David Lee Summers's Blog, page 121

Easter at the Observatory

The universe doesn't stop for the holidays. Because of that, the telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory are trained on the sky almost every clear night. We generally don't take breaks for the holidays. The exceptions are (usually) Christmas and a few weeks at the height of the annual rainy season for telescope and instrument maintenance.

I am part of a team of half a dozen people who operate the two large telescopes at the observatory. Each of us cycles through a fifteen-night rotation. Basically we have six nights on, six nights off and three "available" nights where we might work on projects, training or help at one of the smaller telescopes at the observatory. We don't always use all three of those "available" nights, but every now and again it happens.

This week, not only did things work out such that I got to work the holiday, I also had to work much of my "available" time. Unfortunately, this means a long time away from my kids during the holidays. However, it wasn't all bad, I also got to see a cool new instrument that will be mounted at the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope this summer during the maintenance shutdown period.

The instrument is called the One-Degree Imager or ODI. You can read all about the instrument here: http://www.noao.edu/wiyn/ODI/. The cool thing about ODI is that it will allow us to explore large swaths of the universe in great detail.

Every now and then I'm asked whether I would go into space if the opportunity arose. For me, the answer is absolutely yes. It's a dream I've had since I was a kid watching Apollo astronauts land on the moon. Sadly, I fear I may not have the chance to make such a trip, but it still doesn't keep me from dreaming or hoping my children or grandchildren would be able to make the trip if they want to. That's what led me to write The Solar Sea.

You can see a book trailer, read a sample, and find links to buy the book at TheSolarSea.com. In the book, I use my experience looking at the sky through the telescopes at Kitt Peak to imagine a trip through the solar system. I hope you'll come explore the solar system with me!

Some Thoughts About Poetry

This week, I received a copy of Over Misty Plains a poetry collection by Alessio Zanelli. Among the collection's 88 poems are "Salt Teeth" and "The Hag" that first appeared in Tales of the Talisman. Alessio is a talented Itallian poet who writes in English. The book is available direct from the publisher at: http://www.indigodreamsbookshop.com/#/alessio-zanelli/4560639743. I encourage you to take a look.

Back in January, I received my contributor copies of Dreams and Nightmares issue 91 edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel. The issue is something of a milestone for me because it marks the first publication of one of my collaborative poems, a piece called "Pulsar Prospectors" that I wrote with Kurt MacPhearson. In the poem, we give a science fictional twist to a recent scientific discovery — the fact that planets can reform around dead stars.

You can learn more about Dreams and Nightmares magazine at: dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.com

I have to say, poetry is not something that comes naturally to me. Despite that, I find reading and writing poetry a valuable exercise that improves my work as a short story writer and a novelist. Poetry helps me phrase things concisely and clearly. It helps me select the best word for a given circumstance. Reading poetry helps me build vocabulary. Of course, this is just one aspect to the appreciation of poetry, but I think it's an important one.

The person who first helped me to think seriously about reading and writing poetry was none other than Ray Bradbury. In 1983, I heard him read several of his poems at Pacific High School in San Bernardino, California. It was the first time I had heard science fiction themes explored in poetry before. In the years since then, I have learned there is a vibrant community of speculative poets. Many of them are members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. If you have an interest in learning more about speculative poetry in all its forms, you should check out the organization at: http://sfpoetry.com

Happy Naw-Ruz

If you've read my novel Owl Dance, you'll know that one of the protagonists, Fatemeh Karimi, is Bahá'í. This past week was Naw-Rúz, the Bahá'í new year, which is celebrated on March 21. I had the opportunity to celebrate Naw-Rúz with my Bahá'í friends in Las Cruces. We had a good dinner followed by a piñata for the kids.

I have to admit, as spring begins and the grass and trees are turning green again, it feels a bit more like the dawn of a new year than it did celebrating New Year's at the beginning of winter. It was just about a year ago that my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. At this point, it appears that she's won the war and we are now moving forward with life. As befits a new year, I have lots of news to share.

Gaslight Gathering

I am pleased to announce that I will be one of the guests at Gaslight Gathering in San Diego, California from May 11-13.

