Out of this World!

Have you heard about the recent discovery of seven earth-sized exoplanets orbiting a nearby star? The star is a dim one, but it’s only about 40 light years away, which makes it practically part of our neighborhood. What’s more, the planets seem to be made of rock (vs gas), and three of them are in the “habitable zone,” which means astronomers believe there could be liquid water, and possibly life, on them.

It’s exciting news and sometimes it just feels like the stars just align! That’s been my experience with The Laptev Virus. Without having given much thought to writing a hard sci-fi thriller, I woke up one morning and there was the plot, neatly laid out in my head. I wasn’t even at home—we had flown to Denver for my niece’s wedding—and it was 6 am. My husband was still asleep, but I crept out of bed and logged on to his laptop, and wrote the first 1500 words. The next day I wrote the next 1500 words and so on. I started writing the novel on November 1^st, and by March 1^st, just four months later, the book was published. Since then it has gone on to win the National Indie Excellence Award, attract the attention of a producer in LA, been translated into Spanish and sold upwards of 9000 copies around the world!

In another star-alignment moment, Tantor Media, the largest producer of audio books in the world, purchased the audio rights for The Laptev Virus. They were a lovely company to work with, and a renowned (and, dare I say, handsome) actor and audio book narrator, Vikas Adam, was hired to narrate the book.  An actual star, narrating my novel—what an honor!

If you click on the arrow on the audio strip below, you can hear for yourself how amazing he sounds!

And now I need your help: an Audible copy of The Laptev Virus (the link is embedded) makes a wonderful addition to the collection at your local library, so I’m asking you to please request that your library purchase a few copies for their readers. Here’s the info you’ll need:

Title: The Laptev Virus

Thanks—and may the stars shine down on you!