The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes: Starred Review

We were extremely excited to hear that Publishers Weekly has given The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes by Albert Wendland a starred review and made it the Pick of the Week! This is the first time one of our titles has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

"In Wendland’s intricately plotted, character-driven debut, pulp exploration meets philosophical speculation, and a moralistic sensibility is fused with Philip K. Dick’s paranoid fantasies and Ray Bradbury’s awe of alien encounters.…Impending doom pervades ripping action scenes, the Lovecraftian theme of ancient warring aliens lends cosmic menace and authenticity to a grandiose mystery…deeply absorbing."—Publishers Weekly starred review

The Man Who Love Alien Landscapes is currently available for pre-order and will debut at Confluence 2014 in Pittsburgh, PA, July 25-27.

RELEASE: Wasteland Blues by Scott Christian Carr and Andrew Conry-Murray

BUY WASTELAND BLUES TODAY IN BOTH TRADE PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK!

 

Of Mice and Men Meets The Odyssey in a Post-Apocalyptic Future

Having only ever known the uncivilized wake of nuclear and biological apocalypse, three friends and their wheelchair-bound hostage set out on a perilous fool’s mission--to cross from one side of the devastated United States to the other, in the desperate, half-believed hope of finding a rumored haven. 

Spurred by a dark vision and the murder of their father, rageaholic Derek Cane and his over-sized, simple-minded brother, Teddy, flee the only home they've ever known, a struggling shantytown on the edge of the vast Wasteland. Heading ever eastward, they are accompanied by their friend, John, an orphan brought up by a fanatical religious order, and Leggy, a crippled old drunk who brags that, in his youth, he once traversed the Wasteland as a scavenger.

Wasteland Blues by Scott Christian Carr and Andrew Conry-Murray

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

 
 

COVER: The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes by Albert Wendland

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!


A science fiction novel that begins as a murder mystery and is taken over by an interstellar treasure hunt.

What could draw poet, explorer, loner and paranoid Mykol Ranglen away from the relative peace of his own ring-in-space habitat?
He has no choice in the matter as one by one acquaintances are murdered or disappear altogether. Propelled by ever changing and deepening mysteries Mykol embarks to uncover secrets which could make people rich beyond their wildest dreams…or tear apart human civilization.

The escalating quest takes him through worlds of many dangerous extremes, leading him to confront the deadly alien Fist of Thorns, extinct species refusing to give up their power over the future, and those racing against him to uncover the secret first. But in the course of his pursuit, he must also face his own secrets. And some of these are even more dangerous.

The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes by Albert Wendland

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Foreword by William H. Keith

