Audience Survey: Entertainment Habits, Genre, and Mood
In August 2020, I conducted an audience survey in collaboration with nine other authors who write fiction stories involving technology themes. We offered readers ten FREE eBooks in exchange for responses to twenty questions about entertainment habits, genre, and tone preferences. We received 1,300 responses in two weeks. In this post, I provide an in-depth analysis of the overall survey results and specific breakdowns by age, gender, and genre. Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been especially fascinated with how people are consuming TV, films, and novels to escape our current reality. As a fiction author, I’ve Read more…
My Year of Firsts
Last Saturday night, I was laying in bed unable to sleep and googling random things including my first novel Bionic Bug and did a massive double-take. I discovered that the hardcover version of Bionic Bug is currently available for sale on Amazon in Canada. FYI, my book is not supposed to launch on Amazon until 2019, and I didn’t intend to publish it there. After all, I have a well-planned strategy for soft launching my books. Or maybe not… I sat up straight in bed and said aloud: “Say what? This can’t be happening.” Okay, okay, there might have been a swear Read more…
The Safe Room (Ch. 5) – Bionic Bug Podcast Episode 005
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:47 — 24.8MB) | Embed
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https://media.blubrry.com/bionic_bug_podcast/natashabajema.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Bionic-Bug-podcast-episode-5.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:47 — 24.8MB) | EmbedSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | MoreHey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 5. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. First, I have a personal update. Project Gecko, Book Two of the Lara Kingsley Series is now with my editor. I’m on pins and needles waiting for his initial feedback, which I will get in mid-May. While I have a bit of free time, I’m currently busy outlining Book 3 which is called Genomic Data. I’m Read more…
The Townhouse (Ch. 4) – Bionic Bug Podcast Episode 004
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https://media.blubrry.com/bionic_bug_podcast/natashabajema.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Bionic-Bug-Podcast-Episode-4.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:30 — 31.9MB) | EmbedSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | MoreHey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast, episode 4. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, national security expert and “insecto-phobe”. First off, a personal update. I just finished my second draft of Project Gecko, Book Two of the Lara Kingsley Series. I’ll be sending it to my editor on May 1. I’m thrilled to finally reach this next step in my writer journey. If you’re a writer, you know the constant struggle against the voices in your head. Even Read more…
Nationals Park (Ch. 2) – Bionic Bug Podcast Episode 002
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:11 — 19.9MB) | Embed
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https://media.blubrry.com/bionic_bug_podcast/natashabajema.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Bionic-Bug-Podcast-Episode-2.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:11 — 19.9MB) | EmbedSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | MoreWelcome back to the Bionic Bug podcast. This is episode number 2. My name is Natasha Bajema. I’m a fiction author, national security expert and your host for this podcast. First off, I want to share a personal reflection. Last week, after I proudly posted my first-ever podcast, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts and realized that I made an amateur mistake in the closing segment. FYI, the slashes in website addresses are not back slashes, they are actually called Read more…
Wicked Bloom (Ch. 1) – Bionic Bug Podcast Episode 001
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:26 — 29.6MB) | Embed
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https://media.blubrry.com/bionic_bug_podcast/natashabajema.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Bionic-Bug-Podcast-episode-1.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:26 — 29.6MB) | EmbedSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | MoreWelcome to the first episode of the Bionic Bug podcast! My name is Natasha Bajema. I’m a fiction author, national security expert and your host for this podcast. I’m so thrilled that you’re tuning in. I started this podcast in part to get my first novel into audio format, but I also wanted to share some of my insights behind the book as well as my perspective on where we’re headed in the future. Each week, I’ll kick the episode off with a technology Read more…
2017: A Bug’s-Eye View
Every year, it’s a good habit to set some goals for what you’d like to achieve for your health, lifestyle, career, and lifelong dreams. For 2017, I made a list of goals I wanted to achieve as a writer. And this year, I learned that to set realistic goals for yourself, you need to have a bird’s-eye view. For this, you need to understand how long certain tasks take, how long you require to get them right, and a good idea of the time you’ll need to navigate life’s twists and turns. Without this knowledge, you’re not likely to see Read more…
Too Many Fish in the Sea
One of the biggest challenges for new authors is discovery. Readers will not read our novels if they don’t know about them. The Internet has led to the rise of self-publishing, which has democratized the tools of publishing, allowing anyone to to publish a book. It’s great that we don’t need to get through the gatekeepers (agents, publishers) anymore in order to reach our readers. But as unknown authors, we face another daunting challenge: how to we get discovered? The market is flush with an endless supply of new books by authors with different levels of skill and prominence. How Read more…
Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017
To everyone who is following my blog and my journey to become a fiction writer, thank you for coming along for the ride. It’s about to get exciting, so I hope you strap on your seatbelts and stay tuned. I’m starting a new annual tradition to write a year in review for 2016 and give you all a preview of what is yet to come in 2017. For many reasons, I am glad to put the year 2016 behind me and to keep stress at a minimum, I’m going to focus on the positive. It’s hard to imagine that I started Read more…
Writing a Marathon
Tomorrow, thousands of runners will set out to finish the Marine Corps Marathon. Let’s be clear. I will likely never run a marathon in my lifetime. If I ever signed up for a 10K, I’d be shocked. There are many reasons including an intense dislike for running, but I’m also sure it would not be the best thing for my knees. I’m just not built for running and prefer speed walking. But I’ve also never aspired to run any sort of race let alone a marathon. So, I don’t think I’ll feel any regret about it when reach the end Read more…
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