Now Available on Kindle

Another Shot is now available in Kindle format. You can buy a copy if you click on the book icon to the right on this page. And even better, if you buy the paperback, you can get the Kindle version for only 99 cents! What a deal!
(When you're on the amazon page, click on the Kindle version to see this deal.)

Here is what our yard looked like last weekend:


Ice in McCallum yard December 2013
 

It was beautiful, but it did some damage so I wasn't too sorry when it melted.

I wish everyone all the best in 2014!

Winter Hits...

...with a baseball bat! My city got covered in ice over this weekend. In fact, the reason I didn't post yesterday was that I was afraid to turn on our computer while the trees were groaning with ice and branches were snapping all around. We lost our power for over an hour, but we were lucky to get it back so soon. Many are still without power, so let's keep them in our thoughts and send good wishes to the utility workers out there in the cold trying to restore the rest of the power.

The only good thing about the ice and deep freeze is that I am motivated to stay inside. Once we got our power back, I jumped right on the computer and I'm now busy trying to format Another Shot for Kindle. I'd forgotten how time-consuming that is! No wonder it took me over a month last time. I sincerely hope it won't take that long this time ... and I think the holidays will help that because I'll have time off work to keep plugging away.

I've already sold two copies of Another Shot on amazon.com so that's pretty great! Remember to tell all of your friends, co-workers and acquaintances about the Penumbra series and how they need to buy copies for all of their friends, co-workers and acquaintances! (Both novels would make a great last-minute Christmas gift!)

I wish everyone peace this holiday season.

Breaking News!

I have great news: Another Shot is now available on Amazon.com!

Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Another-Shot-Penumbra-Diane-McCallum/dp/149366414X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387324797&sr=1-3&keywords=diane+mccallum

(I'll try to make a link on the side like the one for Outsider once I have time to figure out how I did that before.)

There were times when it probably seemed like the sequel to Outsider would NEVER come out, but I finally got it done over the past weekend. I had to make the changes from my last round of proofreading and then submit the whole file (interior and cover) to CreateSpace again. Once they approved it, I merely had to approve it myself and then wait for one nail-biting day before it popped up on Amazon.com. (My reaction was about the same as when Outsider first appeared there: yips of delight, accompanied by some clapping of hands and spontaneous hopping.)

I want to thank Kristi Kranker for the cover art, which came out great.

I also want to thank everyone for their support, which made this possible. It was the remarkable interest in Outsider that encouraged me to publish Another Shot, so pat yourself on the back!

It's now officially a series!

Closet Spaceship Part 3

I know it's been a while since I posted some fiction, so here you go.

(Okay, I'll admit it: I'm too busy to have much news right now. It's amazing how busy December can be, isn't it? I don't do all that much for Christmas but I still seem to be swamped. How did that happen? There is good news, though: I'm nearing the end of double-checking the proof copy of Another Shot. I have a few more corrections to make and then I'll resubmit it to CreateSpace. Then we'll see what happens!)

As promised, here’s my account of what happened when I was first spotted aboard Outsider.

Mac dropped me off right in the main corridor. I’d seen it before, of course, so I knew where I was: somewhere between the conference room and the dining room. I didn’t have my watch (it doesn’t work well when I’m traveling) so I had no idea what time it was there.

I didn’t see anyone at first, so I thought I’d check the clock in the dining room. As I turned to walk that way, though, a man appeared in the corridor. He’d just come from the dock area. I recognized him as Reggie Hawkins, the ship’s mechanic.

I resisted my impulse to say, “Hi, Reg!” I’m sure that would have really freaked him out. As it was, a stunned expression crossed his face when he saw me. Then his instincts kicked in: he drew his pistol and pointed it at me while yelling, “Hey, we’ve got an intruder here!”

Before I knew it, there were at least five guns pointed in my direction. It certainly wasn’t the reception I’d hoped to get. I raised my hands while I identified the gun wielders, who’d sprung from the dining room: Martinez, O’Connor, Blaine and Thompson, as well as Hawkins.

