David Lee Summers's Blog, page 56
July 7, 2020
The Space Pirates’ Legacy
The annual Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale is underway. It gets its name because where I live in the northern hemisphere, readers are loading up their e-readers for great beach reading and vacations. In the southern hemisphere, it’s the middle of winter and people are spending time in a warm and cozy place reading. All of Hadrosaur’s titles are available at deep discounts this month and I’ll be highlighting them all month long here at the Web Journal. If you’re looking for a specific title, you do...
July 4, 2020
The Ethereal War
The annual Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale is underway. It gets its name because where I live in the northern hemisphere, readers are loading up their e-readers for great beach reading and vacations. In the southern hemisphere, it’s the middle of winter and people are spending time in a warm and cozy place reading. All of Hadrosaur’s titles are available at deep discounts this month and I’ll be highlighting them all month long here at the Web Journal. If you’re looking for a specific title, you do...
June 30, 2020
Upcoming Solar Sail Missions
Last week, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission celebrated the one-year anniversary of its launch date. The project has made great strides in demonstrating that solar sails are a practical method of propulsion. LightSail 2 was able to raise its orbit using sunlight as the only source of propulsion. The craft can be steered using momentum wheels so it can maximize the light received when moving away from the sun and minimize the light received when going toward the sun. It also set the rec...
June 27, 2020
LightSail 2 – One Year After Launch
This past Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of LightSail 2’s launch into orbit. LightSail 2 is a crowdfunded solar sail project managed by the Planetary Society and it’s the first craft propelled entirely by sunlight. The Planetary Society hosted a webinar to celebrate the event. Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye, Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Vaughn, Program Manager Dave Spencer, and Project Manager Bruce Betts all spoke. The presentation was moderated by Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan....
June 23, 2020
Captain Harlock’s Endless Orbit
One of my Father’s Day gifts this year contained the DVD of the one Captain Harlock TV series I have not yet seen in its entirety, Endless Orbit SSX, from 1982. Also in the box was the first volume of Leiji Matsumoto’s original Captain Harlock manga from 1977. This was a wonderfully appropriate gift on several levels.
Of course, I’ve been a fan of the good captain since I first encountered him around 1991 in the movie Galaxy Express 999. The imagery of a space pirate who visited Western f...
June 20, 2020
Adam Warren’s Dirty Pair
No, I’m not referring to laundry or hygiene. I’m actually referring to one of the first manga series written and published in the United States between 1998 and 2002. Ever since my wife discovered Haruka Takachiho’s first two Dirty Pair light novels in a bookstore in Bisbee last summer, I’ve been learning more about the books, the anime series they inspired, and Adam Warren’s interesting American take on the series.
The “Dirty Pair” are Kei and Yuri, two young interplanetary agents in th...
June 16, 2020
The Literary Bond
Bond. James Bond.
The name is a fixture of the English-speaking pop culture landscape. Films featuring Ian Fleming’s famous spy are so ubiquitous, I find it hard to think of spy thrillers without “hearing” the iconic theme from Dr. No in my head.
This past week, I’ve been working on a short story that’s something of a spy thriller with notes inspired by James Bond. I can’t say much yet about the story or the anthology series it’s written for. The editor wants to keep things under wraps unt...
June 13, 2020
Clearance Sale
As noted in the last two posts, I’ve released new editions of two of my novels over the last week. Unfortunately, the timing of these new editions has coincided with the Coronavirus pandemic, which means I’ve had canceled and delayed events. El Paso Comic Con has been delayed until October and Albuquerque’s Bubonicon has been canceled altogether this year. Because of that, I have a stock of the first editions of my novels that I’d like to clear out to make room for the new, updated editions and ...
June 9, 2020
Dragon’s Fall Second Edition Now Available
I’m pleased to announce that the second edition of my novel Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires is now available! This new edition has been re-edited and features a beautiful new cover by Chaz Kemp.
Dragon’s Fall is the origin story of the Scarlet Order vampires. The novel explores themes of freedom, redemption, morality, and immortality. While you will find romance in this novel, what you won’t find are sparkly vampires. Instead, you’ll find the tale of three immortals tryi...
June 6, 2020
The Astronomer’s Crypt 2nd Edition Now Available
This has been an eventful week. I spent the early part working on a draft plan for reopening Kitt Peak National Observatory during the COVID-19 pandemic. I think the team involved came up with a good, detailed plan. It came in at 13,000 words, the length of a novella! While doing this, I’ve been listening to the news of the death of George Floyd and protests associated with this terrible event. There should be no question that black lives matter and black voices need to be heard.
While all of...
