The Zeke Proper Chronicles...Book Set Available NOW!

If you missed the book launch party for Book Three of THE ZEKE PROPER CHRONICLES, The Gates of Asgard, don't worry! Book One, Two and Three are all available on your Nook and Kindle and can all be purchased on Amazon here. Get your book set now and let me know what you think!

(c) Brad Cameron

*Stay tuned for the launch of my monthly FEATURED AUTHOR blog event! If you would like to be a featured author on my blog, email my PR, Cassie at cassiemcrosby@yahoo.com for all of the information!

Guest Blog - Jason Andrew Bond

For this week's guest blog, I am pleased to introduce author, Jason Andrew Bond. Make sure to check out the links to his social media pages, website, and literary works following this article.

 

What Getting Punched in the Face Taught Me about Writing

 

I’ve been training in martial arts since I was eighteen years old. That’s twenty years of cracked shins, pulled tendons, and bruised forearms. I’ve trained under the former U.S. Taekwondo Olympic Head Coach, a Muay Thai heavyweight champion, and a U.S. Martial Arts Hall of Famer. Believe me when I tell you, it all hurt.

During those years of training I had a critical problem; I’m wasn't very good. I’ve got poor timing, weak balance, and slow reaction time. Rather, I had those things. After twenty years, I can block or dodge most punches and kicks, my balance is much improved, and I can land a few good shots.

It’s important for me to qualify that I still feel like an idiot compared to some of my more talented training partners. However, if you watched me spar or grapple, you’d probably think I knew what I was doing.  You might just see me win against some pretty talented fighters… might. There’s a lot you won’t see, though. Buried in what I can do are years of losses and injuries. In my younger days, I went home many times with my ego so bruised I could barely look in the mirror. Seeing only the skill a person has and not what he or she went through to get it is a dangerous misperception. To successfully walk a path one must be aware of the entire journey, not simply the destination. 

It is critical to understand that anything done well, must first be done badly. This truth is often where people struggle. I’ve seen it for twenty years in martial arts. New students arrive with images of themselves stronger, fitter, and able to defend themselves. That’s all great. However, the truth is that training hurts the body and ego. People feel awkward when they try to throw their first punches and weak because they can’t keep up with the class. These physical and mental challenges cause most people to quit within the first few months because they did not expect nor appreciate those feelings. Yet, it is exactly these feelings of apparent failure we must pass through to find success.

The same reality of skill development applies to writing, but there is an even deeper failure rate due to a key problem. Most people will look at a martial artist throwing kicks and blocking punches and think, “Wow, that’s a different level of skill.” It’s not always that way for writing. 

Many people—and I’ve heard this sentiment several times—think that they can write a good story on the first or second go, and that simply isn’t possible. If you gave me two challenges, holding off a friend of mine named Jacob—who’s 265 lbs and recently fought and won in a local MMA cage fight—and writing a story I can guarantee people will like, I’ll take the fight.  It’s so much easier to control. Let me reiterate that.  A 265 lb. cage fighter is easier to control than a reader’s perception of a fiction story. In a fight, I know when I’m winning. I know when I’m losing. Writing is in no way that clear. It’s a shadowy art in which you paint in the darkness of another person’s mind. You will never know the exact impact your words have. 

Most aspiring authors don’t realize how difficult fiction writing is until they get their first reader reactions. The author is excited and sure the reader will love the work, and the reader winces and says, “Well, it was okay, but…” This realization that the new author has not been able to create a masterwork can shock the ego so badly that he or she may give up. Don’t let that be you! I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it many more: The only time we truly fail, no matter how many rejections we receive or how many matches we lose, is the moment we stop trying. 

So what should you do? Write. Write badly. You will at first. Unless you’re that one lightning bolt—odds are you aren’t—you’ll need practice. How much? Malcolm Gladwell has written a book on what makes people successful called Outliers. I highly recommend it. I’ll leave the specific details to your reading, but the core comes down to hard work. How much? 10,000 hours. That may sound like less than it is. Trust me, it’s a LOT. I’ve been tracking my writing time over the last several years, and I’m still nowhere near that mark. However, if you want to compete with King, Rowling, and Sparks, you better be willing to put in that level of time. 

Now I’m going to offer my most important advice: Don’t listen to me. You don’t want advice from a guy who doesn’t have his 10,000 hours in yet. Go to the experts. During my martial arts lifetime I’ve learned from first degree black belts and ninth degree black belts. I’ve attended seminars with a local stick fighter and seminars with world class fighters like Danny Inosanto. The first degree black belts can get you off the ground, but they can only raise you up so high. If you want to be competitive with the big names of writing, if you want to perfect your voice and art, then you need to be mentored by those with 10,000 hours. 

