THE ODYSSEY

The #kindlescout campaign for THE ODYSSEY has launched!

For a chance to get a free copy, please nominate this book for publication.

The Odyssey is the second book in the Sphere-World Series.

Book 1 - The Sphere - is available to download from Amazon worldwide.
Stay tuned for upcoming free promotional days!

Happy reading!
Thank you all for reading, voting, and sympathizing with Bella, Dylan, Nick, and the crew of The Odyssey! They are a great bunch of people.

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/MTSLC3EVZMIU

ANK on What genre...?

A headscratcher for me! Well and truly is...
A crucial one as well. Because peddling my books to the wrong people will never earn me satisfied and returning readers.
So I need to get this right.
Easier said than done.
I can, of course, describe what my books are all about on (social) media outlets, but I cannot position them adequately on Amazon (where I list it) because my genre (or even subgenre) isn't acknowledged.
Keywords it is then.
But honestly... who types sophisticated keywords into Amazon search engines? I don't (but perhaps I will start after writing this post - you never know!)

I started to write The Sphere - part of the Sphere-World Series, during #Nanowrimo2016. By now it has developed into a full-blown series.
Honestly, I had no idea it would.

When I started writing it, I took my least developed plot and decided to see if I could actually write 50k words in a month. I never thought I had it in me. But I did! Now - a year later and The Sphere is published in ebook format on #Amazon worldwide.
The second book in the series is called The Odyssey, and I am planning on getting it onto the #KindleScout programme soonish.
I did the same thing with The Sphere, and I enjoyed the process.

Before and during the Kindle Scout campaign, when I read lots of 'how to' and 'what to' and 'what-not-to' articles, I became aware of the importance of stamping a genre onto my book. (There is some great advice out there! Make use of it.)

Gulp... Science Fiction...obviously! Or so I thought. But the novel contains a lot of romantic elements as well, and a bit of dystopian fiction. It also hints at elements of fantasy to come as the Sphere-world series develops.
And yes - there will be a whole lot of fantasy, and science, and sci-fi.
The Sphere is a novel of mixed genres. <ANK on The Sphere>
But most importantly, it is the story of the main characters; the tale of the challenges they have to face, the obstacles they have to overcome, their struggles, their hopes, and dreams, and failures. It is about how they cope with changes, and how they fight to make their dreams come true - no matter the genre!

Download The Sphere for free from #Amazon

24 hours left! Grab your copy of THE SPHERE 🌏 FREE DOWNLOADhttps://t.co/sbDfN5csV7
#Amazon #Kindle
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Thank you! 🐬

— Anathea N. Krrill (@AnatheaKrrill) November 17, 2017

The Cover for The Sphere

People asked me:

Where did I get the cover for The Sphere from? And what does it mean?

Honestly? It started as a bit of a joke.

Remember the first images the Hubble Space Telescope sent back to NASA.?The HST was sent to space way back in April 1990. Wooo! That's a good while ago.

Naturally - as soon as images came back, scammers weren't far. See - 'Fake News' is not an invention of this millennium.

And there was this iconic image of Earth cradled in clouds (Google it!). Nobody knows exactly, where it originated from or when. And although the Hubble Space Telescope has given us incredible images and insights into outer space <HST images>, this particular one wasn't taken by Hubble!

To cut a long story short:

The iconic image of “Earth in a Cradle of Clouds” was allegedly taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It made a huge impact on the internet but later turned out to be ‘fake news’.

I chose this image, altered it a bit myself. I like this image. I think it is striking, but at the same time, it creates a false impression – just like The Sphere creates an environment based solely on the imagination of whoever uses her.

Nothing is real!

 I chose the cover as an allegory for all that The Sphere stands for: unknown origin, a creator of unreality, yet beautiful; it is an inspiration and an enigma alike. Something that could be real, but isn’t. 

Since The Sphere is an artificial environment and creates virtual realities based on the user's imagination, I thought it a fitting tongue-in-cheek jest, to take a beautiful - if faked - image of Earth (the ultimate goal for Bella,  and Nick), add some digital embellishments to it, and use it as the cover for my book.

That's really it as a formula:

A bit of fun + awesome image (it does look dramatic - no doubt about it!) = stunning cover for a hopefully interesting book.

The Sphere is available to download for free for #kindleunlimited subscribers worldwide!

Amazon US

Amazon UK

The Sphere published on Amazon

Pfff... I did it!
After a final (very tedious) edit, I now published The Sphere on Amazon US and Amazon UK

There many firsts in this process:

My first book
My first Kindle Scout campaign
My first attempt at self-publishing
My first go at Twitter (believe it or not!)
My first blog
My first grey hair (not really... but it certainly feels like that)
My first revisit of nailbiting after quitting decades ago

I learned a lot along the way, and not everything was easy and straightforward.
Self-doubt: it's all just a big pile of sh**t, suffering imposter syndrome (I am not really an author... am I...?), who will want to read it anyway? The works!
I am sure everybody who has ever attempted to write a book, or even a blog-post or anything will know the intrinsic fear of the P-word (as in Publishing). It means getting your work out into the open, into the public domain, where everybody is allowed to scrutinise and give their opinion. Worse even: by publishing your work, you actively invite criticism. Not something most people are comfortable with. Certainly not me. Because I surely could have done much, much better... no?

