10 Things to Know about Astounding!
YAY! It’s release day for my newest novel! So here’s a little trivia to tempt you….
1. I went back and forth over whether to call it sci-fi or urban fantasy. In the end, I decided to just call it spec fic and leave it at that. Which is good, because the main character, Carter, is editor-in-chief of a spec-fic magazine. Like this one:
2. Astounding! is my second novel to have punctuation in the title. I swore I wouldn’t do it again after Motel. Pool. I lied.
3. Astounding! is my second novel to have a pivotal scene take place at a dam. Motel. Pool. has a scene at Hoover dam; Astounding! has one at Bonneville Dam.
4. Karl and Ery from the Bones series make a guest appearance in Astounding! And characters from another of my books have a brief cameo too.
5. I had to do some basic physics research for Astounding! And math. This was not the most delightful research I’ve ever done.
6. I also had to do some research on large RVs. This was more fun than physics. My husband and I visited dealerships. I’ve always loved the idea of an RV, although I don’t want to drive or maintain one.
7. Astounding! is my 12th novel.
8. One of the main characters, John, lives in a little duplex in Portland, Oregon. It’s modeled on a real place next door to an apartment where I lived while in college. It’s at 33rd and SE Gladstone, in case you were wondering.
9. A 1971 Dodge Dart plays a small part in the book. My first car was a ’71 Dart Swinger. Its odometer was at nearly 200,000 miles when we acquired it (for $300 plus a $100 Earl Scheib paint job). It ran, and it was better than walking. It looked pretty much like this.
10. One of the book’s minor characters, Freddy, may have been a teensy bit inspired by a certain bloodthirsty novelist whose books have been turned into an HBO series.
Astounding! is available now at