S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 66

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Len Berry and Georgina Young-Ellis

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are please to welcome writers Len Berry and Georgina Young-Ellis.
Len BerryLen Berry

Len Berry studied biology before turning his imagination toward writing. In his spare time, Len enjoys drawing, watching anime, and playing an occasional video game. He is the author of the dystopian e-book Vitamin F, and several steampunk and fantasy short stories. Len's art can be found in the book Elegance.

Len's Works:


"The Mirror of Tila" (short story in an anthology)

Scars Of Shadow

"There Are Always Three of Them" (short story in an anthology)

Len's Links:

Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Patreon
YouTube
Twitch

[image error] Georgina Young-EllisGeorgina Young-Ellis

Georgina lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband who is an artist, writer, and teacher. They have a son who is a professional musician in New York City, where they all lived for eighteen years. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was a stage actress for many years. Born and raised in the Southwest, she went to school in New York City, graduating from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater. She is also a screenwriter, journalist, film/theater critic and blogger.

Georgina's Books:
The Time Heiress
The Time Contessa
The Time Duchess
Georgina's Links:
Website Blog Facebook Twitter Pinterest Instagram Tumblr
From Today's Program: Hubble Spies on Ancient Galaxies.
Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

Guilty Pleasures

Once again it's time for the 52-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "Ten guilty pleasures."

I don't know if I have ten guilty pleasures. I'll try.

One: The movie Smokey and the Bandit . Low-brow, country-fried comedy from the late 1970s. But it still makes me giggle.

Two: Driving fast. Usually I set the cruise control five miles per hour over the posted speed limit. But every now and then I'll find a back country road and hit felonious velocities. The roads around here tend to be arrow-straight so high speeds are easy to hit. Curvy roads are also fun to drive fast even if you don't hit high speeds, but there are scarce in this flat part of Washington State.

Three: The movie The Seven Year Itch . Yes, it's from 1955 and yes, it's very politically incorrect in many ways that may grate on our modern sensibilities (especially the opening). But I find it hilarious, probably because my mind works almost exactly like the main character's does.

Four: Pizza. Pepperoni pizza to be exact.

Five: The Simpsons. Yes, the show has been on forever (since 1989) and has lost some of its early bite (political correctness has affected it, too), but it so often is funny and sometimes is relevant.

Six: Five Guys Burgers. Amazing burgers and fries to die for. They've started doing shakes recently. And those are very very delicious. I avoid them.

Seven: Family Guy. Not as funny as it was at the beginning and very irreverent and often cringe-worthy, it still has some funny moments. And sometimes is just hilarious.

Eight: The Princess Bride. The book, not the movie.

Nine (I'm running out of ideas): Netflix Marvel series. I started watching Jessica Jones because I'm a fan of Krysten Ritter (okay, I think she's cute) and that got me hooked. I've now watched the first season of Jessica Jones, two season of Daredevil, and the first season of Luke Cage.

Ten: University of Washington Husky football. If you've read this blog, no need to go into details.

Wow, I came up with ten. I'm somewhat surprised.

Once Upon a 24 Legacy

Sometimes when I'm watching movies or television, I'll recognize and actor and wonder where I've seen them before. This happened when I was watching Sunday night's Once Upon a Time episode. So what I'll often do is open the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) app on my iPhone and look them up. I was trying to figure out why the actor who was playing Jafar (yes, from Aladdin; if your haven't seen Once Upon a Time it loves to mash up Disney characters) seemed so familiar. So I looked him up on the IMDb. And found the actor is 
So Mr. Fehr has an opportunity to show off his acting chops, playing the evil Jafar in the fantasy show Once Upon a Time and then playing the evil Naseir in the action show 24: Legacy. Yes, both characters are evil, but Jafar is a different kind of evil than Nasier.

But when you DVR the shows and watch them one after the other, it's a bit jarring to have the same actor in both shows that are completely different types of programs.

And, here's how my brain works: both shows deal with time as in once upon a time and 24 hours in a day.