“Um, hi,” I said. Yeah, I’m a writer and I’m supposed to command the English language, but it kind of got away from me for a while there.

Hawkins pulled a radio from his belt and spoke calmly. “Intruder aboard. What do you want us to do?”

I heard a male voice say, “Wait a moment.”

Oh, boy, I thought. I get to meet the captain!

Sure enough, a minute or so later, I heard that same voice behind me say, “Who are you and how did you get aboard my ship?”

He had one of those voices that doesn’t need to be raised to make an impression. It sounded calm, confident and controlled. Forgive me the alliteration, but that’s how it sounded.

I turned around slowly and wasn’t surprised to see that he wasn’t holding any weapons. Of course he’d trust his crew to take care of that, and besides, he probably wanted to be courteous until he learned my motives.

Captain Lamont was tall, a little taller than me, with a nice face and blue eyes. He was in his late thirties, but he had silver-white hair. His expression was neutral, although I’m sure he must have been baffled about how I’d been able to get aboard.

 

Then I realized I had a problem: I wasn’t at all sure how to explain that.

Little-Known Facts about Outsider Part 2

Various parts of the United States can really tell it's winter, can't they? I hope you're staying warm and safe this weekend and throughout the month.

Here are a few more bits of trivia about Outsider:
The original working title was "Whatever," because I really didn't know if it would go anywhere when I started it.
Sean's last name used to be Collins (for "colony"), but I had too many C names then.
Mark's last name was originally Cooper, but I had too many C names then.
Jack's last name used to be Shaw, but that didn't work when he interacted with Sean.
Ben's first name comes from a character in a United Airlines commercial.
Bartucci comes from Brat (I stole that from Bart Simpson). You'll get to know Nick better in Another Shot.
Hawkins comes from hawk-eyed because he can read people so well. (You already know where the name Reggie came from.)
Dr. Graham's name comes from a character in the movie Field of Dreams (also a doctor).
The bad guys' colony is Beta-Ten ... B-Ten. Get it? (Sad, I know.)

That's all I can think of right now. I had a small setback in proofreading when I had to work all day yesterday (my job involves ... you guessed it, proofing). I'm giving my eyes a short break, but I promise to keep up with it this week. (CreateSpace keeps sending me e-mail reminders that I need to approve my novel. I guess they can keep sending them a little longer. Sorry, CS.)

Please keep spreading the word about Outsider! Now you can fascinate people with stupid facts about it that they don't want or need to know!  Ha, ha.

Have a great week.

Little-Known Facts about Outsider Part 1

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had a great time with my family in Nebraska, but it's a little puzzling to me how one day I'm coming home from Thanksgiving and the next day I'm out on a teetering ladder to put up Christmas lights. (The lights are up and I'm still in one piece, so that's an accomplishment!)

Unfortunately, the Thanksgiving holiday put me behind in proofreading Another Shot. Somehow it was easier to chat and watch college football than it was to proofread, so I'll try to get back into that right away.

Meanwhile, I can regale you with little-known facts about Outsider. I'm sure these will show up in a trivia quiz someday, so you'll be prepared for that!

I started Outsider in May of 1990, about a month after my husband and I bought our first computer, a Macintosh SE. I was so impressed with the little machine that I decided I'd better use it for something, so I started throwing words at it ... and some of them stuck. That first version of the novel was very different than the one that's now published (parts of it were downright awful), but I worked and worked at it until I thought I had something.

