I was recently invited to do a talk via Zoom by the Thompson Nicola Regional Library and the Kamloops Society of the Written Arts. It was a real honour to be asked to do the talk and I chose to focus on how science fiction and society share a connection – how one influences the
Author Cheryl
With the announcement of NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover name today we are standing firmly on the threshold of a great era of Mars Science which is set to swing into full gear this year. NASA’s Perseverance Rover will launch in the summer, heading for our distant neighbour, and is expected to touch down on Mars
It’s been a little over a year since NASA’s InSight lander touched down on Mars on Elysium Planitia on Mars. In that year a remarkable amount of scientific data has been recorded and analysed by NASA. But before we get into what’s been happening on Mars, here’s a quick recap of InSight’s incredible journey and
“Storm At Dawn is my difficult second child.” Is how I recently described the continuation of the Rubicon Saga. But why it has the dubious honour of being a “difficult child” goes back many months. In fact, it sort of started with her older sister, We Are Mars. Here’s what happened… In May of 2018,
Storm At Dawn quietly entered the arena this past weekend on a little table, in a curling arena in the middle of southern BC, Canada. It was an inauspicious launch for the second book in the Rubicon Saga, but it was exactly how I wanted it – no Drama! Well, maybe there could have been

Pre-release of Storm At Dawn: writing is a process and the launch is not the beginning, it’s the middle.
A little over a year ago, I only had one novel. I was a bit panicked because I’d set a precedent and I had to write a follow-up to We Are Mars. To say I was intimidated, is an understatement! How was I going to write a new book to compete and compare to a
If you had told me five years ago, that I would be a science fiction author with one book out, and another on the way, I would have laughed at you. Seriously. Even today, I have a hard time grasping what has happened since I dived in and did this thing. I sit here today,
The promotional journey for We Are Mars has been an interesting one. As an indie author, I’ve found events are the hardest thing for me to organise and to get onto my calendar, but when I do, I have loads of fun and wonder why I’m not doing more. In recent months, I’ve attended a
In recent years, we’ve seen much news and hype about space-related programmes that feature Mars. Mars is nothing new in science and media. In fact, early stories written about Mars date back hundreds of years. There is a fascination with Mars that stems from our drive as a species to know more, explore and discover
2018 was a great year for me. We Are Mars has been a success, in spite of it being a debut novel. More importantly, it has connected me with amazing people, the world over, who share a love of space and books. I couldn’t have asked for a more positive start to my career as