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When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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This blog will pay for itself.

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Battle won, war still ongoing.

You are here: Home / Authors In Our Midst / Kristine – Speculative Worlds!

Kristine – Speculative Worlds!

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Our featured writer today is our very own Kristine.  Let’s give her a warm welcome!

If you would like your talent featured in Authors in Our Midst or Artists in Our Midst, send me an email message.  Don’t be shy!  I have no more Artists or Authors posts in the queue, so please get in touch if you would like to be featured.

Speculative Worlds

by Kristine Smith

Hello, Balloon Juice. I’m Kristine Smith—longtime listener, semi-regular caller. Many thanks to WaterGirl for the invitation.

I’ve been writing for publication since the late ‘90s. Novels and short stories, mostly science fiction along with a little fantasy and supernatural suspense. My science fiction series follows the evolution of a woman named Jani Kilian from fugitive to major player in the ever-evolving relations between humans and the alien idomeni. There’s an Earth-based government, the Commonwealth, overseeing over forty colonial worlds. The relationship between Earth and the colonies is rocky, as is that between the Commonwealth and the idomeni. Then there’s Jani’s health, which is rocky for Reasons. I describe it as socio-political SF with hard medical detail.

One of the cultural aspects of the books is that paper documents have made a comeback. Paper had been out of use for so long in the Commonwealth that humans adopted the system developed by the idomeni. Kilian was one of the first humans sent to study documentation at the idomeni Academy, and her skills with paper play a major role in the series.

I’ve also written two novels under the pseudonym Alex Gordon, supernatural suspense about witches in northern Illinois (Gideon) and western Oregon (Jericho). They tell the story of Lauren Reardon, a woman who learns after her father’s death that he had been far from forthcoming about his early life and that she is part of a centuries-old battle between good and evil.

First chapters and other info about all my books and short works are available on my website.

I started writing seriously rather late. My early work consisted exclusively of essays and the occasional bit of fiction for grade school and high school assignments. My single attempt at college-level creative writing ended with my dropping the class when the instructor encouraged me to join the pre-law students and stick to essays. After that, I didn’t think at all about writing until my early 30s. I was working as a chemist in a large pharma company and when a number of my co-workers returned to school for their MBAs. I decided to sign up for a writing course and call it my MBA. I hunted around and settled on a Writer’s Digest correspondence course in science fiction/fantasy novel writing. This was the early ’90s, so I wrote using my clunky electric typewriter and snail-mailed the assignments to my instructor.** Every so often I grew frustrated and gave up—as in crumpled up drafts and burned them in the fireplace—but I always wound up going back. The story that I wrote and rewrote again and again turned into Code of Conduct, the first book in my SF series. In 1998, a few months after my 40th birthday, I signed my first publishing contract. Code was released the following year. Four more books in the series followed. Then came a fallow period as I wrestled with Gideon, which was finally released in 2015, the follow-up, Jericho, came out in 2016.

My trad publishing career definitely had its ups and downs. I won the Astounding Award (formerly the John W. Campbell Award) for Best New Writer in 2001. My books garnered some lovely reviews. But sales weren’t where they needed to be, subsequent proposals were declined, and over time I realized the business side of things was killing my desire to write. That was when I decided to give indie publishing a try. Over the years I’ve gotten back the rights to all the books in my SF series. I also decided that Jani’s story wasn’t finished after all—I completed a sixth book, Echoes of War, this past December.

All the books have been released via Book View Café, a writer-run co-op. I’m hoping to get back the rights to the Gideon books eventually, and will re-release them via BVC as well.

Over the next few years, my goals are to wrap up the Jani and Gideon series, write more short stories, and maybe start on a suspense/women’s adventure tale that’s been bubbling in the back of my mind for a while. No shortage of ideas.

Thanks again for giving me the chance to talk about my work.

 

**Her name is Katharine (Cat) Eliska Kimbriel and she’s written some dandy SF and a wonderful trilogy about a young witch named Alfreda growing up in an alternate 1800s Michigan Territory. She’s also a member of BVC.

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  3. 3.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Hi, Kristine! I read and liked Code of Conduct, and I know I’m not the only one. I saw people begging you to autograph their copies at Capricon a few years back. I’ll have to check out the rest of the series.

  4. 4.

    Kristine

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m glad to hear you liked Code. I’ve since lightly re-edited the entire series, mostly to remove !!!!!!. I used to waaay too much.

