M.L.S. Weech's Blog, page 96

WARRIOR WEEKEND INTERVIEW SERIES: MLS WEECH

J.R. Handley was kind enough to interview me over at his blog. I wanted to share that with you here on my page. I can’t thank him enough for taking the time to talk to me about my time in the military.

J.R. Handley Blog

Hello Space Cadets!  First, I wanted to thank everyone who helped make this writing dream a reality.  Seriously, it’s a blast to think so many people (like anyone NOT related to me) are reading what I write.  It has been a thrill to be able to show my sons that you don’t have to let your injuries and disabilities set you back.  I realize that my injuries pale in comparison to others but for kids who don’t understand that level of granularity, the point is simplified for them.  So again, my humble thanks.

Another update, I recently submitted a short story to the Roswell Anthology that was and will be the foundation to the Odera Chronicles.  I’ll have more information about that as the time comes but there is more in the works for me after I finish The Sleeping Legion Series.

Now, onto todays topic. …

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My Tour is Beginning to Take Shape

I feel now is the appropriate time to officially make an announcement as I’m starting to make contact with people and settle in on dates and conventions. I’m not registered with nearly enough conventions just yet, but I hope to change it.

This blog will receive revisions through the weeks as I set dates or firm up times, but if you’re in the area, and you’d like to stop by, say hi, grab an autograph, buy a book, or all o the above, these are the places I’ll be.

Jan. 28. Time TBD

Caught Book Launch

Twilite Zone Comics

18 Crain HWY N, Glen Burnie, MD. 21061

I did the book launch for The Journals of Bob Drifter here, and if I have my way, I’ll do all my book launches here. Bumper is awesome. His store is amazing, and I love comics!

Jan. 29. 1-2:30 p.m.

Book Signing

Greetings & Readings

118-AA Shawan Rd, Hunt Valley, MD. 21030

Greetings & Readings is way more than a book store. It’s a great location, and they were so helpful in having me do a book signing there last year. I’m honored they’re letting me back.

June 16-18

AwesomeCon

Walter E. Washington Convention Center

801 Mt. Vernon Pl NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20001

I’ve been to AwesomeCon two years in a row, and I’ll be there every year if I have any say over it. I’ve also done panels there both years. I’ve put in for panels already, but I’m waiting on word as to if I’m being picked up.

Stay tuned for more updates as time goes by!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

 

Book Cover of the Month Update!

[image error]Round 1 is over!  The Book Cover of the Month voting is now down to the Elite 8!

I want to thank everyone who voted. I think we ended with 68 votes. I hope you found a cover you fell in love with and that it won this round. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Now, the next thing is to vote in the next round!  Head on over here to plug in your votes for round 2!

This round of voting will last until Midnight Jan. 12.

Thanks for voting and reading,

Matt

My Top Three Reads of 2016

So I was just watching a bunch of YouTube videos about favorite 2016 videos, and that inspired me to write a blog about my favorite books.  Goodreads says I’ve read 14 books in 2016 (I’ll read a few more, and I haven’t uploaded a few just yet).  I’m hoping to triple that in 2017, but that depends on life more than anything else.  To keep this list in order, I’ve decided to just talk about my three favorite books from 2016. This without regard to publisher, format, or author.

How I did it:  Honestly, I just went through my Goodreads list and picked the ones who jumped out at me. It doesn’t diminish the quality of the other books, but these are the ones I can say with complete honesty that I enjoyed the most.

NOTE: Some of these books have been out for a while. These are the best books I read in 2016.

[image error]#3 Magic-Scars by C.L. Schneider: You can find my review for that book here.  The trilogy as a whole is great, but this book in particular was just so well done. This book really resonated with me on so many levels.

 

You can find my reviews for Book 1 here and Book 3 here.

 

 

[image error]#2 Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson: You can find my review for that book here . Sanderson is my favorite writer in the business right now. I love everything he does, and anything Mistborn is going to have my attention. This book is elevated by some cameos, but it still so powerful as a story. I’m so excited for the Mistborn saga to continue. I’m also stoked for the movie announcement.

