T.D. Wilson's Blog, page 22
February 17, 2014
How Did You Get Interested In Sci-fi/Fantasy?We all have ...
How Did You Get Interested In Sci-fi/Fantasy?We all have our beginnings we can crossed that imaginary line and became of fan of fantasy or science fiction. It could have happened a number of ways: a book, a movie, TV, or even an old radio show. Now, it may not have happened all at once, but once you realized you liked genres, you were hooked. Admit it. I did, a long time ago. I grew up with my family watching westerns, campy sit-coms like the Brady Bunch, and even cop shows. SWAT and Adam-12 were my favorite at one point, even though I was only in the second grade. But weekends had the escape shows that enhanced the imagination. I was exposed to shows like Lost in Space, Star Trek, big Japanese monster movies, and of course, The Six Million Dollar Man. At that age, I spent more time watching TV for fun than reading and when movies like Star Wars arrived, I was already entrenched.
Those early TV shows spring boarded me into the 80s and 90s. I was ready to uncover new shows like Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Movies with cool special effects were on the rise, but now I wanted to read the stories behind them and books became a focus. I also think the 80s time period saw the real rise of the modern day fantasy novel genre. So many good books came out in the mid 80s and into the 90s that attracted readers who wanted to go beyond what we had experienced from J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Some of my earliest reading was the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. To me, those stories weren't detective mysteries, they were fantasy, set it a Victorian age.
You see, it's hard to pick just one point where we leap over the line and declare ourselves sci-fi/fantasy geeks. The experiences I've had over my 45 years on this planet have led me to new worlds, far off planets, different dimensions, and distant times. Take a moment and think back on what first got you interested in these genres and post it. I bet it brings back some great memories. For me, it already has.
Those early TV shows spring boarded me into the 80s and 90s. I was ready to uncover new shows like Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Movies with cool special effects were on the rise, but now I wanted to read the stories behind them and books became a focus. I also think the 80s time period saw the real rise of the modern day fantasy novel genre. So many good books came out in the mid 80s and into the 90s that attracted readers who wanted to go beyond what we had experienced from J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Some of my earliest reading was the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. To me, those stories weren't detective mysteries, they were fantasy, set it a Victorian age.
You see, it's hard to pick just one point where we leap over the line and declare ourselves sci-fi/fantasy geeks. The experiences I've had over my 45 years on this planet have led me to new worlds, far off planets, different dimensions, and distant times. Take a moment and think back on what first got you interested in these genres and post it. I bet it brings back some great memories. For me, it already has.
The Epherium Chronicles: EmbraceChapter 1As we close in o...
The Epherium Chronicles: EmbraceChapter 1
As we close in on the two week mark for Embrace's release date, I wanted to release an excerpt of Chapters 1. I'll post another excerpt next week. Take a look and remember that March 3 is the official release date. It is available on the Carina Press website and most online retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ITunes.
The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace Chapter 1 Excerpt from wilsontd
As we close in on the two week mark for Embrace's release date, I wanted to release an excerpt of Chapters 1. I'll post another excerpt next week. Take a look and remember that March 3 is the official release date. It is available on the Carina Press website and most online retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ITunes.
The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace Chapter 1 Excerpt from wilsontd
February 13, 2014
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 6th and Final SeasonWell it loo...
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 6th and Final Season
Well it looks like Star Wars: The Clone Wars will have a 6th and final season, but it will be on Netflix. According to the news release, the shortened 13 episode season will address many of the open topics from the series, including what happens to Ahsoka Tano. There is also an episode where Qui-Gon Jinn will appear to Yoda. Liam Neeson is going to reprise his role and provide the voice for Qui-Gon.
New episodes will be available March 7 and as part of the Disney/Netflix deal, all five previous seasons will be available on Netflix for streaming.
For more information, here is the new link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/02/13/star-wars-the-clone-wars-final-season-on-netflix/5446097/
Well it looks like Star Wars: The Clone Wars will have a 6th and final season, but it will be on Netflix. According to the news release, the shortened 13 episode season will address many of the open topics from the series, including what happens to Ahsoka Tano. There is also an episode where Qui-Gon Jinn will appear to Yoda. Liam Neeson is going to reprise his role and provide the voice for Qui-Gon.
New episodes will be available March 7 and as part of the Disney/Netflix deal, all five previous seasons will be available on Netflix for streaming.
For more information, here is the new link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/02/13/star-wars-the-clone-wars-final-season-on-netflix/5446097/
February 12, 2014
More Sci-fi TriviaI thought I would throw an easy questio...
More Sci-fi Trivia
I thought I would throw an easy question into the mix early this week. In the Iron Man films, Jarvis is Tony Stark's artificial intelligence that helps him with just about everything. When Tony created him, it was J.A.R.V.I.S. What does the acronym stand for?