Space Opera Paperback coming from Dog Star Books in June 2014

~~~

What They’re Saying About The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes
"Mystery, heart-pounding adventure, and the dazzling wonders of far-flung space play significant roles in Wendland's breakout novel, all while gifting us with a mesmerizing tour of alien landscapes destined to get under your skin and remind you of the very reason science fiction exists: Not to escape to other worlds, but to find ourselves within them."
--Diana Dru Botsford, author of THE DRIFT and FOUR DRAGONS

Inside are alien worlds and titanic space habitats and a brilliant and paranoid hero, all skillfully blended together with long-vanished galactic secrets. Science fiction… good science fiction, by a college professor of literature who loves good SF."
--From the foreword by William H. Keith, New York Times Bestselling Science Fiction Author

Many thanks to our participating bloggers:
Albert Wendland
Caroline Gessner
Cary Caffrey
D A Bale
Deanna Sjolander
Heidi Ruby Miller
Hily's BeeHive
Jason Jack Miller
John Edward Lawson
K.Ceres Wright
Kit 'N Kabookle
Lyndi Alexander - winner of a paperback!
Liz Coley
Maria Hammarblad
Matt Betts
Mike Mehalek
Patrick Stutzman
Sally Bosco
Stephanie Wytovich
T. K. Toppin
Theodore Webb

COVER REVEAL AND PRE-ORDER: Ambasadora: Marked by Light by Heidi Ruby Miller

Finally, the much-anticipated re-release of the book that gave us the Ambasadora-verse, reworked with a new beginning, cover and foreword.

If everyone told you love wasn’t real, would you still be willing to die for it?

Sara Mendoza and Sean Cryer are.

In their multi-partner, caste-ruled society, love and jealousy are considered emotional fallacies, nothing more than fleeting moods and sentiments biased by hormones. Relationships and conceptions in this world obsessed with celebrity, beauty, and power are based on DNA and lineages…or should be. But not everyone believes in the ruling traditions of the all-powerful Embassy. A quiet rebellion prowls the dark underground of this shiny world where techno-militants calling themselves fraggers grow in numbers and bravado. The Embassy intends to silence the fragger movement before the heresy of equality spreads throughout the system.

Sara Mendoza is part of the Embassy’s plan. Captured, tortured, and falsely accused of treason, she is given a chance to win back her freedom. She only needs to charm information from one of the fragger leaders, then kill him. But by the time she figures out the Embassy’s intel is flawed and that Sean Cryer is her true mark, she’s already in love with him.

Sean knows why Sara is on his ship from the start, but as a lonely, anti-social doser, he doesn’t value his life, only his ideology within the fragger organization. Against his better judgment, he becomes her protector, each day caring more about a future he was always afraid to hope for.

Ambasadora: Marked by Light by Heidi Ruby Miller

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Foreword by Jenna Bennett

Space Opera Paperback coming from Dog Star Books in April 2014

PRE-ORDER NOW FOR A SIGNED COPY, A FREE EBOOK, AND TO BE IN THE RUNNING FOR A BASKET FULL OF HEIDI'S FAVORITE THINGS

~~~

What They’re Saying About Ambasadora: Marked by Light
"Ambasadora has a lot to say about the human spirit and it says it well."
—Mike Resnick, Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author

"With an anthropologist’s eye for world building and an engaging fast-paced style, Heidi Ruby Miller hurtles her characters through a dystopian labyrinth in which hollow beauty is revered and love a virtual crime."
—Christopher Paul Carey, author of Exiles From Kho

"Beautifully vibrant and intricately textured, Heidi Ruby Miller’s Ambasadora explores the value of true humanity, the limitless power of desire and the triumph of the individual soul. Amidst edge-of-the-seat action, Miller effortlessly incorporates the conflicts of the modern woman inherent in upholding feminist sensibility. Ambasadora is a banquet of sumptuous words, a truly exciting adventure that fans of science fiction are sure to enjoy."
—Mary SanGiovanni, author of The Hollower series