 

 

[image error]#1 Redshirts by John Scalzi:  You can find my review for this book here. This is going to shock people who know me. I’m a die hard Sanderson fan. I loved Bands of Mourning. Secret History was fantastic, but my love of that book is predicated more on my affection for its main character than what happens in that book. Redshirts was actually a no-brainer, slam-dunk Number One book for me. It’s hilarious. It’s parody. It’s touching. It’s intelligent. It’s quite frankly everything I look for in a story. I personally listened to the Audible version, which is narrated by Will Wheaton. That just sent it over the edge for me.

So that’s my top three. What are yours? Why? Do you have a review you can link it to? I’d love to reblog it for you.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

I Have a Youtube Channel!

I had an idea a while back. I love this blog, but the primary function of my posts are analytical in function. I love it, and I’m honestly a very analytical person, but I love geeking out too. So I figured it would be fun to create a Youtube channel designed to cater to the more “fan” side of me. That’s why I named the show FanTalk. I’ve done two episodes so far. I plan for them to be weekly episodes.

I’ll offer top 5 or top 10 episodes. I’ll talk about movies I just watched or TV episodes that caught my eye. It’s different because I’m really just having fun with it. It’s new, and there’s work to be done, but I wanted to share it with you all.  Feel free to head over here and have a look. I hope you like what you see, subscribe, and comment.

Just a quick update this weekend. I hope you had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Book Cover of the Month for December 2016

[image error]Where the idea came from: As a teacher, I follow my students after graduation. I look at their work. What I do, is I go to Navy.mil (where all the Navy photography can be found) and look at 10 pages. I share the photos I like on my alter ego’s page. It’s my way of giving my students credit for what they do, showing my support, and helping my current students see what we’re looking for.  So I took that idea to Amazon. I want to the Fantasy & Science Fiction section and looked at books released during the past 30 days. I look at 10 pages, and pick my favorite.  Then I post it on FB and talk about why I like the cover.

If you follow me on Facebook, and I’d be honored if you did (just like my page), you’ve seen me post my Book Cover of the Day post.  Well, since I’ve been talking about the book covers I’ve liked over the past month, I figured it would be fun for everyone to vote on their favorite.  Now, I started this in late December, so you’ll notice there’s only 16 this time. I’ll have a full 32 cover competition at the end of January. It’s my plan to do one every month, then do one for the whole year. This lets you all do a few things.

It allows you to participate in my blog, which is pretty much awesome!
You can get a picture of what I like about covers. I teach photography, and layout and design (among many other things). I like to look at work and talk about what “works” for me and what doesn’t
I’ll read the winning book and post a review here on this blog.
I get to meet more of you on FB and other social media sites.

How it works:

Well, that’s simple. The bracket is right here. You should also be able to see and vote on it below. This is my first time trying something like this, so we may have to work on some bugs.

First round voting goes from midnight Jan. 4 to midnight Jan. 8.

The Elite Eight voting last from the end of the first round until midnight Jan. 12.

The SEMIS go from then until Jan 14.

The voting for the FINAL lasts until midnight Jan. 17. I’ll post the results here on my usual Wednesday blog, Jan. 18.

I’d love this to reach as far as possible, so any like’s shares  RTs and whatever else social media allows would be greatly appreciated. I love book covers, and this gives all of us a way to talk about them, which brings me to my last point.

Talk about these. Talk about what you like. Talk about what you don’t. If we can look at art and critique it, we’ll all get better. I want to know what you guys think.

Book Review: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

[image error]Cover used for review purposes only.

Spolier Free Summary:  The Bands of Mourning is the third of four planned novels in the second era of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. Wax is still dealing with a loss when he’s sent on a new mission to discover if the legendary Bands of Mourning are real. The Bands of Mourning are rumored to be the Lord Ruler’s bracers. Wax and his crew take off to find the Feruchemical artifacts that would possibly allow the wearer to hold all of the Lord Ruler’s power.

Character:  Say what you want about the series as a whole, I’d argue those who don’t speak highly of it are mostly those who don’t want to let the characters from the first era go.  Wax and Wayne are more than enough for this book, and they’re only the main characters.  Sanderson’s always done a fantastic job of making every character feel well placed in fiction. They all have roles and identities. These characters are reminiscent of Holmes and Watson.  In this case, Wax is so compelling, he truly develops into one of the better characters of the entire series. For those of you who just want to see some members of the old cast, fear not, there are cameos.

Exposition: Sanderson does a lot well, which obviously helps him be as successful as he is. In a world as deep and rich as Scadrial, it’s hard to imagine how Sanderson gave us all the information we needed without page-long paragraphs of data dumping. He still manages though.

