AllAuthor Cover of the Month Contest: Please Vote For Me!

Just a few hours left of the contest! I only need 34 more votes to be in the top 100 to qualify for the next round! Please vote for my book cover! :) Thank you - your support is highly appreciated!

https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/6032/

#contest #support #votefome

Competition Entry - Please Show Support!

Hello Fans,

My book "The Galaxii Series Book 1 - Blachart" has been selected to partake in the All Author monthly "Cover of the Month" contest for November 2019. Only the top 100 covers with the most votes will be allowed to proceed to the second round of the competition which starts in the second week (7th). Please, if you wouldn't mind dropping by the link below to vote for me, it would be greatly appreciated!

My book cover's voting page is https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/6032/

Thanks!

Christina :)

Another Round At The Crow Bar #35 November 2019

Here's my latest newsletter! :) Enjoy!

http://christinaengela.com/2019/10/17/another-round-at-the-crow-bar-35-november-2019/

#fictionwriting #amwriting #indie #author

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina's work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019. 

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Waiter, There's A Bigot In My Soup!

Don't you just hate it when you find a bigot in your soup? Eeeeuw! Gross!

This is exactly what happens to John Q. Public one day as he sits down to enjoy a fresh bowl of soup at his favorite restaurant! He puts his hand up to complain, but unfortunately the waiter doesn't believe him - and as his protests increase, so does the intensity of the waiter's denials!

What will happen to John? Will he get fresh soup - fresh soup without a bigot in it?

A Unique & Different Approach To Child Bullying: "Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You"

I was so pleased to see this review of "Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You" yesterday! :)

"Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You" by Christina Engela celebrates the concept of diversity and how precious every child is. 

This book is about intolerance, diversity, and bullying and encourages readers to accept everyone, irrespective of their differences based on gender, race, and color. The book also emphasizes being compassionate to everyone, regardless of their color, status, and gender. 

Bullying and intolerance are relevant topics in today's times and this book is good for read-aloud sessions in classrooms to help children be more tolerant and compassionate towards others. The illustrations lend clarity to the concept and help readers connect with the author's words. 

The author's approach to the subject is unique and different, and she makes the book appealing to children with the help of colorful illustrations. It is a good book to teach children to be kind and compassionate. 5 stars" - Mamta Madhavan for Readers’ Favorite, Oct 17, 2019

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina's work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

Does Avon Test Their Products On Animals?

I've noticed a heck of a lot of advertising from Avon in my Facebook feed lately. In fact, just over the last couple of weeks, my wife remarked that she'd noticed the same, sudden frenzied number of postings by Avon recruiters and sales reps on Facebook based in our immediate vicinity. The main thing I've noticed about these ads - whether the ads say it outright, or if the posters come on to answer pointed questions about animal testing, they all seem to say the same thing:

"We don't test on animals."

Why do they feel a need to inform people that it's safe to buy Avon products because they don't test on animals? Their website claims - as they do in sharing a similar statement which draws heavily on this claim - that Avon was the first cosmetics company to stop this practice way back in 1989 - 30 years ago - isn't it already old news? Why the continued accusations? Why the back-and-forth argument? What's the real deal here?

Is this smoke? Is there a fire under it?

I decided to look into the matter for myself, and this article is the result.

Newsletter #34: October 2019

Here's my latest newsletter! :) Enjoy!

http://christinaengela.com/2019/09/30/another-round-at-the-crow-bar-34-october-2019/

#fictionwriting #amwriting #indie #author

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina's work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019. 

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LGBT Heroes in Galaxii & Quantum – the “G” in LGBT

I've spoken at length before about my reasons for writing about LGBT characters - and specifically about being transgender and lesbian and how this enriches my writing, particularly with regard to how it influences my portrayal of LGBT characters. I've spent some time talking about my transgender characters, specifically Cindy-Mei Winter (the Quantum Series) and Marsha (Galaxii series, "Dead Beckoning") to name just two. In this article I'll be introducing you to a few of my gay characters.

Secret Weapons of the Resistance: Time Travel, Beck the Badfeller & Cindy-Mei Winter

In “High Steaks”, the most recent addition to the Quantum Series, a resistance rises to meet the revolutionaries – a resistance with friends in low places. Together with the Vampire Underground, bovine torpedoes, a mad scientist, an invisible space ship, and a well-camouflaged operative, the nasties must also contend with another unseen enemy: Time, and its agents.

FAQ’s Answered #12: Who Is Cindy-Mei Winter?

Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer the question:  "Who is Cindy-Mei Winter?" the first main character of the Quantum Series, and a transwoman.

FAQ's Answered #7: What Do I Write About (& Other Questions)

Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer a few similar questions together under the umbrella question:  "What do you write about?"

FAQ’s Answered #10: Who Is Marsha In "Dead Beckoning" to Blachart?

Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer the question:  "Who is Marsha in "Dead Beckoning", and what part does she she play in relation to the character of Blachart?"

Newsletter #33: September 2019

Here's my latest newsletter! :) Enjoy!

https://christinaengela.com/2019/08/31/another-round-at-the-crow-bar-33-september-2019/ 

#fictionwriting #amwriting #indie #author

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina's work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019. 

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Grief & Loss: A Writer's Conduit To Creating Authentic Characters

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Most of us have already tasted the bitter sting of death at one time or another - the loss of a loved one, or the ending of a powerful relationship, the pain of separation, the guilt of things that passed between us, the things that were said or done that should've been - or the regret for things said or done that we can never take back.