Several character names changed throughout the process but the one that never changed is Reggie Hawkins. He's the only character to come from a real person. The original is a man named Kevin. I met him when I worked in the data entry department for a mail-order company in Nebraska. When orders slowed down, I sometimes filled in for the clerk in the maintenance department, where there were two or three men named Mike and one Kevin. Kevin was a lot like Reg: a mechanic, big but not fat, quiet and reserved but always polite to me. One day he offered to let me ride in one of the cherry-picker type of machines that were used to let employees pick items from the colossal shelves in the warehouse. This was many years ago, but I still remember the exhilarating ride that followed: the machine shot forward and the platform rose quickly into the air before descending. I thought it was a lot of fun and told him so. As I recall, he smiled. (I feel that I passed some kind of test by not screaming.) I tried to come up with another name starting with K, but I never found it so I went with the vowels instead: if you look closely, you'll see the similar vowels in Kevin and Reggie. Thanks, Kevin.

More trivia next time!

Thanksgiving

As we approach Thanksgiving in the United States, I have a lot to be thankful for:
a wonderful husband, a loving family, good friends, a steady job, a published novel.
I wish you the best for the holiday and I hope your list is as long as mine, or longer.

The author reception at the library went well, although it seemed there were more authors than non-authors attending. It was fun to swap notes with some of the other authors and realize how different our experiences with publishing have been. One author has sold over 1,500 copies! I have a way to go before I get to that point, but it was fun to talk to someone who's been successful. It was a good way to spend an evening ... and I got free snacks!

Author Reception at Pittsburg Public Library, November 2013





I wish all of you a wonderful holiday ... and I'm thankful for your support.

Proof Copy

The proof copy of Another Shot has arrived! I can't tell you how exciting it is to hold the physical book in my hands and know that soon other readers will be holding their own copies!

This means I need to do another round of proofing because I want those readers to be happy, not hung up on errors. I already see something on the back cover that I'd like to change. This means we're in for another wait while I read through it again, make the necessary changes and go through the submission process again.

For those of you in the vicinity of Pittsburg, Kansas, I will be making an appearance at the public library (308 N Walnut) on Monday, November 18, at 6:00 p.m. They're having a reception for local authors, who will be selling and autographing copies of their books. I hope you'll stop by to say "Hi" and support our local authors. This is your first chance to get a look at the cover of Another Shot! Don't miss it!

World Premiere of Another Shot Description

I think the title sounds a little pretentious, but it's true! I'm about to share with you a description of the sequel, Another Shot.

First, though, let me give you some good news: I'm in the process of getting the book published. I've uploaded both the interior pages and the cover to CreateSpace.
(You should see the cover! It's awesome!) Now I have to wait 24 hours to see if CS will accept the files. After that, I'll order a proof copy so I can double-check everything.
As you might expect, that could take a week or so, but I'm certainly much closer to publication. It's exciting to be involved in this process again.

So here it is, as promised:
   In Volume 2 of the Penumbra series, Outsider has crashed to Earth and the crew is in disarray.
   And that's only the beginning: a fugitive from Captain Lamont's past has returned to seek vengeance, vowing to destroy everything the captain holds dear.
   Sean Foster rejoins the crew as they try to stop an elusive killer before it's too late.

Please keep spreading the word. I rely on you to help me introduce the series to new potential readers. Together we can make Another Shot a success!

Progress

Great news! I've registered Another Shot at CreateSpace.com and it has its own ISBN! (I had to look it up: ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number.)
How exciting is that?

This past week, I met with the artist and we finalized a few details about the cover art. She's working on her artist profile for About the Artist, which she apparently finds just as hard to write as I did. (I simply modified the one I had for Outsider, so it was a little easier for me this time.) I think she's going to get both of them to me by next week. Things are rolling!

Once I have About the Artist, I'll add that to the final page and then I'm ready to submit the interior. That means all of the pages you see between the covers, which I had to format correctly. We'll see if CreateSpace accepts it or if I have to make some changes. (Fingers crossed.)

Please remember to keep spreading the word about Outsider. Tell your friends, your acquaintances, people you encounter on the street or online! Let's build up interest so Another Shot can do as well as Outsider ... or even better. Thanks for your support!

Delay

Unfortunately, things seem to be on hold for the sequel right now, although I'm expecting that to change soon. I'm waiting to get some information from another source before I can proceed much further.

