Rusty Carl's Blog, page 8

Why Do I Always Forget to Title My Posts?

Happy Day internet! I forget sometimes that I have a blog. I figure if I can post once weekly I'm pretty much ahead of the game. Then I look and notice that I haven't posted in two weeks. Dang.

Regardless, I found a short quiz online that I tweeted recently. It's 13 multiple choice questions meant to gauge our general knowledge of science. Afterwards, they compare you to everyone else that has taken the same quiz. So far, the results have been discouraging. Take the short (3 or 4 minute) quiz...

Comet Ison... And We're Totally Doomed!

Hola,
After I posted that devastating portrayal of the state of the ‘average person’s’ knowledge of our cosmos last week. I figured I’d write a post or two regarding just what lurks out and about in our stellar neighborhood and what it actually is. That way, should you ever get stopped by Jay Leno on the street and asked what a comet it, you won’t be forced to tell him that it’s ‘A star that, due to physics, has had its barometric pressure rise and causes it to spin’.*
So, I’ve been excited for...

Back on the IWSG Bandwagon!

Way back in the early days of the internet, Alex J Cavanaugh created the Insecure Writers Support Group. Since those early days, it has grown in size to nearly be as popular as Google itself. It’s also a time when I get to vent about all my issues without fear of judgment.
I took a few months off from posting this summer (and lost my coveted spot on the linky list), but it was a good time away. The best part is that I have spent tons more time with the family. So, good times all around.
Anyway,...

Me and Stan Lee

Look – I’m back! Not really back, but back enough. I really just wanted to pop in and say hey.
So, hey.
Also, I took a quick gander up to “ FANDOMFEST ” in Louisville over the past weekend. A three day event that celebrates nerdy things. 
It was a far cry from comic-con, but it was a much bigger event than I expected. I'd only been there for an hour or so when I bumped into (Stargate Atlantis, Game of Thrones, Conan) and he happened to be looking at the comic art th...

Look! I'm Not Dead*

FUNNY HOW taking a day off can quickly turn into a week, or month, or whatever. To dispense with any sort of drama right away, I plan on being much more sparse over the summer. Posting only when I feel the overwhelming urge... in the meantime I'll try to wrap up work on the story I've been just about ready to publish for the past year.... or two.

It's my first longer piece that I intend on self-pubbing and I've been lost in edits and rewrites for so long I'm not sure if setting a completion da...

News, A New Story, and Ben!

Hey all, after taking some time off to recoup from the A-Z thing, I might be back.

I say might, because life has a way of sucking up more of my time than the internet does. I did spend the weekend in sunny Florida on a spur of the moment decision to get away for a few days with the family. It was frustrating, wonderful, and eventually disastrous. But I suppose every trip can't be perfect.

So, moving on...

A reminder that I've promised that every dime I make in book sales this month goes towards...

Let's All Help Ben!

Brian Pagel recently caught wind of the plight of Ben Wolverton, the son of Author David Wolverton (who also writes under the pen name, David Farland).
Ben had an accident while skateboarding. That accident left him in a coma and in need of some serious medical attention. To the tune of around $1,000,000.
And there is no health insurance to cover these costs. Since the father works as an author in a place where you can only get affordable health coverage through your employer, he’s stuck with t...

A to Z Reflections Post

It’s reflection time. How did a month of daily posts change me as a person? How did it make me grow?
Well, like last year, I spent all my prep time not doing prep work, and instead was doing work daily in order to post. Anytime something came up at home and I couldn't make time to sit down and do a picture then that day just got pushed back.
At one point I was posting my L or M when everyone else was posting Q or R… it was a real struggle to keep up the pace.
But I wasn’t willing to sk...

Blither Me This... An IWSG Post

Once, in the early days of internetonia, Alex J Cavanaugh created the Insecure Writer's Support Group, the one day out of the month that I can whine and complain about whatever writing related issues I have without fear of judgement.

This month, it's time management that gets me riled up. I've whined about this one before, but it does cause me great concern. I simply can't function as a father/husband and do all the peripheral things that would-be authors are expected to do. Especially wh...

Z is for... Zoinks! I'm Done!

The very last of the A-Z Challenge posts for 2013. What a journey.

This month took me from concept to completion of a cover for Andrew Leon's upcoming, soon to be mega-hit, Shadow Spinner. A novel he's been releasing in serial format for many months, but will soon see itself all in one novel length edition... hopefully with a cover much like what you'll see below.

In case you don't recall, here is what we saw on day one:

I spent two weeks trying all sorts of different things before I finally cam...