for me. If I can keep my stream of consciousness focused on the story I'm working on, then all of the noodling and overthinking gets channeled out of my head and onto that virtual page. From it, I can glean conversations, conflicts, and opportunities for the actual story. It's a good reminder that it's okay to feel my way through a story and to worry about fixing things later. 

3. Default mode - apparently, our brains have a default mode wherein some much needed sorting and rearranging gets done. This happens when we slip into daydreaming or staring off into space. It happens when we engage in repetitive physical tasks like vacuuming a room or sweeping or washing dishes or ironing. It is a brainwave shift, absolutely, but it isn't something we *do*. It's something that happens. Default mode sort of sneaks up on us. In default mode, it's as if someone is in our heads unplugging this bit over here, untangling the cord and then plugging it in over there but with lots and lots of stuff. Kind of a mental defragmentation process. If I'm really up against an overthinking wall, convinced there's only one right way through a story and I haven't found it yet, I'll get up, walk outside and spend 10 to 20 minutes pulling weeds in the garden. Or I'll sweep up cat litter, or do dishes, whatever simple, repetitive physical task that takes very little thought. A walk around the block would serve as well. Just take note that screens / social media are never ever the answer.

4. Get back in the body - overthinking tends to pull the nervous system into a fight, flight, fawn, or freeze state. Maybe overthinking is an evolutionary trait of some kind that helped our ancestors survive because it often feels like not getting a story exactly right is an existential threat. Yoga nidra is useful, in that case, as it's designed to sooth the nervous system out of fight or flight and reset your brain as well. 

I hope you find something useful in this set of tools. I'm still a work in progress on the overthinking front. Believe me when I say I'm combing the other posts for more tips, tricks, and tools. What a relief it would be to one day just write a story and not hit that wall that makes me look back and wonder if I did all those words, threads, and characters right. Especially since, for me, that wall is never at The End.

Don't Get Stuck in the Weeds

Don't get stuck in the weeds like Ullr.

Signs you may be overthinking your writing:

• You write, then delete. You write, then delete.
• You can’t stop researching details.
• You’re still staring at a blank page determined to find the perfect start.
• You make no progress.

You may think overthinking isn’t an issue for you. But be honest with yourself, how many times have you written a sentence only to delete and rewrite it over and over? Hello first sentences! 

The trick is being able to acknowledge what your brain is doing. If you’re not aware of how it’s operating how can you change it? And also…how do you change your brain?

For me, overthinking is the drive for perfection. It’s the inability to leave a sentence alone because it’s not conveying the exact emotion or action I’m looking for. Have you ever heard of there’s more than one way to skin a cat? Same applies here, there’s more than one way to describe a specific emotion/action/what-have-you and there is never one perfect way.

Once I realize I’m stuck, because yes, overthinking can be a type of writer’s block, I like to reset my brain. A short breathing session or yoga session, because yoga literally means to unite the body and mind. This helps me get back to alpha brain waves which is where creative thinking happens.

Think of brain waves this way, beta is when you’re actively speaking or exercising. Beta is worked up. Take a step down to alpha and you’re relaxed. You’re walking in a garden without having to concentrate or your sitting in meditation. Another step down is theta. Autopilot. That’s why you can have those ah-ha moments while you’re taking a shower or driving your car. You’re in autopilot which frees your mind up to wander and find solutions. 

Next time you find yourself overthinking, maybe give resetting your brainwaves a try! 

Overthinking and the Blinding Flash of Brilliance

 This Week's Topic: How Do I Stop Overthinking My Writing?

{cuts open skull}

{takes out brain}

{leaves it on desk}

No? Maybe not?

Okay, fine. 

I laughed when I saw this topic because overthinking things is so me. I can spend a whole day in a thought spiral for what amounts to less than a page worth of story. D'oh! What a colossal waste of precious time, right? 

So, how do I stop doing it? Yes, I appreciate that the question is "stop doing" versus "never do."  In accordance with the universal first step, one must recognize there is a problem. For me, that usually comes when a pee break forces me to step away from the computer. I have a habit of mentally checking my progress toward my daily goal during those moments of, erm, seated relief. (Yeah, I'm the girl who starts her day with "what do I have to get done today, what do I want to get done today, and what can I absolutely not do today.") That's usually when I realize I've spent the last two hours reworking the same damn page. When I return to my WiP, I don't let myself look at the mess I've created. I move on. 

