Free Anthology Today and Tomorrow.

Today and tomorrow (Feb 28 - Mar 1), the Kindle version of Assassins, an anthology by the Central Washington Authors Guild, will be free. This book contains 11 tales of murder, mayhem, and mystery by an eclectic mix of writers. While all stories have to do with assassination and assassins, genres run from contemporary, science fiction, steam punk, and fantasy.

This is a chance to check out some great stories by a group of wonderful and diverse writers. Oh, and I have a story in there, too.

Check it out, for free today and tomorrow for the Kindle.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Alan Keith Parker and P.M. Griffin

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome Alan Keith Parker /Jack Parker and P.M. Griffin

Keith Parker / Jack Parker

Keith Parker

Keith Parker was born, raised, and lives in Huntsville, Alabama, where his family has lurked for generations behind tree stumps while watching for revenuers. At times he is transmogrified into an elephant, but those instances are rare.

For 20+ years he has pursued writing in the form of short stories, essays, and novels, none of which have made him rich, wealthy, or comfortably well-off. 

Fire Always Burns Uphill (2000) was his first published novel and, true to form, was caught up in a bizarre series of marketing fiascos that ultimately led to ... nothing. It is a story of love, adventure, and hay fever now available as a Kindle eBook (2011).

His second book, Entangled with Other Stories, is a collection of short stories/essays originally published by small presses in the 1990s. 

His third novel, Madness Rising, is a Young Adult/New Adult science fiction novel that he coauthored with Jack E. Parker. It will be available in 2015.

Parker keeps one foot in the arena of computer modeling, which keeps junk food in the fridge; his other foot is planted in the same neighborhood where authors such as Asimov, Bradbury, Gaiman, King, Niven, Sawyer, Scalzi, Simmons, Stephenson, Oates and Vonnegut lurk.

Jack Parker

Jack Parker tells jokes for his own entertainment, writes stories to stay out of trouble, writes poems because no one is listening, and writes music because he takes showers. He got a degree in English because he didn't know what to do next, a diploma in Russian because the Army told him to, and a degree in math and physics because he needed a job.

Jack is a music director and minister at his church, and an occasional missionary to Ukraine. To pay his wife's and children's bills, the former NASA engineer works as an engineer for the US Missile Defense Agency.

Unlike his co-author, Jack has not recently transmogrified into an elephant. 

Keith and Jack's books:

Entangled with Other Stories 

Fire Always Burns Uphill

Keith and Jack's links:

Website/Blog

Twitter

P.M. Griffin

P.M. Griffin

P. M. "Pauline" Griffin has been writing since her early childhood.  She enjoys telling a good tale, and since she always works with characters and situations deeply interesting to her, she finds the research as rewarding as the scribbling/keying.

Griffin’s Irish love of story telling coupled with her passion for history, the natural world, and the above-mentioned research have to date resulted in twenty novels and twelve short stories, a number of award winners among them, all in the challenging realms of science fiction and fantasy.  She has also written several nonfiction articles, primarily for the Brooklyn Aquarium Society’s publication AQUATICA, several of which have won the Editors Choice for Excellence Award.

She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her cats Nickolette, Jinx, and Katie and three tropical fish aquariums.

Pauline's books:

Coming Soon

Fell Conquest (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords)

Survivor (Kindle, Nook, Kobo)

Stand at Cornith (Kindle, Nook, Smashwords) 

Pauline's Website.

From today's show: Metal Munching Microbes.

Listen to today's show live or in archive

How to Moderate a Con Panel

Two weekends ago I attended RadCon as a visiting professional (i.e., a writer). I was on four panels and had to moderate two. I was warned beforehand that one people on one of the panels was long-winded and hard to keep from dominating the discussion. So I came up with a plan. This is one way to moderate a con panel (probably not the only way):

1) I wrote six questions (I had help from fellow members of my writing group).

2) I set the alert on my countdown time to the most annoying sound I could find.

3) When the panel started, I explained that would ask a question and then start the timer for seven minutes. At the end of the seven minutes, we would go on to the next question. I chose seven minutes because 7 x 6 = 42 and that would leave me 18 minutes for introductions and questions at the end (some of the panel members were so long-winded in their introductions I wanted a time then, too).

4) I would ask the question and hit the timer.  When the timer went off, I would let the person finish their thought and then move on to the next question.

This seemed to work very well, although the long-winded person got annoyed at being interrupted by the timer, it did keep her from dominating the panel. There was time for questions at the end and one of the audience members approached me to say she thought my method worked very well.

It actually worked better on the panel with the long-winded person than the other panel. On the other panel they would cover about three of my questions in the first seven minutes. So I decided to let them talk longer and would pause the timer until I decided we'd beat that subject to death.

If I'm asked to moderate a panel again at a con, I will probably use this method again. It keeps the discussion moving and not stuck on one subject for too long.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with J.O. Bankole and Jim Musgrave

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome J.O. Bankole and Jim Musgrave

J.O. Bankole

J.O. Bankole

J.O. Bankole is a classroom teacher, artist, musician, and writer based in Los Angeles. Told as she imagines it, J.O. Bankole has a strong focus on positive Black cultural identity in her speculative fiction, which is seconded by a mandate to promote holistic health and community and global wellness. Ms. Bankole earned her Bachelors of Science Degree in Biochemistry from CSUDH.

