S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 97

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Ilana Masad and Colleen Tews

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome Ilana Masad and Colleen Tews
 Ilana Masad

Ilana Masad is an Israeli-American writer and a harried freelancer living in New York. Predictably, she is a cat lover. Less predictably, she is a columnist for McSweeney's. Find her @ilanaslightly or at slightlyignorant.com.

Ilana's works:

“Seen and Not Heard” published in After the Fall

“In the Land of Milk and Honey” published in Four Chambers Press

Ilana's Links:

Website
Blog
Twitter
Tumblr

Colleen Tews

Colleen TewsColleen Tews is married to perfect counterpart and has four year old daughter. If that wasn't masochistic enough she has three rescue cats. She went to Arts in Motion performing arts academy for drama. She has worked stage managed such works as 42nd Street and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged. As well performed in the female version of the Odd Couple and 1984. On top of two short films: "Surprise" and "Skeletons."

Colleen's Books:


Birth of a Vixen 

The Vessel in the Omnibus  (written under Colleen McEuen)

Colleen's Links:

Blog
Facebook
Facebook
Twitter

From today's show: Maybe no Big Bang?

Listen to today's show live or in archive.

Movie Review: Nightcrawler

In the movie, Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal play an unscrupulous petty thief named "Lou" who doesn't care who he hurts or what laws he breaks. And Gyllenhaal  plays Lou with such relish and gusto that by the end of the movie you hate Lou (as you should).

When the movie begins, Lou is stealing metals. A fast talker and obviously intelligent, he is nearly a textbook case of a sociopath. And when he discovers the world of freelance news video in Los Angeles, he goes into business finding a new outlet for his psychosis. To get the perfect shot with his camera he will change crime scenes, move bodies, or withhold evidence from the police.

It's hard not to admire Lou a bit as he works hard and builds his business (at one point he says "Good things come to those who work their ass off") but the ruthlessness he displays changes all that. He steals an expensive bicycle to finance his entry into business. He "hires" an assistant but never pays him.

Gyllenhaal did an amazing job portraying Lou, making him slimy and charming at the same time. The action scenes are well done and the pace is taut. The photography, mostly night exteriors, is just creepy enough to keep you wondering what nasty surprise is coming next. At one point I jumped when a gun went off.

A movie well worth watching and an interesting study into a sociopath personality. My one small quibble has to do with the climax, but to avoid spoilers, I won't talk about it. But it's not enough to ruin a very good film

Do I have Trypophillia?

(This post contains images that may not be appreciated by some people. Scroll down at your own risk.)

There's a meme of sorts on the ol' Internet about Trypophobia. As Wikipedia states:

Trypophobia is the pathological fear of objects with irregular patterns of holes, such as beehives, ant hills and lotus seed heads. Thousands of people claim to have the condition, but it is not recognized as a condition in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) or other scientific literature.

I think it all started when a picture showed up on Facebook, something that tried to get you to click it for (I believe) malicious reason. This is a screen capture of the picture:


I never clicked the picture because 1) I pretty quickly recognized it as a photoshopped image of a breast and a lotus seed pod. And 2) I figured it had malicious intent.

But apparently it freaked a lot of people out who suffer from trypophobia.

Me, however, was sort of fascinated by it. If you'd like to see it without that "play" graphic in front of it, it's here.

Then I sort of forgot about it and a couple of years or so passed.

I have this app on my iPhone called SkyGuide. It's really cool as it shows the sky in almost any place in almost any time (including where you are and current time). I used it the other day to identify a bright object in the western sky as Venus.

For the Chinese new year, they changed the app's icon to this;



(Those are supposed to be Chinese lanterns.)

And every time I see that, I fine myself wanting to see more of this kind of thing: I seem to find such things visually interesting and fascinating.

So, apparently, I suffer (not) from Trypophillia. A love of holes. I have no idea what that says about my psychological makeup.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Tony LaRocca

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome Tony LaRocca and Steve Alten

Tony LaRoccaTony LaRocca

Tony LaRocca is a carbon-based life form, animator, occasional actor, U.S. Army veteran, blogger, karaoke crooner, electrician, and chronic doodler from Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He currently resides with his family in Queens, New York.

