For the curious reader of science fiction (scifi) and fantasy
Treat yourself to a few minutes of gorgeous meditative video and watch this time-lapse sequence of the Milky Way from South Dakota, by Randy Halverson. You must pop this up to full-screen to get the full effect.
Plains Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.
Thanks to Phil Plaitt’s Bad Astronomy blog for this one. Here are more links to similarly amazing vistas.
Well, like this one.
Speaking of Eternity’s End, I’m about three days late in noting here that I, or rather Eternity’s End, am part of Marsha Canham’s Sunday Sampler, with an excerpt from EE. Marsha wanted an excerpt not found elsewhere online, one that would convey a sense of the book in a fairly short sample. After much cogitation, I decided on the scene that leads into a hot romantic encounter between star rigger Legroeder and the sexy but dangerous lady pirate, Tracy-Ace/Alfa. Complete with cyber-implants. Read it here.
If you bought a copy of the ebook of Eternity’s End prior to May 25 or so, you may want to download a fresh copy from wherever you bought it. I discovered, belatedly, that some of the text formatting had gotten lost in the final preparation for this newest ebook edition. Mostly, this consisted of italics that were lost. But there was a lot of it, erratically sprinkled through the book. And because this is a Star Rigger book and communication between riggers is denoted by italics, these was an egregious error that brought quite a tongue-lashing, by me, down on the hapless production people (also me), who then went through the whole blasted book again, comparing the e-text to the printed edition. The production department has promised not to let this happen again. Also, we’re sorry.
I think most stores will allow a fresh download without hassle. But if you have trouble, please drop me a line and tell me where you bought it and in what format, and I’ll get a corrected copy to you right away. You can always reach me at jeff at-thingy starrigger point net.
(If you downloaded the book during the free period prior to this year, your copy shouldn’t have this problem. It was during the reformatting for Smashwords, Kindle, and Nook that the devious little gremlin crept in unnoticed, as gremlins are wont to do.)
I still haven’t gotten the still photos of Lexi’s graduation off the camera, but here’s a 20-second video of her receiving her diploma from Bard College. For Facebook readers, this will be a repeat. Like watching Star Trek in syndication, sort of.
Doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was blogging about my daughter Alexandra’s adventures and exploits as a high school wrestler. Well, last weekend, I watched her graduate from college. Bard College, to be precise, with a degree in math and plans to go on to graduate school in mechanical engineering. Inconceivable!
I’ll put some pictures up as soon as I remember to get them off the camera.
I’m always saving links to cool stories, and sometimes I even remember to mention them while they’re still fresh and cool. (If you wonder why I seem a little scattered at times, it may be related to the fact that Allysen just started a new, full-time job, I’m still writing a new book and trying to shift to a schedule compatible with Allysen’s, we’re still recording the audiobook, still getting all the wrinkles out of the ebooks, daughter Alexandra is about to graduate from college, and…well, that’s a partial list, but you get the picture.)
News about our light bulbs
Starting next year, 100-watt incandescent light bulbs will no longer be available in the U.S. The reason, of course, is that they’re hideously inefficient in their use of electricity, and if we’re to get serious about our national energy problem, we need to get serious about using more efficient technologies. Compact fluorescents are far more efficient, but aren’t perfect, either. Now, it looks like LED replacement lights will be coming along just in time. But according to this Washington Post article, the best long-term solution will be new panel fixtures that spread the light-source over a wider area, thus allowing for heat dispersal. (Yes, even cool LED lamps have heat-dispersal problems when you cram too many together.)
Jetman flies the Grand Canyon!
If you’re like me, you’re still wishing for a personal jet-pack. Well, this guy actually has jet engines strapped to his personal flying suit. And he used it to fly over the Grand Canyon! Pictures are better than words:
My friends at Backlist eBooks have organized another big ebook sale, this time with 50-plus authors participating, and nearly 200 titles discounted—this week only. Genres include Mystery & Suspense, Contemporary Romance, Historical Romance, SF/Fantasy, and more. These are all books from traditionally published authors who have self-republished their backlists as ebooks. Most of their books are low-priced to begin with, but this week, they’ll be even lower. Even though I just had my own special a few weeks ago, I’m participating as well. Go to the Backlist eBooks specials page to see the complete list and get the coupon codes to buy the books at Smashwords. (In most cases, you’ll need to copy and paste the codes from there into the Smashwords shopping cart.)
Edit: An extension of the sale to the Sony store, previously reported here, fell through for complicated reasons. Maybe next time.
I’m sorely tempted myself, even though my e-to-read pile is already causing my virtual shelves to sag.
