The Multiverse Series ends.What? You haven't read it?

A mere four months ago I began publishing my humorous, Sci-Fi Soap Opera, The Multiverses as my Sci-Fi debut.

I published a book a month and may I say that is a far bigger task than I ever anticipated. But I know how hard it is for authors to break into Sci-Fi, so I hoped by publishing all four in short order, you would recognize my commitment.

First came book one, which was actually written fourth because all my critters adored Drogan and wanted to know more about him. So I wrote his story and it became book 1. And early on, it was named Drogan and had this cover. Only I had several issues.
1st) Drogan is just a little fellow in most of the story.
2nd the cover, while cool, doesn't match with the rest of the covers, and 3rd) I decided to bring the Gods to the forefront so my readers could see how hard getting anything done actually was, and so you can laugh at them, because they're funny, while the sentients are usually desperately trying to survive.

Now out front, the Gods demanded the first cover, since they are Gods and all and you get to meet them. This caused a great deal of re-writing since I had originally  written them in the background. However, one critter had complained it made everything too easy. Ha! It was anything but easy. Especially with the contract Zousan signed. It pretty well guaranteed Zousan would fail and horrid father would win.

Win what? you ask. Zousan insisted the universe would be better with happy people who cared about each other and strived for the better of all instead of solely caring about themself. He calls his effort The Path of Light.  

Cronus, Zousan's father, prefers to have slaves who do what he says or be punished. He calls his efforts The Path of Darkness.

Needless to say Zousan doesn't like his father in the least. I mean the man literally ate the four siblings before him.  Okay, not literally, although the Greeks claimed it so. They evidently were prone to exaggeration or the Gods who stopped at Earth were. Not sure which.

So in book 1 we meet the Gods and these adorable cute little water humanoids who are going to die a horrible death unless they figure out how to leave Earth and find a planet with clean water to live in.  (In case you are unaware, humans have tossed all sorts of toxic substances in Earth's oceans.)

But not to worry. A lazy God induced God DNA into several batches of hatchlings resulting in brilliant little blue Godlets. This one is Drogan and he has the ability to locate parallel 
universes and enter other dimensions.
Now, if only he can use these skills to get off Earth and onto another planet.

Okay, let's be serious. The Gods are going to help a great deal to get this done. In fact, they use a great deal of their allotted saves in book one.

In book 2, we wander over to the human's dimension of Earth and meet some very unusual characters. We have one of the nicest humans you'll ever meet, Saran, her dead soul bond, Tarmara, Tarmara's husband, Dmitri and a giant Blue sentient bull who declares this is NOT his planet and he has lost all patience with it.

When Dmitri marries Saran the two humans & one spirit combine souls and becomes the first three bonded soul that has ever existed.  There are prophecies all over the place about this being, yet oddly, the God Zousan has no idea who wrote these prophesies.  One of the many oddities, hinting the Gods may not be alone out there managing the multiverses.

After a great deal of trouble and several deaths, some of which got undone when collapsing universes the colonists land on Terranue.

Looks lovely, right? Shame no one spent much time investigating the planet beyond determining it had a tolerable climate (at the time they arrived) had breathable air, and no other sentient  had built anything that resembled a house. 

Turns out Terranue has T rexes, giant bears, saber-tooth lions, and three seasons (out of five) that will bake, freeze and pummel to death humans. 

Fortunately, the blue bull that came along who name is Blue declared himself king of the planet and all that lives upon it. Turns out there are blue bulls already on the planet and the only place the humans have a chance to survive is to live in their valley. Thus, the humans and Sargon become allies.

However that doesn't mean all the humans who entered the ship were good. While some were what you'd call demonically evil, others are self-centered creatures.  

Tamsarandem (the famous soul-bond of three) has two children, both of which had to be grown in a day since they are born with all the memories and knowledge of their three parents. Trust me, no one with an adult mind wishes to be stuck in a baby's body for years and years.

At the end of book three they send their one day old baby off with the captain of the Outbound ship as a member of his crew. 

Not to worry. He's been aged to a 21 year smartass. 

Sojourn had been certain he was meant to be a great leader, but he seems to spend a great deal of time in the brig.

Then in one day he's promoted from ensign to lieutenant to captain, making him the most clueless captain ever.

Book 4 is considered the best of the series. There's lots of love, battles, humor, danger.... So if you want to read it first, you can, and it will make total sense.


