Leon Stevens's Blog, page 63
November 6, 2023
Music Monday Nov 6: Adrian Legg
There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.
Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it.
Maybe you will find a new favorite.
CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music
Adrian Legg. If you’ve never heard of him, then you are probably not into guitar. He’s no unknown, but he’s also not a well known name outside of certain circles. He’s been around since the early 80s, and I have had the pleasure of seeing him live, which it the best way to experience his unique talent and brilliance.
If that wasn’t cool enough…
If you have gone to a concert featuring a guitar player, you know that they are notorious for constantly tuning their guitars, which can get annoying. Adrian takes it to a new level as he incorporates his guitar tuners to change pitch during his playing.
-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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
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C’mon, space stuff!
November 4, 2023
Weekend Wrap-up Nov 4: Friend Forever
We lost actor Matthew Perry on Sunday. Best known for his role of Chandler Bing on the sitcom, Friends (but you knew that), his delivery of the wonderfully crafted lines made me laugh out loud many times.
The Friends reunion show was a nostalgic look back at the iconic, but much maligned for its incredible lack of diversity, TV show. It brought to the front, Perry’s struggles with addiction, and showed how close all the actors had become.
It’s always sad when the world loses an entertainer, doubly sad when they are on the road to recovery. But that’s what years of drug abuse will do to the body, right?
“Could it be any sadder?”
-Leon
On my blog this week:
Funny Friday: A Blast from the Past
Free Book Friday Nov 3: Sugar Rush
Weird Wednesday Nov 1st: The Day After
A Halloween Poem
Tuesday Tirade: Now, that’s scary
Music Monday Oct 30: Halloween Screams
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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
November 3, 2023
Funny Friday: A Blast from the Past
I was reminded a few minutes ago that I had written a post about humor in science fiction.
When did I write it? Almost three years ago. I must have had some time on my hands, something was going on, but I just can’t put my finger on—
Oh, yeah…that.
Funny Fridays – Is Science Fiction Funny?
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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
Free Book Friday Nov 3: Sugar Rush
Are you ready for #SugarFreeSaturday? How about #SugarFreeSunday?
Are those, really a thing?
I don’t know, I just made them up. You know, people might need a brief respite from the Halloween haul that they (or their kids) collected on Tuesday.
Do you have a sweet tooth? I’ll admit I do enjoy some candies, but they have to have some flavor other than sugar. Yeah, I’m talking to you, candy corn and rockets.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are on the cusp of being in that category, but the peanut butter overtakes the sugar, albeit by a narrow margin, and the micro-thin coating of chocolate that never quite makes it on the bottom center area, pushes it into the “Yum” category.
Here are some other treats in no particular order:
Snickers
Crispy Crunch
Skittles
M&M’s
Are those you favorites?
No, read the lead-in: “Here are some other treats in no particular order”
Ahh, got it. you’re trying to be funny.
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.
Reads From StoryOrigin and BookFunnelStoryOrigin and BookFunnel allows authors to advertise their books to each other’s audience. I hope you have been able to discover a new favorite!
Since my newsletter goes out bi-weekly, I offer book promos on those dates, so here are what’s running right now:
Free Books
Kindle Unlimited
Oct 14- Nov 13Kindle Unlimited
Purchase Links
Oct 25-Nov 22Review Copies (These are free!)Review copies: Like reviewing books? Try my two poetry collections: Lines by Leon and A Wonder of Words
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book (poetry or science fiction or both): Leon’s Newsletter
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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
November 1, 2023
Weird Wednesday Nov 1st: The Day After
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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
October 31, 2023
A Halloween Poem
I don’t often post twice in a day. Ohhh. Scary…
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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
Tuesday Tirade: Now, that’s scary.
Apparently, the cost of chocolate is up. I don’t buy chocolate bars very often, and when I do, it is usually on an impulse after seeing one on sale in the checkout aisle (See? it does work).
Since I haven’t handed out candy for Halloween for many years, I don’t know the price “fun-size” packages of chocolate bars, but I’m pretty sure it’s a rip-off. Same for the packages of chips/crisps that contain at most 3 + some crumbs.
I remember some of my earlier Halloween hauls being full of homemade treats: popcorn balls, wrapped fudge/brownies, and the occasional apple. Yup, apples. Slowly, store bought treats replaced the homemade candy, which began to be tossed into the trash.
Before it begins to sound like I’m anti-Halloween, I’m not. Kids love to dress up. It’s fun and exciting to walk with friends door to door to collect sweets that their parents will sort through, take the good stuff and stash it away, leaving them with the candy corn, rockets, raisin boxes, and a scattering of “fun-size” chocolate bars to give credibility to their diligence.
Oh, and remember those UNICEF boxes?
What else is scary?
The speed of technological advancement.
Christmas decorations in the stores
Climate change
Wars
Pumpkin spice is still around
AI creating the image I used
Snow is staying on the ground
Pretty much most of the news
My lines in poems that never rhyme
I can’t be bound by consistency
But, back to the theme at hand
The world is scary enough, you see.
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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
October 30, 2023
Music Monday Oct 30: Halloween Screams
There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.
Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it.
Maybe you will find a new favorite.
CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music
Screams. They can be frightening or they can be just what is needed in a song. Hard rock and metal are most often associated with this vocalization.
Heavy metal music just a bunch of screaming, at least that what my parents told me.
“You can’t even understand the words,” they would say.
“Umm, you don’t really want to,” I replied.