Spring into Reading Giveaway 2017

It's time for the "Spring into Reading Giveaway 2017!" There are hundreds of prizes including paperback and ebooks and a Grand Prize of $100 Paypal cash. Enter here and good luck:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Andrew Hiller and Richard Paolinelli

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers Andrew Hiller and Richard Paolinelli.
Andrew HillerAndrew Hiller

Andrew Hiller attempted to travel the road least taken only to fall off. Caught in wild currents, he surfaced to find his commentaries selected four times as best of the year on Washington’s NPR station WAMU 88.5 FM, a pair of his plays fill the New York City stage, and an opportunity to act and write with the original Muppets gang in his Cobblestone Documentary series.  His first fantasy novel, A Climbing Stock, grew to reach the top 50 on Amazon’s humor best sellers. In between projects, he has taught art in a psychiatric ward, hosted an internationally broadcast science, health, and tech radio program, and reads everything that makes him go “Huh?” or “Ha!” His second novel, A Halo of Mushrooms was released in December 2015.

Andrew is currently working on a new YA fantasy novel as well as a new Cobblestones’ documentary. When not writing, editing, or producing you can often find him in front of a canvas. A sampling of his radio, visual and literary work can be found at www.andrewhiller.net.

Andrew's Books:

A Climbing Stock

A Halo of Mushrooms

Andrew's Links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

Richard PaolinelliRichard Paolinelli

Born in Turlock, California in 1964, Richard Paolinelli began his writing career as a freelance writer in 1984 in Odessa, TX and gained his first fiction credit serving as the lead writer for the first two issues of the Elite Comics sci-fi/fantasy series, Seadragon. In 1991 Richard began his sports writing career at the Gallup Independent before moving on to work for the Modesto Bee, Turlock Journal, Merced Sun-Star, Tracy Press, San Mateo County Times and the San Francisco Examiner. He also served as an editor and photographer with some of the newspapers. He won the 2001 California Newspaper Publishers Association award for Best Sports Story while at the Turlock Journal.

In 2013, Richard retired as a sportswriter and decided to return to his fiction writing roots. He released two short stories - "The Invited" and "Legacy of Death" - as well as a full-length sci-fi novel, Maelstrom. In 2015, Richard completed nearly two years of research and interviews and published, From The Fields: A History of Prep Football in Turlock, California, chronicling 95 years of high school football in his hometown. One month later, the first book of the Jack Del Rio series, Reservations, was published by Oak Tree Press.

In 2016, Richard was one of a dozen authors selected to participate in, Beyond Watson, an anthology of original Sherlock Holmes stories and was one of 20 writers involved in a second Holmes Anthology, Holmes Away From Home, released in December. Perfection's Arbiter, a biography of National League Umpire, Babe Pinelli, was released on October 8th. W & B Books acquired the Jack Del Rio series and released the second book, Betrayals, in November. The remaining two books in the Jack Del Rio series will follow in 2017 & 2018.

In January of 2017, Richard returned to his science fiction roots with the release of the novel, Escaping Infinity, and hopes to release another sci-fi novel, When The Gods Fell, later this year.

Richard's Books:

Escaping Infinity

Betrayals 

Perfection’s Arbiter (non-fiction)

Richard's Links:
Website Facebook Twitter Goodreads
From today's program: NASA has plans to land on Europa.
Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

My Favorite Quotes

Once again it's back to the 52-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "My favorite quotes."

This is kind of hard because I try to keep my politics out of this blog but most of my favorite quotes have to do with politics. Here's one that's an equal opportunity offender:

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." -- Winston Churchill.

A lot of my favorite quotes come from the late, great Robert A. Heinlein. Here's one of my favorites of his:

“What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what 'the stars foretell,; avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable 'verdict of history' – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!” 

 Or another favorite quote:

"Just Keep Writing" -- S. Evan Townsend

What are your favorite quotes. Comment below.

I'll be on "Let's Talk" with Bennet Pomerantz Today.

Today at 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT, I will be on "Let's Talk" with Bennet Pomerantz. We'll be talking about who-knows-what but I bet books will come up. You can listen here live or in archive.

I'm actually a little nervous because I don't know what we're going to talk about. You'll have to listen to find out.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with William J. Jackson and Olga Werby

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers William J. Jackson and Olga Werby.

William J. JacksonWilliam J. Jackson

William J. Jackson lives in yesterday and tomorrow. He has only the vaguest awareness of the present, and when he does, he writes. As fan of history, nature, comics and science fiction, Jackson merges these hobbies into the Legacy Universe, his fictitious saga of the denizens of Railroad City, Missouri. When not writing, he travels through time, stares at birds, and works and lives in historic Salem, New Jersey with his darling wife and family.