The good news: That mentorship is there for you. I begin each writing day by reading from a how-to book by a bestselling author or professional editor. If you focus on the advice of these people, you will find valuable wisdom and—much more importantly—an intensely positive energy. As a starting point, I recommend the book Stein on Writing by Sol Stein. You want to be a skilled writer? Become a skilled editor.

So the secret to great writing presents itself as 10,000 hours of work, and many, many failures. But when you fail, if you see it correctly, you will move toward success. How can you develop a skill through failure? Believe me, when that boxing glove comes through your guard and connects with your face, your motivation to block the next punch is fairly intense.

Now stop reading this and get back to writing! 

All the best,

Jason

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Jason.Andrew.Bond  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonAndrewBond
Website: https://www.JasonAndrewBond.com  

Guest Blog - J. Keller Ford

This week, I am excited to announce J. Keller Ford as my guest blogger. 

As a young Army brat, Reader's Choice award winner J. (Jenny) Keller Ford, traveled the world and wandered the halls of some of Germany's most extraordinary castles hoping to find the dragons, knights and magic that haunted her imagination. Though she never found them, she continues to keep their legends alive. Her story, The Amulet of Ormisez, is available as part of the MAKE BELIEVE anthology. Dragon Flight, is slated for publication in December 2013. When not at her keyboard breathing new life into fantasy worlds, Jenny spends time collecting seashells, bowling, swimming, riding roller coasters and reading. She works as a paralegal by day and lives on the west coast of Florida with her family, three dogs, and a pretentious orange cat who must have been a dragon in his previous life.

What is there not to love about YA fantasy, science fiction and dystopians?  Today, they top the charts with both young and old readers alike. Authors like Cassandra Claire (City of Bones, et. al), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), Veronica Roth, (Divergent)”, and Stephanie Meyer (Twilight) are household names, ranking up there with the likes of C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, J.R. R. Tolkien and Roald Dahl.  But what makes these stories so popular, and why do so many authors, including myself, want to join the ranks? 

To me, YA FanSiFiTopians are the ultimate escape.  Whether set in an urban town, a destroyed society or in a different world with magical strange creatures and beings, young adult literature opens the mind to possibilities, imagination, and the conviction, even as adults, that anything can happen if you believe.  Tap into the teen side of you, the one that is invincible, the one that can take on the world.  Stop being a grown up.  For me, tapping into that young adult part of me provides freedom and unlimited possibilities, not only in my writing but in my perspective of the world.

Writing YA fantasy is exhilarating to me.  I’m not confined to a certain set of laws, reality.  I can create my own worlds and civilizations.  Whatever rules there are, I make up.  I decide.  The universe is mine to toy with.  If I want dragons to have tea time or monkeys to ride on the backs of pterodactyls, I have the power to make it happen.  The only limitation is my imagination.  The hard part is making the reader suspend their beliefs long enough to come along with me on the journey.

Easy?  Yes and no.  Writing fantasy means letting your imagination go while equally balancing it with reality.  Readers need something, someone they can connect with when they read fantasy.  They need a reason to go on the journey.  Characters have to have traits that are relatable.  Scenery needs to be familiar.  Magic needs to be obtainable.  For me, friends, family, strangers are a wonderful source of inspiration.  I listen to conversations, watch the way people move. I study people.  Do they have a contagious smile, Confidence?  Swagger?  For scenery, I look around me. I pull on memories of where I’ve been in my life and if I can, I travel.  I was lucky as a child to have traveled around the world.  My inspiration for writing fantasy came at a very early age while hopping from one German castle to another, walking the ancient towns, touring the ancient ruins, and staring in awe at Neuschwanstein, longing to claim that castle and its grounds as my own. Wondering what it would be like to battle a dragon clinging to one of its many towers.  Escaping through hidden passages. While the internet and books are amazing for research, they don’t take the place of actual hands-on contact.  Once you feel it, touch it, you know how you can manipulate it.  At least that’s what I find works best for me.

Of course, not everyone can travel so they must rely on the internet and books for research.  I, myself, have had to rely on several sources to learn medieval terminology, the types of clothes different classes of people wore and what they were called.  I think the more we educate ourselves in reality and cultures, the more ability we have to twist them to our wants and needs.  Once we incorporate reality with fiction, the reader begins to suspend belief. 

What also helps me in writing is taking what the experts say about writing to heart…and then tossing it out the window.  What makes these best-selling authors, best-selling?  They broke the rules.  They gave the world something it didn’t have.  They dared to be different, to be bold.  I think it’s important to follow our gut, find our own style, our own rhythm, and stop trying to be the next Rowling or Meyers. Be yourself.  Be genuine.

