Raven Oak's Blog, page 76
October 30, 2014
Book Cover Throwback: Death
This week’s Book Cover Throwback is from the book On a Pale Horse
by Piers Anthony. The book’s main character is Death, who is featured prominently on the cover driving a snazzy sports car. I think what I love most about this cover art is how cool the grim reaper looks driving a “pale horse.”
I also did a Flashback Friday on this book. Click here to read it.
The post Book Cover Throwback: Death appeared first on Raven Oak.
October 27, 2014
Monday Night Gaming: Firefly
This week’s Monday Night Gaming is on the Firefly Board Game!
We love this game, and not just because we’re huge Firefly and Joss Whedon fans. This game allows us to play around in the ‘verse and be “bad guys” or be shiny, depending on which way we want to play it.
The base game consists of captains and ships doing jobs, while trying to avoid Reavers and possibly the Alliance (depending on which way you’re playing).
There are three major expansions now: Breakin’ Atmo, Pirates & Bounty Hunters, a...
October 24, 2014
Flashfoward Friday: Equality
Photograph Copyright © 2013
Huffington Post
Normally on Friday’s I’d be flashing back to some great sci-fi or fantasy classic that changed me as a reader and writer, or I’d be looking ahead at what great, future tech is happening in our world, but I’m feeling like neither today.
Felicia Day opened up yesterday about her thoughts on GamerGate in a very personal post that honestly shares what a lot of female gamers are feeling right now. Within minutes, Gamergate folks had doxxed her, meaning the...
October 23, 2014
Book Cover Throwback: Sandman
This week’s Book Cover Throwback comes with a twist: It’s the cover to Sandman: The Dream Hunters
by the always awesome artist, Yoshitaka Amano. (Plus, there’s a second bonus piece after that–promotional art from the video game series, Final Fantasy, which Amano is most known for.)
And here’s your Amano bonus.
Tidas and Yuna from Final Fantasy X. Click image to view it larger.
The post Book Cover Throwback: Sandman appeared first on Raven Oak.
October 20, 2014
Monday Night Gaming: Machi Koro
Recently, my husband and I had the opportunity to try out Machi Koro, a city-building card game out of Japan that has seen a resurgence in popularity with its re-release in the US.
This game was so popular before its US release that people were creating their own translation cards (from the Japanese game) and printing them at home to play with. When the awesome folks at Card Kingdom suggested we give it a go, we sat down over dinner at Cafe Mox and gave it a whirl.
The game plays with a similar...
October 18, 2014
Scrivener Saturday #3
One of the most difficult parts of writing is making sure that you use variety in your word choice and avoid redundancy. To help with word choice and word frequency, Scrivener has a text statistics option which will not only give you general statistics about your project, but will tell you word frequency. If you see that you’ve used the word just 100 times in your chapter, that’s not a good sign! (See screenshot below.)
TIP #3: To get to the list, go to PROJECT –> TEXT STATISTICS. Once the scr...
October 17, 2014
Flasbhack Friday: Ship who Sang
In all my years of conventions and conferences, I’ve never caught “Con Crud” –until Geek Girl Con. I’ve got a bit of a head cold this week, so my apologies if my Flashback Friday over The Ship Who Sang rambles a bit or contains errors.
When I read this story as a kid, the enslavement of the disabled went completely over my head. I loved this book! The idea of traveling through space while creating music sang to my heart. When I didn’t want to be a Crystal Singer, I wanted to be The Ship Who Sa...
October 16, 2014
Goodreads & Page Updates
If you’re a Goodreads user, I’ve got a Q&A session going at the moment. Feel free to ask me questions about writing, Amaskan’s Blood, reading, life, whatever! (You can also become a fan of my author page over there while you’re at it or add Amaskan’s Blood to your to-read shelf!)
Just a head’s up that I updated my pages on What I’m Reading, What I’m Writing, and What I’m Watching for those curiously inclined to check. 
Happy Reading!
The post Goodreads & Page Updates appeared first on Raven Oak....
Book Cover Throwback: Windup Girl
This week’s Book Cover Throwback is The Windup Girl
‘s cover art by Raphael Lacoste. I know this technically isn’t an old book, the cover art is an older style and just gorgeous. I love the contrast between the bazaar, the elephant, and the zeppelin & massive city in the background. (BTW, the book is awesome!)
The Windup Girl (Book by Paolo Bacigalupi / Cover art by Raphael Lacoste)
The post Book Cover Throwback: Windup Girl appeared first on Raven Oak.
October 13, 2014
Monday Night Gaming: Geek Girl Style
We spent this past weekend at Geek Girl Con, which was loads of fun! Think of a con truly for geeks (all genders) that doesn’t have a sizable percentage of attendees thinking that “fake” geek girls exist. I saw people of all shapes, sizes, sexualities, nationalities, social anxieties, etc. having a great time, cosplaying, dancing, and gaming. Honestly, I felt more at home here than I did at PAX, more comfortable, too. And not all of that was crowd size.
So instead of Monday night gaming, this...