J.O.'s book:

God’s Blood  (Amazon, B&N)

J.O.'s links:

Website
Facebook
Instagram: @fumilionarts

Jim Musgrave

Jim Musgravve

I taught English at Caltech and in San Diego and worked as Supervisor of Management Development through the Industrial Relations Center for over 20 years.  I am now the President and CEO of EMRE Publishing in San Diego.  We’re into development of tailored mobile marketing using our flagship eReader, the Embellisher and its accompanying sutie of DIY tools for enhanced eBook creators.

Jim's Books:

Forevermore (free)

Steam City Pirates (sample chapters with option to buy)

Pat O’Malley Detective series

Jim's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

From today's show: Solar Sail Launch

Listen to today's show live or in archive.

RadCon Schedule

Today (lucky Friday the 13th) kicks off RadCon in Pasco, WA. I am there and participating in panels.  Here is the schedule of panels I'll be on:

Friday:

8:00 PM to 9:00 PM: Rocket Boots or Laser Guns: What Grunts Really Want Room 2209

Saturday:

12:30 PM to 1:30 PM: Can Not Put It Down Pacing Room 2207 (Moderating)
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM: Senses in Writing Room 2207 (Moderating)
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM: Celebrating the Side Character? Room 2207

I will be at RadCon through Sunday so look for me. I will have swag:

Also, the Central Washington Writers' Guild will have a dealer room selling books, crochet items, pictures, and arts and crafts. It's in room 2129 in the Dealers' Annex. All my books will be there with special RadCon pricing.

Hope to see you there!

Driving . . . Faster

I heard a rumor that Montana might raise it's rural speed limit to 85 mph. My first thought: How can I find an excuse to drive in Montana? I might not even do my usual 5 mph over the speed limit. Although 90 mph on some of those long, lonely stretches of highway in Montana might not be so bad. Come to think of it, back when Montana didn't have a speed limit, I was doing over 100 mph on some of those roads.

Utah and Idaho (at least) have raised some interstate speed limits to 80 mph. Unfortunately, they did that since I was last in Idaho.

I've often thought the speed limit on I-90 between Ellensburg and Sprague here in Washington State should be 80 mph (it's now 70).

But (except maybe in Montana) speed limits are not set for convenience and safety, but to maximize revenue. Michigan did a study and found that raising speed limits from 55 to 70 increased safety. Why? Because with a 55 mph speed limit, the speed differences between cars was as much as 20 mph (some were going 55 or slower, some were going 75 or faster). Raising the speed limit to 70 meant fewer cars were going slow so the speed difference between cars (a large factor in automobile crashes) decreased. And the average speed on the road with the 55 mph speed limit was 74 mph. With a 70 mph speed limit, it was 72.

A study also found that it's safer to drive faster than traffic then slower than traffic. You're more likely to be in an accident at 10 mph under the speed limit that at 10 mph over the speed limit. But who gets tickets?

Now, admittedly, I like to drive fast. But I try to drive fast responsibly. I used to drive on a racetrack but the costs got to be too much. Not so much the fees, but the replacement costs of tires and brakes which you wear out very fast on a racetrack. So if I do drive fast I pick empty roads. Luckily, where I live, there's a few of those. Unfortunately, they tend to be straight and taking curves fast is so much more fun.

And now maybe I'll have to find an excuse to go to Montana. There's this curvy part of I-90 between the Idaho border and Missoula . . .

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Paul Clayton and Adam Dreece

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome Paul Clayton and Adam Dreece

Paul Clayton

Paul Clayton

Paul Clayton is the author of a three-book historical series on the Spanish Conquest of the Floridas-- Calling Crow, Flight of the Crow, and Calling Crow Nation (Putnam/Berkley), and a novel, Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam (St. Martin's Press), based on his own experiences in that war. Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam was a finalist at the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Awards, along with works by Joyce Carol Oates (Faithless) and David McCullough (John Adams). Clayton's last historical book-- White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke-- is a work of fiction. Strange Worlds is a well-received collection of Paul’s sci-fi and fantasy works over the years. His mainstream novel, In the Shape of a Man, has elements of horror. Paul currently lives and works in California.

Paul's Books:

White Seed
Strange Worlds
In the Shape of a Man

Paul's Links:

Blog in the "open range" section of  https://www.libertyislandmag.com/
Twitter


Adam Dreece

2014 was the year that I stopped my 25 years of writing short stories that I only shared with friends, and started writing and publishing novels. In April 2014 I released Along Came a Wolf, the first in my Amazon Best Selling series The Yellow Hoods. In September, I released the second in the series, Breadcrumb Trail.

While my daughter was the motivation to start this in earnest last year, my life started changing a few years ago when an appendix surgery went sideways and left me in horrific pain for 15 months. Coming out of a surgery that reduced that to a gradually improving chronic pain, I was hit with severe adult asthma. Everything I wrote was contaminated with those events, and so I spent 3 years writing a memoir that once done, I put on the shelf to move on with my life. That life was different now, and my love of writing was no longer satisfied to being a part time element of my life. With a nudge from my daughter, the dam burst.

