Wesley Britton's Blog, page 3

New review of Return to Alpha!

Today, bjwagner recommended Return to Alpha at BookBub:


I enjoyed this scientific adventure story. This is a newer author for me and I look forward to reading more from him in the future. This is a well written story that is full of action and adventure. There is a lot going on in this story from humans to aliens to even some romance. The author’s use of detail made the story understandable, engaging and easy to read. This is a fast paced story that was entertaining and kept me turning pages to the end. I enjoyed how the characters were unique and interesting. They are strong and brought the story to life on each page. They truly made the story for me. I really enjoyed the growth of this story and the growth of the characters. This is a great story that is worth picking up. I highly recommend this book.
Reasons I enjoyed this book:
Action-packedEasy-to-readEntertainingGreat world buildingOriginalPage-turnerRealisticWonderful characters

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/17782...

Book Review: Mel Blanc: man of a Thousand Voices by Ben Ohmart

Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices
Ben Ohmart
Publisher ‏ : ‎ BearManor Media (November 11, 2012)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1593937881
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1593937881

https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Blanc-Thou...


I admit being a tad behind the curve reviewing this 2012 tome, but I only recently spotted the title in a perusal of the BearManor Media catalogue. I also admit some might think I’m a tad biased as I’ve known the author, Ben Ohmart, for many years now. Seven of my books were published by his BearManor Media. And I’ve reviewed a ton of BearManor titles in the past as that little company tends to pump out quality non-fiction explorations of entertainment history. I’ve loved quite a few, but have pointed out clunkers when I run across them.

This time around, Ben gives us a 700 plus page deep dive into all things Mel Blanc. For a refresher, Blanc was the voice of most of the Warner Brothers cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweety bird, Yosemite Sam and all the other favorites you probably remember from your childhood. Beyond the Warner Brothers canon, Blanc occasionally did the Woody Woodpecker laugh, and voiced Barney Rubble and Dino for The Flintstones. Add in countless characters for radio and television, including a lot of work with his friend Jack Benny, and it’s easy to understand how a serious cataloguing of his legacy would end up in a hefty sized book.

Naturally, the book is chock-full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes revealing how Blanc came up with all those voices. For example, Blank didn’t like carrots so he kept a bucket handy whenever he had to do Bugs Bunny chopping on carrots. Apparently, no other vegetable could duplicate the sound so Blanc would do his chomping and then spit out the remains in the bucket. In the ‘60s, Blanc was surprised to find his characters singing Beatles and Rolling Stones songs as in Yosemite Sam doing “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

We get a considerable amount of insight into Blanc’s personal life, especially as one principal source for the book was his son, Noel. I doubt few readers can read the account of Blanc’s recovery from a near fatal car crash and not be affected by just how resilient Blanc was in getting back to work while still being laid up. In fact, few readers will put down this book without feeling a sense of admiration for the man, his talent, his values, the whole package.

If you’re like me and missed this volume when it first came out, it’s never too late to appreciate the life and legacy of a major contributor to many of our childhood hours watching TV and laughing at all those immortal characters Mel Blanc helped bring to life.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Fri. Aug. 20, 2021:


https://waa.ai/xn3I

Book Review: Hanging Softley in the Night: A Detective Nick Larson Mystery

Hanging Softly in the Night: A Detective Nick Larson Novel
Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra
Thrills & Kills Press (November 8, 2020)
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08LQXGCFN
ISBN-13: 978-0-9982574-3-3
ISBN-10: 0-9982574-3-5
https://www.amazon.com/Hanging-Softly...


