S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 75
October 14, 2016
The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Jamie Wyman and DT2
Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome Jamie Wyman and DT2.
Jamie Wyman
After a misspent adulthood pursuing a Music Education degree, JAMIE WYMAN fostered several interests before discovering that being an author means never having to get out of pajamas. (However, she can eat/spin fire, tell you a lot about auditioning to be a Blue Man, and read/write in Circular Gallifreyan.)
Jamie also works as an editor. In addition to freelance work, she works with sci-fi/fantasy publisher Dragon Moon Press.
As an author, Jamie’s favorite playgrounds are urban fantasy, horror and creepy carnival settings. You can find novels, novellas, short stories and flash fiction by Jamie in a variety of places. Start looking here. Jamie also writes articles for Cracked.com.
When she’s not traipsing about with her imaginary friends, she lives in Phoenix with two hobbits and two cats. She is proud to say she has a deeply disturbed following at her blog. Send chai.
Jamie's books:
Uninvited (coming October 18th)
Unvieled
"The Case of the Tattooed Bride" (short story in an anthology)
Jamie's Links
Website
Blog
Patreon
DT2 (David Taylor)DT2David Taylor II (DT2) is an award winning author, playwright, songwriter and producer. His latest book, Lucifer: Soldiers, Serpents and Sin – Book 1 is an internationally best-selling book. He has created an entire story world called The Realm from that first book and continues to expand it through the book’s companion website, www.SecretsofTheRealm.com
Taylor writes sci fi, fantasy, Christian fiction, and Children’s Literature.
He is a co-composer for the smash hit theater production, Eye of the Storm:The Bayard Rustin Musical, nominated for 3 Black Theater Alliance awards.
In 2015 his book Wayward Pines:Survival, from the hit Fox TV show of the same name, broke top 10 in the Amazon best seller list and is currently still there.
He is also the author of the new children’s favorite, Diary of a Chocolate Midas.
He is the proud father of two, as well as a lover of football, pizza, and a good glass of lemonade.
DT2's books:
Lucifer: Soldiers, Serpents and Sin
Wayward Pines: Survival
Diary of a Chocolate Midas
DT2's Links:
Website Blog Facebook Twitter YouTube From today's show: New Dwarf Planet Found.
Listen to today's show at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.
October 13, 2016
Treasure of the Pirate Planet
The sequel to
Treasure of the Black Hole
has been released!Treasure of the Pirate Planet is now available in paperback and Kindle (it's so new, it hasn't merged yet on Amazon).
. . . if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
Rick Bailey is living a nice, quiet life on the planet where he retired, enjoying the money he found in the Treasure of the Black Hole. Without warning, he is arrested for helping his former lover, Jil, break out of prison where she was serving a 20-year term for murdering an alien. Hoping to clear his name, Bailey goes after Jil. But the slime-bed mate of Jil's victim is also after her.
Now, Bailey's only hope for saving Jil is to find a treasure buried on a planet over ran with cannibalistic pirates. He teams up with a Core Empire Intelligence Corps officer, but she might have motives of her own. Can Rick save Jil and keep himself out of the clutches of the Core Empire that wants to vivisection him, the police who want to jail him, and the alien who wants vengeance for his brother's murder?
This exciting novel is the second book in a planned "Treasures of Space" trilogy.
Get your copy today in paperback or Kindle (Also available at Barnes & Noble).
October 12, 2016
Grandchildren
Back to the 30-day Blogging challenge and this is the last one, and it's a hard one, for me, at least. The prompt is "One thing you're excited for."Hell, I'm 56 years old. My health is deteriorating. My writing career has never taken off. What am I excited for? Not much.
But at the moment I'm just living day to day, doing my freelance work and trying to write fiction (which I'm still not having much luck at. And NaNoWriMo is coming and I don't even know if I'll participate this year. I have zero ideas for a novel to write.
Maybe grandchildren, if my sons will get on the ball and produce some (preferably after getting married to a nice girl). My older brother has grandchildren but he's older than I and his kids are older than mine are (his youngest is a little older than my oldest). So maybe I'm excited for grandchildren. If I ever get any.
October 10, 2016
University of Washington Huskies Still #5
As I said yesterday, the AP top 25 college football poll was delayed until this morning. So here's what happened:First of all, the University of Washington Huskies remained at #5. It's going to be hard for them to get much higher. The top 6 teams all have 6-0 records. One of the top four teams (Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and Michigan) would have to lose for the Huskies to move up.
Stanford fell off the top 25 poll after their loss to Washington State. I was a little worried that might lower the Huskies in the poll as people realize Stanford is not as good as they thought they were when they were #7 and the Huskies beat them badly.