However, I'm hoping that next weekend I'll have more of the pieces and I can open up a new title in CreateSpace. I think that's the first step to really believing the project will happen. I thought it would be this weekend, but it didn't work out. That's okay, I'm not on a strict schedule ... but I can feel myself getting a little antsy. The internal pressure is starting to build as I gear up for the big push to get published.

I'm sorry I don't have more to report this time, but I'll try to have more next weekend.  Have a great week!

Space Tourism

Sigh. I just found out why I won't be going to space just yet: Virgin Galactic is charging $250,000 for a future ride on one of their spaceships. Unless I sell a whole lot of books, I guess I won't be going that route anytime soon. (If you're interested, here's where you can book your flight: http://www.virgingalactic.com/booking/)

That's okay, I hadn't really counted on that type of spaceflight yet ... although, given the chance, I'd take it! If you know anyone who wants to give away their ride on a parabolic flight, let me know and I'll step right up to accept it.

For now, though, I'll be content to use that old standby, my imagination. That's certainly better than nothing. It created five novels, after all!

I've finished the corrections to Another Shot. Now I'm double-checking the format and waiting to hear from the artist (about the cover image and the "About the Artist" text at the end of the book). I'll keep you updated on how that's going.

Remember to spread the word! Wouldn't you love to read my blog about a trip into space??

Bonus Post!

I just saw this video today and thought: Wow!

I wanted to share it because I think it's exciting what SpaceX has accomplished. Here's the information that went with the video:

Published on Oct 12, 2013

On Monday, October 7th, Grasshopper completed its highest leap to date, rising to 744m altitude. The view above is taken from a single camera hexacopter, getting closer to the stage than in any previous flight.

Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle designed to test the technologies needed to return a rocket back to Earth intact. While most rockets are designed to burn up on atmosphere reentry, SpaceX rockets are being designed not only to withstand reentry, but also to return to the launch pad for a vertical landing. The Grasshopper VTVL vehicle represents a critical step towards this goal.

Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage tank, Merlin 1D engine, four steel and aluminum landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.

(FYI: 744 meters is almost half a mile.)
That's right: the rocket goes up and then it comes down, but not in the usual manner. This kind of stuff always makes me giddy. I can't wait to see what's next!

Making Corrections

The proofreading is done! At last.

Now I'm making corrections to my file, based on the proofreading I did. However, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. Since my file is already formatted the way I want, I can change the whole look of it simply by adding or removing a single word. This can be a problem if it means a paragraph is broken awkwardly or the page count changes. I've had several instances where I changed one word and then had to go change several other sentences just to make things line up again. Oddly enough, the forced changes occasionally made the phrasing better than the original! It's funny how that works.

For example, I had a sentence that read this way: "Your altitude is good," Hawkins said, his eyes glued to the controls.
I never liked that part about "eyes glued to the controls" because it's a cliché and why is he looking at the controls anyway?
I changed the sentence to read this way: "Your altitude is good," Hawkins, said, keeping his eyes on the instruments.
Doesn't that seem better? That also meant that a two-line sentence farther down appeared on the same page, rather than being broken up between two pages.
Little adjustments like that are what make this a slow process, but it will make the finished product much better. (It makes me cringe to think of my novel as a "product," but that's ultimately what it will be.)

Once I get the corrections made to the file, I'm going to double-check all aspects of the formatting. While I'm doing that, I'm going to create a notebook of the various format settings so I'll be ready when it comes time to format the third novel. (Yes, there will be a third!) That should save me some time in the future.

So I'm making progress. Remember to tell all your friends about Outsider so they can get it read before the sequel is published!

Closet Spaceship Part 2

      Let me tell you a little about my travels into the future. As I mentioned in my first Closet Spaceship post, this was thanks to my trusty ship Macintosh SE, which carried me unimaginable distances in very little time. I can’t explain how it could do that, but I suspect others could find the same capabilities in their own computers, laptops or notepads.