    I love when people bring me the ragged, yellowed paperbacks to sign. Then I remember that the book came out almost 25 years ago and I go have a lie-down.

  6. 6.

    wonkie

    It’s interesting to me that your autobiography includes being discouraged from developing a talent you clearly have. It’s frustrating and sad that so many talented people have that experience. In some cases, people have an interest but don’t see themselves as having potential. My sister never saw herself as an artist until, on impulse, she took a class. Her teacher, who as a tremendous talent for teaching, opened the door for her and now my sister truly has a unique, interesting, and quality “voice” through acrylics. Anyway, best wishes on continuing your journey as an indie.

  7. 7.

    KrackenJack

    Welcome!!!!! I’ll have to hunt down your books. Both the SF and fantasy sound right up my alley. Such a wealth of clever and talented Jackals. (And a couple of opinionated ones, too.)

  8. 8.

    Kristine

    @wonkie: I’m glad your sister is getting the chance to explore and develop her talent. Some people never take that step, whether because of lack of time, lack of support, or fear. Yes, it can be frustrating at times, especially when you’re at the learning stage—which honestly never really ends—and the lessons aren’t sticking. But in the end, it feeds the soul.

    It’s funny, but I still remember the lesson that drove me to drop the creative writing class. We were supposed to write a passage using excess description, piling on the adjectives and adverbs. I balked. I couldn’t make myself do it, so what I turned in was the stripped-down sort of piece that earned me the advice to go sit with the essayists.

    I will follow up by saying that essay-writing is an art and the folks who do it well are some of my favorite writers.

  9. 9.

    Miss Bianca

    Hi, Kristine! Your books sound intriguing – sounds like I will have to add them to the tottering pile of Mt-To-Be-Read!

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Hello, Kristine, and welcome! I recognise your nym, and am glad to know you’re one of the creative types around here.

    Will admit right off the bat that speculative fiction isn’t normally my go-to genre. But I’ve been happily surprised before, so I just downloaded Code of Conduct to my Kindle app, and genuinely look forward to reading it. Thank you for being here and for bringing your writing to my/our attention.

  13. 13.

    Kristine

    @SiubhanDuinne: You’re welcome, and thanks for giving Code a try. I’m always a little reluctant to rec my work, in part because I am the world’s worst self-promoter but also because a lot of folks don’t read spec fic.

  14. 14.

    FelonyGovt

    One of the cultural aspects of the books is that paper documents have made a comeback.

    OK, I’m in, sounds intriguing! Stupid question, is there a way to get Code of Conduct in such a way that I can read it in Kindle on my iPad? ETA it wasn’t clear to me from the website.

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kristine:

    I’m always a little reluctant to rec my work

    As is my wont, I’ll quote Gilbert & Sullivan:

     

    If you wish in the world to advance

    Your merits you’re bound to enhance,

    You must stir it and stump it

    And blow your own trumpet,

    Or, trust me, you haven’t a chance!

    — Ruddigore

  18. 18.

    Steeplejack

    Just bought Code of Conduct for my Kindle.

    Kristine, do you prefer readers to buy from Book View Café? I don’t mind doing that, but from Amazon the book goes directly to both of my Kindles. So convenient, but I’m willing to do the self-install if it makes a difference.

  19. 19.

    Kristine

    @FelonyGovt: I will add that when Code first came out, the paper aspect was slammed by one reviewer* because everything was electronic already so why? But then I found a blog post praising just that aspect, written by a computer person, because storage and data decay and hackability etc etc etc. That made me feel better.

     

    • okay, it was an Amazon rando, but if if you have heard that  a writer will forget the lovely reviews and remember the bad ones, ayuh. Truth.
  21. 21.

    Kristine

    @Steeplejack: Buying from BVC is appreciated because we get more $ per book and it supports the maintenance of the site.

    But please continue to buy in the way that’s best for you. Amazon has been really good at smoothing that path for readers and I believe there are some buyers points systems and advantages wrt tech support when you buy directly from them.

  23. 23.

    cvannatta

    I’m glad you found your way to the indie publishing arena, even if it’s No Fun At All to market. Traditional publishers don’t seem to be able to get out of their own way these days.

    I popped right over to Book View Café and bought Code of Conduct and Rules of Conflict so you’ll get a better percentage of the royalties. Sci-fi and space opera are right up my star lane. 🚀💙

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I could be wrong, but I think the person was complaining about the theme in the series: “One of the cultural aspects of the books is that paper documents have made a comeback.”