I have also found that it works best to just write until the novel is finished.  I used to be one of these people who had to revise Chapter 1 a gazillion times before moving on to Chapter 2.  What a silly way to tackle a project.  My advice…write.  Write, write, write until you put “The End” on the final page.  There’ll be plenty of time for edits once your novel is finished and you pop it out to trusty beta readers/critique partners in your target audience group.  Yes, it hurts, but it is necessary to let the rabid dogs rip your manuscript apart.  Trust me; a great beta reader will remove one layer of tarnish after another until your masterpiece shines.  I would be lost without my beta readers.  I cannot put a price on how valuable they are.  And I know when that manuscript is finally polished, I’m ready to take the next step…submission.

But that’s an entirely different beast all together.

Thank you, Brad, for hosting me.  It’s been fun.

 

Website 

Blog 

Twitter  

Facebook  

 

Published works:

 

Dragon Flight - ONE MORE DAY anthology - J. Taylor Publishing.  Releases December 2, 2013

 

 

The Amulet of Ormisez - Make Believe Anthology; J. Taylor Publishing - Released December 2, 2012

 

 

 

Guest Blog- Courtney Pierce

This week's guest blog is by a friend and fellow author.  Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer and lives Milwaukie, Oregon, with her husband of thirty-four years and bossy cat. Her passion to write came from sitting in a theater seat. She studied what moved audiences as incredible stories unfolded on the stage. After a twenty-year career as a marketing executive in the Broadway entertainment industry, she made the leap to full-time fiction writer in 2011.

 

A Boomer Couple’s Magical Legacy

So, is my book happy speculative fiction?

Possibly peppy Baby Boomer paranormal?

It’s magical realism. The real can be magical.

In my trilogy series, the ghosts give guidance outside of the boundaries of life; a reach-out with answers of right and wrong beyond the lessons of their long-ago earthly upbringing. The immortals are sweeter than Leave it to Beaver; more honest than All in the Family.

The first book, Stitches, introduces two childless Baby Boomers who want a little magic in their lives after thirty-two years in the corporate grind. They’ve sold out to corporate America, and corporate America, in turn, sold them out. That’s when they discover a magical piece of fabric in an old chest from estate sale.

Heirlooms really do have a life of their own, and so do their former owners in the afterlife. The fabric holds the key to immortality—and it takes the couples’ lives from ordinary to extraordinary. While my books are not without their deadly moments, my protagonists embrace the magic in their life—real magic. They are life spies with secret information and use it to solve crimes with the FBI. They want to get the bad guys. But the underlying theme is this couple’s struggle with the choice of becoming immortal with the fabric. For them, the prospect of immortality ignites a quest for adventure, to right the wrongs in society, and also to create a lasting legacy in this life.

They use their magical power to help people, choosing to make the most of the here and now against the ticking clock.

In life’s third act, leaving a legacy is important. And it becomes even more important when you don’t have children. Who wants to fade away with a remote control in their hand without having done something significant? My characters want to help people one person at a time. No fanfare. No recognition. And they don’t want their names on a building. In fact, they want to stay anonymous.

What would you do if you had the choice to become immortal? Would you make the most of what you have today? Or, would you live for the eternal life that’s waiting for you on the other side?

Hmmm...questions to ponder.

Baby Boomers are retiring at a rate of over ten thousand per day. I’m one of them, smack in the middle at fifty-four. My husband is sixty-two and still believes that vinyl records are superior technology to anything else out there. I think he might be right. We think of ourselves as immortal, stuck in a time when we stood up for what’s right and pounded our feet on the pot-holed pavement of wrongs. Like the music we listened to, we’ll never die. We’re spurred on to victory by Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie, and Iggy Pop.

Oh....and we believe that animals know more than people do.

It may sound Pollyanna, but look at the courage of those in Egypt who are fighting for a better life. Not so Pollyanna. Not so far off from society’s turning point in the 1960s.

Leaving a legacy is not easy. What’s going to be yours? 

 

 

Stitches is the first book of a trilogy about a boomer couple’s journey of living with magic. It’s a little Antiques Roadshow and History Detectives combined with the sparkling relationship of Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man series—with a magical twist.

Stitches is available at Amazon.com in soft cover and as an e-book for the Kindle. Other e-book formats are available at Smashwords.com.

Brushes, the second book of the series, will be released in September, 2013. The third book, Riffs, is due out in 2014.

Guest Blog- Jennifer Willis

I am excited to host another friend and author, Jennifer Willis.  Jennifer Willis is an author and journalist in Portland, Oregon. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Oregonian,
Salon.com, The Christian Science Monitor, The Writer, and other electronic and print publications at home and across the globe.
　