Anyway, the first time we tried anything long-distance, I found myself on a spaceship that was transporting prisoners. One of the quirks of travel with Mac is that sometimes I’m invisible to the characters (so I can watch the action without influencing it in any way) and other times I’m visible to them (so I can interact with them). The majority of my earliest trips were unobserved. I guess that made it easier for the people there, who already had more than enough to keep them occupied.

Take Sean Foster, for example. Here’s a twenty-four-year-old who’s been sentenced to twenty years in prison and has to spend it on a planet outside our galaxy, where he’s pretty sure he’ll be forgotten by everyone on Earth. It’s a bleak future, so he didn’t really need me popping into the picture and trying to explain how I got there. Instead, I was able to observe his third day of captivity aboard the prison spaceship, which turned out to be quite different than he expected. He certainly didn’t think the spaceship would be attacked and he’d end up floating in space as the only survivor. He also didn’t think he’d meet a crew as interesting as the one under Captain Lamont’s command aboard the ship Outsider.

But that’s where he found himself—and so did I.

I only had to spend a few hours there to realize that this was a place I’d want to revisit. Mac accommodated me and we spent many hours aboard Outsider and on the surfaces of other planets as the years went by.

 

     In my next CS post, I’ll tell you a little about what happened when I first appeared aboard Outsider—that is, when the crew first laid eyes on me.

Cover News

Out of the blue, I got an e-mail from Kristi, the artist, this past week. She asked if I wanted to see the artwork she's creating for my next cover. Did I want to see it??
You bet!

After a little confusion (I wandered the halls for a few minutes because I missed her follow-up message about where we should meet), we found each other outside, where it was a beautiful day. Sitting on the table was a board with the artwork on it ... and I really liked it! It was similar to the original sketch I saw, but it was more detailed and I could get a better idea of how the finished product will look. I think it will look great!

The next step is for Kristi to scan the image into her computer and make some changes, including the addition of some color. We talked about that for a few minutes. There won't be a lot of color, because of the nature of the image (which is top secret!), but she can add a few touches here and there. I'm really excited to see the finished product.

I've been proofreading Another Shot as often as I can lately and I'm making progress. I found some rather big errors, so I know the time spent is worth it. Stay tuned!

Closet Spaceship Part 1

(NOTE: This is the first of several fictional snippets I plan to include in my blog, to give you a better idea of my writing style and what my characters are like. I plan to title all of them Closet Spaceship with a number so it's easier for you to read them in order. They should all appear on the page The Crew if you want to catch up without going through the whole blog.  Enjoy!)

I have a spaceship in my closet. Actually, it’s better than a spaceship because it can travel through time as well as space. How fun is that?

The official name of my spaceship is Macintosh SE and it’s taken me into the future more than once to meet a fascinating set of people there. Sadly, it’s in the closet because it died a quiet death last year (2012), after over twenty years of service. It’s also in the closet because it will be a while before I can bear to get rid of my trusty companion for so many years. Its replacement, Dell, is proving that it can travel just as well as its predecessor, but it has yet to win my heart in quite the same way.

For one thing, Macintosh SE used to offer a smiley face to me every time I fired it up. This puts one in the right frame of mind for travel, let me tell you. For another, in those ancient days, the Word program didn’t presume to tell me how to spell or punctuate, unlike the somewhat arrogant version we have these days. If there was a typo, it was my fault and my fault alone, but at least I didn’t have to grumble at some colored underline trying to make me feel bad even when I knew I was right. Word never met Reggie Hawkins, so how could it know how he talks?

I went on a few short trips with Mac first, so we could get used to each other. I learned how the controls and instruments worked, while it learned how I fly, so to speak. We were compatible, it seemed, so it wasn’t long before we went on our first long journey together. The time-travel component of Mac let me do it without anyone here noticing my absence (my husband had some concerns once in a while about how long he went between sightings of me, but he thought I was in our computer room so he didn’t worry too much).

