S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 89

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Sara F. Hathaway and Bobby Nash

Today the Speculative Fiction Cantina is please to welcome writers Sara F. Hathaway and Bobby Nash.
Sara F. HathawaySara F. Hathaway

Sara F. Hathaway is the author of the book, Day After Disaster. Sara grew up in the country where she developed a profound interest in the natural world around her. After graduating from The California State University of Sacramento with a Bachelor’s degree in business management, she returned to her passion for a rural existence. She has extensively researched and practiced survival techniques and utilized forgotten life-sustaining methods of the generations past. She currently lives with her husband and two sons in California where she is at work on the sequel to her first novel.

Sara's Book:

Day After Disaster

Sara's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Bobby NashBobby Nash

An award-winning author, Bobby Nash writes novels, comic books, and short prose tales for a number of publishers and clients. Publishers including Dark Horse Comics, Sequential Pulp Comics, IDW, Random House, Moonstone Books, Airship 27 Productions, Pro Se Press, Raven’s Head Press, Stark Raving Press, Farragut Films, Dark Oak Press, Radio Archives, and more.

Bobby’s most recent offerings include the novels, Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt, Domino Lady “Money Shot”, Snow Falls, and Fight Card: Barefoot Bones as well as work appearing in several anthologies, with many more projects scheduled for release throughout 2015. Bobby’s first screenplay debuted recently with Starship Farragut’s “Conspiracy of Innocence.” A comprehensive list of Bobby’s titles can be found at www.bobbynash.com. Bobby is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and International Thriller Writers.

For more information on Bobby Nash please visit him at www.bobbynash.com and across social media. If you see him wandering around a convention, please say hi.

Bobby's Books:


Freelancer: The Traveler Sanction

Domino Lady “Money Shot”

Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt

Bobby's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
Google+

From today's show: Mission to Save the Planet

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

Weird Words

I was sitting at my computer a few moments ago when the word "fugacity" popped into my head. Don't ask me why.

I first heard that word in college as the difference between a perfect gas and a real gas. A perfect gas (which is an ideal that doesn't exist but works well in a lot of cases) follows the perfect gas law. Fugacity modifies the perfect gas law so that it works with a real gas.

So I wasn't sure if I was spelling it correctly, so I googled it. And, I found out that, much to my surprise, it has another more poetic meaning: "the quality of being fleeting or evanescent." Cool, I thought.

That got me think about other strange words. I like to collect them. Here's some of my favorites:

Crepuscular Rays: (noun) rays of sunlight coming from a certain point in the sky. Also known as “God's rays.”

As in this picture:

Phosphenes: (noun) the lights you see when you close your eyes and press your hands to them.

Pareidolia: (noun) seeing shapes (such as faces) in random stimulus.

Sometimes I experience pareidolia with phosphenes,

Here's a fun word: Brobdingnagian (Adjective):  big, huge, colossal.

Battology: (non) wearisome repetition of words in speaking or writing.

Here's one that sounds dirty but it's not: Aureole: (noun): a radiance surrounding the head or body in the representation of a sacred personage.

What strange words to you know?

Winter Wonderland of Books Giveaway.

The Halloween giveaway (closed now) was such a huge success, we're doing another one. This time it's the "Winter Wonderland of Books" giveaway. Hundreds of authors with lots of prizes and a grand prize of $200 Paypal cash. Get your entries below:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Wow!

I should be writing on my NaNoWriMo novel (word count so far: zero), but I can't not write about last night's University of Washington Huskies football game.

Going into last night's game, the Huskies where four and a half point favorites over the University of Arizona Wildcats. I'm not sure why. Before the game, Arizona was 4-4 on the season, the Huskies 3-4. Arizona was 2-3 in conference but the Huskies were 1-3 (only having beat USC). So I was worried we'd lose this game and we needed to win this game for having any hope of being bowl eligible (need to win 6 games out of 12).

Arizona got the football to start and marched down the field (helped by a controversial defensive pass interference call). The Husky defense did manage to hold them to only to a field goal. Then the Huskies went three and out. But when Arizona got the ball back, the Husky defense made an interception. Then the Husky offense went three and out. I was not very happy at this point.

Then a second Husky interception seemed to turn the whole game around. Freshman quarterback Jake Browning suddenly came on fire (he missed the Stanford game last week with an injury). The running game and the throwing game were just amazing. And the hapless Wildcat defense could do little to stop it.

Meanwhile, the Arizona offense never scored again. To call it a "blow out" is not to exaggerate as the final score was 3 - 49. Late in the fourth quarter Browning stopped playing and the backup quarterback was put in, and we still scored. Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez was visibly frustrated and upset on the sidelines.

I kept saying during the game, "Where was this team all year?" If we'd played like this from the beginning of the season, we'd probably be 6-2 (or better) not 4-4 now. I'm hoping this game is a preview of things to come. Not just for the rest of the season, but for next year as our very young team matures and gains experience. Browning could hardly miss and the running backs were all over the field. It was an amazing game.

