Hello friends and fans!
Welcome to my 29th newsletter!
In Brief:
Hello again folks!
My huge self-appointed task of revising The Quantum Series is now completed, up to and including book 6: “High Steaks”, and I’ve started work again on the brand new books 7 and 8 – although I’ve taken a little break to recharge my creative batteries in the meantime!
There have been a few changes to my Shop website as well – most importantly a change to do with the formats my books are available in. Thanks to a little market research done during April – with the help of some of my readers who participated in several polls, I’ve decided to make ALL my books on my shop website (The Crow Bar) available in .epub, .pdf and .mobi (Kindle) formats! This will make reading my books more convenient for my wonderful fans, friends and supporters!
From now on, visitors to my Shop site (http://www.christinaengela.net/) will be able to get ALL THREE versions of each title for the SAME PRICE at once! Now, regardless of whether you use a PC, tablet, Kindle, or smartphone, you’ll be able to enjoy my books! 🙂
I had a marvelous review from Lee Hall (a UK reviewer, writer and playwright) on “Black Sunrise” – posted a little further along in this newsletter.
In the never-ending learning experience that is my self-promoting and marketing my brand and works, I’ve been sharing my promotional posts on Facebook, Minds.com, and LinkedIn among others. One day this week I suddenly remembered that LinkedIn has a section on my profile for “achievements”, under which I had listed my publications some time ago! I went to check – and discovered to my horror that I hadn’t updated them in a number of years! They all had the old website links – and so I spent some minutes correcting them – everything is up to date now, and people who look up my published books will be able to find them now! 🙂
You may also be wondering what writing I’ve been busy with lately, and yes – I’ve taken a short break from working on “Underground Movement” and I’ve been working on revamping the Panic! Horror In Space series instead. You may remember that the Panic! series is all about horror dressed up in a shiny sci-fi tuxedo, and it won’t disappoint!
What have I done to Panic? Well, aside from redesigning the covers I did two years ago to fit in with the broadly similar themes of both my Galaxii and Quantum series, I’ve also thought carefully about their content. In retrospect I decided that each volume of the present version is a bit short, containing two shorter stories in one volume. Instead, each book will now contain FOUR PARTS, and average around 64000 words apiece.
“Mercury Retrograde” (book 1) contains all the action from “Mercury Rising“, “Mercury Resurgent”, “Dead Center” and Through A Dark Glassy” in one awesome story format! The new book 2 “Life Signs” features “Miora”, “The Big Rain”, “The Song of the Drillipede” and “Life Signs”, given the same treatment as Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the same book.
Of course, for the time being that means there will be only two books in that series instead of three, but I really prefer to give my readers more of what they want – my best – rather than just sitting back thinking “nah – they’ll be happy with that”! Being one title short is only a temporary setback anyway, as I’m always writing something and I’ll be bound to carry on with the third volume sometime – and I already have a working title and concept in the works for one of the episodes of Panic that will feature: “Hotel Phalanges”. Just the title sends creepy goose-flesh running up my spine!
I also decided it would be much simpler to market them as titles with actual names like “Mercury Retrograde” or “Life Signs” instead of just “Panic! Horror In Space #1”, “Panic! Horror In Space #2” or “Panic! Horror In Space #3” etc.
Meanwhile, here’re the new covers of the first two books “Mercury Retrograde”(already completed and ready to be uploaded) and “Life Signs” (I’m still busy on tweaking that one) in that series in the meantime, as a taster for you.
As soon as I’m done with the second book, I’ll be updating the series online for your enjoyment. As always, please feel free to send me your comments, advice, criticism or just say “hi” at christinaengela@gmail.com . 🙂
New Releases
All the titles below have been released or recently revised and given the new cover design treatment since 2018 (including The Galaxii Series, and the Quantum Series – 2019).
For more information on my current writing projects, see below.