In this latest edition of Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra’s Lt. Detective Nick Larson series, readers familiar with such stories will find themselves in comfortable territory encountering many typical mystery story tropes.
For one thing, our main hero, New York police detective Nick Larson is an experienced investigator with a big personal problem. After his ex-wife committed suicide, he’s on restricted duty while he works out his pain. At first glance, he might not have been the best choice to lead an investigation of an apparent suicide by hanging. Naturally, this death is followed by other suspicious hangings that might be related murders. Larson, along with his trusty partner, Detective Vic Sacco, along with other tried and true NYPD associates like Tish Ramos, Steve Pensig, and Josh Carpenter, spend most of the book trying to connect the ever-increasing accumulation of dots that should reveal, sooner or later, the motives for the crime spree.
The second plot is a carry-over from a previous Nick Larson story (“Mirror, Mirror”) in which two twins are locked in a psychopathic sibling rivalry. Creative baker Laura Howard is the good twin trying to protect herself, and ignite a relationship with Larson, while brilliant and manipulative evil twin Sandra Ward does everything she can to destroy her sister, even while incarcerated.
Distinguishing attributes of Alonso-Sierra’s story telling include a very descriptive eye, especially for the ever-widening cast of supporting characters and vivid city settings during a cold and harsh winter. On every page, the reader feels like we’ve been taken into city dwellings, shops, office buildings, everywhere Larson has to go to investigate leads, dead-ends and witnesses from every strata of New York life. The author demonstrates a deep well of research into police procedures and medical analysis, as demonstrated by the list of acronyms at the beginning of the book. Adding to the verisimilitude, a fast, energetic pace keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end.
If you’re like me, you’ll not only get involved with the developing relationships between the leads, you’ll want to continue the ride in the next volume of the Nick Larson saga. Without providing spoilers, not everything is resolved in Hanging Softly. We got more surprises coming and I can’t wait for the next chapters.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 23, 2021:

https://waa.ai/xUHg

Sir Richard Branson, hope, inspiration, and aliens on the wing-

Several hours ago, while doing my Sunday afternoon chores, I had one ear cocked to CNN to hear the updates about Richard Branson’s historic flight 50 miles up in space aboard his Virgin Galactic Unity 22 spacecraft.
After the ship landed back on earth and was being taxied to its hanger, I heard commentator Jake Tapper interviewing some expert whose name I didn’t catch, asking, and I paraphrase here, if it’s ethical or moral for billionaires to spend all that money and resources on such trips when we’re in the middle of so many crises here on earth?
Before I heard the answer, my mind flashed back to the late ‘60s when Joan Baez complained we shouldn’t be going to the moon when we have all sorts of problems on earth she thought should be solved first. “The moon can wait,” she opined.
Back then and again now, I wondered—when would humanity ever be in a perfect enough state to make space flight morally acceptable to such critics? (Bearing in mind I’m a huge Joan Baez fan, always have been.)
I liked the expert’s detailed response to Tapper, saying, in part, we need to start preparing for a future when our planet could be unable to sustain us all and humans may need to become a multi-planetary species. Before then, we could have spaceships built to direct solar rays here for energy, we could land on asteroids and other celestial bodies to mine them for useable resources. We need to take incremental steps to make using space commercially possible. That’s the pragmatic way of looking at things.
To add to the defense side of the table, it’s worth noting Branson’s invaluable assistance to the oceans and climate change over the decades. He has always demonstrated a deep interest in bettering our planet—it’s not as if SpaceShipTwo’s journey was an egotistical grandstand.
In a press conference that just concluded, it was clear Branson saw the flight as an inspirational event for young people in particular, to show them the importance of having big dreams and investing the time and resources in achieving them. Just like the space race inspired my generation so long ago. Even when some thought the point was to beat the Russians to the moon and when we did that, there was no need to continue manned landings. That was President Nixon’s view. So if commercial entities are the ones to push space exploration further, what’s the problem? No politics are involved, no governmental funding required. Sounds like a win/ win to me.
One more note from the Tapper interview: the interviewee noted the day may come when we’ll be the ones flying UFOs around faraway planets and that thought blew Tapper’s mind. That resonated with me as various reviewers have noted my books are from the perspectives of humans from our earth becoming aliens dealing with life on other worlds. Just a side-note folks—like the joke at the press conference where one of the astronauts invented the story of an alien hitching a ride on Unity. So nice to hear a news story with such positive vibes with a touch of humor to boot.

New Review of The Blind Alien!

Review: The Blind Alien, The Beta-Earth Chronicles, Book One

Reviewer: Fabrice Stephan

This is a book that won't leave you

The world
It has an incredible level of details. Everything was thought of in details from trivia to geostrategic issues. Cover art may seem light but the book isn't.
This is wonderful. here, sci-fi doesn't come from hyperspace jumps and plasma beams but from an impressively detailed alternative world.

Characters
The author takes time to build characters with a huge depth. We love each for their unique voice.

The plot
The level of details is something provided against true action. Plenty of things happens to the characters and there is a lot of action but the author
takes his time to prepare everything :-)

As a summary
An impressive work in the creation of a meaningful universe (however harsh he can be)

Read it ! Especially if you want to cross the barrier between worlds to see the universe differently

Reasons I enjoyed this book:
Entertaining Great world building Realistic Unpredictable

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/41286...

