Science Fiction Giveaway #2 is three great hard SF books. I learned from the last giveaway that my readers want hard SF. The three books below are in excellent condition and are very collectible.
Even if you won last time you can put your bid in for one of these books. I will ship the books out at my expense in the week after the contest closes.
I will announce the winners of the last contest tomorrow. Everyone who enters gets something. I will pick some good books from my collection for the runner ups. I can’t guarantee that I’ll do that again, especially if I get a good response this time.
Next time will be three fantasy books, probably by Andre Norton, Fritz Leiber and/or L. Sprague de Camp.
The Stainless Steel Droppings blog is holding their Once Upon A Time Challenge. For the period of time from March 21st to June 20th you are challenged to read a book that can be classified as a Once Upon A Time book – in this case the kind that fits roughly under one’s own personal definition of four categories: fantasy, folklore, fairy tale and mythology.
There may be prizes, fun and surprise guests. You don’t have to do anything except read, but if you Blog, Facebook , or Tweet about it, you should announce this on The Stainless Steel Droppings blog.
There are actually several levels of challenge that I didn’t quite understand, but they seem to go from “I’m thinking about reading a book someday” to “I am going to read thirty books and also write several musical comedies”. Being an anarchist, I refuse to commit to any of them and yet will try all of them.
On the March 21st my Free Book Giveaway will be three Once Upon a Time books so that three lucky winners can get started.
I will have no problem reading a good few good fantasies. I am currently working my way through a Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin and that qualifies, even if it is over 1,000 pages. I should be finishing it just in time to do a review around the 21st.
Erica saw this on http://newjersey.craigslist.org.
It has been a slow and boring winter for garage sales. Soon I will be going to sales on Saturday and Flea Markets on Sundays. One can never have enough crap.
Save the Date. April 10, 2010
Verona town-wide yard sale. Get your maps at the High School on Fairview on that morning.
I bought a box of these newsletters at a garage sale. They date form the late 1940s to the middle 1950s. It is a service for writers who need ideas. I am thinking about scanning these and putting them up on my main site because they are very interesting. There are some good ideas.
I remember Harlan Ellison said he subscribed to the Schenectady Writers Service and got many of his ideas from it.
Here are some story ideas that I transcribed from a 1948 issue of the newsletter:
Ideas: Trucks and Truckers. The world of truck drivers is a culture in and of itself. Using trucks and truckers as the principle theme of a story provides a ready made and interesting frame for almost any story.
Truck Drivers pass each other on highway at the same location. Each hears about the other driver at truck stops where waitresses repeat rumors. Each begins to hate the other. What happens when they see each others truck coming at them at 70 mph?
A small box is the only cargo on a cross country delivery. It is making a noise, and the Truck Driver’s curiosity is aroused. If he open’s the box, what happens, or if he delivers the box what happens?
A Truck Driver drives 20 hours a day using pills to keep him awake. It begins to affect his mind. He talks to his passenger and reveals a secret. Who is the passenger? What happens to them?
A car tailgates a long distance trucker for hundreds of miles. When the trucker stops to eat, though, the car is nowhere to be seen. As soon as the trucker starts again, the car is there. What is the secret of the car?
A delivery man is stuck in slow moving traffic. When he gets to the center span of a bridge the traffic is held up by a man in a disabled car. This happens once a month. It is always the same man in the same car on the bridge. Why is the man there? Is the car really disabled? What happens when the truck driver stops to give assistance?
An insomniac notices that a milk truck stops at every house on the street in the very early morning, but when he goes for a walk, there is no milk at the door of any house. Who is the milkman and what is he doing in the morning?
A neighbor complains about a noisy garbage truck that wakes everyone in the neighborhood up. The neighbor then is suddenly missing. Is the garbage truck picking up more than just the trash?
A traveler stops at a truck stop diner. The parking lot is empty except for his car. The diner is full of truckers talking about their loads and their routes. Where did the truckers come from. Where are their trucks?
An escaped convicted murderer hitches a ride on a cross country truck. The trucker is friendly, but the murderer suspects that he may be too friendly and decides to kill him and drive the truck himself. He tries to learn how to drive the truck from watching the trucker and asking questions. What happens when the murderer makes his move?
A Trucker specializing in transporting bodies from Florida to New York. On one trip he picks up a hitchhiker. What is the relationship of the hitchhiker to the body in the back of the truck?