Sometime around 2AM, the solution will come to me. 

The second way I realize I'm overthinking the problem is when I MAKE THINGS WORSE. Usually, I'm overthinking a scene or a moment when I'm trying to clarify and/or simplify the information imparted. Somehow in the throes of it, I make things more complex. Again, once I realize what a disastrophy I'm writing, I move on. I force myself to turn the page (or page-down the page?).  The Blinding Flash of Brilliance (BFB™️) will come once my subconscious has had time to noodle on it.

Overthinking a point of your story is bound to happen. The key to working through it is to realize when you've succumbed. Once you know you're caught in the thought spiral, you can break free. Give your subconscious time to figure it out, then you can go back and fix things. You know that process called Editing? Yep. It's where BFBs shine. 

Overthinking Your Writing? Be Like Jackson

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is: How do you stop overthinking your writing? The accompanying photo is of Jackson, who makes a practice of overthinking absolutely nothing. I'm tempted to say "Be like Jackson" and end the blog post here. 

But, seriously, the key to not overthinking your writing is ... stop overthinking.

I know that's not helpful, but it is an important skill to acquire. Conversely, it's important to purge yourself of the idea that thinking is necessary for writing. As an intuitive writer, I do everything I can to maximize intuition and minimize conscious thought. The more I think, the slower I write. I know this about myself, but there's a pervasive idea out there that writing comes from thinking. 

This gem was going around Twitter/X the last couple of days:

We won't dive into how much of a dipshit this guy is, including a misguided impression that writers are somehow not into opportunities that allow us to pay the bills. What's key here is that he believes you have to have an outline before writing, that you have to THINK it out. Spoiler: you do not. I am living proof of it and a total advocate for being that opportunist. Let the story come to you.

Something to keep in mind is that overthinking is a form of perfectionism, which can be paralyzing. Therefore, any techniques for killing perfectionist tendencies will help here. Basically let go of expectations and the need to make the story perfect as you're writing.

Relax. Let it flow.

Be like Jackson.

 

Believability—and sexiness—is all about emotion

 

As a fantasy romance writer (now called romantasy, I guess?) today's topic is near and dear to my heart. While love scenes aren't necessary for a fantasy romance novel, they are common, and I tend to write on the steamier side. Let's just say I've got some experience with writing love scenes--I was actually editing one this week, adding a little more emotional depth and a few key details. I love the way that sex peels back the layers of a character and digs into the dynamics of a relationship. There is nothing more vulnerable than desire, and acting on that desire reveals a lot about a character, both to the reader and to themselves.

So how do I keep them believable? There is a level of general staging to make sure that clothing doesn't suddenly change or disappear, and to ensure the action more or less makes sense. That level has to be handled gracefully to keep the reader in the scene, though how detailed or steamy is more driven by the tone of the story than believability. Beyond the basic mechanics, I tend to focus on the emotions rather than what body parts may or may not be involved.

A kiss can be incredibly powerful and passionate, if the POV character is swept away by it. Some sensory details can heighten the immersiveness of the scene--again especially ones that the POV character has a deep reaction to, or little details that reveal how the other character is feeling.

These days, I am also conscious of consent and modeling good sex practices (including safe sex when technologically appropriate) so I try to incorporate enthusiastic consent into my love scenes. Which honestly isn’t hard because—let’s be real— “yes” and “more” are two of the sexiest words ever, and the kind of characters I’m drawn to write love to hear them.

At the end of the day, believability flows from character, and their motives and emotions. If you have nailed those as an author, then the acts themselves are merely a matter of taste.

Jaycee Jarvis is an award winning fantasy romance author, who combines heartfelt romance with immersive magical worlds. When not lost in worlds of her own creation, she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse, three children and a menagerie of pets.

