"A choice," said the Vulcan.

Well, good morning and good day, my favorite humans!

I know last time I said I was going to not push out this newsletter every other week.

But I couldn’t wait another two weeks to do this…

No, I wasn’t lying. And in the two weeks since I last sent out this newsletter, I was rewatching Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (to prep for a BIG Sci-Fi Podcast episode where we decided to talk about that movie) and I love how they weaved in throughout the script the bit about Vulcan’s not lying… so every time Spock said something that could have been a lie, Valeris, the other Vulcan character would ask:

“A lie?”

And each time, Spock had a different response that explained the… deviation from the truth. An omission. An error. A choice. That last one was Valeris responding when it was Spock’s turn to ask “a lie” and I think a choice, at least in her case, was exactly synonymous with “a lie.”

In my case, saying my choice to put out this newsletter this morning was definitely not a lie, in the sense that two weeks ago, based on everything I knew and thought and believed, I had no intention on doing this. But as time passed and things changed, I changed my mind.

50% of that change of mind (Oh!! Whenever anyone mentions “changing their mind” I instantly hear Spock in my head from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home say “Is there something wrong with the one I have?”) is because Capclave, a local SFF literary convention, is this weekend. If you’re local-ish to me (aka Maryland, DC, NoVA, etc), come out to Capclave! Here’s what my schedule is lookin’ like:

The other 50% of why you’re hopefully still reading is my new Call for Beta Readers!

Over the next 2-3 weeks, I’m looking for folks who are interested in Beta Reading T is for Time Travel. This book will be the first of the T-Set, the follow-on to The Robot Galaxy Series.

I expect that most of the beta readers will have read at least the first book or two in that series, however, I do need at least 2 or 3 people who HAVE NOT read The Robot Galaxy Series! I will need the POV of readers who first start in my Robot Galaxy Universe with this book… So please, if you’re interested, no matter what you have or haven’t read of mine, fill out this form:

https://forms.gle/yub3HPg8UKWUiBC98

I will be spending 2-3 weeks collecting responses and should be ready for the beta read itself at about the 2nd week of October and I’m hoping that the folks who beta read can finish by the end of October.

That’s about it for today.

Except a reminder about those books… and yep, if you’ve been looking for an excuse to start The Robot Galaxy Series because you want to beta read T is for Time Travel, now is a GREAT time to do so! My recommendation if you’re doing this to prep for beta reading is to read at least the first 2 books in the series (Crazy Foolish Robots, and Robots, Robots Everywhere!).

Links: Lunar Logic | Robot Galaxy Series | Final Orbit | Objective Reality

What’s next?

Hopefully it’s obvious that my focus at the moment is T is for Time Travel. Simple.

I still do have a bonus pic for today:

It was a tough decision between this and one of my cats, Ruby, in an unusual but super cute pose. But I recently acquired several new art (how-to) books for my collection and one of them about practicing art/drawing (oy — can’t remember the name of that book… and am feeling way too lazy to get up and look… so if you’re interested, comment/reply to this email and I’ll post/respond) advocates the “continuous line” technique… something I haven’t played around with in a VERY long time. I did a bunch of small drawings on the app I use on my phone for digital art, and I’m really happy with how this one came out.

I had some friends over for dinner last weekend and one of them said, “my mother drilled it in to me that one must bring a hostess gift” which turned out to be flowers and as I was continuous line drawing all the things… well, like I said: this turned out to be my fave.

All always, thanks for being here and reading all of stuff. Remember you can reply anytime with questions/comments/feedback!

Until next time… be kind, be well!

-Adeena