Tassie Dave’s Comments (group member since Mar 27, 2011)

Tassie Dave’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

The final is a male authored book versus a female authored book.
All 15 Brackets have been male v female

and the top book in each bracket has won every poll

What are the odds of that happening?

Malcolm wrote: "Dammit guys why do you all hate Martian Chronicles so much! :p I don't really need an excuse to read it but making it an S&L pick would be nice."

We need to read Ray Bradbury at some time.

My vote would be for Something Wicked This Way Comes or The Martian Chronicles

Theft of Swords is going to win March Madness

For strong female led stories try "Lucky 13" & "Helping Hand"

The animation in "Lucky 13" is also photorealistic (which I am not a fan of)

The style of animation varies throughout the series. None are bad. Some are outstanding.

The episode you are disliking (Episode 2 I assume) is the weakest of the 18 episodes. I didn't like that story. There are a few more episodes that are "male gazey" and at least 1 more that contains rape and male on female violence.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

The good news. The sequel is even better :-)

Regarding one of your questions (No spoilers, but I'll answer your spoiler tagged question in spoiler tags)

(view spoiler)[The science is spot on. MRK used real rocket scientists, astronauts and astronomers for the technical parts of the story

The meteorite strike and runaway greenhouse effect part was suggested to MRK by astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciann...

MRK explains all this in the acknowledgements section of the book. It is worth reading, once you are finished. (hide spoiler)]

Tamahome wrote: "If Vaginal Fantasy were still around, I would post this there:

http://digg.com/2019/jk-rowling-nobod..."

It does still exist. Just the podcast ended.
I'm surprised Sean didn't provide a link :-?

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Sounds cool to me :-)

Those members that get their books from that library may not want to make it harder to get the book pick each month ;-)

Trike wrote: "The most recent episode of The Allusionist is about conlang star David Peterson, who created the languages for Game of Thrones and others."

A previous guest on Sword and Laser as well. Back in 2011

http://swordandlaser.com/home/2011/7/...

David wrote: "(I think 2 of the 3 Scalzi stories have their titles slightly changed from the original)."

The 3 John Scalzi short stories used are:

"Three Robots Experience Objects Left Behind from the Era of Humans for the First Time"

"When the Yogurt Took Over"

"Missives from Possible Futures #1: Alternate History Search Results"

Someone on Reddit has listed all the short stories the episodes are based on:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LoveDeathAnd...

I've only seen a few episodes, but I'm really liking "Love, Death + Robots" on Netflix

it is an anthology animated shorts series. A bit like an animated Black Mirror type show with it's dark humour and strange twists.

The animation on the few I've seen is top notch. "Three Robots" is my favourite episode so far (Episode 2)

Episode2: "Three Robots" is a nice fun, cute, robot buddies story set in the aftermath of an apocalypse that has killed all the humans. It has a fun twist.
BTW it was based on a short story written by John Scalzi (As were episodes “6: When the Yogurt Took Over” and “17: Alternate Histories”

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2019/03/1...

Each of the 18 episodes is short, between 6 and 17 mins and the series is definitely not for children.
A lot of the episodes are ultra-violent and contain adult themes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUFwu...

Reading the books I wouldn't otherwise read and that were outside my, previous, wheelhouse was the main reason I joined Sword and Laser.

I needed to challenge my reading tastes and apart from the odd bad book, I am glad to have read most of the book picks.

Some books that I thought I would hate I ended up enjoying immensely. Some that I thought I would like, I ended up not liking at all.

Ian wrote: "When Ian’s comment quotes Iain quoting Ian is it Iainception? "

Or Ianceptiain ;-)

Congrats. You should have linked to that page.

Linking to stores selling your book(s) and promotions in this section is okay and expected.

https://www.bargainbooksy.com/2019/03...

It was Priscilla.

I'm a 100 percenter :-)

I have read all 127 Sword and Laser books (118 official + 9 alts.) though it was made easier by joining over 10 years ago. I only had 9 books to catch up on.

Caitlin wrote: "Some of the people who are saying they don't have time to read are likely ashamed they are not functionally literate."

Which is a shame because reading is a great way to improve.

Is this some kind of rape fantasy porn? :-?

It's a no from me.

Trike wrote: "I listen to audiobooks while playing mobile games on my iPad. I couldn’t with an RPG."

Yeah, I suppose it does depend on the game.

I usually play games like Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider & Red Dead Redemption etc which are story & character driven and required my full attention.

Tracey wrote: "Yup I always listen to Audiobooks while doing something else, just like how I watch TV and do something else. Work, dishes, video games, whatever I want to do. "

No way could I listen to an audiobook and play video games :-?

I could concentrate on 1, not both.

Dennis wrote: "Now, how does a writer become popular (and don't say be nice)? How does he/she promote? Wilmar said FB ads. I tried that once but 0 results. Maybe I presented my book incorrectly. Any ideas?"

That is the million $ question and there is no easy answer.

This may sound trite, but word of mouth is the only sure way of having success.

If you think the book(s) you wrote are good, promote them everywhere. The "Author Promo (Share Your Stuff!)" section here is a good place to start.

You are free to say anything you like about your book(s) there, offer them for sale (with links to the store that sells it/them), add testimonials etc

Promote it everywhere that will let you and you will get a few people to try it. If it's good it will generate buzz, which generates sales.

I'm not saying anything new or revolutionary, but that is what works for new self publishing authors.

and build a presence online. Join book groups like this one, get a good reputation. Marketing is all about brand awareness.

I'm unlikely to try a new author without recommendations from people whose judgement I trust.

Trike wrote: "Numerous studies have shown that names at the top of a list are given preference when it comes to voting,."

In Australia that's known as Donkey Voting. It's why in certain elections the names are randomly placed on every persons individual ballot.

It's also why Australian parties carefully place their Senate candidates. Being placed 5 or lower (for the major parties) means you're unlikely to get elected (We have 12 Senators per state)

Alan wrote: "Steve wrote: "I had never seen the idiom "keep your hair on" ..."
That is because you appear to be American and relatively young. The idiom is English, and was in fashion between 60 and 80 years ago."

It was also in use in Australia, but more recently. I heard it often in the 60s and 70s and occasionally much later. My mum used it quite often.

It basically saying you should calm down. In other-words, don't panic and pull all your hair out.