Cindy Koepp's Blog, page 4

Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology: Implant Communicators

Check it out! Implant Communicators!

The Word Nerds

Cindy Koepp

The Word Nerds are excited to welcome Cindy Koepp to the blog today to talk about communications and her books, “Remnant in the Stars” and “The Loudest Action.” 

Science fictions is full of interesting ways for characters to communicate with each other across distances. Some, like the 1960s Star Trek communicators, look a little like flip-phones. Others, like the more recent Star Trek series, were little badges the character just had to tap to activate. Some were a lot more complex, like Star Wars’ holographic transmissions.

In Remnant in the Stars and The Loudest Actions, the human characters – most of them anyway – have a communicator implanted in their heads. The communicator shows as a green or red LED under their hair. Tapping the light can turn the communicator on or off, but the default mode is on.

These are not “electronic telepathy.” It’s not as simple…

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Guest Post: Cindy Koepp

Modern Mechs

Enchanted Alley

The Enchanted Alley would like to welcome Cindy Koepp.

Please give her a very enchanted welcome!

Virtual Tour
Author: Cindy Koepp
Featured Book Releases: Remnant in the Stars and The Loudest Actions
November 7 – 21, 2017

Without further ado… here’s Cindy! 

Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology: Mechanized Armor

In Remnant in the Stars and The Loudest Actions, the League pilots (the bad guys) used mechanized armor or “mechs” for fighter craft. These are huge (much taller than a person) robots piloted by someone who communicates mentally with the computer from inside a cockpit located in the chest. The mechs come in two varieties: the smaller and lighter Dervishes and the much sturdier and larger Samurai.

The mechs have the advantage of being able to work in space and in atmosphere. They have shielding and armor to protect them and three kinds of weapons for offense. Each mech has…

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Thanksgiving in Older Times

Thanksgiving is coming soon. It’s set — at least in this part of the world — on the 4th Thursday of November, which explains why it’s never the same day of the month two years running.

In the US, this traditionally involves gathering in family groups to chow down on turkey, some kind of bread-based dressing or stuffing, sweet taters, cranberries, greenie beanies, and pumpkin or apple pies. (Your mileage may vary. Mine sure does). The idea is to celebrate a good harvest (even though most of us do our “harvesting” at the grocery store).

Older cultures celebrated having plenty at harvest time. They just did their celebrations at different times in different ways.

Ancient Greeks had “Thesmophoria,” a celebration to honor the goddess Demeter with gifts of fruit, cake, and grainy stuff.

The Ancient Romans likewise honored their goddess Ceres with “Cerelia,” a holiday filled with games, sports, feasts, and other shenanigans.

Ancient Egypt did their thanksgiving celebration in the spring. (There’s always one that’s different). They honored the goddess Min. It was actually a sad time for them because Min lived in the corn they were harvesting, so they acted depressed while harvesting it. After the harvest was over, the Pharaoh would throw a party.

Ancient Chinese celebrated the moon’s birthday (“Chung Ch’ui) in the middle of August. They harvested stuff and threw a party while watching for flowers to fall from the moon to bring them good luck for the next year.

The ancient cultures and our current celebrations had some things in common: lots of food, fun, and frivolity.

Guest post: Hyperspace Travel by Cindy Koepp

Hyperspace … it’s complicated.

Magic of books

Hi guys! Today I’ve got for you something special – a guest post from Cindy Koepp. She had published her new Sci-Fi book not so long ago and it sounds quite interesting! And after reading this article I’m even more curious to read her books.

Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology: Hyperspace Travel

Faster-than-light (FTL) travel has been a staple of science fiction for decades. It comes in many forms. There’s Star Trek’s warp drive. Star Wars has a hyperdrive. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy brought us the Infinite Improbability Drive. Even Doctor Who’s TARDIS is used to travel fantastically great distances pretty quickly.

Popular Mechanics has rated the plausibility of 10 different sci-fi FTL systems here:

(http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/g843/10-sci-fi-faster-than-light-systems/?slide=1)

My favorite shows up in The Childe Cycle, a collection of novels and short stories by Gordon R. Dickson. He used the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. He didn’t call it that, but that’s…

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Review (x2): Cindy Koepp

Reviews of Remnant in the Stars and The Loudest Actions!

