Vincent Trigili's Blog, page 2

My First Ultra-marathon!

[image error]So, six days ago I ran the Pittsburgh Marathon and blew away my best time by twenty minutes. I decided that running my first ultra only six days later was a very wise and sensible thing to do and on paper it is! Well, it is if you ignore muscle fatigue and all that stuff. Please do not mimic me in this. I do not regret that choice, but it was not the wisest thing I ever planned.

As always, I was stalking the weather like a bank robber planning a heist. It was all over the place from cold to thunderstorms, to temperatures in the 80sF, and everything in between. The only constant was the pollen forecast which was bright red (very bad in case that is not obvious).

Race morning comes, and the weather reports are still fighting, so I pack a variety of clothes and we head out. I was a long way off from being decided on what to carry with me, but in the end, I think I choose pretty well.

The 50K was starting an hour before the 30K, so my wife, who was running the 30K, got to sit around the fire for a bit while I was running. It was cloudy and cold at the start. Standing in the queue to start I was shivering and considering stopping by my truck on the way out for a warmer top. I decided against it.

The race starts and quickly breaks up into two large groups. I think there was like a hundred people running the 50k. I was in the second pack and noticed our pace was around fifteen minutes. I felt this was a problem because we were on level asphalt. I passed them and caught up to the lead pack. They were doing more like 9:30 per mile, so I felt this was where I belonged. I knew the pace would drop a lot once we got to the trail, so I wanted to make sure I was at a good pace to fall from.

About a mile in we hit the trail. It was single track, and by that, I mean my shoulders were brushing plants on both sides of the trail. Pace fell predictably, but not as much as I was expecting. I was expecting based on talking with runners a three to four-minute loss in pace and we fell maybe only a minute or so.

The first “aid station” was at mile five. It was water only, but I had not touched the water I was carrying at all yet and blew through after taking a picture and sending it back to my wife. I had covered those five miles in about 50 minutes, so she had not started yet.

At this point, I was comfortable with the temperature and glad I had not grabbed my warmer top. I would have had to carry it for the next twenty-five or so miles. The pack I was running with broke up more and more as we hit harder parts of the trail. Eventually, I caught up with a young woman, let’s call her “S.” S offered to let me pass, but at this point, I realized I was pushing too hard and needed to back off so I fell back a few strides instead.

I chatted with S and we ran the next several hours together. She was an experienced ultrarunner training for a 100-mile race. She cheered when I said this was my first ultra and my first trail race.

The first 10 miles flew by. We completed them in about 2 hours.  That is a far cry from my marathon pace, but I discovered quickly this trail was hard. As in it made the marathon effort look easy. There were lots of up and downs, mud, moss-covered rocks and invisible roots to contend with. None of which I had any meaningful experience with before this.

S was fun to run with. When we hit a good steep downhill, she would stick her arms out like an airplane and sweep back and forth across the hill descending way faster than I could. When we hit the mud bogs she would call out “Weeeee” as she navigated through them. In general, you could just tell she was enjoying herself.

Other runners joined us for short stints before passing or falling behind. At one point we were leading a pack of about half-dozen other runners. Most of the track was only wide enough for one runner so passing was always a bit of a juggling act.

We finally made it to the turnaround and the aid station there. We took advantage of the real bathrooms they had, the food, and refilled our water. Probably lost ten to fifteen minutes there, but at this point I really needed it. I left with S and she was saying “It is at this point I need to remember that there is still half the 50K left to run.”

I stayed with her through the next aid station where I needed to refill again and eat more oranges. I was really feeling the run at this point. S was talking with someone so I decided to start walking. My hope was I could walk for a bit and get ahead of her, then when she caught up, start running again.

That failed.

She caught up with me in minutes but as she did she said, “I am going to take this next part easy, so go head if you want.” I of course declined. We had around ten miles left, but I was nearing my limit. I stayed with S most of the way to the next aid station, but she eventually pulled away.

