Writing on the Waves!

Trying to help a fellow author promote a most unique writing workshop! Writing while cruising in the Caribbean!

Lynn Flewellin is an internationally acclaimed Fantasy author. And she will be holding a multi part writing course aboard the Freedom of the Seas with Royal Caribbean International.

7 night cruise with stops at Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Martin with 3 days of seminars packed between locations.

Seminar Day 1:

10:00-11:00 am: Meet Lynn and Explore Her Worlds

11:00-noon: "I Love/Hate That Guy! Creating Memorable Characters" with writing prompts

4:00-5:30 pm Salon- a gathering to read aloud, listen, and discuss each other's writing. Don't be shy! You can read from stories or books you've been working on or new material inspired by the day's writing prompts, or just come and support your fellow writers.

Seminar Day 2:

10:00-11:00 am: Creating a Sense of Place:

Everything has to happen somewhere.
Crafting detailed, believable settings" with writing prompts.

11:00-noon: "The Plot—and Theme— Thicken: You don't have much of a story if they don't!"

4:00-5:30 pm Salon

Seminar Day 3:

10:00-11:00 am: "Editing: Forget "book doctors." How you do the work to make your book the best it can be."

11:00-noon: "Through the Hoops: Finishing, Polishing, Packaging, and Approaching an Agent or Publisher"
4:00-5:30 pm Final Salon

Workshop participation Age 18 and up.
16-17 with parental permission.

Special pricing for the cruise as well. So if you've been looking for a vacation and have also wanted to learn about writing and the business, this cruise might be for you!

#FridayFlash - Prey

Her hunger tore at her guts, once more demanding its due. She ignored it, already on the prowl, seeking for the means to satisfy it.

So far the darkness had revealed nothing.

Honed senses scanned for the merest hint of prey. Deftly, she skirted the trees and other vegetation, searching, always searching.

Her pangs growing ever more acute, she finally spotted a bit of light glinting through the foliage. Like a moth drawn to a flame, she changed course, dizzy with the possibilities.

As she cleared the last of the trees, she found her endeavors hadn’t been in vain. A large clearing opened up before her showing the top of a small hill with a house, the calling light coming from its open doorway.

Sticking to the shadows, she drifted closer.

Excitement ignited inside her as she noticed a flesh being sitting on a raggedy chair on the sagging porch, staring out into the night while smoking a pipe.

Food at last!

With darting movements she made her way up the hill.

Nearing the house from the side, she peeked into the porch, studying her quarry, making sure her presence had gone unnoticed.

The balding prey puffed on his pipe oblivious.

A stray strand of wind wafted the scent of cooling sweat and pipe smoke toward her. Beneath it, barely noticeable, was the intoxicating perfume of blood. She moved a little closer, her hunger rising to a fevered pitch.

All senses on the alert for signs that her victim suspected her presence, she drifted closer still. Staring at her target, she could easily envision the life giving fluid pumping through the veins and arteries. If she’d been able to, she would have licked trembling lips in utter anticipation.

Barely stirring the air around her, she snuck up behind her victim, mesmerized by the pulsing beat of blood beneath the skin at his neck.

She moved closer and closer, her hunger and the call of the blood driving her on. Yet she purposely stretched the moment, moving forward ever so slowly, letting her anticipation increase.

As she touched the warm skin with the lightest of caresses, she felt a tingle rise through her.

No longer able to contain herself, she plunged deep into the succulent flesh. Gushing blood filled her hungering body, covering her with shivers of utter ecstasy. This was what it was about -- this was why she existed.

Trapped in the moment she didn’t notice the large presence rising over her. Too late, she felt the movement above her and tried to disengage from the pierced flesh. Pressure crushed her where she stood and sent waves of excruciating pain through her fragile being until mercifully, she could feel nothing at all.

The hunter had become the prey.


“Damn bloodsucker!”

Joe pulled his hand away from his neck, staring with disgust at the bloody smear on his callused palm. He stood up from the rocking chair, hastily wiping his hand on his coveralls.

“Myrtle, where’s that blasted can of OFF again?”

FlashForward Book and TV Series

Thanks to Tor Books I won a copy of the novel FlashForward through a contest on Twitter. I’ve also been watching the series on TV (actually on the ABC site as Thursday nights have way too much on at the same time! I’m a week behind everyone else to boot! Hopefully nothing happened this past week that was too important. Heh heh).