Jordan Hirsch

Hey all!

I’m taking a brief break from NaNoWriMo and all this election madness to tell you about two of my recent reads: Remnant in the Stars and The Loudest Actions by Cindy Koepp.  She’s just kicking off a blog tour, and I’m really thankful to get to be a part of it.

Review of Remnant in the Stars:

As a lifelong Star Trek fan, there is a special place in my heart for stories set in space with awesome alien species and discoveries of new people and things.  That may seem specific, but nevertheless, Cindy Koepp has officially entered that place.

Reading Remnant in the Stars was such a joy for me from start to finish.  I loved the diverse cast of characters, particularly Abbott and Sora.  The humor was spot-on, as were the emotional development and tense situations.  Even though it was set far in the future…

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Author Interview: Cindy Koepp

Hey! Check out this interview on My Life, My Books, My Escape

MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape

Today I am interviewing Cindy Koepp, author of the new science fiction novel, The Loudest Actions, follow up to Remnant in the Stars.

◊  ◊  ◊

DJ: Hey Cindy! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Cindy Koepp: Wellllll… These days, I live near Des Moines, Iowa and work as an optician for my day job. In previous adventures, I’ve been a tech support nerd, elementary school teacher, and tropical bird specialist.

My only pet is my African Grey, Masika. She’s nuts and more than a little paranoid. There is cause, though. She’s a rescued bird who has had 4 owners that we know about. We (the previous owners and I) can account for about 30 years, but I suspect she’s a good deal older than that. Cataracts are forming in one eye.

When…

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Happy Hallowthankmas?

This time of year seems like a holiday jumble to me. Some stores have Christmas decorations for sale as early as June. June!  Seriously? Craft supplies I can understand. Crafty stuff takes time, and so having that available earlier in the year makes sense, but fake Christmas trees and decorations? No. Seriously. Make it stop.

The closer we get to the fall months, the weirder things get. A major mall in the area had their Christmas decorations up before October ended. To my great annoyance, I was warned that the decorations flicker. Ugh. Guess I’m not shopping there this winter.

Halloween was just a few days ago. The next day, I learned that some stores already started their Christmas music. “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas?”  No, it’s not. It’s really not. Not even up here in the north.

Granted, neither Halloween nor Thanksgiving are big on my personal list of holidays. I don’t care for celebrating being mean to people, death and dismemberment, and so on. I’ve never been a fan of horror movies; and I can’t eat candy, don’t drink, and can’t stand crowds. That makes Halloween a non-event. Enh, that’s fine.

Thanksgiving is all about food. Lots of food. Food I can’t eat. So often, when going to a relative’s house, I have to bring my own. That means I’m safe to eat stuff, but I get to watch family and friends chow down on stuff I used to enjoy but can’t any more. That’s a great drag. To my great relief, some of my family — when they’re hosting the event — will make sure I can have the majority of the stuff being served. That makes the dinner rather non-traditional, but I do appreciate the effort. It makes the day less irksome.

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts in 2 days. I played a few years ago and ended up with the first half of Bird’s Eye: The Novel in Dire Need of a Better Title. That novel has since been finished, and it is waiting for revision after some feedback from a beta reader.

I’m considering trying it again this year. I’m working on the sequel to Lines of Succession, and I might gain some good ground if I dive into this. I’ve already started it, but I can mark my starting point and count from there or do the new work in another file and then copy it across when I’m done.

Still sitting on the fence about whether to dive in. (I’ll have to hurry up and decide. O.o )

The good things about it?

A daily goal will keep me going on this. I’m competitive enough to allow no excuses.
I did get some encouragement from the group when I did it before.
I’ll get to spend more time with Masika (the computer is in her room).

The bad things about it?

The writing I did on Bird’s Eye a few years ago was not my best, even considering the rough draft mode. Cleaning it up might be harder than starting over.
The emphasis on word count rather than quality encourages bad writing habits, and I already try to string together too many descriptors.
I’m way behind on making Christmas presents because of the Great Northern Move.