 

GET OUT!

Many writers are solitary creatures. It's an occupational hazard. We hole up in home offices or even at tiny desks in closets. Unless we’re living with a partner or roommates, we might go days without so much as making eye contact with another human being. Granted, other writers are more social and thrive on noise and chaos. I am not one of those people, and most of the novice and experienced writers I know find writing to be a somewhat lonely practice.

It's important to get out—not just to step away from the desk, but to actually leave the office (and the house) . . . and to leave my own comfort zone. Unless my immediate material focuses solely on secluded navel-gazing, one of the worst things I can do as a writer is to permanently hole up inside my own cocoon.

But getting out doesn't mean that I'm not still working.　I have two paths to "off-campus" productivity:

• Embracing the non-ordinary.

• Adventures in co-working and write-ins.

Embracing the non-ordinary

 

To keep work—and life — from getting stale, I remind myself to keep a look-out for new experiences. It could be as simple as trying a new route to the library, or as extreme as going skydiving for the first time.

If an opportunity presents itself—an invitation to play paintball, a friend who needs a companion for a tour of Kenya, a class on underwater basket-weaving—I figure, why not? If my first, knee-jerk reaction is to reject it, I'll take a moment to consider: Is this opportunity really too time-consuming, out of my way, or otherwise inconvenient? Or does it simply require me to step outside my comfort zone?

 

Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

 

I do try to be smart about this; with my chronic dysautonomia, not every physical activity is appropriate or even possible. But when I take chances—solo travel to a country where I don’t speak the language, or trying street hockey when I can barely skate—I've found that wonderful things can happen. I meet new people, get plenty of new story ideas, and have a lot more fun than I’d have sitting in the home office day after day.

 

Adventures in co-working and write-ins

 

This part is not as sexy, but it's a necessary part of my productivity puzzle.

About a year ago, a wonderful little coffee shop opened up in my neighborhood. The staff is friendly, the tea and baked goods are delicious, the WiFi is strong, and the location can't be beat—I can walk there through the park! It's the perfect environment for productive research, writing, and editing away from my desk.

Still, it was a solitary exercise. So, when National Novel Writing Month rolled around last November, I hosted my first-ever write-ins. I planned a schedule—two mornings a week—and invited other NaNoWriMo participants to join me. I met a dozen other local writers this way—people I otherwise might never have connected with. One of these writers has been a regular co-working buddy ever since.

 

Hosting a Write-In

 

What to look for in a write-in location:

 

• Coffee/tea menu—do I have to explain this? Food also helps.

 

• Adequate seating. Not everyone has to sit together, but you should all be able to assemble within easy earshot of each other.

 

• Power outlets. Call ahead to ask about available outlets if you're not sure. I tend to carry an extension cord and a power strip with me, just in case.

 

• Noise level. You don't want to have to whisper to each other so as not to disturb the other patrons, but you don't want to have to be shouting over the coffee machines and the house music, either.

 

• Groovy staff. Giving the staff a heads-up about your gathering—even if it's just three people—can go a long way to a great writerly experience.

 

• YOU! Show up and write already.

 

Traveling is also a great time to investigate co-working opportunities, wherever you happen to land.

 

When I was working in Dublin in the fall of 2011, I looked around my neighborhood for cafés with WiFi access. That was pretty much useless. I then realized that, of course, Dublin would have co-working facilities!  After a quick Google search, I settled on AMWorks and it was just about perfect—good layout, clean, quiet, and convenient to public transportation. Plus, the people were friendly and respectful. The week I spent in those offices was pure gold.

 

When you need to "get out," don't be afraid of trying something new—whether it's a clown college seminar, hosting a write-in at your local hang-out, or even finding an office-away-from-home in a foreign city. I find the novelty and camaraderie to be priceless when it comes to real productivity.

　

-Jennifer Willis

 

She can be found online:

Website: jennifer-willis.com

Twitter: @jenwillis

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jennifer-Willis-Author-Journalist/204194152935131?fref=ts

 

Her novels—Rhythm (2001), Valhalla (2011), and Iduna's Apples (2012) —are currently available both as ebooks and in print.

Guest Blog by Pam Bainbridge-Cowan

This week, I am excited to host a fellow author and friend, Pam Bainbridge-Cowan. Pam is the author of The Butterfly--Book one in the Yetzirah: The Pocket Worlds series. Her short stories have appeared in Alien Skin, Argus, Space and Time, Visions, and various anthologies, and have been read on Golden Hours Radio. Former editor of the speculative fiction magazine, Nanobison, she is currently marketing director of the Northwest Independent Writers Association. She lives in Oregon's Willamette Valley, with her husband and various four-legged roommates. As P.J. Cowan she also writes mystery and suspense thrillers.

