Technology is a wonderful thing. It enables surgeons to build up 3-D models of complex operations they have to perform. It peers into the depths of the universe to bring back images of stunning beauty. And, more practically, it enables me to write from halfway around the world.
It wasn’t too long ago that every publisher and their four-legged pet required that you mail in your promising manuscript. There were rules about that: white bond paper, double-spaced, name and page number up the top, not bound in any way except with a large rubber band. Remember those movies you’d occasionally catch where a publisher would heft a cardboard box to his desk and declare that it contained the (finally!) finished manuscript of Writer So-and-So? That model was tough for writers outside North America to emulate. (It still is; I can’t find International Reply Coupons in my part of the world for love nor money. In fact, I have to travel to another country — across international boundaries! — to buy one! Okay, it’s Singapore and it’s only ten kilometres away but still, it’s an international boundary.)
Then publishers and agents discovered email. Okay, not all of them have stepped over to the Electronic Side but, unless you live outside the United States, you cannot know what a huge leap of accessibility that represented to us. It put us almost on par with US writers. It was, in a word, liberating.
And so here I am, a Carina Press author writing these words for you to read from the tropical depths of Malaysia. If it had been only ten years ago, maybe even five years ago, you wouldn’t be reading this because I wouldn’t be published. It’s because of the trend-setting of people and companies that look ahead, rather than wallowing behind, that enables me to do what I love and maybe even try to make a living out of it. I love the way technology can bring us closer, writer and reader. Long live the information revolution!
About the book:
IN ENEMY HANDS is a science-fiction romance about character, betrayal, ambition and justice.
The Republic had taken everything from Moon–her research partner, her privacy, her illusions. They thought they had her under control. They were wrong.
Srin Flerovs, Moon’s new research partner, is a chemically enhanced maths genius whose memory is erased every two days.
While he and Moon work on a method of bringing dead stars back to life, attraction between them flares, but that poses its own problem. How can their love survive when Srin forgets Moon every two days?
When she discovers the lethal applications her research can be put to, Moon knows she and Srin are nothing more than pawns in a much larger game. Together, they must escape the clutches of the Republic before they become its scapegoats. But there are too many walls around them, too many eyes watching. They want to run, but they’re trapped on a military vessel in the depths of space, and time is running out….
About the writer:
Kaz Augustin is a Malaysian-born writer of science-fiction, romance, and permutations of the two. Her website is at http://www.ksaugustin.com She blogs about writing and life in general at http://blog.ksaugustin.com and about food at http://food.ksaugustin.com You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter; just look for “ksaugustin”.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Welcome to our blog! What a beautiful cover!
What do you have in mind for the next manuscript?
Thanks for inviting me, Heather! Probably another science-fiction romance. I’m predictable like that. LOL
IRCs! Ah, the memories of perplexed faces at the local post office–”You want what?” Not a big call for IRCs unless you’re a faraway writer with dreams. Thank you, tech gods, for email :) And of course, for internet sites like this one where you can catch up with other writers, readers and dreamers.