Steve Science and Other Fun Stuff

Hot Days in the Blogging Time

Here in the US of A, we're into the Dog Days of Summer (which has to do the stars and not with

From Wikipedia

dogs suffering in the sweltering heat). This year those days characterized by humidity and late day thunderstorms, run from July 3rd to August 11th. A great time of year to spend those hot hours inside and writing. Unless you're like me and love this time of year.

I attended a great writing conference in May. On the first day of the conference, participants are offered separate choices for the lunch time speaker depending on their status as published or not. The not yet published attendees usually have a speaker that fits their needs. The published authors' speaker is nearly always someone offering advice on promotion.

This year our speaker was Jane Friedman. Jane has a great blog with lots of information for writers of all levels. She's offering a  live webinar tomorrow, July 16th on How to Blog Meaningfully and Grow Your Audience. It's pretty pricey for me (about $30/hour) but I'm sure she has lots of good ideas.

But do A to Z 'ers need to take a class on how to be a successful blogger? I don't think so. There are so many terrific bloggers in this group, all willing to offer advice and lead by example. Haven't we all heard about SEO? Don't we know including images improves our posts and the dangers of including images we don't have the rights to?

I've also seen a few bloggers worried as they take breaks from blogging because of deadlines, vacations or personal issues. Will they lose followers? Will the WWW collapse or live on if a blogger takes a week or LONGER off? I believe a blogger can take a short break, especially if they let their faithful followers know they're going to be off line for a while. And if that blogger continues to visit and comment on other blogs while they're on break, they'll keep their connections alive. Check out some info Alex J. Cavanaugh shared on Monday about blogging frequency.

Would you pay for a webinar to help your blog grow? Are you taking a blog break this summer or do you take one during another time of year? Think it's okay to do that? Do you enjoy the dog days?

Themes That Rocked the Challenge - Disasters with Author Chrys Frey

Today I welcome author Chrys Fey! Her theme came from her Disaster Crimes series, and she explored disasters that occur from natural disasters to manmade disasters.

Find Chrys - Blog, Facebook, Website, and Goodreads.

What made you choose the theme of disasters?

I borrowed the disaster theme from my Disaster Crimes series. The first book in that series is Hurricane Crimes (a short story) and the upcoming sequel is Seismic Crimes (a novel). I am currently working on book three with an all new disaster, so as you can see disasters are on my mind all the time. I was learning a lot and having fun with my research, so I wanted to share that with the AZers.


Which disaster happens most often?

I could be wrong, but I think that would be lightning storms. Places all over the world experience lightning storms and they can happen just about any time of the year. I know some people don’t consider lightning storms as disasters, but consider hundreds of strikes in one region during one storm, getting stuck by lightning, fires caused by lightning, power outages...I can go on.

Which one is the most deadly?

This is a tricky question because all of them could be deadly. And a few could be considered the most deadly. For example: eXtinction (my X disaster) and Judgement Day (based after the Terminator movies) would be the end of the world as we know it. And a Zombie Apocalypse would be the end of humanity. Funny thing is two of those are fictional disasters. So I suppose eXtinction would be the most deadly followed by war, which I discussed in my Y post, because the deadliest war (World War II) resulted in over 70 million deaths.

I’d never heard of limnic eruptions. Can you tell us more about them?

Sure. Limnic eruptions are rare natural disasters that occur when dissolved carbon dioxide erupts from deep lakes, similar to volcanic eruptions. The carbon dioxide suffocates nearby wildlife, livestock, and humans. Good thing it’s rare, huh?

What are the chances of a quasar explosion affecting Earth?

For anyone not familiar with this term, a quasar is a compact region of electromagnetic energy in the center of distant, young galaxies surrounding a supermassive black hole. Now I’m not a scientist, but galaxies are said to act as quasars only during the early stages of their lives. Although there is a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, it is considered a middle-aged galaxy and the time for a quasar to occur is probably long gone.

Which disaster surprised you the most?

Oil spills surprised me the most because it’s not a disaster I think of a lot, but the impact is huge. Specifically, the Deepwater Horizon oilrig explosion in 2010 that dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, how long it took them to cap the leak (87 days), and the fact that the Gulf still isn’t oil-free today.

How many of those disasters have you experienced? (And obviously lived to tell the tale!)

Well, let’s see...I’ve been through quite a few hurricanes and wildfires here in Florida. Those are probably the biggest disasters I’ve experienced. Hurricanes Charley, Francis, and Ivan from 2004 inspired my story Hurricane Crimes. For my Wildfire post, I share a personal story about a fire that almost took my home when I was a kid. Some disasters I’ve experienced on a smaller scale are hailstorms, floods, and lightning storms (of course).

What theme are you considering for next year’s Challenge?

I know some people will be sad and disappointed that I am saying this, but I might not participate in 2016. This past Challenge was a doozy and I still feel like I’m recovering from it. However, because I love A to Z so much, I will be doing an A-Z feature on my blog next year with 2 posts a month. As for 2017, you might see me then and I have a theme in mind, but you’ll have to wait to find out what that is. ;)

Thank you, Alex, for featuring me on the great Blogging from A to Z Challenge blog! I am truly honored that you thought my theme rocked. :D

Thanks for joining us today, Chrys!


Co-host Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh is the author of Amazon Best-Sellers CassaStar, CassaFire, CassaStorm, and Dragon of the Stars, and his blog can be found HERE