William's Books:

Down Jersey Drive-shaft (in progress at Wattpad)

An Unsubstantiated Chamber (free ebook here)

Cerulean Rust (free preview here)

Other free ebooks here and here.

William's Links:

Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Olga Werby

I came to United States as a refugee. Science fiction stories, in particular, have always been my preferred escapism. I wrote my first story in elementary school. But being dyslexic, I chose art as a passion to follow…until college, when I switched to math and astrophysics. After graduating from Columbia University, I started a company that developed educational software. Along the way, I earned my masters in Education of Math, Science, and Technology from UC Berkeley and then a doctorate in cognitive science and human computer interaction design. I work with my husband of many decades solving complex product design problems. We work International Criminal Court and an Irish music pub in San Francisco—we have a wide range. In 1995, we developed, produced, and run a collaborative creative hyper-fiction writing project, The Company Therapist (TheTherapist.com). In 2009, we wrote the first version of our science fiction novel about the possibility that we live in a virtual reality world—a novel idea at the time. Since then, we published five novels, three of which we co-wrote together. When I was growing up, I wanted to go into space. Writing science fiction is the next best thing.


I'm interested in humanistic science fiction. What makes us human? How do we learn empathy for others who are very different from us? How do we explore ideas of social justice and human rights in an inspiring and emotionally powerful way? How can science and science fiction about the near and far future inform our decisions today? How can we use stories to help us understand cognitive differences -- autism, schizophrenia, genius, sensory impairment, body differences, social and psychological isolation?

Olga's Books:

Twin Time

Coding Peter; Many Words, One Life Book 2

The FATOFF Conspiracy 

Olga's Links:
Website/Blog Facebook Twitter Goodreads LinkedIn Amazon B&N Professional Website
From today's program: White Dwarf Pulsar Discovered.
Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.

My Favorite Parts of Each Season

Time once again for the 52-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "Your Favorite Recipe."

My favorite recipe is browned butter, salted caramel, snickerdoodle cookies made by my wife. Because I don't cook much except for nuking things in the microwave.

So what's the next prompt? "The Best Parts of Each Season."

Hmmmmmm

The best part of Winter is watching snow fall. Which is also the worst part because you know that the roads are going to be bad and if you haven't put you snow tires on yet, they're going to be very bad.

After this last winter, my favorite part was when it ended earlier this month (finally). This is the latest the snow has hung around since I moved to Eastern Washington.

The best part of Spring is that here in Eastern Washington, at least for a while, things are green. Even things that aren't irrigated/watered are green. Also, there's no snow on the roads. And it's not as hot as summer. Also, women shed their winter bulky clothes and start wearing dresses and shorts again.

The best part of Summer is air conditioning.

The best part of Fall (probably my favorite season) is it cools off and the leafs start to change, which can be very pretty. Of course, this portends winter coming and snowy roads once again.

So, apparently I like roads that aren't snowy and don't like it hot.

What's your favorite part of each season, comment below.

Internet Move Database Correction

I just did something I haven't done for a long time: I submitted a correction to an item on the Internet Movie Database. It was for the movie Passengers (which had a lot of science errors in it). But one item listed under "goofs" was completely wrong. It was under the category "Incorrectly Regarded as a Goof." And it read:

On Jim's first spacewalk, a tear runs down his cheek. That has nothing to do with the presence or lack of gravitational force, since H2O molecules stick together because of surface tension, and thus stick to Jim's face as they should.

(Here is the scene they are talking about. The tear happens at about 2:25 into the video.)

And the above "not a goof" statement is grossly scientifically wrong. In fact, I found this video on YouTube that explains what exactly happens when you cry in freefall (which is slightly different from the micro gravity Jim was in on that spacewalk, but not enough to make a difference). Here's a video with even more water.

As you can see in the first astronaut video, the water doesn't run down the astronaut's face as it does in the movie Passengers. In the second video, with more water, it doesn't drip down, it just sticks to the washcloth and the astronaut's hands.

I have a feeling, however, the movie producers if they knew this they would have kept the scene the same as most audience members wouldn't understand why a ball of water is forming on Jim's eye.

***Spoiler Ahead***

As for the movie, it was okay. It had something very common in science fiction movies: fix this one big thing and everything will be okay. Which is rarely true in real life. But the more I watch Chris Pratt, the more I like him as an actor. And Jennifer Lawrence is very good in this move, not to mention very cute.

***End Spoiler***

So we'll see if the IMDB accepts my correction of that supposed non-goof.