Turns out she, get this after she left me she met my wife on the trail and ran with her for a short while and they somehow worked out that she had just been running with me.

Around mile twenty-five, I set my wife a text telling her that I was at least an hour form the finish line and she should just rest and eat when she gets there. I had hoped to catch her and finish with her, but there was no way.

I walked for several miles lacking the strength to run, but the terrain would not have allowed much speed. I probably went nearly as fast walking as I would have running. Little by little the miles rolled away and eventually, with about three or four miles left, I was able to start running again.

Eventually I crossed the finish line with a time of 7:23:23. About an hour slower than I had hoped, but the trail was much harder than I was lead to believe and the temp was nearly 80F by the time we finished.

Overall, I think I made pretty good choices. I had plenty of liquid, thanks to refilling three times at the aid stations. I had plenty of food on my person, even finished with some left over. Leaving the warm clothes in the truck was a majorly good choice.

One thing that did not work well was my Amphipod belt. It got way too loose way early in the race. I ended up tying it in a knot to stop it from falling off. The food bars I bought were a bit tough to eat. They were too dry, but they did work.

Oh, running a PR marathon six days before should probably be reconsidered. Though the “you’re a beast” kinds of comments I got on the trail were pretty nice.

After crossing the finish line, I found out my wife only crossed about ten minutes before me, and “S” was not all that much farther off. So, I pretty much kept with a much more experienced runner for almost the entire race. I guess that is pretty okay.

Several runners on the trail told me that this was much easier than the marathon and I would like it much more. Well, they are wrong. It was way harder. Strava reports 4,475 feet of elevation, but I do not think that really does it justice. The steepness of some of the hills made going up very tough and coming back down very dangerous. There were many places where I was mostly in a controlled fall as I ran down the hill, afraid to try and slow down or stop.

Still, overall I am glad I have done it. The course was beautiful, and all of the runners were nice and friendly.

Race Report: The Achilles 9.3 Challenge

The Achilles 9.3 Challenge is a 5k race followed by a 10k race through North Point Park near Pittsburgh, Pa. I ran this race last year, and at that time I set back to back PRs. Here were my times from last year:

2017: 5K: 25:34

2017: 10K: 57:15

We knew from last year that parking would be limited, so we showed up at 7:30 for a 9:00 AM start and get good parking places. There was snow on the ground and the weather was reporting a feels like of 17F. Light wind, probably 6MPH. We got our packets and then headed back to the cars to wait in the warmth of the vehicles.

There was a group of us from work. Myself, “D” who I had not met before, “J” who I had met at a prior race, “M” who joins us at many races, and “S” who was another new guy. I was confident I was faster than everyone, except “S” was an unknown.

So we line up for the 5K, and M, J, D, and S all fall to the back with my wife. Ok, I figure that means S is probably slower also. No big deal, I am used to running alone. I line up with the elites as per my normal plan now, maybe 3 or 4 strides from the starting line. The race start is delayed due to one of the handcycles being late, but eventually, we get started.

I sprint out of the gate with the elites, putting a good distance between the slower pack and my pace. That first 1/8th of a mile or so was at a 6 min pace. That is about my mile pace, way faster than my 5k pace, so once clear, I slide out of the pack of leaders and slow down to my race pace of about 7:40 or so. Mision accomplished I am not stuck fighting the crowd to get a good pace. I have a wide open road and can relax and focus on the good old left, right, left, right.

The problem was that chugging along at that pace was feeling pretty horrible. I was stiff and every step hurt. It was then I remembered that not only did I miss my runs the last two days, I FORGOT TO WARM UP. Ugh. Well nothing to do, but push on. As I passed a half mile “S” comes up and passes me. Interesting. I consider picking up the pace to catch him, but he was doing at least 40s per mile faster, so I let him go.

We come around the bend and there are runners coming from the other direction! It is an out and back, and I have not yet hit 3/4ths of a mile! How could they be coming back already? Then notice they do not have race bibs. They were just people out running in the park. Phew.