Next week we play Utah who is ranked #13 in the nation with a 7-1 record.

And last night, the Washington State Cougars almost beat #8 Stanford (who moved down to #9 in this week's poll). But they "couged" it, missing a game-winning field goal.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Meredith Skye and T. Eric Bakutis

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are happy to have Meredith Skye and T. Eric Bakutis as guests.
Meredith Skye

When I was young, I lived in Alaska. As an adult, I moved back to the land of the Midnight Sun. I began writing fiction in elementary school and always wanted to be a novelist. I was fascinated by tales of the fantastic and bizarre, tales of strange worlds.

I love to travel. I have a fascination with the Middle Ages. I love swords, medieval costumes, castles and ancient lifestyles. I love Celtic art and music. I love the desert. I am a vivid dreamer and many of my dreams come back to life in my novels.

Meredith's Books:

The Gods of Garran
The House of Hasson (free)
Nethermost Realm: The Prisoner of Arlunn (free)
Meredith's Links:
Website Blog Facebook Twitter Wattpad Goodreads Pinterest Smashwords
T. Eric BakutisT. Eric Bakutis
T. Eric Bakutis is an author and professional game designer based in Maryland. His first fantasy novel, Glyphbinder, was a finalist for the 2014 Compton Crook Award, and is sequel, Demonkin, is due in December 2015. His short fiction has appeared in a number of markets and anthologies, all of which you can find at www.tebakutis.com.
In his spare time, Eric writes all sorts of stories, plays games and develops them, participates heavily in author critique groups, hikes with his lovely wife and dog, and spends time marveling at how fast his new baby is growing up. He blogs on Wordpress about writing, game development, and virtual reality, and posts the latest geeky things he enjoyed on Twitter. He also uses Facebook every so often. Eric's Book:
Glyphbinder
Eric's Links:
Website Blog Facebook Twitter
From today's show: NASA Robot Missions
Listen to today's show at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT Live or in archive here.

Last Chance to Win Prizes

Getting down to the wire on the Dark Dreams Halloween Giveaway. Lots of great prizes and a Grand Prize of $175 Paypal cash. Enter at the link or below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just Keep Writing (again)

NaNoWriMo is coming. If you're a writer you probably know that. If you've read this blog you probably know I have a love/hate relationship with NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) is where many writers try to write a novel (or at least 50,000 words of a novel) in November. That's a writing pace of about 1,667 words per day. The goal is to get people past "I can't write" into "just write, damn it." It's the embodiment of what I say to writers: "Just keep writing."

I have this friend who wants to write. She started writing a novel a couple of weeks ago. We joked she was starting NaNoWriMo early. But she stopped writing because she doesn't want to write "crap." The mistake she's making (and I can't seem to convince her otherwise) is that she wants her first draft to be perfect.

But your first draft is not going to be perfect. That's why it's called a "first draft." As Hemingway said: "The first draft of anything is shit." You can revise and fix a first draft but, first, you have to write the damn thing. So "Just Keep Writing."

So I like NaNoWriMo because it forces me to just keep writing. I may write "crap" but I fix that later.

I think a lot of writer's block comes from wanting perfection from your first draft. But you'll never achieve that.

Write it down, fix it later.

What I dislike about NaNoWriMo is a number of "writers" write their first crappy draft, then think they are done. They don't revise, edit, revise and edit some more. They put it out on Kindle (just in time for Christmas!), call themselves "indie authors" and think they have written War and Peace. Then people might read their books, say "wow, this is crap," and all indie authors get a reputation for putting out crap when I know a lot of indie authors that put out very good work.

Last year the NaNoWriMo webpage gave a "badge" for promising to revise your novel. So I'm hoping a lot of people took that to heart and did.

And "NaNoWriMo" is a bit of a misnomer because it's really international now. So it should be InNoWriMo. But I doubt they'll change the name.

Just keep writing.

Not as Bad as I thought

Last night the University of Washington Huskies lost badly to the #10 Stanford Cardinal.

It could have been worse.

We didn't know until the game was about to start if the Huskies' starting quarterback, Jake Browning, was going to play. Turned out he wasn't, having suffered a shoulder injury last week in the Huskies' loss to Oregon. So backup quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels played. The only experience Husky fans had with Carta-Samuels was when he threw a game-ending interception in that loss to Oregon.

So I was expecting a blow out. But it wasn't. Despite Carta-Samuels's lackluster play (he connected on only 9 of 21 passes) the Husky defense was able to keep the Stanford from running away with the game. Also, on one series, freshman running back Myles Gaskin carried the ball down the field and made a touchdown. Gaskin is going to be a great player the next couple of years (until he leaves after his junior year for the NFL).

The game started at 7:30 PM and I had a busy day. At 10:00 PM, Stanford scored their second touchdown of the third quarter and the Husky offense looked defeated. I went to bed, recording the rest of the game in case a miracle happened. It didn't. That was, however, the Carndinal's last touchdown of the game and the Huskies manged another touchdown, so the score ended up being 14-31. Not exactly a blow out but not very good.