And then I start reading book 2 or continue writing on book 3 or even start jotting down ideas for book number 4, and I know, it's not all bad!
I am improving. My style gets better, I am more confident in the way I allow my characters to speak their mind (I stopped trying to sugarcoat their foul language or anglicise their direct approach). I let them do their own thing - I just make sure they do it in the right order and in a manner, that makes sense to the readers.
And realising that, I am actually looking forward to getting The Odyssey (book 2 of the Sphere-World series) onto #KindleScout ASAP.

ANK on #Oceanplastic

I don't know exactly HOW many petitions I have signed over the past few years for governments to implement plastic recycling schemes, for CEOs of mega-polluters (yes - all you drinks companies who still favour disposable plastic bottles!) to support said recycle schemes. I talk to friends and strangers alike, I try to educate people and I even pick up plastic waste from the sea and the beaches around where I live. My little contribution to tackling a global problem.
And there is a lot of plastic to be picked up! A lot of it comes from the shipping, fishing, and yachting industry: Fragments of nets, plastic ropes, and the likes.
Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to find it acceptable, to discard of their rubbish (take away containers, plastic bottles, plastic bags, cans, and bottles) on a beach!
I live in a beautiful part of the world, and people come and visit for their holidays - because it is gorgeous, it is serene, and it widely unspoilt.
I cannot imagine, how people can be so calloused and discard of their waste so irresponsibly. And no - it is not 'gone with the wind' - many items I find are deliberately wedged somewhere between rocks, left in a carrier bag, weighed down with a rock, or are just simply 'left to rot', dropped on the spot, never to be considered again.

The implications are manifold: Plastic waste is harmful to aquatic life - animals ingest the stuff, get entangled in disused nets, ropes or fishing lines and suffer greatly.
Plastic waste litters beaches, estuaries and even the sea floor.
Being a scuba diver and open water swimmer, I know how much plastic waste there is floating around.

On a positive note:
The 5p charge for single-use plastic bags, which came into UK-wide force on the 5th of October 2015 saw an over 70% reduction in litter caused by plastic carrier bags.
A fantastic step in the right direction, but still a lot is left to be done.

The UK is still lacking a recycle scheme for plastic bottles, littering still seems to be socially acceptable, and little is done in the way of weaning the nation off disposable plastic like wrappers, food-packaging, and other short-lived, single-use plastic items - like straws.

Having done research into biodegradable plastics myself (really degradable - not just 'fall to tiny bits' plastic) I know, that technology and materials exist, to substitute non-degradable littering materials with biodegradable materials, which can easily applied in the packaging industry #polyhydroxyalkanoates, #bioplastic, #Biopol

Meanwhile keep to the motto:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Here are the links to a few petitions and pledges, you could sign, if you like to help reduce or stop #Oceanplastic altogether. But there are many more out there - just google :-)

<38Degrees - Bottle deposit scheme>
<Greenpeace UK Plastic Pledge>
<Marine Conservation Society - Plastic Challenge>

Or get hands on by participating in a local beach cleanup.

And please discard of your waste responsibly.

P.S.
* Plastic waste is not only causing problems in the oceans.
* It is not only plastic waste, that causes problems in the oceans.

ANK on Observations

I like to observe.
I like to go out, sit in a lively place and watch people. Or sit quietly and watch nature.
Old habits die hard - I am a scientist: Observations and resulting deductions, ideas and conclusions are a vital part of the job description; as is curiosity and an ingrained 'need to know'.
Who? Why? What? Where? How? The five corners of my 'Scientist's Pentagram' also apply very much to writing.
When I write, I ask questions.
When I work in a lab, I ask questions.
Question marks meet me on a daily basis. I question things I don't understand - I question things I think I do understand - to dig deeper. There is always another layer, there is always somebody who knows more.
I like to discuss my work and other people's work. I am curious. I want to find out, what is happening.
Curiosity is a great driver for creativity: If I don't write, I don't know where the story is going to go. I enter a dialogue with my characters, and we discuss the plot and take it further.
Sometimes we fight, sometimes we are in agreement, but whatever happens, it is thought out, questioned, discussed.
The process of writing is putting observations into words, express what's happening. The better I observe, the more detail I can provide for the reader to 'get into the character'.
It may sound counter-intuitive, but the better I observe and write, the easier it becomes for the reader to make the transition from observer to participant. And this is exactly what any writer wants to achieve: to invite their readers into their book, to make it easy for them to step over the threshold from flipping the pages to living the story.
Not saying I am anywhere near that type of genius... but it is something I aspire to, and sometimes it is good enough to know, where you want to get to in order to walk in the right direction.