A continuing series about each author in Untethered Realms, a neat spec-fic publishing group. Check us out:  Facebook | Twitter | Website

 

Cherie Reich

A self-proclaimed bookworm, Cherie Reich is a speculative fiction writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her books include the horror series Nightmare, a space fantasy trilogy titled Gravity, and a fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles. She is Vice President of Valley Writers and a member of the Virginia Writers Club and Untethered Realms. Her debut YA Epic Fantasy novel Reborn, book one in The Fate Challenges, will be released on May 23, 2014.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Tell us about your latest book?
My most recent release was a fantasy short story collection called Men of Foxwick. This 27,000-word collection features five men from the Kingdom of Foxwick. A blind teen seeks a place in the kingdom. A dragon seer journeys to Wintermill to spy on the queen. A sword master’s worst fear comes true when he fails to protect the royal family. A king falls in love with an herb witch, but will she feel the same way? A hunter will rise to the challenge to hunt down a man-eating monster.

What genre(s) do you write/want to write in?
As a speculative fiction writer, I tend to write fantasy, horror, and the occasional science fiction story, but I sometimes write mystery/thriller and contemporary with romantic elements.

What do you like most about being an author?
Being an author is awesome. The coolest thing is being able to take the stories I daydream about and present them to others through my writing. Writing also gives me a chance to express myself, so I don’t have to be all awkward when I talk to people.

What do you hate about being an author?
The worst parts about being an author are bad reviews—they’re just not fun and can be quite the confidence blow—and marketing when you’re an introvert.

What does Untethered Realms mean to you and why should folks follow UR?
Untethered Realms has brought me together with nine other great speculative fiction authors. We can share tips of the trade and our successes as well as lament our failures together. Other folks should follow UR because we strive to produce quality and entertaining speculative fiction. We’re also a pretty fun group of people too.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
I read a lot, and I love watching TV, particularly crime shows.

What’s the most fun you’ve had writing a scene or character and why?
Oh, this is a hard question because there are so many great scenes I’ve enjoyed writing, but I’ll pick one from Men of Foxwick. I enjoyed writing the scene from “Monster Hunter” with Orin, his brother Quaylin, and Quaylin’s wife Bridgee. Each character has a great rapport with the other. And it was particularly fun to write Bridgee, who controls the roost.

If you could live as one of your characters, whom would you choose and why?
That’s a good question. I think I would pick Ariala from The Fate Challenges. She’s this popular, intelligent, and personable Royal. She’s also a friend to the main character Yssa, but Ariala doesn’t have to worry about all the troubles I put Yssa through. I wish I could have Ariala’s confidence.

Tell us a secret, something few people know about you!
Despite being an introvert, I used to want to be an actress and opera singer and performed in musicals and even an opera in high school/college.

What’s your next book about? Go on, tease us!
My next publication will be Neighbors of Foxwick, seven fantasy short stories featuring the places surrounding the Kingdom of Foxwick. Life and death, love and hatred, abound in these stories. Here’s the first line from the first story “Common Love”: Bryan Firelark daydreamed of a princess trapped in an ice castle.

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Other Untethered Realms authors: Angela Brown | Christine Rains | Julie Flanders
 

A continuing series about each author in Untethered Realms, a neat spec-fic publishing group. Check us out:  Facebook | Twitter | Website

 

Julie Flanders

Julie Flanders is a novelist and a freelance writer who has written for both online and print publications. She is an animal lover and shares her home in Cincinnati, Ohio with her dog and cat. Her debut novel Polar Night, a paranormal suspense thriller, is now available from Ink Smith Publishing.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Tell us about your latest book?
Polar Night is my latest (and actually first) book. It’s a paranormal thriller and my take on a traditional detective story. The story takes place in Alaska and the title refers to the winter phenomenon of 24-hour darkness in the Arctic regions.

What genre(s) do you write/want to write in?
I love to write anything with a paranormal or supernatural twist.