And this lost gives the Huskies a losing record this year at 3-4 (1-3 in conference). They are in 5th places in the Pac-12 North (a 6-team division). I'm starting to worry about the Apple Cup game against Washington State.

I've said this before (probably) and I'll say it again: The Huskies are a very young team with a lot of freshmen. Head Coach Chris Petersen has said that getting the program on track like his Boise State team was would take 2 - 3 years. And this might be the first year despite Petersen being the head coach last year as then he was pretty much running ex-head coach Steve Sarkesian's team. Husky fans hearken back to halcyon days of national championships (and beating the damn Oregon Ducks). But that was 25 years ago. Since then the team had its 2008 nadir with a 0-12 season. Yes, we're still rebuilding, and still making the team great again. I just hope Petersen is right that he can do at Washington what he did at Boise State.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with J.P. Ribner and Scott Burtness

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are happy to welcome J.P. Ribner and Scott Burtness
J.P. RibnerJ.P. Ribner

Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, J.P. Ribner gravitated toward writing at a very early age. In fourth grade, his book “I Want to Make a Monster” won a statewide children’s literature competition, earning him the opportunity to read his creation to delegates at Oakland University. In spite of such auspicious beginnings, J.P. traded his proverbial typewriter for a wide variety of life experiences that include growing up in a dysfunctional family, surviving a drive-by shooting, and playing in a punk rock band. Perhaps these and other experiences inspired him to start writing for his college newspaper, a decision that culminated in him earning a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and writing for several newspapers and magazines. Today, J.P. is the successful author of three novels, with many more on the way.

J.P.'s Books:


Legacy of the Bear, Book I of the Berserker's Saga

Prophecy of the Bear, Book II of the Berserker's Saga

World So Dark

J.P.'s Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Scott BurtnessScott Burtness

I live in the Midwest with my wonderful wife, Liz and our pitt-boxer mix, Frank. I've always enjoyed reading horror, sci-fi, thrillers, and comedic takes on all three genres. For me, reading is a fun escape, a chance to live vicariously through someone else's adventures. I decided to start writing with the hope of entertaining readers like myself.

Scott's Books:

Wisconsin Vamp

Northwoods Wolfman

"If I Only Had an Autogenic Cognitive Decision Matrix"

Scott's Links:

Amazon
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

From today's show: Private Moon Landing

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

Mismatched Car Chases

Not sure what made me think of this today as I was driving along. I started thinking about the movie Drive . While it was a good movie, it really had little to do with cars. My first clue was at the beginning of the movie when the hero drives a front-wheel-drive car that has supposedly be souped up for a getaway. Right. No self-respecting wheel man is going to do high performance driving in a front-wheel-drive car (see below if you care why). But then in about the middle of the movie (which is more of a psychological profile, not an action film) there is a genuine car chase. The good guy is driving a Ford Mustang GT and the bad guys are driving a Chrysler 300C. Now, assuming it was a new car when the movie was made (2011), that car has 412 horsepower in a smallish car.

The Chrysler 300C (assuming it was a 2011 model) has 363 horsepower with the biggest engine available. So not only does it have 88% the power the Mustang has, it is a big, heavy car. I owned a 2009 Chrysler 300C and it cornered pretty well for a car its size. But the brakes must have been decided upon by the accountants. There were times I would brake hard and swear the car was not going to stop in time because the brakes were overwhelmed by the speed and mass of the car.

Yet in the movie, it has no problem keeping up with the Mustang that should accelerate, corner, and brake (because it's lighter) faster and better than the Chrysler.

Or, take another example: Furious Seven (which I review here). The Jason Statham character liked to drive modern British sports cars such as Aston Martins. These are powerful cars with lots of horsepower, good brakes, and great suspensions for cornering. What does Vin Diesel chase after Statham in? An early 1970s Mopar muscle car. ("Mopar" means Chrysler, Dodge, or Plymouth before Mercedes Benz bought them; the car's exterior was modified to the point I couldn't tell if it was a Dodge or Plymouth.) (A "muscle car" is a small car with a big engine, not to be confused with a pony car with is a smaller car with a big engine and mostly refers to Mustangs and Camaros.)

Muscle cars of that era (early '70s) were fast (sort of) in a straight line but sucked at cornering. Yet Vin is able to keep us with Jason in his modern Aston Martin. But like I said in my review, those movies are verging on fantasy.

I think this comes when filmmakers aren't car people. The writers and directors don't know their way around a car. So they don't know about the nuances of cars like people who know about cars, do. It's sort of like when the science is bad in a science fiction movie. You just wanna yell at the screen.

REAR WHEEL DRIVE: The reason performance drivers want rear-wheel drive is because when the rear wheels are driven, you can steer the car with the throttle (if the car has enough power). This allows you to take corners faster. This isn't drifting, but simply using the power of the car through the rear wheels to rotate the car.

I have tried this. I need more training and/or practice because I can't do it. And you need a big, open space to do it in because you're going to spin the car a lot before you get it down.