Tony's Books:

False Idols and Other Short Stories 


Debris of Shadows Book I: The Lies of the Sage 

Tony's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram: EgotisticalTL

From today's Show: Dawn Spacecraft Orbits Ceres.

Listen to today's show live or in archive.

To Seattle (area) and Back Again

Mt. RainierYesterday I drove to the Seattle suburb of Redmond to pick up my son and bring him home for spring break. He doesn't drive so that necessitated the trip. Unlike my last trip to the Seattle area (to take him to school after the Christmas break), this was a pleasant trip, mostly, on a spring-like day.

Highlights of the trip: the roads were perfect, bare and dry the whole way. Traffic was a problem at times (especially in the metropolitan Seattle area, mostly caused by people taking on and off ramps very slowly). When you drive in the Bellvue/Redmond area (home of Microsoft) you notice (if you pay attention to such things) that the average type of car improves. The place is thick with Audis. I saw two high-end Porsche 911s. You almost always see at least one Tesla electric car and this trip was no exception. I even had a Nissan Leaf follow me on the freeway for a while (didn't know they could go that fast). And I saw a Jaguar F-Type in the wild for the first time ever. The sound of its exhaust note was nearly erotic as the car accelerated. And at throttle lift, it barked and snarled as a good English sports car should.

It was one of those days the tourist board likes to talk about. The Olympic Mountains were visible and we say Mount Baker (near the Canadian border) which I haven't seen from Seattle since my college days. Of course, Mount Rainier was visible and majestic from the Ryegrass rest stop in Eastern Washington to Issaquah's Rainier Lane street.

Now, if it just weren't for the traffic, it would have been a nearly perfect trip to the Seattle area.

Free Anthology Today and Tomorrow.

Today and tomorrow (Feb 28 - Mar 1), the Kindle version of Assassins , an anthology by the Central Washington Authors Guild, will be free. This book contains 11 tales of murder, mayhem, and mystery by an eclectic mix of writers. While all stories have to do with assassination and assassins, genres run from contemporary, science fiction, steam punk, and fantasy.

This is a chance to check out some great stories by a group of wonderful and diverse writers. Oh, and I have a story in there, too.

Check it out, for free today and tomorrow for the Kindle.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Alan Keith Parker and P.M. Griffin

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome Alan Keith Parker /Jack Parker and P.M. Griffin
Keith Parker / Jack Parker
Keith ParkerKeith Parker was born, raised, and lives in Huntsville, Alabama, where his family has lurked for generations behind tree stumps while watching for revenuers. At times he is transmogrified into an elephant, but those instances are rare.
For 20+ years he has pursued writing in the form of short stories, essays, and novels, none of which have made him rich, wealthy, or comfortably well-off. 
Fire Always Burns Uphill (2000) was his first published novel and, true to form, was caught up in a bizarre series of marketing fiascos that ultimately led to ... nothing. It is a story of love, adventure, and hay fever now available as a Kindle eBook (2011).
His second book, Entangled with Other Stories, is a collection of short stories/essays originally published by small presses in the 1990s. 
His third novel, Madness Rising, is a Young Adult/New Adult science fiction novel that he coauthored with Jack E. Parker. It will be available in 2015.
Parker keeps one foot in the arena of computer modeling, which keeps junk food in the fridge; his other foot is planted in the same neighborhood where authors such as Asimov, Bradbury, Gaiman, King, Niven, Sawyer, Scalzi, Simmons, Stephenson, Oates and Vonnegut lurk.

Jack ParkerJack Parker tells jokes for his own entertainment, writes stories to stay out of trouble, writes poems because no one is listening, and writes music because he takes showers. He got a degree in English because he didn't know what to do next, a diploma in Russian because the Army told him to, and a degree in math and physics because he needed a job.

Jack is a music director and minister at his church, and an occasional missionary to Ukraine. To pay his wife's and children's bills, the former NASA engineer works as an engineer for the US Missile Defense Agency.