I had a nightmare last night. Normally if a dream goes bad, I am able to realize that it is a dream and try to direct it to a better place. Last night I was hiding behind a wall and people were shooting at me. A friend was shot with some large caliber bullet and was a bloody mess. I kept on saying “Lucid” over and over to myself, but I didn’t get the hint and never knew it was just a dream. I was telling myself in the dream that it was only a dream, but I didn’t get it and thought it was real. I woke up and had trouble getting back to sleep.
This is like a mathematical problem. Some problems cannot be solved without breaking out into another level to get the information not contained in the realm of the problem. Gödel showed basically that mathematical systems have built in limits to completeness.
If you think of a three dimensional person talking to a two dimensional person. The two dimensional person must take some things on faith because some 3D concepts are inconceivable in the 2D world, but still needs them to understand his own world completely. In lucid dreams you have to rely on the non-dreaming person to be aware that you are dreaming. If, within the dream, you can’t imagine that it is a dream, you can’t be lucid, unless you stress yourself to the point of waking up. Sometimes I can break out of a dream and direct the dream as a dream without waking up, and sometimes I am unaware that I am dreaming. What the difference is, I don’t know. In the dream last night, I somehow knew it was a dream,because I kept repeating “Lucid”, but I did not listen to myself.
Well once again, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Due to the persistent cold weather down South all package dates are now postponed by two weeks. We hope that this is the last change needed to the schedule but all customers are urged to monitor this site for more info as the dates get closer.
The West Nyack pickup date still shows April 2, but that is probably an oversight. I am sure the date is April 9, but I will verify, rather than trust.
The first giveaway is now over. I was underwhelmed by the response. I will send out books to everyone who entered. I haven’t run the program to pick the winners, but if you didn’t win I’ll send you a consolation book.
The next giveaway will be:
Slan, by A.E. Van Vogt.
Orphan’s of the Sky, by Robert A. Heinlein.
War with the Robots, by Harry Harrison.
This is one of my many websites. I have been testing it for a while and it seems to work. I have an automatic poster that searches YouTube for new science fiction videos and makes a post in the DarkInvader blog for each one it finds.
So far it gets a few hits (a few hundred a day), but I have yet to put any ads on it. I am not sure it will make any money, being more of a proof of concept.
The DarkInvader site was going to have a blog where I wrote a novel one chapter at a time, but I decided that it was too time consuming and writing a program to skim things off of youtube was more fun.
An interview with me appears this month in the magazine Aoife’s Kiss. I forgot that I did this. I wonder if I’ll get a copy of the zine to show my Mother?
This issue also features the first of our Meet the Writers pieces, interviews conducted by Shelly Bryant, Karen Newman, and others. This one introduces Keith P. Graham, who has a story in The Martian Wave [see below] and whose work has been seen on our pages and site a number of times.
I saw this Sci-Fi Jesus fish Sticker on another blog, but I did not make itto the site in time to catch it. It is sold out. It is coming in the mail. It is sold on Etsy.com, which is a huge craft site where it usually impossible to find anything. My only objection to the art is that things like this should point to the right. I don’t know why, but may eye tells me this.
I had several stickers from the DarwinFish.com company. One was of a rocket ship that says SCIENCE instead if Jesus. After a few were torn off the back of the truck I stopped putting them on. I have one left that says DARWIN, but I will save that for a guitar amplifier or something like that.
This site listed the best jobs in America. My job is Systems Engineer, which is #1, although I think of myself as a Software Developer – #12. I spent 15 years at Lockheed as an IT Manager, listed at #5. I also work from time to time as a an evening College Professor listed at #3.
In any case, I have a good profession. Sometimes I complain, but I really like coding for a living. If I could do my job without any contact with humans I could be happy.
Just five days left to submit your Hugo nomination – please be kind and add The Nigerian Soul by Keith P. Graham at Atomjack as one of your choices.
If you voted already you can resubmit you ballot with any changes. Only the most recent ballot is used.
I voted today.
I will be interesting to see how the voting comes out. There is precious little excitement about the nomination process. Not only is my story never mentioned, there are only a few dozen blogs that actually discuss voting or suggest titles. Most discussion is about Avatar or District 9. I can understand why out of millions of SF fans, some categories get less than a dozen nominations. I could not find anyone nominating a Novella.
I voted for Finlay’s Novelette because it was the only Novelette that I’ve read in the last few years and was good enough to get a nomination. I am sure there were others, but I rarely read the pro zines and it was only by luck that I read the issue he was in.
I voted for Moon, just because it was less commercial than the other films and was closer to what I think of as real SF.
I voted for Fred Pohl and Steve Davidson for best fan writers because, well, they are the best fan writers.
