Joe Vasicek

Have internet, will blog

Hey guys, I’m back in Kutaisi today, so I thought I’d drop in and post an update on this (much neglected as of late) blog. Life hasn’t been too eventful, but there are a couple of things that I thought you might want to know about.

First of all, I’ll be participating in an ebook promo with some other sci-fi indie authors this cyber monday (the online equivalent of black friday). My book Star Wanderers: Outworlder is already available for free, but if you’re a fan of science fiction and free / $.99 ebooks, be sure to check it out! Here’s the link:

Also, if you check out the CURRENT PROJECTS section in the sidebar (over there ———>), you’ll see that I recently dusted off Heart of the Nebula for another revision pass. This is a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home, featuring many of the same characters (James, Lars, Stella) plus a few new ones. I’m about midway through chapter 4 right now, and really getting into the story.

The previous drafts had some issues, but I think I’ve got a better handle on them now. I have no idea when it will be ready to be published, but I’m shooting for sometime next summer. With luck, this next revision will be finished in December, at which point I’ll send it out to my first readers and see what they think of it.

Also, I took some time out to work on meta-writing stuff, like goal setting and such. I’ll save that discussion for new years, though, since that seems like a much better time to discuss goals and resolutions. Also, it will give me a chance to refine them a bit in the intervening month. Long story short, I was experiencing a creative block due to some unrealistic personal expectations, but I think I’ve more or less worked it out.

Other than that, life is pretty good. I got to see my host family from last year a couple of days ago, when I came in late from Tbilisi and missed the last marshrutkka to my village. Called up the family, and they were kind enough to let me spend the night on their couch. Today, I said thank you by dropping by with a box of chocolates.

It was great to see them again and spend some time in the neighborhood where I lived last semester. Also: twix cookies. The market in Batoni next to ProCredit Bank is one of the few places in Kutaisi that sells them. If you’ve ever spent any significant time in Georgia, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

So that’s just about it for now. If all goes well, I should hear back from my first readers on Star Wanderers: Homeworld sometime during the Thanksgiving break. Depending on their feedback, it’ll come out anywhere between 1-3 weeks later. This will conclude the main story arc for Star Wanderers (at least, the first arc), but it won’t be the last book in the series. More on that later, though.

Take care!

Trope Tuesday: I Choose To Stay

The hero’s journey can be divided into three basic phases: departure, intiation, and return. In the departure phase, the hero receives the call to adventure and eventually leaves the familiar world. In the initiation phase, the hero passes through a series of tests and trials eventually leading up to the climax and final confrontation with the Big Bad (if there is one). But after the hero wins and receives the ultimate boon (aka MacGuffin), there’s nothing left except to go back home and share that boon with the rest of mankind.

Except…after having such an awesome adventure, he just doesn’t wanna.

Joseph Campbell called this stage the Refusal of the Return. It’s a lot like the Refusal of the Call in the departure phase, except in reverse: instead of being reluctant to cross the threshold of adventure into the unfamilar world, the hero doesn’t want to cross the threshold in the opposite direction going back home. Campbell put it this way:

When the hero-quest has been accomplished…the adventurer still must return with his life-transmuting trophy. The full round, the norm of the monomyth, requires that the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom, the Golden Fleece, or his sleeping princess, back into the kingdom of humanity, where the boon may redound to the renewing of the community, the nation, the planet or the ten thousand worlds.

But the responsibility has been frequently refused. Even Gautama Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have died while in the supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence forever in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being.

Anyone who’s ever been two years old should know the feeling. You’re at the playground, having fun, when out of the blue your mom says that it’s time to go. So what do you do? Throw a hissy fit, of course! Grab onto the cold hard steel of the swingset, and don’t let go until she drags you kicking and screaming all the way to the car.

The hero may have fallen with the new world the moment he left his home behind, but he might also have hated it initially. In stories where the hero actually does stay, this allows the author to give him a character arc: at first, he hated the new world, but gradually he warmed up to it, until by the end he was changed so much by the adventure that he decided to settle down there.

In milieu stories (see Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient), this often manifests as Going Native, while in stories that are more plot or character driven, it’s more likely to manifest as Can’t Stay Normal. When the hero eventually comes around and goes home anyway, it frequently morphs into Stranger in a Familiar Land. The polar opposite is But Now I Must Go, though that trope tends to apply more to side characters than the main protagonist.

