Hello, friends and fans!
Welcome to my 84th monthly newsletter – for news, writing & publishing updates & reviews! Pull up a chair, let’s chat! Let’s take a look at this month’s “stuff”!
This time I have news about a new upcoming anthology from SFN. More about that a little later. First,
Some General News
January already? Well I guess I’d better start off with HAPPY NEW YEAR! Right? I hope 2024 will be a brilliant one for all of us!
I’ve always known that I can’t (and don’t) please everyone – in fact, it appears that a transgender author/activist daring to be seen in public and saying things that annoy the right (wing) sort of people gets their ire up to the point where they try to do something about it – and usually something nasty.
Since early December, I noticed that someone had thought it might be funny to spam-bomb my mailbox with religious literature sent from a dozen knuckle-dragging religious newsletter purveyors – fortunately, my spam filters have easily blocked this maliciousness at the root and also auto-deletes it so I don’t even have to see it, making that effort entirely pointless on their part. As satisfying as that was, it did cause me to remove my email address from public view unfortunately (creepers like that are why we can’t have nice things), but you can still reach me via social media messaging AND via the email contact form on this website.
However, as if that weren’t enough, on at least five separate occasions during December, there were attempts to hijack my Facebook account when “someone” halfway around the world tried to reset my password. Yeah… good luck with that.
I’ve learned long ago that if the right people hate you for the right reasons, then you’re doing okay. That said, I’ll take it as a sort of compliment, thanks very much!
Moving on to other matters:
Publishing
It being the very start of the new year, I’ve been on vacation and haven’t actually started work on any of my new projects yet! I will soon, don’t worry! In the meantime, here’s all my books that are already available:
My bibliography currently contains 46 published books, a few out of print by now, but mostly you can find them at:
Coming Soon:
In the days after my last reported rant about why I love being indie, the publisher in question got in touch with me and mended the bridges. I was asked to not withdraw my stories, and they promised to include them without making any edits – and I agreed. I know I can be a bit difficult sometimes – but it’s mainly just about highly important things, like my writing, honest! The new anthology “The Science Fiction Novelists 2024 SciFI Anthology” contains two of my short stories (“The Storming Of Area 51” and “It Happened In Late October”) and will be released on 20 February 2024, and here’s an early look at the cover below:
Currently Available Titles:
My books are available as eBooks, Paperbacks, and in many cases also as Audiobooks, and you can find them just about everywhere. Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available in these formats.
If you’re still wondering where to find them in the format of your choice, you should read “Where To Get My Books” (recently updated).
It’s the end of the year again, so I updated “Portfolio” – my free downloadable brochure featuring all my current books. You can download it from the Downloads page, or just by clicking the cover below:
Latest Releases!
My most recent new releases in 2023 were “Underground Movement“, “Xanadu“, “The Last Hurrah“, a 1-act play called “The Traitor Loyal” and “Terror In The Outblack“. Also new in July 2023 are three guides offering background in-depth info, that were previously available in earlier forms! They’ve now been formally published for the first time: “The Galaxii Guide To The Terran Space Fleet“, “The Galaxii Guide To Corsairs & The Black Fleet” and “Come To Deanna!“. “Through Technical Spectacles: A Quantum Guide” is a completely new title released on 27 July for the first time, containing 86 illustrations for 26 different topics. “Freedom Inc” is my latest, and last book for 2023, released on November 25, 2023.
Audiobooks:
I have 22 audiobooks available on and ! Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available as audiobooks.
You can view all of my audiobooks here.
Feedback & Communication
Reviews:
You can see all my previous reviews here.
Interviews:
I have no new interviews to show you this time, but all my interviews are linked to from this page.
What The Readers Say:
I know I can’t please everybody (so I’m not trying to!). That said, it really pleases me when I see that I’ve managed to do it anyway! Drop me a line and let me know how you think I’m doing – or leave me a review on Amazon or Audible!
“The Last Hurrah” received its first critical review on 12 December!
