YOU COULD WIN A $25 GIFT CARD!

But of course the details on entering will be down at the bottom of this blog.

Worlds Apart, the fourth book in the Three Worlds superhero romance saga (the picture on the right is a link to buying choices), is starting to show up on various sales sites across the internet. I just found a listing of it in Japan, and there's another one in Great Britain on Amazon UK. If you don't find your favorite book site on my page, just Google for it or give a yell and I'll see what I can do.

Tomorrow the world!

The saga follows three characters: Jae Rallene, the last of his people, able to talk to devas and thus change the very structure of matter; Londo Rand, adoptive son of the legendary Maximus—together the two are the most powerful beings this side of Galactic Center, with your basic comic book uber-powers; and primarily Lina O'Kelly, a born telepath and teleporter, and trained psychic.

When he was editing this latest volume, my editor Anselm noted, "The beginning is too domestic." Too domestic???

I've put poor Lina (and the others) through H-E-double-hockeysticks in volumes 1-3. Now I wanted to give her (and the reader) a chance to breathe and enjoy the fact that she and Londo's last names have changed to "Starhart." I wanted to show Cinderella kicking back after the marriage, soaking up that beautiful Happily Ever After.

Unfortunately, Lina has a lot to learn about being the bride of a mega superhero. Not only is there a household to maintain (it doesn't help that the gigantic palace of a house isn't close to being finished yet, or that hubby Lon is adverse to cleaning crews for security reasons), but there are lots and lots of people who want to take her picture—and she's deathly afraid of cameras.

Then there are the nasty folks who aren't particularly fond of Londo in his heroic guise of Valiant. He's never had a weak spot before. Now they see Lina and think: Aha! Will they make her life miserable, or will they want more? Like maybe assault, torture, and/or murder?

Some of these people are backed by an awful lot of power.

It doesn't help that the two men who would defend Lina with their lives are on other-world missions. Or that Lina's powers have been negated by... Well, you'd have to read the story. (Ye Ed said, "What, again?" But I gave the person a good reason besides the fact that he's just a jerk with a stick up his... well. This will be his last hurrah, I promise.)

So the domestic bliss doesn't really stick around that long, though that portion is packed with glitz and glam—everything a Cinderella could wish for. And Montreal! Did I mention the glitz happens in one of the most romantic cities on the globe? Naturellement!

But sooner or later, everyone's got to get back to work. Lina's got a bigger job to accomplish than the vast majority of galactic citizens. Can she survive to get to it?

CONTEST CONTEST CONTEST!!!

Yep, YOU could win a $25 gift card! I'll make it to Amazon, iBooks (do they have gift cards?), Barnes & Noble... If wherever you want has gift cards and you win, you'll get it to there.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO is make a comment to the question: Which superhero is your favorite? They can be from comics, movies, TV, books, urban legends... Make the comment either here or (since some folks have probs commenting on Blogger) on my Facebook pages: here or here.

OR be on my newsletter emailing list (sign up above the book pics on the right). I send out newsletters VERY rarely. Ah hates spam!

We'll make the deadline for comments, oh, Sept. 2, 2015, 2 PM Eastern Time. I'll get someone at the office to draw a name. (Someday I'll learn Rafflecopter or whatever it is.) Good luck!

(That cute Blue Beetle pic by Frobman on DeviantArt. Hope I'm okay in using it. If not, Mr. Frobman, please give me a yell.) (I paid for the credit card illo. Hope to be using it often!)

Finally: A New Book!

After slaving away for much longer than I'd estimated, I'm very proud to announce that Worlds Apart, Volume 4 of the Three Worlds superhero romance series, is now out! Yay! Let's see what it's about, shall we?

Returning to Earth was no honeymoon

The exciting THREE WORLDS superhero romance saga continues!

After the interstellar chaos of the past few weeks, Lina Starhart thinks she now has time to catch her breath and get used to the idea of not only being a bride but of being married to the galaxy’s most powerful man. But she has yet to learn what the job fully entails.

˃˃˃ Enemies all around

Not only does her famous husband Valiant have to bear the constant scrutiny of celebrity-watching networks, but he has enemies whose attention now turns toward Lina, whom they see as the hero’s primary weakness.

Can Lina step up to her new responsibilities and show herself to be a mega-level champion?

(That is, if she can survive that long.)

Cover illustration by Colleen Doran.
Rated R for violence and sexual situations.

Once again this is a super-sized book, but an awful lot goes on in it. I hope you'll like it. Click on the book cover to the right to see where you can find it. (I'll be adding links as they appear. Some websites take weeks to list books.)

What I need for this book right now are REVIEWS. I'm willing to give away free copies of the book to people who will post an honest review (even bad reviews are good!) on a major site like Amazon, Goodreads, etc. Interested? Give me a yell, either here or on Facebook.

Next week I hope to have a contest lined up. What would you like to see as a prize? A gift card? (To where?) Free books? (Mine or someone else's?) A little teddy bear? Interesting doodads? Believe it or not, I have a few jars of "breast enhancement creme" that I got in a grab bag from work. It won't increase bust size, but to judge from its ingredients list, it'll soften your skin like crazy.

Give me some suggestions! I'm ready to deal out some prizes, if you'll tell me what you want.

—Carol Strick

Say U.N.C.L.E.!

I'm still waiting for the book to come back from the formatter, so let's talk about one of my all-time FAVORITE TV shows, okay? I mean, there's a movie coming out this weekend that purports to be an update of it, though the trailer seems more a period Bond flick with a double hero.