Ultimately, however, adventures are like stories: they all have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The hero may want it to keep on going forever, but that is not this trope. Even if the hero does stay in the lands of adventure, those lands eventually become his new home. It just can’t be avoided.

For that reason, there’s an important element of bittersweetness to this stage of the hero’s journey–one which, if done well, can add a crowning moment of heartwarming or turn the story into a real tear jerker. Or both, actually. It all depends on how invested the reader is in the story by the end. If the reader feels like she’s been right there with the hero all this time, then you can expect the tears to flow no matter which way he ultimately goes.

I pretty much played this trope straight in Genesis Earth. Most of my other books feature a Refusal of the Return moment of one kind or another, but the hero usually ends up going home anyway. If there even is a home to return to, of course. I don’t know why, but a lot of my stories are about characters who are searching for home. Maybe that’s because at heart, I’m still a wanderer. It will be interesting to see how that changes over the coming years.

The song at the top, by the way, is from Disney’s Tarzan, a movie which plays this trope straighter than most. In fact, this trope is practically Disney’s bread and butter.

New Kindle! And some new old projects as well

So I came out to Tbilisi today, because MY NEW KINDLE PAPERWHITE JUST ARRIVED!

Okay, sorry for the all-caps shouting, but I’m really happy that it finally got here. My old kindle broke down a few months ago, leaving me stranded in my tiny village without any books. With the weather getting worse and the power outages becoming more frequent, cabin fever has started to become a problem. So really, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

It shipped out almost a month ago, but Georgia (the country, not the state) is a fairly remote place, so it’s taken a looong time to get here. The wait has definitely been worth it, though. I love this device, especially the cover browsing function. And the backlight is going to be very, very useful, what with all the power outages we get in the village.

So I’m about 100 pages into The Sword Keeper, my latest project, and I realized that I need to do a lot more worldbuilding before I can continue. I’ve got a good handle on the characters and have more or less figured out the plot, but there are still a lot of holes in the setting. This new project is a fantasy novel, and it seems to be leaning more towards epic than heroic, so I probably should take the time to really build the world before trying to finish the story.

I’ve been drawing a lot of inspiration from my experience here in Georgia, but right now, I feel like I’m too close to it to really take it in the right direction. The time I spent in Jordan was a huge influence in Desert Stars, but I didn’t start it until I came home (and didn’t finish the first draft until almost two years later). Ideas are like wine: sometimes, you just need to let them sit in the back of your head and age for a while.

So long story short, I’ve decided to put The Sword Keeper on the back burner for a while. I’m sure I’ll come back to it, though–the story is far too interesting to let go. Magical thinking swords that meld with the minds of those who wield them, ancient prophecies and a secret order of warrior monks–and that’s just the backdrop. The characters themselves are much more interesting–I have got to tell their story!

But for now, I’m going to revisit the Gaia Nova universe and finish the revisions for Heart of the Nebula. This one is a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home, and while it definitely still needs work, I feel like it’s almost there. The first draft had some major problems and needed to be revamped, especially toward the end. If all goes well, I should finish this pass before the end of November, with enough time to write another Star Wanderers story before the end of the year.

Stars of Blood and Glory is still with my first readers, but if they give it the green light, I hope to publish it sometime in February. This one is also a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home, with Danica, Roman, Stella, and Stella’s son Abaqa, and a couple of characters from Desert Stars as well. I’m really excited about this story, but I figure it’s best to get some more feedback first before putting it out.

Which brings me to Star Wanderers: Homeworld (Part IV). I can’t promise that it will be out before the end of November, but that’s what I’m shooting for. Of course, I’m not going to put it out until I’m satisfied that it represents my best work, but even my first readers do come back with problems, I’m 99% confident I can fix them all by December at the latest. There is nothing–absolutely nothing–like the feeling you get when you finish a story where everything just comes together. I may not be the best judge of my own work, but I know that feeling. You can definitely expect to see this story come out before the end of the year.

That’s about all for now. Internet is spotty out in the village, but I’ve got a couple of interesting posts brewing in the back of my mind. I’ll probably write them up in the next few days, and post them the next time I get a chance. Until then, see you around!

Trope Tuesday: MacGuffin

holy grail — The Holy Grail of MacGuffins. Literally.

So the hero has crossed the threshold of adventure, thwarted the trickster, evaded the vamp, and met with the goddess. He may have lost his mentor and descended into the deepest dungeon, but by calling on the supernatural aid he received at the beginning of the quest, he has passed the final test, found atonement with his father, and come back stronger than he ever was before.

