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Showing posts from May, 2013

10 Questions with Legendary Science Fiction Writer David Drake

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This Author Spotlight features master of the Science Fiction genre David Drake and Redliners, Second Edition . The Army took David Drake from Duke Law School and sent him on a motorized tour of Viet Nam and Cambodia with the 11 th Cav, the Blackhorse. He learned new skills, saw interesting sights, and met exotic people who hadn’t run fast enough to get away. Dave returned to become Chapel Hill’s Assistant Town Attorney and to try to put his life back together through fiction making sense of his Army experiences. Dave describes war from where he saw it: the loader’s hatch of a tank in Cambodia. His military experience, combined with his formal education in history and Latin, has made him one of the foremost writers of realistic action SF and fantasy. His bestselling Hammer's Slammers series is credited with creating the genre of modern Military SF.  He often wishes he had a less interesting background. Dave lives with his family in

Fun, Futuristic, Sexy, Smart Sci-Fi Novel in Need of Immediate Reviews

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Hi, gang. My new novel Eye Candy is in need of immediate reviews on Amazon. 95% of consumers report that they value peer-recommendations when shopping online. To build up the number of reviews for Eye Candy , I am offering a complimentary ebook (Kindle/mobi or Epub) copy for whomever wants to read it and post an immediate review. Please visit the Contact page on this site and enter your information, including your email address so that I know where to send your complimentary ebook copy of Eye Candy . That's all there is to it. Note that Eye Candy is intended for mature readers. The movie version will probably be Rated R. One caveat: if you would like to discuss the plot, please say SPOILERS AHEAD, etc. We want new readers to have the same experience you had. Thank you for your time.

The Next Big Thing Blog Meme - EYE CANDY by Ryan Schneider

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Thriller writer and writer friend Rob Guthrie tagged me recently to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Meme. It's a blog chain in which writers tag fellow writer friends to answer a list of standard questions about their current or forthcoming novel.  Thanks, Rob. (Visit Rob at  rsguthrie.com  and read his books. Seriously.) So here we go. 1. What is the title of your book? Eye Candy . 2. Where did the idea come from for the book? I can't answer that without revealing a spoiler. So let's see if I can dance around it while still providing some semblance of an answer. I had an idea for what I thought was a powerful scene, and which had a powerful concept behind it. I wanted to write to arrive at that scene. So I began at the beginning, and finally got there about 60% of the way into the story. 3.  What genre does your book fall under? Science fiction. Though at its heart it is a love story. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy g

10 Questions with Science Fiction Novelist Peter Laurent (@petes117)

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This Author Spotlight features Science Fiction novelist Peter Laurent author of The Covert Academy (Volume 1) . Author Peter Laurent was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. He studied 3D animation in Auckland, then worked full-time in Mount Maunganui. Peter then formed his own company, Indiana Games Limited, and has been freelancing art and animation back in Auckland ever since. The Covert Academy (Volume 1) is his first novel, borne of a passion for creative storytelling. 1.How did you get into writing and why do you write? My introduction to writing came out of the blue. I literally said to myself, “I’m going to write a book.” So I did! I have had no formal training in writing, though English was my best subject in school. I have always been a visually creative person, which led me to study and work in 3D animation for ten years before attempting a novel. I think the experience from those years of being an artist strengthens my writing.

Kerouac, Vonnegut, Ellis, Mailer, and You. Or, Why You Write.

Jack Kerouac said, "What a [writer] most wishes to hide, revise, & un-say, is precisely what Literature is waiting & bleeding for." Kurt Vonnegut said, "We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down." A writer friend and I have been discussing writing and publishing. He's not sure which way to go, traditional publishing or indie publishing. In an email I sent, I said the following: Treat your writing as a business. It's something serious. You put time into it every day, either by pecking the keys or by thinking about what you're going to say when you sit down to peck the keys. Create a formal writing practice and practice a set number of days per week. Then, take the # of hours allocated per day to writing and divide it into 4. Say it's 4 hours per day. Spend 3 hours writing (75%), and 1 hour marketing and building your brand (25%). This can be anything from creating a website & blog &

10 Questions with Gutsy Writer Sonia Marsh (@GutsyLiving)

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This week's Author Spotlight features Sonia Marsh, author of the travel memoir  Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family's Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island . Sonia Marsh is a “Gutsy” woman who can pack her carry-on and move to another country in one day. She’s a motivational speaker who inspires her audiences to get out of their comfort zone and take a risk. She says everyone has a “My Gutsy Story®”; some just need a little help to uncover theirs. Her story, told in her travel memoir  Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family's Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island , is about chucking it all and uprooting her family—with teenagers—to reconnect on an island in Belize. Her memoir has received 3 awards at the 2013 London Book Festival, the 2013 Los Angeles Book Festival and the 2013 Great South West  Book Festival . Sonia has lived in many countries – Denmark, Nigeria, France, England, the U.S. and Belize – andconsiders herself a citizen of the world. She holds

My Review of STARLINER by David Drake

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I just finished reading Starliner  by David Drake. I was browsing the Amazon Science Fiction Top 100 one day and stumbled across Starliner  quite by accident. (As a brief aside, the first three books in my sci-fi series The Go-Kids (PG-13) , beginning with  A Shadow Passed Over the Son (The Go-Kids Book 1)  are also in the Amazon Top 100. Please grab your free copies if you've not done so already, so we can coax those babies up to the Top 10!) The cool cover for Starliner  was arresting: the image of a massive space-faring luxury vessel floating in space. Plus it was free, so I grabbed it. I'm glad I did because it turned out to be a heck of a lot of fun. It's got 73 reviews on Amazon and a 3.5-star average. The story follows the adventures of the Empress of Earth  (the name of the ship) and its new 3rd Officer Ran Colville as passengers are ferried through vast interstellar space and between outlying worlds. War between two rival planets is imminent an

My Review of Iron Man 3 (and why I hate spoilers)

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My wife Taliya and I enjoyed a screening of Iron Man 3. It was an interesting and tiny bit frustrating experience, so I thought I'd share it. First, know that I will not discuss the story in-depth because I hate spoilers. You know M. Knight Shamalawnmower's movie The Village? Somebody blabbed the ending of that movie and ruined it for me. So the whole time I was watching, I was waiting for the end I knew was coming. Totally ruined it. And one night a couple years ago, I was listening to Coast to Coast A.M. and some dingleberry guest blabbed the premise/conclusion/twist on Eagle Eye, that thriller with Shia Labuffalo. Oh, I was pissed. If you've seen a movie (or read a book!) and others haven't but intend to, keep your trap shut! Why is that so difficult? Are people SO miserable that their only means of making themselves feel better is by ruining an experience for someone else? Get a life. Seriously. Anyway, I'm supposed to be talking about Iron Man Tro