Leon Stevens's Blog, page 70
August 17, 2023
Thursday Thoughts: Poetry
I thought of a good poetry prompt yesterday: Write about something that isn’t there anymore.
There is a path that winds its through one of the city’s urban forests. If you didn’t pay close attention, you might have missed the secondary trail that led to a tree sculpture. It was quiet and serene place. You would never know you were in the middle of a city. Sadly, the Spirit Tree succumbed to the ravages of time a few years ago.
I then remembered I wrote poem about the old football stadium that was demolished.
Echoes of Glory Past
A rutted empty lot
Graveled, garbaged, and disheveled
Emerging from the mire
A shopping cart’s future looking dire
A battered fence, a parking curb
Remembers fans dressed so absurd
Infant trees now sprout adult leaves
Reminiscing about the camaraderie
If you stay still, you can hear the voices
Celebrations, disappointments, and rejoices
The murmuring crowd, anticipation reverberates
A river through the clicking turnstile gates
Flowing cheers of victory
A wave ripples over a sea of humanity
Served us well through it all
For thanks it gets the wrecking ball
Then crouching down and squinting
A stadium mirage
Stands there no more
No echoes heard of what’s in store
Standing on the corner
A solitary mourner
From A Wonder of Words
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/
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August 16, 2023
Weird Wednesday Aug 16th: But, that’s what I sai—
I came across a Twitter post the other day, yesterday to be precise, and it made me think. The word ‘said’ can be overused in writing, so I try to use other ways to indicate who is speaking. Placing an action before or after dialogue is an easy way to avoid a repetitive dialogue tag.
Martin shook his head. “That doesn’t seem right.”
There are a lot of good words on that list, but I’ll have to disagree that all of them are a direct substitute for the word “said.” Oh, you want examples? Oh, I have examples.
We walked along the moonlit forest path, hand in hand. “This is a lovely first date,” I yelled. We have not had another.“A moving tribute to the deceased,” the priest laughed. The congregation was appalled.She put down the fork and pushed back in her chair. “I’m full,” she asked. In a flawless speaking voice, he stammered, “And that my friends, is a rap.”“It’s a typical, He cried/She chuckled, situation.”“I don’t know what that means,” I chattered.
“I’m just giving you examples,” he wailed.
“Whoa, no need for that,” I whispered.
He quoted, “Please speak up.”
You get the drift … moving on.
It was only a matter of time before I repeated myself. Much of the earlier Miniscules’ humor was based on the fact that their size made the joke impossible to see and left it up the the reader’s imagination. I drew this, then realized I had done it before, but only posted it on my first website as a bonus cartoon.
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
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C’mon, space stuff!
August 14, 2023
Music Monday Aug. 14: Started out as Noah Kahan
There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.
CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music
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.
I was going to start today’s post with the song, “Dial Drunk”, but rather than always throwing the newest hit at you, I decided to pick another song from Noah Kahan which may be less familiar.
But there was something familiar about it to me. I tried to place the voice and finally, I figured out it was the Canadian singer, Scott Helman.
OK. Back to Noah. This is the first song I heard from him. Yeah, it says with Post Malone, but it could be any one with face tattoos singing back-up.
Back to Scott.
To end with, here is one I hadn’t heard before …
… but I’m glad I did.
-Leon
Got a few minutes for something fun? If you are able to, play Hurt Somebody and Ripple Effect simultaneously. It doesn’t sound great, but it’s close enough in key, tempo, style, and voice to be not unpleasant.
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
August 12, 2023
Weekend Wrap-up Aug 12: 7 for 5
I have themed posts each week, but don’t always have content all the time. This time, I wrote for all 5 weekdays plus a new short story and a humorous … whatever you call it, about cookies.
-Leon
Short Story: Disasterville
-Leon
On my blog this week:
Free Book Friday Aug. 10: Social media Part II – Bluesky
Thursday Thoughts: Movie Reviews – Spoiler alert: 65 ain’t good.
Weird Wednesday Aug 9th: Random Thoughts/Cartoons
Tuesday Tirade: Miscalculation – The river fiasco
Music Monday Aug. 7: Australian Crawl – The Australian band you’ve never heard of?
