Leon Stevens's Blog, page 16
April 22, 2025
Tuesday Top 10: Earth Day Thoughts
Today is Earth Day. One day to not chuck that plastic bottle into the trash (or ditch) then we can go back to doing what we can to wreck the environment for the poor souls who are younger than us.
Individually, it’s hard to see progress in what we do to help the planet, but collectively…well it doesn’t seem like that’s doing much good either sometimes.
Top Ten Earth Day Thoughts
10. Coal/Oil: What if the Earth in the past didn’t create the conditions to make fossil fuels? Well, we like to burn stuff, so there goes the forest. Not as efficient as coal, but we leaned how to make charcoal by smoldering wood. Maybe we would have started a sustainable way to harvest and reforest. Naw. Probably not.
9. Over hunting: The greater the population, the more animals we had to kill for food. In nature, when the prey starts to wane, so do do the predators until the the balance returns. But we learned to farm and domesticate animals so we didn’t have to worry about that.
We also learned how to hunt to extinction…
8. Farming: One person needs about 1 acre (about 1/2 a hectare) to grow and raise enough food to sustain themselves. But then you’d have to grow corn, wheat, carrots, beets, potatoes, quinoa, apples…then there are the chickens.
The solution? Different people raise specialized crops. But eventually some one is going to open a store and they’ll have to tear down the trees and put up a parking lot.
7. Natural Resources: There’s stuff around us. We are going to use it, right?
6. Nature’s Toilet: Don’t want or need it? Dump it in the river and it goes away. It goes away, doesn’t it?
5. Chemicals: Chemistry started as alchemy, the science of turning one thing into another, most notably lead into gold, but eventually someone learned how to make chlorine and then we decided it would be good for killing people in WWI.
4. Stuff: Do we really need all that stuff? Duh. Yeah…
3. Ozone: Do we really need that layer? Turns out we really do. Thanks a lot, chemicals.
2. Climate Change: Rising sea levels. More intense storms. Droughts. Melting ice caps. Dying coral. Who’s to blame? The Chinese? Wait? What? According to facts, the earliest use of coal was in China about 4000 years ago. But it was in Britain where the use of coal boomed and was responsible for the Industrial Revolution. So we have to blame the Brits*, right?
1. People: There’s too many.
Right?
-Leon
*No Brits were actually blamed in this post. Except for Sir George Bruce maybe…
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
April 21, 2025
Music Monday: LOONY
LOONY is the stage name of Kira Huszar, a Canadian rhythm and blues singer from Scarborough, Ontario. She is most noted for her 2021 EP, soft thing, which was longlisted for the 2022 Polaris Music Prize. She was previously a SOCAN Songwriting Prize nominee in 2020 for her single “Some Kinda Love”.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
April 20, 2025
Songs for a Sunday: OMBIIGIZI
Pronounced om-BEE-ga-ZAY, meaning this is noisy – is a collaboration between Zoon (Daniel Monkman) and Status/Non Status (Adam Sturgeon), Anishnaabe artists who explore their cultural histories through sound.
-Leon
Need some Easter hilarity? Here’s last year’s post:
Weird Wednesday March 27: When the heck is Easter?
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
April 19, 2025
Weekend Wrap-up April 19: Oopsies.
Oops.
When I write my posts, I usually make a duplicate of a previous post that already has the same graphics and format that I need, like my music posts where I can just replace the video link.
Sometimes, for no reason whatsoever, I’ll open a post and start to change it, not realizing I’m actually editing it, thus deleting the original content.
You will probably never notice that a previous post is gone, but if you wanted to re-read my post on science fiction poetry, I’ll say to you, “Nope. You can’t do that because I accidently deleted it.”
What was in it?
A poem from Robert Heinleina commentary on Asimov’s dirty limericks Something elseOne of my post-apocalyptic poemsThere. All caught up.
In case you missed my blog:Weekend Wrap-up April 19: Oopsies.National Poetry Month: Good FridayFree Book Friday April 18: The next 4 years.Weird Wednesday: Weird PoemsHistory’s Greatest Flip Flops
Hope you enjoyed the recap! Feel free to share it with others.
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
April 18, 2025
National Poetry Month: Good Friday
I had grand plans to post a poem (new or old) each day but that seemed to fall by the wayside. Oh, well.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
Free Book Friday April 18: The next 4 years.
Advance voting is now starting in Canada. The overwhelming concern is how to deal with the a-hole south of the border. Ontario premier Doug Ford called an early election to get a 4-year mandate to deal with tRump, and it worked for him.
The federal election didn’t need to be called until later this year, but due to the change in the Liberal party leadership, it was going to be forced sooner rather than later.
I never tell anyone who to vote for, but I’m heading out to vote right now…
-Leon
Here are a few new poets for you to check out:
Missing the conversations? Head over to my Indie April Sci-fi page to read 5 new interviews from 5 indie authors!
Book news: I lowered the price of my trilogy by $2.00/paperback from $8.99 to $6.99. Why? To align with the market rate for comparable book lengths.
Euphrates Vanished will be $0.99 for the month of April to celebrate the release of the prequel, A Matter of Sabotage.
Buy Euphrates Vanished (Kindle/KU) $0.99A Matter of Sabotage (Kindle)Don’t feel like buying the book?
Sign up to review Euphrates VanishedSign to review A Matter of SabotageSci-fi not your thing?
Try my two poetry collections: Lines by Leon and A Wonder of Words
The story behind Free Book Friday: I’ve met many authors and readers during my time marketing, cross-promoting, and blogging. I think writers have a responsibility to inform readers about all the indie authors out there in the very crowded world of book publishing. You can’t do it alone, and why would you when you have a supportive group available?