Find her at http://www.jayceejarvis.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18092674.Jaycee_Jarvis

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jaycee-jarvis

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJayceeJarvis

Mastadon: @Jaycee@romancelandia.club

Journey to Believable Scenes

Love scenes in novels aren't made believable within the confines of that single scene. Usually. Certainly writers can do plenty within the scene to kill the mood or break a reader's willing suspension of disbelief. In my opinion (and subsequently, in my craft practice) love scenes are made believable by virtue of the journey that led up to the sex scene. If a story goes straight for the sexy times right from the outset, then the journey has to be implied within the context of the scene.

It's no secret I like smart heroines. It may, therefore, be no surprise that in order for me to believe my heroines would hop in the sack with someone, I need to believe that decision would make sense from within that heroine's point of view. This is why I need a journey to a love scene. That journey is a series of small vignettes that put pins on a map taking my characters from strangers, even opponents, to trust. No. Not to lovers. To trust. Lovers comes after trust has been established in my books. No trust, no nooky. Of course there are heroines who would hop in bed with someone they don't trust. If that's going to happen, however, I, as a reader, need to understand her motivation for it. Is this a trauma response? People pleasing at enormous cost to herself? A rebellious move? A revenge screw? I can buy a lot but I need to comprehend why someone is willing to put themselves into the most vulnerable of positions with an unknown quantity. I suspect, in this post Me, Too era, when few of us are privileged enough to get to ignore just how dangerous simply existing can be for female presenting people, most of us need to get inside someone's head when they're going to engage in (perhaps fatally) risky behavior.

BUT. This isn't a murder mystery so we're not hiding corpses yet. We're still trying to get folks between the sheets.

The path from Hello to the bedroom (or wherever) is sign posted by the scenes where the first sparks of attraction fly, and in the scenes of discovery - these are the ones where characters are learning about one another and are finding the good and admirable - and in the scenes where the learning about one another starts paying off because they aren't just talking at one another anymore. They're communicating. Mostly. Coming to understanding. If I'm doing my job, somewhere in those scenes, my characters aren't just melting one another's hearts - they're melting the reader's as well. IF that happens, the love scene will likely be believable.

Barring my attempts to do something anatomically impossible, but that's another day's rant.

Believable Intimacy

 This Week's Topic: How Do I Make My Love Scenes Believable?

Man, it's tough being the one to follow Jeffe, who won Romancelandia's most prestigious award for best romance with Pages of the Mind. Her backlist includes holy-hot-stuff fantasy and contemporary erotica. I write "how to 'splode your enemy's head" kind of books; thus, I kinda wanna cheat and just post a "what she said" link. 

But, I'm pulling up my ruffled big-girl panties and giving you, dear readers, my $0.04 worth of opinion.

I could be a little shit and say, "I don't write explicit sex scenes," but that would be a lie. I've written 'em, I just haven't tortured the public with them. However, I do write (and have published) scenes of intimacy. They may not be ass-baring, but they are soul-baring. And, yeah, as Jeffe said, the key to believability is to ground the actions, emotions, and personal evolution in the character's character. 

In healthy relationships, vulnerabilities are exposed, acknowledged, and treated with care by the partner.  In healthy relationships, desires are shared both verbally and physically. In healthy relationships, there's give and take, both in dominance and submission--even during vanilla sex. There's a respect between (or among) partners that--in a medium of show vs tell--is absolutely shown.

By contrast, in unhealthy relationships, the opposite is shown. Deliberate disrepect. Intentional hiding  of or trampling over needs. Engagement as a tool of punishment (not kink). Humilation and degradation (again, not as kink). Whether or not anything is being penetrated, the cruel intention spurring the actions is plain. 

In the course of a story, the scene of intimacy is used to either advance character development or to demonstrate character self-sabotage. Sure, if you're aiming to write a believable sex scene involving humans, you'll want to avoid portraying the man as an endless fountain of jizz banging on his mate for hours. Chafe is real, and dudes do have to take a break to rest and reload, ya know. 😇

Writing Believable Scenes

 We had big fun at Beastly Books yesterday celebrating FaRoFeb! The delightful Vela Roth came up from El Paso, and A.K. Mulford and A.J. Lancaster joined us online from down under. The panel was also broadcast on Instagram Live and you can find a recording of it on the FaRoFeb Instagram account.