Around one mile a tall older lady passes me but she is only going a little faster than I am, so I decide to pick up and pace off her. I stayed a good 5-7 strides behind her (my stride is little more than a meter so that is a decent distance) for the rest of the race.

I checked my watch as we came around a bend and it read 2.57 miles. I remembered a friend saying to run the last 200m faster, so I pick up the pace and past my pacer. It was not until later that I realized that 200m is only .125 miles, ops. It worked out though because as I crossed three miles I started to feel warm and loose finally. I drive home through the finish in 23:13 official time! That is over 2 minutes faster than last year.

After crossing the line I was way overheated, so I walk up to my truck, ditch my jacket and grab the sunglasses I forgot for the first race and headed back to the starting line. After that, I hit the food tables and for a banana. They try to push cookies on me, but I resisted the poison. Checked my watch and it was 9:39, not enough time to look for my wife before the 9:45 10k start, so I line up with the rest of the runners.

Turns out, I had plenty of time because the 10k started late also. Late enough that my wife finished her 5k, found me and had time to rest between them. Well again the whole group lined up in the back, and I started with the elite runners. And again “S” passes me about 1/2 mile in.

So I took off out of the gate up a gentle hill and decide to try for around an 8:00 pace. I was cruising along fine but around mile 2 the same lady that past me in the 5k passed me again, this time she said hi. (I talked with her between races briefly). I decided to try and pace her again, but she was pushing into 7:20, so I let her go.

Around mile three I catch “S” and as I come upon him he said, “My legs are dead, but we are almost there, right?” I break the news to him that he is about 1/2 way. He curses, I pick back up my pace and leave him behind knowing that “J” would be coming up not that long after me and could check on him.

About this time I catch sight of a neon-green runner and decide to make her my mark to pass. I chased her down for a good two miles when she turned left instead of following the course to the right! Ops, she was not even in the race!

Ah well, I push on to the finish but miss reading my time on the clock. Ops. Figuring I could get it off the charts later, I head back out to find my wife and run back in with her for her last about mile or mile and a half or so.

By this time my fingers are painfully cold despite the warmers. I need come up with a better plan for them. If anyone has any suggestions let me know!

So… results…

5k: 23:13 official time, 11th overall, 2nd place age group

10k: 49:05 official time, 11th overall, 2nd place age group

The 10k is a PR for me, and while the 5k is my second fastest time, it really is a PR because the race I got my 5k PR in was a bit short.

In my group “J” and “S” also placed in their age groups, so we had a good collection of medals in our midst. It was a good race and we will probably do it again next year.

Review: Garmin Forerunner 935

Garmin Forerunner 935

Smartwatch, fitness and Activity Tracker

Buy on:

* Amazon.com

* Garmin.com

Recently I posted a review of my Apple Watch Series 2 on YouTube. At the time I posted it, I was making jokes about getting Garmin to sponsor my channel and send me a Garmin Forerunner 935 to review. Well, as you can probably guess Garmin never responded to my YouTube call (realistically I am sure never even heard it), but I did manage to buy a Garmin Forerunner 935.

I have had the 935 now for little over a month and have completed around two dozen runs with it including two races. I feel like I have a good handle on it, and how it compares to the other fitness devices I have tried.

First let’s start with the bad, that way I can finish with all the good stuff.

The Garmin has a built-in thermometer, which at first seems like a great idea. When you run, hike, bike, or etc. year-round it is mightily convenient to be able to track the temperature and performance of past activities. This is especially true when you are trying to figure out what to wear based on conditions. Sadly, the data from the thermometer is worthless. It is either measuring the temperature of your skin, or the air right above it. Whatever it is measuring, it has no correlation to actual air temperature at all. I have seen it off by more than fifty degrees, many times. The Garmin software does save the current weather report with your activity, so while that is not as accurate as your local temperature, it is likely close enough for any normal use case.