The guest of honor is Kaja Foglio, co-creator of the brilliant webcomic Girl Genius. You can learn more about the convention and register at: http://www.gaslightgathering.org/index.html

The Pirates of Sufiro skyrockets at Amazon

As mentioned a few days ago, my publisher has made the Kindle and Nook editions of the first book of my Old Star/New Earth trilogy free.

Since the announcement, The Pirates of Sufiro has climbed all the way up to number 2 in the Science Fiction Adventure category at Amazon's Kindle Store. Thank you everyone who has downloaded the book. It's not too late to download your own copy.

To get the Kindle Edition from Amazon visit: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pirates-of-Sufiro-ebook/dp/B00440DQAI/

To get the NookBook from BN.com visit: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pirates-of-sufiro-david-lee-summers/1004695069?ean=2940000123683

If you like that first book, don't forget to check out the other two books in the Old Star/New Earth Trilogy. They're Children of the Old Stars and Heirs of the New Earth. You can learn about them and find links to the ebook and paperback editions by visiting David's Library right here at the Web Journal to the right of or by going to http://www.davidleesummers.com/books.html

New review of Owl Dance and Sequel Progress

Trent Zelazny, the author of To Sleep Gently and Destination Unknown posted the following review of Owl Dance at Amazon.com: "Owl Dance is a great western-style steampunk science fiction tale. Summers knows science, and it shows in really fun ways in this one, keeping this wondrous. I really enjoy the writer's style and you can tell he is having great fun writing–I hope as much fun as I had reading it. It reads fast, and I mean this is the very good way. If you like steampunk or westerns or just a having a really great time, give Owl Dance a read. I think you'll really enjoy it."

This week I've been forging ahead on the sequel to Owl Dance tentatively entitled Wolf Posse. The novel picks up where Owl Dance leaves off. As the novel opens, Professor Maravilla and Larissa Crimson stumble on a mystery, the Russians are advancing on California and Billy McCarty returns to Lincoln County, New Mexico only to find it nearly deserted. I'm having fun working on this one.

You can pick up a copy of Owl Dance at Amazon.com or BN.com.

Interview at Manic Readers

Manic Readers conducted a very comprehensive interview with me a few days ago. You can read the interview at: http://manicreaders.com/blog/index.php/2012/03/david-lee-summers-steampunk-scifi-paranormal-author-and-astronomer/

Vampires in Springtime

Just because the nights are growing shorter doesn't mean you're safe from vampires! I have a new vampire story called "The Vrykolakas and the Cobbler's Wife" coming soon in Cemetery Dance Magazine.

You can order a copy right now at: http://www.cemeterydance.com/page/CDP/PROD/_cd066

What's more, my second scarlet order novel, Dragon's Fall, is due to be released soon. Keep up on all the news about my vampire books and stories at my vampire blog: http://dlsummers.wordpress.com and be sure to "like" the Scarlet Order Vampires at Facebook.

Genesis of Sufiro

This week, my publisher made the ebook editions of The Pirates of Sufiro available for free at Amazon.com and BN.com. As a result, I find myself looking back at the history of the book.

The Pirates of Sufiro got its start at a writer's workshop at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1988. (Has it really been almost 25 years?!) At the workshop, I wrote a short story called "A Quiet Burning in the Darkness" that told the story of a space pirate captain named Ellison Firebrandt who met his comeuppance at the hands of an admiral who had laid a trap for him.

A couple of years later, I wrote a story called "Showdown at Sufiro" that told the story of a lawman who got caught up in a planetary conflict. Part of the back story was that the planet was founded by the pirates of "A Quiet Burning in the Darkness."

I spent some time trying to sell these two stories without success. I soon came to realize that part of the problem was that the first story really didn't have a satisfactory ending and the later story had too much back story and also needed a better ending. I realized, in essence, these were two chapters of a novel, but I wasn't prepared to actually write the novel in 1991.

That changed in 1993. I read The Magic Journey by John Nichols and Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein back to back. Both novels are fictional histories and I found myself saying, "I could do that!" So, I pulled out my two stories and I began to fill in the blanks, linking the pirate story to the story about the lawman. The result was The Pirates of Sufiro.