Review (of sorts): Ian Fleming's 7 Deadlier Sins

Ian Fleming's Seven Deadlier Sins: A Collection of Essays
Literary 007, Britton, Wesley, Amanatullah, Ihsan, Welton, Benjamin, May, Michael, Biddulph, Edward et al
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (December 28, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 48 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1652240144
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1652240143
https://www.amazon.com/Ian-Flemings-S...

Full Disclosure: Before May of this year, I didn’t feel I could write a credible review of this collection as I’m the author of the first article which takes up about 11 pages of the 48 page print edition. My essay on “avarice” was the first entry in the seven part series when Artistic License Renewed first posted it on their website on July 7, 2015. The subsequent six essays appeared periodically thereafter at the website until the editor asked us if we’d permit him to collect the series and publish it as both an e-book and print title in 2019.
This month, I was motivated to write a response to a review of the print edition posted at Amazon on May 2, 2021 that I found extremely off target.
I won’t repeat the entire review here, but I’ll start my response to the review’s very first sentences: “This is not by Ian Fleming. It's not edited by Ian Fleming. It is not a comparison about the original Seven Deadly Sins and Fleming's Seven Deadlier Sins.”
That’s all true. Nowhere is it claimed the book is by Fleming; it’s writers commenting on Fleming’s 007 novels through the prisms of the terms Fleming never wrote about himself but listed In his foreword to his 1962 book he edited, The Seven Deadly Sins. In that foreword, Fleming declared that the traditional seven deadly sins — PRIDE, ENVY, ANGER, SLOTH [accidie], COVETOUSNESS, GLUTTONY and LUST — were no longer sufficient. Instead, he proposed seven deadlier sins more worthy of a one way ticket to Hell, namely AVARICE, CRUELTY, HYPOCRISY, MALICE, MORAL COWARDICE, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS & SNOBBERY.
The grumpy reviewer breezed past that point, saying “This is a collection of essays by authors I'm unfamiliar with on the Deadlier Sins in James Bond movies and books, plus cultural references, like a Saturday Night Live sketch. Not worth your time.”
I have to concede we essayists aren’t all widely-known Bond scholars, which hurts a bit. I’ve written four books on movie, TV, and literary espionage including Spy Television (2003), Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film (2005), Onscreen and Undercover: The Ultimate Book of movie Espionage (2006) and countless essays, articles, and reviews in print anthologies and reference works as well as numerous print and online periodicals and websites. I’ve been interviewed on James Bond and espionage by TV, Podcast, and radio broadcasters for decades in Boston, Washington D.C., Malaysia, Denmark, Germany, Turkey, and, most recently, I was the only English-speaking spy expert for a one-hour Al Jazeera documentary. I’ve appeared several times at the International Spy Museum and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. None of this, admittedly, makes me a household name. But I do got some cred, yes?
I can’t speak to the track record of the other contributors, but I can say I just reread the book and was again impressed with the depth of the research, the seriousness of the critiques, and the insights on a par with academic scholars discussing authors like Leo Tolstoy, Walt Whitman, or Mark Twain. The book was not “whipped out in 2020” as the reviewer claimed.
In particular, I’d like to compliment Edward Biddulph who wrote on “hypocrisy” and Michael May’s essay on “Self-righteousness.” To be fair, all the essays, even those only three or five pages long, gave me fresh perspectives and new insights any serious Ian Fleming aficionado would benefit from reading.
I should add readers don’t need to purchase a copy of the collection as all seven essays are still available in their original forms at:

https://literary007.com/category/the-...

Speaking of cred, scan that website and you can enjoy a rich well of Ian Fleming focused resources. Be your own judge and don’t be dissuaded by an unknown online critic with no cred I’m aware of.

Links to many of my interviews and online materials can be found at:

https://drwesleybritton.com/

this essay was first posted in the BookPleasures special section devoted to essays contributed by various authors.

https://waa.ai/xtVt

Radio interview link

Here's the link for the radio show I did on Friday (the 11th) with Karina Kantus in Greece, about 30 minutes long talking about sci-fi, of course-.
http://media.artistfirst.com/ArtistFi...

News from the Beta-Earth files

Here’s a link to a radio interview I’m doing Friday at 1:00 with Karina Kantus out of Corfu, Greece:

https://artistfirst.com/kantas.htm


And here’s a link to my latest YouTube trailer plugging my Return to Alpha. Actually, there are two versions; one, the more-or-less normal version; the other was crafted for the blind and visually impaired with audio descriptions of the slides and text:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69MjO...

