David Lee Summers's Blog, page 53

Vampyre Library Book Club

I am honored that my novel Vampires of the Scarlet Order has been picked to be the featured selection in November for the Vampyre Library Book Club hosted by Boutique du Vampyre in New Orleans. The club is hosted on Facebook and you can join at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/663608917753704. Throughout the month, I’ll be sharing some background about the novel in the Facebook group. On Sunday, November 29, Vampyre Librarian Steven Foley will interview me about the novel live and you’ll have an...

MileHiCon 52

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had many fewer posts about conventions I’d be attending than normal. Some conventions have simply postponed and a few have gone to a limited virtual presence. MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado will be hosting a rather full slate of virtual programming this year from October 23-25. Because of that, you will need to pay to attend, but it is a reduced fee. If you’ve ever wanted to attend a MileHiCon before and travel or time was a limitation, this is a great chance t...

Doctor Who’s Tenth Anniversary

I didn’t discover Doctor Who by finding it on television. I discovered it on the pages of a magazine. During my middle and high school years, I was an avid reader of Starlog Magazine, which covered science fiction media. One issue had a photo of a young blond-haired man dressed in a sweater, jacket, striped pants and a Panama hat and declared this man would be taking over the part of the Doctor in the series, Doctor Who, which had been running for nearly twenty years. Of course, this was the ann...

Revisiting the Revolution

Back in 2012, after the release of my novel Owl Dance and while I was still in the early planning stages of the sequel, Lightning Wolves, author Robert E. Vardeman asked if I would like to contribute a novella to a series he was assembling. The series was called “The Empires of Steam and Rust” and it was set in an alternate 1915. Queen Victoria was still on the throne and growing younger. Teddy Roosevelt was still president of the United States and growing an empire. The Russian Revolution had f...

The Judas Contract

My teenage years got off to a difficult start. I lost my dad to a heart attack when I was thirteen. By the time I reached my senior year of high school in 1984, I was pretty much done with being a teenager. This all goes to explain why it was that although I made regular visits to the comic shop and though some of my friends were loving a title called The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, I was pretty much focused on other longtime favorites. I didn’t really discover how much fun...

Nine to Eternity

I am pleased to announce that a new anthology has just been released featuring my novelette “An Asteroid By Any Other Name.” The anthology is called Nine to Eternity: A Science Fiction Anthology, edited by M.Christian and published by Strange Particle Press.

In M.Christian’s previous anthology, Five To The Future the editor asked respected science fiction and fantasy authors to “write whatever story you want to write. No limits aside from having fun.”

Nine To Eternity: A Science Ficti...

All-Star Dialogue

In earlier posts, I’ve discussed my enjoyment of comics featuring the Justice Society of America. This was the first superhero team to appear in comics. The team made its debut in issue #3 of All-Star Comics in November 1940. I knew the book was created as a way to showcase those heroes who were not Batman and Superman, yet appeared in other titles published by DC Comics and its brother company All-American Comics. In the first Justice Society story, the society exists largely as a framing devic...

eSpec Books Author Reading Series

At the microphone

In my post last month about Buboni-Virtual Con 2020, I shared a reading from my story “The Sun Worshiper” which was part of the eSpec Books Author Reading Series. This has been a cool service offered by eSpec Books, giving authors an opportunity to showcase their works during the COVID-19 pandemic when we can’t get out and about. The excerpt I shared in the earlier post was from a story in an anthology published by eSpec Books called AfterPunk. The story features steampunk s...

The Last Season of Classic Doctor Who

When my wife and I first married, we moved into an apartment complex in Albuquerque recommended by some close friends who lived in that same complex. One of my fond memories from that period of time was spending Saturday nights that fall going over to their apartment to watch season 26 of Doctor Who when it aired on KNME. There were only four episodes in the season: “Battlefield,” “Ghost Light,” “The Curse of Fenric,” and “Survival.” Still, there was no doubt these were something special. Sylves...

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Aaarh, mateys! Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day and as a writer of space pirate fiction, I would be remiss if I didn’t mark the occasion. In fact, me hearties, I haven’t just written about space pirates, but airship pirates have appeared in my steampunk stories and the real life pirate, Grace O’Malley makes an appearance in my novel Vampires of the Scarlet Order.

According to Wikipedia, International Talk Like a Pirate Day was started by John Baur and Mark Summers (no relatio...