I threw in a few of the good folks at SamsDot, Tyree and J, because they are good folks, but I have not read any of their current crop of zines and books. I don’t think they qualify because the rules might say something about pro rates or minimum circulation numbers. The rules tend conspire against the small press.
I voted for John Shirley’s Bleak History. This was not only a good book by an author that I enjoy reading, but it was the kind of book that deserves to read by more people. I am hoping it gets a nomination so that people learn about it. John, however, did seemed reluctant to promote himself when I contacted him about the Hugo voting. Perhaps he has been there before and didn’t want to be disappointed or else he felt it was unseemly, as in the Dickinson poem:
“To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!”
The nominations will be announced in the next month or so. It will interesting to see how many votes my choices get. I figure 3 or 4 for myself and maybe 6 or 8 for Steve. Fred Pohl should be a shoe-in. Shirley’s book will get at least two (Erica and me). I wonder how many SF fans joined or attended Worldcon and out of those how many will vote.
Brandon Mcconnell makes incredible space landscape designs using spray paint. You can see some of them at his website Spacepaintings.com.
He also sells instructional DVDs that show how to use his techniques. There are galleries of the designs by his students on the website and some are very good.
The video below shows Brandon’s technique. He creates a painting in 38 seconds.
I heard from a friend and colleague who has retired to Florida. I thought Florida was too hot and humid for survival the couple of times that I was there.
I don’t want to go south when I retire.
My friend really enjoys Pickle Ball. I does look like fun. I wonder if they will have Pickle Ball in northern Maine when I retire to start writing my Novels?
I am 6′3″, tall but well within the range of normal. The last time I flew, I had my knees under my chin for the whole trip because there was no room for me in the little bitty space they give people in coach. I always asked for the emergency exit seat, but you don’t often get one.
Luckily, I no longer work at a job where I have to fly places two weeks out of every month.
With luck, I will never have to fly again. I won’t pay an extra $60 for a normal human size seat. I will take the train or drive, and if I can’t, I’ll stay home.
I miss my trips to Chicago, Austin, San Francisco and DC, but I am older now and I can’t sit all folded up for several hours anymore.
J. Erwine (a newly expectant Dad) has announced that The Martian Wave Science Fiction magazine is now available. I don’t remember if I get a free copy or not.
My story The Reefs of Jove is in it. The story is about adventure while exploring the high atmosphere of Jupiter in a dirigible. The cover could almost be an illustration of part of the story.
I can hardly wait to see a copy. Sorry, the story is not available online. I wonder if I could ask J. would put it up on the SamsDot site is a kind of teaser for the magazine?
Here is the lineup:
Stories:
Steve De Beer: Adaptor
Tyree Campbell: Somewhere With Mornings
Dan Thompson: Prize Crew
Keith P. Graham: The Reefs of Jove
Patty Jansen: Luminescence
Bret Tallman: Into the Silence Flies a Moth
Rick Novy: The Pillars of Europa
Lawrence Dagstine: The Great Martian Depression
poems:
Shelly Bryant: Bypassed
Justin Bohardt: The Barren Wastes
s.c. virtes: another pit for sale
Marge Simon: A Hollander’s Secret Weapon: 1609
Marge Simon: Hindsight
I have several thousand books that I have either read or have decided not to read. I bought a huge collection last summer at a garage sale of books from the 1950s. My brother bought me about 150 hard cover books at another garage sale. I also bought about 500 books at eBay big lot auctions. I have many duplicates and many more that I have read and won’t read again.
I’ve decided to give away some books. I am doing this to 1) make room on my shelves and 2) get more readers to my blog and web pages. Although I intend to sell some books on eBay, it is fun to give a few away, as well. I will try to pick a variety of sub-genres each week to accommodate different tastes.
The rules are:
One entry per email and street. Please don’t try to get more than one book at a time.
You are limited to one book a month unless nobody else wants a book.
I pay the cheapest postage available. If you live outside the US, I will not pay more than $5. (And I don’t want to pay that.) Media Mail takes up to two weeks in the US. Surface mail can take more than a month to Europe or Australia.
If you want express, airmail, or anything other than Media Mail or cheap surface mail, you can send me the difference via paypal.
I am using old used shipping envelopes. I do not pay for delivery confirmation.
All books are in used as-is condition. All books are read, some have spent time in my pocket, some may have pizza sauce stains. On the other hand, some of these books are more than 50 years old. Conditions varies from pretty good to just readable.
No substitutions, returns or complaints. If you don’t like the book, pass it on to someone else.