In Memory of my Little Best Friend, Clipper Joe Britton

The Adventures of Clipper Joe Britton

March 11, 2016-May 26, 2021
Five years old, much too young to die.
My late wife Betty bought Clipper Joe, a “Party Yorkie” colored black, brown, and white, after the death of her youngest son, Chris. Clipper was named in his honor as Chris had been a barber. Because her Dad’s name had been Joe, her eldest son was also named Joe and so too her first grandson. She always got a Joe in there somewhere.
At first, Betty called Clipper her “teacup puppy.” That’s because he was so small that in the first pictures the breeder sent, little Clipper was in a teacup, his front paws hanging over the cup lip. When Betty brought him home, she kept him in a padded crate by her bed. When my friend Ron came by, he looked into the crate and proclaimed, “That’s not a dog.” It wouldn’t be long before Ron enjoyed playing with Clipper—“You want to fight?”
For the first year of his life, Clipper was Betty’s Emotional Support Puppy and stuck to his Mommy like glue. He rode on her shoulders in the car and when she sat pretty much anywhere. From the beginning he was a babe magnet, with all the secretaries and cleaning staff at the college where I worked coming out to the parking lot to adore him anytime Betty and Clipper waited for me to come out after class. She carried Clipper in her purse whenever we went into the credit union which we shouldn’t have done, but the staff always loved seeing him.
Then Betty’s horrible decline began. She spent much of 2017 in a hospital, then rehab, then home, and then back in the hospital, rehab . . . a cycle that repeated four times until her death in April 2018. During that time, Clipper’s groomer, Shelley Merrifield, realized his blind Daddy couldn’t bring him for grooming so she came over, collected him, groomed him, and brought him home. When Betty learned about that, she asked Shelley to be Clipper’s godmother.
During those months, Clipper, “Doodles,” “Doodle-dog,” Little man,” “Little Boy, “Baby Boy” became my Emotional Support Puppy. I took him to see Betty in the hospital and rehab whenever possible as those two were so closely bonded. One of the saddest days of my life was when I took Clipper in for the last time and I knew Betty didn’t even know he was there.
Then it was me, Clipper, and Molly the cat. That little dog just filled my little house. He was so social, so loved by one and all. Whenever I walked him down Larue Street, the odds were pretty good any women out and about would want to come adore him. He was a babe magnet all right—for him. He never shared. Mainly, he wanted his belly rubbed.
He slept under my chin at night, a spot Molly and he competed for. He woke me most mornings wanting out, wanting water, wanting fed. He was my constant companion, beside me on the coutch, sitting beside me on my recliner, barking for human food every time I ate, running around his fenced in yard barking at whatever he was interested in barking at. I always knew where he was as his harness was attached to his tags and several bells. “Jingle-belly.”
He liked to sit on top of the couch, looking out the front window at the park. He so wanted to go to the park and interact with potential admirers. He wanted one and all to know he was the King of Larue Street.
Every day, I had to figure out if Clipper was going to get any walks. Was it too cold, too windy, too hot, too wet? Would he be in the mood? Often, he just wouldn’t cooperate. Five years old, and we still had to put puppy pads down for him in the drum room.
He was easy to carry around, even when he became a tad chubby at 11 pounds. He loved car rides and never got enough of them. He wanted to go anywhere.
He always loved it when my grandson Joey came down for a weekend during good weather. We’d leash Clipper up and walk him two blocks down to Linglestown town square. We’d go to the St. Thomas Roister coffeeshop and leash Clipper to one of the outdoor tables where Joey and I enjoyed some mocha.
There were times when he was all about his toys, especially that half-whatever-it was stuffed something. In his early years, he really loved his squeaky toys. With me and later Sandy, he’d play tug of war with his toys and sometimes fetch, but rarely for very long.
He was picky about his treats. His favorite were Puperoni sticks even when the vet told us we should wean him off them so he could lose weight and give him green beans instead. Sometimes, he was really into his Greenies and dental chew sticks. Each year, we’d walk him across the park on Memorial Day to watch the parade. There was always a girl who’d throw treats for all the dogs along the route. Clipper ignored them.
One horrible adventure took place while I was in Tennessee over Thanksgiving in 2018. Clipper was staying at my friend Cherri’s where her dogs attacked him and really tore him up. He required some serious surgery.
When I came home, he wasn’t his old self. For a little while. He never again gained the strength to leap on the coutch or bed so Shelley bought him a set of puppy steps so clipper could climb up to be with his daddy. His steps were out by the coutch during the day, by the bed at night. From that point forward, when I was out-of-town, Clipper stayed with Shelley and her boyfriend Jared where Clipper made friends with their dogs.
Then, my new girlfriend Sandy moved in on December 26, 2020 and Clipper immediately decided Sandy was his new Mommy. He took to her so much I sometimes felt twinges of jealousy. He waited for Sandy to go to bed and followed her back to the bedroom. He laid beside her on the coutch. He loved his new Mommy.