I thought it might be fun to discuss the book and also do a comparison to the TV show.

The novel is by Robert J Sawyer and has won the Aurora Award for Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy.

I’m not entirely sure how to categorize the novel. It is definitely science fiction, but seems to tread the line into Hard SF, though the emotional and social aspects might not make it seem that way.

On a personal level, I had a lot of fun with this book because it was like an evening of discussions in an old gaming group. The book ends up covering two of the most discussed and still debated topics in science in the past and still today.

But before I get to that, let’s do a quick “what is it about?” bit. The FlashForward novel deals with an ‘event’ where everyone in the world loses consciousness for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. When they came back to themselves and the pieces start getting put together, people realize that they viewed events 20 years in the future. The book follows the fallout from the FlashForward, and how these visions have impacted several key individuals who believe they might just be the cause of the event in the first place.

So two main topics discussed by individuals, which also throw in actual current scientific theories, are:

1)How time works – is it static, can the future be changed, are all moments in time ‘now’, freewill vs. predestination. (People can go hours and hours on this one! Been there, done that! Lol)

2)And the power of the observer. Does the consciousness of a scientist doing an experiment actually affect the experiment’s result? (Another big topic button in the gaming group! Lol.) This also leads to discussions on humanity and its consciousness as a whole and what effect it might have on our universe.

Much brain fodder to chew on.

There’s also the emotional questions that tie back to these two issues as our principals have seen futures they both do not like. I loved that Mr. Sawyer brings in stories from the Old World into it, tales and fables of the ancient Greeks, as they felt and dealt with some of the issues brought up by this event. And of course all the repercussions of people/countries knowing what has been seen in this future and how they decide to deal or not deal with what was seen.

Mr. Sawyer takes us through all of that. As a writer, I was especially thrilled to see where he saw the future of bookstores going. Hopefully some of them will take the hint and push in that direction. Heh heh. I think it would be cool and we’re headed in that way anyway.

I also learned some stuff, too. Somehow I had missed hearing about Brown Holes before. So I found the topic totally fascinating. And in a total clash of coincidence, I had a friend tell me about Felicia Day’s “Behind The Scenes: When Galaxies Collide” and had just watched it Thursday morning right before I got to the part of the book that mentioned the phenomenon as well. (Video is a lot of fun by the way, and quite educational to boot! Go Felicia!)

The book was definitely an interesting read on many levels and I enthusiastically give it a 4 out of 5 stars!

Now for fun, let’s do a comparison to the TV series.

****POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!!! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED*****

In the book, the ‘event’ occurs on 4/21/09 and gives (those who get one) a FlashForward glimpse of the year 2030 lasting for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The TV series has the ‘event’ happen in 2009 for six months later showing them a glimpse of 4/29/10.

A neat split about the visions between the two versions is that in Mr. Sawyer’s book, those catching a glimpse had no context of what their future selves were feeling, while in the TV version, those who piggy backed into their futures knew the emotional states of their other selves thus getting additional clues from their feelings at those times. Both sets had no control over their future bodies, and only saw and heard whatever their other selves were paying attention to or where around at the time.

The principals of the book are located in Geneva at CERN, a scientific center housing a Large Hadron Collider. The TV series has our principals centered in LA.
Interestingly, Lloyd Simcoe, a main character in the book and physicist, who also is inadvertently responsible for the ‘event’, is played in the series again as a catalyst, but seemingly a knowing one. In the book the FlashForward occurred due to a number of circumstances coming together in a focal point, which produced the event – a miraculous happenstance not foreseen by anyone. But in the TV series, it is an actual feat that has been done on purpose! And not for the first time!
With the new twist, Agent Mark Benford is introduced, so we have a spear for the action adventure we expect from our TV offerings. His wife’s FlashForward actually very much resembles the one had by Simcoe in the book. (Or so it seems!) Shoe on the other foot type of thing. So it tickled me a lot because in the TV show Simcoe is the one having the affair there as well.

Another cute twist sits with Agent Demetri Noh. In the TV show he becomes the duplicate for Lloyd Simcoe’s scientific partner Theo Procopides. Theo, like, Demetri, also had no FlashForward vision and also comes to find out that he was murdered, with three gun shots to the chest. Unlike the FBI agent, he has no idea why anyone would ever want to murder him. Theo has a brother, Dimitri, who takes matters into his own hands to force others to find out if the future is changeable or not, so could be possible Agent Noh’s first name might be another indirect plug at the book with Demetri/Dimitri. (That or I’m just reaching!)