"[Sara]’s a heroine for the ages, and living proof...that sacrifice for love is more honorable than sacrifice for duty. She risks it all, and wins it all, and in the process, helps to change her world for the better."
--Jenna Bennett, NYT Bestselling author of Fortune's Hero and lots of mysteries

~~~

Also from The World of Ambasadora and Dog Star Books:
Greenshift
Starrie (coming July 2014)

COVER REVEAL: Corpus Chrome, Inc. by S. Craig Zahler

COVERS

 

Who should be given a second chance at life? 

Decades in the future Corpus Chrome, Inc. develops a robotic body, dubbed a “mannequin,” that can revive, sustain and interface with a cryonically-preserved human brain. Like all new technology, it is copyrighted.

Hidden behind lawyers and a chrome facade, the inscrutable organization resurrects a variety of notable minds, pulling the deceased back from oblivion into a world of animated sculpture, foam rubber cars, dissolving waste and strange terrorism. Nobody knows how Corpus Chrome, Inc. determines which individuals should be given a second life, yet myriad people are affected. Among them are Lisanne Breutschen, the composer who invented sequentialism with her twin sister, and Champ Sappline, a garbage man who is entangled in a war between the third, fourth and fifth floors of a New York City apartment building.

In the Spring of 2058, Corpus Chrome, Inc. announces that they will revive Derek W.R. Dulande—a serial rapist and murderer who was executed thirty years ago for his crimes. The public is horrified by the decision, and before long, the company’s right to control the lone revolving door between life and death will be violently challenged….

Corpus Chrome, Inc by S. Craig Zahler

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

Cyberpunk/Transhumanism novel  coming from Dog Star Books in January 2014

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What They’re Saying About S. Craig Zahler

“Zahler’s a fabulous story teller whose style catapults his reader into the turn of the century West with a ferocious sense of authenticity.”
—Kurt Russell, star of Tombstone, Escape from New York, Dark Blue, and Death Proof

“If you’re looking for something similar to what you’ve read before, this ain’t it. If you want something comforting and predictable, this damn sure ain’t it.  But if you want something with storytelling guts and a weird point of view, an unforgettable voice, then you want what I want, and that is this.”
—Joe R. Lansdale author of Edge of Dark Water

 Many thanks to the supporters who participated in the Corpus Chrome, Inc. Cover Reveal:
Cary Caffrey
Heidi Ruby Miller
Jason Jack Miller
Johanna Gribble 
John Edward Lawson
K. Ceres Wright
Maria Hammarblad 
Mary DeSantis
Matt Betts
Mike Mehalek
RDSP
Stephanie Wytovich
T. K. Toppin
Theodore Webb -  winner of a Corpus Chrome, Inc. paperback!

EVENT: Dog Star Books Author at Anthocon

Anthocon 

November 8-10, 2013 • Portsmouth, NH

Scott Christian Carr will be at Anthocon moderating the following panels and doing both an official reading and impromptu readings throughout the weekend. More information can be found at the official Anthocon site.

Writing From the Fringe: Voices from Beyond the Wall

Does an author need to walk the walk in order to talk the talk? We'll assemble a panel of writers who live in the bizarre worlds that they write about, who share the beliefs, behaviors and motivations of their characters - writers who are brave (or crazy) enough to live on the Fringe and report back.

There Used to Be a Moon: Exploring the Apocalypse

From blowing up the Moon to zombie epidemics, global warming, economic meltdown and disease to tried and true full-scale nuclear catastrophe, we'll explore the current trends in end-of-the world fiction. How do new mindsets and social paradigms, rapidly advancing technology and more sophisticated worldviews change the ways that it can all hit the fan?

Dog Star Books Author: Albert Wendland

An early interest in astronomy, the comic books Strange Adventures and Mystery In Space, and the Sunday comics of Flash Gordon, led Albert Wendland to a life-long fascination with science fiction. Science projects, early efforts at art, and “creativity exercises” all had an SF vein, and the first novels he read were by Andre Norton, Poul Anderson, Arthur Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