The Garmin has a barometric altimeter. That is, it can measure your altitude by monitoring the air pressure around you. What it does is grab your current altitude from the GPS signal and measures the air pressure at the time of the GPS reading. From that point on it tracks your change in altitude based on the change in air pressure. I wish they would have just stuck with getting altitude from the GPS feed. It might not be perfect, but it would have been more accurate for faster activities such as biking or running. The problem I have encountered is that the altimeter is slow to update so quick elevation changes can be completely missed. There is an option in the software to use topography maps to correct the data, but that has its own drawbacks. Despite this, for the most part, the altimeter in the watch is good enough. At least good enough for my use.

Finally, there is the acquiring GPS satellites. The first time I took it out to run, I had to wait several minutes for it to acquire a signal. To me, this is very annoying. I have limited windows in which I can get out, and to waste even a small amount of them is not really what I want to be doing. Turns out, after you run the same location a few times this issue pretty much clears up. Now when I go out to run, the GPS lock happens in a handful of seconds. I suspect that if I move by a significant distance to a new location, the several minute GPS lock delay will return. Garmin could get around this by pulling the current location from the phone it is paired to at the start of the activity allowing it to find the GPS satellites faster. I hope a future firmware update will do just this, but I am not holding my breath.

Okay, that is all the bad out of the way. Now on to the good.

First off, and one of the primary reasons I wanted this watch, the battery life is magnificent! I am getting a week to ten days out of a single charge with ten to twelve hours worth of active tracking each week. As a point of comparison, I had to put my Apple Watch Series 2 on the charger each night when I had one to two hours of active tracking. Garmin advertises twenty-four hours of active tracking, and my limited tests say that it could very well reach that magnitude. This may sound like way too long of a time if you only run for an hour of a time, but what it buys you is many days between charges and less worry about battery life in general. With the Apple Watch Series 2 if you missed a day’s charge you could be in trouble. With the Garmin, you have plenty of leeway to cover that.

Second, the GPS accuracy is superior. I ran for a while with the Apple Watch Series Two on one arm and the Garmin Forerunner 935 on the other. The Garmin, when compared to a measured course, hit the markers much closer than the Apple Watch did. I have not turned on the GLONASS mode which is claimed to make the tracking more accurate but drain the battery faster. At this point, I really do not see a need for it, and I much rather have the battery life.

The third is comfort. The Apple Watch did not sit well on my wrist, likely due to the round bulge that it has for the heart rate monitor. This forced me to have to wear it uncomfortably tight in order to get an accurate heart reading. The Garmin being much flatter seems to sit better and I can wear it much looser and still get an accurate reading. The Garmin is also much lighter than that Apple Watch, which makes it easier to forget you are wearing it.

Forth is the sunlight readability. The Garmin 935 appears to have a transflective display. This means that even if you directly shine a bright flashlight on it, it will be easily readable. It also means that if you are in the dark, you will need to press the backlight button to read the screen. Since most of us run, bike, hike, and so on outside during the day having the bright daylight readability is a big benefit, as anyone trying to use their smartphone outside can attest.

The smartwatch features are all there and work very well. Text messages, emails, and other such notifications show you enough of a preview so that you can decide if you care or not before pulling out your phone. Phone calls display caller id information and can be declined right from the watch. Also, you can get voice prompts while you exercise via the phone from the watch. In general, all of the basic smartwatch features work as expected.

The Garmin 935 can also be used without any phone at all. I almost always have my phone on me, but for those that prefer to leave it behind, this watch can do all of its functions by itself. You are also not locked into owning an iPhone as I was with my Apple Watch.

Overall, I am very pleased with the Garmin 935 despite its few shortcomings. If the price is a bit high for you, check out the Garmin Forerunner 735 that is essentially the same watch with half the battery life but typically costs eighty to a hundred dollars less.

My Journey To Self Published Success

This post originally was part of the For Love or Money Facebook group. That group is now gone, but this post has helped so many authors, I decided to clean it up and repost it here for everyone. Please feel free to share with those that are just starting out or struggling.

