It's a Living Thing

Language, that is.
Language is a living thing, and as such, it constantly mutates. What do I love and hate about that fact? That language is a constantly changing thing,.

Okay, one of y favorite examples is from the show The Simpsons. Now, with the exception of the annual TREEHOUSE OF HORROR. I couldn't much care about the Simpsons. I watched the show when it started and I watched the way the art changed and okay, that's fine.

But, I was amused to the point of a grin on my face when the Oxford Dictionary decided to add the word "D'oh" as modern slang. How delightful! A goofy little comment from Homer Simpson became an actual word in the English language because so many people were using it. I bet if I looked into it I could find a few words from Buffy The Vampire Slayer added as well.

I love the fact that the English language adapts and changes to suit its own needs. Sometimes it steals from other languages (Okay, often), sometimes a new word is made up on the fly In any event the language becomes something new. How cool is that? It's like watching a chameleon change colors.

I all as is almost always the case, working on multiple projects at once. Short stories, novels, collaborations, a novella. all of these are directly affected by the change in language. My novels is a first-person spin-off of a Novelette I wrote ten years ago, which is, in turn, a spin-off from a novel. The language is a complete bastardization of the English I speak and usually use because it's told by a hitman with a very different grasp of the English language. He doesn't speak like me. He isn't me. I'm just telling his story. I've caught myself a few times wanting to increase his vocabulary, but I won't let that happen. He has his ways, I have mine.

It all varies. One o0f my teachers, when I was a kid, thought the word "garbage" was the most beautiful sounding word in the English language She told that to a herd of fifth graders and was shocked at the laughter. I knew another teacher who though "Onomonapeia" was the bee's knees. Words are wonderfully quirky in this language. We turn a phrase with the best of them and usually get it exactly wrong enough to annoy at least one reader a book at a guess. But we use those words just the same, and we invent new ones if we have to.

If I can be said to have anything that I don't like about the way the language  keeps changing, I guess I'd have to say I'm not fond of the shortcuts. Where R U should never replace Where are you? in my book. It made sense when you  had to pay for each character n a text, but those days are mostly gone.

That's it for me this time around. In case you haven't run across my latest release (from a freaking year ago, because cancer and the treatments for the same slow down EVERYTHING) my last novel released was BOOMTOWN and the follow up collection of short stories was WHERE THE SUN GOES TO DIE. Both are weird westerns.

Love It or Hate It? Changing Language

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is our favorite and least favorite ways the language is changing.

I'm not much of a cane-shaker about language. I'm kind of a language nerd, endlessly fascinated by etymology, and in another life-path I would totally have been a linguist and polyglot.

(Though I only know English and French, along with a smattering of other languages. Still, in my mind, I imagine myself learning new languages, when I *cough* have time.)

I love how language evolves, how it's a fluid and living thing. (Except for those dead languages, forever frozen in a particular form to ossify that way. It always seems kind of sad to me.) I even love how technology is changing our use of language - like how "tho" has a different connotation from "though," even though the former is technically a shortening of the latter. I'm enough of a word nerd that I have a full set of the (paper) Oxford English Dictionary and reference books on the Roots of English and a Sanskrit bible (whence we derived many of said roots).

I do have my peeves. It annoys me that "factoid" has totally lost its original meaning of a sexy but deliberately untrue tidbit to, well, exactly the thing it was meant to comment on satirically. But I try to let it go because clearly people wanted a word to mean a "short fact" and glommed onto that.

Otherwise, I try to keep up with language shifts. They're a reflection of a dynamic society, and learning new words keeps my brain limber.

I'm sure learning a new language would, too...

Sexy geeks, recovering Egyptian antiquities, and heart break

Black lives matter. So do black authors. Black dancers. Black dreams. Black hopes. Black voices. Black families.

I have incredible privilege and limited ability to use it right now. But I can boost my fellow authors. I can donate to the ACLU and to BLM and bail funds. And I can vote. When the time comes, I hope you'll commit to doing at least that. Vote. Because the lives of your neighbors and friends hang in the balance.

These are the authors I've been binging lately:
First was Melissa Blue. She writes a sexy geek series. How could I not? 

Now, I'm working my way through Seressia Glass's Shadowchasers series.  A kick-ass heroine, Egyptian artifacts, a 4,000 year old Nubian warrior? Mmmmm. Yeah, the series is a good time.

And the piece that breaks my heart - this. From the Alvin Alley Dance Theater

8 SF&F Books by Black Authors + Further Recommendations

We went silent last week at the SFF Seven to give space for the voices that needed to be heard in the world...

#BlackLivesMatter

Our theme for the week is to suggest resources for finding Black authors to read...

A source I turn to often is the WOC In Romance webpage …they update periodically and have the books slotted into genres/tropes for easy searching.

May Sage writes all manner of stories but her fantasy romances have a huge following.  Her Court of Sin series, which begins with Frostbound Throne is a good entry point to her work.