I thought I would throw an easy question into the mix early this week. In the Iron Man films, Jarvis is Tony Stark's artificial intelligence that helps him with just about everything. When Tony created him, it was J.A.R.V.I.S. What does the acronym stand for?
February 9, 2014
Science Fiction Trivia Time!Godzilla: King of the Monster...
Science Fiction Trivia Time!Godzilla: King of the Monsters!
Now that I have a brief lull in what I've been working on, I need to catch up on my trivia posts. This one comes from 1956 with the US release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters! This film was a edited version of the original 1954 film released in Japan, which was the first kaiju or huge monster movie to be created. Since I haven't made a trivia post in awhile, I'm going to ask three questions. Post what know and share it with everyone.
Question #1 What island off Japan did Godzilla first appear?
Question #2 In the 1956 edited version, a US reported was added to the film covering the Godzilla sightings. What was the name of the actor who played him?
Question #3 What was the weapon used to destroy Godzilla?
Take a crack at them and be sure to share them online and with your friends.
Now that I have a brief lull in what I've been working on, I need to catch up on my trivia posts. This one comes from 1956 with the US release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters! This film was a edited version of the original 1954 film released in Japan, which was the first kaiju or huge monster movie to be created. Since I haven't made a trivia post in awhile, I'm going to ask three questions. Post what know and share it with everyone.
Question #1 What island off Japan did Godzilla first appear?
Question #2 In the 1956 edited version, a US reported was added to the film covering the Godzilla sightings. What was the name of the actor who played him?
Question #3 What was the weapon used to destroy Godzilla?
Take a crack at them and be sure to share them online and with your friends.
February 8, 2014
Railguns "The Series"Part 4: The Epherium ChroniclesI dec...
Railguns "The Series"Part 4: The Epherium Chronicles
I decided to wait to post this next segment in my series on Railguns, since what I want to talk about will have more relevance to the first two books of my sci-fi series, The Epherium Chronicles, that are about to be released. In my previous posts, we looked at history of railguns, the science behind them, and how we have used different versions (railguns and coilguns) in science fiction books, movies, and even video games.
All of those posts have just primed you for this one. Trust me. Now, The Epherium Chronicles story is set in the mid 22nd century. The primary weapon of choice for space combat and for some ground force units is a railgun. Why a railgun and not a particle weapon or laser? Good question. I looked at all viable types and humans were still developing a particle weapon for a large military application and in my series, ended up reverse engineering an alien design. For short range point defense weapons in space, pulse laser cannons were most effective, but had limited range. The high energy laser cannons required even more energy than several railguns and was their effective range was much less than the railgun. The railgun could produce devastating effects if properly maintained and was chosen as the primary weapon on all Earth Defense Force ships.
So what kind of design are we looking at? Well, let me put my engineer hat back on for a second. In one of my earlier posts on the science of railguns, I described a hybrid style railgun that uses electrically energized plasma to help catapult the projectile along with the magnetic fields of the rails. Well, the design is very similar to this. Take a look at the picture of a hybrid style railgun.
This style uses a projectile carriage to carry the armature current instead of having flow through the projectile itself. At the rear of the projectile, we can introduce another material across the rails almost as a spark to get the projectile in motion. The high energy plasma moves the projectile the new armature current transfers to the carriage, launching it deadly armament at high velocity. This design also solves a problem of the hybrid launchers. During the reload cycle the carriage is energized in the reverse and is slowly clean the rails of any left over plasma that might interfere with the next ignition.
Of course, railguns generate a tremendous amount of recoil force and the rails have a danger of pushing out of alignment. In the design I used for the EDF weapons, railgun are mounted on turrets capable of handling the recoil. Also the rails are enclosed in a long tube of the neutronium alloy (incredibly strong and used for ship armor as well). The tubes taper past the rails and provide a strong housing for the rails to prevent bowing and act as extended smooth bore for better accuracy past the rail exit point. The interior of the tubes are lined with a near frictionless material that has to be replaced after 100 salvos or the cannon may overheat. Speaking of heat, space is a great medium for heat transfer, but its not instantaneous for large generations of heat and buildups do occur.
Let's look at the projectiles. The standard EDF projectile is solid and made for armor piercing. Other rounds include high energy explosives encased in the projectile. The launcher design helps to prevent any detonation, since the armature current flows through the carriage and not the projectile. Lastly, I designed a flak round. Yep, a space flak round for dealing with fighters and other small craft. Once the projectile is launched, it is set to detonate at a predetermined time. The explosion expels several hard metal chunks outward, but remember, momentum in space isn't hindered like in atmosphere. So now I have hundreds or even thousands of small metal pieces speeding in the same direction as the projectile with little or no loss in velocity. It can create a huge hole in a fighter formation.