The epic Quantum Sci-Fi series concludes with a perfect ending
“Having been an avid reader of Christina Engela’s works for some years I’ve found myself enjoyably immersed in the setting and planet of ‘Deanna’ over 9 books. The Quantum Series and Engela’s writing represents lots of themes with some that are on the lighter side while others contain an important inclusive message but all of them merge together in telling a fantastic story.
This final entry into the series captures the end of an era for the planet as the ‘Deannan Uncivil War’ comes to a close alongside the stories of many colourful inhabitants that make up recurring characters throughout the books. Some have evolved over that time while others have been deeply effected by their path and recent political regime that attempted to take over, either way character development sits at the forefront of this series and its enjoyable to see. Every action has a reaction and this is especially so when it comes to the concept of time which is one of the many pillars that holds up the series. We see the series favourites such as ‘Fred The Arborian’ and of course ‘Mark Grauffis’ who finds his place alongside ‘Cindy Mei Winter’ and ‘Gary Beck’ but even the smaller players in this composition contribute to a story well told.
For anyone who enjoys space sci-fi set on distant planets that are alive with variety, inclusion and diversity while being told with some humour and power (of the right kind) then the Quantum Series is definitely for you! 5 Stars – A fantastic close to an awesome sci-fi journey.” – Lee Hall, review of The Last Hurrah, December 12, 2023.
All my reader comments are linked to from this page.
Videos:
You’re welcome to browse through the videos on my YouTube video channel! I’m not really the performing seal type, but I do my best! There’s also a 13 minute animated movie on there, called “Bang, Splat!“, based on characters and settings from “The Time Saving Agency“. I also made a video of my dad Theo Engela‘s dramatized-for-radio short story “Assignment“.
Latest Articles:
Below are links to a few of my most recent posts or articles since my previous newsletter:
- A Peek At My Week! #134
- A Peek At My Week! #133
- A Peek At My Week! #132
- The Artist’s Lament: Is It All Really AI’s Fault?
- Another Reminder Of Why I Love Being Indie
- What An Awesome Way To Wrap My Writing Year!
- A Peek At My Week! #131
- All My Releases For 2023!
- A Peek At My Week! #130
- Visit My EBook Store On Payhip & Pay Less!
- Christina Engela’s Monthly Newsletter: #83 December 2023
Other Stuff:
In the past few weeks I’ve been exploring one of my old hobbies – computers and customizing! You probably don’t know this, but for many years I was a computer support technician. For a time I even ran my own IT sideline called “Ghost PCs” , building and selling systems to customers and also trying to figure out what the problem between the chair and keyboard was! Things change over time though, and I moved on to other things in my work environment, and around 2006 when I underwent several life-changing surgeries, I sort of fell out of touch with that environment. Then between 2009 and 2011 I became heavily invested in human rights advocacy, and Ghost PCs sorta went to the light.
In the meantime however, I’ve long been tempted to get back into IT again, but this time exclusively for my own benefit – and things have move on so much since then that for a little while it felt intimidating to consider all the new tech that’s evolved from the old stuff I used to know like the back of my hand so to speak – but I’ve rapidly begun to catch up again. You see, back in the day, I could only operate my tech workshop out of a tiny decrepit 5×4 foot garden shed – whereas now I have full access to the entire house! That said, at the start of my holiday, I’ve set up an electronics workstation in the library/art/sewing/everything room, and dug out the trove of massively outdated hardware I’d put away for a rainy day – organized it into two piles (donate/sell and keep) and set up an IT workbench.
Whether or not I will be setting up a sideline business again is still not decided, but as a hobby, I’ve started by doing a few things – two of which I’ll show you here:
The first is the old server tower case I customized in the first week of my holiday. I plan on using this one for gaming and media applications in the near future:
In these tough, shitty times, everyone seems to need a sideline – and it just took me a while to remember I have the qualifications and experience to set one up again. I’ll let you know how it goes!
In Closing
Thanks again for all your support, sharing, friendship and interaction during this very trying – and utterly bizarre year!
As always, feel free to email or message me via Facebook if you have any comments or questions!
In spite of some of my books having been on Amazon since 2005, not one of them has yet reached the magical figure of 50 reviews! I would really appreciate your help in getting there!
Come on, leave a review – it’s free!