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
August 11, 2023
Short Story: Disasterville
Sometimes I can sit down and bang out a story in under ten minutes. It helps if it’s only 225 words, though.
DisastervilleOntino and Havan stepped out of the house to watch the water creeping up the driveway and over the grass. The sky was dark and gray, but it wasn’t raining there. Yet.
The basement was empty. They had been warned not to keep anything of value there and they took that advice to heart and stored their valuables in the attic. No one mentioned the tornados, though. Now, they had no valuables. A new roof, but no valuables.
Havan tossed the black hose into the rising water and turned on the pump. In minutes, the aqua-dam began to fill, creating a “waterproof” dyke around the perimeter of the house. There was always some leakage caused by the tremors, which cracked the soil, dry from the three-week drought.
There was an upside to the rain. The wildfires were now under control. Only half the town was burned this time.
“They’re back,” Ontino said as she pointed to the wheatfields on the upper terrace of the valley. A black murmuration descended down, and they could hear the hum of a million beating cicada wings.
“You have to admit, it’s better than the hornets,” Havan said.
“Why do we live here?” she asked.
“Low taxes,” he answered. “And look how close to the school we are,” he added as he pointed to the elementary school which had got hung up on the berm across the street.
Sometimes the world is beginning to feel like this, doesn’t it?
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
Free Book Friday Aug. 10: Social media Part II – Bluesky
Another platform. Started by the founder of Twitter. I heard about it last year and threw my name onto the waiting list. Apparently, you can get invites to give to friends, but I don’t know if someone used theirs or if the good folks at Bluesky deemed me a worthy participant, but in any case, I’m now there too.
First impressions:
It kinda looks like TwitterMy initial feed, seemed to be dominated by author John Scalzi, who is quite the prolific poster.There is a lot of backlash about the lack of moderation on Twitter leading to questionable content but my feed is quite pleasant, due to the people in my circle.Since I’m starting from scratch, I have the task of finding the right people to follow. Gaining followers is more of an organic exercise. Post and they will follow.The best thing? No ads.I use social media as part of my author brand. I dislike having to sell and promote my books constantly, so I try to balance it with creating cont—
“OMG, I’m a content creator…”
I want to post entertaining content for the readers of my books an the followers of my accounts. Each one has a slightly different theme.
WordPress: You are here, so you know.YouTube: Mostly to keep my trailers and music videos to post elsewhereTwitter: Sharing my blog posts, connecting with other authors and readersInstagram: Posting my cartoons and poetryFacebook: Sharing all my blog posts and newsletters and connecting with new readersPintrest: Gave up on that one. I found it confusing.Bluesky: You don’t refuse an invite. Who knows how long Twitter will last.Now the burning question: Where are the free books?
This is not a bait and switch tactic on my part. Since I moved to a bi-weekly newsletter, I have less promos and swaps to share. But I do include my review copy and free book links here.
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.
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!
Review CopiesReview 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
Buy all three for less than $7: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZFMXQYY
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
August 10, 2023
Thursday Thoughts: Movie Reviews
When I was a kid, I didn’t question (or care) that in all sci-fi movies, everyone looked human and spoke English. As I get older, I am more apt to look for plot holes and errors, not to be malicious, but because it’s kinda fun.
Is 65 a good movie? Nope. Is it worth watching? If you have nothing better to do for an hour and a half, do something else. If you have a few moments now, I’ll save you the trouble of watching.
[Spoiler alerts past this point]
Adam Driver as an alien. Sure, he’s weird looking, I’ll buy that.
At first, I thought he was an explorer but he’s just the pilot either bringing travelers to a destination or taking them back, I’m still not sure, but he hits an asteroid field and crash lands. You would think the ship would have some sort of collision defense. Then the computer says it does not know where they are. How off-course can they be? Maybe they are from the other side of the galaxy, but it is only a two-year trip and there was no evidence of faster than light travel, so they had to be fairly local.
The escape pod is 15 km away, and they encounter at least 5 T-Rexs, and countless velociraptors but I don’t believe there would be that many apex predators in such a small area.
