I don’t post about it very often, but my wife is a self-published author. She focuses mainly on “speculative fiction”–fantasy mixed with sci-fi (in varying quantities). Here’s a list of her published works.

Full disclaimer: she has expressly forbidden me from posting reviews of her works on sites like Amazon and Goodreads.com, since I am (naturally) biased. However, this is my site, so I can say what I want! That said, I’ll try to keep this more or less impartial. I hate sales pitches, and I’m sure you do, too.

Anyhow, about two years ago, she published a novella called Mourning Cloak. Being a novella (shorter than a full novel, but longer than a short story) meant that she had to focus very tightly on the story she wanted to tell; longer works are able to take more time to build up the world, show you all the action, and then wrap everything up nicely at the end. Mourning Cloak had a very rich, detailed world, but the reader only really saw parts of it as the story carried them along–one reviewer complained that, even after reading, they didn’t have a good idea of what a cobble cruncher looked like–and there were some things left hanging at the end, because the story ended before they could be resolved. Most obviously, the main characters were stranded in a desert far from home. The story of Mourning Cloak was complete, but there was clearly more to tell about the world, and Rabia pretty quickly got lots of feedback asking for a sequel.

She’d never written a sequel before. Hadn’t even considered it, really.

But she agreed that there was more to tell, and so she wrote Ironhand, which continues the story and tries to wrap up some of the loose strands from Mourning Cloak. It’s available now in e-book format through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo; we’ll be publishing a paperback version (through Amazon) soon.

If you’ve read & enjoyed Mourning Cloak, I highly recommend Ironhand. If you haven’t, feel free to try Ironhand, but I’d suggest that you’ll get the most out of reading both together–that’s kind of the nature of sequels, after all.

My wife just self-published her second short story collection, Unseen. (That's the Amazon link; it's also available on Barnes & Noble here, and will be available on Smashwords, iBooks, etc. eventually–though from our experience with Shattered, I expect that will take a few weeks.) Unseen is two stories, Second Sight and Out of Shape, that deal with hidden realities. They are, in my opinion, very different from each other, but they're each really gripping in their own ways.

Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention that the cover was once again provided by my amazingly talented sister.

My wife has entered the self-publishing fray with Shattered: broken fairy tales, a collection of three short stories. She's planning on following this up with some of her novel and novelette works; she wanted to start with something simpler in order to figure out the whole e-publishing process.

Here in the U.S., November 11th is specifically set aside as Veteran's Day–a special day to remember all of those who have served in our country's military. I normally ignore and/or mock the “Hallmark Holidays”, but this is one day that I feel is worth having around. Today, we honor people not for trivial things, but for being willing to step forward and serve something far greater than themselves, potentially even to die for it. I believe these men and women are truly deserving of all of our respect, honor, and praise.

I never served in the military. My father, on the other hand, did. He never talked about it when I was growing up, but he voluntarily enlisted during Viet Nam (he was likely to get drafted, as I understand it). I still don't understand why he didn't use his bad eyesight to get out entirely, but he chose to serve.

Dad, thank you for everything–including being willing to stand up when needed. I love you.