2018-09-25
I was introduced to NYC Midnight by John Dutton one of the leaders of the Spilled Ink group on Facebook. I was talking with him about some of the flash fiction stories I had written, and he suggested this particular competition if I was into that format. As soon as he told me about these competitions, I was intrigued. So I put it on my list of things to investigate, and when I finally got to delve into NYC Midnight and their competition, I began to soak up everything I could in earnest to learn as much as I could.
After I finished looking into NYC Midnight, I found that they did a lot of different types of contest other than flash fiction...
2018-09-20
Empire of Ivory starts with the end of the journey back to England, and Laurence is shocked that no one is there to meet him, they find that the entire population of the dragons of England is decimated by disease. So Temeraire and the feral dragons that sided in the escape are now being pressed into service so that they can protect the coastline of England from Napoleon, though he is mostly still focused upon the continent. We see yet another side to Temeraire as the story progresses, in normal conditions, dragons can live for a couple hundred years or so and so naturally he had never thought about the possibility that his friends, Maximus and Lily to name a pair, might die and be lost to him. this along with the patroling bring him down into depression but he keeps going, and he is eventually coaxed into helping commission England’s first pavilion for the sick dragons though this does not help bring him out of his depression entirely...
2018-09-18
Rylan opened his eyes and saw the pale green sky of Tergara. He always closed his eyes when he traveled to new worlds by the platforms. He never knew why he was so compelled, but he enjoyed the wondrous experience of seeing one world one moment than seeing the new world in the next moment. This particular trip was going to be a short one, he just needed to perform a little maintenance on the platform.
He looked around and saw Jalvi. “Hello Jalvi, what’s the local time?”
“You know this exchange gets tiresome Rylan.” The gruff woman said before she looked at the clock on the wall above her...
2018-09-15
I am closing in on a few projects, two books Drawing Thin and Knavish. Drawing Thin is a sequel to Dead Man’s Hand and picks up right where it left off, while Knavish is my first attempt at a psychological thriller. My other major project is a collection of twelve short stories entitled Harrison & Sylvia, I will be publishing these once a month over the entirety of 2019.
Each of the three projects is so different from the other, they each forced me to stretch my writing muscles even the sequel. I had so much fun getting the two novels so close to the end, for Drawing Thin I have started to get feedback from my beta readers and it looks like I managed to tell another gripping tale, though I’m sure I’ll have plenty of edits to do. And with Knavish I have been told by multiple people that I can nail the creepy factor, which for what that story is trying to do is a good thing...
2018-09-13
As the work on my next novel is drawing to a conclusion, I’ve once again started the process of getting its cover created. This time, however, I do not have to find an artist to do the creating since I already have worked with a truly talented and wonderful artist, who made the cover for Dead Man’s Hand. So I reached out to her, and I started the process for my new cover. And as I filled out the project form for my new book, I couldn’t help but think about the entire journey I went through bringing the cover for my first book to life...
2018-09-11
I was having a discussion with my dad a while back that centered around flash fiction. He was immediately against it as a type of literature primarily because it would be impossible to develop a character with a limit of one thousand words. At first, I was surprised by my dad’s reaction, but I thought about it as we continued our discussion. At first, I tried to compare flash fiction to poetry, as both are intended to express extremely brief ideas. Though he sidestepped that point talking about how good poetry has to have many different layers...
2018-09-06
Sorry for the rant but, I remember years back getting a stubs membership for AMC, but with the prices skyrocketing to see a movie I quickly forgot about it and went looking for other ways to see movies. One of the more routine methods was to go to University Malls theater and watch a film there for about five dollars a ticket. The main drawback to this option is that the movie I wanted to see had to make its way out of theaters like AMC and that meant I needed to go to even further methods to not hear anything for a movie I wanted to see. One of the more recent releases I saw that way was Thor: Ragnarok, and it worked I managed to go into the theater having not heard a single thing about the movie other than it was totally awesome, that was about the only thing I couldn’t avoid...