THE NUMBER 13: LEGENDS AND MYTHS

As a writer of mysteries and suspense thrillers I spend a lot of time researching various rather peculiar, some might say creepy, topics. When I decided to write a short story for an anthology whose theme was the number 13 I was pretty sure my search would result in some interesting information. I had no idea I’d be stumbling over the bizarre, and yes creepy, once again.

Of course I knew there was superstition around the number 13 and that many considered it unlucky. For instance, airlines have no 13^th row of seats, some hotels won’t assign number 13 to a room, and high rises will number the 13^th floor 14. (As if that fools anyone)

But there are many phobias, and the fear is not always based in reality. The fear of 13 has a name, triskaidekaphobia. A fear of Friday the 13^th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia from Frigge, the Norse goddess for whom Friday is named.

 Many of us are aware that it’s considered bad luck to invite 13 people to dinner. This may be based on simple coincidence, such as the Christians belief that there were 13 guests at the Last Supper, Judas being the 13^th. There is also a story that 12 Norse gods were sitting down to a banquet to which Loki, the 13^th, was uninvited. This led Loki to kill one of the other gods, which led to events that eventually resulted in Ragnarok — the death of a number of gods, a slew of natural disasters, and the eradication of everything on earth save for two human survivors.

For an opposing view, there is also a contingent that believes the number 13 is lucky, especially for the United States. They will point out that the U.S. flag originally had 13 stars, and still has 13 stripes. That on the dollar bill there are 13 steps in the pyramid of the Great Seal. The motto above the pyramid, which reads “Annuit Coeptis,” has 13 letters; the eagle on the right side has a ribbon in its beak that bears the motto “E pluribus unum,” which also contains 13 letters. The eagle has 13 tail feathers, and on its breast there is a shield of 13 stripes. In one talon the eagle holds 13 arrows, and in the other an olive branch with 13 leaves and 13 berries. Over the eagle’s head are 13 stars that form the six-pointed “Star of David.” The phrase “July the Fourth” contains 13 letters and the number 4 (1+3), the birth number of the U.S. (July 4, 1776).

In my research I came across another interesting fact. The number 13 has similar folkloric legends in many cultures all around the world.

One explanation is that cultures who use lunisolar calendars (such as the Hebrew and Chinese calendars) must have 13 months in some years in order to synchronize the solar and lunar cycles. The occasional year which contained 13 full moons instead of 12 posed problems for those, usually monks, who were in charge of the calendars. This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, as it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. Could this be the real reason thirteen came to be considered an unlucky number?

What is it about calendars? Didn’t we spend a lot of time in 2012 talking about the Mayan Calendar? The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun was superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic.

Another calendar-based theory is that in ancient cultures, the number 13 represented femininity, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). (When Chinese women make offerings of moon cakes, there are sure to be 13 on the platter. Thirteen is the number of blood, fertility, and lunar potency.) As the patriarchy became stronger the number 13 was vilified.

Calendars and the moon aside, there do seem to be some rather eerie stories and coincidences around the number 13.

The troubled Apollo 13 mission was launched on March 11, 1970. It was written: 4-11-70. The numbers added up to 13. There were more 13s associated with the troubled mission. Like a Discovery Channel report read, "To reach its landing site on the moon, Apollo 13 would launch at 1:13 pm Houston time, or 13:13 on a 24-hour military clock. From there, the crew would enter the moon's gravitational pull on April 13." Yet, despite all those 13s, all crew members of Apollo 13 got back to Earth safely.

Winchester House, in Northern California, is one of the most famous “haunted” houses in the world. Whether or not one believes in Mrs. Winchester’s superstitions about spirits, it’s harder to dismiss occurrences of the number 13 throughout the house. Many windows have 13 panes and there are 13 bathrooms, with 13 windows in the 13th Bathroom. There are also 13 wall panels in the room prior to the 13th Bathroom, and 13 steps leading to that bathroom. The Carriage Entrance Hall floor is divided into 13 cement sections. There are even 13 hooks in the Séance Room, which supposedly held the different colored robes Mrs. Winchester wore while communing with the spirits.

A hangman's noose traditionally has 13 knots. Lesser knots could lead to inhumane suffocation. "Did you ever see a hangman tie a hangknot?/ I've seen it many a time and he winds, he winds / After thirteen times he's got a hangknot," sang Woody Guthrie.

The thirteenth trump card in a Tarot deck is the death card. Typically, it shows a skeleton riding a horse, carrying a black flag.

The names Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all contain 13 letters.

My search for information about 13 led to my most disturbing finding, a website maintained by a man who quotes from the bible to prove that the number 13 is satanic and is being used to promote the occult. He notes, “Mark 17:21-23 says that there are 13 evils in the human heart.”

