This Week

This week’s been flat out awesome. I was interviewed Tuesday for a couple of hours on the Blasters and Blades Podcast, and the national show will air in mid-February. I’ll be sure and put up the date when it’s in stone. The podcast is for sci-fi authors, and I have to tell you I was impressed with the host JR Handley. Great questions, and a true love of the genre. He asked if I’d sit in on a panel discussing some of the current and classic science fiction books and movies.

Gotta say, I look forward to that. All in all, it was a real pleasure.

Kevin Steverson and I will be doing a podcast with them later in the Spring as we get closer (Think May) for the release of the anthology I told you guys about and the release of the first book in our new series. I’m just about done with book 1, perhaps another week tops.

Kevin told me earlier yesterday that the publisher already set release dates for the first three books. Since I’m just finishing book 1, I may be a little busy on the keyboard over the next couple of months, especially since I’ll be meeting up with the publisher in late February at Confinement7 Con. Like I said, it’s been an awesome week.

Now for some fun: If any of you are so inclined, I’d like to hear back from you on a couple of questions. Simple stuff, but fun to know from a writing standpoint. The questions?

What do you like most when reading a book? What is it in the story that you appreciate the most? Characters? Action? A little romance? Something deeper? You tell me your preferences and thoughts.

One last query. JR, the host of the podcast I spoke with the other evening, asked a great question that I’ll throw to you. Shoot me an answer, and, if you do, please tell me the ‘why’.

Star Wars, Star Trek or Firefly? What’s your favorite of these?

All three were groundbreaking for different reasons, and all three are classics, again for different reasons.

Star Wars, like Raiders of the Lost Ark, brought back that Saturday matinee type of feeling. Big heroes, big stories…very definite good guys versus bad guys. Classic good and evil archetypes. Even pioneering special effects never seen before. I don’t think anyone who saw it when it first came out will forget the feeling of awe in the opening sequence, and the scrolling backstory at the beginning was a bit of a trailblazer in its own right.

Star Trek? The idea that we as a species could find a way past our earthbound habit of kicking each other’s respective asses every thirty years or so was pretty pioneering. Remember, this was 1965, and the crew of the Enterprise faced dangers out there united by a common mission. A lot’s been made of the word ‘diversity’, and the first time I heard it was in the Vulcan philosophy of IDIC, which meant Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Like I said, pioneering. On top of that, special effects for a television show that lit the fire of imagination in this little guy in San Jose, California. The flame still burns brightly.

Firefly. Captain Mal and his crew of semi-criminal types, rogues and saviors. Some of the best writing I’ve ever seen, as I’ve stated before. Sadly, because Fox Entertainment didn’t know what they had at the time, it was cancelled well before it was done. We only got fifteen episodes and a movie to tie up the loose ends. Gorram suits!

Still. Freakin’ genius. Brown Coats rule!

That’s it. That’s all. At least until next time. Don’t let your gaze and imagination be locked into the mud, everyone. Look up and let your imaginations soar!

Craig