His dream career was to do astronomy in the day and write science fiction at night, but majoring in physics at Carnegie-Mellon (as preparation for graduate work in astronomy) was not satisfying or inspiring enough, so he double-majored by adding English with the intention of eventually teaching literature and writing. In graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, he wrote one of the first dissertations on science fiction, and his interest in both mainstream literature and popular culture brought him to the attention of Seton Hill University (a College then), which hired him. He taught there happily for many years, pursuing his interests in the contemporary novel, Romanticism, the sublime in art, the graphic novel, popular fiction, and, of course, science fiction, while getting many of his poems accepted in the school’s award-winning literary magazine, publishing articles on science fiction. Then a call for graduate programs led him to co-create the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, which—unique in academic writing programs—focuses solely on the popular genres. This experience in developing and eventually running the program, and the ongoing communal inspiration provided by its students and faculty, encouraged a return to the thrill of writing SF novels, which he excitingly is continuing now.

Albert's debut novel, The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes, is due out with Dog Star Books in June 2014. Contact him at AlbertWendland@gmail.com.

AUTHOR NEWS: Heidi Ruby Miller in Galaxy's Edge

AUTHOR NEWS

Dog Star Books editor and author, Heidi Ruby Miller, has a short fantasy story in the July 2013 issue of Galaxy's Edge magazine, edited by Mike Resnick.

"The Islands of Hope" was originally published in the Fantasist Enterprises anthology Sails and Sorcery: Tales of Nautical Fantasy.

Dog Star Books Author: S. Craig Zahler

S. Craig Zahler
Florida-born New Yorker S. Craig Zahler worked for many years as a cinematographer and a catering chef, while playing heavy metal and creating some strange theater pieces. His debut western novel, A Congregation of Jackals was nominated for both the Peacemaker and the Spur awards, and his western screenplay, The Brigands of Rattleborge, garnered him a three-picture deal at Warner Brothers, topped the prestigious Black List and is now moving forward with Park Chan Wook (Old Boy) attached to direct, while Michael Mann (Heat & Collateral) develops his nasty crime script, The Big Stone Grid at Sony Pictures. In 2011, a horror movie that he wrote in college called, Asylum Blackout (aka The Incident) was made and picked up by IFC Films after a couple of people fainted at its Toronto premiere.

A drummer, lyricist and songwriter, Zahler continues to make music, and is now finishing his third album of doomy epic metal with his band Realmbuilder, which signed to I Hate Records of Sweden, after his foray in black metal with the project Charnel Valley (whose two albums were released by Paragon Records). He is also navigating preproduction on his directorial debut—a horror western that he wrote called, Bone Tomahawk, which will star Kurt Russell, Peter Sarsgaard, Jennifer Carpenter, Richard Jenkins and Timothy Olyphant.

Zahler studies kung-fu and is a longtime fan of animation (hand drawn and stop-motion), heavy metal (all types), soul music, genre books (especially, horror, crime and hard sci-fi), old movies, obese cats and asymmetrical robots. He is absolutely thrilled that Raw Dog Screaming is going to publish his new novel,Wraiths of the Broken Land, which is the most horrific piece he has ever written. The Science Fiction imprint of RDSP, Dog Star Books, will publish his transhumanism novel, Corpus Chrome, Inc., in January 2014.

Dog Star Books Author: K. Ceres Wright

K. Ceres Wright
Daughter to a U.S. Army father, K. Ceres Wright has lived in Anchorage, AK; Chicago, IL; Baltimore, MD; Frankfurt, Oberursel, and Munich, Germany; Seoul, Korea; and the Washington Metropolitan Area. She attended undergraduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park, with a double major in economics and finance, then worked for 10 years as a credit and treasury analyst before deciding to change careers.

Wright received her Master's degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA, and COG was her thesis novel for the program. An accomplished poet, Wright's science fiction poem "Doomed" was a nominee for the Rhysling Award, the Science Fiction Poetry Association's highest honor. Her work has appeared in Hazard Yet Forward; Genesis: An Anthology of Black Science Fiction; Many Genres, One Craft; and The 2008 Rhysling Anthology.

She currently works as an editor/writer for a management consulting firm and lives in Crofton, MD, with her son, Ian, and daughter, Chloe. Visit her website at http://www.kcereswright.com and find her on Twitter @KCeresWright.

Dog Star Books Author: Mike Resnick

Mike Resnick
Locus, the trade journal of science fiction, keeps a list of the winners of major science fiction awards on its web page. In the short fiction category, Mike Resnick is currently the leading award winner, living or dead, in the all-time standings. When novels are added, he is fourth on the all-time list, ahead of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Philip K. Dick.

