IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The 2024 OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Steve's Science and Other Fun Stuff


"And rockets and comets and asteroids blah blah blah"
Hi everyone. Stephen Tremp here. I'm slowly making my way back into the blogging scene after taking the summer off to write Murcat Manor. I've missed you all and am glad to see you again! So let's highlight a few of the amazing man-made endeavors happening in our solar system that you can discuss around the water cooler at work. 

To Proxima Centauri and Beyond!
To Infinity, and Beyond! Well, at Least to Proxima Centauri: NASA has been testing new space travel technologies throughout its entire history, but the results of its latest experiment may be the most exciting yet — if they hold up. NASA indicated they had achieved a small amount of thrust from a container that had no traditional fuels, only microwaves, bouncing around inside it. 

If the results can be replicated reliably and scaled up — and that's a big "if," since NASA only produced them on a very small scale over a two-day period — they could ultimately result in ultra-light weight, ultra fast spacecraft that could carry humans to Mars in weeks instead of months, and to the nearest star system outside our own (Proxima Centurai) in just about 30 years. Reference 
The Space Police

Japan to Launch Military Space Force: Japan is planning to launch a military space force by 2019 that would initially be tasked with protecting satellites from dangerous debris orbiting the Earth. The move is aimed at strengthening Japan-US cooperation in space, and comes after the countries pledged to boost joint work on monitoring space debris. 

Thousands of pieces of debris -- including old satellites as well as pieces of rockets and other space equipment -- are orbiting the Earth and threaten to collide with functioning communications and reconnaissance satellites. Reference
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Rosetta Spacecraft Arrives at Comet: After a decade-long journey and clocking up 6.4 billion kilometers chasing its target, the European Space Agency's Rosetta, carrying three NASA instruments, became the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet. As many as five possible landing sites on the comet (how cool is that!!!) will be identified by late August, before the primary site is identified in mid-September.
 
Comets are considered to be primitive building blocks of the solar system and may have helped to "seed" Earth with water, perhaps even the ingredients for life. But many fundamental questions about these enigmatic objects remain, and through a comprehensive, in situ study of the comet, Rosetta aims to unlock the secrets within. Reference
 
The Query Commish Matthew MacNish

Finally: My query letter for Murcat Manor is up on Matthew MacNish’s the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment. I’d greatly appreciate it if you could check in and help with the critique. And you’ll get a good idea of what Murcat Manor is all about. Thanks in advance, and hope you enjoyed the tidbits today!

Question: What do you think of the Japanese teaming up with the U.S. to police outer space? Good idea, or are they really up to something else?
 
And don’t forget to stop by my blog (CLICK HERE) and say hello as I’m getting my blogging grove back again.

And if you feel this post is worthy, hit that Twitter button and add a hashtag or three. The universe thanks you!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Storyteller's Perspective: Tales from the East

Once upon a time, years and years ago (like, three whole years, you guys) I worked as a screenwriter on an online MMORPG based on the Arabian Nights. It was a wonderful project, and it gave me an excuse to dig deep into Arab and Persian tales. I have been in love with them ever since. Last week, while I was at a conference in Arizona, I found a book on a hidden shelf in a used book store. I was instantly transported back into the world of jinn, lost cities, and endless deserts.
With all that in mind, this week I wanted to give you a short list of some of my favorite books of Arab and Persian tales:

Fabled Cities, Princes & Jinn from Arab Myths and Legends
This is the book I found last week. While it is a gloriously illustrated picture book, it is definitely not written for children. It contains background information on Arab history and culture, as well as tales from many pre-Islamic and Islamic sources. Most of them were new to me, and they are all gorgeous. I especially liked that there were many tales about brave, clever and independent women.

Mirror of the Invisible World
A collection of tales by Nizami, my ever favorite medieval Persian author (yes I have a favorite medieval Persian author, did I mention I'm a storyteller? :). Contains, among other things, the Seven Wise Princesses, the story I based my A to Z challenge on this year. Also, gorgeous, absolutely stunning illustrations copied from Persian miniatures.

Falnama: The Book of Omens
I first came across the Falnama when the Smithsonian did an exhibition on it, and I happened to be in Washington D.C. just in time to visit. They also published the gorgeous (albeit expensive) book I linked above. While not exactly a story collection, it is worth a read just for the illustrations, and the stories behind them. Also, the rainbow-colored angles I can't get enough of.

Arab Folktales
Part of the classic Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library, this book is a collection of all the Arab stories you will ever want to delve into in one place. I treasure it as one of the folktale collections that included an unusually high number of tales I wanted to tell (normally a good collection has two or three - storytellers are picky).

The Romance of Antar
If you like medieval hero stories, you will love this one. Antar is born as the child of a black slave woman and the chief of an Arab tribe, and is raised as a slave. But through his strength, courage, and honor, he rises not only to become accepted by the tribe as their equal, but also becomes one of the most legendary heroes of the Arab middle ages. Oh, and also a poet. The romance exists in many translations. Take your pick.

Shahnameh, the Book of Kings
This is essentially THE Persian epic. Full of heroes, wonderful creatures, and also one of my top 3 favorite stories of all time, Zal and Rudaba (the earliest known version of the Rapunzel story type, except infinitely more badass). Definitely should be a part of common cultural knowledge.

