David Lee Summers's Blog, page 70

Dragon’s Fall On Sale

My publisher has placed the ebook edition of my novel Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order on sale for just 99 cents through March 17. It’s billed as book 2 of the series because I wrote it second, but it’s actually the first of the two adventures I wrote about the Scarlet Order vampires and tells their origin story.

[image error]

This is the tale of three vampyrs. Three lives. Three intertwining stories.

Bearing the guilt of destroying the holiest of books after becoming a vampyr, the Dragon, Lord De...

Podcasting about Astronomy, Steampunk and More

This weekend finds me at Wild Wild West Con, which is being held at Old Tucson Studios just outside Tucson, Arizona. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll make time to join us. We’re having an amazing time. You can get more information about the convention at https://www.wildwestcon.com/

[image error]

In the run-up to the convention, I was interviewed on the podcast, Madame Perry’s Salon. Madame Perry is a little like Barbara Eden’s character in I Dream of Jeannie. After a lead in from Captain Kirk and Mr....

Explore New Worlds During Read an Ebook Week

I am pleased to announce that several of my books are on sale as part of Smashwords’ Read an Ebook Week promotion. I’ve written books and edited anthologies that imagine travels to distant worlds and this is a great time to join me for the adventure, especially in this week that’s the run-up to Wild Wild West Con with the theme of Galactic Steampunk Federation. The Kepler anthologies I edited with NASA astronomer Steve B. Howell and the novels in my Space Pirates’ Legacy world are all on sale...

Galactic Steampunk Federation

[image error]

It’s hard to believe, but Wild Wild West Con 8 is just around the corner. I will be returning to the convention as a panelist and a vendor. The convention is primarily held at Old Tucson Studios outside of Tucson, Arizona. These are the studios where such famous westerns as John Wayne’s Rio Bravo and the original 3:10 to Yuma with Glenn Ford were filmed. Special guests this year include numerous steampunk builders and costumers who will be showing off their craft. Madame Askew and the Grand...

Fallen Angel

I’m proud to announce the release of Hadrosaur Productions’ latest weird western adventure, Fallen Angel by David B. Riley.

[image error]

Fallen Angel is the story of Mabel, an angel from Hell, who accompanies General Grant’s army during the last days of the Civil War only to discover that Martians are watching the Earth with envious eyes and slowly drawing their plans against us. Not only that, but Mabel has to contend with her evil sister, who wants to have humans for dinner. Although Mabel and Grant ge...

A New Cover for The Pirates of Sufiro

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, my first novel, The Pirates of Sufiro, is now 25 years old. I gave Laura Givens the challenge of creating the cover for the anniversary edition. As we spoke about it, we decided to return to the idea I first had for the book’s cover, we decided that it should feature Suki, Firebrandt, and Roberts, the three people for whom the planet Sufiro is named.

We also discussed the background and how the book has a space western kind of vibe. Laura took that idea and c...

Sufiro Through the Years

2019 marks two important milestone anniversaries. 25 years ago, Kumie Wise, William Grother, and I formed Hadrosaur Productions. That same year saw the publication of my first novel, The Pirates of Sufiro, in audio form.

[image error]

Hadrosaur Productions was founded to be a multimedia company, publishing books, producing audio books, and ultimately producing video projects. To prove the concept, I gathered a bunch of co-workers from Kitt Peak National Observatory and we recorded my first novel. I edited...

Lasers on Telescopes

For me, the phrase “lasers on telescopes” brings to mind super villains capturing top secret astronomical facilities in order to execute a nefarious plan. I think of Mr. Freeze capturing Gotham Observatory to build a giant freeze ray in the movie Batman and Robin. Perhaps a funnier and better example is Chairface Chippendale using a laser in a telescope to deface the moon with his name in the TV series The Tick.

[image error]Laser measuring tool (on yellow arm between black mirror covers) over the Mayall...

Weeds

I’m not a big fan of winter or cold weather, but one thing I look forward to about this time of year is that the weeds in my yard typically die off and I don’t have to deal with them until the spring. Because of that January and February are often quite productive months for my writing and editing. This year, the weeds didn’t die off and I’ve been fighting them all through the winter.

[image error]

As a writer who also operates telescopes at the National Observatory, I don’t have the kind of income that a...

Stamp Collecting

One thing astronomers do is attempt to classify the objects they see by common properties. For example, stars that display similar chemical fingerprints in their spectra will be assigned a certain spectral type. Galaxies can be grouped by shape such as spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, and my favorite, irregular. Here’s a chart from NASA showing the numbers of exoplanets discovered as grouped by size of planet.

[image error]

Back in my college days, we called this “stamp collecting.” It’s a somewhat dero...