Welcome to the authors of Not in the Stars! Today I have Angel Martinez talking about What you gained – and lost – by taking a risk.
Hi all! Angel Martinez here, answering for the Mischief
Corner Authors. I’ve never been a big risk taker. I’ll admit it. I’ve lived a
gray little life in a gray little place working at gray little jobs. Exciting
stuff, eh? Probably the biggest risk I’ve taken is seeking publication, which,
although it didn’t change my life, exposed my heart and soul to the public.
That’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk
about is the risk I hope to take (please, all gods of finance and commerce,
sooner than later) this year. I’m seriously considering quitting my job. Hubs
and I have had quite the selection of jobs over the years, but one of us has
always been employed full time, both of us, more often than not. Hubs has been
without a job for some time now, though, after a restructure forced him out of
a company where he had worked for twenty years. Not a problem. I still had my
job, with my benefits. We’re older. We don’t have small children or a mortgage.
We don’t spend money on much for ourselves.
Now the issues set in. My writing is finally going
somewhere. I have a chance to make something of myself as an author. I’m not
talking huge, six figure sales. I’m talking a small living wage, which might
become possible if I could quit my job. My health is…not failing but
deteriorating. Add to this the fact that now there’s the option for individuals
to buy their own insurance according to what they can afford? The time seems
right.
What would I gain? To a lot of struggling writers out there,
the answer is obvious. Time. I would have time to write, rather than simply
scrambling to promote and interact. I would have time for the small business
we’ve set up as a group of authors. Time to start working on getting my body to
stop hating me quite so much. The sequel promises that keep piling up, the
deadlines, the need to keep producing would cease to keep me up at night.
Perhaps, oh, gorgeous dream, there might be a full night’s sleep down the road
somewhere. That would be lovely.
To write fulltime would be to do, finally, what I should
have done thirty years ago when I was too much a coward and too apt to listen
to all the well-meaning advice from non-creative adults.
What would I lose? Security, most of all. A steady paycheck
that doesn’t depend on the whims of fortune and the vagaries of the book market
is a hard thing to give up. It doesn’t sound like much when set up beside one’s
heart’s desire, but it is. A lifetime of habit, of knowing where the next meal
is coming from, a lifetime of hard work and integrity, even though the jobs
were often crummy, these are difficult things to abandon. What else? Regular
contact with other adults. Let’s face it. I’m solitary and reclusive unless
forced to interact. The workplace forces me to interact with a variety of
people on a daily basis, people often very different in education and
upbringing. I would lose this and perhaps lose the ability to think outside
myself just a little bit.
Beyond that? I don’t know. I haven’t done it yet. But when I
do, I’m doing it with as much joy as dread. I’m jumping off the cliff and
yelling, “Woohoo!” Here’s hoping the
winds catch me.
Book Blurb:
Since
the dawn of human expression, man has gazed up at the heavens in wonder,
inspired by the wheeling of the stars to explain his surroundings. While our
perception of those surroundings have changed, from thinking of the Earth as a
flat, stable plane to realizing we’re falling through space in a tiny
atmospheric bubble, our wonder remains constant.
Space stations, alien races, far-flung planets—join the
Mischief Corner authors as they explore the possibilities the stars might
offer. The catch? Returning to mundane old Earth might be harder than you
think.
Teaser:
Shax’s War: Brimstone 3
Angel Martinez
M/M Science Fiction Humor
Teaser
Excerpt
Chapter One
Shax yelped as the trauma ball
hummed against his palm, the surface shifting from swirling orange toward
yellow. Before it could deliver its nastiest shock, he flung the thing at
Verin’s head.
“Bastard!”
Sparks flew as Verin swung his horns and
batted the ball away. He aimed right for Ness,
who sidestepped and caught the ball as it powered back down to blue. Wings
spread for balance, tip of his tongue protruding from the corner of his mouth, Ness spun and ran the three steps up the ramp at the
court’s far end, aiming for the hovering sphere goal.
At the last second, the goal moved
left and Ness’s shot caught the magnetized
lip, which hurled the trauma ball back at him at some ridiculous, unsafe speed.
Shax winced at the sharp crack when hard ball met angel head.
