#im waffling between two titles in the meantime

[sunn-mechanic]

📓!

The Ask Game for context

Okay so, one that I've been spinning around iny brain for a little bit is a undertale fic centered around Burgerpants and Papyrus (possibly ship but I like making things to be read either way) bc I think they would be great friends, but also mildly terrible for each other.

The plot of the fic is essentially that Papyrus has a self-esteem crisis and meets Burgerpants during that and they proceed to become friends. They end up bonding over their shared issues in a bad way and Papyrus slowly gets worse mentally until Burgerpants finally notices what's happening and he tries to dial back on being nihilistic with him and steer the both of them in a more positive direction, away from bad coping mechanisms.

[christinaengela]

Hello friends and fans!

Welcome to my 14th newsletter: February 2018 – jam-packed with tidbits and information about new releases and projects I’m currently busy with!

Coming up in this edition of Another Round @ The Crow Bar:

Regular updates, new releases, and a monthly spotlight on one of my books, this time “Panic! Horror In Space #1“, book 1 in Panic! Horror In Space Series.

Hello!

February is always a busy and eventful month for me, being my birthday month. I had a nice long holiday from December, and towards the end of January I went back to work – and I had to get back into my routine again.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been working on “African Assignment” and “Bugspray“, two books that were both published and available until November. To give you a little background, both books were published through LightBearer during 2016, which was a mutual project of mine together with a friend, but due to various considerations, including the unsuitability of CreateSpace as a publishing platform regarding payment options for the publisher and author, we agreed that the best thing to do was to take both books down and re-release them through Lulu. We also agreed that this was better under my own brand, as it seems likely that LightBearer isn’t going to be active again anytime soon. This came about at the end of November, and I’ve been working on both titles since. It’s not just a matter of taking the manuscripts down and putting them up on another service; it’s more complicated than that – different POD sites use different software and have different formatting requirements. Also, in our opinion, CreateSpace’s materials and printing quality is inferior to Lulu’s. In the meantime, I’ve been reformatting, and have modified cover details and made some content changes, all in preparation to put them up again via Lulu alongside the rest of my books.

In the meantime, my fiance’e and I are also in the thick of making preparations for our hand-fasting in March this year. It’s been in the workings since last year, when we got engaged on the 9th – and the date is set for the 10th! Some pictures will be included in an article on my website and later, in one of the next newsletters – so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I’m also working on another of my dad’s books, getting it ready for publication. My dad, Theo Engela, died in 1985. “Shakandazu Valley” was the last book he finished, in the year before his death. He tried unsuccessfully to get it published up to the time of his death, sending typed copies to publishers who weren’t interested in anything from South Africa due to the political climate etc – that’s right, politicians have a long, long history of shattering dreams and screwing things up for us ordinary folk!

So, I’ve been editing it for him, which has been quite a mission since it was typed on paper old-school, with a manual typewriter that imprinted slightly smudged letters on the paper. The only way I could do this, was to scan the pages into digital images and run them through a text-bridge application – which provided me with a Word document with a truckload of errors! Aside from that, I think the lady who typed the manuscript for dad altered the text in typing from the handwritten manuscript by replacing contractions (i.e. “can’t”) with full words (i.e. “cannot”), and so this makes for a rather plodding text, especially in dialog, so I’ve had to modify it to make it easier to read. That’s just what I’m up to with the first edit which is still in progress – during the next edit, I’ll be working on the flow of the story telling, the dialog, and any other errors I find.

The book should go out soon after I’ve put the other two back up again. “African Assignment” is a collection of my dad’s short stories, and there’s an interesting difference in his style in writing short stories as opposed to his novel-writing – add to that, his two earlier novels are written in a style more like his short stories than “Shakandazu Valley”. There’s an almost 20 year gap between them. Nevertheless, it’s an exercise in getting to know my dad, and it’s a pretty deep experience for me, one I’m enjoying a lot.

But before I waffle on too much, let’s get on with the newsletter! 🙂

New Releases

The Galaxii Series

Blachart by Christina Engela

Demonspawn by Christina Engela

Dead Man’s Hammer by Christina Engela

Galaxii – Into The Abyss by Christina Engela

“Galaxii – Into The Abyss” – a special omnibus of all three already released titles in the Galaxii Series, was released on 23 June and is only available in paperback 6″ x 9″ format. Work on book 4, “Where Darkness Softly Treads” is still pending due to other projects at this time.

The Quantum Series

Black Sunrise by Christina Engela

The Time Saving Agency by Christina Engela

Dead Man’s Hammer by Christina Engela

Loderunner by Christina Engela

Prodigal Sun by Christina Engela

High Steaks by Christina Engela

The Quantum Series – Keep Off The Crabbygrass by Christina Engela

“The Quantum Series – Keep Off The Crabbygrass”, an omnibus of The Quantum Series titles 1, 2, 3 and 4 (“Black Sunrise”, “The Time Saving Agency”, “Dead Man’s Hammer” and “Loderunner”) was released in July 2017.