Agent Benford has a young daughter, and Simcoe’s fiancé had one at the time of the event as well. Except Michiko’s daughter was one of the casualties of the event, while Benford’s daughter lives.

Mosaic exists in both places for the same purpose, but one was created and maintained by the CERN folks and the other by the FBI.

I’m very much looking to see how the show explains the event to compare against how Mr. Sawyer set his up.

Reading the book has definitely enhanced the TV show for me. Giving me more angles to look at things and comparing how the TV writers and the SF author do different takes on the same concept. Should be a blast to see how it all continues to develop! Looking forward to it!

Aion MMO

I've been playing MMO's for about 6 or 7 years now. Got my start on Star Wars Galaxies way back in the day. Have done many beta's and spent plenty of time online. The newest the family is trying is called Aion. It was developed in Korea and has now been opened to the states.

Totally gorgeous game. And has been proving a lot of fun so far. Well, as I tend to do when I go anywhere with a camera, I play tourist and takes tons of photos. Most MMO's let you do the same with screen prints. So I've taken a few over the last few weeks and thought I would share.

I'll put one or two up in the blog, but the full Album (only a few pics, I promise!) is on Flikr.



This is my main - Tarrah. Gladiator by profession. Also an armor smith.










A peek at Sanctum, one of the cities in the game.














One of the many cool vistas I've seen so far in the game.














It's amazing the gorgeous vistas here. Some of the creatures too are way neat to look at.

Will leave you with my hunky alt, Jarren.


If you play the game, come by and say 'howdy'! I am in the Blades of Ariel guild in the Ariel server.

Good gaming ya'll!

#FridayFlash - Harbinger

(My second contribution to #FridayFlash! Amazing how many times I went and edited something this short. lol. Probably still missed something as usual. Heh. Enjoy!)

When my gaze came across the man-sized raven I thought my heart would stop. It walked through the death shrouded streets as if the Grim Reaper could not touch it. A wide brimmed black hat adorned its head, the ensemble filled out with black cloak, black leggings, a touch of white at the cuffs and a ruffle around his neck. Its glassy, oversized eyes stared at everything around it, its long beak as dark as night. There were no wings that I could see. But it didn’t need them. It walked the streets easily, like everyone else, except for all the sick and dying.

The year 1665 had brought with it the Great Plague. Death danced amongst us. It dispensed its evil vapors to invade the unwary and add them to its ranks. It ripped families asunder without rhyme or reason. Its mark upon those chosen distinct and unassailable -- black blossoms at the neck, armpits, or groin. Raging fevers and headaches served as teasers of worse to come. Torturous pain twisted through the guts so those afflicted couldn’t forget their coming fate. Then, eventually, mercifully, the End.

And here was a raven, walking among us, its mere presence foretelling more would fall.

I watched it move from house to house. Those that still held life and hadn’t been boarded up to try to hold in the contagion or the ones belonging to those who’d fled the city hoping for fresher air. Its beak was closed tight though there were plenty of bodies it could have chosen to eat from. They were stacked on the cobbled streets waiting to be picked up for burial, the men burdened with the task coming later and later each day as the numbers needed to be disposed of rose.

The smell of rotting flesh, waste, fear and sweat rolled and coiled along the buildings clogging my nostrils, yet it didn’t bother me. There’d been too much of it for too long for me to truly notice it anymore.

My parents were gone, my sisters dead. Rank and privilege had meant nothing in the end. Perhaps this time the messenger had come for me. Or, if I was careful, I could follow it to its master. Perchance it’d show me mercy and take me swiftly rather than leave me to die in agony alone.

The raven’s circuitous route eventually took it to a small cottage beside a church. Once the door was closed I hurried forward to peek inside through a partially shaded window.

The wide brimmed hat came off revealing a head of white curling hair. A strap, previously hidden beneath it, was unbuckled. As I watched, the raven removed its beak and became a man. I recognize him. It was the local priest. His name tickled the edge of my memory, but I couldn’t quite recall it. I did remember it’d been said he was a doctor as well.

I watched him remove moss and herbs from within what I now knew to be a mask. He put them away in a sealed tin, adding bits of this and that before closing it. Then he made notes on an already handwriting filled paper.

