I found on writing the Jive Hive that I did it as an island, all alone pretty well, with an idea that occurred to me many years ago for a novel.

I've since discovered different writers on-line who have fascinating blogs, ordinary people with interesting minds and interests. Alex Laybourne is one of these writers. I very much enjoy his Highway to Hell, a horror novel which I downloaded to my Kindle in a couple of seconds yesterday.

Tried and true wisdom dictates that a writer must read a lot, and read in their genre as well. I'm trying to do that. When I wrote the Jive HIve it was from a long background of SF reading -- the classics like Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Heinlein and so on, even further back than then to H.G. Wells the War of the Worlds and First Man on the Moon, Buck Rogers. I'm dating myself!

One of my sons likes "hard" SF and my father read SF and history prolifically. Neither seemed to care for fantasy although I do lean towards fantasy in my writing quite a lot, perhaps a reflection of the schizophrenia I enjoy in my twisted wee brain. In any case, the Jive Hive is pretty straight SF and written at a Young Adult or Middle Grade level, but I suspect many adults would enjoy it, too.

My publisher had a dream about killer bees the night before I submitted the story to her. I wonder if this influenced your patience with me while I crafted the book to acceptable form, Cheryl?