About The Quantum Series will give you more background about the series, its settings and characters. To get a better idea of what the latest two titles are about, read What Readers Can Expect In “Prodigal Sun”, “High Steaks”, “Fortitude” & “The Last Hurrah”.

Panic! Horror In Space

Panic! Horror In Space #1 by Christina Engela

Panic! Horror In Space #2 by Christina Engela

Panic! Horror In Space #3 by Christina Engela

Panic! is a sci-fi/horror series, which will have some decidedly sci-fi characters encountering some decidedly horror entities – ghosts, haunted objects, zombies, etc. along with my usual twisted brand of humor! The first two titles are available in paperback and ebook versions on various distribution platforms including Amazon and Lulu. “Panic! Horror In Space #1” and “Panic! Horror In Space #2” were released earlier this year and “Panic! Horror In Space #3” was released on 18 November 2017.

Non-Fiction

Bugspray by Christina Engela

The Pink Community – The Facts by Christina Engela

The Peed Off Peasant’s Collection of Awesome Parking Memes

On A Personal Note

Fan Mail & Honorable Mentions

Noticed in the past month by my long-suffering PA and fiance’e, Wendy K. Gloss, were the following honorable mentions:

Nothing this month – sorry!

I display my Fan Mail & Compliments with pride, gratitude and humility. You are always welcome to have a look.

Hate Mail & Horrible Mentions

I’m almost sad to say I have nothing new to show you this time! (I may have something to show you next time though!)

(I’m rather proud of my hate mail, and you can review it here – but be forewarned, don’t do it while eating or drinking or you might choke while laughing!)

Interviews

Nothing new during this past month! If you would like to do an interview with me about my works, please do get in touch!

New Videos

Nothing new at the moment, but in the meantime, here is the book trailer video for “High Steaks”!

New Listings

Nothing new for 2018 just yet! All my already published books now seem to be listed just about everywhere! Amazon, Anobii, Barnes & Noble, Bol (NL), Book Depository, eBookMall, FictionDB, Fnac (FR), Foyles (UK), Goodreads, Indigo, iTunes, Kobo (prices in ZAR ), Lybrary, Nook, Takealot (prices in ZAR ) and 24 Symbols. I recommend readers make their purchases via Lulu.

Monthly Book Spotlight [Spoiler Alert]: “Panic! Horror In Space #1”

This is the sixth title in The Quantum Series. To read more about the settings and characters of this series, visit About The Quantum Series and Characters & Plot Devices. To find out about Christina Engela’s main writing focus, read No LGBT Stereotypes Here!

Back Cover:

“Panic! Horror In Space” is a series of science-fiction-horror stories in the same setting featuring mostly the same regular characters, with the occasional introduction of new characters or settings.

The premise for this concept was to create a horror-sci-fi story in a series of connected short fiction installments. For more detail about this series, visit About Panic! Horror In Space.

While on an otherwise routine deep-space mission to chart new territory on the frontier of unknown space, the Pioneer Fleet starship Mercury is probably the unluckiest ship in history. Not once, not twice, but many times over, the same hapless crew – give or take a few dozen casualties – on a supposed voyage of deep space exploration, stumble into the weird, wake the creepy and trip over the downright terrifying and possibly even supernatural…

Synopsis:

“While on a routine deep-space mission to chart new territory on the frontier of unknown space, the Pioneer Fleet starship Mercury stumbles across an apparent shipwreck in deep-space that opens a whole new can of worms for her crew.

How had a ship last seen near a Terran colony light years away forty years ago got here before the Mercury? Why couldn’t the cause of death of the crew be determined – what was in the deleted log entry of the Kilgary – and why had it been deleted?

The last thing Stuart Flane, captain of the Mercury, expected while he and five members of his crew worked to discover the answer to the enigma, was a day-long running battle inside the bowels of the moldering corpse of a long-vanished loderunner. Their troubles don’t end there, because Mercury – their only ride home – is also in trouble…”

The lost loderunner “Kilgary” (front view)

The lost loderunner Kilgary (rear view)

Buy Now: Paperback  /  Ebook

Details:

Edition: First Edition Published: April 06, 2017 Pages: 182 Dimensions (inches): 4.25 wide x 6.88 tall

In Closing

Well, that’s it, folks! 🙂

Stay tuned for more news as things progress!

Thanks again for all your support, friendship and interaction! Until next time,

Cheers! 🙂

If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website. If you want to know what Christina Engela’s focus group or target market is, please read here. If you would like to read more about Christina’s life and experiences, please go to her Biography and the article “Timeline of Milestones, Awards & Achievements“. To leave her a message, please use the Contact form. Visit her Shop. ‘Add’ Christina Engela on Facebook (Profile). ‘Like’ Christina Engela on Facebook (Page). All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2018.

Another Round @ The Crow Bar #14 – February 2018 Hello friends and fans! Welcome to my 14th newsletter: February 2018 - jam-packed with tidbits and information about new releases and projects I'm currently busy with!