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Kate MacLeod

Writer of science fiction and fantasy

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Publication day for In Quaking Hills!

January 30, 2018 by Kate MacLeod

Today is publication day for IN QUAKING HILLS, the sequel to UNDER FALLING SKIES and the second in the TRAVELS OF SCOUT SHANNON series. (I just finished up book 3 and have a sense of what book 4 will be, with a strong inkling there will be a book 5). It’s out in print and eBook pretty much everywhere. Here is the back of book copy:

After spending the last four days of her life hiding out from a deadly solar particle storm in an underground bunker, trapped with six treacherous women and a trio of girl assassins, Scout Shannon just wants to find the man who conned her mentor and leave her home world for good.
Alas, the long-threatened war draws nearer and Scout finds herself caught in the middle, surrounded by rebels and bandits. Worse, she carries a pocketful of dangerous secrets with no one to entrust them to.
And the hills keep shaking. Something lurks deep underground. Something massive. Something world-destroying. Scout leaves in three days. If she lives that long.
“In Quaking Hills”, the sequel to “Under Falling Skies” and the second book in “The Travels of Scout Shannon” series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, complicated boys, and loyal dog sidekicks.

It was awesome to wake up to a bunch of sales already from people who clicked preordered their copy – thanks so much you guys! And the end of this book has a sample from the opening of book 3, which will be about in mid March. These books are so fun to write, and it’s always a kick to see my dogs on the cover.

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, writing

Publication Day for The Mars of Malcontents!

May 16, 2017 by Kate MacLeod

My second novel The Mars of Malcontents is out today! It’s available in eBook and print at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Smashwords among other places. This isn’t a sequel to Mitwa; they take place in the same future but in different places with different characters. Here is the back of book description for you:

Valentina knows how to live in the community spread throughout the old mining caves under the Martian ice cap. A violent place in a forbidding climate, but home for her and her brother.

Until she wakes from a coma to find her brother gone. Her father thinks her incapable of following them back to the equatorial cities.

He underestimates her – her stubbornness, her courage and her inventiveness. But she underestimates the cold, airless surface of Mars.

A journey from the polar ice cap to the Martian equator? Not enough to stop Valentina. Not with her brother on the line.

I hope you check it out!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, writing

The Intergenerational Tree available for preorder

February 7, 2017 by Kate MacLeod

My novella The Intergenerational Tree is coming out on February 28 in digital and print. You can preorder the ebook at Amazon, Smashwords and Kobo and will be up on Nook and other sites as well as in print on 2/28. At about 60 pages it’s the perfect length for an afternoon’s read. Here’s a synopsis:

Humankind has reached the end of its adolescence. The time has come to leave our solar system nest and see what the rest of the galaxy has to offer.

Marie Marguerite has also reached the end of her adolescence, and she is ready for the great adventure of life on a generation ship heading to a neighboring star.

But a well-meaning relative she has never met destroys her plans, leaving her alone on a dying space station as all her friends take off without her. What can she do, left behind in humankind’s past?

The Intergenerational Tree is a science fiction novella with a generous side of gothic romance, all wrapped around a young heroine who must rely on her own brains and a dash of snark to put her life back on track.

Marie Marguerite has prepared all her life to travel on a generation ship. What will she do when the ship and all her friends leave without her?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: writing

A Very Formal Sort of Dog

January 24, 2017 by Kate MacLeod

Last summer one of the open lots on our deadend dirt road was finally sold and during the fall we watched this little patch of land become dominated with really quite a hideous McMansion. Well, some people are into that I guess. They also wisely erected a pole barn between their house and the house next door that looks like a lot of places I remember from my childhood in Tennessee, rusted out cars and miscellaneous garbage everywhere with the yard gone to weed. (To be fair, their front yard is an open field they keep mowed, so only these new people have to see their hording).

They moved in at the beginning of December and being we only get a few hours of daylight this time of year, neither my husband nor I have met them as yet, although the neighbor between the two of us has told us all about them.

I have, however, met their dog.

When you were little, did you ever meet a kid at the playground who was way too dressed up, who wanted to play but really couldn’t do anything because his mother told him not to get dirty? I’ve met a handful of versions of this kid, and looking back they were probably there vising relatives for a funeral or something, but it always made an impression on me, the strangely formal kid with the neatly combed hair, wearing clothes just short of being a suit, standing and watching the other kids and not getting dirty.

This dog is like that kid.

He first came over when they were moving in, a cold bunch of days. I was out with my own dogs before dawn, not yet wearing my glasses, and this dog is big, but black all over so he gave the three of us quite a start. Tachi, my 40-pound pit bull mix, promptly hid behind my legs. (She is still quite visible standing behind me; she’s not fooling anyone). Mugen was more willing to meet the new guy, but the other dog just stood there, perfectly straight, a bright blue collar around his neck and the hair on his head looking like a carefully coifed pompadour. He acted like his mother had told him not to get dirty.

He looked like the sort of dog who would have a human name like Steve or Theodore (definitely not Teddy).

We met him a few mornings after that, always very early and never with his humans about. Mugen only got upset the day we went outside and this dog was waiting for us on our back porch. He’s not territorial about our yard, apparently, but the porch is not for just anyone to use. I had to shove Mugen back in the house until I had shooed Steve away.

Since then the neighbors got their invisible fence installed and I haven’t seen Steve again. At least until last Saturday. He must have chased a squirrel out of his enclosure and couldn’t get back in because he was wandering around and around our yard in the middle of the day. My husband was out shopping and I was on the treadmill and saw a flash of black in the corner of my eye. I was startled – how had Tachi gotten outside? – then both my dogs started barking and I knew it was Steve. Steve ran around to the backyard as my husband pulled in, then ran back to the front yard when I tried pointing him out to my husband.

Now I had described this dog to him thoroughly, formal pose, neatly arranged hair, bright blue collar like a bowtie, probably named Steve. But his owners must have called him home because he had quite disappeared.

So now my husband things I’m imaging him. And yeah, I’m probably projecting on him. I do that with people too, fictionalize everything about them based on first impressions and then get confused later when I actually meet them because the fictional version seemed so real. It’s a thing.

But man, you should see Steve. He’s quite a dog.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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