Allergies: I have 7 cats – there WILL be cat hair.
In return for a a book I would appreciate a back-link to my blog or one of my pages, or a comment on another blog with a reference, or you can email three friends about the site. (One of the reasons for the giveaway is to increase readership.)
All these conditions will be met or Erica will place a Black Irish Curse on you, and you don’t want that!
I will manually edit the results and get rid of spam and duplicates. The program will then randomly pick three winners. I will then email you to check that everything is right before I ship. If the email bounces, I’ll try again with someone else.
Please check off one of the books and put your email and snail mail address below. I will email everyone with the results, other than that, I won’t spam you.
This weeks book giveaway is over. I’ll announce the winners Monday March 15.
The next contest starts as soon as I take the pictures of the books.
The Toshiba Qosmio that Justine found in the closet of lost technology is dying. It is sitting on my lap now as I type and making horrible moaning noises. I am guessing that the fan is clogged with cat hair. The laptop is hot and burns my legs.
I don’t have good luck with taking these things apart or I would try to clear out the cat hair.
I have a feeling that I will be looking for a new machine real soon.
I went to Zazzle.com and made a T-shirt out of one of my designs.
At $32 plus shipping, I doubt if anyone will by it. I found a place in Connecticut that will make 100 shirts for $250. I could sell a whole lot more shirts at $3 than I could at $32.
The Screenwriter Consortium is a group of film industry professionals who are interested in promoting Latino related scripts – called Latino Heart. If you have a script that meets their requirements, you can be assured of access to a core group of insiders who buy scripts out of the Consortium.
It is difficult to get a script noticed in an industry where several hundred scripts per day are submitted to film studios, producers, directors and well placed hair stylists.
Requirements:
Latino-themed story
Latino protagonist
Strong secondary Latino character(s)
Latin America/Spain/U.S. Latino neighborhood location(s)
Examples:
Scarface (Latino-themed)
Predator (Location)
Up In Smoke (Latino protagonist)
La Bamba (Latino-themed)
Clear & Present Danger (Location/Strong secondary character)
Romacing The Stone (Location/Strong secondary character)
Selena (Latino-themed)
Carlito’s Way (Latino-themed)
Man On Fire (Latino-themed)
Mambo Kings (Latino-themed)
Proof Of Life (Location)
Before Night Falls (Latino-themed)
Revenge (Location/Strong secondary character)
Stand And Deliver (Latino-themed)
From Dusk Till Dawn (Location)
Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, has a script idea. Literally tens of thousands of people take a stab at writing a script every year. If you have one that fits in with the Screenwriter Consortium Latino Heart idea, then email them a PDF of your script now.
Juno Books is an imprint of Pocket Books, owned by Simon & Schuster that publishes fantasy books with a strong female protagonist. Their main thrust is Urban Fantasy with a female heroine.
Juno is currently looking for novels from 80,000 to 100,000 words in length. We are interested in fantasy featuring a strong female protagonist set in a contemporary (or a very few years in the future) world quite like ours except for the intersection/transgression of the numinous (that which is “wholly other”) with/upon the mundane. This world can be open (“magic”, the “supernatural” is known to exist) or closed (where “otherness” is concealed from common knowledge).
Rarely does a major publisher openly ask for submissions. Usually they act like they don’t want your book. All of you Nanowrimo people with a novel or two sitting around, now is the time to submit your novel. Even better, they only take email submissions.
The buses aren’t running and Germonds Road is covered with snow. I have shoveled the front walk and last night I cleaned out the front of the driveway and moved the truck so it is positioned to get out on the road. It does not look safe, though, so I am not going to work and I will lose a day’s pay.
Max and Willie’s vet bills have cost us about $10,000 recently and losing a day’s pay really hurts.
I just joined Mippin.com, a website that takes your blog’s feed and converts it to a mobile site. It supports a bunch of mobile devices and it lets you monetize the link using admob.
I like this. It took about 30 seconds to get my blog on mobile.
This is the link to the mobile version of this blog:
The Stainless Steel Droppings blog is holding their 
I saw this 
This site listed the best jobs in America. My job is Systems Engineer, which is #1, although I think of myself as a Software Developer – #12. I spent 15 years at Lockheed as an IT Manager, listed at #5. I also work from time to time as a an evening College Professor listed at #3.
I heard from a friend and colleague who has retired to Florida. I thought Florida was too hot and humid for survival the couple of times that I was there.
J. Erwine (a newly expectant Dad) has announced that The Martian Wave Science Fiction magazine is now available. I don’t remember if I get a free copy or not.