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "How do you make your love scenes believable?"

By "love," I assume the asker means sex - though how to make the confessional of heartfelt love feel earned and not pasted on or saccharine is an interesting question. But, in truth, the answer to both, or even really ALL scenes - love, sex, fight, daily conversation - believable is to ground them in character.

This is true whether you are a plot-driven or character-driven writer. Stories are about the emotions of the people in them - what they want, what they can't have, what drives them to chase what they want anyway. So, a fight scene is never just about the choreography and who wins or loses. It's about what that win or loss MEANS to the characters, what impact their injuries might have on them beyond the physical.

Likewise, a sex scene is never just about tabs and slots fitting together. It's about emotional intimacy, what the sexual interlude means to the characters. It has nothing to do with whether or not multiple orgasms are believable or making first-time encounters awkward or including realistic body noises and accidental passing of fluids and gases. Those things might factor in if they relate to the characters' emotional lives, but by themselves, they don't change anything, one way or the other.

Because believability comes from emotional truth, regardless of everything else.

FaRoFeb celebrates together!

 HR Moore founded FaRoFeb to celebrate fantasy romance and romantasy books every year. It has a robust author community that celebrates each others' successes and cheers each other on via the discord server and on social media.

February is FaRoFeb's month, which includes extra exciting promos and events. Check out the remaining schedule and put it on your calendar for next year: https://farofeb.com/. The community has grown and we now have events throughout the year, so it's never too late to see what they're up to.

We've been working on the TikTok feed for FaRo - the newest place we can be found! We love sharing our reading interests with the BookTok community.

Finding like-minded, supportive communities is one key to a successful book release. You can learn from your peers about their book release tips, for instance, and support each other by sharing book release social media posts. Nobody should go through this alone. 

A hot tip, though. Make sure you've done your homework before you ask for advice in author communities. 

• Has someone recently asked the same question in the facebook group? Read that post instead of asking the group to repeat their answers. 
• Have you already checked some of the big author blogs and sites for answers (like the great advice we have on SFF 7 Authors this week)? If someone has already written about the topic, it's better to read that and then ask a follow-up question rather than, again, making the group repeat answers. 
• Are you asking beginner questions in an advanced authors' group, or vice versa?  Remember you are not just taking from the community, but should be contributing too, so working at a similar level will be more helpful for everyone.

How do you prepare for your book releases? Let us know in the comments. And happy writing!

Book Launch Talk with Mike Chen

Alexia: This week we’re talking about book launch tips. And who better to ask about the subject than someone who celebrated a book birthday last week—welcome back, Mike Chen! 

Two years ago you joined the blog to answer some questions and talk about WE COULD BE HEROES, a story about friendship. And this January 30th A QUANTUM LOVE STORY released, a book about love on a time loop. Did you go into writing this one knowing the theme would center on your character’s love story?

Mike: This story went through several iterations as different places requested proposals, but through that the heart of it was always these two people, Carter and Mariana. When I had the chance to have more direct control over the tone and age range, I decided to make their slow-burn love story more of a focus in the book – this was mostly a personal challenge to myself, as I feel like I’d written about many other types of interpersonal relationships but always felt intimidated by having a romance be the driver for the story. It’s as close to romance (the genre) as I will ever get.

Alexia: I love recommending your books to people, especially those who aren’t science fiction fans because you make sci-fi accessible via personal relationships. Your publisher must share the same sentiment because MIRA Books is proud to display you as one of their authors. How have their publicists been involved with A QUANTUM LOVE STORY’s release?

Mike: They’re always helpful and supportive; Justine Sha has been my publicist since my second book and she’s probably the fastest email responder in all of publishing. I think everyone at the imprint understood that from a marketing perspective, there was an opportunity to reach a broader audience with this title and they got to work very early on to make sure the foundation of outreach hit that. It’s really fantastic to get interest reflective of this book’s broader identity.

Alexia: Romance is the top grossing fiction genre, and now you’ve got a release with that tag. How do you view romance as a genre? Do you ever read romance, or do you read genre fiction with romantic elements? 