Unlike his co-author, Jack has not recently transmogrified into an elephant. 
Keith and Jack's books:
Entangled with Other Stories  
Fire Always Burns Uphill
Keith and Jack's links:
Website/Blog Twitter
P.M. Griffin
P.M. GriffinP. M. "Pauline" Griffin has been writing since her early childhood.  She enjoys telling a good tale, and since she always works with characters and situations deeply interesting to her, she finds the research as rewarding as the scribbling/keying.
Griffin’s Irish love of story telling coupled with her passion for history, the natural world, and the above-mentioned research have to date resulted in twenty novels and twelve short stories, a number of award winners among them, all in the challenging realms of science fiction and fantasy.  She has also written several nonfiction articles, primarily for the Brooklyn Aquarium Society’s publication AQUATICA, several of which have won the Editors Choice for Excellence Award.
She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her cats Nickolette, Jinx, and Katie and three tropical fish aquariums.
Pauline's books: Coming Soon
Fell Conquest (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords)

Survivor (Kindle, Nook, Kobo)
Stand at Cornith (Kindle, Nook, Smashwords) 
Pauline's Website .
From today's show: Metal Munching Microbes.
Listen to today's show live or in archive

How to Moderate a Con Panel

Two weekends ago I attended RadCon as a visiting professional (i.e., a writer). I was on four panels and had to moderate two. I was warned beforehand that one people on one of the panels was long-winded and hard to keep from dominating the discussion. So I came up with a plan. This is one way to moderate a con panel (probably not the only way):

1) I wrote six questions (I had help from fellow members of my writing group).

2) I set the alert on my countdown time to the most annoying sound I could find.

3) When the panel started, I explained that would ask a question and then start the timer for seven minutes. At the end of the seven minutes, we would go on to the next question. I chose seven minutes because 7 x 6 = 42 and that would leave me 18 minutes for introductions and questions at the end (some of the panel members were so long-winded in their introductions I wanted a time then, too).

4) I would ask the question and hit the timer.  When the timer went off, I would let the person finish their thought and then move on to the next question.

This seemed to work very well, although the long-winded person got annoyed at being interrupted by the timer, it did keep her from dominating the panel. There was time for questions at the end and one of the audience members approached me to say she thought my method worked very well.

It actually worked better on the panel with the long-winded person than the other panel. On the other panel they would cover about three of my questions in the first seven minutes. So I decided to let them talk longer and would pause the timer until I decided we'd beat that subject to death.

If I'm asked to moderate a panel again at a con, I will probably use this method again. It keeps the discussion moving and not stuck on one subject for too long.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with J.O. Bankole and Jim Musgrave

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome J.O. Bankole and Jim Musgrave
J.O. Bankole

J.O. BankoleJ.O. Bankole is a classroom teacher, artist, musician, and writer based in Los Angeles. Told as she imagines it, J.O. Bankole has a strong focus on positive Black cultural identity in her speculative fiction, which is seconded by a mandate to promote holistic health and community and global wellness. Ms. Bankole earned her Bachelors of Science Degree in Biochemistry from CSUDH.

J.O.'s book:

God’s Blood  (Amazon, B&N)

J.O.'s links:

Website
Facebook
Instagram: @fumilionarts

Jim Musgrave

Jim MusgravveI taught English at Caltech and in San Diego and worked as Supervisor of Management Development through the Industrial Relations Center for over 20 years.  I am now the President and CEO of EMRE Publishing in San Diego.  We’re into development of tailored mobile marketing using our flagship eReader, the Embellisher and its accompanying sutie of DIY tools for enhanced eBook creators.

Jim's Books:

Forevermore (free)

Steam City Pirates (sample chapters with option to buy)

Pat O’Malley Detective series

Jim's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

From today's show: Solar Sail Launch

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RadCon Schedule

Today (lucky Friday the 13th) kicks off RadCon in Pasco, WA. I am there and participating in panels.  Here is the schedule of panels I'll be on:

Friday:

8:00 PM to 9:00 PM: Rocket Boots or Laser Guns: What Grunts Really Want Room 2209

Saturday:

12:30 PM to 1:30 PM: Can Not Put It Down Pacing Room 2207 (Moderating)
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM: Senses in Writing Room 2207 (Moderating)
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM: Celebrating the Side Character? Room 2207

I will be at RadCon through Sunday so look for me. I will have swag:


Also, the Central Washington Writers' Guild will have a dealer room selling books, crochet items, pictures, and arts and crafts. It's in room 2129 in the Dealers' Annex. All my books will be there with special RadCon pricing.

Hope to see you there!