Mike was born on March 5, 1942. He sold his first article in 1957, his first short story in 1959, and his first book in 1962. He attended the University of Chicago from 1959 through 1961, won 3 letters on the fencing team, and met and married Carol. Their daughter, Laura, was born in 1962, and has since become a writer herself, winning 2 awards for her romance novels and the 1993 Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer.

Mike's first novel in this "second career" was The Soul Eater, which was followed shortly by Birthright: The Book of Man, Walpurgis III, the 4-book Tales of the Galactic Midway series, The Branch, the 4-book Tales of the Velvet Comet series, and Adventures , all from Signet. His breakthrough novel was the international bestseller Santiago, published by Tor in 1986. The number of books he has had published, as both writer and editor, is staggering.

He has been a prolific writer of non-fiction as well. He wrote a 4-part series, "Forgotten Treasures", to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, produced 59 installments of the how-to column, "Ask Bwana" for Speculations, has (with Barry Malzberg) produced 60 installments of "The Resnick/Malzberg Dialogues" to date for the SFWA Bulletin, wrote a bi-weekly column for the late, lamented GalaxyOnline.com, and will now be writing editorials and columns for Jim Baen's Universe.

Carol has always been Mike's uncredited collaborator on his science fiction, but in the past few years they have sold two movie scripts -- SANTIAGO and THE WIDOWMAKER, both based on Mike's books -- and Carol -is- listed as his collaborator on those. Readers of Mike's works are aware of his fascination with Africa, and the many uses to which he has put it in his science fiction. Mike and Carol have taken numerous safaris, visiting Kenya (4 times), Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Botswana, and Uganda, and have two more planned for the next four years. Mike edited the Library of African Adventure series for St. Martin's Press, and is currently editing The Resnick Library of African Adventure, and, with Carol as co-editor, The Resnick Library of Worldwide Adventure, for Alexander Books.

Read more about Mike at http://mikeresnick.com.

Dog Star Books Author: Heidi Ruby Miller

Heidi Ruby MillerHeidi Ruby Miller uses research for her stories as an excuse to roam the globe. With degrees in Anthropology, Geography, Foreign Languages, and Writing, she knew early that penning fast-paced, exotic adventures would be her life. She's put her experiences and studies to paper in her far-future AMBASADORA series, including her newest novel GREENSHIFT, and into ATOMIC ZION, the beginning of her new thriller series.

In between trips, Heidi teaches creative writing at Seton Hill University, where she graduated from their renowned Writing Popular Fiction Graduate Program the same month she appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. AMBASADORA was her thesis novel there, and the multi-award winning writing guide MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT, which she co-edited with Michael A. Arnzen, is based on the Seton Hill program and was named #5 in The Writer magazine's Ten Most Terrific Writing Books of 2011.

She has had various fiction and non-fiction publications, as well as various jobs, including contract archaeologist, foreign currency exchanger at Walt Disney World, foreign language teacher, and educational marketing director for Frank Lloyd Wright's House on Kentuck Knob. In 2012, Heidi created the Dog Star Books science fiction imprint for Raw Dog Screaming Press and was the managing editor for the line for three years.

Currently she is the Director of Professional Writing Relations for the Pennsylvania Literary Festival, an event she co-founded in 2014 with her husband, award-winning author Jason Jack Miller, and Matthew Dowling and David Slusarick, the producers of the GoingLIVE talk show on FCTV, where Heidi sometimes co-hosts.

Her formal memberships include The Authors Guild, International Thriller Writers, Pennwriters, and Science Fiction Poetry Association. Heidi lives near Pittsburgh and is fond of high-heeled shoes, action movies, Chanel perfume, Tiffany jewelry, and tea of any sort. Interact with her at www.heidirubymiller.com, @heidirubymiller (Twitter), @heidirubymiller (Instagram), and at heidirubymiller@gmail.com.

Dog Star Books Author: Matt Betts

Matt Betts
Matt Betts was born and raised in Lima, OH and went to college in Toledo. He currently lives in Columbus with his wife Mackenzie, and their two wonderful boys. Growing up, Matt consumed vast amounts of pop culture. He read comics, watched cartoons, listened to various popular music, regularly viewed the old monster movies on weekend television and read everything he could find.

