Octavia Girl

Hi Ink Drinkers,

Just as I promised, I wrapped up posting If Diamonds Could Talk on all the major sites.  Well, I'm still updating it slowly on Booknet, and maybe a few other tiny places, but the majority is complete.  That means now I get to start posting Octavia Girl.  I'm pretty excited about this.  I don't know why I want to write something this bonkers, but I'm really into science fiction these days.  His 16th Face and If Diamonds Could Talk are both very soft science fiction, beginning in a world we all understand and slowly moving into the world I hope exists beyond the limited vision of our understanding.  Rose Red was not very sci-fi.  Let's be honest.  It isn't, but it gave me the tools to write Sleeping Prince which is very sci-fi.  Sleeping Prince is very heavy in the romance department.  The whole thing breathes and sleeps romance, but Octavia Girl is a bit of a departure from that.  Yes, there is romance.  I'm the author.  There's romance, but the romance is taken to the back burner for the comedy and the drama.  I wanted to write something that represented a woman in a bizarre science-fiction situation.  Embarking on something like this always makes my knees wobble as I worry no one will like the unusual literary contraption I've conceived.  Well, here's hoping.

Let me tell you a bit about the cover.  The first thing is the font.  I made the font that says 'Octavia Girl' and by made, I mean that I strategically butchered another font.  I love it so much!  Secondly, the background.  The background art is by Russian artist, Liia Chevnenko.  It seems to me that she mostly makes art that gets printed on fabric.  Isn't her work delightful? And lastly, the picture of Jenna herself is by another Russian artist, Elena Barenbaum.  I LOVE HER!  She provided the central piece for the girl on the cover of A Little Like Scarlett and for my upcoming novelette, Born in January.

Here's the synopsis for Octavia Girl:

Jenna Fairchild has a secret she has been keeping since she was a baby.  Under her headband, under her grandfather's fedora, under her headphone strap, and under her messy bun, she has been hiding a black crown.  No one could understand it, so she had to keep it hidden.

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That is, she had to keep it hidden until she was abducted by aliens, given riches beyond her wildest dreams, a palace to herself on an alien world, and been tasted head-to-foot by an enormous alien octopus.  Then she was ready to take her place on the political stage of the universe.  Jenna is not a princess, she's a diplomat.  Armed with arms that are less plentiful than an octopus's, with fewer suction cups, and only one person who can help her... Sardius, who is only a voice speaking to her through an earpiece, Jenna has to crown seven more diplomats or blue and red blood will spill.

Also, I've released the trailer on YouTube.  Now, in case you thought that the trailer is just going to be the synopsis all over again... it's not.  It's something else.

 The introduction is available to read on the following sites:

Booknet:

https://booknet.com/account/novels/view?id=416703

Quotev:

https://www.quotev.com/story/15561209/Octavia-Girl/1

Royal Road:

https://www.royalroad.com/fictions/search?title=Octavia+girl