When they get to the escape pod, they are informed that the distress signal sent out a few days ago was received and that help is arriving. That was fast. What happened to the two-year round trip? Maybe the passengers should have traveled by rescue ship.
What would have topped it off—and I seriously thought there were going to—would be to show archaeologists discovering the cave painting the girl did.
And finally, how many films can you rip off?
Pitch Black – meteor causes crashStar Wars – Dagobah swampOblivion – man rescues female from cryo-podDinosaurs – Jurassic Park, of courseMan and (kid) girl traveling together – The Road, The Last of UsThere you go. Is this the worst movie I have seen? Not even close. That honor goes to …
I’ll let you wait on that one.
-Leon
Here is the only other movie related post I’ve done:
Read the Movie or Watch the Book
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
August 9, 2023
Weird Wednesday Aug 9th: Random Thoughts/Cartoons
Why is it that you can’t activate the screen on your phone while wearing gloves, but as soon as you put it in your pocket …
That last shot of water you put in your oatmeal was too much.
That’s it.
New pricing for books 2 & 3 : $2.99 each!
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
August 8, 2023
Tuesday Tirade: Miscalculation
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from a tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship
You might know the rest—or you might not. If you don’t, you probably fall into the Millennial/Gen-Z generations. You can scroll to the end of the post to watch the complete intro to catch up with the rest of us. For everyone else, you know it was only supposed to last for 3 hours.
A friend and I have been kayaking the last two summers, along some of the nearby rivers. We had done a 2 1/2 hour trip the week before along a narrower river, and if you recall your fluid dynamics, you know flow rate is dependent on the area:
Flow rate Q is defined to be the volume V flowing past a point in time t, or Q=Vt where V is volume and t is time. The SI unit of volume is m3. Flow rate and velocity are related by Q=A¯v where A is the cross-sectional area of the flow and v is its average velocity.
I hear many of you say, “Huh?” Simply put, narrower rivers usually have a stronger current than wider ones if the elevation change is the same.
Now it is always more enjoyable—and less strenuous— to go with the current, so we drive to an upstream point and … well, go with the flow, meaning we do have to drive back in another vehicle to pick up the first. Not so eco-friendly, I know.
We decided to attempt a different river, a wider river, and we figured it would take slightly longer, considering the difference in current.
Was that the miscalculation? Considering we didn’t have a flowmeter handy, perhaps. Was there a headwind? That was not expected, so it did not fall into the calculation. Did the river twist and turn? Indeed it did and we thought we knew the distance.
Thought. Two hours in, we realized our mistake. It was not going to take “about the same time.”
Before you start to worry, it wasn’t as dire as it sounds. The river winds its way though the city, and if needed, we could have bailed at any time, although we may have had to cut through a yard or two if a public boat launch wasn’t forthcoming, and called an Uber to take us back to one the cars. But, we persevered, and finished the journey with more sun than planned and less calories remaining in the tank.
Which made breakfast (now lunch) so much tastier.
-Leon
Enjoy the nostalgia Boomers and Gen-Xers:
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
August 7, 2023
Music Monday Aug. 7: Australian Crawl
There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.
CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music
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.
As a teenager, I found new music by listening to the radio. You never knew when that song you liked would come on, so the cassette recorder was ready to go when you heard those opening notes. That meant all of your favorite songs on the tape were missing the first few seconds. Then, you would anxiously wait for the department store to stock the album.
In the early 80s, a classmate’s friend’s cousin came to Canada from Australia for a week long visit and brought a cassette tape called Phalanx from the band Australian Crawl. Before she left, I played it on my stereo and recorded it with my portable cassette recorder. As you can imagine, the sound quality was … well, you can imagine.
Then, I got to show it off to all my friends. “Look, an Australian band that isn’t Men at Work or AC/DC.” I don’t know why I thought of the band to feature this week, but it took about 30 seconds to find the first video. Technology, huh?
I kinda miss those days, though.
Australian Crawl were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne, Brad Robinson, Paul Williams, Simon Binks and David Reyne in Melbourne in 1978.
I have no idea why they didn’t sue a certain band for copyright infringement of this one:
They could have made a fortune …
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 weekly newsletter and receive a free book!
Oh, pick me!
C’mon, space stuff!