It is no secret I write part-time, at best. I am a pastor, a father, a husband, and a full-time software developer. I think you can imagine my time is in high demand.

Often I am lucky to get even 3 hours a week in with hands on keyboard. I also tend to write only the longer form books. My newest release, The Elwyn Chronicles, is just a little shy of 150k words. For those of you that think in pages, that’s 500-600 pages in mass market paperback. This means I put out a new book once every 9-12 months, at best. Sometimes it is longer. My first book dropped in 2010 and here is what I did:

1) Self-made cover using a single untouched photo and a “scifi font”

2) No professional editing (and it REALLY needed it)

3) No marketing

4) No sequel/series

As a result, I did not sell any books for the first six months or so. BUT it is all about goals and targets. At that stage, I was shooting for “published” not “bestselling.” So the launch was a COMPLETE SUCCESS. That is, I accomplished the goal I set out to accomplish. I was a “published” author. You could go to a real store and buy my book. It was the coolest thing ever.

I also had a plan. I told myself: “Dude, you are in this for four books, or not at all.” So six months later my second book came out, and my first finally went free. I was still working completely alone and had no idea what I was doing. This was 2010 when self-publishing was on the rise, but still a geeky hobby.

I had talked with a publisher and they were somewhat interested. They were actually a client of mine, so I had a in. I almost with forward with them, but the relationship fell sour for reasons unrelated to the books. That is probably the best thing that ever happened to my career as an author. But one thing they told me was “readers will not trust you until you have four or five books out.” I took that to heart.

Book three drops and some people start actually buying the books. Not many, but actual strangers were buying copies and leaving reviews. This is 2012 now, and ebooks are really becoming a thing, but print was still king. With book three I finally hired an editor. But I was still doing my own covers and they were pretty cheesy.

Book four drops and I have started networking and talking with authors. I started learning the trade and start thinking about marketing. Yes, you read that right. I was four books in before I started to actually learn the business. Not the best plan!

Fast forwarding to 2015. I have a seven book series out with plans to continue, but I am still struggling to make enough to cover costs. My series which was now five years old was showing the weak foundation of its start. I did replace all the covers and had every book professionally edited, but it is hard to build on the weak foundation. So I decided it was time to start over.

In June 2015 I released “The Wanderer,” a permafree novella I wrote to launch into the public my new series, “The Dragon Masters.” With this series, I was bound and determined to use all that I had learned after the first five years in the book industry and hammer this one right.

I had six books lined up and ready, and a short story, “The Storymasters” slated for an anthology I was invited to. I held back the release of The Wanderer to time with the Bookbub advert on that anthology. Once the Wanderer hit, I started a cycle of releases every three weeks. It takes 4 weeks to fall off the new release lists, so that kept me on them. I hit the “hot new release” more than once during that time.

Keep in mind, I fixed EVERYTHING I did wrong with my first book:

1) Multiple professional edit passes

2) All professionally done custom covers

3) Marketing and timing

4) Added Pre-readers and ARCs. Launched with FIFTY reviews.

Well, that changed everything. I moved from barely scraping buy to paying my mortgage with book sales, which was good because this all hit when I was facing some very real economic issues that are unrelated to this book story. Let’s just leave it at, if it was not for the blessing of this timing, I would have faced a very dark time financially.

Fast forward to today. I have released the second season in The Dragon Masters, the eighth book in Lost Tales of power, and sales continue to climb. My income comes from having a backlist, not from hitting the best sellers lists. USA Today has never heard of me, and probably will not anytime soon. That is fine, they are not on my lists of “care about” right now.

What I hope you take away from this is that anyone can do this. Set reasonable goals, achieve them, then raise the bar. My first goal was to get published. BOOM success. Celebrate that success. Next goal, sell 1 book. BOOM achieved. Celebrate that success. Raise the bar and repeat.

My final words of wisdom, a quote I have been saying for many years now:

Persistence over skill, every time.

Or in geek parlance: Never give up. Never surrender!