Mike: I don’t read romance in terms of the genre, but I am very aware of its standard story beats and sub-genres. In terms of romantic elements that appear in genre fiction, I that that’s more of using a character focus, because a romantic arc is always as much about self-discovery and acceptance as it is bringing two people together. I am also a huge fan of romantic choices in video games and I will talk endlessly about Liara T’soni AKA my “blue space wife” from the Mass Effect games.

Alexia: You’ve picked powerful themes for your stories. The effect of time on relationships, trauma, friendships, family relationships. When you pitched A QUANTUM LOVE STORY, had you thought ahead to how you’d utilize the romance theme to reach new readers? 

Mike: I knew right away that I wanted it to be a combination of slow burn and the understanding of opportunity. That’s different from standard romance beats, which is why we picked “love story” for the title – it’s not a romance novel per se. It was always about two people fighting just to have a chance for happiness, and I think that struggle is universal. I wanted to have characters that readers could root for individually and as a couple, so when they get that moment of “maybe they’ve got a chance,” it would really connect with readers in a different way than with friendships or family.

Alexia: You’ve covered the gamut of relationship themes in your work. Are there any that have been burning a hole in your brain, begging to for you to explore? Or is there a theme that you loved writing so much you want to hit it from a new angle? 

Mike: The fun thing about playing in science fiction is you can mix and match sub-genre tropes and types of interpersonal relationships to come up with all sorts of unique stuff. I have a few things simmering, but I need publishing to hurry up and do its thing before I can say anything.

Alexia: There are hundreds of angles one can take on promoting a book release. What is your go to marketing tool, the one thing you’ll do with every book release either because you love it or you can’t ignore its ROI?

Mike: Funny enough, I feel like I’ve released enough books that I realized that authors can’t move the needle too much on their own – it’s really a team effort. So I just try to be open, honest, and accessible in every avenue possible, whether that’s in-person events, Zoom book club meetings, or answering questions on social media.

Alexia: We’re all stronger together. And speaking of ROI, one of Jeffe Kennedy’s topic suggestions for the year is ‘worst ROI ever’. I’d love to pick your brain on that topic, and, well, every other topic we have. You should just join us! 

Mike: Like I said, there doesn’t seem to be a formula that always works! So the best thing you can do in the long run is be a nice person and be engaging rather than constantly hawking your wares.

Alexia: I couldn’t help myself, I had to throw that out there because I honestly admire your writing and find your thought processes fascinating. Thanks again for joining me on the blog, Mike. A huge congratulations on the release of A QUANTUM LOVE STORY! Many wishes for its success! 

Mike: Thank you for bringing me back!

About Mike:

Mike Chen is a critically acclaimed science fiction author based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. His debut novel HERE AND NOW AND THEN was a finalist for the Goodreads Choice, CALIBA Golden Poppy, and Compton Crook awards. His other novels include A BEGINNING AT THE END, WE COULD BE HEROES, LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME, and STAR WARS: BROTHERHOOD. He has also contributed to the STAR WARS: FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW anthology and covers geek culture for sites like Nerdist, StarTrek.com, and The Mary Sue. In previous lives, Mike worked as a sports journalist covering the NHL, DJ, musician, and aerospace engineer. He lives with his wife, daughter, and many rescue animals.

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A Quantum Love Story

The only thing harder than finding someone in a time loop is losing them.

Grieving her best friend's recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pineda’s ready to give up everything to start anew. Even her career— after one last week consulting at a top secret particle accelerator.

Except the strangest thing a man stops her…and claims they've met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she's mourning, why she's there. And he needs Mariana to remember everything he’s saying.

Because time is about to loop.

In a flash of energy, it’s Monday morning. Again. Together, Mariana and Carter enter an inevitable life, four days at a time, over and over, without permanence except for what they share. With everything resetting—even bank accounts—joy comes in the little a delicious (and expensive) meal, a tennis match, giving a dog his favorite treat.

In some ways, those are all that matter.

But just as they figure out this new life, everything changes. Because Carter's memories of the time loop are slowly disappearing. And their only chance at happiness is breaking out of the loop—forever.