So that's space, but what about on the ground? The EDF Marines employ different types of weapons on the ground. Conventional caseless ammo rifles, some small pulse rifles and other small arms, but there are two vehicle designs built with the railgun in mind. First is the tank. Much in the way the A-10 Warthog plane was built around a gun, the EDF Marine battle tank is the same design. Tough armor surrounding a railgun. The Marines do have a more conventional tank similar to ones we have today, but the railgun version is much more effective in little or no atmosphere. The other is the Mongoose. I created the Mongoose from a concept of this lunar rover. Take a look.
The Mongoose is a high speed wide wheel base rover, with an anti-tank railgun mounted in the center. To power the weapon, it has a small enhanced nuclear power plant which charges the guns capacitor. Unfortunately, the capacitor can only hold enough energy for two shots and takes about two minutes to fully recharge, but that is where the Mongoose's speed and maneuverability comes in handy. The real science in the design is what I added over the wheels. To keep the Mongoose upright after firing its railgun, especially in low gravity environments, it required stabilization thrusters to offset the force. So when the cannon is fired, large blue flames from the thrusters can be seen over its wheels.
Well, that is all I have time for in this segment. Stay tuned for more as I will talk about coilgun designs for engines. Yes, you guessed it, ion drives.
I decided to wait to post this next segment in my series on Railguns, since what I want to talk about will have more relevance to the first two books of my sci-fi series, The Epherium Chronicles, that are about to be released. In my previous posts, we looked at history of railguns, the science behind them, and how we have used different versions (railguns and coilguns) in science fiction books, movies, and even video games.
All of those posts have just primed you for this one. Trust me. Now, The Epherium Chronicles story is set in the mid 22nd century. The primary weapon of choice for space combat and for some ground force units is a railgun. Why a railgun and not a particle weapon or laser? Good question. I looked at all viable types and humans were still developing a particle weapon for a large military application and in my series, ended up reverse engineering an alien design. For short range point defense weapons in space, pulse laser cannons were most effective, but had limited range. The high energy laser cannons required even more energy than several railguns and was their effective range was much less than the railgun. The railgun could produce devastating effects if properly maintained and was chosen as the primary weapon on all Earth Defense Force ships.
So what kind of design are we looking at? Well, let me put my engineer hat back on for a second. In one of my earlier posts on the science of railguns, I described a hybrid style railgun that uses electrically energized plasma to help catapult the projectile along with the magnetic fields of the rails. Well, the design is very similar to this. Take a look at the picture of a hybrid style railgun.
This style uses a projectile carriage to carry the armature current instead of having flow through the projectile itself. At the rear of the projectile, we can introduce another material across the rails almost as a spark to get the projectile in motion. The high energy plasma moves the projectile the new armature current transfers to the carriage, launching it deadly armament at high velocity. This design also solves a problem of the hybrid launchers. During the reload cycle the carriage is energized in the reverse and is slowly clean the rails of any left over plasma that might interfere with the next ignition.
Of course, railguns generate a tremendous amount of recoil force and the rails have a danger of pushing out of alignment. In the design I used for the EDF weapons, railgun are mounted on turrets capable of handling the recoil. Also the rails are enclosed in a long tube of the neutronium alloy (incredibly strong and used for ship armor as well). The tubes taper past the rails and provide a strong housing for the rails to prevent bowing and act as extended smooth bore for better accuracy past the rail exit point. The interior of the tubes are lined with a near frictionless material that has to be replaced after 100 salvos or the cannon may overheat. Speaking of heat, space is a great medium for heat transfer, but its not instantaneous for large generations of heat and buildups do occur.
Let's look at the projectiles. The standard EDF projectile is solid and made for armor piercing. Other rounds include high energy explosives encased in the projectile. The launcher design helps to prevent any detonation, since the armature current flows through the carriage and not the projectile. Lastly, I designed a flak round. Yep, a space flak round for dealing with fighters and other small craft. Once the projectile is launched, it is set to detonate at a predetermined time. The explosion expels several hard metal chunks outward, but remember, momentum in space isn't hindered like in atmosphere. So now I have hundreds or even thousands of small metal pieces speeding in the same direction as the projectile with little or no loss in velocity. It can create a huge hole in a fighter formation.
So that's space, but what about on the ground? The EDF Marines employ different types of weapons on the ground. Conventional caseless ammo rifles, some small pulse rifles and other small arms, but there are two vehicle designs built with the railgun in mind. First is the tank. Much in the way the A-10 Warthog plane was built around a gun, the EDF Marine battle tank is the same design. Tough armor surrounding a railgun. The Marines do have a more conventional tank similar to ones we have today, but the railgun version is much more effective in little or no atmosphere. The other is the Mongoose. I created the Mongoose from a concept of this lunar rover. Take a look.