On A Personal Note
As sometimes happens, I had a bit of vent on my old blog “Sour Grapes: The Fruit Of Ignorance” during April, which you might actually enjoy reading – I think it’s actually a bit funny as well as sad, since in it I try to show the frustrations I’ve felt in working to overcome the very many obstacles to progress in my writing career that have been rolled in my path over the years.
- Fan Mail, Reviews & Honorable Mentions
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As of April 2019 my books are now also available via Kobo and Payhip.com. You may notice that it’s still cheaper to buy the SAME books from my web-shop – plus buyers get the option of which format they prefer – epub, pdf or mobi – or ALL THREE 😉 .
- Left by Tim on “Little Green Men” at Hubpages.com (April 29, 2019):
- All 19 of my submissions to HubPages.com so far have been featured and published on LetterPile as well.
- I received this terrific review of “Black Sunrise” on May 07: “A fun and enjoyable quirky multi-character story that carries an important message…
Black Sunrise is about a lot of different things and the author has done a great job of linking them all together by way of a story that is not only funny, it’s also strange in a good way and carries a positive message. The diverse array of characters range from a bounty hunter to a talking plant called ‘Fred’ who in some senses stole the show considering this ‘Arborian’ seemed to be more of a secondary character.
Set mostly on the planet of Deanna; this holiday destination sees the arrival of an alien spaceship helmed by the ‘Ruminarii’ a race of hostile lizard type aliens looking to send a message. Along the way we see the story from many different points of view; including these aliens who (spoiler alert) fail in a sense to send said message.
Cindy Mei Winter; a former government agent is trying to put the past behind her and provides the important message this story carries. What first appears as a suggested undertone comes center stage in the latter part of the story as Cindy is revealed to be transgender; something that is portrayed in a positive and modern way. In fact there are two transgender characters in this story. This message extends to many of the other characters who are all different in their own way questioning the concept of what an alien really is.
Overall I found this story enjoyable with a positive message that puts the ‘conscience over paycheck’ concept into practice. There are some parts I found to be genuinely funny while in other moments it was thought provoking.
Seeing as this book is a part of the wider ‘Quantum’ series I will be sure to check out the others.
5 Stars” – by Lee Hall, UK writer and playwright.
What I thought was so nice about this review in particular is that the reviewer didn’t just say something like: “It was a good read” or that he liked the story and the cover etc – they really read the whole thing… and digested it – and they understood it – the little subtle things as well as the overt and obvious elements of the story – this guy really *got* it! 😀
I display my Fan Mail & Compliments with pride, gratitude and humility. You are always welcome to have a look.
- Hate Mail & Horrible Mentions
I’m rather proud of my hate mail, and you can review it here – but be forewarned, don’t do it while eating or drinking or you might choke while laughing at it!
- Interviews
If you would like to do an interview with me about my works, please do get in touch!
CHRISTINA WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! A few nice words go a long way! Please leave your REVIEWS on Academia.edu, Anobii, Apple iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Bol, Book Depository, Dilmot eBookMall, FictionDB, Fnac, Foyles, Goodreads, !Indigo, Kobo , Lulu, Lybrary, MoboReader, Nook, Smashwords, Takealot, 24 Symbols – or wherever you see Christina’s books – or just send her an email via the Contact form!
Support The Author
Although most titles listed are available in ebook form through most online retailers internationally, Christina prefers readers make their purchases via her website. This is because unlike other platforms, when you buy from her website, you pay HALF THE PRICE you’d pay elsewhere, and it ALL goes to the author – which is really, really important …especially if you’re the author! 🙂
In Closing
Well, that’s all for this time, folks! 🙂
Today (8 May) was a public holiday due to it being election day in South Africa, and the light of my life Wendy (aka Kay) went to cast our votes this morning – thankfully before the heavens opened and it started raining like it was the end of the world! It’s cold and snugly weather, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off to join her and warm up at the heater with our three kitties!
Thanks again for all your support, friendship and interaction! Until next time, keep reading!
Cheers!
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.