tiffanyshearn

Entering Sanctuary

I’m busy editing, so here is a snippet for you from Hidden Promise (unedited)! The release is set for June 2023!

*Spoilers for Hidden Memory and Hidden Sanctuary*

Snippet –

On and on into the night, they flew at a pace no horse could ever match, and Larron wondered just how large this land was and how they managed to keep it hidden for so many lifetimes. Finally, he made out pricks of light filtering through the canopy ahead. His assumption of habitation was confirmed when he felt them drop slowly toward the trees. Their descent remained easy until they reached the forest. The prince told Larron to hold on but said nothing else before he pulled up and then dove straight down through the branches.

The ride twisted and turned, as jerky as any he ever experienced flying with Annalla. Larron struggled to cling to his bearer as the force worked to pull them apart. Behind him, he heard a brief, deep-voiced shout of surprise along with Patrice’s screams of fear. The one carrying her would bear claw marks for certain after this; the cat-like irimote was not at all fond of flying.

Once below the clustered branches, where the foliage opened, there was a final jerk as the prince righted himself and slowed to fly between the thick trunks. Sturdy trees surrounded them, and Larron saw an increasing number of structures positioned among the thick branches. There was no obvious way to ascend to the buildings dangling precariously high above the ground. Thin wood planks made the basis of their visible construction, with a gauzy material stretched over the windows. Bindings lashed them to the trunks and branches, but there was no invasive external support holding them in the trees. Assuming they were as sound as he suspected, Larron felt an elvish respect for a people who treated their land with such care. To use it without destroying it took an effort many races overlooked.

They weaved in and out of buildings growing in number and size. Most remained dark within, the people here either gone home or asleep for the night. The prince pulled them up once more in front of a large treehouse and set down upon the open porch circling it. The rest of their party followed close at his heels, and Patrice jumped down from her fairy and dropped to the floor. She clung to the boards even as she murmured repeated apologies.

“Patrice,” Annalla knelt at her side, putting an arm around her as she spoke, “she speaks little of the market tongue, but tells me her skins protected her well enough. She is fine, and you will not have to fly again too soon.”

The irimote rubbed her face before looking gravely at Annalla. “I really do not like flying.”

Sounders Season Starts Early!

*Game spoilers if you haven’t watched yet!*

This month kicks off the Sounders’ MLS season, but this morning the fun started a little early. Last year the team won the CCL trophy and earned a spot to represent CONCACAF in the Club World Cup, a tournament including the champions from each of the world’s soccer/football regions. They are the first USA team to participate with the first US coach, and today we had the first MLS shot on goal in the tournament.

The Sounders were underdogs going in, and the MLS is not considered a top league in the world. While expectations were not high, I think most Sounders fans believed they could win and advance to play Real Madrid. For eighty-eight minutes, the rest of the world wondered too.

It was, unfortunately, not the day for that next piece of history to be made. A messy play, a bad deflection, and Al Ahly scored in the final minutes of the game. Until that moment, I thought they could sneak one past the goalie and get the win. They played better in the first half and held off against some nice counters in the second half. For a team whose season ended in October and who only had one practice game to prepare, they looked really good out there.

I wish those last two subs had come on sooner (my expert, “I’ve played rec soccer a few times” opinion). I think they could have used fresh legs out front earlier than that to regain some of the pressure they put on Al Ahly in the first half. The finishing was also lacking, which is the only piece worrying me. Last season, they lost too many games because they couldn’t get the shots on target.

Overall, I feel good about this MLS season and getting back to the Sounders’ playoff ways. The first game is on the 26th, and I will be there!

Hidden Promise Beta Update

I was in Portland for training this week and spent the evenings finishing my edits for Hidden Promise! I ended this draft at just over one hundred thousand words, and I think it will end up closer to ninety-five thousand after some final cuts depending on what my beta readers think. There are a couple of chapters I am already eyeing for cuts or merges, so I will likely have a scene or two to share if we hit another rating/review milestone.

I will try to polish the roughest edges of Hidden Strength in February while my beta readers have the third book. If I push through the full manuscript, then I can send it to my alpha readers in March so they can get started. Some of my alphas take a little longer to read because they focus more on grammar. Even if I don’t polish the whole thing, they will probably get at least a handful of chapters to start on.

With my new career direction, I expect time to be a constraint this year. As a result, I’m planning to put the release date for Hidden Strength another year out from Hidden Promise, meaning it will release by June 2024. If I finish early, I will release early; but I don’t want to over-promise and have to disappoint people, especially not with the finale!

After receiving my beta feedback, I will work on those final revisions and contact Jonathan for another beautiful cover. If you want to see it before I post it here or on social, then sign up for my newsletter. I am targeting the Hidden Promise cover reveal for the Q2 newsletter in April. The book then goes to my editor, and we are through to the finish line!

Where does the time go, my friends? Have a great weekend!

Interstellar – Movie Rant

Yes, this is about the movie. It came out late in 2014, so I’m only about eight years late to the party. I watched it for the first time last week, and bits are still floating in my brain now and then. First, I enjoyed the movie. It was suspenseful without horror and had interesting science aspects. It reminded me of some sci-fi movies I enjoyed in my long-ago youth. That being said, this post is a rant about the water world, the plot-hole fulcrum upon which the climax rests.