And, of course, if you have not read the Arabian Nights yet: Read it. Definitely worth the three years, one night at a time :)

As usual, you can find Csenge (@TarkabarkaHolgy) at
The Multicolored Diary - Adventures in Storytelling
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...
Her new book, Tales of Superhuman Powers - 55 folktales featuring superpowers - is available on Amazon.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Here's An Idea!: The Shopping List (#atozchallenge)

Found shopping list
Found shopping list (Photo credit: vidalia_11)
 
      In my June offering of Here's An Idea! I discussed the A to Z theme of using lists of favorites in the April Challenge.    Another blogger offered a tongue in cheek idea that actually sounds kind of like an interesting concept.   Here's what she had to say in her comment to my post:

Of course I am unsure of what to write many times.
I do like going through lists but don't make any except shopping lists.
But after the challenge I have started appreciating lists. Might even do a few.

       Sometimes what seems like an almost silly comment or just a passing thought can turn into a darn good idea.  I like this one!   Why not use a shopping list as a prompt for the A to Z Challenge?

        There are tons of possibilities with this idea.  You can start with a shopping list and apply your daily letters to anything from recipes to food histories.  Get creative with your presentation in the shopping list format and then run wild with it.

       You don't have to limit this idea to food either.  You can make up Christmas lists, Back to School shopping lists, or any other list that has to do with shopping themes.

        Our readers come up with the neatest ideas that really get my brain gears cranking.  How about you?  Do you read through the comments of the posts to see what other readers have to offer?   Let us know your ideas as well.   I'm sure there are some "list" ideas that you can think of.



Friday, August 1, 2014

#atozchallenge #roadtrip - Stormy stares at himself in his rear view mirror.




And I'm too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
No way I'm disco dancing
I'm a model you know what I mean

 
(I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred)


Welcome to leg six of the Post A-to-Z Road Trip!


Stormy the Weather Gnome and I are going to try to hit at least 20 new blogs a week from the Challenge list and tell you about a few of them in each of my posts.

When you go visit these awesome blogs, please make sure you tell them that you're visiting on the Post A to Z Road Trip!


And I'm too sexy for my hat
Too sexy for my hat
What do you think about that?
I'm a model you know what I mean



I can't forget out ... well .... ME!

Here are some of my best looks from my three years of April A to Z blogging!











 
I'm too sexy for my love
Too sexy for my love
Love's going to leave me
And I'm too sexy for this song




Thanks for visiting with us today!
Are you finding any great blogs on your trip?

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

What Helps You Blog Better?

Hey everyone. It is me, Tim Brannan from The Other Side, again!  I am a Role-Playing game author so I use my blog as a platform to talk about my books, but also to share with others in my blogging community to sorts of things I like to write about.  So RPGs, horror and geek-culture.

Often times when we write about writing in general and blogging in particular we talk a lot about where ideas come from, how to get more readers or even how much writing everyday is important.  This is all true, and important, but that is not the type of tools I mean today.

Hardware

Look down.  There. See it, it's your keyboard.  What is your relationship with your keyboard?

I blog every day.  I write in addition to that and there is that day job too.  I spend a lot of time with my fingers on my keyboard.  My favorite keyboard is the one I have at home, the Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000. It is the silver one and long, long out of stock.  I wrote Ghosts of Albion on it and it is by far the most comfortable keyboard I have ever used.  I never expected to find a replacement for my old beatup Gateway 2000 124 key programmable keyboard, but this one is fantastic.


Here is my main computer, Frankencomputer (I built it from spare parts).  It's not much more than a web-machine and word processor which is what I want when I am writing.  The keyboard is actually worth more to me than the rest of the computer.  If I am going to sit and pound away on a keyboard then it needs to be comfortable to me.

This is my second 6000 keyboard in truth.  I bought this one off of eBay for an ungodly price and still consider it money well spent.  It has the right curve for my hands and can elevate to the right height so I don't get fatigue while typing. Plus it is the same keyboard Weird Al has in his song "White & Nerdy".  A song that is not about me at all. Really. Honest.

Software

I was reading the other day that George R. R. Martin, when he is not plotting to kill every character you love, sits in front of his old DOS machine and types his books into WordStar 4.0.  Piers Anthony once mentioned that back in the day he paid a programmer to reverse engineer his favorite word processor from CP/M to MS-DOS. Laurel K. Hamilton did her first writing on a manual typewriter and still thinks of things in terms of page counts and not word counts.  I am sure there are many more examples, but the point is clear. We get used to something for our writing and we like to stick with it.   Myself, I am an Microsoft Word fan.  I have been using it for years, since version 1.1 and Office 4.3.  I have gotten very comfortable with it and have lost count of the number of hours I have spent in it.

So then am I switching over to Google Drive?
Well while I still use Word one of the things it promised and never really delivered on was real time collaboration.   With the Google Drive word processor I can work with others and see their edits real time. We can chat and discuss what it is we are doing and why.  Plus I have lost count of the number of docs I have lost carting them from one computer to another, either on floppy disk or flash drive. And then when I manage to get it to another computer (say from work to home) I have to deal with whether or not the computer can read the file format and version control.  The only thing worse than loosing a document is to spend hours adding to a draft that is already 3 revisions old.

So how about you?
What are your writing needs? Special keyboard? Software? Maybe it is your best comfy chair.

Tell us all about it.

--
Like what I do?
Let me know by voting for me for "Best Blog" in the 2014 ENnie Awards for Role-Playing Games.
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/
Go to Best Blog and put a "1" next to "The Other Side". Thanks so much!
Voting ends on July 30.

About the Author  
Timothy S. Brannan is the author of The Other Side blog, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/ He has worked on a number of games including the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG", and is the author of “The Ghosts of Albion RPG”, “The Witch”, “Eldritch Witchery” and the upcoming “Strange Brew” which is currently in a Kickstarter Campaign.