Like most new authors, I had no idea what to do with my novel once it was finished. Several friends read it and believed in it. I thought about sending it to publishers, but wasn't really sure where to begin.

Around that time, my wife was going to graduate school at the University of Arizona and was looking for a final project so she could complete her Masters of Business Administration. She came up with the idea of creating an audio small press and using The Pirates of Sufiro as the first book. My friend William Grother jumped in and gave the book a solid edit. In the meantime, I assembled several friends from Kitt Peak National Observatory and assigned them characters in the book. Once everything was in place, we all gathered around and recorded ourselves reading the book.

I then edited the tapes and we put out the first edition of The Pirates of Sufiro on audio in 1994 with my own artwork on the cover.

As it turns out, our ambitions were ahead of their time. The tapes were expensive for the quality and in 1994 few people seemed interested in buying an audio book that did not exist in print. So, we started looking into making a self-published print edition. About that time, William and I attended a writer's conference in Tucson and an agent expressed an interest in the book. I tell that part of the story in the post Fifteen Years of Pirates in Print.

So, here we are 24 years after the short story that became chapter one, 18 years after the first audio publication, and 15 years after the first print publication in a whole new world of ebooks. Talk about a science fiction story! Of course, the exciting part is that you can now download the ebook absolutely free!

To get the Kindle Edition from Amazon visit:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pirates-of-Sufiro-ebook/dp/B00440DQAI/

To get the Nook Book from BN.com visit:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pirates-of-sufiro-david-lee-summers/1004695069?ean=2940000123683

Two Upcoming Anthologies

The Table of Contents for two upcoming anthologies I'm in have just been announced.

Gears and Levers

The first anthology is Gears and Levers published by Sky Warrior Publishing. Here's a sneak peak at the artwork by Peter Bradley.

Here's what you'll find inside this wonderful steampunk collection when it's released by the beginning of April:

Editor's Introduction by Phyllis Irene Radford
Love in the Balance by David D. Levine
Secundas by Brenda Clough
Night Without Darkness by Shannon Page and Mark Ferrari
The Shunned Butterfly by Livia Finucci
A Rumor, A Blade, and a Discourteous Intrusion by Rhiannon Louve
This Other Place by Bruce Taylor
The Gestalt Princess by James Brogden
The Typhoon of 1901 by Christopher L. Eger
Tommy Tales by Bob Brown
The Ruby Curse by S.A. Bolich
The Third Dragon by George S. Walker
Bijou LaVoix and the Coal Dust Faery by Malon Edwards
Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't by Joyce Reynolds Ward
Of Blood and Brass by K.L. Townsend
The Pirates of Baja by David Lee Summers
Time of Autumn by Aidan Fritz
The Festival of Flame by Chris Wong Sick Hong
Underbelly by Edward Martin
Rumiko by Aleksandar Žiljak
White Swan by Irene Radford

Full-Throttle Space Tales #6: Space Battles

The sixth exciting edition of the Full-Throttle Space Tales series is about to be released by Flying Pen Press. This edition is edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and will feature the following stories:

Between the Rocks by Anna Paradox
The Thirteens by Gene Mederos
Like So Much Refuse by Simon C. Larter
Jump Point Blockade by David Lee Summers (This is a brand new story featuring Captain Ellison Firebrandt and the crew of the Legacy)
First Contact by Patrick Hester
Isis by Dana Bell
Book of Enoch by Matt Cook
Joystick War by Jean Johnson (A Theirs Not To Reason Why series story; her first novel in this series is up for a Philip K. Dick Award this year)
Never Look Back by Grace Bridges
The Gammi Experiment by Sarah Hendrix
Space Battle of the Bands by C.J. Henderson (C.J. continues his popular Full-Throttle Space Tales story series)
A Battle For Parantwer by Anthony R. Cardno
With All Due Respect by Johne Cook
Final Defense by Selene O'Rourke
Bait and Switch by Jaleta Clegg
The Hand of God by Bryan Thomas Schmidt (A Saga Of Davi Rhii Sequel set 20 years after the events of his novel series)
Guard Dog by Mike Resnick and Brad R. Torgersen

Be sure to keep an eye open for these two exciting books. I'll post more news as I have it!