Nashville Total Solar Eclipse – 2017

So, those of you hanging around my newsletter and social media will know that my family traveled Nashville, TN to catch my first Solar Eclipse. You will also probably note that I said on several occasions, “It will take just one cloud to ruin this show,” and “I bet it will snow.” Well, it did not snow but…

We got to Nashville on Saturday way ahead of the crowds. We had been planning this trip for almost a year so we had everything worked out, including very nice sets of plastic Solar Eclipse glasses, and a pile of extra glasses to give away. Good thing too! We did not even make it out of the airport before we started giving them away. I feel that we single handily saved many people’s vision in Nashville. I figure that should warrant me a statue in the center of town, or at least at the science museum. Still waiting to hear back about that, I will let y’all know when I do.

So, the morning of the Eclipse we started with a huge breakfast at Shoney’s. Once we felt we were sufficiently fueled for the day we headed poolside to claim a table and chairs before too many people arrived. The place we were staying was fully booked so there were plenty of other people to watch with us. The resort set up some grills and was selling food including moon piles and sun chips of course. They were also giving out Eclipse gum, which my son snatched up faster than a hen on a june bug.

The morning was almost completely cloudless and things were looking good as the event started. It was hot, very hot, but we just kept taking dips in the pool to cool down as the day wore on. Despite jokes from my sister on how funny it would be if the scientists got the date and time wrong, the event started right on time. At first, all you could see was a tiny notch in the side of the sun, but as time when on that notch got larger and larger eventually yielding something I had never seen before: a crescent sun.

Some people had set up telescopes and projection cameras so we were able to use them in addition to our eyeballs to witness the event. In the magnified views, you could spot some sun spots, and if you looked at just the right time the International Space Station passed in front of the sun. I did not see it, but there are many pictures on the web. Had I known in advance, I would have tried to capture it on the projection screen.

So, as the big moment approached, the temperature fell and the crickets came out, and darkness started to fall. All was going well until a massive dark storm cloud slowly came through and just before, maybe a minute at most, totality the cloud swallowed the view. People all around us groan and complained, but the clouds did not care. My sister was just starting to say that even with the clouds it was still a cool experience when we heard cheers break out.

And just like that the clouds parted and revealed the eclipse in totality! It was magnificent! No picture can do it justice, especially not the cell phone pictures I added to this blog. The best I can say to describe it, is it looked like a hole in reality. We were treated to a full minute of totality (the rest was blocked by the cloud), and then the diamond came out. That was stunning in and of itself.

I have to say, the view was worth the trip. I heard that some places got rained out and I feel bad for them. All I can say is the next USA eclipse will be in 2024. Start planning now.

Friends of the Trail Race Report

So we show up and my wife is wearing her new cape…

The first thing we find out there is no bibs or chips. It is a fund raiser for the trail, so no problem there. Also, shirts cost $20. I skip buying one. Next, we find out it is not very well attended:

But is okay. So they group us up by predicted pace and I line up with the 9min group, my wife is back with the 13 min group.

They hand out maps – should have been a red-flag in retrospect. Ah well. We get started a few mins early and I start trying to find my pace. I am looking for 8:30-9 mins, which is where I hoping my marathon pace will end up. Groups break up, and I for a comfy spot between groupings. We head down by the river and see this need water feature:

Feeling pretty good so far. The “trail” is concrete along the river, but get to watch boats go by, and even a row team out for a workout. Stop to grab a picture of the river:

Still feeling good with my pace, but we are just now hitting the 1-mile point and the first turn on the route. Had a confusing sign, but a few of us bunched up, figured it out and then headed on. That was the LAST sign on the course for EIGHT MORE MILES. They actually expected to you follow the print out of the MapMyRun route. I have never been in that area before. I decide to stop taking pictures and start following a guy in orange that is going just a little slower than I want, but he seems to know the route. A lady starts following me and I do not have the heart to tell her that is a bad idea and just stick with the orange guy.