He also writes that, “All children today go to school for 13 years (kindergarten plus 1-12 grades). It used to only be 12 years. But they kicked the Bible and prayer out in 1963 and then added kindergarten (making it 13 years). You have to go for 13 years to have your faith destroyed in God.

He is also very clear about the association between Heavy Metal and the number 13. “That’s what Heavy Metal Rock all about, that is, the total destruction of the United States of America.” He also notes other associations between evil and the number 13. “E pluribus unum (13 letters). New world order (13 letters). Annuit Coeptis (13 letters). Obviously he is viewing these same coincidences, which some see as favorable, in an entirely negative light. He also points to these inevitable dates as if they carried some special meaning. “After 12/21/2012 will comes 01/13/2013. What will the year 2013 hold for the world?”

Maybe it’s just this sort of eccentric view of a natural occurrence, stated with authority and not closely questioned, that leads to superstitions such as those surrounding the number 13. In any case I was happy to continue my online search for the unique properties of 13 at more science-based sites.

I learned that 13 is a natural number after 12 and before 14. It is the smallest number with eight letters in its name spelled out in English.

I also found that Friday turns out to be the most common weekday on which the 13th of a month can occur in the Gregorian calendar.

The number 13 is the sixth prime number and the smallest emirp (prime which is a different prime when reversed). It is also a Fibonacci number, a happy number and one of only 2 known Wilson primes. (I have no idea what a Fibonacci, a happy number or a Wilson prime is, but at least they’re not scary.)

In conclusion: Whether 13 is unlucky, lucky, or simply a number with no deeper meaning is something I will leave you to decide. I haven’t made up my mind and will have to think about it some more. In the meanwhile I’m going to go pour a cup of coffee and hunt up my favorite 13, a baker’s dozen — of donuts!

-Pam Bainbridge-Cowan

Links:
Website: http://www.pambainbridgecowan.com/
Website: http://www.authorpjcowan.com/
Facebook: http://www.authorpjcowan.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Just_Pam
Email: pam@pambainbridgecowan.com

Guest Blog- Brad Wheeler

My featured guest blogger this week is my friend and author, Brad Wheeler. He is the author of Fugitives from Earth, a hard science fiction space opera set in a spacefaring future inspired by Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Larry Niven.  Make sure to check out his links at the bottom of this post for more information.  Here is Brad Wheeler:

I want to talk about a different type of mythology. I'm getting away from dictionary definitions here, because what I want to talk about has nothing to do with sacred narratives or ancient heroes striding into conflict with gods and titans. Rather, I want to talk about a far more recent past and heroes both more and less down to Earth.

This is a hilarious pun, as you'll see in a moment.

When Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012, he was mourned by the entire world. He represented everything that was good about the USA: he was capable, but humble. Strong, but circumspect. He was a celebrity because of his scientific accomplishments, something that very few men (and perhaps no women) have ever achieved.

People in the spaceflight and planetary science communities mourned him for all these reasons, of course. They're still people. But they also mourned him because of what he represented: a space-faring future that never was.

In retrospect, once we had beaten the Soviet Union to the moon, political will to power evaporated. We got the Space Shuttle, which was still impressive but felt like a step backward. Skylab was short-lived. Mir was only headline news when it broke. And yet, there was always hope, dimmed though it was, of the glory days of Apollo returning, where the future would once again stretch out before us to an impossibly distant horizon.

Armstrong's death changed nothing concrete, of course. He'd been largely out of the public eye for years and had a minimal effect on policy. And yet, in the minds of people still yearning for Mars bases and space hotels and day trips to the moon, his death seemed in an instant to turn from all that from possibility to mythology.

Let us take a moment to admire an example of what we might have had.

My personal favorite is this design for a US Air Force space warship (link: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/realdesigns.php#id--Project_Orion_Battleship). She would have carried hundred of bombs, not as weapons, but as its propulsion system. Every five seconds, a bomb would explode behind the ship, propelling it forward like gunpowder propels a bullet. And she was armed to fight the ships that other nations like the USSR would invariably launch. I'm glad we don't have warfare in space, but we're not much closer to having the engineering expertise to build one of these than we were in 1970.

A more peaceful and realistic plan was to use leftover resources from the Apollo program to send astronauts on a yearlong mission to Venus (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby) and, at somewhat greater distance, to Mercury. This would have been by far the longest time men had spent in space, and would've taken them tens of thousands of times farther away than their lunar-lander comrades. Unlike the Air Force warship, we had the technology to do this, but we don't any longer--much the knowledge required has been lost through the decades. We're better at putting people in space for a long time, but not necessarily much better at getting them up there.