What do you like most about being an author?
I love that I get to share the characters that exist in my head. And I love that writing gives me an opportunity to step out of everyday life and go somewhere else through my imagination.

What do you hate about being an author?
I can honestly say I don’t hate anything. Writing has totally changed my life and has been a gift to me in more ways than I ever could have imagined. But if I had to pick one negative, I would say it has been learning to deal with bad reviews. I am still working on developing a thick skin.

What does Untethered Realms mean to you and why should folks follow UR?
One of my favorite things about writing has been connecting with other authors. I’ve never been a “joiner” and in fact have always been pretty much of a loner, but writing has changed that. I was very excited when I was asked to join UR and I’m proud to be part of such a talented group. I encourage readers to follow UR because I think there is something for everyone under the UR umbrella. Anyone who enjoys speculative fiction will find something to love among our books.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
I love to read and I’m a total tv junkie. I also love walking and taking my dog on various adventures.

What’s the most fun you’ve had writing a scene or character and why?
I loved writing the character of Aleksei, who is the antagonist in Polar Night. He’s drop-dead gorgeous, so it was fun to imagine him in my mind!

If you could live as one of your characters, whom would you choose and why?
I don’t think I’d want to be any of them. I love to write dark stories and I don’t have any problem putting my characters through all kinds of pain and turmoil. George R.R. Martin is my writing idol so if you’re familiar at all with Game of Thrones or A Song of Ice and Fire you know that’s enough said.

Tell us a secret, something few people know about you!
I used to work in a psychiatric hospital and I was the on-call emergency clinician responsible for assessing suicide and homicide risks. I only did this for about 6 months but it’s safe to say it was quite an experience!

What’s your next book about? Go on, tease us!
My next book is called The Ghosts of Aquinnah and it is set on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in both the 1880s and the present day. It’s hard to pick a genre for the book but I’d say it is a combination of ghost story, love story, historical fiction, and mystery.

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Other Untethered Realms authors: Angela Brown | Christine Rains
 

A continuing series about each author in Untethered Realms, a neat spec-fic publishing group. Check us out:  Facebook | Twitter | Website

I’ve read all but the latest 13th Floor books and they are some of my favourite books of 2013. Though The Ghost is coming out soon, I recommend you read them from the beginning. They’re fast reads.

 

Christine Rains

Christine Rains is a writer, blogger, and geek mom. She’s married to her best friend and fellow geek living in south-central Indiana. They have one son who is too smart for his parents’ own good and loves to dance to Gangnam Style. Christine has four degrees which help nothing with motherhood, but make her a great Jeopardy player. When she’s not reading or writing, she’s going on adventures with her son or watching cheesy movies on Syfy Channel. She’s a member of Untethered Realms and S.C.I.F.I. (South Central Indiana Fiction Interface). She has several short stories and seven novellas published.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Tell us about your latest book?
This is the final book in the 13th Floor series, THE GHOST. Chiharo Black lives with six supernatural tenants in a haunted building’s mysterious thirteenth floor. Of course, no one knows she’s there except the cats. Being a ghost can be a bit frustrating and lonely until another ghost intrudes on her territory. It’s an explosive ending to the series that ties everything together. It’ll be released on July 13th.

What genre(s) do you write/want to write in?
My novels and novellas are paranormal romance. Though I’d like to do more science-fiction. My short stories cover many dark fiction genres.

What do you like most about being an author?
I love creating. Bringing characters to life, birthing worlds, weaving mysteries.

What do you hate about being an author?
Marketing. I never know if what I’m doing is right and if I’m doing enough. I feel like I’m walking around blindly and hoping someone notices me.

What does Untethered Realms mean to you and why should folks follow UR?
UR is a fantastic group of writers. Not just to help one another market their work, but we’re sharing ideas, helping brainstorm, and commiserating with other writers. Other people should follow UR for amazing stories and great personalities. We’re friendly and always willing to lend a helping hand to writers just starting out wanting to know how to go about doing things.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I spend the majority of my time with my son. We go on all sorts of adventures. We like to hike and hopefully this summer, we’ll get to go camping. I love to travel too, but that will have to wait until I have the time and money for it.