3 Miles in we hit the ONLY water stop. This is a 15k, and the ONLY water stop is at 3 miles. Orange guy stops and hangs there for a bit, I really did not want to stop, but I am totally lost now. So I stop. Another group catches up to us, and I start running with them. They are about 15 seconds slower than the orange guy, but he is still back at the water table so I stick with them. All hopes of any pace are long gone.

We run for a while, couple miles when the leader notices we are off course. Great, well at least there is like 7 or 10 of us in this group, lost in downtown Pittsburgh. The ladies leading the group figure out where we are and we work our way back to the unmarked race route. Eventually, the orange guy catches us and joins our pack. For a while all is good and we are knocking down miles just a bit on the slow side. Personally, I am still as lost as a ball in high grass.

The group spots a water fountain and stops to get a drink, but it is not working. Orange guy decides to keep running, so I follow him. That lady from earlier is still following me. She really has no clue how close she is to disaster!

Stick with orange guy and ops, big crane blocking the path and have to break out some parcore skills to get around it. We survive that some how and stay on course. Eventually, we are running down a road and I see other race groups all over, all coming from different directions at different times. I suspect no one actually found the course. Orange guy and I finally reach the finish (not sure what happened to the lady, think she joined one of the other lost packs of runners), and my watch reads 9.93 miles, I break off and run around to find another group of runners and run in with them to finish at 10.25 miles. No way I was stopping at 9.93

Now I am concerned. My wife is out there somewhere with our mutual friend and they are likely alone since the 13 min group was not exactly huge. Turns out orange guy wants to run more, was aiming for 20 miles today. He invites me to run with him, and I show him my wife’s location on Friend Finder (great app by the way) so we head out towards her at 8:40 pace. Finally at a good pace. Takes about 3 miles of cutting through the city to find her, but we do. Orange guy runs on and I join my wife to find out they were just as lost as the rest of the groups and even had a minor incident with a local druggie. So the three of us work our way back and eventually cross the finish line at around 10 1/2 miles for them, just over 15 for me.

Yeah, probably never ever going do that race again.

Mage Hunter is live!

Hey, everyone!

Lost Tales of Power Volume VIII: Mage Hunter is officially up for pre-order on Apple, Amazon, Kobo and Google Play! I have it set at a discount right now and I am only telling those on my newsletter and those that follow me on social media about it. In other words, this is a special sale just for you! The price will be just 99 cents through the pre-order period and then go to full price after the official release of 5/13/2017.

 

 

 

Buy now on:

Click here to buy on iTunes for Apple
Click here to buy on Amazon
Click here to buy on Kobo
Coming soon to Google Play, Nook, and more!
Paperback and hardcover coming soon!

Early April Update On All Things!

Howdy Friends!

We are officially in Spring now, or so the calendar claims! All I know is we are in for an inch of snow tonight! Not sure that is what Spring is supposed to be all about, but alas, no use arguing with nature.

A couple of quick updates for everyone:

First Lost Tales of Power Volume 8: Mage Hunter is off with my editor! She is busy dumping red ink all over the pages. Based on how things look right now, we are on target for a MID-MAY release of the book. I have purchased a cover for it and will be revealing that soon. Those of you that saw my handy work on Facebook, I decided to ditch that cover as too many people thought the main character was a cave man.

Second, I have started work on The Dragon Masters Season Three! I do not have a name for it yet, but it will pick up from the very day that Season two ended. The darkness is coming, and soon you will be able to read all about it. My original target for it was 2018, but I am going to try for last quarter of 2017. It is way too early to know if that will work or not yet, but it is good to have goals!

Click to be taken to the free books!

This month, all month long, I am trying something new. I am hosting multi-author book giveaway! I have gathered 44 authors who all promise that their books are clean and they made them free. Some of these books are only free via this giveaway so do not miss your chance to score a new book. I, of course, have not read all 44 books, but I know many of the authors and suspect you will be in for a treat whichever book or books you claim. The giveaway runs for the month of April, but it will be easy to forget, so go grab your free books now while it is fresh on your mind!