And what a journey it was! I saw things I never expected, such as space colonies, a diamond mine and a lot of gun battles. I met some rather remarkable characters, too, and I’m happy to say I’m going to continue to spend time with them for a few more years.

If you’d like to meet them, I suggest you read my first novel, Outsider, where I make introductions and also share what I witnessed on my journey.

I’m working on the sequel now, but in the meantime, I hope to share some of the conversations I’ve had with the crew between their adventures. We can get to know them a little better together. What do you say?

Artist News

I have good news: the artist and I have signed an agreement, so she's really going to do the cover for Another Shot.

Now that we have an agreement in place, I can tell you that her name is Kristi Kranker and she works at the same place I do as a graphic artist. We're both pretty excited about the cover and I really look forward to seeing her work. (It might be a few weeks before she has anything to show me because she said she wants to be happy with it before she shows it to me. That makes a lot of sense to me, because I wouldn't want to release a novel until I was happy with it, so I'll just back off and let her creativity go to work.) The deadline is in early November, so we have plenty of time.

This means I have to get back to work on proofreading, which I plan to do this weekend.

Meanwhile, I want to send best wishes to those of you in Colorado who are dealing with the crazy weather and flooding. I hope you, your friends and your families are safe.

Blurbs

This week I started trying to write blurbs for the second novel, and that's proving to be almost as hard as coming up with a cover image. I need short descriptions for two places: the back cover and the Amazon page. Each one has to make the reader want to read the story without giving away too much or being too wordy. (Try it yourself! Summarize your favorite novel in four or five compelling sentences.)

For Outsider, I gave it a lot of thought and then scribbled a bunch of words and phrases on a piece of paper without really thinking about them. Once I had the main points written down, I tried to put those into coherent sentences. (If you want to see what I came up with, click on the image of Outsider to the right, which will take you to the Amazon page for it.)

I have a good idea about the first part of the blurb for Another Shot, but the rest is proving elusive. I'll keep working on it.

I've also started what might be the last proofread. This one might take a while because I want to be very careful not to miss anything.

By the way, how did it get to be September??

More Publicity

I don't have any artist news this week, but I did get some publicity from the Joplin (MO) Globe. On Monday, August 26, I was mentioned in Andra Stefanoni's column. Here's a link to the article: http://www.joplinglobe.com/columns/x31531795/Andra-Bryan-Stefanoni-Pittsburg-authors-busy-turning-out-books
I thought it was a nice article and I hope you'll check it out.

I had met Ms. Stefanoni through a local Audubon group and contacted her when I was able to put some copies of my novel, Outsider, on consignment at the Vintage Stock store in the Northpark Mall in Joplin. She was very kind to include me in her column.

I called Vintage Stock in July to ask if I could give them some bookmarks to hand out free to customers, and they asked if I wanted to put some copies of the novel on display, too.  I didn't expect that at all! There are now five copies on sale there, so if you're in Joplin, check it out.

I am very grateful to Vintage Stock and the Hastings store in Pittsburg, KS, for allowing me to have copies of Outsider on sale in their stores. It's nice to live in an area that's so supportive of local authors and it's a little amazing to have my novel on consignment in two states.

Let's keep spreading the word!

Cover Update

I hadn't met with the artist for two weeks because we both had other activities, but we were able to find time this past week ... and I'm glad we did! After we discussed some of the business aspects, the artist showed me an initial sketch, based on my feeble attempts to describe what I want, and I really liked it! I think she's going to come up with something fantastic and I can't wait to see it.

This really brought home to me the idea that I'm going to publish a sequel to Outsider. That might sound strange, since I've been posting updates about it and proofreading the draft, but somehow, having a cover image in the works makes it seem much more real. There's going to be a cover, which means there's going to be a published novel! Then, amazingly enough, I'll be a twice-published author! I'd better put my head down before I pass out. Ha, ha.

I know it won't be easy, because getting the novel properly formatted and working through the CreateSpace steps can be a challenge, but I'm starting to think it might actually happen. Wow!