The Colorado Buffaloes also dropped off the poll after their loss to USC.
And the Utah Utes beat Arizona and moved up to #21 from #24. So they are the only other Pac-12 team in the top 25.
So week seven is done. The Huskies have a bye next week then they face Oregon State who beat California this week.
October 9, 2016
The Huskies are Dominating the Pac-12
On November 14th, 2015, the University of Washington Huskies lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils in a game in Tempe, Arizona.That was the last game the Huskies lost. They have now, as of last night, won nine games in a row.
This season, except for the close Arizona game (their first away game and first conference game), they have scored 40 or more points on every opponent.
And they are 6-0 this season (3-0 in conference) with the best record in the Pac-12.
Finally, after last night's game, I don't know if there's a team in the Pac-12 that can defeat them. They may go 12-0.
What happened last night? The Huskies, #5 in the AP poll, decimated the hated and un-ranked University of Oregon Ducks by a score of 70-21.
This was supposed to be a tough test for the Huskies. They have lost before this game 12 in a row against the Ducks. They were playing in front of a very motivated crowd at Oregon's Autzen Stadium.
But the Huskies dominated from the beginning, staring with an intercept on the first play for scrimmage in the game. Toward the end of the game (as has been happening a lot with the Huskies), the starters were pulled out and the second string players went in. Even then, the Huskies scored a touchdown and stopped a Duck goal line stand to keep them from scoring late in the 4th quarter.
It was an amazing game to watch. And it was wonderful to finally beat the damn Ducks.
The Huskies are currently ranked #5 in the AP poll. It's going to be tough for them to go much higher as the 1-4 teams are also very good. We'll have to see. Unfortunately, the poll has been delayed until Monday due to hurricane Matthew.
Also around the Pac-12, Washington State beat #15 Stanford 42-16. It will be interesting to see if Stanford drops out of the AP top 25 poll.
USC beat #21 Coloradeo. That probably will drop Colorado out of the top 25.
Number 24 Utah beat Arizona. That may move them up a bit.
And Oregon State, the doormat of the Pac-12, beat California in a high-scoring squeaker.
October 8, 2016
What's at Stake Today
Today is for University of Washington Husky fans probably the second biggest game of the year, after last week's defeat of Stanford. Why is this game so important? Because it's against hated rival Oregon Ducks.Oregon has beaten the Huskies in the past twelve (!) times these teams have met. That means the Huskies haven't won since 2003.
Time was when the Ducks were a team you played (and always beat) before the Huskies went on to play the tougher California teams (Stanford, Cal, USC, and UCLA). Then Nike founder Phil Knight started pouring money into his alma mater's football program. And the Ducks got better. For about a decade they've dominated the Pac-10/12. They've even played in at least one national championship game (and lost). They are also known for having a different uniform for every game, usually something florescent green or yellow (their school colors).
And Husky fans hate them and hate losing to them. Here's a blog post from 2011 explaining part of that hate.
But this year is different. The Huskies are 5-0 overall and 2-0 in conference coming off that big win against Stanford. They are in first place in the Pac-12 North division. The Ducks are 2-3 overall and 0-2 in conference and in fifth place in the Pac-12 North (which has six teams). And the Huskies are nine-point favorates.
But this is the Oregon game and it's going to be played on Oregon's turf in Autzen Stadium. Emotions run high. The crowd will be ready to help their Ducks beat the Huskies.
It all probably comes down to Husky head coach Chris Petersen getting his team ready and not letting them believe the hype and get over-confident. But that's hard when your team is #5 in the AP poll.
The game is at 4:30 Pacific Time on Fox.
October 7, 2016
The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Carlo Kennedy and Ted D. Berner
Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers Carlo Kennedy and Ted D. Berner.
Carlo KennedyCarlo KennedyCarlo Kennedy is an Irish-Italian-American author.
Carlo's Books:
Time Signature
Time Signature II: The Regrets of Our Past
"The Test" (free short story)
Carlo's Links:
Website
YouTube
Goodreads
Amazon
Ted D. BernerTed D. BernerTed Berner grew up in the Mountains of Montana and has lived on a ranch for half of his life. He’s blessed to live with a wonderful wife and several four-legged furry friends. Much of his time is spent in the air as an airline pilot and when on the ground, ranch work occupies several hours each week, but his fascination for the lost wisdom of the ancients is a craving he just can’t hide from. Although his first love is spending time at home with his family, Berner’s passion for the unknown will undoubtedly be the driving force for another novel.
Ted's Book:
Proof the Novel
Ted's Links:
Website
Website Store
Blog
YouTube
Google+
Goodreads
From Today's Show: Water-Powered Cubesat.