Hmmm… Decisions, decisions…

 

The Fault of Ephesus

Does God really need us to do work for him?  No, not really.  He has accomplished huge things without us, and there are times when I think he’d get a lot more done if we would simply get out of his way.  I’d hate to see the list of times when I’ve chucked money or effort at a project that I thought was helpful and God really would have preferred to shut it down.

Nevertheless, works are good for us.  We aren’t saved by our works, but rather by our faith1.  There’s no way you can be cool enough to get to heaven.  If you can, then Jesus died for no purpose.  He pleaded three times for some solution to our predicament other than the cross.  If you can be saved any other way than the sacrifice of Christ, God didn’t answer Jesus’ prayer2.  So, if God doesn’t need us to do the work and if works don’t save us, what good are they?

For the importance of good works, consider James 2:14-26.  Faith without works is dead. Good work you do to further the kingdom of God is the exercise you do to keep your faith healthy.  Furthermore, God doesn’t need us to get done what needs doing, but he gives us the privilege of participating in what he has planned.  In fact, you were in his mind when he put his plan together3.  His plans are to your benefit4, and going contrary to them is only hurting yourself.

Is it possible to get focused too narrowly on the work God would have of you?  I think so.  Let’s consider the case of Ephesus.  The church of Ephesus was started by Paul on one of his adventures through Asia Minor5 (read that Turkey … no, not the big, fat bird you eat in November.  That’s different).  On a later trip to Jerusalem, Paul stopped at a nearby city called Miletus and asked the elders of the church at Ephesus to drop by for a visit.  During this discussion, he warned them to watch over their flock carefully, particularly in regard to false teaching6.

Okay, now fast-forward a few decades to the book of Revelation where Jesus dictated a letter to John to send to the 7 churches in Asia Minor (That’s still Turkey).  Ephesus is the first of those churches.  Here, check this out.

 

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:

“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars.  You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.  But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!  Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first. If you don’t, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.  But there is this about you that is good: You hate the deeds of the immoral Nicolaitans, just as I do.

“Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Everyone who is victorious will eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God. 7”

 

Jesus’ letters to the 7 churches reflected the history of the church, but they also had relevant bits for the local church at that time.  Some day we may take the opportunity to analyze all 7 parts of each letter, but for now, look at what this is saying to Ephesus.

The good news is that they did indeed do a fabulous job about ferreting out false teachers8.  They even refused to fall into the trap of a church heirarchy9.  (Nicolaitan = “Nico” means rule or dominion and “laitan” means people, y’know, like laity?)

Unfortunately, Ephesus developed a bad case of tunnel vision.  Verses 4 and 5 detail this problem.  The church at Ephesus forgot their first love: Christ and other Christians.  Remember the most two important commandments?  Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love thy neighbor as thyself10?

The Ephesians ran afoul of a problem that threatens most of us.  We substitute doing the work of the King for spending quality time with the King.  This is particularly dangerous.  Jesus promised Ephesus that if they failed to remedy the problem, he’d remove their lampstand.  (We figure out what the lampstands are in Revelation 1:20.  They represent the churches themselves.)  Did they figure it out?  Apparently not.  Where’s the church of Ephesus today? Learn from Ephesus’ mistake, and remember this other very crucial command: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you11.”

 

Endnotes:

 

1 Habakkuk 2:4, Galatians 2:16

2 Matthew 26:36-46

3 Ephesians 2:10

4 Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28

5 Acts 18 and 19

6 Acts 20:28-30

7 Revelation 2:1-7

8 Revelation 2:2

9 Revelation 2:6

10 Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27

11 Matthew 6:33

 

Leaf it!

When I was younger, my grandmother had a house with an enormous back yard. It’s probably not as big as I remember it being, but it was a good size in any case.

Her yard had some impressively large trees. I remember climbing part way up the one that had low, fat branches. I was not as brave as my cousin who went much higher. Not that I had a fear of heights. The prospect of falling was what kept me on the lower, fatter branches.

The trees were the deciduous sort, so every fall, they ditched all their leaves in a yellow and brown sheet across the yard.

When visiting grandma, my cousin, brother, and I would grab rakes and get all the leaves together in one huge pile then run full tilt and jump into the pile. That scattered the leaves and we raked them together for another go.