What’s the most fun you’ve had writing a scene or character and why?
I’ve had so much fun with all my characters. It’s difficult to pick one. One character that has been with me for several years is Magena Silver, a beautiful witch and manipulator extraordinaire. I’ve written a trilogy for her, but I just can’t seem to get it right. She challenges me as a writer, but that only keeps me coming back for more.

If you could live as one of your characters, whom would you choose and why?
I put my characters through the wringer. Why would I want to live as any of them?! Yet if I could avoid death looming over me, I’d like to be Stefanie from THE ALPHA. She’s an alpha werewolf at peace with who she is. A strong, sensual, and confident woman. Plus she can turn into a wolf and revel in her primal side.

Tell us a secret, something few people know about you!
I have an extra large head. Not even large men’s hats fit it. I like to think it’s because I have a very large brain.

What’s your next book about? Go on, tease us!
I’m not sure which project I’ll be working on next. I want to revise one of my manuscripts and query it. It might be the one about a witch whose an expert with love potions but resists falling in love herself, or it could be the new one I have brewing in my mind. It’s an urban fantasy about the underdogs in the supernatural world.

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Other Untethered Realms authors: Angela Brown | Julie Flanders
 

This is the first in a feature series about each author in Untethered Realms, a neat spec-fic publishing group. Check us out:  Facebook | Twitter | Website

 

Angela Brown

Born and raised in Little Rock, AR, Angela now calls Central Texas home. She’s a lover of Wild Cherry Pepsi and chocolate/chocolate covered delicious-ness. Steampunk, fantasy and paranormal to contemporary – mostly young adult – fill her growing library of books. Mother to a rambunctious darling girl aptly nicknamed Chipmunk, life stays busy. Her favorite quote keeps her moving: “You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Tell us about your latest book?
Atone is my latest ebook. It is the second novella in my NEO Chronicles: Characters Revealed series. The main character is Caine Fordham, an assassin with a special gift for “taking care” of his assignments, particularly the ladies. He promised his assistant that when he reached a certain goal, he’d retire, but he decides to take on one last case that changes everything.

What genre(s) do you write/want to write in?
I write in YA/NA and am working on an MG series as well. I prefer paranormal, fantasy/urban fantasy, you know, shifters, vampires, dragons and more

What do you like most about being an author?
I love using my imagination. I have voices that speak to me in my head and I get to be an author instead of committed to an institution. How cool is that?

What do you hate about being an author?
Knowing that as much as I want every single person in the world to love my stories, it’s not going to happen. As a matter of fact, there will be those who will outright hate what I write. I just have to be ready for that.

What does Untethered Realms mean to you and why should folks follow UR?
Untethered Realms is such a cool diverse group of authors writing about things from outer space to scary thrillers. UR is worth the follow for the fun, the great books and getting to know great authors with more wonderful writing to come.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?

Reading and spending baking time with my daughter.

What’s the most fun you’ve had writing a scene or character and why?
Uh, well, I sort of had fun writing a transport scene for my MG story. The main character didn’t exactly walk through a portal or hop from one realm to another. She had a more OZ experience.

If you could live as one of your characters, whom would you choose and why?
I’m not sure I’d want to be one of my characters. I put them in some tough situations lol!!

Tell us a secret, something few people know about you!
A secret? hehe! Well Not sure if it’s a secret, but I used to have the biggest crush on Dante Basco back in his Rufio days (Anybody else remember Hook?) Well, that crush never really went away. He’s still so cool!