The Pirates of Sufiro are free!

The ebook edition of my first novel, The Pirates of Sufiro, is now available absolutely free at Amazon.com and BN.com.

Here are the links so you can download your copy today:

To get the Kindle Edition from Amazon visit: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pirates-of-Sufiro-ebook/dp/B00440DQAI/

To get the NookBook from BN.com visit: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pirates-of-sufiro-david-lee-summers/1004695069?ean=2940000123683

Of course, if you like it I hope you'll keep reading. Children of the Old Stars and Heirs of the New Earth complete the Old Star/New Earth trilogy. If you click "David's Library" on the right-hand side of the page, you can learn about those books as well.

About The Pirates of Sufiro

The Pirates of Sufiro is the story of a planet and its people – of Ellison Firebrandt the pirate captain living in exile; of Espedie Raton, the con-man looking to make a fresh start for himself and his wife on a new world; of Peter Stone, the ruthless bank executive who discovers a fortune and will do anything to keep it; and of the lawman, Edmund Ray Swan who travels to Sufiro seeking the quiet life but finds a dark secret. It is the story of privateers, farmers, miners, entrepreneurs, and soldiers – all caught up in dramatic events and violent conflicts that will shape the destiny of our galaxy.

Don't take my word for it

"The Pirates of Sufiro is a fast-paced adventure filled with vivid characters including rebels, pirates, interplanetary pioneers and the mysterious Clusters — the children of the old stars. The first book in David Lee Summers' trilogy starts the tale in rip-roaring, page-flipping action against a backdrop reminiscent of Asimov's Foundation series." Gary Every, Pushcart and Rhysling-nominated poet and author of Inca Butterflies

"Not unlike his other works, David Lee Summers' novel, The Pirates of Sufiro offers extraordinary story-telling, diversity, and battles combined with fine writing, tight plots, and rich, memorable characters. This is definitely one author I'd read again and again." Nicole Givens Kurtz, author of Zephyr Unfolding

"Along with fine storytelling, David Lee Summers shows a fine wit for cultures." Uncle River, author of Promethius, the Autobiography

Here are two in-depth reviews of The Pirates of Sufiro:

Book Reviews by Crystal

Review from the Las Cruces Sun-News

Grey Matters Book Fair to Fight Brain Cancer

Passing along news of an important event to help raise funds for a young woman who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. The young woman is Serena and she graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Women's studies. She was the Arizona State Debate Champion during her freshman and sophomore years at Blue Ridge High School (Pinetop/Lakeside). Serena started coaching debate students when she was in high school and has helped judge, run and teach debate camps every year since.

Now 31, Serena is an activist for women's rights and founder of an organization that helps homeless and other underprivileged women find funding for necessary health care when no other sources are available. Serena is self employed as a web designer and social network consultant.

If you're in or near Tucson, you can help by attending the Grey Matters Book Fair to Fight Brain Cancer on March 24 from 9am to 5pm. It will be held at Montery Court, 505 W. Miracle Mile, west of the intersection of Oracle and Miracle Mile.

Join over 20 authors and artists as they participate in Montery Court's first-ever Book Fair to Help Serena Fight Brain Cancer. There will also be face painting, music, and food. They need to raise $40k!!!

If you're not in Tucson, you can help by shopping Serena's Esty site at: http://www.etsy.com/people/sizzledesign

Let's all band together to help someone who has already helped so many!

Fifteen Years of Pirates in Print

Two things happened today to bring my very first novel to the forefront of my mind. First off, the novel's current publisher announced that the Kindle Edition is now available for a special price of 99 cents. Check out the deal here: http://amzn.com/B00440DQAI. Also, when I went to look at the page, I saw a nice, new review of the novel.