“Ow.” Ness
flopped down at the top of the ramp, rubbing at his temple.
“Someone gonna explain to me again
how this is fun?” Corny called from where he balanced on the swinging planks
that made up mid-court.
He’d been stuck on the water hazard
for several plays, his muscular body and high center of gravity an indisputable
disadvantage since the wrong move would send him into the water and cost him a
five minute penalty. Their cowboy had figured out the hard way in the first
quarter that the pool itself enforced the penalty and didn’t let the penalized
player out a second before.
Good
thing he can tread water.
The ball was now happily rolling
along the elevated sidewall ramps and Shax prepared to jump for the rings that
would put him at the right height to catch it when it rolled free. Had they
been playing teams…but no one could agree on a fair way to pair the four of
them up, so solo it was.
Shax cocked his head, listening to
the rumble of the ball as it trundled downward. Ness
was still on the ramp. Corny was stuck. Verin was navigating the sponge
quadrant where his claws were sticking. Perfect. He leapt, caught a ring in
either hand, got a good swing going, and let go with his right hand just in
time for the ball to drop from the chute.
With a whoop, he swung free and
dropped with the ball clutched to his chest, only to be hit from behind with
the force of several megatons. Wind knocked out of him, he could only watch as
Verin snatched up the ball.
“Attempted murder isn’t supposed to
be part of the game,” he wheezed as Verin took his shot. It seemed to be too
far right, but the sphere turned and the ball shot inside.
“You’re all right, you baby,” Verin
growled. “Get up before you really get fucked up.”
Shax heaved himself to his feet,
staggering a few steps before the floor decided he’d been in one place too long
and started bucking.
Ness
had moved now, too. “Shax? Sure you’re all right, love?”
“I’m good. There are two of you
right now. Don’t mind. Two of you are nice.”
All four of them managed to reach
the sand quadrant closest to the near goal where they crouched in anticipation,
waiting for the sphere to spit out the ball. Shax got Verin’s elbow in his ribs
and a playful shove from Corny as they jockeyed for position but they might as
well have stood still. The sphere rumbled and disgorged the trauma ball with a
hacking cough, sending it high and wide. Ness,
with his superior height and reach, snagged it easily, holding it up to keep it
out of reach.
Any second, Verin and Corny would
charge him and then Shax wouldn’t have a chance. An evil thought percolated in
his mind and he sidled up close to Ness, blew a breath across his bare nipple,
and reached down to cup Ness’s balls through
the tight game shorts. A strangled whimper caught in Ness’s
throat. His jaw slack, eyes saucer-wide, he fumbled the ball and dropped it.
Shax caught it before it hit the
sand, snatched a quick kiss, and bounded away toward the far goal. He slammed
the trauma ball into the sphere just as it hummed over to yellow again.
Author Bio:
Mischief Corner Books is an organization of superheroes... no, it's a
platinum-album techno-fusion group...no, hold on a sec here...
Ah, yes. Mischief Corner is a diverse group of authors who met on a mountain in Tennessee and decided since we probably were too easily distracted to rule the world that we'd settle for causing a bit of mayhem instead.
In addition to making mayhem, we are releasing books as a consortium. The books cover a diverse range of genres and topics... we live to break molds. Our books are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ARe and other outlets.
Ah, yes. Mischief Corner is a diverse group of authors who met on a mountain in Tennessee and decided since we probably were too easily distracted to rule the world that we'd settle for causing a bit of mayhem instead.
In addition to making mayhem, we are releasing books as a consortium. The books cover a diverse range of genres and topics... we live to break molds. Our books are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ARe and other outlets.
Purchase/pre-order
links:
https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-notinthestars-1466490-166.html?referrer5314fed11fb4f
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JHITVHE?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B00JHITVHE&linkCode=xm2&tag=pridepromo-20
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/not-in-the-stars-toni-griffin/1119119990?ean=2940149457076
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JHITVHE?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B00JHITVHE&linkCode=xm2&tag=pridepromo-20
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/not-in-the-stars-toni-griffin/1119119990?ean=2940149457076
Giveaway:
Thank you so much for hosting, Iyanna!
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