Another favorite of mine is A. M. Griffin, with her The Hunt series. Book one is The Game Warden’s Mate.

I first discovered Deborah Bailey when she released book one in her Hathor Legacy trilogy, which was Burn…and I loved her Once Upon a Princess: Beauty and the Faun fairy tale…

I’ve mentioned P. J. Dean before, because I so enjoyed her scifi romance series The Felig Chronicles, and she writes in other genres as well…

Alyssa Cole just released the ebook version of The A.I. Who Loved Me, which is thoroughly enjoyable and her post-apocalyptic Off the Grid series is a classic. The first book is Radio Silence.

Hugo And Nebula Award winning author N. K. Jemison’s The City We Became is an amazing book, as is The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth Book 1).

I can’t say enough about the Hugo and Nebula Award winning Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes is a timely, tough fantasy…

Rita Wood has written “Ode to Black Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers” for Tor.com and has specific book suggestions…

Don’t overlook FIYAH, the magazine of Black Speculative Fiction….check them out!

Hopefully this small list will provide a few new-to-you authors to check out and some resources for finding more, because a voracious reader always needs fabulous new books to read, right?

Please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!

As it relates to the times we’re living in, I’d like to add one more book that I personally found immensely helpful. It was hard homework but insightful and eye opening, even after all the many hours of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training I'd had at various times with my previous day job employer. This book, which I read earlier in the year when the RWA was imploding (wow, that seems like last century!) is challenging but turned on many light bulbs for me. White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson (Foreward).

Sending my best wishes to you and your loved ones to stay safe and healthy because we’re not out of the pandemic yet, that’s for sure.

Spotlight to support Authors of Color

The world's on fire. We went silent last week at the SFF Seven to give space for the voices that needed to be heard, and now we all need to be on the same page. Because after the fire's out I hope the world is changed and stays changed. As James stated earlier in the week; Black Lives Matter and Black Authors Matter. 

Writing a book is hard. Publishing is hard. And if the deck is stacked against you before you even begin? It's even harder. So this week we're spotlighting some of our favorite reads by Authors of Color, particularly African American writers.

With the pandemic I've gone back and binged on some comfort reads, some series that I know well (have read multiple times already). One of them was:

Dragon Kin Series by G.A. Aiken (A.K.A. Shelly Laurenston)
This paranormal romance series is about dragon shapeshifters and those who fall in love with them. Book one has always been, and still is, my favorite. Annwyl's mouth makes me laugh out loud!


Earthsinger Chronicles by L. Penelope
This fantasy romance series has GORGEOUS covers! Which was what originally drew me to them in the first place. Then on Jeffe's First Cup of Coffee she started talking about L. Penelope's podcast, My Imaginary Friends, they both cross-reference each other in streaks. And after that, I had to crack open the first book. The series has magic and war...I was swept away! Cry of Metal & Bone comes out in August and might be my fave cover of the series so far!


MEM by Bethany C. Morrow
This art deco historical fiction has an exciting, sci-fi twist: scientists have discovered how to extract memories, and the result is a clone copy of the person! But one clone begins to have her own memories... It blew. My. Mind. It's definitely one of the novels I believe everyone should read. I'm eagerly waiting for news that Morrow has another sci-fi release coming. *crossing-fingers*

Have you read any of these? If not, seriously...check out the covers!! I'm such a sucker for a good book cover. 

Release Day: ENEMY STORM by Marcella Burnard

Today, please join us in congratulating SFF Seven member Marcella Burnard, who is releasing Enemy Storm, the third book in her Chronicles of the Empire Series that began with Enemy Within.

ENEMY STORM: CHRONICLES OF THE EMPIRE, BOOK THREE

It's never a good day when a radioactive hunk of starship nearly drops on your head. 

The Claugh Empire attacked Edie's planet fifteen years ago, murdered her parents, and left the teen for dead. So when a wrecked Claugh starship interrupts a salvage mission, she's torn between revenge and rescuing survivors—especially the stirring captain with an uncanny ability to rekindle her dead emotions. Something about him inflames the urge to come to terms with her past. But the mercenary in Edie doubts trusting a former enemy will bring her redemption or put old prejudices to bed. When a new common enemy, hell-bent on wiping out humanoids, threatens to bury them all, the captain tries to convince her a mutual coalition might breach their political impasse—all for the greater good.

Available everywhere:

Amazon | Kobo | GooglePlay | B&N | Apple

Note: This quote from the author really piqued my interest and made me want to read: Main character Edie "is also very loosely based on a dear family friend who challenged me to write a deaf character without having to ‘fix’ the character or have her inability to hear be made into something that would ultimately save everyone. I tried. I hope I did her proud."

And Some Recs Because They're Awesome and #BlackLivesMatter

Last week, SFF Seven took some time to listen and mourn and get angry. This week, we're amplifying Black voices in publishing, specifically in SFF-dom. 

Book I just bought and have started reading and wow: The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis. A Kirkus Review Best of the Year selection for 2019, The Good Luck Girls is a Westworld + Handmaid's Tale fantasy adventure about five girls who seek "freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things."