I am of course, no exception.

What would happen if fascists took over the world?

What would happen if fascists took over the world? Not just one or two states, but all of them? How would people react to having their lives upturned? Without any alternative authorities to turn to, without any rescuers or saviors to call upon, how would they handle seeing 'undesirables' and 'enemies of the state' - their neighbors, family, friends or colleagues being dragged away to concentration camps by uniformed thugs with the full backing of the law?

How would they tell fact from fiction while those who have seized power and their news services twist the truth to cast themselves as righteous heroes and to portray their victims as unpatriotic, dangerous, threatening, impure, monsters deserving of extermination?

What Does Being Transgender Bring To My Writing?

Hello! :)

Today I'd like to discuss the question: "What does being transgender bring to my writing?"

It's a question I was asked recently by someone, and so after a little thought, I'm here to answer it.

It's 2019 now, and it's been 19 years since I started transition and 13 years since I had my final surgeries. As a matter of interest, since I woke up after my "big op" on January 10, 2006, I felt completely natural - and above all, whole and complete! As a result, I sometimes have to stop and think to remember what it was like to have grown up and lived a male life.

So Many Freebies

I was just settling back to enjoy a restful Saturday afternoon, and I thought I'd let you know about all the wonderful FREE short stories, previews and "about" material you could download FREE and enjoy! :)

Newsletter #32: August 2019

Read my latest newsletter here! Enjoy! :)

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

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Join Me On GoodReads!

Connect with me on GoodReads! :)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3358833.Christina_Engela

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

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Action! Adventure! LGBT Heroes! - The Quantum Series by Christina Engela!

Action! Adventure! LGBT heroes! Get the Quantum Series Now!

Life out on the frontier isn't easy, and neither is living on Deanna - a third-rate Terran colony on the edge of sanity as much as on the edge of civilization! The Quantum Series by Christina Engela, now standing at six titles, is sci-fi with a dash of fantasy, featuring a host of heroes, heroines, villains, aliens, and unusual and often humorous situations.

#LGBTheroes #scifi #action #fictionwriting #recommendedreading

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina's work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019. 

________________________________________

Newsletter #30: June 2019

Read my latest newsletter here! Enjoy! :)

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

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FAQ's Answered: Why do I write about LGBT people?

I write sci-fi stories, and over the years, I've been occasionally accused of humor - and even wit. Sometimes my work has been rather flatteringly compared to several well-known authors in humor, fantasy and sci-fi - not that it's ever gone to my head - one day if my books ever start making me actual money, it might. For now however, I concentrate on telling my stories - and telling others about them.

Unlike any of the authors I've been compared to however, I write stories that feature LGBT characters in a positive, affirming light. Some of my main characters are like me - in one or more times in my own life - lesbian, gay, bi, or transgender. One of those characters is even a plant - and another is a talking cat - not that I am or have been one of those before, but oh well, now you can see what I mean by humor!

The question I'd like to explore with you today is "Why"?

Why do I write about LGBT people? More to the point, why bother to use LGBT characters to tell my stories through?

Where Else Will You Find LGBT Heroes In Fiction?

"LGBT characters, in Engela’s work, follow narrative arcs that occasionally intersect with their sexual or gender identity, but are more often driven by the human characteristics shared by all people—hope, fear, ambition, humor, and love." - Sarah Rutledge Fischer, Focus Mid-South magazine

Action! Adventure! Space Opera!

Don't Scroll Past Without Thinking Rationally

I'm so tired of seeing posts like these in my Facebook feed. They're click-bait at best - and that's saying a lot. At worst, they're mindless, narcissistic time-wasting tripe designed to draw people into a vicious circle of cultist fantasy and a celebratory rejection of reality.

You know the posts I mean, right? Pictures of infants, men, women or children injured, abused, sick, dying - and sometimes even suffering animals - "don't scroll past without praying or saying 'amen'" they proclaim in the accompanying texts.

Why?

A Brief Summary Of My Publishing Career So Far

One of the very many downsides to living in a shit-hole country like South Africa - is that even if you have all the talent in the world, you can do absolutely sod-all with it.

Goodness knows it's hard enough to be an indie author anywhere - but here? In South Africa?

All I was trying to do today was to get my 13 already published books turned into audio books... and this happens.

This was the fourth site doing audio books that I've tried. Either they don't allow South African writers to register, or they don't have royalty-sharing deals for their authors, which means the author has to pay in $$$ for the job.

Let me give you a brief summary of my publishing career. I'm sure you will find it amusing:

Don't Read Books By Christina Engela - You Might Get An Open Mind!

Back in 2017, after seeing all the hate vented against me on some of my FB posts coming from Angus Buchan fans - some of whom claimed I was a "fake profile" and "didn't really exist", a Facebook friend in the USA sent these images to me on condition of anonymity since she feared reprisals from her narrow-minded conservative townie neighbors.

Newsletter #28: April 2019

Read my latest newsletter here! Enjoy! :)

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

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Newsletter #27: March 2019

Read my latest newsletter here! Enjoy! :)

______________________________________________________________

If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

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Awesome Sci-fi On A Budget!

Two brand new editions of "Black Sunrise" and "The Time Saving Agency" - books 1 and 2 in the Quantum Series by Christina Engela - are now available (along with the entire Galaxii Series) on GGG mall, a local digital content provider based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa!

Newsletter #26: February 2019

Read my latest newsletter here! Enjoy! :)

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

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