Yes, there are dragons in them stars. And now, for the first time ever, my two dragon novels—Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger—appear together in one volume, just out in ebook, Dragon Space: A Star Rigger Omnibus. Science fiction with a fantasy dimension! This new book appears under my own imprint, Starstream Publications, in cooperation with E-reads, which publishes the novels separately in ebook form.
Both books were published in paper by Tor, just before I got started with The Chaos Chronicles. The story—set chronologically in the Star Rigger universe sometime after Panglor but before Star Rigger’s Way and Eternity’s End—really started with a short story, “Though All the Mountains Lie Between,” that I wrote for an Orson Scott Card-edited anthology, Dragons of Darkness (though the story actually appeared first in newspaper format in the Science Fiction Times). You can read it here. 
Dragons in the Stars, which includes the events of that story, recounts the journey of star rigger Jael LeBrae, whose life is changed by an encounter with dragons in the “mountain region” of the hyperspatial Flux that riggers navigate between the stars. With that meeting, Jael becomes caught up in an age-old prophecy claiming that “One from outside” will come and speak her name to a dragon, and in so doing bring upheaval and a new beginning in the dragon realm. Jael has a life to live as a star pilot, but she finds she is bound inextricably to Highwing, the dragon who befriended her and whose life she later holds in her hands.
In the sequel Dragon Rigger, we experience through the dragons’ eyes the war that is tearing the realm apart. For there are more than just dragons here; there are false dragons, and ifflings and false ifflings, and the tormented spirit of a captured rigger. And seeking control of all, there is Tar-skel, the Nail of Strength—a being from beyond the realm who seeks to spin all of the magic of the dragons into a web of power and deceit—encompassing not just the dragon realm, but all of the Flux where the riggers fly, and all of the layers of normal-space that lie beyond. Into this war, Jael must return. If the prophecy is correct, only she can lead the realm out of the impending darkness. But if the prophecy is correct, the price of that victory is her own death.
In their original publication, Dragons in the Stars did very nicely. But Dragon Rigger—a personal favorite of mine!—suffered from a series of distribution and marketing snafus, and never really found its audience. Both have been out of print in paper for many years, but they returned as E-reads ebooks two years ago. This is their first publication in one, low-cost volume—complete with the map that graced the paper editions. I’ve been working on it for months, and I’m delighted to have a new cover design by Pat Ryan, based on the original work from artist Jael (no relation to the protagonist!).
Dragon Space is available right now in the Kindle store, in multiple formats at Smashwords, and is “processing” in the Nook store. Over the next few weeks, it should start showing up in the Apply, Sony, Kobo, and Diesel ebook stores.
Please give it a look, and tell all of your dragon-loving friends!
What with one thing or another, I never got around to posting my Easter greetings to everyone. So, thinking in a time-travel fashion (ghoststream, as it is called in the still-nascent Reefs of Time), I will now wish all of you Happy Easter! And Happy Passover! And if you don’t celebrate Easter or Passover, and even if you’re allergic to chocolate bunnies, I hope you had a great weekend, anyway.
During the weekend, my Chaos omnibus got a nice featured mention on Spalding’s Racket, the indie-book-oriented blog of writer Nick Spalding. His blog is well worth perusing, if you’re interested in seeing work by some writers you might not know yet.
Family members have been coming and going here. Allysen was gone for two weeks and has returned. Alexandra was home for a week and has left again. Julia was gone for a week and has returned. Talula, our house guest, was here but just left on a trip. Me, I’ve just been settin’ here coughin’ on the pollen and wonderin’ why God or evolution invented allergies, anyway. (But grateful for the Roombas and Scooba.) And wondering, why does our attic smell like mildew? Please tell me we don’t need a new roof. (But I think we probably do.)
Here for your amusement are a few fun pages that appeared recently at Syfy.com:
I decided to hold a “Taxes Are Done, Done, Done!” sale and put a few of my books on special for a limited time. Thus, for a limited time, you can get:
| Nook | Smashwords
| Nook | SmashwordsEdit: That sale is now over. But everything below is still true.
Meanwhile, the prices are coming down on my other books sold through E-reads. It’s taking a while for the price drops to trickle down, but in the Kindle store, you can now get:
Maybe you can show them that lower prices are better! Those prices should appear in all the other stores eventually–I hope sooner rather than later.
Watch for an announcement soon about Dragon Space, my new omnibus of Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger. I recently put the cool map created by Ellisa Mitchell on my website, here. It’s being incorporated into the new ebook, as well. I’m just waiting for the cover art to be finished. I’m very excited about it.
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