The Mongoose is a high speed wide wheel base rover, with an anti-tank railgun mounted in the center. To power the weapon, it has a small enhanced nuclear power plant which charges the guns capacitor. Unfortunately, the capacitor can only hold enough energy for two shots and takes about two minutes to fully recharge, but that is where the Mongoose's speed and maneuverability comes in handy. The real science in the design is what I added over the wheels. To keep the Mongoose upright after firing its railgun, especially in low gravity environments, it required stabilization thrusters to offset the force. So when the cannon is fired, large blue flames from the thrusters can be seen over its wheels.
Well, that is all I have time for in this segment. Stay tuned for more as I will talk about coilgun designs for engines. Yes, you guessed it, ion drives.
February 3, 2014
New Movie TrailersThere's new trailers for three new movi...
New Movie TrailersThere's new trailers for three new movies coming this spring/summer. First up is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It looks awesome.
Next up is the new trailer for Amazing Spider Man 2. Wow...
And last, but certainly not least, is Transformers: Age of Extinction. Dinobots!
Next up is the new trailer for Amazing Spider Man 2. Wow...
And last, but certainly not least, is Transformers: Age of Extinction. Dinobots!
Book Trailer for Embrace!I posted the latest trailer for ...
Book Trailer for Embrace!I posted the latest trailer for The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace on YouTube. It's about two minutes, but I've received some really good feedback. Take a look and post what you think. Don't forget. Embrace is to be released on March 3, 2014 and available for pre-order at several online retailers.
January 24, 2014
The Epherium Chronicles: EmbraceCover Reveal!The new cove...
The Epherium Chronicles: EmbraceCover Reveal!
The new cover for Embrace is ready! If you also haven't seen the updated cover blurb, I have it here:
Book one of The Epherium Chronicles
Hope. Captain James Hood of the Earth Defense Forces remembers what it felt like. Twenty-five years ago, it surged through him as a young boy watching the colony ships launched by mega-corporation Epherium rocket away. He, like so many others, dreamed of following in the colonists’ footsteps. He wanted to help settle a new world—to be something greater.
Then came the war...
Hope. During years of vicious conflict with an insectoid alien race, it was nearly lost. Though Earth has slowly rebuilt in the six years since the war, overcrowding and an unstable sun have made life increasingly inhospitable. When mysterious signals from the nearly forgotten colony ships are received, Hood is ordered to embark on a dangerous reconnaissance mission. Could humanity’s future sit among the stars?
Hope. Hood needs it now more than ever. As secrets about the original colonists are revealed and the Epherium Corporation’s dark agenda is exposed, new adversaries threaten the mission, proving more dangerous to Earth than their already formidable foes…
Embrace will be released on March 3, 2014.
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The new cover for Embrace is ready! If you also haven't seen the updated cover blurb, I have it here:
Book one of The Epherium Chronicles
Hope. Captain James Hood of the Earth Defense Forces remembers what it felt like. Twenty-five years ago, it surged through him as a young boy watching the colony ships launched by mega-corporation Epherium rocket away. He, like so many others, dreamed of following in the colonists’ footsteps. He wanted to help settle a new world—to be something greater.
Then came the war...
Hope. During years of vicious conflict with an insectoid alien race, it was nearly lost. Though Earth has slowly rebuilt in the six years since the war, overcrowding and an unstable sun have made life increasingly inhospitable. When mysterious signals from the nearly forgotten colony ships are received, Hood is ordered to embark on a dangerous reconnaissance mission. Could humanity’s future sit among the stars?
Hope. Hood needs it now more than ever. As secrets about the original colonists are revealed and the Epherium Corporation’s dark agenda is exposed, new adversaries threaten the mission, proving more dangerous to Earth than their already formidable foes…
Embrace will be released on March 3, 2014.
And Yet, Another QuizYes, the quizzes just keep on coming...
And Yet, Another Quiz
Yes, the quizzes just keep on coming. This one is what character from The Game of Thrones are you? I tried it and, of course, I'm Ned Stark. The one character I really admired and dies...sigh. Try the quiz and find out what character you are. Be sure to post it here and compare it to others.
Here is the link: http://www.zimbio.com/quiz/hpbWxCCmzMR/Game+Thrones+Character
Yes, the quizzes just keep on coming. This one is what character from The Game of Thrones are you? I tried it and, of course, I'm Ned Stark. The one character I really admired and dies...sigh. Try the quiz and find out what character you are. Be sure to post it here and compare it to others.
Here is the link: http://www.zimbio.com/quiz/hpbWxCCmzMR/Game+Thrones+Character