On January 19th, 2015, I made the move from being a full time software architect and part time author, to being a full time author.

Adam's Books:

Along Came a Wolf
Breadcrumb Trail

Adam's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

From today's show: New wide-view telescope.

Listen to this show live or in archive

How Small Can They Go?

Moore's Law states that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. This has been empirically true (pretty much) since Moore stated this in 1965.

This means computers are getting smaller and more powerful. For instance, according to this website, your iPhone 5S is 1,000 times more power that 1975's "supercomputer" the Cray-1.

Think about that. You hold in your hand a computer more powerful than 1,000 former "supercomputers" that probably cost millions of dollars, each.

Ain't technology grand. What used to take up a room is outpaced many times over by something that fits in your pocket.

However, as computers shrink, I think there's a practical limit on how small they can become. Let's call it the "biology barrier."

At some point, you have to have input and output on a computer. Unless you're going to wire the computer directly to the brain (which is a little scary, what if you get an email with a virus attached?) you're going to have to deal with fat human fingers and human eyes/ears. Maybe they can perfect the voice interface (Apple's Siri is amazing sometimes, sometimes as dumb as a Cray-1) but voice interface is slow (slower than I type on a full-sized keyboard) and accords no privacy. Can you imagine standing in line at Starbucks sexting your girlfriend with a voice interface?

So, I'm thinking the device can be small (but not too small, don't want to easily lose it) and have a holographic screen that projects out of it and input is by "touching" that screen. If it were a watch-sized device, worn on the wrist, that might work but then you only have one hand for input.

And I don't want to give up my full-sized mechanical keyboard unless your holographic keyboard had "feel" to it.

I don't think, even as they get more powerful, computers for direct human use will not get much smaller than what we have right now. Below that, input is too hard and output is too small.

But you never know. My grandchildren might be using something that's a button on their shirt with holographic input and output and laughing at me with my "huge" smartphone.

How I got 10,000 More Twitter Followers (without spending a dime)

I have over 12,000 twitter followers. How? Did I "buy" followers?

Nope, I didn't spend a cent on getting followers. What I spent was time.

On December 28, 2013 I had 2,341 followers. On December 27, 2014 I had 11,780 for an increase of 9,439 followers or nearly 10,000 more. That's an average of 26 new followers per day. Which doesn't sound like a lot but it adds up.

Here's how you can get 10,000 more Twitter followers the way I did.

Go to justunfollow.com and sign in with Twitter. Turn off all automatic tweets it wants to send on your behalf (including auto-DMs). It was seeing these automatic tweets and DMs that kept me away from that site for months, but when I found out I could turn them off, I started using the site.

I'm not endorsing justunfollowme.com, there may be better sites out there. It's just what I used.

The first thing you'll see when you get there is a list of tweeters who you follow who don't follow you back. You can, with a free account, unfollow 25 once every 24 hours. If you allow the website to tweet that you are doing that, it's 50. I did that once and got 50 from then on. I don't know if I got lucky or if that's how it's supposed to work. You simply push the blue "Tweet" button to tweet it:

But you don't want to unfollow, not just yet. First you want to follow as many tweeters as the site allows (again, default is 25, if you tweet, 50).

Click on "Keyword Follow (Grow)" in the left had menu. Now, put in a hashtag that fits your genre(s). I used #urbanfantasy, #scifi, and #sciencefiction. Follow most everyone who uses those hastags. You can also use #amwritng and #amreading. Don't follow people with a huge mount of followers but hardly following anyone else because they are very unlikely to follow you.

(I tried #UF for urban fantasy but got a lot of people talking about the University of Florida. I tried #fantasy but got all sorts of things, including people looking for casual sex.)

Follow 25 or 50 tweeters (as many as the site will let you).

Then, sorting by "oldest first" (the default) unfollow 25 or 50 tweeters who don't follow you.

Do this every day (you can do 25 or 50 once every 24 hours) or at least every day you can.

Eventually you'll get down to 100 people who aren't following you back that you follow. When that happened I changed tactics slightly. I still followed 50 people but I only unfollowed until I had 100 (exactly) non-followers. I didn't unfollow anyone who hadn't tweeted since I last had done a batch of following (usually a day) unless they hadn't tweeted for 12 weeks figuring they were inactive at that point. This way, the people I just followed wouldn't be unfollowed because there were at the bottom of the list. Don't update the list or you it'll add in the 50 (or 25) you just followed.

Do this every day or nearly everyday for a year and you should gain around 10,000 followers. After I hit 10,000 I stopped doing this because I apparently hit some critical mass and I get quite a few followers every day (over 25, usually). I follow back the ones that have to do with writing/editing etc. I don't follow ones who are obviously bots.

Was it worth it? I don't know. I do get a heck of a lot of re-tweets (but how many of those are automatic, I don't know but I bet a lot).

But that's how I got 10,000 Twitter followers in just over a year.