Here's the real kick, though, and the reason why I find all of this so interesting: the future that it describes could still be ours. All we need is the will to make it. Neil Armstrong won't live to see it, but if groups like SpaceX and the Planetary Society have their way, there's no reason why you and I won't. That's why this is my very favorite bit of mythology: it didn't happen...but it still could.

Brad Wheeler is the author of Fugitives from Earth

Find him on:

His blog: http://thetenthword.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ordersponge

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mr_bradwheeler

Amazon Author Central: http://amazon.com/author/bradwheeler

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4959290-brad-wheeler

Guest Author-Tonya Macalino

Tonya Macalino is my guest blogger today.  She is the author of The Shades of Venice series.  These novels are urban fantasy thrillers featuring folklore and folk history from the collapsing canals and alleyways of Venice.

Leda and the Swan: From the End of The Age of Heroes Rises a New Legend

Once upon a time…

Once upon time, a single moment, a typical moment of amorous indiscretion brought about the end of The Age of Heroes. For in that moment, the leader of the Greek gods, the almighty Zeus, took the form of a swan to mask from his ever-jealous wife Hera another of his endless pursuits. With Leda, Queen of Sparta, he begat that ending in the shining form of Helen.

 

Helen of Sparta, who was to become Helen of Troy, received the gift of beauty, but was denied the gifts of honest love and deepest friendship. Twice kidnapped—once by Theseus and once by Paris—because of her beauty and divine heritage, she lived ultimately to become the downfall of Troy. The face that launched a thousand ships.

A generation of heroes died on the plains of Troy not to see her liberated or even truly to see her husband’s pride avenged, but simply because, as her former suitors, these kings and heroes had been made to swear an oath to defend the marriage lest the losers in the bid for her hand slaughter one another.

An oath to prevent a slaughter.

An oath culminating in ten years of bloody war. Ten years that would leave Helen friendless on either side of the ramparts and throughout the civilized world long after the war was over. Passed along from the burning ruins of a once great city, she would continue to be a pawn in the plots of gods and kings until her life was ultimately ended by them.

But something else passed along from those burning ruins, something arose, slowly from the end of The Age of Heroes. Antenor, advisor to the royal Trojan family, escaped the flames with his Veneti. They fled the Aegean and emerged into the Adriatic, settling Pavatium in 1183 B.C.

Near noble Pavatium, or Padua as it was to become known, were a chain of islands in the lagoon, a place to flee to during the relentless sieges and raids of the Huns and Romans. Rife with mosquitoes and diseases, the islands became a refuge for the descendants of these Veneti.

A lagoon, a scattering of islands.

The legendary empire of The Most Serene Republic…of Venice.

Helen and her tragedy would live on in thousands of years of myth built up into the romantic, decaying city of Venice we know today. Myths of mermaids, sea creatures, doomed monks, vengeful Doges…and of fairy-witches known as fate. Yes, fate. Whether because the Veneti brought Leda, Helen, and their capricious gods with them, or because of a Roman influence, the three sister Fates found their reincarnation in the stories of the lagoon.

Stories that continue to lurk in our psyches on into the modern day.

But now I invite you to come a little further forward, one hundred years—a mere moment in the time of myth—and watch a new woman, Alyse Kate Bryant, struggle to become disentangled from those fated, flooded ruins…as the legends of Venice rise again.

 

Here are some links to keep up on the words and works of Tonya:

 

Website: www.tonyamacalino.com

The Story of Place Blog: http://www.tonyamacalino.com/Blog.html

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TonyaMacalino

The Myth Makers Newsletter: www.facebook.com/TheMythMakers

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Tonya-Macalino/e/B0058U4TJA/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/tonyamacalino

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/TonyaMacalino

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/tonyamacalino/

 

FACES IN THE WATER - Book Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Faces-Water-Shades-Venice-Episode/dp/098363033X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1332452714&sr=8-3

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/faces-in-the-water-tonya-macalino/1107970376?ean=2940013883406&itm=1&usri=macalino

SPECTRE OF INTENTION - Book Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Spectre-Intention-Tonya-Macalino/dp/0983630305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312914650&sr=8-1

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spectre-of-intention-tonya-macalino/1100481815?ean=9780983630302&itm=1&usri=macalino

 

Guest Blog- Katie Mettner

Katie Mettner is our guest blogger for this week.  Katie grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and moved to the Northwoods where she now resides with her husband and three children. As a young adult Katie enjoyed ballroom dancing and like Sugar, she didn’t let her physical limitations hold her back from what she loved. Katie writes The Sugar Series, Sugar’s Dance and Sugar’s Song, a Christian romance series. Her stories are a reflection of her love for family intricately woven with life experience. When the gales of November blow early you can find her at the computer with a cup of joe, listening to Michael Bublé and working on Sugar's Night.