So now that that’s all done, what’s left? Just one thing, really–he has to receive the ultimate boon, or in other words, get the MacGuffin that he came out questing for in the first place.

A MacGuffin is an object whose main (sometimes only) purpose in a story is to motivate the plot. It is usually something that everyone is chasing after, whether it be a ticking time bomb, a briefcase full of money, a priceless artifact, or some sort of superweapon. Basically, it can be almost anything–that’s kind of the point. If you can replace an object with something completely different that serves the exact same plot purpose–for example, a priceless stolen Picasso with a priceless stolen Dead Sea scroll–then it’s a MacGuffin.

Like it or not, MacGuffins are everywhere in fiction. It’s such a prevalent trope, it even has its own Wikipedia page. One of the most famous examples, at least in the Western literary tradition, is the Holy Grail. Another example is the One Ring from Lord of the Rings–it could just as easily be a bracelet, or earring, or any other wearable artifact (though admittedly, if it were a necklace and Gollum had to bite off Frodo’s head, that would change the story quite a bit). The MacGuffin page on tvtropes lists nearly 30 subtropes, from Egg MacGuffin to I’m Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin.

So what does this have to do with the hero’s journey? The last phase of the initiation cycle (basically, all the stuff between the departure and return) is known as the Ultimate Boon. It not only represents the achievement of the hero’s quest, it represents receiving something to bring to the people back home. As Joseph Campbell pointed out:

The gods and goddesses then are to be understood as embodiments and custodians of the elixir of Imperishable Being, but not themselves the Ultimate in its primary state. What the hero seeks through his intercourse with them is therefore not finally themselves, but their grace, i.e., the power of their sustaining substance…This is the miraculous energy of the thunderbolts of Zeus, Yahweh, and the Supreme Buddha, the fertility of the rain of Viracocha, the virtue announced by the bell rung in the Mass at the consecration, and the light of the ultimate illumination of the saint and sage. Its guardians dare release it only to the duly proven.

According to Vogler, the hero has to return home with something to benefit himself or the community–otherwise, the whole journey has been a waste of time. Before entering the return phase, then, the hero has to receive the object of his quest.

At this point, it’s worth pointing out that tropes are neither good nor bad. Just because a story revolves around a MacGuffin doesn’t automatically make it cheap or formulaic. Tropes themselves are value neutral–what matters is how you, as the author, use them. Some of the greatest and most inspiring stories of all time make heavy use of MacGuffins.

Because the MacGuffin is a plot-centric trope, when you really understand how it works, you can do some interesting writerly things with it. Michael Moorcock, for example, used this trope to formulate a method for writing a novel in just three days. Would you like to be able to write a novel in three days? Gosh, I’d like to. And before you write that off as formulaic crap, remember, it wasn’t just anyone who came up with this method–it was Michael Moorcock.

In my own work, the best example of this trope would have to be Stella from Bringing Stella Home. As you might have gathered from the title, Stella serves as a MacGuffin for her brother James (specifically, in The President’s Daughter flavor). She does have her own character arc, of course, but as far as James’s storyline is concerned, she could just as well be his mother, or cousin, or <insert kidnapped loved one here>. I did a similar thing in Stars of Blood and Glory, an as-yet-unpublished sequel to Bringing Stella Home, but it should be coming out in January or February of next year so you’ll have a chance to read it then.

Some new thoughts on productivity

I’ve been thinking a lot about writing and productivity, mostly because I seem to be struggling a lot with it lately. With nanowrimo just starting, this is a pretty topical thing to blog about, but I also want to look at it from a long-term career perspective, since that’s what I’m personally more interested in.

As writers, when we spend all our time procrastinating or fail to meet our word count goals, we tend to beat ourselves up and frame the problem in terms of a lack of self-discipline. If only we had greater will power, we could buckle down and pound out five or ten thousand words a day like those super-prolific authors.

While there’s definitely something to say for raw self-discipline, though, I think there’s another dimension to writing productivity that we tend to miss. Not all writing-related activities are productive–and not all non-writing related activities are totally unproductive. In order to make the most efficient use of our writing time, I think it’s more important to understand and respect our individual creative process than it is to merely force ourselves to produce more words.

To better understand my own creative process, I took a little time to group every writing-related thing I do into four different categories:

Writing activities
Fill-the-well activities
Publishing chores
Procrastinating

WRITING ACTIVITIES

This should be pretty self-explanatory. It’s basically all the stuff that leads directly to a finished manuscript. It requires the highest amount of energy and produces the most important content.

