S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 64

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Jeff Provine and Benjamin Gorman

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers Jeff Provine and Benjamin Gorman.

Jeff ProvineJeff Provine

I’m a farm kid from out in the flats of Northwest Oklahoma, where there wasn’t too much to do, but ever claiming to be bored would lead to chores, so we learned to entertain ourselves. I published my first book, the first "Celestial Voyages" novel, in college, and I’ve been writing ever since with works in anthologies, my webcomic "The Academy," and my blogging project "This Day in Alternate History." In 2009, I started a ghost walk for charity at the University of Oklahoma, telling hidden history and spooky stories about campus. After over 4,000 visitors, it’s still going strong, and I’ve followed it up with two more local walking tours and four collections of Oklahoma ghost stories: Campus Ghosts of Norman, Haunted Norman, Haunted Guthrie, and Haunted Oklahoma City. By day, I’m a curriculum developer and lecturer, teaching classes in Creative Writing and The History of Comic Books.

Jeff's Books:

Tales of Wonder (anthology)

Haunted Oklahoma City (nonfiction)

Hellfire

Jeff's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr

Benjamin GormanBenjamin Gorman

Benjamin Gorman is a high school English teacher. He lives in Independence, Oregon, with his wife, Paige, and their son, Noah. His novels are The Sum of Our Gods, Corporate High School, and The Digital Storm: A Science Fiction Reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  He believes in human beings and the power of their stories.

Benjamin's Books:

The Digital Storm: A Science Fiction Reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest


The Sum of Our Gods

Corporate High School

Benjamin's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

From Today's Program: If the Asteroid was Late, There Would Still Be Dinosaurs.

Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.

Celebrity Crush

Back to the 52-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "My Biggest Celebrity Crush." I thought about skipping this one, but decided I could play along. (It seems these blog challenge things are more aimed at women.)

My biggest celebrity crush is probably Selena Gomez. I don't know anything about her acting or her singing (I assume I would hate any song she does), but she is so dang pretty. And it's a "sweet pretty." She could be a raging bitch for all I know, but she looks like a very sweet, nice girl.

I even watched the awful movie Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising because she was in (for about 30 seconds, it turns out).
Selena Gomez
The only other movie I've seen her in was the execrable Spring Breakers where she played the nice girl. But she spent a lot of time in a bikini and that was enjoyable. Then about three-quarters of the way through the movie, her character left (because she was the nice girl) and the move managed to get worse after that.

I know she's coming up on her 25th birthday (and I'm coming up on my 57th birthday) but, hey, it's a celebrity crush. It's not like I'm dating her.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with David Michael Williams and Aram Keledjian

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers David Michael Williams and Aram Keledjian.
David Michael WilliamsDavid Michael Williams

I was exposed to sword-and-sorcery fantasy at the tender age of 12 and dove headlong into fiction writing when I competed in a short story contest in sixth grade. While the tale—a glorified battle scene, really—garnered no accolades, two of its characters survived for many years thereafter and appear in The Renegade Chronicles.

I live in Wisconsin with an amazing wife (who somehow puts up with my storytelling addiction) and two larger-than-life children. I became a member of The Allied Authors of Wisconsin, one of the state’s oldest writing collectives, in 2005.

David's Books:

Rebels and Fools (The Renegade Chronicles Vol. 1)

Heroes and Liars (The Renegade Chronicles Vol. 2)

Martyrs and Monsters (The Renegade Chronicles Vol. 3)

All three volumes for the Kindle

David's Links:

Website/Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Aram Keledjian

At age 9, Aram immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union. The travels and language
barrier left his thoughts to transcend into magical stories. However, it was not until a few years ago until he finally began to put them on paper.

Aram's Book

Whispers

Aram's Links

Facebook
Twitter

From Today's Program: Spiders Could Eat All Humans in a Year.

Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

What's Always in My Shopping Cart

Back to the 53-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "What's Always in My Shopping Cart." I don't tend to do the food shopping in the family. So this would more be like "what's always in my wife's shopping cart." I really can't think of anything that's "always" in the shopping cart other than staples such as bread, milk, butter. I think on thing we always try to have on hand is fruit. I love oranges and pineapple. Some times of the year it's hard to get good, fresh oranges. (I pretty much love orange anything.) I know this prompt is designed to ferret out our food fetishes like "I always have potato chips in my cart." But I don't have any food fetishes, except for "orange anything."

I also love peaches but it's early in the season for those. They'll become available in August. My dad usually buys a bunch then gives us some.