  26. 26.

    pat

    @Steeplejack:

    That was my thought too.  Might just have to get that book and find out how they got rid of paper.  My recycling of junk mail is getting totally out of hand……

  29. 29.

    PaulB

    @Kristine:  It’s funny, but I still remember the lesson that drove me to drop the creative writing class. We were supposed to write a passage using excess description, piling on the adjectives and adverbs. I balked. I couldn’t make myself do it, so what I turned in was the stripped-down sort of piece that earned me the advice to go sit with the essayists.

    That reminds me of the song “Nothing” from “Chorus Line,” where a young woman who wants to be an actress takes an acting class, only to find that she was supposed to learn how to be a an ice cream cone, a table, a sportscar, a bobsled, etc.

    And everybody’s goin’ “Whooooosh, whooooosh …
    I feel the snow… I feel the cold… I feel the air.”
    And Mr. Karp turns to me and he says,
    “Okay, Morales. What did you feel?”

    And I said…”Nothing,
    I’m feeling nothing,”
    And he says “Nothing
    Could get a girl transferred.”

    They all felt something,
    But I felt nothing
    Except the feeling
    That this bullshit was absurd!

    The thought of the exercise that was inflicted on you makes me shudder. I’m a decent technical writer (alas, not even a smidgen of creative talent), I’ve got a good vocabular, and I can put words on paper that make sense, but I would absolutely fail that exercise.

    Even worse, the failure and the resulting discouraging words would certainly affect me more, and last longer, than any encouragement I received elsewhere. Even now, looking back, I have far clearer memories of some of my most embarrassing and humiliating moments than I do my successful ones.

    Congratulations on overcoming that early nonsense and finding your voice.

  30. 30.

    RSA

    Kristine, I haven’t read your work, but I’ll look it up.

    Coincidentally, I’m a fan of Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s work. I thought Night Calls and Kindred Rites were great; I didn’t realize it was a trilogy!

  31. 31.

    PaulB

    Re: the paper issue, if I recall correctly, one of the classic SF writers (memory escapes me as to which one it was, maybe Asimov?) wrote a story in which people had forgotten how to perform basic mathematics because the computers did all of the work for them. One genius of the time rediscovered the capability and it proved to be a game-changer in military operations.

    If one of the giants of the genre can get away with that kind of speculation, then you can certainly posit a society where paper is obsolete and rediscovered, particularly since a paperless society has been tossed around as a goal for years now.

  32. 32.

    Kristine

    @pat: I don’t come out and state why paper went away to begin with. At the time I wrote Code, e-docs and online life and desktop computers were starting to change things and I made the assumption that it would all continue that way and that eventually the whole e-system would be riddled with hacking, bugs, and simple deterioration.

    Plus, this new round of paper documents are pretty and something one can hold in hand. After generations of virtual documentation, what was old is new again.

  35. 35.

    FelonyGovt

    @Kristine: OK, your book is now in my Kindle app on my iPad ( which is how I prefer to read ebooks). I’m an old, so the return to paper theme really appeals to me. :)

  36. 36.

    Kristine

    @PaulB:

    Congratulations on overcoming that early nonsense and finding your voice.

    Thanks. It took a while, and there were a few bumps along the way. I submitted what was then the first chapter of Code as my application for my first writers conference, and the instructor who read it just hammered it, ending with “All in all, not the most pleasant reading experience.”

    Well, he was a screenwriter and didn’t write spec fic, but I didn’t know that at the time. The only reason I attended the conference was because I was past the point of getting a refund,  but once I got there I found the spec fic group and that instructor loved the piece. That was a lesson in needing to consider the source of the criticism (just as needing to consider the source of praise).

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Kristine: It’s funny, but I still remember the lesson that drove me to drop the creative writing class. We were supposed to write a passage using excess description, piling on the adjectives and adverbs.

    It was a dark and very, very stormy night.  Suddenly, a very, very loud shot rang out!  Then a very, very good looking pirate ship came over the horizon with guns blazing!  Only the best pirate ships for me!

  39. 39.

    FelonyGovt

    @Kristine: I still remember my HS art teacher being withering about my “design a textile” assignment, which discouraged me from exploring art for years, as well as a creative writing professor in college who was similarly awful (and I’ve never tried it again).

