"... a genre author's options are a lot cooler: magical boarding schools, technology-fueled SF cram sessions, apprenticeships involving wizards, aliens, and more... We've compiled a reading list for each non-traditional, SFF approach to learning, and we hope you'll suggest your own examples in the comments!" From Tor.com

What book introduced you to your favorite genre(s)? Here's a list from Tor.com: Five Gateway Books

Here's a list of favorite fantasy ships--it should be ships and not boats, shouldn't it?--from Tor.com, and be sure to check out the ones in the Comments: Seafaring vessels

The New Book Review: Readers' Favorite Reviews New Sci-Fi Novel

I saw that today the Sharknado movies started running, and I watched some of the good parts of 1 and 2 . The ending of S2 (NYC) is fun--the Today show scenes, etc.. Sharknado 4 is on tomorrow night; S3 precedes it.. Planet of the Sharks is on at 1 am tonight, and I missed it the other day. (I wanted to see the beginning of the planet being inundated by water because of the melting glaciers.) So I may look at the beginning; I have to get up in the morning or I'd sleep in.

I'm looking forward to Sharknado: The 4th Awakens; it's scheduled for Sunday, July 31. And I see that the SyFy channel is running a lot of shark movies to get us there. (There are that many?!) A new one, Dam Sharks!, is this Monday night. Hmm. Not much info on the plot yet. The genre is Horror; and the blurb says: Voracious sharks use human bodies to build dams.  Uh, why. And if they're so voracious, how come there are any bodies available?

Selling, buying, remodeling. Now that's a challenge--'cause they even took the kitchen sink!
Remodeling: Buying and Updating a Foreclosure is on sale this month at half-price: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/71560
The code is SSW50

Detour Trail, my frontier adventure/romance, is on sale (half price) at Smashwords:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/360381 until July 31. Lorrie forges her own trail after starting out on the Oregon Trail.

Sugar Time, my Sugar Sweet time travel tales collection, is on sale this month--half price--at Smashwords. The code is SSW50: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/567992

Hidebound, my SF adventure with aliens, pirates, and vicious plants, is on sale half price this month: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/82218 Code:SSW50

A Kepler's Dozen, an anthology from Hadrosaur Productions,  imagines what planets discovered by the Kepler Space Probe are like. It's 50% off at Smashwords for the month of July. Just use the code SSW50 on checkout.https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/325583

From Tor.com:

Great Dads in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the Universe

• Last letter from Poul Anderson

• by Hal Colebatch

I like the premise: "In Freeze/Thaw, the earth is icing over because of the Shade, a set of micro-satellites designed to stop global warming that works a little too well. No one knows how to shut the Shade off. ... and humanity is nearly out of options ...  Gabe Alfil may be the only person alive with enough expertise in quantum computing to solve the problem, but a hiking accident a decade earlier has left him paralyzed. ... But there is a solution to Gabe’s problem, if he’s willing to work with the military. Strapped into an exoskeleton, Gabe will travel with a military patrol to a lost computing facility..."

Btw, this is opposite to my post-apocalyptic story, Strike Three, in which I pretty much burnt the earth to a crisp.

I learned about the new companion--played by Pearl Mackie--at the Doctor Who panel at Oasis (SF literary convention) in Orlando this past weekend, but it was interesting to learn more and see her photos: The Doctor's new companion: Bill

Ovation is adapting The Chronicles of Ara into a series. I haven't heard of this fantasy series, but the premise sounds interesting: Ovation miniseries.

This is the first I've heard of a Doctor Who spinoff! It's set in Coal Hill School in contemporary London. The school has been part of the Doctor Who universe since the beginning. (Obviously I haven't been paying attention.) They're thinking a British Buffy?!  Class: Doctor Who Spinoff Cast Revealed

'Course we're really talking about ponies here in this article about The Hobbit from Tor.com, but it's interesting, as are the comments. At least name some of them!

Check out A Horse-lovers Guide to The Hobbit

I recently started a Pinterest board for Sentient Plants stories. 'Course I need more. There was a variety of sentient plants in James White's stories, I'm sure.  Any suggestions?

Link: https://www.pinterest.com/joyvsmith/sentient-plants/

I was inpired by Sue Burke's upcoming book, Semiosis:

Sue Burke's SEMIOSIS, a novel of first contact, a multi-generational story about colonists on a planet where plants are the dominant life forms – and they see animals, including humans, as their pawns, to Jennifer Gunnels at Tor, in a nice deal, for publication in January 2018, by Jennie Goloboy at Red Sofa Literary.

Quote from Cold Service, a Spenser novel by Robert Parker: "As I matured, my taste for manufactured hysteria [on television] was beginning to decline."

Goodreads giveaways

I have many favorite authors, and I can only mention a few when asked about them, but I love sharing: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/Pagadan

Hidebound, my science fiction adventure romance, aka space opera, is on sale through February 7 at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/82218 ; the  coupon code is: VN93J

After Anfissa meets Ferenc on the passenger ship, St. Catherine, they end up on Snakebite, a planet where even the grass is deadly.