2018-09-04
Sitting on the bridge of the colonization ship Tarian, Keldon and Sherry were busy preparing to land the ship. Tarian let his eyes peer down upon the planet on the other side of the windshield and without thought asked, “Sherry, you’re sure the planet down there can support life?”
Sherry looked up from her screens for a moment and answered, “Yes captain, the planet can support life. There is a myriad of animal and plant life that will supplement our inventory.”
Tarian turned his attention to the other officer and asked, “Kel, have we received our final approval to begin the colonization attempt?”
“Yes we have Tarian,” Kel answered...
2018-08-30
I recently came across an article talking about the differences between the various classifications of stories. The author briefly talks about those different types of fiction, and for the most part, these would be short stories, novellas, and novels. And indeed those were the only types I had really ever heard of. However before the author even mentioned short stories he talked about flash fiction. The term caught my eye, so I started digging into the term and not just taking this authors definition as gospel. As a result of that digging, I found out that flash fiction is a story that is roughly less than a thousand words...
2018-08-28
Black Powder War begins with Temeraire and his crew having successfully finished therir delegation in China are greeted with new orders. Orders that must have assumed they would be successful in their struggle. Because these orders, delivered by a man with well known questionable character, dictated that they leave china and rush to Istanbul to retrieve three dragon eggs inclding one of their firebreathers. Laurence must decide if they should wait for the dragon transport to be made ready or if they should strike out overland. And while the officers and crew of temeraire underrstnad and know the urgency to save time the naval officers do not understand why they would risk their lives not to mention Temeraire’s life whom they have only just managed to secure for the british empire...
2018-08-23
When it comes to reading, I can never get enough. I used to have a very single track mind with books, I would start one and then nothing else till I finished what I was reading. But as time went on and I began to branch out into the world of audiobooks, I found that I could handle more storylines at the same time. Unfortunately for me as I talked about in a previous post, there is a potential danger of reading too much at any given time...
2018-08-21
The story of The Beginning of the End of the Beginning centers around finding homes. The crew is fresh off their adventure from The Peacekeeper Wars and they are dealing with the loss of Ka’Dargo. Chiana is once again falling into Jothee’s bed, while John and Aeryn had named their son in honor of their fallen friend. Rygel is keeping himself busy, finally returning home to retake his throne. He had been trying to contact one of his wives, and finally, the sole surviving wife makes contact. She informs Rygel that Bishan has no intention to let him return to the throne, in fact, he is in danger since Bishan put a bounty on Rygel’s head...
2018-08-17
I was not an avid comic book reader when I was younger. I remember thumbing through an X-Men comic book here and there, but I never dove into the world of Marvel superheroes. So when I started watching movies set into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), I leaned upon those who were obsessed with the comics to understand how well they made the leap to the silver screen. And then there were the heroes like Ant-Man that I had never even heard of before the 2015 MCU film...
2018-08-16
The second installment of the Temeraire series takes place sometime after the events of His Majesty’s Dragon and brings a beautiful story with plenty of intrigues. While the dragon was thought to be an imperial for most of the book, it was his use of the Divine Wind that helped educate Laurance that Temeraire is not an imperial but rather a celestial. The greatest of all the Chinese dragons, and so right from the beginning we are treated to a Chinese delegation led by the emperor’s brother, Prince Yongxing, who is seeking the immediate return of Lung Tien Xiang, Temeraire, but neither Laurence or Temeraire are willing to part...
2018-08-13
The first question to ask yourself for this new historical series is, “What would the Napoleonic Wars have looked like if dragons existed?” I have loved dragons ever since I started encountering them in literature and tv shows. There is something about the fantastical creatures that are absolutely amazing and captivating. And the premise that Naomi Novik wove into this series is precisely what drew me to read His Majesty’s Dragon, the first book in the Temeraire series...