Then you can go back and read the other books while I write the first book of the next series. The series is called The Search for Sentients.  A great deal of the prior cast will show up on Admiral Sojourn's kickass ship along with new sentients.

Here are three covers I've made based on the main stories for book one.  Which do you like best.

Can't wait to write it!

Liza and Space rep question Catherine Haustein re Natural Attraction

Today, I have the lovely Catherine Haustein, author of Natural Attraction in my Multiverse.

We'll be going back into time, so look about for the seat belts. They tend to go missing. While you're doing that, Space Rep and I'll ask Catherine a few questions. 

Space Rep: I'll start. Why did you write Natural Attraction? 

I’ve been a chemist for over thirty years and it’s stimulating and often amusing. I must admit however, that, like Clementine in Natural Attraction, I’ve frequently imagined that things would have gone more smoothly had I been a man. I also thought it would be fun to give a scientist a romantic link with a preacher in the post Darwin days to let them explore what they had in common.

Space Rep: It’s historical. Why? 

I chose to set Natural Attraction in 1871 because it was a time of great social change. The theory of evolution and the discovery of sperm and egg cells were quietly ushering in ideas of social equality. I wanted to compare the past with today to show what has changed and what hasn’t for women.

Liza: Okay, I'm taking over the questions. How is this novel different from others in this genre? 

Besides the historical aspect, it has a friendly seven-pound rodent as a character. And cowboys are bad guys.

Liza: Why did you make those choices? 

I wanted to include some light-hearted discoveries into Natural Attraction since science is playful. My family’s had a succession of pet rats and guinea pigs. I guess you could say that I’m used to handling rodents. Cowboys weren’t viewed as romantic until Wild West Shows became popular. Natural Attraction is set before that time so I wanted the cowboys to be troublemakers.

Space Rep: What’s your most common reader question about Natural Attraction? Some want to know if Clementine/Calvin is trans-gender. I don’t see her that way. She simply enjoys the privileges of being a man in her society.

Liza: What challenges do you see facing you as a writer? 

I’m not the first to say this but getting romance readers to see science as something accessible to them and getting scientists to appreciate the craftsmanship found in a romance.

Liza: Enough with the questions. The ship's warmed up, so let's head back to the past. 

Clementine dreams of being a naturalist—a career that leaves no time for romance. To sneak on an adventurous prospecting expedition, Clementine will have to convince everyone she’s a man. A mysterious tonic offers her just that disguise.

But “Calvin,” as she calls herself now, had no idea what she was giving up. When Wesley, the expedition’s gentle preacher, catches her eye, she can’t get him out of her head; not his lush lips, wide brown eyes…or broad chest. Dare she reveal her secret to him? Can she keep her career if she does?

Among run-ins with cowboys, natural disasters, and traveling shows, Wesley’s most fascinating adventure is meeting Calvin. Though Wesley’s betrothed to another, the cute, clever naturalist threatens to make him fall into temptation… 

I was beginning to doubt this notion of me posing as a man.

We had arrived at the decision easily enough. It was to be an experiment in biological mimicry—a harmless insect posing as a poisonous one to avoid being eaten—a form of evolution that Alburtus had observed while classifying butterflies in the Amazon with British naturalist Henry Walter Bates. Alburtus, my natural history tutor had set up the internship: I would be a naturalist traveling with the Malachite Overland Mining Company, a position open only to a young, healthy male. His chemist friend, Theophrastus, had made the tonic. Granny had stitched the trousers. She’d taken scissors to my pale hair that morning. I’d tried not to look at the floor as the strands fell like spider silk. In Spookstad, we were matter of fact. Neither falling hair nor tonics rattled us.

http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Attraction-Catherine-Haustein/dp/194081121X

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/natural-attraction-catherine-haustein/1121761786?ean=9781940811192&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-hqC9qWQq7/0-_-10:1

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/natural-attraction-1?utm_source=linkshare_us&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=linkshare_us&siteID=hqC9qWQq7_0-4lIx6cL.yV2TGUv8PTtM4A

http://www.lybrary.com/698876.html

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/natural-attraction/id986589113?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D6

http://catherinehaustein.com/

A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Catherine Haustein is a chemistry and English professor at Central College in Iowa. She studies chemicals found in plants and is writing a sustainable lab manual. Her ancestors lived in the famous ghost town of Singapore on the shores of Lake Michigan. Natural Attraction is her first novel.