“Are you there God? It’s me, Katie.”

Judy Blume was always my favorite author as a child and I would often find myself praying that sentence off and on for 20 years. I bartered and begged with Him, but for the life of me I couldn’t get Him to answer my questions. So sneaky like I started asking the question “why” using fancier words, that’s what authors do, right? I found this more productive; I’d ask a question and He would put someone in my way with the answer. This went on for years until February 16, 2011 when I was laying in a hospital bed as a left below knee amputee. That night I reverted to “Are you there God? It’s me, Katie. Now what?” I was waiting for an answer when a nurse came in with a CD. I listened to the voice of Michael Bublé and John Mayer and this peace washed over me. His answer was obvious, “Now we dance.”

So you might be asking yourself what this has to do with being an author. My series of Christian romance, The Sugar’s Series, features Sugar, a mid western ballroom dancer who, like me, lost a lot in life and found herself Dreaming with a Broken Heart. I began to write Sugar’s Dance while waiting to walk again and found her story came faster than I could type it. My intention was not to write Sugar’s story as a Christian romance, in fact I really had no intention of even publishing it. My intention was to write it for me. As I wrote I found Sugar asked “Why God?” a lot. I was pretty uncomfortable with it, but since this was her journey I carried on. Then one night I said, “Are you there God?” and I poured my heart about how I wasn’t sure if it was “right” to write a book that could be construed as a Christian romance, if I ever did publish it, when the underlying theme of the character’s relationship with Him was, “I’m still mad at Him and He knows that. I can agree to be friends with Him, but I haven’t figured out how to love Him again.” When I got up the next day I avoided Sugar like the plague. I didn’t want to admit to myself maybe there was a little of me in Sugar, so I put my MP3 player on and the first two songs were ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and ‘Say’. I blew out a breath and opened the document. Without even thinking this is what came through, “That is one of the most frank admittances of imperfection I have ever heard. You are a surprise around every corner Sugar. The fact that you still come out here to talk to Him and you believe in that higher power is admirable considering what you have been through. I’m inclined to believe that He loves you for your honesty because I don’t believe He gets that from a lot of his worshippers.” And with that we began to waltz.

As the days turned into weeks Sugar’s story flowed and I continued to let her ask “Why?” As her story progressed she began to see the reasons why and so did I. By the time I had the first solid 14 chapters of the book written I was up walking on two feet again, just 5 weeks after that night in the hospital, lucky to have a very talented friend helping me. When I hit chapter 25 I needed to do some hardcore research of the Twin Ports. We spend a lot of time in the Duluth/Cloquet Minnesota area because it’s where my husband grew up. When I decided Sugar would live there I knew the book had to be as close to 100% accurate as I could make it and that meant lots of trips north. It's summer now and I’m holding my husband’s hand as he walked me through Canal Park. I’m smiling as I see another reason for the last 20 years; appreciation of the simple things like holding hands. By the time summer comes to a close I have the final chapter to write. Needing to get this scene EXACTLY right I found myself staring down the sand covered path that led to the beach on Canal Park. Sand isn’t easy for an amputee, but with some slipping and sliding I found myself standing in Lake Superior! As I stood there with the cold water lapping over my foot smiling for the camera, I was sure our waltz was over and I had the reason!

Nope, not even close. After much painful consideration and encouragement from friends I hit publish. Okay dance over, her story is told! Nope. Don’t get me wrong, it felt great, but I was comfortable now in the dance and knew there was more. I started getting emails telling me Sugar had changed their perspective and validated their own struggles and others asking me to finish her story, so I answered Him with Sugar’s Song. Once again He put people in my path that I needed to meet. There were friends from Sugar’s World (Duluth) who shared their struggles with me. I met two wonderful groups of authors, locally and virtually, who became the lamp unto my feet during a time this summer when I struggled to finish her Song. It’s November and I hit that publish button again and this time I didn’t question if I had the reason, because I knew I didn’t. Sugar had an encore to dance and I sat down to write Sugar’s Night. As the words poured out He laid Sugar’s “why” right out in front of me. BAM! I got up and walked around before reading it again and yup there it was in black and white. Being a good author I’m not going to tell you Sugar’s “why” for that would ruin the journey. I will tell you I have found the answer to mine. As I type this short waltz through my last two years a new opportunity to help fellow amputees just arrived in my inbox, so I no longer ask “Are you there God?” Now I simply say, “I’m here God, lead on.”

Twitter: @katiemettner

Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Katie-Mettner-Author/228147413916391
Website: www.katiemettnerbooks.com