Looking at the page, I realized that this is the fifteenth anniversary of The Pirates of Sufiro's first appearance in print. The first edition appeared as a mass market paperback in early 1997. (Albris claims a publication date of December 1996, but I didn't get copies until about a month later). The first publisher went out of business within the year. I brought out a second edition through Hadrosaur Productions in 2001. In that edition, I added some new material and filled in some gaps. Finally, LBF Books acquired the book in 2005 and gave it a new round of edits. Here's a glance at all three editions:

For those who know me mostly from my steampunk or vampire stories, The Pirates of Sufiro is a space opera about pirates and industrialists who colonize a planet, their conflicts, and how they have to pull together when a power alien presence from outside the galaxy threatens their world. I was inspired to write the novel after reading Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love and John Nichols' The Magic Journey back to back. The former tells the story of Lazarus Long, a space-faring adventurer so in love with life that he refused to die. The latter is the middle novel of the so-called "New Mexico Trilogy" and tells the story of a small New Mexico town from the Great Depression through the early 1980s.

As I look back at The Pirates of Sufiro, there are parts I love and parts that I would do much differently today. I am pleased that fifteen years after the book's first appearance, it still touches people enough to write reviews on Amazon and that editors have asked for stories about pirate captain Ellison Firebrandt and his crew before they were marooned on the planet Sufiro.

And, yeah, I've been given some pretty sound lashings about the book in some reviews, too. There have been good points that I hope I've learned from when writing later books and points where I think the reviewer just didn't "get it." Still, I appreciate the fact that those reviewers cared enough to share their opinion.

Tonight I lift a mug of rich, Sufiran Ale to the crew of the Legacy, to Espedie Raton and his family, to the brave and true lawman Edmund Ray Swan, and even to the Stones and the McClintlocks. Here's to the fifteenth anniversary of The Pirates of Sufiro.

ConDor, Review, and Interview

ConDor

In a little over a week, I'll be heading over to San Diego, California for my first visit to the science fiction convention ConDor. It is being held from Friday, March 2 to Sunday, March 4 at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center. You can learn more about the convention at condorcon.org

My schedule at the convention is as follows:

Friday, March 2

2pm, Garden Ballroom I, Panel: "Things that go bump in the Spaceship – Alien Horror."
9pm, Brittany Room, Panel: "Scared Hot – Sex and Horror."

Saturday, March 3

2pm, Clarendon Room, Presentation: "Hogwarts Astronomy."
5pm, Eaton Room, Group Reading with the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

Sunday, March 4

10am, Dealer's Room, Autographing.
1pm, Garden Ballroom I, Panel: "What makes a story Steampunk?"
3pm, Garden Ballroom I, Panel: "Steampunk after the apocalypse."


Review

My novel Owl Dance received a nice mention this past Sunday in The Denver Post. Reviewer Fred Cleaver opens the review by saying, "Owl Dance is a fun steampunk Western packed with adventures. It roams over the West of the 1870s from cattle rustlers in New Mexico to pirates in California." I'm not sure how long the Post keeps it's content available on the web, but as of this writing, the complete review is available at: http://www.denverpost.com/books/ci_19982563

Interview

The website Long and Short of It Reviews is probably best known for their romance coverage. However, they have recently started sites specializing in other genres. I'm honored to be interviewed at their new Science Fiction and Fantasy site. You can read the complete review here: http://lasrsffguests.blogspot.com/2012/02/interview-david-lee-summers.html

A Couple of Guest Blog Posts

During the past few weeks, I've written a couple of guest blogs for other sites. I thought I would take a moment to share the links here so you can see some of what I've been up to this past month. Both of the guest blog posts relate to my visit to the Queen Mary in Long Beach California for Her Royal Majesty's Steampunk Symposium.

The first blog post is a review of the Symposium that I wrote for Dark Cargo. You can read the post here: http://darkcargo.com/2012/01/22/her-royal-majestys-steampunk-symposium-2012/

The event was a lot of fun. Here's a photo of me just before one of the panels. I'm holding a copy of Owl Dance and hanging out with Kevin of Sky Kings Falconry.

The other guest blog post discusses a couple of odd photos that I took while taking the ghost tour at the Queen Mary on Friday night. You can find that post at Gayle Martin's Accidental Ghost Hunter site: http://www.theaccidentalghosthunter.com/2012/02/queen-mary-ghosts.html

The strangest incident from the ghost tour happened while in the changing rooms adjoining the old first class swimming pool. If you visit the Accidental Ghost Hunter site, you'll find out what happened when I took a close look at this photo that I snapped during the tour.