Thursday, May 20, 2021

#BOWS2021 My inspiration for DRIFTERS, and how to win a free copy



I am participating in the BOWS event—the Book Owl Word Search, It's an online game for book lovers featuring books and authors from Snowy Wings Publishing. Six teams of writers each post information about one of their books, information that includes a secret word. There is also a  link to follow to get to the next post from an author on the same team. (six authors per team).

My book DRIFTERS is set a thousand years or so into the future, but in many ways the story is reminiscent of the settlement of the American west. Jehan Amato, a16-year-old boy, lives on a world called Menkar VII that has no native intelligent species and was thus colonized by humans. NOTE: Human are called Terrans in my books. If I were to call them humans, then every alien species would need a species name as well as a homeworld name, and that would be too much for me—or my readers—to keep straight.

When I create colony worlds, I like to think about why people would leave their home planet and go somewhere else to live. I think our earth is going to be very crowded in the future—parts of it are very crowded now. And also, between pollution and humans' use of resources, our environment may be much less pleasant than it is now. So I can see at some future date, humans being willing to leave our planet in order to have a better quality of life. In some ways, it's a bit like the folks who left Europe in large numbers, seeking a home in the "new world" because their old world had a bad economy or too many people or a war waging or some other obstacle to living a good life. Of course, those Europeans were in fact, moving onto land already settled by other humans, even though the land seemed empty to them. In my books, colony worlds have no equivalent to Native Americans. 

Some of my favorite books when I was growing up were the Little House books, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was born in Wisconsin, but her family kept moving west, first to Missouri, then Kansas. After a few years back in Wisconsin, they moved to Minnesota, and then South Dakota. Laura was born right after the American Civil War and died in 1957, so she saw a tremendous amount of change in her lifetime.

In Drifters, Jehan Amato is raised in a city, but at the age of sixteen, he finds himself forced to live with his father's nomadic people who travel across the plains of his world, much as Laura Ingalls Wilder did on earth, except Drifters don't plan to move permanently. And instead of wagons, they migrate back and forth every year in "float trains" that hover above the surface and travel much more swiftly than horse-drawn wagons. I envisioned that some of the colonists of Menkar VII would have that same spirit of the pioneers that Laura's father had—a desire to keep moving and not live in one place so I gave these folks, called Drifters, that same drive to keep moving, and a much faster way to move.

Another thing Drifters have in common with American pioneers is strict discipline. I noticed that in the Little House books. parents were very aware that their children were at risk if they wandered off into the wilderness, so they were quite firm  with them, and would punish them when they broke safety rules. Jehan's father has a similar problem because Jehan grew up in a city; he has no idea why Drifters have to follow the rules they do. In his first week with the Drifter caravan, Jehan runs into very dangerous trouble TWICE!

Giveaway!

As part of the BOWS event, I am offering to give away three free copies of Drifters. All you need to do to enter is to make a comment below, and I will draw three names of commenters as winners. You can tell me something about you—what you like to read, what you like to watch on TV. Or you can tell me if you're someone who has lived in one place or many places. My dad was in the US Navy for 20 years; between that and going away to two different  colleges, I have lived in 10 states—not quite a Drifter but not someone with a home town, either. How about you?  

After I draw the three names, I will reply to the winners via the blog. If you win, you will need to send me your physical address to if you choose a paperback copy or your email address if you prefer an ebook. If you win and you already have Drifters, you can choose a different ebook from my list (see the My Books tab on this blog). My email address is listed on the Contact tab if you have any questions, of if you win and need to let me know your address.

My team is the Blue Team (see the book covers in the montage at right). The next author in the BOWS Blue Team is Lyssa Chiavari. Visit her blog to find her post, read about her book, and discover her secret word! 

Good luck, and happy reading! 

NOTE: If you are relying on a screen reader and have not uncovered the secret word, it is "pioneers."






