Hello friends and fans!
Welcome to my 48th newsletter – December 2020!
On A Personal Note
Well, here it is – the final newsletter for 2020! It’s been a pretty shitty year for most people, hasn’t it – with surrealistic political and social scenarios playing out on a seemingly daily basis – I mean, how was that threat of “nukular” war only three days into last January??? It’s hard to top that, right? Nevertheless, 2020 never missed a beat in delivering at least ten WTF’s a day!
On the brighter side, Mango Mussolini’s been resoundingly defeated in the US election and I, like many, many others, heaved a sigh of relief that the American people made their voices heard in perhaps the loudest shout in protest against fascism and totalitarianism in their nation’s history! Let’s hope that Mr. Biden will reverse all the harm that awful creature has imposed on the US – and indirectly, much of the world.
Looking optimistically forward, there’s just one month of this awful year left, and hopefully it will go quietly into the night and not finish with a bang… such as dropping a last-minute shocker on us, like an alien invasion, a zombie apocalypse or an asteroid falling to Earth or something of that order!
Fortunately, 2020 wasn’t all bad – I made a lot of progress in my writing career this year! I’ve been with Moon Books Publishing for a year now, and already I’ve seen a difference in my distribution and sales figures, in that I’ve literally doubled what I achieved last year! I also overcame another huge obstacle to getting my books out there in as many formats as possible, that is, entering the audiobook market! Thanks to Brandon at Moon Books, I now have four titles already available as audiobooks on Audible!
November’s been a fairly quiet month, so I haven’t much else to tell you this time. Let’s see… among the items I have to mention are three rejection notes for short stories I sent in earlier this year, and one great review for “Blachart”, and seven articles I posted in the last month.
Anyway, let’s get to it and take a look at the usual list of goodies!
Art
I also indulge in painting from time to time – and no, I don’t mean walls! The following paintings are in my portfolio:
You can read more about my art projects on the Art page.
What do you think of them? Feel free to let me know!
Music
Yes – I also make music from time to time!
A selection of music tracks I made using eJay and other similar apps between 1999 – 2008 is available on my YouTube channel.
You can read more on the Music page on my website!
DIY Projects
Innovation DIY is where I showcase some of my DIY projects! Pop along and have a look! There’s also a Facebook Page. I’m also overjoyed to mention that it’s also being reproduced as a weekly column in the Weekend Post called “DIY On A Dime” as of November 21!
Activism
For those of you interested in my activism-related posts and activities, you can follow them at “Sour Grapes: The Fruit Of Ignorance“, where you can view my activism-related (human rights, eco and animal rights) articles and books from 2009 onward. SGTFOI details “The thoughts and experiences of an author and human rights activist”.
Current Writing Projects
Although I did work on Galaxii book 4 (still untitled), I spent most of my writing time editing this past month.
Editing
I offer my editing services on a freelance basis to interested parties. More about that here. Current editing assignment: “The Darkness Within Me” by Anya Louw (151k words).
Marketing – The Dreaded “M” Word!
Portfolio 2020!
I thought it would be nice if I could produce a neat, organized catalog of all my books that interested parties could download and browse – a free, distributable and shareable catalog, and so I created “Portfolio 2020!” – a listing of all my currently available titles!
Portfolio is more than that though, because it also contains a biography as well as synopses for most of my titles – and I have a plan to update it regularly, perhaps on an annual basis! Portfolio 2020 is available as a free download from my website. I aim to release new versions of this item periodically, so keep your eyes open for updates!
Update: I will be revising and updating this item for release in January 2021! Keep ’em peeled! 🙂
Box Sets
For your convenience, I now have three different box sets of my eBooks available – one each for the Galaxii Series, Quantum Series, and Panic! Horror In Space! Having the freedom to sell my work directly from my website has some definite advantages – one of them being that I can create bundles or box sets of my works!
You can view them by clicking on the cover images, or by visiting the Shop page. There are advantages to buying a box set of eBooks as opposed to buying the eBooks in my series individually – they’re cheaper! The cost of each box set is 10% less than buying the individual eBooks which make it up, separately! All three books in the Galaxii Series (at $2 each) would add up to $6 – while the Galaxii Series Virtual Box Set comes to $5! Likewise, the Panic Series Virtual Box Set also comes to $5 – while the six-titled Quantum Series Virtual Box Set – instead of $12, is available at $10!
Once you’ve completed the checkout process, your will be able to download all the eBooks in that box set directly from the checkout page, or from the links in the email that will be automatically sent to you! I hope you’ll enjoy these! I have plans for more! Meanwhile, happy reading!
Videos
I’ve nothing new to show you here this time, but feel free to browse through the videos on my YouTube video channel!
Publishing
These are the books I’ve released so far this year!