Matt went to college to study communications, specializing in broadcasting. He signed on with the campus radio station as a news anchor and reporter not long after he arrived at college – before he took his first communications class, in fact. After graduation, he worked for a number of radio stations as a DJ, a reporter and anchor. More than any other format, Matt worked at Oldies stations, which fed his love of Elvis, the Beatles and other great early rock icons.

Further feeding his love affair with pop culture, Matt also worked as a waiter in a Toledo comedy club while attending college. This allowed him to see how famous comics built and fine-tuned their acts. For comedians, like authors, the ending of a story is just as important as the beginning and vice versa. If a comic couldn’t sell the setup, the audience most likely wouldn’t stay with them for punch line. Over the course of a week, it was possible to see a comedian transform a decent joke into a better one through slightly different wording or different delivery.

Matt met and interviewed comedian and actor Larry Miller one night at the club. Larry gave some advice that stuck with Matt long after. Larry was a classically trained musician who still played regularly and when asked if it was all too much, Larry suggested that creativity is creativity. You don’t have to do just one thing. Whether you’re writing a poem or a script, that creativity feeds the other things you do. It helps you be a better actor, musician, etc. It is advice Matt has applied to his writing career from the beginning, allowing his love of pop culture to infuse and inform all of his work, including poetry, short fiction and his longer works.

Matt’s short and flash fiction has focused a lot on humor and horror. His work appears in Arkham Tales, Ethereal Tales, the Triangulation: Taking Flight anthology, Bizarro Fiction! The Journal of Experimental Fiction 37, A Thousand Faces and Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy.

Matt’s poetry has been published in numerous venues, and his poem “Godzilla’s Better Half” was nominated for a Rhysling Award, the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s highest honor. His poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Escape Clause, The Book of Tentacles, Illumen, the 2010 Rhysling Anthology, Kaleidotrope and others. One of his pieces was also mentioned in a New York Times article on zombie poetry.

Matt currently works for CGI Federal in Columbus as a writer and coordinator.

Read his blog Zombie Wrangler.

EVENT: Mike Resnick and Matt Betts at Millennicon 27

Dog Star Books authors Mike Resnick and Matt Betts were guests at Millennicon 27 in Cincinnati last month. Here are some of the fun things they did:



Panel with Tim Waggonner, Eric Flint, and Mike Resnick



Steampunk panel with Matt Betts, Sally Van Eycke, and Sarah Hans



Mike Resnick reading

EVENT: Heidi Ruby Miller speaks at Citizens Library

EVENTS

Dog Star Books author and editor Heidi Ruby Miller discussed the changing climate in publishing with Jason Jack Miller as part of the Evening with Friends series at Citizens Library in Washington, PA.

AUTHOR NEWS: Mike Resnick Edits Galaxy's Edge

AUTHOR NEWS

Mike Resnick is the editor of the new bi-monthly Science Fiction magazine, Galaxy's Edge.

The first issue is online at http://www.galaxysedge.com. Below is the table of contents:


The Editor's Word, by Mike Resnick

FICTION
The Shoulders of Giants, by Robert J. Sawyer
Schrödinger’s Cathouse, by Kij Johnson
Creator of the Cosmos Job Interview Today, by Nick DiChario
Just a Second, by Lou J. Berger
Act of God, by Jack McDevitt
Requiem for a Druid, by Alex Shvartsman
The Bright Seas of Venus, by Stephen Leigh
The Spinach Can's Son, by Robert T. Jeschonek
Think Like a Dinosaur, by James Patrick Kelly

SERIALIZATION
Dark Universe (Part 1), by Daniel F. Galouye

COLUMNS
From the Heart's Basement, by Barry N. Malzberg
Something Different, by Horace Cocroft
Book Reviews, by Paul Cook

Deanna Lepsch Named as a New Dog Star Books Editor

NEWS

Dog Star Books and Raw Dog Screaming Press would like to welcome its newest editor, Deanna Lepsch!

Deanna Lepsch grew up in a small town in western Wisconsin. There wasn't much to do there, but she found at an early age she could escape into adventures courtesy of her local library and the books stocked there. When she was twelve, she tore into her first Romance novel, laying waste to any that crossed her path for years to come. Her senior year of high school, while working at the local Barnes & Noble, she rediscovered science fiction and fantasy literature.