You have to have a certain physiology to pull off a good scream. You have to have a excellent set of pipes to do it night after night. I’m not going to debate who has the best rock and roll scream (but feel free to add your contender).
When I think of a screamer, I think of David Lee Roth. His lyrics and melodies are punctuated expertly with the appropriate scream. He is a master at pitch, duration, and timbre. Running with the Devil is a great example. Did he over do it? Considering there are screams* at: 0.32 / 1.02 / 1.05 / 1.10 / 1.40 / 1.49 / 2.39 / 2.49 / 3.10 / 3.14 / 3.22 / 3.25 / 3.26 … No, I don’t think he did.
*although I might have added one of his woo-hoos in there
On to what I believe is the best use of screams in a song. There are only two (hear that Mr. Roth?), but they are pure emotion. Not anger, not fear, just—just a release of emotion. I present The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
It is one of my all time favorite songs.
Honorable mentions go to: Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Bruce Dickenson, Rob Halford, Janis Joplin, James Brown, Little Richard, Roger Waters, Clare Torry (The Great Gig in the Sky – Pink Floyd), Ian Gillian, Axl Rose, and we can’t forget Jack Black (Tenacious D).
What makes your list?
-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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
October 29, 2023
NaNoWriMo – From 3900 to 60 000
Are you trying your hand at NaNoWriMo? Nervous? Think you might not make it?
No worries. I didn’t. Twice. But I kept writing. Here are some words of encouragement and a repost of my writing journey.
[Originally posted on Under The Radar SSF Books]
I didn’t set out to write over sixty thousand words. The longest story I wrote before I started this trilogy was the short story The View from Here, clocking in at a whopping 3900 words which made it into my first science fiction book, The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. As with many short stories, it had an open ending that allowed the reader to extrapolate what would befall the characters. Although I was happy with the story, it did leave me wanting more.
I considered myself a short story writer. Perhaps because I am a slow writer, I don’t tend to write long, detailed descriptions, and many of my story ideas come to a natural conclusion on their own. I accepted the fact that this might be my calling.
Enter NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. It was suggested to me that I give it a try, the challenge being to write 1600 words per day for thirty days. Now, I have done challenges before, National Poetry Month (thirty poems in thirty days) and Inktober (thirty ink sketches in thirty days), but trying to write fifty-thousand words was definitely going to be a challenge. I already had a head start with my short story and now I had incentive.
I set an obtainable goal: Write every day. And I did. I wrote over a thousand words in one day, which is a record I have yet to break. Needless to say, I didn’t write the next great novel, but I had a good start on a pretty good story. So, as November passed, I kept writing for three more months until the novella, The View from Here, was complete.
It was meant to be a stand-alone, but I still had some ideas for the characters, and I knew the next NaNoWriMo was coming up, so I began to write the sequel, The Second View. As I was getting close to the 30K word mark, and far from the conclusion I had in mind, I made the decision that this would become a trilogy. Now, some readers don’t like cliffhangers being sprung on them, so I published book two with the subtitle, Book Two of The View from Here Trilogy. So, no surprises.
But there was a problem. The way the book started contradicted the ending of the first book, so the solution was to add an epilogue to The View from Here, allowing the story to flow seamlessly to the next. If you have the first version of the book, hang onto it, it might be a collector’s item in the future. Oh, and that version doesn’t have page numbers either. Oops.
As soon as I published book two, I started on The Final View. With this book, since I ended The Second View on a cliffhanger, I had the beginning—well, the starting point—of the book, and I had already written the ending, so it was just a matter of writing the middle. Halfway through, I had an idea for an epilogue, which I have to admit teared me up as I wrote it. Who would have thought that a 3900-word short story would become a trilogy?
This is not an action story; it is an adventure. I hesitate to say it is akin to a Narnia story, maybe closer to H.G. Wells’ The Door in the Wall, but it is a story of two people navigating their way though a new world, relying on each other, and finding friendship along the way.
I hope you will join in the adventure. You won’t regret it.
-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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
October 28, 2023
Weekend Wrap-up Oct 28: Do you like scary?
Ahh, October. The month where you get to see…every Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode. It’s scary that there are so many. But seriously, for most, October means Halloween and everything scary. So, what is scary?
I remember reading an H.P. Lovecraft story* once that actually gave me goosebumps. Bravo, H.P.. Bravo.
Most horror achieves it’s scary affect with the element of surprise, with the creepiness factor contributing to the shock value, and it’s a lot more impressive to give someone the heebie-jeebies with the written word than on a screen.
I’m not a big horror genre fan. I’ve read stories from Poe, Lovecraft, King, Koontz, and…is that it? Who am I missing? Barker? No, not Bob. And there’s another one on that list…
Movies. Seven was psychologically frightening. “What’s in the box. What’s in the box!”
Slasher films just go for the gore; same with the zombie genre**. I’m sure there is a movie that made me jump, but I don’t think I ever screamed.
As a writer, I like to challenge myself sometimes to write outside my comfort zone, so for the last Saturday of October, here are the only “slightly scary” stories I have written. although, one of my post-apocalyptic stories in my collection, The Knot at the end of the Rope (free by the way) could qualify.
The Grim Reaper / Oh, The Horror
On my blog this week:
Free Book Friday Oct 27: Just the Promos
Thursday Thoughts: Marketing Mistakes
Weird Wednesday Oct 25th: Preparedness and Cartoons
Music Monday Oct 1: Slone
*No, I don’t remember which one it is.
**It’s either scary that I actually used a semi-colon in my writing or I used it incorrectly.
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, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