A cure? Had he perhaps found a cure? Mayhap the priest had found a way to clear the air to stave off infection. Surely a man of the cloth wouldn’t be like the many who walked the streets claiming they’d been successful, dispensing their supposed wisdom for a fee. Hope rose in my breast, though since the cold had meant little to me this day, I had a feeling it might already be too late for me. Yet to think there might be a way to save those still here, to save brave London from Death’s siege! It made me optimistic that spring might yet come after all.

But as I continued to watch him busily scrawling away, I realized the hope was futile. Whatever method he was trying didn’t work. For there, on his neck, was a red circle which grew darker as I stared.

The priest was doomed.

The man-like raven had been a harbinger, but the message it carried this day hadn’t been for me.

Gloria Oliver

Unveiling the Fantastic

www.gloriaoliver.com

Vassal of El Book Trailer

I'm working on these slow but sure! Finally got the second of the four/five book trailers I need to work up. Ugh! Hopefully it's not too lame. You'd be surprised at just how long it takes to find images to fit fantasy novels! Oi!

Enjoy!

Saturday of EVIL!

Evil! eVil! evIl! eviL!
Dum dum DUM!!!

(Okay, yeah, I know it's a little early for so much melodrama, but I figured what the hey!) :P

Was an outright ugly weird day yesterday. I'd caught hubby's virus on Friday and have been running mad fever since then. Kinda scary when the Tylenol doesn't even make it hesitate. Reason I went home from work!

So Saturday I still have my fever hanging around. But have a huge To Do List as I normally do on Saturdays - crit for writers' group, edit for hubby's boss' latest chapter on his mystery novel (doing the guy a favor), burn promo CD's for FenCon next week, check out widgets for possibly adding to the website, check the new Html/Xhtml/CSS book we bought to learn new trick, do marketing, and catch up one email. Oh and still need to make another book trailer video. Argh! Full plate as you can see.

Hacking away at what I could only to figure out I can't stand being in the office room/library as the pressure from all the rain and whatever bug I have keep giving me a pounding headache. All's good in the living room though. So I sit and catch up one some Hojo Tsukasa and some other items I've let fall behind on the reading front and even take a crack at the html book to check it out.

Keep taking meds as as soon as the stuff runs out I feel it all come back. Sucker wants to stay! Dang.

Try to work on the computer again as my hands are itching to try some of the exercises in the book. Still get a pounding headache just sitting there for 5 minutes. Grrrr.

Finally get the brilliant idea of moving the files I need to crit/edit to the laptop! Heck will move the exercise pages there too! If I can hold out maybe I can play with that as well.

Finally, some productivity! Booyah! Ah, but if I'd only know. The EVIL was about to pounce...

Couple of hours and finished the crit. One down! Went on to the edit for 2.5 hours. Smelled a weird burning smell, so moved the laptop bag out from underneath it, just in case, but figure it is most probably cat hair that's swung up into the lamp. (Don't ask - cat hair seems to get into EVERYTHING when it's in the mood! :P) Been saving as I went along as I usually do. Sigh with satisfaction as I finished and hit the button...

Weird messages pop up on the screen. Can't communicate with network drive. Like, what network drive? This sucker isn't in a network! Cannot write to file w5689 or some such. Wait a minute! That's not the name of my file!

Word goes belly up. My worry quotient skyrockets! Reopen Word. Click for the file to open. Can't find the file. What????

Time to open Explorer. Do multiple searches, the last for any files changed on 9/12. Nothing with the name on either drive. There is one recovered.txt file. Open it, loads and loads of ??? on the pages. Occasional words, enough to let me know this is Jerry's file. OH MY LORD! 99.8% Garbage.

No temp files nowhere. Getting desperate. Call for hubby, who's home, hoping for some miracle insight.

Walk through everything I've already tried. Make sure I didn't save it to the removable drive. No, nothing. It's gone. 2.5 hours of work down the toilet.

But, weirdly enough, I actually handle it well! Much to my shock, to be honest. Was sure I was going to start bawling or pitch the laptop or something. Had to be the fever. Who knew those things could keep you calm! lol.

Beaten and defeated, but keeping it together...sent Jerry a Good News/Bad News email and then crashed.

Oh the humanity! Not looking forward to having to recreate all those edits again. But did give me something for this post! Bwahahahahaha. Still need to get the promo stuff done. We'll see.

So that was my Saturday of EVIL. :P