[image error]Worldbuilding:  This is without a doubt Sanderson’s sharpest tool. I’m a bigger fan of Scadrial than I am any other Cosmere planets. There so much going on, and every turn is equal parts suspenseful and fantastic. The magic system is wonderfully intricate without chunks of text thrown in the reader’s face. Readers should pick up this series (let alone this book) just to see how someone can keep three magic systems, more than a century of history, and two mysteries together. Add to that how he’s expanding the world with short stories and inserted newspapers. Everything builds to the scope of this planet.

Dialogue:  Every time Wax and Wayne get to talking, they steal the show. They’re just so charming. For my money though, the best dialogue is at the end of the book. There are two separate conversations at the end that are so powerful because of their content and pacing.

Description: I’ve always felt that Sanderson was the perfect compromise between no description and over description. He does a fantastic job of letting us see what we see in a way that’s natural. It’s honestly been a while since I’ve finished the book, but I can still see every character with relative ease.

Overall: Mistborn fascinates me because it continues to evolve, but with Shadows and Bands, these characters have come into their own. It’s the best book of the second era so far. It has the right blend of mystery, action, and drama.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Audiobook Review: “Redshirts” by John Scalzi (REPOST)

This is a repost from when my blog was on a different website. I’m working to transition all of that blog over to here. This particular blog has a degree of priority for reasons you’ll understand in the future.

[image error]Cover provided for review purposes only under fair use doctrine

How it took me this long to listen to this book is a mystery.  Redshirts by John Scalzi is sheer genius!  First, it’s such a wonderful parody of a common science fiction series theme.  It’s Galaxy Quest meets Stranger Than Fiction, only it’s funnier than both combined, and I LOVED both of those movies.  So take a clever idea written by a hilarious author and add narration by none other than Wil Wheaton, and you have the recipe for a well-deserved Hugo winner.

I think the last two hours slow it down a bit.  Had I not waited a few minutes before writing this review, I would have let that bring my opinion of it down a smidge, but what the last few hours did was close all the gaps, which is honestly something I get mad about other authors not doing.   I’m pretty biased when it comes to the inspirational material, but that bias also makes me incredibly critical of those who screw it up.  Here, Scalzi blends a perfect mix of comedy, drama, ridiculousness (oh so much ridiculousness), and heartwarming characters without being disrespectful of the source material.  I understand a series adaptation is in the works, and I can’t wait to see it on TV.  Heck, for the irony alone I’ll watch it.

Redshirts is an unashamed comedic salute to science fiction television and the characters we love to watch die in the most idiotic ways.

Caught is Available for Preorder

[image error]I am so very happy to announce that Caught is available for preorder!

There’s going to be more news here as I continue to set up my tour for the book, but this sort of news is just too awesome to hold back! I had a lot of people help me make this possible, and it’s finally time to get the book out there to you all.

I did a few things differently, so things are actually more available than this, but I’m trying to build around live events and online events.

First:  You can preorder an autographed paperback edition from my personal online store here. Understand if you order from me, you will get an autographed copy, but it won’t ship until the book’s hard release date of Jan. 28.

Next: You can preorder the ebook from Amazon right here. Prime users get sweet deals. Trust me on that. But, for most everyone else, I have a special promotion going on. From now until Feb. 4, Caught will be on sale for $0.99! On Feb. 5, the ebook will go up to its regular price of $2.99. The ebook is an Amazon exclusive, so that’s the only place you can grab it from.

You can expect quite a few posts from me in the next few weeks or so as I set up events. I’m so excited. I truly hope you’ll all decide to give this book a try.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

New 5-Star Reviews

[image error]I wanted to share two new 5-star reviews for The Journals of Bob Drifter.

You can check one out here, and the other here.

I’m always thrilled to get reviews no matter the number of stars. The first is no different. This one is special because the reviewer spoke highly of Bob. He’s a very special character in my hart, and I get a particular thrill when someone speaks well of him.

The second review speaks about the readability of Bob. I love getting so caught up in a book you think to yourself, “I’ll just read one more chapter.” You think it to yourself until the sun rises and you’ve read the whole book. To think my book kept someone engaged in any manner close to that is an honor.

I thank the reviewers, and I appreciate any who take the time to offer their thoughts.