Between January and September 2020 I released eight new titles! Of these, two – “Duck Blind” and “The Next Room” have been replaced by one combined title, “Mirror, Mirror” which consists of both of them. Of course, this reduces my count back to 28 again – but when you already have 30 or so books to your name, what’s one here or there?
New Releases:
I’ve nothing new to show you here at this time!
Rejection Notes:
Rejection notes are inevitable. In my view, they show that an author has at least tried to get a story featured in a short story anthology. Getting featured in an anthology in my view only serves the purpose of giving the writer free marketing in getting their writing out there via channels they probably can’t access themselves without spending vast sums of money! I only submit a few stories once or twice per year – these are the latest rejection notes I’ve received:
- I submitted the short story “Good Evening, Mr. Gleeb” in October and received this response from the selector for the Unmasked anthology:
- I submitted the short story “The Ghost And The Machine” in October and received this response from the selector for Dark Matter magazine:
- I submitted the short story “The Ghost And The Machine” in October and received this response from the selector for Off Limits Press on December 01:
The reason I’m showing you these is to show you that it’s important for an author to not get disheartened by rejection notes, and to view these little disappointments in perspective. Just keep on trying!
Audiobooks
Coming Soon
In the meantime, here’s a look at the covers for hot new audiobooks currently in the pipeline:
Stay tuned for updates!
Reviews
I have one exciting item to show you in this section this time!
‘Blachart’ by Christina Engela – Enjoyable action-packed original space sci-fi
“Christina Engela delivers with this action packed tale that introduces the Galaxii series; an expansive world of Imperial space fleets, distant planets, space pirates and beyond. Utilizing her unique, fun and strong narration style we meet ‘Mykl d’Angelo’ who serves firstly as a mystery man seemingly marooned alone in space until the authorities take him in and learn he is trustworthy. His brutal back story becomes apparent and as a reader you naturally side with him. Whether it be for his quick witted one liner’s or ability to deal with most situations and seemingly get out of them; the Imperial space fleet soon employ d’Angelo. He even reconnects with an old flame in the form of ‘Ripley Jones’ who vouches for him.
The real threat in Engela’s deep space Galaxii universe and much like many of her other books are the Corsairs – a mystery group of pirate types who appear to ravage any civilization they can. Soon enough d’Angelo’s rescuing ship comes across another vessel manned by them and so the action, drama and deception begins. In order to fully intercept the Corsair world, they must align with an unexpected ally.
While this tale is wholly original there are some fun references throughout from old school weaponry, pirate slang terms and even a hilarious fast food reference. From shootouts to car chases this book has everything fans of sci fi action could want. It’s imaginative, highly readable and fun much like many of Christina Engela’s works which I highly recommend!
5 Stars – A cracking read. Reviews left via Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the author for providing a copy to review.” – Lee Hall, UK writer & reviewer, November 10, 2020.
You can see all my previous reviews here.
Currently Available Titles
I now have 30 unique titles available in 4 series (not including books I’ve been the editor for, and my 16 free promotional items)! My books are available in three different formats: EBooks, Paperbacks and Audiobooks.
Communication
Below are links to a few of my most recent posts and articles since my previous newsletter:
- The Tech Side #15 Airlocks
- The Tech Side #14 Imperial Starships – Shuttles & Shuttle Bays
- The Tech Side #13 Imperial Starships – Battlespringers
- The Tech Side #12: Imperial Starships – The Medical Complex
- The Tech Side #11: Stardrives
- A Fantastic Review Of ‘Blachart’!
- The Tech Side #10: Imperial Starships – The Benatar Class Cruisers
- Another Round At The Crow Bar #47 November 2020
Interactions
-
Fan Mail, Reader Reviews & Honorable Mentions
I have the following awesome items to show you this month!
-
- One of my quotes appears in a list of involvement quotes on GoodReads. Pop along to add your “like” 😉
I display my Fan Mail, Reviews & Compliments with pride, gratitude and humility. You’re always welcome to have a look.
-
Hate Mail & Horrible Mentions
I have the following awesome items to show you this month!
Haha – gotcha! I haven’t received any hate mail this month – wonder what I’ve done wrong? Perhaps I need new haters?
- I’m rather proud of my hate mail, and you can review my collection here – but be forewarned, don’t do it while eating or drinking, or you might choke while laughing!
-
Interviews
- All my interviews are linked to from this page. If you would like to do an interview with me about my work, please do get in touch!
In Closing
Well, that’s all for this time, folks! 🙂 Seeing as it’s December, it’s year-end and so I probably won’t be doing much posting via the website over the next month, at least until sometime in January again. That said, I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and safe holiday period, and try to stay as safe as possible.
Thanks again for all your support, friendship and interaction!
Feel free to email or message me via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn if you have any comments or questions!
Cheers!
Catch me on social media!
Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Academia | Minds | Instagram | GoodReads | Author’s Database | Library Thing | YouTube | Pintrest | Stage32 | The Book Marketing Network
All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2020.