What’s your next book about? Go on, tease us!
You can find out if Abby and Basil discover new levels to their love when I release THEY ALL FALL DOWN, the sequel to Neverlove. Here’s the beginning paragraph:

Basil crawled from the bed, loathed to leave the tangled blankets and warmth of Abby’s arms. Awake, she was beauty incarnate as far as he was concerned. Asleep, she was an angel. Day or night, her presence soothed him with thoughts of tropical paradise, her essence saturated in the intoxicating fragrance of pineapples, oranges and berries. Many nights he drifted into slumber in that happy place. But more times than not, it just wasn’t enough.

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Other Untethered Realms authors: Christine Rains | Julie Flanders
 

Today, I’m excited to feature a post by M. Pax, sci-fi and urban fantasy author, and keen astronomer. OK, over to her.

Pine Mountain Observatory is my favorite place on Earth. Thirty miles east of Bend, OR, it sits near the summit of a 6400-foot mountain which once was either an island or part of the shoreline of the Great Basin. That was a sea that once covered the Western US about 10,000 years ago.

Central Oregon is one of the last great bastions of dark skies in the United States. Even in town, I can see more stars than I ever saw living anywhere else. Honestly, until we moved to the west coast, I had no idea it was even possible to see the Milky Way – that great swath of light with all the stars.

It looks like a cloud, but it’s not. It’s billions and billions of stars, so many stars that their light forms a cloud to our eyes, and it’s one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, called the Orion arm. It’s the arm of the galaxy that our solar system is in, along with pretty much every star we can see by eye.

Pine Mountain is surrounded by great nature, and UFO and strange light sightings are common on the road that leads out to the observatory. One night I had my own experience with them and I called it a UMO [unidentified moving object], because they didn’t fly. Every night since, I’ve looked for those lights, but haven’t been blessed with another encounter. What were they? I’m pretty sure the truth would bore me, so it’s probably better not to know. Mystery is often more fun.

Cattle mutilations have taken place in the valley at the base of the mountain, real X-Files stuff with strange lights. One of our fellow volunteers had been a forest ranger and witnessed one. I asked him countless questions. Strange and interesting.

Big Foot sightings abound in the forests around us. I haven’t seen him, although I joke with all the visitors that the rock formations at the top of the summit are yeti houses. Sometimes they believe me. All great fodder for my stories. It all feeds me with so much inspiration.

Better yet, I’ve come to know the beauty of moonrise and the desert, the utter peace of sitting alone under the stars on a mountaintop, and the jaw-dropping awe of meteors shooting overhead. I peer through the telescopes at worlds far away, at stunning and stellar sights, and I have to wonder whether someone is looking back at me.

What are those worlds like? What do they know about the universe? Their perspective is vastly different from ours. If we lived in a globular cluster or closer to the center of the galaxy, we might have no idea that other galaxies existed. How would that change who we are?

Some of that leaks into my stories – the wonder, the strange, the dust [Central Oregon is very dusty]. What’s out there? Mulder says the truth is. And I wonder, what is the truth?

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M. Pax

M. Pax is author of the sci-fi series, The Backworlds, and the new adult urban fantasy Hetty Locklear series. A Browncoat and SG fan, she’s also slightly obsessed with Jane Austen. In the summers she docents as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory where the other astronomers now believe she has the most extensive collection of moon photos in existence. No fear, there will be more next summer. She lives in stunning Central Oregon with the Husband Unit and two lovely, spoiled cats.

Contact M. Pax via her Website, Facebook or Twitter as @mpax1

She is also a member of Untethered Realms, a group of  friendly, like-minded spec-fic writers.

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Try The Backworlds for free. (Available on all e-readers)

[Graeme’s Note: This is a great read! Reminiscent of Firefly, a great tale of the gritty frontiers of space.]

In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe.

After the war with the Foreworlders, Backworlders scatter across the planets left. Competition is fierce and pickings are scant. Scant enough that Craze’s father decides to improve his fortunes by destroying his son.

Cut off from family and friends with little money and even less knowledge of the worlds beyond his own, Craze heads into an uncertain future. Boarding the transport to Elstwhere, he vows to make his father regret this day.