Thanks for reading my latest post. Feel free to post comments on this or any of my posts. Be sure to read About This Blog (you'll see it listed to the right) if you haven't already. And stay tuned!

Snafu

I don't have much of an update today because the artist and I weren't able to meet this past week, but I have a few notes to mention.

First of all, Blogger doesn't work quite the way I thought it did. I assumed I could have separate posts on different pages--I wanted to have news and updates on my Home page, and then have fiction on The Crew page--but that isn't how Blogger works. In the next few days, I'll be playing around with the possibilities, so if something looks wrong, it's just me proving that I'm a novice at this! (SNAFU will be an appropriate title for it.) Once I get things closer to the way I want them, look for a page called something like "About This Blog" and I'll try to explain what I've done.

Given my problems with Blogger, this might seem ridiculous but I'm toying with the idea of having a Facebook page. (It would be a business page, not a regular page.) Do you think I'm nuts to try that, especially given my limited knowledge of social media and other computer-related things? I don't see that I'd spend a lot of time on the Facebook page, since I have enough to do with this blog and my "real" life, so I don't know if it's worth it. I'll keep thinking about it. Post any thoughts or suggestions or advice you might have. Thanks!

Sequel Schedule

I'm posting a little late this weekend. Sorry about that, but there were baseball games to watch. I'm sure you understand. ☺

Okay, let's see, publishing schedule for Another Shot. Since I published Outsider in January, I'm really aiming to get its sequel published in January, too. It's possible it might be ready to go in December, but don't count on that. Let's say next January at the latest. (Fingers crossed!)

Right now I'm working with a graphic artist to come up with a cover design for Another Shot. Outsider's cover has a stock image from CreateSpace, which was okay for my first attempt, but I wanted something better for the sequel. It was hard for me to come up with a good image, though! Either the image was nearly impossible to create or it gave away a plot point. I think we might have come up with something, though. We'll see what happens!

Update as Promised

There is a sequel to Outsider and it's already written.

However, that doesn't mean it will be published in the near future.

There are a lot of formatting issues to check and I haven't finished proofreading it yet. You wouldn't want to read a novel full of typos, would you? Proofreading a 389-page novel takes time ... but now you know how long it will be, before most other people! That's a little longer than Outsider, but only by thirty pages.

Here's another tip: it's called Another Shot, and like my first novel, this novel's title has more than one meaning.

I'll let you think about that for a while. In my next post, I'll tell you when I hope to get the second novel published.

First Novel, Second Post

It's been over six months since I published Outsider, which is hard to believe! It was pretty exciting to see it show up on Amazon for the first time. This was followed by several firsts: my first sale, my first Kindle offering, my first book signing.

Book Signing at Hastings store in Pittsburg, KS - March 2013

This is my first novel in the Penumbra series; there should be about five novels in all. They follow the adventures of Captain Ben Lamont and his crew, who travel through a wormhole near Earth's atmosphere to patrol the colonies beyond, troubleshooting where needed ... and there's a lot of trouble and shooting involved!

The first novel features Sean Foster, a college student who's been sentenced to twenty years in a colonial prison far from Earth. If that's not bad enough, it turns out that his transport has been targeted for destruction by unknown attackers. It's up to the crew of Outsider to rescue Sean and discover why he received such a lengthy prison sentence, as well as why his ship was destroyed.

The sequel will pick up a few months after Outsider ended. In my next post, I'll update you on its progress. Stay tuned!

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my site! I'm new to blogging so please bear with me while I figure out what I'm doing. (I already managed to delete my first post, which tells me I have a long way to go.)

My name is Diane McCallum and my first novel, Outsider, was published this year. It's available on amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle formats (you can find a link to buy it to the right). This blog will try to keep you updated on the progress of the subsequent novels, all part of the Penumbra series, and give you some insights into a few of the characters.  I plan to update it once a week, usually on the weekend, so I hope you'll come back to see how things are going (especially to see if this first post survives this time).