Book that broke my heart and was, among other things, one of NPR's best books of 2019: The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathon Snipes. "The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future."

Book that I read years ago and still adore: Radio Silence by Alyssa Cole is a gritty, smart postapocalyptic story with a romance at its heart (which is my weakness, admittedly).

New #Sci-Fi #Romance Release: INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE by Veronica Scott

We're celebrating our Saturday blogger Veronica Scott's latest Sci-Fi Romance release in her The Sectors series. Unlike our COVID-19 pandemic, this trip to the far, far future promises a Happily Ever After!

COLONY UNDER SIEGE: INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE

Newly graduated from a prestigious interstellar medical school, Dr. Saffia Mandell has been assigned to the Haven Two colony on the galaxy’s outer rim as the only doctor for some 2000 human residents. She’s counting the days until her five years there is up, trying to adjust to rural living after life in the crowded Inner Sectors and fighting her attraction to Chief Ranger Micah Navonn. She’s dreading the upcoming tourist season when the rich and pampered will descend on the planet for the scenic wonders and novel sports opportunities and no doubt inundate her little clinic but the colony depends on the seasonal income to survive.

>As the senior official for his people, the Calinurra, the indigenous inhabitants of Haven Two, Micah enforces the treaty, regulates the tourist permits, patrols the forests, and resists his fascination with Dr. Mandell. He never expected to be involved with a human woman and doesn’t want to believe in the concept of a fated mate. He wants to keep his life simple and isn’t ready for any long term commitment. Besides Saffia keeps proclaiming she’ll be leaving when her appointment is up in four and a half years so why should he risk his heart?

Then a ship arrives unexpectedly carrying a very ill little girl and soon the deadly virus is spreading through Haven Two. The colony authorities are desperate to cover up the problem to preserve the all-important tourist season and Saffia and Micah have to work together to battle the outbreak, the local administration, and their undeniable feelings for each other.

Can the colony survive? And will Micah and Saffia be able to move past their fears about entanglements to act on the mutual attraction?

BUY IT NOW:   Amazon   |   Apple Books   |   Kobo  |    Nook  |   Google Play

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Last week, dear Reader, we were radio silent on the blog because there were voices with powerful messages who needed to be heard loudly and clearly without us adding to the background din. Demanding diversity, pursuing equality for all, and dismantling white supremacy are goals toward which we strive. Pride Month and the BLM Movement are reminders for us to use our privilege to promote diverse authors and artists. To that end, here are three intriguing fantasy books I can't wait to read:

FRESHWATER by Akwaeke Emezi: An Igbo girl is a living prison for vengeful gods who grow more powerful with every trauma their vessel endures on the journey from troubled child to empowered young woman. 

QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED by Kacen Callender: A fantasy murder mystery set in a colonized Caribbean with a Black noble using all the magic she possesses to stay alive and maybe even inherit a throne from a childless king.

DAUGHTERS OF NRI by Reni K Amayo: Twin child goddess separated when the old gods left the earth are raised as humans until each takes her own path to the villain king and the truths of family, power, and identity.

Black Lives Matter...and so do Black Writers.

Black Lives Matter. In a world with diverse races, no one should be chosen as the target for discrimination and rage. Ever. Are we clear on that? yes? Good.

In an effort to clarify this, we at SFF7 have chosen to highlight some of the writers of color that people might be unaware of. Here are four.

Samuel R Delaney. Seriously, if you read science fiction or fantasy and don't know who Mr. Delaney is, you need to stretch your literary wings a bit. Very possibly the first African American science fiction author published in the US. A best selling author has won enough awards to intimidate, and his writing is damned fine, add to that that the man is also a professor at Temple University.

Linda Addison Best known for her short stories and poetry, Ms Addison is another author who has won numerous awards and another writer who is deserving of your attention. When last I spoke to Linda she was working on a new series 0f science fiction novels that I, personally, can't wait to read. Born in Philadelphia, Linda lives in Arizona these days and continues to write full time. She's also a sweetheart.

Errick Nunnaly Errick writes whatever strikes his fancy. That means I've read superhero fiction and horror alike from him. I think he told me he's working on a fantasy series, but my mind is often full of strange things I swear someone said to me that later prove t be dubious. In any event, I am currently reading his novel ALL THE DEAD MEN ad loving the hell out of it. Errick is also a sweetheart.

Tananarive Due I've met Tannanrive exactly once, and we basically nodded to each other. That was when we were both a good deal younger and before I read her amazing MY SOUL TO KEEP. I followed that one later on with the other three books in the African Immortals series. She's done a lot more, and I've read a few of them. I intend to read them all if I ever catch up on my 400 plus pile of To Be Read books. The lady in question is also the executive producer on HORROR NOIRE on the Shudder Channel, and teaches the Arfofuturism and Back Horror at UCLA. The lady likes to stay busy!