    So I give you a lot of credit for successfully overcoming that kind of feedback  (and what are these teachers/professors thinking???)

  40. 40.

    Kristine

    @Villago Delenda Est:

     

    It was a dark and very, very stormy night. Suddenly, a very, very loud shot rang out! Then a very, very good looking pirate ship came over the horizon with guns blazing!

    And oh, the pirates! The handsome, burly, manly but not obnoxious about it, gold-laden, be-earringed pirates all bare-chested and bare of foot and glistening of eye except for the eyes covered with patches such perfect little tiny clean-cut semicircles of pitch black cloth…

    You know, it’s exhausting to even attempt this?

  41. 41.

    Kristine

    @cvannatta: Thank you—I hope you enjoy them.

    Marketing is no fun, in part because the old saying is true—only 10% works but you never know which 10%.

    Congratulations to all the writers who manage to stick with it and break through in traditional publishing these days because it’s definitely more difficult now than when I started in the late ’90s.

  42. 42.

    Kristine

    @FelonyGovt:

    So I give you a lot of credit for successfully overcoming that kind of feedback (and what are these teachers/professors thinking???)

    Either they don’t realize the effect their words can have or they don’t care. Or they think they’re being “honest.”

    Especially at that early stage, where someone is just getting a feel for the technique or process or whatever, I think it’s best just to stand back and let them…play. There may come a time when someone needs to break it to them that this field is not their superpower, but the egg stage is not that time.

  43. 43.

    frosty

    @Kristine: ​The pile … I started a list in 2019 with 134 books to read, consolidating all my scraps of paper. I’ve read 209 of them. I have 167 left to go!

  44. 44.

    Kristine

    @frosty:

     

    ​The pile … I started a list in 2019 with 134 books to read, consolidating all my scraps of paper. I’ve read 209 of them. I have 167 left to go!

    They pup, don’t they? They’re worse than hangers and computer cables.

  45. 45.

    JeanneT

    I wish I had something brilliant to add to the discussion, but all I have to say is that I’m delighted to learn about your books and the rest of the offerings at the Book View Café.  These will keep me happily reading for at least the rest of the year….

  48. 48.

    terraformer

    Hi Kristine! I’m a huge SF reader and am always looking for something new. I’ll add you to my list! Thanks so much for offering to be featured on BJ!

  51. 51.

    PaulWartenberg

    @Kristine:

    @wonkie:

    It’s funny, but I still remember the lesson that drove me to drop the creative writing class. We were supposed to write a passage using excess description, piling on the adjectives and adverbs. I balked. I couldn’t make myself do it, so what I turned in was the stripped-down sort of piece that earned me the advice to go sit with the essayists.

    Lemme try that.

    “Once upon a very trying and unrelenting time, there lived ostentatiously a very peculiar duke who, through the trials and tribulations of a long-suffering cranky mother, obsessed over a yellowish-pink flower that grew haphazardly upon the side of a lopsided and not-very-well-founded stone wall that bordered the north side of the tiny wintry fiefdom not far from Brokinghamshire.”

    …

    Needs more adverbs.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    Kristine, my company just left so I returned to the thread.   Lots of great conversation, I’m so pleased.

    I always like to remind our authors and artists to check back in on the post in the evening and again the next morning.  Weekends are busy and some folks come to these late.

    Thanks again for sharing your work with us!

  56. 56.

    Lyrebird

    @RSA: @Kristine:

    Yeah I just had a big OMG that you have actually met Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, whose Nuala books have been comfort food for me for years.

    Thanks for sharing your path to getting where you are now!

  58. 58.

    Lyrebird

    @Kristine: Please do!

    I have moved a lot, so although I am in my heart a “can never have too many books” person, in practice, I try to let go of books that I don’t use much.  F/SF paperbacks from women authors, though… often not in the library, and yeah Fire Sanctuary & the others have always been carefully packed and brought along!

    Note: she has a website that appears not to have been touched in the past 10 years.

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PaulB: It was Asimov, “The Feeling of Power,” from 1958. It’s a bit quaint in that he imagines computers as expensive bulky devices even in the distant future.

    But a more famous instance of the trope, with cultural currency right now, is Dune and its Butlerian Jihad, in which some sort of past crisis involving artificial intelligence led to a ban on computing machines so complete that all calculation is done mentally by enhanced humans.

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