After zipping through about five college majors, she ended up focusing on English and attaining a Bachelor of Arts in English at University of Wisconsin LaCrosse. While in school, she took several writing courses, solidifying what she knew would be ultimate career. She also worked on the school's literary journal, The Steam Ticket, which gave her just a taste of the publishing business. It was enough to get her hooked.

Six months later, Deanna attended Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction program earning a Masters of Arts in 2004.

Deanna is currently outlining and researching several projects including a time travel romance, adventure sci-fantasy romance and a YA adventure sci-fantasy. Her current focus is on finishing her contemporary romance, Bass desires.

Some of her interests include (but aren't limited to):

•   Social Dancing - especially Swing and Polka. (Yes, polka! She's originally from the land of beer, cheese, and German music. That would be Wisconsin.)

•   Screen Printing

•   Sewing

•   Reading

•   Writing

•   Travel

•   Music - both listening and performing

•   Vintage clothing - Mid-Century is her favorite.

She can be found most Sundays curled up on the couch enjoying both new and favorite movies such as: Harry Potter, Bottle Shock, V for Vendetta, The Marvel Movies, Notting Hill, Love Actually, The Day After Tomorrow (and other terrible disaster flicks) and the Shawshank Redemption, for example. Lately, she's been all about Dr. Who, Torchwood and Lost Girl.

She enjoys reading many different genres and non-fiction topics but her current favorites fall into one of these categories: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance or Young Adult. Some of her favorite authors are: Douglas Adams, MaryJanice Davidson, Gail Carriger, Charlaine Harris, Maria V. Snyder, Sarah Addison Allen, Rick Riordan, JK Rowling, and Mercedes Lackey.

Deanna believes anything worth doing is better with a soundtrack. She thrives with a beat in the background and her musical tastes are all over the place. Her current favorites include: Muse, Green River Ordinance, Mumford & Sons, The Cab, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Bobby Darin, Regina Specktor, A Fine Frenzy, fun., Youngblood Hawke, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and more.

Deanna lives in Minnesota's gorgeous Twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul with her husband and two mischievous dogs, Brigs and Holly. She currently works for Allina Health in Minneapolis as an Operational Trainer for Electronic Medical Records.

Read her blog Actively Pursuing an Insomniac Lifestyle.
Twitter: @dlepsch

Winner: Patrick Stutzman Gets a Dog Star Books T-shirt

WINNERS

Congratulations to Patrick Stutzman!

He was the random blogger to win the Dog Star Books T-shirt (as modeled by Johh Wayne Communale of Letters to Voltron fame) for blogging about the cover reveal for Matt Bett's Odd Men Out. This makes Patrick a new member of the Dog Squad! Patrick is also an author. Check out his novel Alone on the Edge.

Cover Reveal: Odd Men Out by Matt Betts

COVERS

Fighting for survival in a post-Civil War America overrun by zombies, Cyrus and Lucinda join a military group called the Odd Men Out, and together they face a terrorist army from the North in a showdown over a weapon of enormous power.

Odd Men Out by Matt Betts

Steampunk and Alternate History coming from Dog Star Books in Summer 2013

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp

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Many thanks to the following supporters who participated in the Odd Men Out Cover Reveal:

The Barking Lot
D. Harlan Wilson
Deanna Lepsch
Ellie Soderstrom
Heather L.Nelson
Heidi Ruby Miller
Jason Jack Miller
JC Cassels
John Edward Lawson
K. Ceres Wright
Lee Allen Howard
Maria Hammarblad

Matt Betts
Mercedes Yardley
Michael Mehalek
Natalie Duvall
Novel d'Tales
Patrick Stutzman
Paul Cude
Scott Thomas
Steampunk Chronicle
T. K. Toppin

Cover Reveal: A Miracle of Rare Design by Mike Resnick

COVERS

The best way to learn about an alien species is not only to live among them, but to become them in both physical form and function, but could a human really learn to think like an alien, and at what cost to his humanity?

A Miracle of Rare Design by Mike Resnick

Anthropological Science Fiction coming from Dog Star Books in Summer 2013

Cover Art by Bradley Sharp
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Many thanks to the following supporters who participated in the Cover Reveal for A Miracle of Rare Design:

The Barking Lot
Chris Stout
D. A. Bale
D. Harlan Wilson
Heidi Ruby Miller
Jason Jack Miller
JC Cassels
John Edward Lawson
K. Ceres Wright
Lee Allen Howard

Maria Hammarblad
Matt Betts
Michael A. Arnzen
Michael Mehalek
Mike Resnick
Novel d'Tales
Patrick Stutzman
The Write Way