Activities in this category include:

Writing new material
Making substantial revisions (putting in and taking out)
Updating chapter and scene outlines

FILL-THE-WELL ACTIVITIES

This is the non-writing stuff I do that helps me to be more productive when I switch back to the writing activities. Basically, it’s the stuff I do before and after I write that helps me to maintain a creative momentum.

Activities in this category include:

Reading
Blogging
Catching up on blogs
Listening to podcasts
Doing mindles chores
Going on walks
Exploring new places
Watching movies
Playing RPGs
Talking with friends
Reviewing first reader feedback
Writing character outlines
Making book soundtracks

PUBLISHING CHORES

This is all the professional stuff that I have to do, which may feel productive while I’m doing it, but actually takes time away from the stuff I should be doing. I still have to do it, but I should waste as little time doing it as possible.

Activities in this cateogry include:

Ebook formatting
Producing cover art
Writing blurbs and book descriptions
Writing author’s notes
POD typesetting
Handing financial stuff (royalties, invoices, etc)
Researching the publishing industry
Processing copy edits
Sending out email newsletter

PROCRASTINATION

Again, pretty self-explanatory. This is the stuff I shouldn’t do, but end up doing anyway in order to avoid stuff that feels like work. It’s all the stuff that I need to cut out entirely if I want to maximize my productivity.

Activities in this category include:

Minecraft
Alpha Centauri
Any other game that I can’t stop thinking about
Checking ebook sales numbers
Dicking around on Facebook and Twitter
Browsing the Kindle Boards
Watching TV and Youtube
Minecraft

So now that that’s done, what next?

I’m still figuring this part out, but I think the best thing to do would be to put as much distance as possible between the stuff that boosts productivity (writing and filling the well) and the stuff that doesn’t (publishing chores and procrastination).

The way I see it, there are basically two ways to do this:

Physically separate the activities. Do all your writing on a machine that’s disconnected from the internet and doesn’t have any games installed, and do everything else on a separate computer.
Set aside blocks of time specifically for writing. Organize your schedule so that writing is a priority, while acknowledging the need to take breaks and refill the creative well.

I can’t really do the first one while I’m here in Georgia, but I definitely can do the second. So far, I’ve found that waking up early to start the day with an hour of writing helps me a ton to build and keep momentum. However, I need to do a better job setting time aside in the afternoon, both for writing and for refilling the well. If I don’t, I usually end up procrastinating by default without realizing it until it’s too late.

So anyhow, those are some of my latest thoughts on writing and productivity. What are yours? Does this square with your experience, or is there a better way to think about it that I’ve missed?

Grape harvest update

Sorry for missing the last Trope Tuesday post. We’re in the tail end of the grape harvest here in Georgia, so I’ve been spending a lot of time helping out with that. The next trope post is going to be a big one, so rather than trying to pound it out in the village (where most internet sessions are cut short by a power outage), I figured I’d just wait until next week.

In any case, here are some pictures from the harvest that you might find interesting. Georgia is pretty famous for its wine and grapes–there are over 500 different varieties in the country, many of them indigenous to the Caucasus region. Almost everyone in the village has their own vineyard, so most of the stuff you buy in the market is locally grown and locally produced. Let me tell you, there are few things more awesome than being able to get freshly picked fruit right in your own backyard.

Picking grapes. A bunch of the neighbors came out and helped, in exchange for a basketful of grapes and a nice dinner.

It takes a little more infrastructure to grow them this way, but the end result is much better.

The best part of picking grapes is being able to snack while you pick them. 🙂

In terms of writing, I’m making fairly decent progress on my next novel. It’s a fantasy story, so it’s a pretty big shift from all the space opera stuff I’ve done over the last few years. At least, that’s what it feels like. I’m trying not to worry about how much it sucks right now, but if it’s anything like all my other books, it will turn out a lot better than I think it will.

That’s about all for now. I’ll leave you with this hilarious youtube clip of a bunch of Koreans going ape over a Georgian dance troop. The Georgians are awesome, but it’s worth watching for the Koreans’ reactions alone. Seriously, best thing I’ve seen in a long time.

See you around!

STAR WANDERERS: SACRIFICE is now up!

Hi everyone! So I got the proofreads for Star Wanderers: Sacrifice (Part III) back a little early, so I formatted the ebook yesterday and published it just an hour or two ago!