Listen to today's show at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.
October 5, 2016
Birthdays
And it's back to the 30-day blogging challenge that I'm doing over 30 or so weeks. Today's prompt is "The night of your 21st birthday."Hell, I'm 56, I don't remember my 21st birthday. And it's not because I drank so much, it's because it apparently wasn't very memorable. Or was that the birthday with the wine? If so, that's a story I don't want to tell.
Okay, I'll tell the story. This is a tale my wife and I have kept secret for thirty-five years. The minister of the church we went to was on vacation. He and his wife had someone house sitting. My then-fiancee conned him into letting us use the house for a nice dinner. I brought a bottle of red wine. Sometime during the course of the dinner we spilled a bunch of wine on the dark oak table. My fiance ran to get a towel but, to our horror, the wine almost immediately soaked into the wood, leaving no mark or stain. I looked under the table, expecting to see wine dripping out of the bottom of the table, but there wasn't. It was as if the wood simply absorbed it like a sponge. We never told anyone, until now. Sorry Dick and Betsy.
One recent birthday (within the past five years) was when my wife made a cake with bacon. She made a three-layer white cake with caramel frosting, which I thought would go good with the bacon. She layered the bacon between the layers of cake and then on the outside of the cake and covered it all in caramel frosting. It was delicious but very rich.
What's your favorite birthday memory?
October 2, 2016
Do you Believe?
Yesterday was a very good day in the world of sports. Well, it actually started on Friday.Friday night on ESPN in front of a nation-wide audience the #7 Stanford Cardinal played the #10 Washington Huskies. I was expecting a close game, hard fought, with several lead changes and it might come down to who has the ball last. And if the Huskies lost, it would be close and not drop them too far in the AP rankings.
But it was nothing like that. From the beginning the UW Huskies dominated Stanford. They shut down their star player McCafferty (he had only one good play the entire game), they sacked the quarterback six time (or was it seven, I kind of lost count in all the excitement), and routed Stanford 6 - 44. Stanford made one touch down in the third quarter, went for the 2-point conversion instead of the PAT, and didn't get is. Interestingly, Washington's first PAT attempt was tipped by Stanford and missed. I remember thinking "I hope we don't lose by one point."
Stanford never led, had trouble converting on third downs, and was basically beaten by the Huskies in every way possible.
Then on Saturday, Arizona State and Utah both lost leaving the Huskies the only team in the Pac-12 that is undefeated at 5-0 (2-0 in conference). The Huskies now lead the Pac-12 North. This is the first time they have been 5-0 since 1992 (when they went 7-0). They have won their last eight games going back into last season.
Do you believe in the Huskies now?
Another great thing that happened yesterday is the Seattle Mariners lost, eliminating them from any wildcard contention. They play today and then their year is over.
Finally, the AP rankings came out at 1:00 PM Eastern Time (11:00 AM Pacific Time). And the UW Huskies are #5 in the nation according to the AP poll. That has to be their highest ranking in a long long time.
Stanford dropped to #15 and Utah dropped to #24.
September 30, 2016
The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Adam Dreece and Kevin Coolidge
Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome Adam Dreece and Kevin Coolidge.
Adam Dreece
In 2014, twenty-five years of doing nothing with his writing came to a screeching halt when Adam Dreece released his first book, Along Came a Wolf, as an indie author. Over the next two years he added three more books in that best-selling steampunk meets fairytale series, The Yellow Hoods.
This year, Adam set out to do something different. He put out his first post-apocalyptic fantasy book, The Wizard Killer Season One, which was an unexpected hit for him. Now, the once resident of Silicon Valley and former software developer has put out his first high-tech science fiction book, The Man of Cloud 9.
He lives in Calgary with his wife, three kids, and lots and lots of sticky notes.
Adam's Books:
Beauties of the Beast (The Yellow Hoods #4)
The Wizard Killer: Season One
The Man of Cloud 9
Adam's Links:
Website Blog Facebook Twitter
Kevin CoolidgeKevin CoolidgeKevin resides in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. When he's not writing, you can find him at From My Shelf Books & Gifts, an independent bookstore he runs with his lovely wife, several helpful employees, and two friendly cats, Huck & Finn.He's a Viking at heart, and when he's not sharpening his broadsword or mending his hauberk, he's writing more stories about intrepid gamers. Be sure to catch the next adventure, Codename Cthulhu.
Kevin's Books:
Operation Ragnarok
The Totally Ninja Raccoons Meet the Thunderbird
The Totally Ninja Raccoons and the Secret of the Canyon
Kevin's Link:
From today's show: Hibernating Astronauts May be Key to Colonizing Mars
Listen to today's show at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT on in archive here.