*Spoilers—are they spoilers if it came out eight years ago?—Spoilers ahead!*

On the Water World

I’ve seen posts about this one, calling out the ticks in the background sound that represent an hour on Earth. Those are what had me searching for how to watch the movie if I had the streaming service. I started out counting them until becoming distracted by the pesky plot and dialog.

First, the ground happens to be perfectly smooth under only two feet of water practically everywhere. I know water equals erosion, but they walked like it was solid, not sand, and erosion takes time. Before you tell me it has had time, no, the whole point of the ticking is that it has not been in this situation long, relatively. I will go deeper into the latter point in the next section. I can dismiss the easily traversable ground, so let’s move on.

Second, the woman exits and makes straight for the data cube. That’s fine. “Hurry up!” “There’s nothing here.” “Let’s go!” She gets trapped. They talk about the mountains moving in the distance. Are you telling me that not one person poked their head out of the craft and LOOKED AROUND!? Yeah, that distant wave looked like mountains, but the one RIGHT BEHIND YOU sure-as-swear-word did not. No, you see that monster bearing down on you and determine the planet is not foul-language viable and get back in the car.

Third, the woman is carried out by the robot helper, and the second man waits outside to help her. She has a robot helper. She doesn’t need him to get in the way and get himself killed in the process. He could have helped her in from the INSIDE! The robot pushes, and he pulls. There was zero need for his suited corpse to be left with whatever happened to the first explorer.

Before the Water World

They could have avoided the debacle in the first place with some sound reasoning. These are some of the greatest minds left, so it is not unreasonable to expect a modicum of logic.

First, they say something about months of travel to reach the other two planets and using fuel, so they use that as a reason to go to the water planet first. BUT, they also know that one hour will take seven years of relative time. If they have enough juice to take the seven years, come back up, check the others, and return to Earth, then fuel is not the issue. Which means time is.

The options are—assuming the winner is the last planet they check—a) take seven years, then another year traveling to and checking the other two, or b) take a year checking the other two and another year coming back to the water world. Rough math tells me two years is a better use of a limited time resource than eight.

Second, they knew the math for the time dilation! If one hour is seven years, and the scientist has been on the planet for around twelve years, then she was relatively on the planet for less than two hours. If they go to the other planets first, take a couple of years getting back, then it would leave her there for maybe another twenty minutes. She has all the time in the world to wait for them to finish their chores and get back to her.

Going to the other planets first would also give her more time to take readings and determine if the planet is viable. Assuming a report every hour, including one immediately upon landing, they received two reports. Some tests don’t produce results in that amount of time, and she certainly could not ascertain viability for plant and animal life in two hours. Everything they knew about the situation should have pushed them to the other locations first and the one on the cusp of the enormous black hole last. Plot required otherwise.

The question is, could you have made the movie without that irrational decision? Not with the point, lesson, or resolution the movie had. The movie was less about space exploration and more about temporal mechanics. Both are pretty cool, no real people were harmed by the fictional bad decision, and I enjoyed the temporal journey. All is well.

Have a great weekend, and for those who subscribe to my newsletter, the Q1 newsletter will be sent later today!

Business Unusual

Last summer, I parted ways with another manager with whom I was extremely dissatisfied. On one side, I have worked for some wonderful leaders in my career. On the other, I also worked for and under people with zero interest in the business or the employees. Their concern was how to look good on paper quickly for their next role or promotion. The latter frustrated me endlessly, and after this latest parting, I found myself entirely disillusioned with the corporate world I had loved after graduation.

I also enjoyed being a manager and often said “I could do this better.” The last four months have been about me putting my time, money, and effort where my mouth is as I have worked toward buying and executing a new franchise business. Everything comes together over the next six weeks as I attend training, hire employees, and start serving customers.

If I fail, I set myself back five to ten years of savings and will have to spend double that working longer before I have enough to retire. If I succeed, I will make less annually than before from a salary perspective, but there are other benefits. I can still hate my boss (myself), but I will be able to change the things that frustrate me about her. I will be able to create an environment of employee development and culture I’m excited about. I will focus on the things that matter to the employees and business rather than making someone else look good without consideration for the broader implications.

I don’t think it will all go horribly wrong, but wish me luck anyway!

On the Writing Front

My goal is to get the book 100% revised/edited to send to my beta readers before I head to the training class, but I don’t think I will make that timeframe. It will be close though, so I might be able to finish it after class in the evenings of the training week. Either way, I’m still within the buffer timeframe to hit the release date for Hidden Promise in June.

The greatest challenge will be if my betas come back with broad revision recommendations. I’m working through the grander adjustments from my alphas now, so it all depends on if we all missed something big. Don’t worry, though. I gave myself enough time to get through this in addition to working a full-time job.

I will probably place the release date for Hidden Strength, the series finale, another year out to be safe again. I can always move it up, but pushing a preorder date out has penalties I want to avoid.

If you haven’t started the series yet, or if you want to leave a review, you can find the first book at this link: Hidden Memory. The first two are free to read in KU, and the third will go into KU a month after release. Hidden Promise is also on a preorder discount. You can pick it up for $3.99 until after it releases. It will then go up to $4.99, the same price as the second, Hidden Sanctuary.

As always, thanks for all your support, and you can find more by signing up for my newsletter on the home page or following my social media accounts. Have a great weekend!