It should be up on Kindle and Kobo in a couple of days, and Nook as soon as I can get a better internet connection (for some reason, the internet at the village center keeps logging me off of Pubit). But it’s up on Smashwords right now, so if that’s where you like to get your ebooks, feel free to pick up a copy!

From the book description:

SHE GAVE UP EVERYTHING TO WANDER THE STARS WITH HIM. NOW, HE MUST DO THE SAME.

When Jeremiah found himself alone on his starship with an accidental bride, he had no idea how much his life would soon change. Now, with Noemi’s quiet confidence supporting him as she carries their first child, it’s hard to imagine life without her.

But life in the Outworlds isn’t so simple. Good men are hard to come by, and Noemi’s friends expect her to share. As part of a colony mission bound for an unsettled star, Jeremiah can’t say no without causing a rift in the community. But if he says yes, his new-found happiness may soon come to an end. One way or another, he will have to make a sacrifice—one that could tear their starbound family apart.

The next installment Star Wanderers: Homeworld (Part IV) should be coming out in about a month. It’s already written, but I want to run it by my first readers and do another revision before I get it ready to publish. This will conclude the main arc of the Star Wanderers novelette series, but I still plan to write more stories with the same characters–perhaps even a follow-up novel, eventually. Who knows?

That’s all for now. Thanks for everything, and I’ll see you guys around!

Trope Tuesday: Came Back Strong

This trope, also kown as apotheosis, is by far my favorite part of the hero’s journey.

Up to this point, the hero has faced a lot of tests and trials. Some of them he’s passed, some of them he hasn’t, but the setbacks haven’t yet been enough to stop him. Sure, the costs have been high–he may have lost a friend or mentor, for example–but at least he’s still in the game. Then, just as he experiences the power of love (meeting with the goddess) and reconciles with the ultimate power in his life (atonement with the father), what happens?

He dies.

This may be literal or metaphorical, physical or spiritual–but whatever form it takes, the hero has to lose something significant, up to and including…well, everything. After all, there are so many things worse than death. While all the other failures up to this point left him more or less intact, this one completely shatters him–and in the process, transforms him.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the hero comes back from the dead, often with a level in badass. By dying, he gains that last piece of knowledge, experience, or resolve that he needs to defeat the big bad and gain the ultimate boon of his quest. Whoever or whatever he was before, that person wasn’t strong enough to pass the test–but now, he is.

When done well, this is a stand-and-cheer moment of the best possible kind. It’s the culmination of everything the hero has gone through, not just in terms of plot, but character as well. Years from now, you might forget everything else in the story–even the parts that you loved–but you’ll remember how you felt when you got to this part.

One of my favorite examples of this trope is in the clip I posted from the Matrix. Seriously, when Neo realizes that he is The One, that is one of the best moments in all of cinema. The Empire Strikes Back also has a moment like this, though since the movie is essentially a tragedy, there’s a lot more emphasis on Luke’s death (falling through the gas mine shaft after confronting Darth Vader) than his resurrection (getting a new hand and reuniting with his friends). The oldest examples, of course, come from mythology–Odin gained the ability to use magic by sacrificing himself on Yggdrasil, and before returning to Ithaca, Odysseus first had to journey to Hades to pay his old friend Agamemnon a visit.

So as writers, how are we supposed to get this trope right? I’m by no means an expert, but my gut instinct tells me that the way to nail it is to be as excited about this moment in the story as we want our readers to be when we get to that point. Even though storytelling is ostensibly just making stuff up, it’s not something you can fake–if you aren’t excited about your own story, how do you expect your readers to even care?

Fortunately, this is often the part of the story that drives us to write everything else. There have definitely been times when I could hardly wait to get through the other stuff and finally write the chapter where this happens. Bringing Stella Home was a big one–and that’s all I can say, at the risk of giving spoilers. Star Wanderers is another one, though it wasn’t until I was midway through Fidelity that it really came to me. Desert Stars was more of a Heroic Second Wind, which is basically Came Back Stronger without the death. However, there was definitely a transformation, both for Mira and Jalil.

So yeah, I really, really, REALLY love this trope. When done well, it’s one of those things that can turn a run-of-the-mill adventure story into something both soul-searching and powerful. You can definitely expect to see me play with it a lot in the future.

Still here, wherever that may be

Wow, it’s been forever since I’ve been active on this blog. I guess living in the developing world will do that to you.

