Mars...
Ever since I read 'The Martian Chronicles' in fourth grade, I wanted to write a Mars novel.
However, I also wanted it to be different, realistic, exciting.
Hey...this stuff is NOT easy.(lol) Trust me.

After two and a half years of work, 'The 13th Day of Christmas' is complete.

Edit: We changed our domain name, so I edited this post to reflect the change. The book is out and doing well.

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As always, congratulations on an accomplishment.

RMB, you must be breathing somewhat easier after your journey of more than two years of digging, chasing, organizing, changing, and early morning rewrites - let alone structural analysis and editting (editting, editting!:#*+). Great, stuff. Especially when the work is in hand like a new born babe.

Yes. Well done, indeed.

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Yes. A lot of work, but always the good kind of work.

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An extremely humble thanks to Ray for his inspiration. I made this plain in the front matter of the book.

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I checked out all those pictures posted by Nard. Ray looks in better spirits than the pictures from last year...great!

People waiting for hours...big deal. Let them wait. Like they have something better to do. (lol)

On a much smaller note, the book has been flying off the virtual shelves. I feel that Ray is partially responsible, since I NEVER would have tried the story without his early inspiration. He's right at the top of the credits...

Thank you, Ray.

I deleted this post. Sounded too self-serving.

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Robert, I would hope that none of our regular posters would object to you mentioning your book or your store, after all how many authors do we have as posters, not too many I would say?

We should be honored to have you here and mentioning something that you honestly think that we would enjoy and would benefit from reading.

Boy, oh dear...
I wanted to apologize for not returning to this thread sooner. Adventure Books of Seattle changed domain names in the last few weeks from our old (and way outdated) discountebooks.net to www.adventurebooksofseattle.com

This made me feel kind of stupid, since people may have been trying to reach us to see previews,etc. or just listen to the Chambers Brothers...or whatever...and I forgot to change the links here at ('we are not worthy') the Bradbury forum. My sincere apologies.

'13th Day' is doing fine. We're leaving the book as it is, even for the Ingram version. As my father used to say: 'Don't mess with success.'

He also used to say funny things like these, which I never understood until later...

'The worker must be paid.' (Translation: Don't give your best work, labor or otherwise, away for free)

"Don't change the plan." (Translation: Once you have a good idea, don't let doubts creep in and cause you to start changing everything around...)

Julie Simard, our media contact at the Canadian Space Agency, has seen the pdf file for '13th Day' and approved the book.

She requested some copies for the library system at the John H. Chapman Space Centre, and a hardback copy of the book for Julie Payette, the astronaut on whom 'Anna Johnson' is based.

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I checked the date of my last post on this thread. Now, I am really embarrassed.
We finally sent out the books to Ms. Payette and the John H. Chapman Centre.

There is one excuse. We went back and edited the book again, mindful of the fact that Ms. Payette was going to read it. Not for content, but to ensure there were no spelling or formatting errors...

There is an interesting backstory about this book. While I was writing it, I knew one of the key points of the story was to create a strong female character. She needed to be someone who could stand up to Mission Commander Michael Walker (a bit of an arrogant jerk, and very stubborn)

I was going down the list of female astronauts, searching for a background to build a character from. I saw the usual ones: Sally Ride, Valentina Tereshkova, etc.

After some time, I found the website for the Canadian Space Agency and came across the bio for Julie Payette.
Well...I could list Payette's bio, but you would be better served by searching her out and finding out on your own. Canadian astronauts actually go through MUCH tougher training than the astronauts from NASA. For one, you have to qualify as a one-atmosphere deep-sea diver, kind of like Cuba Gooding, Jr. did in the recent film.

Payette was FAR AND AWAY the strongest woman I had ever read about...and she looked good to boot.

So...I contacted media liaison Julie Simard from the CSA and asked if I could base the character of 'Anna Johnson' on Payette. The answer: 'We have to see the finished PDF file before approval...but go ahead.'

After the book was finished, I emailed the file to Ms. Simard. I had some doubts about the Agency giving approval, since there are some rather strong scenes in the book, especially the conflict between 'Anna' and Mission Commander Walker.

Basically, Walker is a stubborn SOB who makes decisions that endanger everyone's lives on an already high-risk Mars mission. It gets to the point that 'Anna' is in rebellion, and in the end it is SHE who ...well, that would be giving it away.

Anyway, the whole experience was fun and inspiring at the same time. I have the greatest respect for Julie Payette, who is now the Chief Astronaut for the Agency.

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