Then, it should have been a simple procedure—a dental cleaning at the Dauphin County Animal Hospital. We took him on that Wednesday morning and Sandy said he gave her looks saying, “Mommy—please don’t leave me here! Please don’t make me do this!” We have to wonder if he knew what was coming.
Hours later, the phone calls began. Apparently, they gave him too much anesthesia and apparently some sort of brain clot was created or loosened or something. Anyway, the vet said he was still alive, but his eyes were dim. Non-responsive.
When Sandy got off work, we immediately went to the hospital and heard the saddest sounds of my life. Clipper was breathing with sharp, penetrating cries like he was in constant pain. His eyes were dull—Sandy said she could tell he was no longer there. The vet went back and forth with advice, saying he might snap out of it. I wanted to give him a fighting chance even while listening to that torturous breathing. The vet said he wasn’t feeling any pain as his brain wasn’t registering any pain.
Then it became 7:00, the time the vet said was the time to decide what to do. Seemed time to pull the plug. Clipper took the decision from us by taking his last breath about 7:10.
This house is so empty without my Clipper. He was with me the last months Betty and I lived on Patton Street during my final semester teaching. With three exceptions when I took some out-of-state trips, Clipper spent pretty much every day here once we moved into this house. I attended to him first thing every morning, he was in bed with me and then me and Sandy every night. Sometimes he crashed on one sofa, sometimes the other, often on the carpet in the living room close to his people. Now my heart is just shredded. I’m too accustomed to grief.
They tell me I’ll someday need a new companion, a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to leash a new dog and walk him down Larue Street. Someday. No dog can replace Clipper. As Shelley and Jared say, he was just unique. So loving. So adorable. So magnetic. So charismatic to one and all. So cute.
God, what I’m feeling is just horrible.

New review of new version of Return to Alpha!

While this review hasn’t been published anywhere just yet, I couldn’t resist sharing it with y’all today. It’s about the greatly revised Return to Alpha about to come out in paperback. Actually, it already is via Lulu; coming to Amazon in a few days. The e-book version is already good to go for your reading pleasure:

Return to Alpha is one of these books that opens up a window to another reality inhabited by
other volumes about the universe that sprang from his writer's imagination, Dr Wesley Britton

The book is a rather unique take on the aliens visiting earth concept. Fiction of course is no stranger to this concept, from ET to war of the worlds and many other works.

This time however there is a twist, we, the readers, or at least me, feel like we have more in common with the "aliens", than with the earthlings around them.

The story is set in a dystopian, post pandemic earth some 20 years in the future.
Population reduced, countries are broken apart. Covid-19 and other plagues ricked havoc on the planet and the result is a weakened humanity, riddled with fear and isolation.

Into this earth, 6 visitors arrive from parallel earths with different names, hence the title, "return to Alpha".
works that come to mind with similar themes are "water world". Star gate" and the Sci Fi classic "winter" by Ursula Le Guin.

RTA however is different as I said as we are immediately feel connected to the so called aliens and develop empathy towards them. There is a good reason for the way we feel towards the aliens. I will not disclose it here as it is a bit of a spoiler.

The main character, Malcolm Renbourn the 2nd, is portrayed with strong colors and bold hand, accompanied by a compelling supporting cast of family members.

Of note is also the character of Major Mary Carpenter from Texas, and the unfolding of her relationship with Malcolm is one of the main and colorful threads of the story.

Dr Britton pays great attention to details, which makes you feel like you are right there with the characters, in their landing, in the gilded prison called the "citadel" they are being placed at by suspicious earth security and law enforcement officials and elsewhere in their journeys and adventures.

I also like the rich assortment of secondary characters the main heroes of the story run into, the not-so Christian orphan Brian is a good example of that, pay attention to him when you get to this part of the story.

RTA has a rather clear message for humanity. and good messengers to deliver it. the message is especially relevant and poignant in our post pandemic, deeply divided current reality.
i enjoyed reading the book and I recommend it to anyone who like science fiction with more than just the science and more than just the fiction.

Dan Bar Hava, author of the 36 Watchers