You'd think for someone who eats a lot of fruit, I'd be thinner.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Devra Robitaille and Ray Chilensky

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers Devra Robitaille and Ray Chilensky.
Devra RobitalilleDevra Robitaille

London-born Devra is a prolific composer, songwriter and keyboardist, as well as an author of books for kids.  She had a successful career as a professional musician in England, playing keyboards and touring with Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame, before moving to America in the nineties.  All through the nineties she directed musicals and theatrical productions in Los Angeles.  In addition to the five books the Hologram Library published last year, she will be publishing two more books for young adults by the summer of 2017.  Devra now lives in Florida with her family on the Sarasota Bay. She loves to kayak and bike and is a consummate foodie, baking lovely cakes and deserts. She continues to write and compose for the theatre, but loves to write for children.

Devra's Books:

The Efficiency Claus

The Dream Stealers

Muffy and the Medicine Cat

Devra's Links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

Ray ChilenskyRay Chilensky

Ray Chilensky lives in rural Tuscarwarus County, Ohio. He has worked briefly in law enforcement and for several years in private security. He has studied political science and history at Kent State University. Late in life he decided to pursue his passion for storytelling and combined that passion with lifelong interest in history, politics to seriously peruse a writing career. In his free time Ray’s interests include the martial arts., shooting sports, drawing and, of course reading good books.

Ray's Works:

Seventh: Blessed Warriors Book One

"The End of War" (short story in an anthology)

A Day and a Night 

Ray's Links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

From Today's Program: Mars Colonists May 3-D Print Tools from Mars Dust.

Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

A Brag, or Two

Back to the "53-week blogging challenge." Today's prompt is "Let Me Brag a Minute."

So I thought about bragging about my nine books (soon to be ten), then decided not to.

When I was in college I was in an advanced calculus class. And the instructor said he was going to give us a problem to work on. He
A capsulewanted us to design a structure with a cylindrical middle and hemispherical ends. Sort of like a medicine capsule. He wanted us to minimize the cost of the materials and he gave us the cost of the cylindrical material and the hemispherical material. I don't remember the details. About three seconds after he did all that, I said, "The cheapest structure is a sphere."

He said, "What?"

I said, "The cheapest structure is a sphere."

He said, "No, it's more complicated than that."

I said, "No, it's not."

He didn't respond.

But the next day he changed the assignment, making it more complicated and so that the cheapest structure was not just a sphere.

P.S.: Today is the 37th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. That would make an interesting blog post since I lived about 150 miles away from the volcano.

Movie Review: La La Land

Thursday I watched the movie La La Land. Here is my review: it's a musical; I hate musicals.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Anthony R. Howard and P.I. Barrington

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are happy to welcome writers Anthony R Howard and P.I. Barrington.
Anthony R. HowardAnthony R. Howard

Bestselling author Anthony R. Howard has been an industry recognized consultant and technology expert for the premier global technology firms for over 12 years. Presently he is a leading Technology Specialist for one of the world’s largest Information Technology firms where he was named #1 IT Super Hero by InfoWorld and ComputerWorld , was the winner of the National Federal Office Systems Award (FOSE - Nation’s Largest Information Technology Exposition Serving the Government Marketplace), and the 2004 winner of Government Computer News Best New Technology Award. Several case studies have been published on Howard’s solutions across the Information Technology industry. Currently he provides enterprise technology solutions and advisement for America’s most distinguished clients including a sizeable amount of work for the U.S. Defense Sector, Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. His projects have been featured in national media outlets including Fox News. After founding his own technology firm, Howard completed his formal education with a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Information Technology. His vast career has included controlling hundreds of devices worldwide from secure Network Command Centers to relocating overseas to Amsterdam, The Netherlands for more than a year to solve technology issues for American based companies. He has also worked briefly for a private military logistics corporation that contracts a sizable amount of work from the Department of Defense and other military institutions. He’s also the bestselling author of The Invisible Enemy: Black Fox  and   The Invisible Enemy II: Vendetta .

Anthony's Books:

Devil’s Diary: The Coming

The Invisible Enemy: Black Fox 

The Invisible Enemy: Vendetta 

Anthony's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook


P.I. BarringtonP.I. Barrington

After a decade-long detour through the entertainment industry where she worked as a radio air talent and the music industry, P.I. Barrington has returned to writing novels. She lives in Southern California and co-authors with her sister, Loni Emmert who also works in the music industry.
Her books include:
The Brede Chronicles, Book One, First Realm Publishing
Future Imperfect Trilogy (Crucifying Angel, Miraculous Deception, Final Deceit) Desert Breeze Publishing
Inamorata Crossing/Borealis 1: A Space Opera, Desert Breeze Publishing
The Button Hollow Chronicles: The Leaf Peeper Murders, Mainly Murder Press

And Free stories on Wattpad.com

P.I.'s Book:

The Brede Chronicles, Book One

P.I.'s Links:

Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

From Today's Program: Astronomers will Peer Inside a Black Hole.

Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

A Day in My Life

Time once again for the 52-week blogging challenge. The next prompt is: "What's inside my closet." Well that's easy: clothes.

See you next week.

Okay, I'll look at the next one. It's "Meet My Pets." Well, I don't have any pets. I had a goldfish once. It died.

Still too easy.

And the next prompt is "A day in my life." I kind of covered this very quickly in a previous post.

I guess I could go into more detail.

My typical day starts when I wake up. I normally don't set an alarm unless I need to get up for a specific reason. I wake up anywhere from 3:00 AM to 9:00 AM. I then go to my office and do promotional work for my publisher that I sort of took on because I'm a nice guy and one of the few writers she has who doesn't have a day job. I then set up my automated tweets for the day (this takes off so much of the burden of tweeting).

Then I go back to my bedroom and take a shower in the master bath, then I usually wake up my wife (if she's not already awake). If it's 4:00 AM (and it has been sometimes) I let her sleep and go kill time by watching Netflix or stuff I've DVR'd that I know she wouldn't care if I watch without her (The Simpsons, Family Guy). When I do wake her up, we have breakfast and then she showers and gets dressed. Then we go to Starbucks. Nearly every morning we go to Starbucks.

When we get home from Starbucks, I'll go back to my office and start working on whatever freelance assignments I might have, or write on my WIP, or just goof off on the internet. Or blog sometimes.

Around noon my wife will bring me lunch.

Unless I have a reason to stay later, I usually stop working about 2:00 PM or 3:00 PM. Often because I feel sleepy (especially if I got up before 7:00 AM). So I'll often take a nap in my recliner.

Then I'll watch Netflix or DVR's stuff or goof off until 7:00 PM when it's time for Jeopardy. My friend Sarah got me back hooked on Jeopardy a few years ago.

Then it's time to watch a DVD/Blu-ray from Netflix or watch something we've DVR'd that my wife does want to watch. And I start falling asleep sometime between 8:30 PM and 10:00 PM. I have fallen asleep in my recliner and woken up at 1:00 AM and then gone to bed.

On Monday nights I have Toastmasters at 5:30 - 6:30 PM. On Friday nights I have writers' group from 6:30 to whenever it breaks up.

Weekends days are pretty much the same as weekdays, except on Sunday, my wife will go to church at 9:00 AM, usually leaving from Starbucks. If it's football season on weekends, I'll watch University of Washington Huskies football, and/or Seahawks football. Football is pretty much the only sport I really like.

I know, I'm boring. But that's my life.

Television Review: Iron Fist

Yesterday I watched the last episode of Iron Fist. Iron Fist is the latest Netflix/Marvel series after Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage.

I've heard complaints that Iron Fist is boring. And at first it pretty much is. What kept me watching it was I felt I needed to watch it to keep up with the Marvel universe mythos (maybe "canon" is a better word) in anticipation of The Defenders.

This series is very much tied into that mythos/canon as Daredevil and Luke Cage are mentioned and Jessica Jones is referenced as a good private investigator "when she's sober." Also, Karen Page from Daredevil is mentioned as a reporter.

In Iron Fist are Madam Gao (from Daredevil and one of the villains here), Claire Temple (who has been in all the Netflix/Marvel series), and Jeri Hagarth (from Jessica Jones and briefly in Season Two of Daredevil).

So I sat through five episodes of Iron Fist, hoping it would get better. And it did. At the end of the sixth episode it takes off and rarely lets go of the viewer from then on. At first Finn Jones as Danny Rand/Iron Fist comes off as kind of a wimp. But starting in episode six, he kicks ass.

The plot is pleasantly convoluted with turns and twists. Oh, and the Hand show up along with Madam Gao. Lots of martial arts ensues.

If the series had gotten more interesting earlier, it would have been much better. There was a lot of backstory to tell and get through, however. Finn Jones got better and more likable as the series progressed. And while I get very tired of the "evil corporation" trope, in Iron Fist, Rand Enterprises is evil for a reason.

And since I've been in business, I kept yelling at Danny Rand "Don't do that, you don't do that in business!" But it didn't do any good.

Speaking of business, there was one really bad mistake. They showed a Forbes magazine cover with a picture of Danny Rand and the headline "An Entrepreneur Who Cares." Except Danny Rand is no entrepreneur. He inherited all his wealth (and stock in Rand Enterprises). And entrepreneur starts a business and builds it from the ground up.

So, if you can sit through the first five and a half episodes, Iron Fist is worth watching.

Now I need to watch the last episode of Better Call Saul season two.