January 29, 2013 in General Topics
I was all set to do the second part of a recent two-part blog series on significant weapons in history, when I ran headlong into the “Collector’s Edition” Blu-ray version of Prometheus, a film I not only paid good money to see in the theater last summer, but wrote a glowing review of. There on the four-disk jacket were infamous words: “Questions Will be Answered”. Read the rest of this entry →
January 5, 2013 in General Topics
This past weekend was one of the most enjoyable I’ve ever had as an author.
The promo of “Beacon”, my science fiction short story, blew away my expectations. I was realistic going into this “free run” (as those of us in the biz call a KDP select free promo). A number of odds were stacked against the tale doing well.
It’s a short story, for starters, at only around six thousand words. It had no reviews yet, doesn’t dabble that deep into one of the currently red-hot genres–despite traipsing somewhat into YA territory–and I myself am still a mostly-unknown commodity.
Read the rest of this entry →
December 29, 2012 in General Topics
Well, folks, we’ve arrived! As promised, today starts the free run, running all weekend, for my short fiction tale “Beacon”. Rush over to Amazon and pick up a copy, pronto:
Download NOW for FREE from Amazon US!
Download NOW for FREE from Amazon UK!
“Beacon” is a short story of 6,352 words, exclusively available (for now) from Amazon.com. I’ll let my blurb do the talking:
Tersias and Mally have lived their lives in orbit around Beacon, the last star in the Universe. But now the young couple have done the impossible: they have conceived. And something has noticed.
December 21, 2012 in General Topics
Many of my books feature transformative technology–items whose creation and use reshaped the worlds they populate. This synchronizes nicely with my study of history.
I think understanding history really helps me write effective genre fiction. I have to keep an eye ever-focused on “what-if”? You could say that history is, in large part, a study of powers wielding–or reacting to–unexpected technological advances, and you’d be very accurate. In the same way, my fiction often takes place after those technological leaps, and almost always imagines nations unprepared for those changes. The human element is more important than the actual tech.
Today, I’m going to explain how certain weapons in human history impacted civilization, and we’ll have a little fun applying the same lens to items that appear in some of my own books. I’m not going for the obvious choices, either (did you really want to read another article on nuclear weapons? I think not). Let’s have more fun than that.
So, here we go! Read the rest of this entry →
December 13, 2012 in General Topics, Slideshow Topic
Now and then, an author has a tale that they can’t let go, that drives them to see it released and placed in front of the eyes of the reader.
I give you “Beacon”, a short story of 6,352 words, exclusively available (for now) from Amazon.com. As for the tale’s content, I’ll let my blurb do the talking:
Tersias and Mally have lived their lives in orbit around Beacon, the last star in the Universe. But now the young couple have done the impossible: they have conceived. And something has noticed.
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