14 comments:

  1. While my parents weren't in the military, they did work in the mining industry, so we tended to go where there was work. I lived in five states growing up, but sometimes we moved several times within those states. My sister was very shy, so the moves and resulting changes in schools were very hard on her. I was outgoing, so I just rolled with the punches. I ran interference for her (though I am younger). Now, I am almost agoraphobic, and would much rather stay at home, while my sister likes going places. I just had too many people in my space over the course of too many years, and now I am just done. :) Thank you for the chance to win a copy of your book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting! My dad, who went to the Naval Academy, was born in a mining town in the mountains of Arizona called Morenci. His father was a mining engineer at the time, although later they moved west and raised turkeys and then citrus fruit. I do think constant moving as a child can accentuate natural tendencies to extroversion or introversion. I was always an extrovert, and I stayed that way. I talk to strangers in elevators.

      Delete
    2. Michelle, you're a winner! Please let me know if you prefer a paperback or a Kindle version. If it's Kindle, I need to know if you use the US Kindle store and the email address to gift it to. If it's paperback, I need you physical address. Thanks for playing!

      Delete
  2. I read every night to relax so I can sleep. I'm a mood reader, so for example, right now I'm reading a YA thriller and just before that I read a MG contemporary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I read every night, too. I'm so glad the front-lighted Kindle was invented so I don't need to leave the light on when I read in bed!

      Delete
  3. Hi! I’ve read sci fi all my life. My current obsessions are post-apocalyptic and horror. I love the Indie authors’ book giveaways and I’ll occasionally get a YA book so I’ll read it in bed to relax. Anyway, thanks for doing this and it’s nice to “meet” you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andre Norton turned me on to sci-fi when I was about 12. A lot of her stuff was classified as YA. I can't read horror, though because I wake up screaming, and the better the writing is, the worse the screaming is. Nice to "meet" you, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. My favorite genre is mystery/thrillers closely tied with sci-fi, though I do read pretty much everything. I read most of my books via audio. I'm usually listening to 3-4 different books plus have at least 1 physical book and a couple ebooks at the same time. The invention of the ebook reader (I have a samsung tablet at the moment) have been game changers - I can read at night without dropping a book on my face when I doze off. lol!!!)
    I have lived in the same area all my life. I grew up on a dairy farm and didn't move that far from home. My best friends that I've known since grade school live close by so we still see each other on a reg basis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like mysteries, too, but most of the ones I read are set in the past. I "read" one audiobook, back when I was commuting-- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a fantasy by Susanna Clark. I tried it as an audiobook because when I asked people about it, they said it was "hard to get into it." I think it did well as an audiobook because you could just sit back and let the narrator deal with the complexity of the story. I too have fallen asleep while reading an ereader in bed!

      Delete
    2. Theresa, you're a winner, too! Please let me know if you prefer a paperback or a Kindle version. If it's Kindle, I need to know if you use the US Kindle store and the email address to gift it to. If it's paperback, I need you physical address. Thanks for playing!

      Delete
  6. I haven’t lived in three states but I’ve lived in multiple houses over the years. We never stayed in one place very long because of my mom. So I went to a lot of schools and didn’t make many friends. I made a couple of lifelong friends but I never really fit in anywhere. I never read a lot until 10th grade. Heaven by V.C Andrews made me love reading. Idk where I would be now if it wasn’t for books. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Books have been many a child's salivation. Moving locally can be just as tough as moving across the country. You might not have a different accent, but you're still "the new kid." I think The Secret Garden was probably my favorite book as a child.

      Delete
    2. Tiffany, you're a winner, too! Please let me know if you prefer a paperback or a Kindle version. If it's Kindle, I need to know if you use the US Kindle store and the email address to gift it to. If it's paperback, I need you physical address. Thanks for playing!

      Delete
  7. Thanks for participating,everyone! I will draw winners and notify them by 5 PM EDT Tuesday May 25

    ReplyDelete