Sable Aradia's Blog, page 38
May 6, 2018
Music of the Troubadours
I uploaded an album called Music of the Troubadours a few years ago, which is a collection of songs of the troubadours and trovieres. I just thought it was worth sharing. I’ve been listening to it because it’s a good soundtrack for the story I’m writing. Enjoy!
May 5, 2018
May 4, 2018
Livestreamed Readings of Homefront!
[image error]I’m offering livestreamed readings of Homefront strictly for my Patrons! $2 or up per month gets you the audio packages, which includes Mp3 audio files of my stories; and this month, that includes live readings of my new Toy Soldier Saga novella Homefront.
I will be reading one chapter per night at 8 pm Pacific time, starting Sunday, May 13, until it is finished. If you can’t make the live reading, don’t worry! It will be archived to YouTube with an unlisted link only available to my Patrons so you can watch it later!
Later, I’ll strip the audio to form the basis of an ebook, which is free to Patrons at $2 and up (and may be available for purchase elsewhere.)
Being my Patron also gets you first access to everything I publish (unless contractual obligations demand otherwise,) extras, special features, sneak peaks, access to a special fan community, and at higher levels, books and CDs and classes. And of course you get my thanks for supporting my many projects, including:
My fiction novels and stories
My Pagan non-fiction books and blogs
On-demand classes
My YouTube channel projects, including:
Author features
Original music & music videos
Epic music mixes
Vidcasts
Sit for a Spell Witchcraft series
Witchcraft instructional videos
Book Trailers
My work with SFWA YouTube
And best of all, if it’s possible to do it, you get your name in the credits!
Now is a good time to join if you haven’t already.
Homefront is available now as part of the On the Horizon Book Bundle. You can get it here or here.
May 3, 2018
May 2, 2018
How 17th Century Dreamers Planned to Reach the Moon
By Maria Avxentevskaya
People have been dreaming about space travel for hundreds of years, long before the arrival of the spectacular technologies behind space exploration today – mighty engines roaring fire and thunder, shiny metal shapes gliding in the vastness of the universe.
We’ve only travelled into space in the last century, but humanity’s desire to reach the moon is far from recent. In the second century AD, Lucian’s True History, a parody of travel tales, already pictured a group of adventure seekers lifted to the moon. A whirlwind delivered them into the turbulence of lunar politics – a colonial war.
And much earlier than any beep of a satellite, these dreams of moon travel were given real, serious thought. The first technical reckoning of how to travel to the moon can be found in the 17th century.
Read the full article at The Conversation.
May 1, 2018
On the Horizon RELEASE DAY!
It’s finally release day for the On the Horizon Book Bundle! If you haven’t got your copy yet, you can get it here: https://amzn.to/2HMH56H or here: https://www.books2read.com/u/bQBgZP.
And why wouldn’t you want a copy of this awesome set? 22 novellas and novels by 21 different authors in worlds of low or no tech! Features my Toy Soldier Saga novella “Homefront,” which is published here for the first time.
It’s only 99 cents, and only available for a limited time (90 days.) And we’ve removed the digital watermarking, so once you’ve bought it, it’s yours forever. We trust you not to post it to pirate sites. And if you do decide to share it, why not encourage your friends to support my Patreon?
Here’s two more book trailers if you’re not convinced yet:
Patrons will find their names in the Dedication section of my contribution, as promised; and thank you! There WILL be an audio reading of Homefront; I just haven’t made it there yet because I’ve been not feeling well. But I promise it’s coming soon.
I think I’m going to try an experiment. I’m going to do a private livestream event on my Patreon to read it chapter by chapter at a particular time of day over the course of a couple of weeks, while I simultaneously record it for a future audiobook! The livestreams would be archived to an unlisted link on YouTube which would then be made available strictly to Patrons who opted for the audio packages! (That’s $2 per month and above.) So if you’re not already a Patron, now is a good time to join!
I think I’ll start Sunday, May 13th, at 8 pm Pacific Daylight Time, unless I say otherwise before then.
If you have already read the PDF which was included as a Patron reward, please don’t forget to post a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads! Even if you’ve just read one story it’s okay to review the book, and every rating helps us get the word out. You can even post just a line or two (ie. “I liked it.”) – it doesn’t have to be long to count! Try to post on Amazon.com if you can because Amazon doesn’t consider international site reviews in its algorithms (gods only know why.)
As always, thanks for all your support! I couldn’t do it without you guys!
April 30, 2018
Two Cents on Heroes
By Beth McCabe
Long before Hollywood started letting Charlize Theron, Zoe Saldana, Emily Blunt, Gal Gadot et. al. play kick-ass roles, little girls dreamed of power.
When I was growing up, comic book heroes were male. Heck, everyone of consequence in our world was male. Publishers tried to get us to buy Supergirl and Batgirl, but we weren’t stupid. We knew they were just bratty kid sisters.
We shrugged, accepted our sorry lot in life, and bought a Superman. Or an Archie. But those of us lucky enough to get our sticky little hands on Diana Prince and the Amazons found a hero of our own with awesome power, strength, and heart.
(Note for purists: although the original WW was introduced almost two decades before BG and SG, my introduction to her was the WW reboot around the same time the latter two appeared.)
Lynda Carter’s TV series portrayal doesn’t get enough credit. It was cool. But it took a really long time, and a director of the female persuasion, Patty Jenkins, for our hero to make it to the big screen.
So I got seriously pissed when Director James Cameron (Avatar, Terminator) disrespected the movie. This was personal.
Read the full article at Luna Station Quarterly.
April 29, 2018
The Kardashev Scale
We have reached a turning point in society. According to renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, the next 100 years of science will determine whether we perish or thrive. Will we remain a Type 0 civilization, or will we advance and make our way into the stars?
Experts assert that, as a civilization grows larger and becomes more advanced, its energy demands will increase rapidly due to its population growth and the energy requirements of its various machines. With this in mind, the Kardashev scale was developed as a way of measuring a civilization’s technological advancement based upon how much usable energy it has at its disposal (this was originally just tied to energy available for communications, but has since been expanded).
Read the full article at Futurism.com.
April 28, 2018
How to Write a Proper Short Story Cover Letter
As an editor I see a lot of bad cover letters. I can’t help but think folks are following some bad advice out there, so I wrote a thing that might help. It’s long and it’s a little ranty and cranky (because I’ve seen a lot of bad cover letters in the last month), but I hope it will also be helpful.
Note that this advice is specific to genre magazines and anthologies and short fiction. Novel submissions play by a different set of rules, and there may be a slightly different etiquette in literary submissions and other genres. But, if you write and submit science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories, the following essay is for you.
Read the full article at Alex Shvartsman’s website.
April 27, 2018
Scientists Accidentally Create Plastic-Eating Enzyme
By Peter Dockrill
They found the first ones in Japan. Hidden in the soil at a plastics recycling plant, researchers unearthed a microbe that had evolved to eat the soda bottles dominating its habitat, after you and I throw them away.
That discovery was announced in 2016, and scientists have now gone one better. While examining how the Japanese bug breaks down plastic, they accidentally created a mutant enzyme that outperforms the natural bacteria, and further tweaks could offer a vital solution to humanity’s colossal plastics problem.
Read the full article at Science Alert.