I still have plenty of spare paperback books laying around to give way, so watch for new contest later this month! Until then, please keep spreading the words about my books and the Clean Indie Reads Spring Giveaway!

Review: Celestron Eclipsmart 50mm Solar Telescope

Cost: $99.99 (as of my purchase date)

Summary:

Optical Design: Refractor

Aperture 50mm:

Focal length: 360mm f/7.2

Comes with:

20mm Kellner EP

Hybrid mirror diagonal, accepts 1.25” eyepieces

Tripod

Backpack

 

First Light Impression:

The weather was partly cloudy so I had to wait for the clouds to pass, look quick, and then wait again. This, of course, limited any serious observing. Based on the time I had with it here is what I think:

Tripod is close to worthless. There was a light breeze and the scope was shaking at higher powers making it hard to get focus. I may try hanging a weight, but a better plan would be to replace it.
The scope is TINY. I could easily put the entire thing – with tripod- in my laptop backpack and still fit all my laptop stuff. This makes it great for traveling.
I used three different EPs:

Included 20mm Kellner. Clear image of the Sun, but it was tiny. Hard to make anything out.
Orion Hyperion 13mm. This is a massive EP and probably weighs more than the entire scope. It also worked well, but the Sun was still tiny in the view and hard to make out much detail.
Orion Expanse 6mm. This ep did remarkably well. I could finally make out some detail on the Sun and spotted 2 sun spots before the clouds came back.


At 6mm the slight breeze nearly made the view unattainable. I have a 3x focal extender I will try if I get a still day.
The scope uses a standard tripod mount, so if you have a good tripod for your camera already just use that.
The finder is really cool. It looks like a sundial. You line up a shadow with a bullseye and the sun is in the 20mm EP. It was also in the 13mm Hyperion, but just out of the 6mm Expanse. Easiest sun finder scope I have used yet.

Overall, for $100 it delivers a view similar to Baader film. My other telescope is a 8″ on an AVX EQ GOTO mount with more than double the focal length. If I planning any camera work I would break out the 8″ for the better mount and etc (I have a 50mm aperture homemade Baader filter for it). But for grab and go viewing, not unlike what you might use binos for, this scope is great. I will probably invest in a more stable tripod for it in the future and definitely want to try the focal extender.

Bottom Line: If you already have a small refractor, then you are better off spending the money on a full aperture glass filter rather than buy a new small refractor. Since I did not, I think it was a good purchase.

More information:  http://www.celestron.com/browse-shop/astronomy/solar-observing/eclipsmart/eclipsmart-travel-scope-50

January Update On All Things

Time for a quick update on things in the Vincent Trigili universe!

My YouTube channel is slowly growing. This week looked at pig-human hybrids, tomatoes and talked about a couple audio books I listened to recently. We are having some great fun over there, so drop by and check out the videos. Here is this week’s video:

Make sure to drop by the YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/VydorScope) to catch up on any you might have missed!

Also, I am part of a promotion where you could win 45 (yes, forty-five!) Science Fiction books, and Kindle Fire! That’s a pretty sweet deal! Just click the cool image below to go to the contest for details:

Enter to win 45+ SciFi books and a Kindle Fire!

In addition, I am part of ANOTHER great giveaway. This one includes a journal embossed with a dragon! Click the image below to go to that contest for details and to win!

I Love Dragons Give-away!

As mentioned in this week’s video, The Sac’a’rith is complete and is with Audible’s QA team. That means sometime in the next week or so it will be live on Audible. When it releases I will send out a newsletter blast with all the details so watch for that!

I am closing in on wrapping up the first draft of Mage Hunter so watch for announcements about that soon! I am hoping to have that ready for first round editing in a month or less, but we will see!

That is it for now! Rember to watch your email for a newsletter update soon. Thanks again for being such a great group of readers, and please continue to spread the word about both series! Thanks!