Readers don’t just read one author – they stick with their favorite genres. Therein lies the power in cross-promotion. If one of my readers buys a book from an author I promote, then chances are there will be a reciprocal effect, or so is the hope. Do I want to boost sales? Of course I do. Do I want to boost other’s sales? Why not. It’s called karma.
Some free book offers require a newsletter sign-up, which is a small non-monetary price to pay to try out a new indie author.
Free books!
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
April 17, 2025
Thursday Thoughts: Science Fiction Poetry
Name the most famous science fiction poem. That’s a difficult one, isn’t it? The first one I remember reading was from American writer Robert A. Heinlein in his short story, The Green Hills of Earth:
We pray for one last landing
on the globe that gave us birth
To rest our eyes on fleecy skies
and the cool green hills of Earth.
The next poems I remember, while not science fiction, were limericks written by a science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov. Yeah, they were as many limericks are, dirty, and honestly, not that good, but as an adolescent teen…well.
Speaking of bad poetry, according to Douglas Adams:
“Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe.“
Care to disagree?
“Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.
Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes,
And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles,
Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts
With my blurglecruncheon, see if I don’t!”
The closest I have come to writing science fiction poetry are my post-apocalyptic poems which I included in my short story collection, The Knot at the End of the Rope.
The following collections contain no limericks or Vogon inspired verse.
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
April 16, 2025
Weird Wednesday: Weird Poems
I shared a poem from ee cummings last time, which I think was the weirdest, but Lewis Carroll penned this famous poem riddled with meaningless words.
Jabberwocky’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Just as odd is The Beatles song, I Am The Walrus
One, two, three
I am he as you are he, as you are me and we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly
I’m crying
Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo-goo g’joob
Mister City policeman sitting pretty little policemen in a row
See how they fly like Lucy in the Sky, see how they run
I’m crying, I’m crying
I’m crying, I’m crying
Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye
Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess
Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo-goo g’joob
Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
If the sun don’t come, you get a tan from standing in the english rain
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo-goo g’joob, g’goo goo g’joob
Expert textpert choking smokers
Don’t you think the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty, see how they snied
I’m crying
Semolina pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower
Elementary penguin singing Hari Krishna
Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar-Allan-Poe
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo-goo g’joob, g’goo goo g’joob
Goo goo g’joob, g’goo goo g’joob, g’goo…
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
Join my email list
RECEIVE A FREE EBOOK WHEN YOU SUBCRIBE TO MY WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Processing… Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
April 15, 2025
History’s Greatest Flip Flops
Sometimes the first thought is the best one, but often it is not.
1. King Sneferu (c. 2600 BC) changed his mind halfway through the building of his pyramid. He originally wanted it to be 55 degrees to celebrate his birthday, but then thought people should think he was a younger 43.
2. Shakespeare hummed and hawed while writing Hamlet’s soliloquy. Before deciding on the final draft he tossed around the lines, “Hey, it could be worse,” and “Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.”
3. European history would have been much different had Archduke Ferdinand decided to to take the route his WAZE app suggested.
4. Apparently, there had been a heated argument about who would get to carry which gifts to baby Jesus. Balthazar wanted the frankincense but then thought myrrh was a much better gift, and a great answer to the Jerusalem Times Wordle.
5. Russian debated whether to sell Alaska to the United States. One called it a land of swamp and rocks, while another said it would jumpstart the bridge construction industry. Finally a decision was made on the advice, “It’s not like it’s full of gold or anything.”
6. Ptolemy had a hunch his solar system model was wrong when he entered it in the high school science fair but thought it looked cooler than that nerd Copernicus’s with the yellow styrofoam ball in the middle, that he obviously got from the Michaels store.
7. The original inventor of the flying disc thought up the name Frisbee first but then let that trademark lapse when he decided on calling it a Flingy Thingy.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
April 14, 2025
Monday Muse: Making History or Making Money?
What’s do you need to go to space? The right stuff? Nope. The right amount of money.
In 2001, Denis Tito payed 20 million dollars to take a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station. What did he do there? According to the crew: “He got in the way.”
In the following 8 years, seven other billionaires made the same trip with notables being Anousheh Ansari, the first female, and Charles Simonyi who went up in 2007 and then again in 2009 to look for his house keys that he left behind.
In 2009, Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil, was the last civilian to go to the ISS until Japanese billionaires Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano went in 2021. The ISS decided to end visits to the station due to Trip Advisor complaints of the sub-par turn-down service.
in 2021, Blue Origin sent a crew into low-earth orbit, becoming the first privately funded astronaut crew. But, the term “crew” is used loosely since they really don’t have to do anything other than sit there.
The other leaders in space tourism are SpaceX and…well that’s really it. Axiom Space does send people to the ISS by using the SpaceX Falcon rocket, so the are basically an UBER. The cost? $55 million.
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has sent several of its vehicles to an altitude of 90 kilometers, which doesn’t quite reach the Kármán line (100 km) which is the widely accepted edge of space. And since you are no allowed to unbuckle and float around like in the Blue Origin capsule, what’s the point?
This morning, an all female cast launched into space today on a short flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule. Who was in it? Singer Katy Perry, Gayle King, co-anchor of CBS Mornings, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist, Kerianne Flynn, a movie producer, and Lauren Sánchez.
Lauren Sánchez? Who the heck is that? Oh, that’s just Jeff Bezos’s fiancé. So I guess she has the right stuff.
If I had $55 million, would I go to space? Nope. Why not? Because when I got back I’d be broke and have to go live with my parents.
And I don’t have the right stuff for that.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
