C. Gockel's Blog, page 97
October 4, 2014
Love Is All You Need: Insights from the Longest Longitudinal Study on Men Ever Conducted
Why do two men from very similar socioeconomic and educational backgrounds sometimes take very different life paths? Is nature or nurture more important
I really enjoyed this article. I would love a version for women, but I have a son and a husband and am very interested in their care and feeding. (Side note: Looks like giving my son a little sister was a good idea—I have felt that already, he’s learned so much by having her in the family and loves her so much. Still, it was good to see some science).
October 3, 2014
MONSTERS: I BRING THE FIRE PART II (A Loki Story) IS ON SALE FOR 99 CENTS!
After being attacked by a serial killer, saved by Loki — so-called God of Mischief, Lies and Chaos — dragged to Alfheim, losing every cent in her bank account, and caring for her grandmother, Amy Lewis has lost her scholarship to veterinary school. But it’s alright. She has a plan. If she manages to keep her day job as a receptionist, and her night job as a vet tech, she may be able to get her scholarship reinstated and save enough money for the dreaded ‘miscellaneous fees.’
Too bad her day boss is unbearable…
Agent Steve Rogers has political aspirations, but when a suitcase nuke turns out to be something much worse and so-called Norse gods start showing up in his life, he has a priority shift.
Meanwhile, Loki’s priorities and plans haven’t changed at all. He wants Asgard to burn. Of course, earthly pleasures can be so distracting.
These three disparate characters have little in common, but they’ll have to join forces to save earth from trolls, wyrms, frost giant invasions, and an old evil growing beneath Chicago’s streets.
In this second volume of “I Bring the Fire,” chaos comes to our world and decides to stay. The nine realms will never be the same.
Buy Monsters for 99 cents at: Amazon, Google Play, Apple, and Smashwords
THE I BRING THE FIRE SERIES:
I Bring the Fire Part I (Free eBook:!)
Monsters: I Bring the Fire Part II
Chaos: I Bring the Fire Part III
In the Balance: I Bring the Fire 3.5
Fates: I Bring the Fire Part IV
The Slip: a Short Story
Warriors: I Bring the Fire Part V
September 30, 2014
September 27, 2014
September 23, 2014
September 21, 2014
Most adorable picture of Hel and Fenrir! I found it on Google...
Most adorable picture of Hel and Fenrir! I found it on Google looking for “Loki”. When I tried to go to the source my browser told me to abort because of malware. D’oh! If anyone knows the ORIGINAL source of this art, please let me know.
UPDATE: It is by an artist named Jon Bliss. Here is the source! http://jonbliss.blogspot.com/2010/08/until-rust-red-rooster-opens-his-beak.html (And it didn’t break my browser this time).
September 20, 2014
I WROTE A STORY ABOUT A GIRL WITH BIG BREASTS
I grew up reading fantasy and sci-fi from the likes of Heinlein, Anthony, Aspirin, and countless others. There were a lot of buxom women. And the buxom lasses were always proud of it, and flaunting it.
And you know, I remember being in my teens and twenties and having guys talk to my breasts instead of me (and I’m not particularly that well endowed), and being let down by the buxom lass who is so proud to be buxom and sexxxxyyyy … she seems to a minor subset of the population. Where were my friends who got breast reduction surgeries because the back pain and the lack of eye contact just got to be too much?
So in my stories, I gave my heroine the buxom look that appears so much in sci-fi and fantasy, BUT I made her extremely ambivalent about it. She wears big sweaters. She hides.
I made a hero/anti-hero guy who really likes buxom women. It’s his thing. (Considering he is the embodiment of chaos and destruction, I thought it was a natural craving for signs of fertility—fertility that he is quite lacking in—but that’s another post entirely). He is sometimes childish about his interest … but you know, I don’t think his interest is so far from the norm. But then, I’m “not a little woman,” or that’s what a 40 year old divorced father of two sitting next to me on a six hour plane flight once kept telling me. My experience may not be the norm. (Loki is nowhere near as creepy as that toward Amy!)
I have been outed as a lesbian for writing a buxom lass (don’t tell my husband!) And Amy’s been called a Mary Sue … I think her breasts may be part of that? Honestly, since men aren’t falling in love with her left and right, I’m not certain of the basis for that charge. Maybe that she’s female?
Eh, writing women, even realistically, you can never win (I’ve also been told she’s too realistic). Keep writing them anyway. Please. I like to read about realistic women, busty or not.
……….
The first installment in my serial, I Bring the Fire, featuring Amy Lewis, the ambivalent buxom lass in question, and Loki so-called Norse God of Mischief and Chaos is free. Check it out at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Google, Kobo, and Smashwords.
September 17, 2014
"Write the story you want to read, because when you’re editing, you’ll be reading it over..."
- Me … author of the I Bring the Fire series. (First installment free on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, & Google, Kobo and Smashwords.)
malformalady:
This is the three-eyed calf being worshipped as a...
This is the three-eyed calf being worshipped as a deity in India. The baby cow was born with the additional organ in the middle of his head, much like the Hindu god Shiva. Visitors have flocked the village of Kolathur in Tamil Nadu, southern India, to see the special calf. One of the key identifying features of Shiva is the third eye on his forehead, which can emit flames. When Shiva loses his temper, he opens his third eye to burn things to ashes.
Photo credit: Ruptly