It’s not that I don’t have good internet access, it’s that the places where I can get it are often noisy and crowded, with a fair amount of cigarette smoke. By the time I’ve checked my email, caught up on all the blogs I follow (or at least the interesting ones), and generally ~~finished screwing around~~ done everything else I need to do on the internet, I’m pretty wiped out.

I’ll try to write my future posts offline, like I did in Jordan, so all I have to do is copy and paste. I can’t really do that with Trope Tuesday posts, but for everything else, it shouldn’t be a problem.

In any case, I’m still here–wherever “here” is. Currently, it’s Tbilisi. I came out for the weekend to pick up a package from the USA…I was hoping to get the new kindle paperwhite, but instead got the case and adapter. Turns out the actual device is shipping out next week–I’d say it’s a disappointment, but I’m actually just relieved to know that it wasn’t lost in the mail.

Things are going well out here in Georgia. The village kids are a lot of fun to teach–I basically feel like a rockstar whenever I’m at the school. It certainly helps that I give out stickers left and right every time someone actually does their homework. Whenever I pull them out, the kids say “smiley!” and go crazy.

But yeah, even though I enjoy being out here, I figure it’s time for a change. Like I mentioned in the last post, I’ve accomplished just about all my goals for coming out to Georgia, which mostly had to do with trying out a TEFL career and seeing if it’s a good fit. I think it is, so I plan to go out again after a few months, but I want to come back to Utah for a while to see some old friends, spend time with family, and recharge before the next big excursion. That’s the plan, anyway.

As far as the writing goes, things are going, but slower than I’d like. I’m only in chapter two of The Sword Keeper, which is kind of frustrating, but I think I’ve overcome most of the hurdles and now it’s just a matter of buckling down and doing it. I definitely think I can have this novel finished before the end of November, which would make it my second novel for the year (third, if you count Star Wanderers I-IV).

In terms of publishing, though, things are looking great. I found someone to proofread Star Wanderers: Sacrifice, and she should be getting back in the next few days. If all goes well, it’ll be up on Amazon and Smashwords by Monday the 29th. Star Wanderers: Homeworld is also getting close–I just need to get the feedback from my first readers and figure out where to go from there. If there aren’t any major issues, it should be up by the end of November.

I’m debating whether to splurge on the cover art for the omnibus, and if so, who to ask to do it. This series have a very different feel from my Gaia Nova series, even though they both take place in the same universe. Not sure what to do for the illustration, or who to ask to do it, but that’s still a few months down the road.

That’s about it for now. I’ll end with a few shots that my friend took in Prometheus Cave, one of the coolest sites out here in Imereti province. Imagine about a mile of caverns, brimming from floor to ceiling with formations like these:

Later!

Updates and a book blurb

So I probably won’t do a Trope Tuesday post this week, just because today is going to be kind of busy. One of my coworkers in a neighboring village has a birthday, and Georgians tend to go all out with birthday parties. I’m currently blogging from one of the government offices in the village center, which serves as a sort of free internet cafe for the locals. Things get busy in the afternoon, though, and I’m teaching a class in a couple of hours, so this is going to be short.

I’ve worked out a tentative book description for Star Wanderers: Sacrifice (Part III). It’s still about two weeks from publication, give or take a few days, so I’d appreciate any feedback that you can give. This is the third book in the series, so hopefully most readers will already be hooked by this point, but I still want the description to be as solid as possible:

SHE GAVE UP EVERYTHING TO WANDER THE STARS WITH HIM. NOW, HE MUST TOO.

When Jeremiah found himself alone on his starship with an accidental bride, he had no idea how much his life would soon change. Now, with Noemi’s quiet confidence and a baby on the way, it’s hard to imagine life without her.

But life in the Outworlds isn’t so simple. Good men are hard to come by, and Noemi’s friends expect her to share. As part of a colony mission bound for an unsettled star, Jeremiah can’t say no without alienating them from the rest of the community. But if he says yes, his newfound happiness could soon fall apart.

There is another option, of course: leave the colony mission and strike out on their own. But with Noemi’s pregnancy rapidly approaching the third trimester, that may be too much to ask of her. One way or another, Jeremiah will have to make a sacrifice—one that could tear their starbound family apart.

In other news, I’ve more or less decided to come back to Utah in January, after my current teaching contract is over. I like it here in Georgia, but I’ve accomplished pretty much all of the goals I had when I first came out, and I don’t think I’m going to get much more from staying. It’s been a great experience, but things are wrapping up and it will soon be time to move on.

That’s about it for now. I’ve got to go, but I’ll try to post more later.