United Network Command for Law and Enforcement: U.N.C.L.E. This show ran on NBC from 1964 to 1968, and one of its characters, Illya Kuryakin, was my second True Love. (After that mop top Paul McCartney.) Ahhh!

UNCLE (let's spell it that way for simplicity) was a semi-well-known international law agency to the public. They knew about it, but they didn't THINK about it much. It was much like Star Trek (same network; slightly later time frame) in that UNCLE was staffed by a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic crew that hailed from all around the world. In that time of Cold War, the Russian Kuryakin could work side-by-side with suave New Yorker, Napoleon Solo.

(James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, contributed Napoleon's name and also that of April Dancer, who'd spin off to her own show, The Girl from UNCLE. That was ALL the input he had.)

Though the New York UNCLE office had a public entrance, on the other side of the building agents often entered through a curtained cubicle inside Del Floria's Tailor Shop. They'd turn the coat hook sideways and a secret door would pop open, drawing them into a snazzy modern office (staffed with miniskirted ladies, natch) and computer lights blinking on every surface. The two agents were given triangular badges with their agent numbers on them. If someone came in who didn't wear the badges, a "Whee-oh, whee-oh" alarm would go off, agents everywhere would grab their guns and come running, and the bad guys would be done for!

Leo G. Carroll played Mr. Waverly, head of UNCLE's US offices. Rumor had it Waverly never left the office, yet somewhere I believe there was a Mrs. Waverly waiting at home for him.

The show was supposed to have been about Solo, but it was 1964. The Beatles had just stormed America. Here was the exotic-accented Illya (David McCallum's still sexy as Ducky on NCIS) (Robert Vaughn is very authoritative on all those "We mean business" lawyer commercials) with his longish hair (for the time). He was into jazz, he was quiet, and he could do ANYTHING, be it athletic or technical or seductive.

Ahhh.

Vaughn's Solo was the ladies' man, the most Bondian of the cast. (Except when he was frugging with someone in a gorilla suit. The series developed an unfortunate case of Batmania in its third season, which very likely contributed to its only having four seasons. Check out more info here.)

UNCLE utilized cool spy gadgets, ahead of its time. Before Capt. Kirk ever flipped open a cell phone, UNCLE agents had pen communicators. Take the top off, insert it upside-down, and say, "Open Channel D!" This was all done to the beat of a cool blue bongo/flute/brass theme.

The series is on DVD and doesn't cost that much. A network I don't get often shows episodes. Just want to sample? It's difficult for me to choose one, but if I had to, I'd go with Season 1's "The Never-Never Affair," (episodes were always "The Whatever Affair") with Barbara Feldon (the future Agent 99 from Get Smart) as an UNCLE agent who doesn't think the mission she's on is the one she's actually on.

Have a blast watching these episodes. You'll be surprised at how many well-known guest-stars the series had (hey, it was immensely popular in its day!) and how many Star Trek actors showed up.

But if you can't watch, I can recommend two fabulous UNCLE books to you. They seem readily available on eBay. Both were penned by David McDaniel, who imbued his work with humor as well as action. Volume #4 is The Dagger Affair. When I visited San Francisco years ago, I HAD to see Lombard Street, because that's where a major scene in the book took place.

Then there's Volume #6, The Vampire Affair, which sees our Stalwart Heroes off to Transylvania.

Both Mad Magazine and DC's Inferior Five had great take-offs of the show!

Trust me, one way or another, you'll enjoy UNCLE!

Fingers crossed for the movie this weekend. Are you going? Do you have fond memories of the original? Do you know what "Thrush" was an acronym for? (It's revealed in Vol. 4!) (And also Wiki, if you like to cheat.)

Later note: Saw the movie. Enjoyed! I'll definitely be getting the DVD so I can watch it again. Illya isn't the zen-like Illya, but he's still cool. (He needs to have more Illya-type hair, though.) It was a CRIME, though, that McCallum and Vaughn didn't get cameos. The movie is actually a prequel, with U.N.C.L.E. not mentioned until the end credits. I look forward to more installments!

Ack!

Arggh! Yeesh! @#!!

I'm in the middle of full-on edit angst attack.

The book was supposed to have been sent to the formatter a week and a half ago, right before my vacation started. I planned to use that week to paint, putter, and relax. Instead I spent said vacay in front of the computer, progressing word by word through the long manuscript.

And then I got hit by a hacker scam.

Folks, if your Internet suddenly freezes and you get a message from the browser company telling you that an Error 333 has happened, and that WHATEVER YOU DO, don't turn off the browser or your computer, or you may lose EVERYTHING... And that their support team operates 24/7 and will help you; here's their number...

Just force quit out of the browser. Proceed as usual. Maybe get some new anti-virus software.

"First Choice Tech Support" is a scam operation, according to all I could Google about it. There were a few places that said they were a ransomware site. They seemed legit enough to me, and it scares me that I was taken in so easily, when I've easily seen through so many scams before.

Anyway, I contacted the CC company (they've sent me a new card), deleted everything on my HD, and rebooted from my backup (which amazingly I had made just a few days before). Unfortunately, I lost 3 days' of vacation work on the book.

But wait—Dropbox (where I store my wips) has its own backups. Sure enough, there it was. Hadn't lost a keystroke, yay!

But I'm still editing. No time to do a real blog. Current schedule is to get the book to the formatter Friday or Saturday. He could take up to a week to get things done, but fingers crossed: next week's blog will reveal my latest novel!

Hope to see you then. In the meantime, protect your computer with a good anti-virus program. Make a backup now.